Climbing

trends
12 PADDLING TREADING WATER
18 KITCHEN HOT STUFF
23 TENTS, PACKS, BAGS TRUE VALUE
31 APPAREL SALVO OF STYLE
37 CLIMBING GRAVITATIONAL PULL
Illustration by Tim Marrs
Trends_Opener.indd 1
WWW.SNEWSNET.COM
11
6/26/08 9:48:12 AM
On June 18, 2007, two-time cancer survivor
and mountaineer Sean Swarner reached
the summit of 20,320 foot Denali, North
America’s highest peak, completing his
five-year goal of climbing the Seven Summits. Sean’s
ascent represents an apex in his climbing career, but
moreover the event celebrates hope, perseverance
and life itself– inspiring us to move beyond what
seems impossible.
P E O P L E / P R O D U C T / P L A N E T™
From our extraordinary partners – to the high performance clothing and equipment we design –
to the measured steps we’re taking toward global sustainability, this is Marmot for Life ®.
MARMOT.COM
036_SNEWS_SUM08.indd 1
6/30/08 8:04:25 AM
climbing trends
Gravitational Pull
Climbers make their voices heard more and more through online forums.
By Jay Young
PHOTO BY JAY YOUNG
Climbing equipment design evolves more rapidly than it
did in the early days of the outdoor industry, with trends
in gear swinging like a pendulum between two influential
forces—product innovation and consumer demand. While
manufacturers once enjoyed a period of almost carefree
innovation, that trend appears to show signs of turning,
with climbers making their voices heard more and more
through online forums. In example after example, gear
makers seem to be listening...and responding.
In the last handful of years, participation growth allowed climbing gear makers to invest
heavily in new product research and design. A prime example was the nearly simultaneous
launch of several new models of spring-loaded camming devices (SLCD), all featuring cam
technology that was, until then, unheard of and unseen. Products like Omega Pacific’s Link
Cam, Metolius Mountain Products’ Super Cam and Trango’s Max Cam all burst onto the
scene in 2005/06. It was an exciting time, driven by designers who, frankly, just had some
really cool ideas.
Michael Lane, sales and marketing director for Omega Pacific, said the second cam
revolution was a result of random timing
rather than collusion among companies.
“It would have taken a collaboration that
we’ve never seen in the industry,” he said,
chuckling. “Really big ideas seem to come
in spurts. It’s the natural ebb and flow of
the market.”
Gravity exerts its influence on everything,
however, and the pendulum has now
swung in a new direction with consumer
demand seemingly driving the development
of SLCD products. In summer 2008, not one
of the three cams previously mentioned is
available in a full size range. And Metolius
has shoved aside the large Super Cam to
meet the great consumer demand for the
Master Cam. “Hopefully, by spring ’09,
we’ll be delivering (the Super Cam), but
that’s a wild guess at this point,” said
Brooke Sandahl, vice president of Metolius
Mountain Products.
Metolius is well aware it should listen to
its customers and give them what they want.
After all, Master Cams came to life when
many U.S. climbers voiced their concerns
that ultra-popular Alien cams, produced
by Colorado Custom Hardware (CCH),
were suffering from poor quality control.
Reports trickled into online message boards
that Aliens were marked as the wrong size,
had axle holes drilled incorrectly or, more
alarming, actually failed at relatively low
loads and allegedly caused injuries. Even
after a recall, Aliens marked “Tensile Tested”
continued to experience reliability issues.
Former Alien devotees began to demand
similar cams from a manufacturer with
proven quality control. Metolius answered
the call with the Master Cam.
But message boards aren’t the only voice
climbers have; their wallets speak even
louder. “The shift is controlled a little bit by
the gatekeepers—retailers,” said Malcolm
Daly, owner of Great Trango Holdings.
“They’re cherry-picking what they sell,
because they have limited square footage
for climbing gear. They want innovative
gear, but they need what sells. It’s a serious
challenge to introduce what doesn’t work
like everything else.”
Linda Givler, REI’s climbing product
manager, agreed. “If you sell a $100
harness, people who can afford them will
buy them,” she said. “But that’s not the bulk
of the market.”
