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What's Next For Outdoor Adventurers

Our reporter takes a peek at the upcoming crop of high-tech gear for camping, climbing, kayaking, and such

Posted 8.26.08 at 1:39 pm 1 Comments

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Smart Belay Device
© Broudy/Donohue Photography
As ropes get thinner, traditional self-locking belay devices, like Petzl's Grigri, can slip. Mammut's Smart Belay device locks automatically in case of a fall, like the Grigri, and it can handle ropes from 8.9 to 10.5 millimeters. The true beauty of this device is that it has no moving parts and is totally intuitive. To release it, you pull up on the lever, not down, which is instinctive in the case of a fall. It's for climb and lower only, not autoblocking for anchor clipping.
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Kick Axe
© Broudy/Donohue Photography
Gerber wowed us with a folding camp ax. Called the Kick Axe, it's strong enough to chop wood and pound tent stakes, but the whole thing folds up into its own handle. They barely let us see it, as it won't be out until 2010, so we weren't able to determine much about the locking mechanism or its mechanics at this point, but we're first in line to play with it when the design is final.
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1 Comment

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Dustin2127

08/26/08 at 4:24 pm

Thats some pretty cool stuff, at least it doesn't fall in line with one of pop-sci's previous previous articles (title name call of the wired says it all) I feel camping is more getting away from it all, than taking it with you. The foldable axe is awesome as well, but my favorite was the backpack.

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