More from the summer trade show…
La Sportiva’s new hiker: the Eclipse GTX. Women’s boot in front, Men’s boot is in back.
The cobblers at La Sportiva have been whittling away for 90 years. They’re as busy as ever with new footwear styles in every category from their expedition mountain boots to their nimble climbing shoes. (Check out our extensive coverage of the Sportiva.)
We like hiking in the summer as cross training for ski touring. La Sportiva’s Eclipse GTX is a new boot designed for stability and performance on the trail. It’s a high-cut leather (we like leather) hiking and backpacking boot that used the 3D Flex Cuff from the Trango Family of products for flexibility and mobility. A grippy Vibram sole will keep you from slipping.
La Sportiva Eclipse GTS specs:
Ottolock appeared to be an excellent snatch lock.
Bicyling is another sport we do to keep our legs in shape. It is a wonderful feeling to zip along the bike path, but it’s not so wonderful to have a heavy lock and chain weighting you down when you’re not exposing your ride to high risk of theft.
Ottolock pictured above is a lightweight snatch lock, made with steel and Kevlar bands that resists clippers and bolt cutters that cable locks do a terrible job of blocking. It’s available in sizes from 18″ to 60″ for a variety of uses. Bear in mind this is only a snatch lock, it can easily be defeated with tools such as a cordless disk grinder.
If you want your bike to be there when you’re done having coffee, it’ll work in fairly secure areas. Leaving an expensive bike overnight, exposed, is a different story. Word on the street is no lock exists that the bike thieves can’t break in mere minutes. Though some are much better than others, thus perhaps delaying the bad guys enough so they attack the bike next to yours, or go searching for greener pastures.
But a D-lock made with a super hardened steel shackle is said to defeat bolt cutters, which is the fast relatively quiet method used by the criminals. We researched, apparently most D-locks cut with a grinder in thirty seconds or so, but the Albus linked to right is said to take significantly longer (as well as being excellent in resisting all other attack methods). I’ve always thought the best D-lock would be one that exploded when cut, but there seems to be product liability problems with that clever idea. Then there is Skunk Lock. Perhaps it is the answer.
MSR Pocketrocket Deluxe.
Backpacking in summer keeps us in shape and gets us hungry too. Everything always tastes better on a camp stove.
For the weight gain of two pennies, MSR’s is adding new features to their popular Pocketrocket. The new Pocketrocket Deluxe is upgrade with:
Shop for Pocket Rocket stoves at Backcountry.com.
MSR’s igniter tester, “15,000 cycles.”
Alpacka rafts, made in the little town of Mancos, Colorado.
Maybe the best thing about summer cross training is all the different sports to enjoy. Rafting is a favorite so we were psyched to cool down after the show with a float down a crisp Colorado river with Alpacka Rafts.
Alpacka Rafts are made for pack rafting. Here at WildSnow we’ve dreamed about using them for a ski touring expedition. After experiencing how stable they are for rafting, I think our dream may one day become reality.
Alpacka rafts are inflated using a simple and ingenious inflation bag, which acts as a high-volume air pump and weighs a mere 3 ounces. We filled our rafts in a surprisingly short amount of time.
Alpacka Rafts are custom made. The Ultralight Scout model weighs in at a mere 2.5 pounds, MSRP $595.
For more information about Alpacka, check out their website.
WildSnow Girl, Lisa Dawson, is the luckiest girl in the world. Also known as Mrs. WildSnow.com, she tests whatever gear she wants. She gives the WildSnow family of websites the feminine voice.
