OR Show Report, Summer 2013, Day 3.0 (& 4.0!)

Sorry for the slow report on Day 3 – I left the show before it even ended, and we headed to the Psicocomp Deep Water Solo Competition in Park City (what an awesome event, and such phenomenal energy from the crowd!).

But on to Day 3 of OR…

Salewa surprised me with another lightweight alpine boot. It seems these are all the rage as a few others are showing them as well. Light, good looking sole, and a cool lacing system on this Salewa boot.

The lacing system has multiple locks, allowing for a super-fine-tuned fit. Really cool to see this level of customizability on a mountain boot.

Patagonia’s new line of alpine packs is pretty sweet – there are 25, 35 and 45 sizes, each with unique hipbelts to fit their intended use / weight parameters.

The opening is quite cool – unlike the usual drawcord-under-a-lid system, patagonia has integrated the lid into the expandable collar, and moved the ‘opening’ to be just above the main pack body. Sounds good, looks cool – hopefully I’ll get a sample to test out over the coming winter.

Millet has a new, first-of-its-kind variable-diameter rope. The rope is 80-m but is 9-mm for 30-m and 10-mm for the other 50-m. This is to provide a ‘workhorse’ rope on one end, and a thinner, lighter, ‘send-it’ rope on the other.

Millet also has a very light boot they call the Davai, rated for 6000m peaks. In essence you’re looking at single-boot weight with double-boot warmth. All for $550 MSRP. Not bad!

Millet’s coolest item is this 60/80L lightweight alpine pack with a neat collar opening. The pack has no stays to maintain lightweight (I tend to pull the stays out of my alpine packs anyway) and will retails for $219.

The extendable collar has a zipper that opens to aboue 1/4 down the main pack body, making packing a breeze. There are also dual drawcords across the top, a dual rope/compression straps across the top. Very cool.

Mountain Equipment (out of the UK, not the Canadian co-op!) have a very cool base/mid-layer fleece. It fits long, stretches well, the fabric feels amazing and the offset zip at the chin prevents chafing. A very neat piece.

Mountain Equipment were also showing a brand-new bag, comprising 750-fill water-resistant down over the top of the bag (the yellow-green fabric) and Primaloft on the bottom, where it would get compressed anyway (the red fabric.) All in a lightweight, compressible package. Sounds like a sweet bivy bag!

Gregory has some cool new packs – the Targhee is ski pack coming in four different sizes (16, 26, 32, 45 – maybe? my workbook isn’t around!). Very, very comfortable, with the typical ski-touring oriented features such as a dedicated avy-gear pocket, separate goggle compartment and rear-access main pack.

Chaco doesn’t need much introduction, and they’ve been my sandals and flip-flops of choice for over a decade. Now, the flip-flops get interchangeable straps – wether you just want to replace a worn (or dog-eaten) strap or to stylize with different colours, these have you covered. Awesome!

The last (4th) day at OR is a bit eerie. The avenues are empty, the hubbub has died down, everywhere is quieter, calmer. It’s time to check out some last-minute booths, grab any freebies, pick up any remaining workbooks and catalogs. Then, it’s time to head home and start working on the detailed gear reports – so stay tuned, much, much, much more info coming soon!