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Just Out - August 2009 - 277
Summer, dear friendos, is in full swing. So seek shade, hydrate, and lay hands upon this bling!
Shown here is the SANUK SUV ($75, sanuk.com). |
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 Wool Worthy!
Cotton kills, and nowhere is this truer than in climbing, with its sweaty sprints followed by cold belays and frequent rests. The PATAGONIA WOOL 1 ($75, patagonia.com) is the new answer, with a 63 percent merino wool and 37 percent all-recycled polyester blend for warmth and wicking in a lightweight (3.1oz) T-shirt.  G Unit
As a nerdy 1980s youth, I coveted Casio’s calculator watches. And as a 1990s teen, I thought the tank-tough Casio G-Shock was the shizzle. Now, in 2009, the CASIO G-SHOCK RISEMAN ($220, casio.com) is the watch to rock — it marries classic G-Shock indestructibility with climber-friendly functions: a barometer (with graphs that show atmospheric-pressure trends), altimeter (with markers and trend options to track ascent/ descent), and thermometer.  Free Hand
Drop the camera, freeze it, soak it — we climbers nuke our photo equipment. At last, a compact-camera case made for the vertical: the MOGOMOTO PROTOTYPE ALPINIST CASE ($68.95, mproto.net), a black-box-solid metal shell designed by climbers. The Alpinist weighs 5.8oz and is machined from corrosion-proof, aircraft-grade 6061 T6 and 5051 aluminum alloys.  Groovy SUV-y
An all-terrain member of Sanuk’s shoe/sandal Sidewalk Surfer family, the SANUK SUV ($75, sanuk.com) is the ultimate hybrid — it reduces your carbon footprint by encouraging you to hoof it, and caters both to your leisure side (fold the heels fl at for bedroom-slipper-easy on/off) and your active side (fl ip up the heels, and the canvas uppers stay put while hiking). The SUVs also sport aggressive, molded-rubber outsoles that bite like a pair of light hikers, and running-shoestyle Phylon midsoles. Most days, I cruised in heels-down mode, but on the trail test (heels up),  Beta Max
The new MAD ROCK BETA ($69.95, madrockclimbing.com), a lightweight sport/all-around harness, strikes a perfect balance between weight and comfort. At 12oz, it’s the fully adjustable counterpart to the fi xed-leg-loop Alpha, good for donning atop cold-weather layers and thinner, warm-weather garb.  Pure Energy
We climbers last saw nitroglycerine in 2000, when Vertical Limit’s “alpinists” needed to hustle it up K2. Today, we’re treated to the WILD COUNTRY NITRO TECH-WIRE ($7.50/biner or $15.50/10cm quickdraw, wildcountry.co.uk), a sleek, full-sized wiregate with the weight — 1.24oz — of a mini. Wild Country shaves ounces via an I-Beam back, skinny, hooded nose, and Techwire gate (24kN/9kN/7kN). |
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