You might not think it's spring yet, but in the weird and whacky
world of the gear companies, it's officially spring / summer 2003.
What that means is that the new season's kit is coming into the shops
about now.
We've already reviewed some of it on the site, but here for those
of you who simply must know are some of the developments to look out
for this season and a few new products we like the look of...
Gore-Tex New Paclite
We've been using this stuff so long now, that the initial surprise
at just how good it is has been dulled a little by familiarity. It's
claimed to be 40 per-cent more breathable than standard Gore-Tex, but
is also in our opinion better than XCR. The spotty lining has gone to
be replaced by a protective water-munching grey one. It's very
breathable and very light and aimed squarely at fast movers and
potentially soft shell users who need something packable to ward off
evil showers.
There's a lot of of it about. Stuff we like includes the Berghaus
Smock and jacket variants, Haglöfs ultra-lite LIM Ultimate,
Karrimor's latest Phantom and, if you're after a very nicely cut and
full-featured mountain jacket, Mountain Equipment's Firefly is
stacked. Don't expect mega-durability, that's what XCR is for in the
Gore stable.
If you want a bit more and are loaded, track down the Arcteryx
Sirrus SL, which uses panels of XCR in strategic wear areas to
toughen things up, nice and with a claimed weight of just 351 grammes
for a medium.
In a nutshell Very light and the most breathable Gore
waterproof fabric yet.
Gore-Tex Windstopper Softshell
Another new development from the guys at Gore. Windstopper Soft
Shell is, surprise, surprise based on the Windstopper membrane topped
with a tough, stretch, woven face fabric and lined with a thickish,
high-wicking scrim. It's a` tough, stetchy bugger that can be made
into hard-wearing, windproof and water-resistant, close-fitting
technical mountain jackets.
We've been using a Gore special Test Team jacket and an
autumn/winter design from Haglöfs called 'the Shark' and we're
impressed. Breathability so far has been excellent and the stretch
cut allows for a close technical cut. Should be superb for fast
alpine use, though it's not particularly thermally effective. Layer
over microfleece or Powerstretch if you need 'warm'. There are only a
few examples around at the moment, most notably the utterly sharp
looking Mountain Hardwear Alchemy (see pic).
Mountain Equipment's G2 kit by the way, has a woven face, but in
practice offers very similar performance. A little bird tells us that
it's being upgraded for later this year as well.
In a nutshell mega technical alpine soft shell, overkill
for UK walking though...
The North Face A5 Range
We're just dying to get our sticky OM paws on some examples of
TNF's 'bouldering' kit. In reality it's very cool, reasonably priced,
casual canvas and cotton kit aimed squarely at the jugular of the
surf clothes that have been infiltrating outdoors stores.
Cut loose and easy, A5 costs around 40 squid for a pair of
bouldering pants and around 30 quid for a shirt. Lasses aren't left
out either with a natty range of women's clothing including vests,
halter tops, tanks, shorts and more.
Our fave bit though is the tag line on the inside of the flies -
'Never stop exploring'... Who says flies don't have a sense of
humour?
In a nutshell Cool outdoors casual wear. We suppose you
could go bouldering in it too...
eVENT
Lowe
Alpine aren't launching their range of eVENT - 'most breathable
fabric ever' - waterproof shells till this autumn, but down-meisters
Rab have one ready to go for this season. We haven't clapped eyes on
it yet, but we're reliably told that it has not one, but two
water-resistant main zips to make sure the wet stuff really doesn't
get in.
We know from the test Lowe garments that the breathability of the
fabric is excellent and if you want it now, Rab's jacket could be the
way to go. More details when we have them.
In a nutshell very breathable waterproof fabric and why
wait
Boots And More Boots...
We've just had our first play with the latest Salomon walking
boots, the Adventure Trek 7 that replace the old XA7 and you must be
sick of reading about them by now, but first impressions are very
positive.
Salomon aren't the only maker with new boots though, Scarpa has
been churning out new models for this season with the old Freney
technical ice boot replaced with two new models.
The Primaloft-insulated Freney XT (pictured) which is made from
totally synthetic materials - the first vegan alpine boot that's not
a plastic? - and the Freney Pro, which is a slightly more flexible -
B2 - boot designed for more general alpine and Scottish winter use.
