Ultra-Light With RaidLight

New to the UK next year will be RaidLight, a French brand aimed at all things adventure race and ultra-lightweight with a whole range of packs, clothing and accessories devoted to doing things fast and light and characterised by some very ingenious designs.

Typical of the neat ideas on offer from the company is a full balanced lightweight back system made specifically for marathon endurance racing to be balanced and accessible. The system was developed in conjunction with the Ahansal brothers, seven-times winners of the gruelling Marathon des Sables and features neat touches like special mini-bottles for pre-measured electrolyte and energy drinks, which can be added to water at refreshment stops.

Designed along similar lines is a universal front clip-on pack that can be used with any pack featuring daisy-chain type attachments on its harness straps. Again the idea is a combination of balance and easy accessibility on the go, so no stopping to wrestle with badly designed mesh pockets or scrabbling in the inners of your pack...

There's lots more besides including very light and very thin trekking poles, universal running gaiters to keep the grit and gravel out of your shoes and cycling-style race tops that include neat little energy bar pockets carefully sited to be well away from pack harnesses, so you can feed easily on the go.

Should be interesting for anyone with a weight-saving / not-stopping fetish. More details from www.raidlight.com