Winter might be upon us, but it is still hunting in many parts of the United States. You may live near or enjoy hiking on trails that are close to legal hunting grounds with your four-legged ‘best friend’, and EzyDog wants to help your canine stay safe in the woods. Especially if your dog likes to run off-leash.
Their solution? “Blaze Orange” for your pooch!
Continue reading EzyDog ‘Blazes’ a Trail
Taking your gadgets on the go is easy enough, but keeping them juiced up when far from the grid can be another thing. Then this week we saw the Piggyback Solar Powered Gadgetbag, which as the name suggests can recharge your digital devices while you hike – provided you have sun shining down on you.
It offers two zippered pouches, including one large (8-inch x 12-inch), which is big enough for an iPad, and one small (8-inch x 5-inch) for compact devices including an Amazon Kindle. There are built-in channels for running USB cables between pouches, so devices can get the juice while safely tucked inside.
The solar panels are worn outside the backpack, which features an 800mAh Lithium ion battery pack to soak up excess power, while the device can output about 100mA along the way to devices inside the bag via USB. While the Piggyback Solar Powered Gadgetbag does add weight, and doesn’t exactly come cheap at almost $120, it is a good way to let the sun recharge your devices while you’re on the move.
[Via Ubergizmo: Piggyback Solar Powered Gadgetbag lets you charge your gadgets on the go]
Those who go hiking, skiing or take part in other winter activities know that keeping warm requires a good coat, but it is also a matter of having a coat the provides warmth without feeling like its made of lead. So what is the secret to The North Face’s new coats that offer the promise of excellent warmth-to-weight ratio? Fuzzy balls it seems! This will come as good news to the geese that supply the goose down for coats. Continue reading Fuzzy Balls In ThermoBall Jacket
If a tree falls in the woods, but no one is there the question is asked, “does it make a sound?” But what if you’re lost in the forest, all alone, and you cry out for help. No one will hear you, not unless you have DeLorme’s new inReach device.
Essentially this satellite-enabled device is your hiking, backcountry panic button for those times when you need help and have no cellular coverage. The device can send a general SOS message to the GEOS International Emergency Response Coordination Center, and users can also send pre-loaded text messages to additional parties as well. The latter messages don’t have to be warnings, but updates – such as “I’ve reached the summit.”
For those times when you need urgent help the device, which features GPS technology, can regularly transmit its coordinates at regular intervals. The inReach can also be liked up with an Android device via Bluetooth and allow for two-way text communication, sending/receiving of email and even provide access for Facebook and Twitter updates. Video after the jump
It seems like the term “high definition” is used quite liberally in marketing these days. What’s normally associated with television and imaging is used loosely with everything from radio (although the “HD” in HD Radio doesn’t actually mean high definition) to cosmetics (however, Max Factor may have started using that term way before HDTVs came into the picture). Basically, the use of the term “high-definition” is to convey a sharper view or something more enhanced. Bushnell gives the HD treatment to one of its newest flashlights, the HD Torch ($110), a flashlight that produces a 165-lumen output and evenly distributed square beam of light.
The HD Torch is made out of rugged, waterproof, aircraft-grade aluminum with a scratch-free finish, and it’s powered by two 3-volt lithium batteries for 1.5-hour of continuous use. Unlike a regular flashlight that produces what Bushnell says is “non-uniform irregular ‘blobs’ of light,” the HD Torch outputs a uniform square of light that the company calls “High Definition Illumination.
While we don’t doubt the brightness of the flashlight, the use of “high definition” seems somewhat of a stretch. Consider that office projectors can produce lumen outputs in the thousands and that a compact fluorescent light bulb emits around 1,500 lumens, the flashlight doesn’t seem that high def to us when compared. However, it’s much easier to carry this flightlight in the outdoors than a projector.
Bushnell Official Website
[Via BeSportier: High Def Flashlights : Bushnell HD Torch]
Airbags save lives. This is generally true in automobiles, but airbags could be making the way from the car to the slopes. Last winter we noted that Backcountry Access had developed an avalanche kit that included an airbag, and now North Face has a new Avalanche Airbag Safety System (ABS) as well.
According to reports somewhere between 20 and 30 people have lost their lives in avalanches every year since the early 1990s, and while this may seem a small number compared to other accidents, the ABS system could help further reduce those numbers.
The system includes two small inflatable bags, which will the pull of a string can expand with a little help from some nitrogen. The bags could help a hiker, skier or snowboarder stay close to the top of a snow pileup in an avalanche, and by minimizing the depth of a burial – or even avoiding – the chances of survival are increased.
With this system North Face is also introducing it with two new fabrics: Thermoball and Flashdry. Thermoball uses small balls of synthetic fiber to create a light weight warmth which can also repel water, while FlashDry uses micro-porous particles to wick away water and moisture.
The ABS pack is actually reusable as well, although we think that surviving an avalanche would be enough to keep someone from going out on the slopes again!
[Via Discovery News: Air Bags Could Make Alpine Sports Safer]
Fans of the book series A Song of Fire and Snow, which is the basis of HBO’s Game of Thrones are probably all too familiar with the line “winter is coming,” but given that we’re a week away from Thanksgiving there is no denying it. Winter is coming. Fortunately you don’t have to climb into a shell to avoid it, instead you can suit up in a new Gore-Tex mountain shell for winter.