Both models use the rotational ankle pioneered on the Cumbre to
maximise ankle mobility and make walking and climbing easier and more
natural.
On top of these, there's also a new sticky-soled 'Ascent' approach
shoe based on the FS climbing last for precision, but with lots of
flex in the sole unit, which should make for much better smearing
than with the stiff Mescalito boot. Looks interesting.
In a nutshell Ultra-lightweight allround alpine boots for
the 21st Century and more...
Smartwool Next To Skin
Smartwool socks have been around for a while now with their merino
wool construction quietly gaining a huge fan club. This season
though, the company has branched out into baselayers with their Next
To Skin range of merino, well, next to skin wear.
Merino wool is produced in New Zealand from carefully bred sheep
and has much finer fibres than other wool, this in turn means it
doesn't itch. We've been using Smartwool Baselayers for the past
month and they're very impressive, wick well and best of all, don't
pong with extended use. Plus no plastic bottles were killed in the
making of this fabric...
In a nutshell Sheep can still cut the mustard, well worth
trying.
Petzl's New Headtorch
Not in the shops till May, but we've already brought you a load of
info on this, the replacement for the classic Zoom bonce burner.
Here's our scoop
report, but in case you missed it, the Myo comes in three
versions: a basic halogen zoom and two with a combination of halogen
and LED sources, plus you can get it with a remote battery box for
cold weather warming. Priced between £27 and £50 it looks
very modern and gives every appearance of having been carefully
thought through for effective Petzl performance.
In a nutshell Petzl catches up with the headtorch
opposition?
Light Packs and Comfy Packs
At least two of the major pack players have taken a hard look at
the likes of Golite and taken a step towards the lightweight rucksac
market. Both though have shied away from Golite-style minimalism and,
instead, trimmed weight from their sacs without losing support from
back-sytems and so on.
Lowe
Alpine's answer is a range of three slightly different-looking sacs
aimed at climbers - the Ion, Quark and Neutrino. None of them are
that light, well, the Ion is as it's a stash-away summit day sac, but
they're lighter than existing Lowe packs and an interesting take on
the lightweight philosophy. We've got a Quark on test, so watch out
for a test shortly.
Berghaus has taken a similar approach with a new lightweight
Cyclops Lite backpacking sac that's part of the new Extrem Light
range. It's not as minimalist as Golite's offerings having a full
back system, but again at 1500 grammes, for a 50-litre sac, it's
appreciably lighter than anything else with the Cyclops back system -
40 per-cent less say Berghaus. If you've ummed and errred about going
light, this could be the one for you.
Last but not least, Osprey has finally started bringing in its
top-end backpacking sacs to the UK. The Crescent and Luna (for women)
packs are arguably the most customisable packs on the market with a
choice of hip-belts, back lengths, some extremely neat features and
the cunning Recurve suspension system. Again we'll be getting one in
for test soon, so watch this space.
Sleeping Bags
We've already told you about a whole new brand in the form of
Norwegian outfit Nanok, who produce both down and synthetic bags with
some carefully thought-through features that they claim, in
combination, up the overall performance of the bags considerably. See
our initial
report for more info.
Brits can innovate too and we're very taken with the new Integral
bags from Mountain Equipment. They save weight by using a
mummy-shaped Insulmat as an integral - doh - part of the bag. There
are both down and synthetic versions available, all in roughly
three-season warmths and, again, we have one on test, so we'll let
you know if they work. Also new from ME are Pneumo stuffsacks, which
are waterproof storage sacks with a roll-down closure and
air-realease valve for use in damp environments. Should keep that
down bag nice and dry with minimal bulk.
Brasher's New Casual Travel Shoes
They're only available in a limited number of outlets right now,
but the new range of Brasher AT20 travel shoes is a real departure
for the company. They look great, particularly with Levi Engineered
jeans, and are dead comfy on your feet too. We've been wearing a pair
since, erm, October last year - okay, not continuously - and we like
them a lot. See this
report for more details.
Of course,
there's a lot more new stuff besides and the obvious place to see
what else is available is the OM
shopping section where you'll find the UK's best outdoor retail
web sites. Check it out.
