The annual ISPO trade show, which brings the world's outdoor industry together under one roof (or a series of gigantic roofs) in Munich, has just wrapped up for 2019. Heavy snowfall gave this year's event a suitably wintry feel, and if we'd really rather have been out in the nearby Bavarian Alps enjoying the conditions, our compensation was getting an early look at mountains of new gear that'll be hitting the shelves in the near future. Here are some video interviews with brand representatives, who talked us through the key features of their climbing hardware creations:
Black Diamond - Hot Forged Picks
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BD have reworked their axe picks for 2019 with hot forged steel, epoxy coating and fully interchangeable and cross range compatible. The spinner leash now features locking carabiners, more water resistance and better bungee extension.
Climbing Technology - Click Up Plus
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An instructional video showing best practice with the Click Up Plus for smooth and fast belaying.
DMM - Trance Harness RRP £60
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A lightweight all-rounder, designed for trad and sport. It comes in a wide range of sizes - five in total - which mean it fits everyone from 'youth' upwards.
Grivel - Dark Machine and X RRP £320 / £350 per unit
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New technical carbon axes developed by athlete team including Scottish wad Greg Boswell. Vario Blade System with modular accessories can be retrofitted to the current range of axes within Machine range.
Grivel - Duetto Helmet RRP £125
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The Duetto is certified for both climbing and skiing, with protection both on the top and sides. It is also the lightest duel certified helmet in the world. Available in two colours.
Grivel - Mistral Harness RRP £125
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New lightweight harness developed from technical sailing fabric. The Kevlar fabric retains its structure so that the thin harness doesn't crumple into a string. Adjustable legs, rise and floating tie-in loop must be one of the most adjustable super-lightweight harnesses around.
Petzl - Dart Crampons RRP £205
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The Dart and the Dartwin have been combined within a singular modular system. With a fully changeable set of front points, you can adjust the fit according to use, with mono-point, twin point, and offset. This also makes the process of point replacement being that bit easier, making them a crampon for life.
Petzl - Octo and Multihook RRP £23.50 & £28
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Keeping your screws sharp and your other kit protected is of key importance whilst ice climbing, which is where the Octo comes in. Its unique feature is that the screws don't fall out, courtesy of a plastic retainer. The Multihook is Petzl's first Abalokov threader, with a retractable hook and place, which can also be used to clear out ice from within ice screw tubes.
Petzl - Swift Headtorch RRP £96
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The Swift takes over from where the Reaktik left off but makes things a whole lot more simple, courtesy of single button adjustability. It also provides an indication of battery life, plus a lock feature that stops it accidentally turning on in your bag. Light-wise it emits 700 lumens.
Vertical Life - Smart Quickdraw
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Real-time anonymous tracking analytics for route popularity. The Strava for climbers.
Vertical Life - Zlagboard
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Interactive fingerboard with a training app for your smartphone.
Wild Country - Revo RRP £110
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The Revo is now out and about, available to buy in shops. Safety is paramount, with the device providing assisted braking irrespective of which way the rope is threaded. It also offers the fastest and safest pay out of slack out there. A device suitable for beginners and advanced red pointers alike. Teaches you to belay like a normal stitch platetuber with correct technique.
I wonder what creative control Apple have behind the addition of the letter 'i' before anything/everything. I vaguely remember Sea to Summit having a travel trowel called the iPood a few years back, but gather - at least from what I'd heard on the grapevine - that its name had to be changed due to copyright.
In terms of the rest, despite being at the show I barely get to see anything due to being preoccupied within the many meetings I have to attend. As such, it's quite interesting to look back at the videos and see what the others got to see. Kolin Powell's talk of not wiggling ice axes out of placements was quite interesting, as was the addition of a screwgate to the spinner leashes.
With the Vertical Life QD I guess the major breakthrough will come when the number of walls/people adopting + using them reaches a point where it's commonplace. I've been using the Stokt App for board sessions lately, which is good in terms of finding problems, but limited in its application beyond.
I have an iPood somewhere. I remember they were only in the shops for a year of two as that before they became named the "travel trowel" or something totally not as funny as that. Presumably a cease and desist letter was enough, but I don't think anyone was really like to mix them up with an iPod - indeed I have and still use all the time an iPod from about the same time - and I've never tried to dig a hole to go no.2 in with it. Nor have I ever tried to download podcast onto my iPood.