Sprayway is offering two new shells for the long cold days ahead including the Scorpion (men’s) and Calyx (women’s) jackets, which are also ideal year round. These utilize standard Gore-Tex Peformance Shell fabric that will keep the cold wind off the back, along with adjustable mountin hoods with wired peak, large map-sized pockets, , pit-zips with storm flaps, adjustable hems, waist and cuffs and even venting options so wearer’s don’t get too heated. These are hiker friendly as pockets sit above the waist-belt level making these ideal for those wearing a pack. These won’t bulk up the wearer either, as the Calyx weighs in at 698g while the Scorpion is 941g.
Winter is coming. Sprayway will make it a bit easier to endure it!
Sprayway Official Website
[Via Outdoors Magic: Sprayway’s New Mountain Shells]
A backpack that is can carry everything usually weighs a bit itself, but ironically Granite Gear’s upcoming Crown 60 doesn’t feel like a ton of granite on the back. In fact the soon-to-be-released pack weighs just 2.2 pounds and yet can hold up to 60 liters of gear instead.
The Crown 60 is made of water-resistant sil-nylon Cordura, while straps and buckles are scaled down to further save on the weight, but still features a contoured back panel for added comfort. This panel also can do double duty as a camp pad, thus making for one less thing to bring along. The Bard may have written “heavy hangs the head that wears the crown,” but in this case the Crown 60 doesn’t hang heavy on the back.
Granite Gear Official Website
[Via Gear Junkie: Large and Light: Granite Gear ‘Crown’ Pack]
Since the early 1990s, I have been an avid user of the Oakley Mumbo and M-frames with the Sweep lenses for all forms of cycling. They have protected my eyes from tree branches, sun, snow, mud, rocks, flying insects and anything else thrown my way. I never ride without them. They fit my head well and provide excellent coverage keeping the wind out of my eyes during fast descents. I have tried many other types of glasses and yet I keep grabbing my M-frames every time I ride… until now.
At Interbike this year, there were numerous eyewear companies and a number showing off photochromic lenses. Photochromic lenses darken when exposed to ultraviolet rays (UV) and fade back to lighter tint in low light areas or indoors. Shortly after the show, I received a pair of the Bollé Tempest glasses with their version of a photochromic lens, the Modulator, to try myself.
Continue reading Hands On: Bollé Tempest with Modulator Lenses
Are you looking for a unique holiday gift for the pet lover in your life? The Boulder, Colorado based company, Product Architects, Inc., may have the purrfect idea for you! Product Architects is the maker behind the Polar Bottle insulated water bottle and they have recently announced a new promotion. Through their website, customers can upload and order a Polar Bottle customized with a photo of their pet.
Product Architects is offering this promotion from November 1 through December 22, 2011, with the idea of providing consumers with a unique holiday gift option. For those who choose to order a customized Polar Bottle with a photo of their pet, not only will you be buying a well made insulated water bottle, but you will be supporting a good cause. Product Architects will be donating $5 from the sale of each bottle to the Humane Society of Boulder Valley (HSBV). Continue reading Drink up! It’s for a good pawse
Back in 1902, Hoyt Buck was a young blacksmith apprentice in Kansas who was seeking a better way to temper the steel used in knife blades. A tempered blade will hold a sharp edge for a longer period of use and ultimately produce a knife that will have a longer life. Hoyt’s unique approach resulted in the first Buck Knife. Many years had past, and though Hoyt continued to make knives using his tempering technique and worn-out files as the basis of his blades, it was not until 1947 that the modern Buck Knives company was born. That year Hoyt and his son, Al, moved to San Diego to start the company named H.H. Buck & Son.
Hunting gear isn’t typically made with a woman in mind, but Fieldline has addressed this issue with a new line of backpacks that feature durability, comfort and convenience and are tailor made with the female hunter in mind. The new Fieldline Women’s Black Canyon Backpack can take just about everything in stride, from foul weather to blazing hot sun, and for the sometimes brutal use and abuse of women who depend on their gear to keep them comfortable, safe and well-equipped.
The new Fieldline Women’s Black Canyon Backpack is roomy enough to accommodate essential items, but scaled down for a female wearer’s size and shape. The padded back and yoked shoulders further ensure stability and comfort, while a three-pouch organizer, three-quarter-inch-opening main compartment and one-side water bottle pocket offer versatility in stashing everything from extra layers to GPS units to snacks. The pack also features a nifty Gear-Lock Modular Locking System, which offers customization for the user, allowing the pack to transform into multiple configurations, before a trip or even on the fly.
The pack is available in Mossy Oak Break-Up or Realtree AP to make users inconspicuous in virtually any environment, but with just a dash of pink to show some personality too!
httpv://youtu.be/vqAzSTs6jG8
Medical ID bracelets are an old brand of jewelry. For years bracelets existed for seniors or someone with a condition, to assist first responders when they arrive on the scene of an emergency and find the victim unconscious. In recent years we’ve seen a push for ID bracelets designed for athletes – specifically designed for those people whose activity or training program often takes them hours and miles away from home. Now there is a new ID bracelet that not only provides your invaluable medical information for first responders, but also allows you to travel cash-free. Nathan Performance Gear and VITAband have teamed up in a long-term partnership to bring the Nathan VITAband to the masses. The Nathan VITAband is the first ID bracelet that combines the information needed by first responders and a debit card all electronically on your wrist.