Trail Gear Blog Fri 3rd Oct
Gear news
03 October 2008 12:54
The weight of Crux’s first down jacket
Coming soon, exclusive video footage of the new Crux down jacket. Not only is this the small alpine mountaineering ware brand’s first ever down jacket, it’s the only eVent down jacket currently available in the UK and the first with welded seams to reduce weight, increase breathability and get rid of that Michelin-man look.
It doesn’t come out until October and right now the one in this picture is the only sample in the UK. We’ve managed to get our hands on it for one week only, before Crux have even had chance to take their pictures for next season’s work book.
The weight of this jacket is incredible. A size M weighs just 530g, that’s the same as your average winter waterproof. This makes this insulating piece over 200g lighter than the winner of the last Trail test, the 750g Mountain Equipment Lightline. That’s like chucking out a lightweight fleece, like the one I’m wearing now, out of your bag.
It’s £110 less at £150, but the Mountain Equipment Lightline jacket provides roughly 5 deg C less warmth. When compared with the Mountain Equipment equivalent, the Crux Plasma is only 5g lighter. The Vega is £60 less at £200 has 250g down and 700 fill power but it’s water resistant rather than waterproof.
Watch the video here
New navigation gear
It’s all kicking off on the mapping software front this week, with new launches from Garmin, SatMap and Anquet.
Garmin launch OS mapping software
Quality GPS makers Garmin unveiled the latest upgrade to their mapping software this week, and Trail will shortly be bringing you exclusive video footage of the new stuff in action. You can now get fully detailed OS mapping of Great Britain’s National Parks on a 1:25, 000 and 1:50, 000 scale on the latest Garmin units. Previously Garmin’s Topo mapping included contour lines, paths, limited features and not a lot else, and you could download a pre-prepared route from PC based software like Memory Map and Anquet.
Garmin’s Dick Stanger told us, “This new product is like having the whole map in the palm of your hand, as long as you own the Oregon and Colorado GPSs. [It won’t work on the older Etrex or 60CSx models so update your Christmas list now.] Touch the screen to scroll anywhere on the map, search through points of interest and create active routes. It won’t shout the directions at you like a TomTom, but you can mount one of these on your dashboard and use it at road-navigation level before you zoom in to 1:25, 000 to climb Scafell Pike.”
It’s in stores on Nov 1st but prices are yet to be confirmed…
Watch Trail’s exlusive video of Garmin's latest mapping software in action, coming soon.
SatMap launch free mapping software
SatMap, the newest and arguably most user-friendly GPS unit brand, are set to launch free on-line OS route mapping and sharing to their registered users before December. If you are the proud owner of their Active 10 unit, you will be able to plan routes across the whole of Great Britain and share them with other SatMap users. At the moment you cannot create gradient profiles or simulate route fly-throughs like Memory Map or Anquet allow, nor can you search through points of interest like the new Garmin mapping.
However, SatMap’s Mike Storey is pleased at the latest competition from the other lead GPS maker, “We’re really pleased that there is now another product on the market that allows walkers to use OS mapping on their GPS handsets, this competition can only be healthy and lead to better products for making mountain navigation as easy as possible. We have got a points of interest searches under development for next Spring.”
Anquet’s new website
Anquet have just launched an all new website at www.anquet.co.uk that brings together their old website, the MapServer website, and the customer databases. Anquet’s Graham Hughes says, “This majoy overhaul brings a clean, more methodical layout of our products and services for hill-walkers in a more modern looking website. We now have a ‘place’ search to help find products, How-To videos, a new ticket help system and new FAQs answered.”
This week Trail magazine previewed…
The Karrimor X-Lite 40+5
Karrimor’s latest range of lightweight, sleeker-styled Alpine sacks has been re-developed for his January, the 40+5. We had a sneaky word with the bomb-proof backpack brand to bring you the first pictures of the £80 X-Lite 40+5. It now boasts a removable mouldable back and hip-belt system which weighs 1068g but you can strip it down to weigh 692g, that’s like taking out the weight of a multi-activity waterproof. We’ve got one on test this weekend so watch this space for how it performs on the hill…
Is this the safest head torch ever?
At the latest trade show Petzl hinted that, “Big things are happening with their headtorches for next year,” but unfortunately we couldn’t get any more out of them than that teaser, but we’ll work on it, keep reading the gear blog until they crack.
Instead we can tell you that their popular, light safety torch, the e+lite has undergone slight surgery, a torch-tummy-tuck if you will. The new Jan09 e+lite has dropped by 1g in weight (tiny, we know, but it was only 28g to start with). It will have a fully waterproof, floatable case, and the draw cord toggle will feature an integrated emergency whistle, making it super duper safe. We think e+lite could be made safer still if the packaging contained enough bubble wrap to cover your entire body, but Petzl are not currently looking into this option.