Protection
One piece that is meeting market demand is
Omega Pacific’s Link Cam. With its colossal
WWW.SNEWSNET.COM
Climbing.indd 37
37
6/27/08 12:39:02 PM
trends climbing
,AFUMA3KY2ACE/4
WITH/UT$RYš4ECHNOLOGY
)NSIDE
THEREIS
ABIG
DIFFERENCE
2ATHERTHANPLACINGAWATERPROOF
gBOOTIEgINSIDETHESHOETOKEEP
THEFOOTDRYTHE3KY2ACEUPPER
IS DIRECTLY LAMINATED WITH THE
/UT$RYšMEMBRANETOREPELWATER
FROMTHEOUTSIDE.OMATTERHOW
MUCH TIME YOU SPEND IN THE
WETTEST OF CONDITIONS /UT$RYš
KEEPSSHOESFROMGAININGWATER
WEIGHTANDPROVIDESONEOFTHE
HIGHESTLEVELSOFBREATHABILITYEVER
ACHIEVEDINWATERPROOFFOOTWEAR
WWWOUTDRYCOM
2.5:1 camming ratio, the Link has become
the unit of choice for many alpinists, cleanaid climbers and traddies who want the
consummate panic piece. This summer,
the company will debut two smaller
sizes, made possible by improvements in
the manufacturing process. It originally
intended to move to larger units first,
but feedback from athletes, festivals and
dealers, Lane said, veritably screamed for
smaller versions.
Likewise, expect Master Cam sizes 0 and
00 to become available in Metolius’ new
line, which is exploding right out of the gate
after its launch this spring. “Our sales were
up 23 percent in March over the previous
year,” Sandahl said. “And a large part of that
is Master Cams.”
According to Trango’s brand director
Casey Newman, the company is still trying
to manufacture its Max Cam, so new sizes
should eventually appear. Meanwhile,
the Flex Cam line, which was actually a
combination of the more-popular Flex and
slightly less-popular Splitter Cams (in small
sizes), has been separated, with the Flex
Cam design becoming available in the full
Carabiners & Belay Devices
Another influence on a company’s product
offering is the sliding U.S. dollar, especially
in relation to the Euro. “We had to raise
prices a little bit on a couple of carabiners,”
said David Furman, who manages Swiss
gear maker Mammut’s hardgoods line in
North America. “Other than that, we also
cut a few SKUs and raised production runs
on some others.”
Metolius is in the same boat. Until
recently, the company’s carabiners were
“Really big ideas seem to come
in spurts. It’s the ebb and flow of
the market.” —Michael Lane, Omega Pacific
38
038_040_SNEWS_SUM08.indd 38
range of sizes.
At Outdoor Retailer Summer Market,
Trango also will show off its new aluminum
Chockstones—basic wedge-shaped, singletapered nuts, with no fancy or extreme
curves. They’re anodized, but only in two
colors, which alternate throughout the set.
“If you look at your rack and see two of the
same color together, you know you placed
the one in between,” explained Newman.
Also, if, say, for alpine rock, you want a
skeleton rack, “you can grab all one color
and know right away, you have alternating
sizes,” he added.
PHOTO BY BEN FULLERTON
Unfettered consumer feedback is driving product innovation by progressive-thinking brands.
SNEWS OUTDOOR 2008
6/30/08 10:34:53 AM
manufactured in Europe, but “we had to
take it away from the Europeans when the
dollar tanked,” Sandahl said.
The weakening dollar has, however,
sparked advancements in technology,
including “hot forging” and new “keylock”
components. The hot-forging process allows
carabiner makers to shave weight without
sacrificing strength compared to coldforged and milled carabiners. To expand
a climber’s rack repertoire, companies are
offering biners that have their nose notch
replaced with a keylock to make it a little
less grabby.
Metolius saw the falling dollar as an
opportunity to revamp part of its biner
line, adding the hot-forged Inferno Wire
Gate, which is now 15 grams lighter than
its predecessor. Also part of the hot-forging
wave, Black Diamond will use the process
on its popular Live Wire and Dynotron
biners. The Dynotron is also a keylock.
Mammut refined its Bionic line through
hot forging. “We took away as much metal
as possible, but still maintained a wide ropebearing surface,” Furman said. Mammut will
also introduce a new belay device, which
it may call the Smart. Designed for today’s
skinnier ropes, it’s “not an autolocker, but it
does provide an assisted catch,” explained
Furman. It’s lightweight, and Mammut claims
it will be less inexpensive than comparable
products from competitors.
C.A.M.P. USA will debut seven new
biners, three of them keylocks. Its popular
Orbit is now a keylock, and will also come
in a screwgate. Look for the Picto belay
biner, which is also now a keylock, and the
Orbit Wire Gate, which is not. Orbit draw
sets will have the keylock on the bolt end
to assist in cleaning steep sport climbs, and
the wire gate on the rope end.
Capitalizing on the success of its own
hot-forged, keylock Helium, Wild Country
will show off a screwgate version, the
Neon, which it claims will be the lightest
screwgate ever made. Also, Wild Country
will debut a super-light biner called the
Astro, which will weigh 26 grams.
