New From Alpkit Scoop!

We popped over to see the Alpkit guys yesterday for a scoop look at some of their new kit and some very welcome Alpcoffee and Alpcookies.

If you're not familiar with Alpkit - where have you been? - they're four outdoors industry guys who design and source their own kit and sell direct from their web site. By eliminating the retailer margin, they can produce high quality kit and sell it at great prices, which is a good thing by us.

As the company evolves and expands, the kit's getting better and more sophisticated too. Anyway, here's what's new and in the pipeline from Alpkit.

Sleeping Bags

The original Alpine Dream bags are no more, well sort of no more, they're coming back next year as full-on, super-warm expedition bags. In their place is the new SkyeHigh range of bags, which are on sale right now.

SkyeHigh uses slightly lower fill power down than the old Alpine Dream - 650+ as opposed to 750+ - but it's still good quality Russian goose down, and in every other way the bags are a little more polished and sophisticated - below.

The fabrics are nicer and a new design with a side baffle gives a better fit and better, more even down distribution. The foot of the bag has been redesigned with a slant shark's toe cut to suit feet up to size 11.

Right now the bags are available in four versions; 400, 600, 800 and 1000 in regular length only. However they'll soon also ship in -20cm short and +20cm long versions, the longer one for lanky folk will set you back an extra fiver.

Prices range from £65 for the 400, through to £110 for the winter-friendly 1000.

Also tweaked recently are the lightweight PipeDreams. The main difference is the fabric, originally Alpkit used Pertex Quantum, but the company will no longer supply them, so they've gone over to a different fabric, which gives the same weight but actually feels more robust as well.

The shape of the bag's been changed a little too. It's still a 'sporting-cut bag', but the shoulders are now slightly wider.

Last but not least, there's a new PipeDream 200 which is an 'elephant's foot' design. Essentially it's the lower half of a PiperDream 400 with a a simple sleeveless smock sewn on the top to cut out draughts.

The things's designed to be used with a down jacket for alpine bivvies, but could also be used as a high quality kid's sleeping bag. It's the sort of niche product that's viable with direct web selling, so if you're after a pied d'elefant, you know where to go :-)

One last thing on the sleeping bag front. Alpkit bags are now transported in an uncompressed state and stored loose in their warehouse until they're sent out to you. That helps the down to keep its loft. Think of them a free-range sleeping bags...

Down Jackets Revamped...

While we're talking down, the Filo jacket has also had a makeover for this year and should be on the site some time before Christmas. The new version has a detachable hood to make it more versatile, but at the same £65 price as before.

Overall the jacket's going to be more polished. It's also going to be available in nine different and quite lairy colours including purple and in both men's and women's versions.

The fabric looks neat with a nice matt finish to it and we reckon it'll make a top cold weather festering / pub / climbing hut jacket that'll also cut the mustard for Himalayan trekking. Nice.

Softshell Climbing Balaclava

Also in the pipeline for this winter is a very neat climbing balaclava. It's designed specifically to be used with all those technical but hoodless softshells out there and has a zipped windproof lower section to cover your neck area, teamed with a microfleece top bonce area to go under your helmet and keep things nice and warm.

It's a neat idea and even has small slits to allow for the arms of your glacier glasses.

New Head Torch

Also coming soon is a new, more sophisticated Alpkit headtorch. Like the budget original it's an LED one, but more polished and technical with three small LEDs in red, white and, erm, green grouped above a single high-powered one for longer distance work.

Apparently green works better for special forces night vision or something like that. There's also a rear red LED on the battery box for road safety. Out next spring and should be priced at £10 to £15.

Stocking Fillers...

Ideal for the climber in your Christmas life, Alpkit chalk bags in a variety of designs for £5.50 - they're called Funky Dabbers and are on the site right now.

Also on the site, there's a selection of jewellery from the Zambesi in Africa and, coming soon, some neat Italian miniature climbing hardware key rings - yep, hang your keys from a pair of axes and some crampons :-)

That's all for now...

That's all for now folks, oh, except for the new softshell jacket and the mooted waterproofish / softshellish denim jeans that we'll tell you about later :-)

You can find Alpkit at www.alpkit.com and don't forget that the CoLab '08 National Innovation Award is still running with entries accepted until 1 December.