We popped over to see the nice people at
Mountain Equipment
yesterday for a taster of what's new for autumn 2008 and we'll give you
the full low-down early next week, but as taster, we thought you might
be interested in a look at the new
Mountain
Equipment Kongur MRT jacket.
It's a jacket that ME has developed specifically for mountain rescue
team use in conjunction with the various MRTs they have close links
with, notably Patterdale, Buxton and Ogwen. And as you might have
guessed from the name, it's a development of ME's classic 3-layer
Gore-Tex Pro Shell Kongur.
So what do MRTs want from a jacket? If you're thinking cunning location
beacons embedded in the collar or special helicopter winch harness
openings, you'd be wrong. Turns out there are two main differences to
the standard Kongur. One is enhanced durability since team jackets get
used a lot, both during call-outs and training exercises, with packs,
and are replaced approximately once every five years. So the Kongur MRT
gets heavy duty Lofoten reinforcement at hips, shoulders and arms, the
black bits in the picture.
The second need is visibility, both in the day and at night and from
the ground and air. To cater for that, not only is the jacket a very
bright red, but it's festooned with reflective strips, on hems, cuffs,
arms, sleeves and zipper flaps and trust us, that's a lot of reflective.
The interesting bit is that while the jacket's been developed
specifically for rescue teams, it's also available to the public, so if
you want a Kongur - long-cut, Stealth hood, lots of pockets and so on -
but with added reinforcement, the brightest red you've ever seeon and
enough reflective to be spotted from outer space, here it is.
The jacket's only marginally heavier than a standard Kongur and retails
for £300 as opposed to £260. More details at
www.mountain-equipment.co.uk.
chasetrailbuilda
Climbing accidents keep rescue teams busy over holiday weekend.