I'm interested to see how well the epoxy coating stays on the new BD picks - I have a mid 90s Stubai mountaineering axe that was covered in some sort of epoxy or plastic. It didn't last very long in lots of spots and then seemed to promote surface rust under the bits that didn't chip off. It's a pure aesthetic thing - the head is totally solid forged steel, but it doesn't look as pretty as other axes - interesting to see if the BD picks have a tendency towards the same issue with the new coating.
A bit of a nerdy answer I guess, but technically any epoxy coating will increase corrosion if it comes off. Basically, once the coating is removed from the blade, a difference appears locally between the part that will be exposed to the elements, and the one which is not. The part becoming exposed will interact through oxydation reaction with the dioxygen and the water molecules, thus creating a local charge difference and eventually accelerating the oxydation. My answer might be unclear (in part because I'm not a native speaker), but you can check the Wikipedia article on corrosion and galvanisation to go further. On a slightly different topic, is it just me or do the new Grivel tools look very much like a "Grivelised" version of the Nomic? If so, it could be a fantastic tool : shape of the Nomic, lighter, with Grivel incredible picks...
The annual ISPO trade show, which brings the world's outdoor industry together under one roof (or a series of gigantic roofs) in Munich, has just wrapped up for 2019. Heavy snowfall gave this year's event a suitably wintry feel, and if we'd really...
The annual ISPO trade show, which brings the world's outdoor industry together under one roof (or a series of gigantic roofs) in Munich, has just wrapped up for 2019. Heavy snowfall gave this year's event a suitably wintry feel, and if we'd really rather...
The annual ISPO outdoor trade show has just wrapped up for 2019. Among the many new products shown to us by attending brands, a number caught our attention in particular...
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Comments
Surprised the people at Vertical Life weren't tempted to call it the iDraw.
I wonder what creative control Apple have behind the addition of the letter 'i' before anything/everything. I vaguely remember Sea to Summit having a travel trowel called the iPood a few years back, but gather - at least from what I'd heard on the grapevine - that its name had to be changed due to copyright.
In terms of the rest, despite being at the show I barely get to see anything due to being preoccupied within the many meetings I have to attend. As such, it's quite interesting to look back at the videos and see what the others got to see. Kolin Powell's talk of not wiggling ice axes out of placements was quite interesting, as was the addition of a screwgate to the spinner leashes.
With the Vertical Life QD I guess the major breakthrough will come when the number of walls/people adopting + using them reaches a point where it's commonplace. I've been using the Stokt App for board sessions lately, which is good in terms of finding problems, but limited in its application beyond.
I have an iPood somewhere. I remember they were only in the shops for a year of two as that before they became named the "travel trowel" or something totally not as funny as that. Presumably a cease and desist letter was enough, but I don't think anyone was really like to mix them up with an iPod - indeed I have and still use all the time an iPod from about the same time - and I've never tried to dig a hole to go no.2 in with it. Nor have I ever tried to download podcast onto my iPood.
I'm interested to see how well the epoxy coating stays on the new BD picks - I have a mid 90s Stubai mountaineering axe that was covered in some sort of epoxy or plastic. It didn't last very long in lots of spots and then seemed to promote surface rust under the bits that didn't chip off. It's a pure aesthetic thing - the head is totally solid forged steel, but it doesn't look as pretty as other axes - interesting to see if the BD picks have a tendency towards the same issue with the new coating.
The Grivel duetto helmet looks just the ticket: I was waiting for an EPP dual certified helmet.
Hello Toby,
A bit of a nerdy answer I guess, but technically any epoxy coating will increase corrosion if it comes off. Basically, once the coating is removed from the blade, a difference appears locally between the part that will be exposed to the elements, and the one which is not. The part becoming exposed will interact through oxydation reaction with the dioxygen and the water molecules, thus creating a local charge difference and eventually accelerating the oxydation. My answer might be unclear (in part because I'm not a native speaker), but you can check the Wikipedia article on corrosion and galvanisation to go further. On a slightly different topic, is it just me or do the new Grivel tools look very much like a "Grivelised" version of the Nomic? If so, it could be a fantastic tool : shape of the Nomic, lighter, with Grivel incredible picks...