While it appears keylocks are all the rage,
French manufacturer Simond approached
the notch problem from a completely
different angle. Its Spider system is also
notchless, but in a way that may actually
be the only totally new feature this year
in the biner world. The tip of the Spidersystem gate fits neatly into a recess at the
nose of the carabiner, which remains a
constant diameter all the way to the end.
WWW.SNEWSNET.COM
038_040_SNEWS_SUM08.indd 39
As with other keylocks, there is no notch
to be found.
Harnesses
While carabiners are getting a lift from
new manufacturing methods, harness
manufacturers are also employing new
designs to entice consumers. Black Diamond
designer Nathan Kuder said the company will
introduce its new Kinetic Core Construction
(KC2) in three new harness models: the
Chaos, the Ozone and the Aura for women.
Incorporating a high-tensile fabric and a trilaminate liquid crystal polymer, which is also
used in NASA spacesuits, KC2 may be a giant
leap for harness-kind.
C.A.M.P. USA will show off five new
harnesses, including what brand manager
Jesse Mattner said will be the lightest
harness in the world. The Alp is targeted
for ski mountaineers, adventure racers
and others in the light-and-fast set. Also,
look for two new sport harnesses and two
higher-end, all-around rigs, the Quartz CR3
and the Jade CR3 for women. The swami
on these models is not fixed to the padding,
but slides through the center and locks in
place with a buckle. This enables the user
to adjust the position of the gear loops.
Misty Mountain has been relatively quiet
the last few years, but its new Ranger FS also
features a floating swami within the waist
39
6/30/08 10:35:14 AM
trends climbing
Ropes
The rope sector of the climbing gear arena
is also swinging to react more to consumer
demand. In some cases, however, that
means subtracting products, rather than
adding more. Blue Water, for instance, is
dropping its 9.8 mm and 10.8 mm diameters
in an effort to trim the line. “The market is
for 10.2 and 10.5,” said Scott Newell, Blue
Water’s R&D director. In another example,
Esprit Ropes will exit the recreational
climbing market entirely to focus on its fire
and rescue constituency.
Not everybody is cutting back to meet
demand, however. Sterling Ropes will
relaunch its 9.5 mm Ion. “The winter
show just didn’t do it justice,” said John
Branigan, Sterling’s national sales manager.
He explained that, even though ultra-thin
cords are available, the broader base of
consumers wants ropes in range of 9.5 mm
to 9.6 mm. Sterling’s effort to re-engineer its
ropes led to the development of the Ion, as
well as a brand-wide increase in drop-tower
038_040_SNEWS_SUM08.indd 40
falls. Sterling plans to resubmit several of its
models to the UIAA this year in hopes of
achieving new, higher designations.
Lastly, SNEWS recently reported Black
Diamond Equipment has parted ways with
Beal after working together for a quarter of
a century. According to a company insider
talking to SNEWS, the split is amicable,
and it was to be final by Dec. 31, 2008.
Black Diamond has offered Beal space in
its Outdoor Retailer Summer Market booth
to display ropes, but it was unknown as of
our deadline if the company would take
advantage of that offer.
To see the latest SNEWS® product reviews,
go to www.snewsnet.com/reviews.
Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, a few companies, such
as New England Ropes, Edelrid, Mad Rock and
Salewa, did not respond to requests for comment in
time for this article. Still others, such as Petzl, Grivel,
SMC, Kong, Singing Rock and DMM, prefer to keep
their newness shrouded in secrecy until the summer
trade show season kicks off—which means you’ll
need to tune into our post-Summer Market coverage
on SNEWS (www.snewsnet.com) to check out the
full trends and product roundup on climbing—
www.snewsnet.com/tradeshow.
PHOTO BY GENNY WRIGHT
belt. Much like C.A.M.P. USA’s harnesses,
the Ranger FS allows for independent
adjustment of the padding around its swami
for symmetrical gear loop positioning.
6/30/08 10:36:15 AM
KANE CREEK, UTAH
PHOTO BY STEPHEN MATERA
NEW FOR 2009: TUNNEL-DOME™ TENTS. EXCLUSIVE INNOVATION FROM THE TENT EXPERTS:
SPACIOUSNESS AND COVERED DOORS OF A TUNNEL; QUICK, EASY SET-UP OF A DOME.
Innovation brought to you by the tent experts. Stop by our OR booth #27039 or call us at 800.736.8592
F F FB84AA 034B86=B2><64 0ACA4=3B
041_SNEWS_SUM08.indd 1
6/30/08 8:29:49 AM