New Stuff!

Alright, so on to the cool stuff that I saw at OR. It seemed that most manufacturers were pretty quiet and reserved this year, but the stuff that did come out looked way cool and was pretty revolutionary for their product line.

I sadly don't have any pictures right now. Boo.

I'll start out with a quick Jetboil plug cause I really like those guys and think they do an awesome job. Back in June I learned about something that was still in prototype stage that sounded pretty cool and unique. One of the big hangups with canister stoves is not being able to safely recycle the canisters. JB designed a tool that you screw on to an empty, or almost empty, canister that allows all of the excess gas out safely. Then you just press down on another part of the tool and it'll puncture it for you, allowing you to recycle the canister as you would an Aluminum can! Very cool in my eyes. It has an added bonus of a beer opener as well!

On to shoes! Five Ten has sort of stepped it up for Spring 10. Most, if not all, of you know about the "Team Shoe" that they are coming out with. I, for one, am supremely excited about the shoe as it's a well thought out replacement for the now defunct V10. It has nicely cut toe rubber covering the top with a 3.5 mm Mystique outsole. It will have a light midsole in the forefoot and looks to be the same basic last that we all saw on the original velcro Dragon. It does have a redesigned heel cup which is much nicer and a nice velcro strap over the top.

It looks like there is going to be an initial launch of 510 pairs this fall, sometime in September or October it seems. We'll see how that goes. I'm definitely excited to get my hands on a pair after trying on an 8.5 at the show. I'm not sure if I'd go with that or an 8. I really just need to steal Nic's pair and then I'll be all set...

La Sportiva came out with a couple new approach shoes as well as a lace up version of the Katana. While it looks nice I don't see why they got rid of the Barracuda and replaced it with this one. The Speedster is going to be making its long awaited U.S. debut sometime in August it seems and I know a few people who are very excited about that.

Scarpa defied all logic and didn't fix the toe caps on the Booster, Rockette and Stix. It does seem that the Stix is going to go away though for Spring 2010. They've got a new linup of mid range shoes that are designed with edging in mind and a few people are pretty excited about them. I'm still left with a little bit of disappointment though.

There were numerous hold companies dotting the hallways and a few of them had some very cool ideas. Got to chat with the guys from the DRCC and I really like what they've done with some of their holds. The Dual Tex stuff is very impressive, to say the least.

On the hardware side of things DMM's new Dragon Cams made the biggest name for themselves. They are VERY polished, VERY smooth and VERY worthwhile.

Josh at Organic had what looked to be more of a circuit pad in the booth and the few backpacks he had there were really nice. One of his employees made a full mountain landscape on one pack and it was impressive.

I'm sure I'm missing a TON of stuff but that's all I can think of right now. I ended up bailing on the comp at the last minute and went to dinner with friends instead. SOLID choice and very happy I did so. Hanging out with cool people and eating good food trumps watching people climb plastic when it's 102 out. The comp walls were left baking in the sun and I can't even imagine how much it must have sucked to climb in that heat.

Thai food on the other hand was yummy!

I did manage to stumble past the screening of Progression on the third day and in the quick peek I had of Tommy on El Cap and Sharma on Jumbo Love was impressive to say the least. VERY well done and real polished and nice. I'm looking forward to seeing the full flick. Should be good.

Climbing got rained out yesterday and looks like it's gonna get rained out tomorrow too. Damn.

More soon.