Winter Outdoor Retailer Trade Show: 2014 Climbing Gear Rundown

The winter Outdoor Retailer trade show primarily focuses on winter activities such as skiing/boarding, snowshoeing, and snow hiking. Fortunately for us, a majority of the climbing companies still show up. Some even have new gear with them! Here’s a list of all the climbing hardware we saw that will come out this year:

Grivel had the most new gear on display by far. They debuted 3 new ice tools, their revamped 360 ice screw, and some nifty ascenders that feature an integrated belay plate. Read more (and see videos) about the ice tools and screws here and watch a video about the Grivel ascenders on Vimeo.

Petzl is launching a series of very engineered bouldering pads. It seems as if they scoured the forums looking for every complaint about existing pads and set out to address them all, at the same time. The pads will be available in three sizes, the Nimbo (a tiny shield/sit-start pad), the Alto (an average size pad at 118x100x10cm) and the Cirro (the highball pad at 148x118x12.5cm). The two larger pads utilize features that some will find ingenious and others will consider excessive. Read all about the many features and see a video on our post about the entire series.

CAMP / CASSIN is coming out with what I consider to be the most innovative and well thought-out new gear for the show. Targeted towards big wall climbers, their new harness, aptly named The Warden, maintains the beef where necessary while being relatively light and nimble (6mm breathable foam swami). But the most significant feature is the addition of two more tie-in loops, one on either side of the standard tie-in loop. This feature could easily clean up the aid climber’s daisy chains. CAMP also released a brilliant new daisy chain design. Each “loop” of the daisy gets wrapped around the other webbing before being sewn making it impossible to clip improperly (why didn’t anybody think of this earlier?!). And the best part is that it’s all ahead of their production schedule so it should be available in April.

Find out more about the Warden (a video and post about the design iterations).

Or see up close the Daisy Twist daisy chain (in a video and examples of safety).

CAMP also showed us a re-vamped X-Light technical ice tool. It looks to be light enough for those long plunging slogs, technical enough for swinging up moderate ice, and durable enough to pound pickets. [See our post about the X-Light and a video on Vimeo]

Mammut has a rad new climbing pack that is super light (not quite CiloGear light, but it has more padding on the back) and perfectly minimal for an alpine climber or [ski] mountaineer. The 32L “Trea” for women, and the 35L “Trion” for men weigh in at 1230 g / 2.7 pounds and 1280 g / 2.8 pounds respectively.

With few bells and whistles, it has all the key features: 2 lid pockets, a 3 point haul system, carries ice tools, ski attachment system, removable hip belt padding, gear loops on the waist belt, low-profile but substantial back padding, and it’s hydration bladder compatible.

You’ll see a lot of new carabiners and quickdraws from Trango this year. Specifically, some new sport carabiners in the React series that you can get individually or on a beefy draw. A few new lockers, a React Screw and an HMS Regulock (screw and auto-locking version), and the Phase carabiner is now coming in a rack pack of 6 and 8 colors.

SMC’s new guide mode belay device will also be available before the summer hits. The unique part of this device is its ability to efficiently lower a following climber without a prusik backup. Get stoked guides! And check out the functionality in this roughcut promo video:

At the winter show Metolius showcased Crimp Oil, imported from Europe. Doug Philips (founder of Metolius) told us the story behind the oil: a lady climber in France had terrible finger pains and went to every doctor she could to no avail. Finally she found somebody who made her an oil concoction that actually worked. She told her friends about it and they all wanted some; as it worked for them too, a business was born. Doug said his fingers don’t suffer from crimp pain, so he can’t personally vet the oil, but he’s heard many other credible stories of its powers.

Metolius is also premiering a 3/4 belay glove (read: cut-off fingertips). By changing where this glove is manufactured to a place where leather is more readily available, they were able to bring the price down too. It’s going to come in a variety of sizes so tiny hands should get a fit just as good as those folks with large paws.

Black Diamond showcased their new Fuel ice climbing tool. This all-around tool is made from a single piece of hydroformed aluminum. BD says it swings like the Cobra but also climbs rock like the Fusion, combining the “best of all tools.” Read a few more details and see a video on our Fuel post.

Cypher is introducing a colored rack-pack. When we talked to Liberty Mountain (the distributer) they expected the color-coded set to be available in a few days. Cypher’s goal is to be very price conscious so it would be worth taking a look if you’re interested in color-coding your rack or you just like rainbows. See a quick video of the carabiners “in person” on Vimeo.

We didn’t spend much time at the shoe booths, but we do know Mad Rock is working on 2 more aggressive lady shoes, the Lotus and Lyra, Scarpa is presenting the Booster S (upgrade of the Booster), and 5.10 has revamped their Camp 4 approach shoe and brought out a more “moderately priced” ($120) downturned slipper called the Hi Angle in a men’s and women’s version.

Although WeighMyRack focuses on climbing hardware, there are some other climbers who checked out the apparel side, too. Find out more from Splitter Choss’ post about the show and also Climberism’s post to see what brands like Arc’teryx and Rab are coming out with.

Speaking of softgoods, Mammut is blurring the lines between hardgoods and soft. They showcased the Alyeska GTX Pro Realization Pant which is a pair of technical bib pants with an integrated climbing harness. Sounds pretty rad for [ski] mountaineering, or it could potentially save guides some harness time allowing them to keep more focus on their clients. It comes with a hefty price tag at $700, and it’ll be available next snow season. Here’s some photos from Mammut:

Are you excited to try any of this new gear, or want to know more details? Let us know in the comments!