Outdoor Retailer Summer 2009 Recap

Alright, so here we go, a recap of the Outdoor Retailer Summer 2009 trade show. I saw some cool stuff for sure, but I’m not gonna go to in depth with all the marketing spray blah blah blah. Everything looks good when it’s shiny and new, we want to know how it performs out in the field and I’m looking forward to testing this stuff as it becomes available.

Metolius –  The next obvious step for the Master Cams was an offset option,  and these will be available this fall. We’re super psyched to check ’em out, as we’ve used offset Aliens and really dig them, but these no doubt will be as rock solid as everything else Metolius makes. They’ve also got some long draws in 20″ and 16″ lengths, look pretty interesting and we’re curios to see how they perform. Some new hang boards round things out and look fantastic.

Petzl – A new women’s specific helmet that apparently got a lot of ooh’s and aah’s from the women at the show, looks pretty sweet. They’ve also updated the Tikka line, including one headlamp that shines up to 60m, for those big night time rappels.

Cloudveil – A new hybrid  jacket called the Doublet looks pretty cool with waterproof/breathable material on the shoulders, and stretchy/breathable fabric under the arms and on the back.

Sterling – They will be offering their Ion 9.5mm rope in a bi-color version, as well as a new price point 10.2mm 60m that will retail for $155.

Rab – Our visit with these guys was fairly impressive. When you look at their stuff, you just get the feeling it was built for function and we can’t wait to take some if out and see how it performs. Stay tuned for more on these guys.

DMM – Of course the big news here was the Dragon’s, new double axel, hot forged cams that look eerily similar to Black Diamond Camalots. Supposedly they are 10% lighter that BD’s cams, and boast a cam angle of 13.75 degrees, which gives optimal holding power. The cams at the show were still in the prototype phase, right now they are saying they will come out summer 2010, so who knows when these will actually be available.

BlueWater – They’ve got a new HERA rope that 15% of all proceeds from will go to the organization to help raise awareness and find a cure for ovarian cancer. Also a new 10mm rope called the Pulse.

La Sportiva – A lace up Katana is coming spring 2010, along with a cool looking kids shoe called the Stick It.

Black Diamond – New packs were the big news here, including a beast called the 50 Caliber, which looks like a cross between a haul bag and crag pack. There’s also a new cragging duffle called the Demon that looks pretty nifty, hoping to get our hands on one of those soon. They also had some impressive new packs with an independent suspension that moves with your body and allows for incredible freedom of movement. I can’t really explain, go check it out on their new micro site.

Also of note were some new Osprey packs that look great for long routes, some cool upgrades from Jetboil including a thermal indicator to let you know how warm the water is, a crash pad from Asana with compostable fill material, and the lightest packs in the world from CiloGear.

What a show!