At 国产吃瓜黑料, we try our best to reserve judgment about gear until we鈥檝e actually tried it. Most of the time, we don鈥檛 know how a product will surprise us聽until we鈥檝e taken it out in the field. But sometimes we鈥檙e just plain excited. The following three pieces were pitched to us for our Gear of the Show awards for Winter Outdoor Retailer 2021. While they didn鈥檛 make that cut, we can鈥檛 wait to get our hands on them and put them through some thorough tests.
Salewa Ortles Couloir Ice Climbing Boot
Ice climbing boots need to be stiff. It鈥檚 what allows you to kick hard and 鈥渟tand鈥 up, even when a good portion of your body weight rests on just the front points of your crampons, sunk a half-inch into the frozen flow. But stiffness comes with trade-offs. Ice boots tend to be clunky to walk in, and even the lightest among them are relatively heavy, which means they鈥檙e only good for climbing. Salewa鈥檚 new Ortles Couloir boot will be the first to truly change that paradigm, resulting in a tool that will be appropriate both for daily wear on alpine expeditions and while swinging tools.
Weighing just 725 grams, the Ortles Couloir聽will be the lightest ice聽and mixed climbing boot on the market when it hits shelves this September. There are plenty of lighter-weight boots for mountaineering, but none that are designed to also scale steep, frozen waterfalls. The Ortles Couloir聽is a single boot (no separate liner) with a low-cut, lace-up bootie underneath an integrated, stretchy, waterproof gaiter. But the real magic comes from an external carbon-fiber exoskeleton that goes around the back of the boot, up the ankle, and around the gaiter, enabling a stiff and聽supportive yet ultralight fit. A super-thin Vibram Litebase outsole lends still more weight savings, while an exaggerated midsole rocker yields a more natural walking stride than most other ice boots. The $1,000 price tag ensures that this is a niche product for an even smaller group of enthusiasts, though over time the technology may trickle down into more affordable boots. Until then, we still can鈥檛 help getting excited. 鈥擜riella Gintzler
Elan Voyager Skis
When we saw Elan鈥檚 new Voyager ($1,800), a folding all-mountain ski, it immediately raised some questions: why, how, and what could go wrong? It鈥檚 not the first folding ski ever, though that title also goes to Elan for the backcountry-ready ($2,000). This version is made with the traveling skier in mind:聽along with the included check-in-compliant roller bag, in theory it聽makes storing and getting to the slopes with your equipment easier, since you wouldn鈥檛 have to lug a large bag. Our staff鈥檚 experienced snow vagabonds, however, are skeptical that this is a major problem: modern ski bags are well designed, oversized luggage typically doesn鈥檛 take much longer to arrive at baggage claim, and most ski town鈥揷apable cars have plenty of room for gear.聽
But for those skiers hell-bent on saving as much space as possible, Elan went the extra mile. The Slovenian company says it spent the past decade honing the Voyager鈥檚 folding mechanism to make it bombproof enough for all-mountain use and repeated folding and unfolding, while maintaining a smooth flex despite the underfoot joint. In storage, the integrated binding sits atop the front part of the ski. To lock your sticks into shred mode, unfold, then rotate the bindings 180 degrees to slide them onto a 鈥渇our-axis mechanism鈥 that straddles the joint and anchors into a carbon-reinforced plate in the ski. Even after seeing how the mechanism works, we weren鈥檛 convinced聽they would hold up, but carried out by Slovenian ski-cross champion Filip Flisar do make the joint appear rock solid on the slopes.
Speculation only goes so far, though. Come next winter, we can鈥檛 wait to test the Voyager鈥檚 limits.聽鈥擬aren Larsen
GoSun Chillest Cooler
Coolers have come a long way in the past couple decades. High-quality rotomolded coolers like those from changed the game first by extending the life of ice by days. Then, powered coolers like Dometic鈥檚 offerings hit the scene and removed ice from the picture completely for those who could afford to buy one. But one thing we hadn鈥檛 seen yet was a solar-powered cooler with an integrated battery to power it. GoSun is taking that leap in 2021 with its Chillest cooler, and we鈥檙e excited for the possibilities.聽
The Chillest can reach freezer temperatures, which will allow you to stick in an ice cube tray full of water and, a few hours later, be able to make proper mojitos. It鈥檚 potentially more portable than powered coolers鈥攚hich often don鈥檛 have an onboard battery鈥攖hanks to the included 30 watt solar panel and 100 watt-hour聽battery, which you can charge at home before you head out and then keep topped up at camp. GoSun claims the battery takes an impressive two hours to reach a full charge from a wall outlet聽and says it will last as long as 18 hours or as little as two, depending on the temperature settings and how warm it is outside.
The cooler聽comes with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list of accessories鈥攁聽shade umbrella! cutting board! USB for charging your devices!鈥攆or $800. This evolution in powered-cooler tech has the potential to give you all the benefits of these boxes鈥攏o more soggy sandwiches, no more stops for ice鈥攚ith fewer downsides. We like the sound of that. 鈥擭atalia Lutterman