Posted 06.01.2010
Colorado cool stuff
By Eric Peterson
AARN BODYPACKS
New Zealand-based Aarn doesn’t make backpacks – the company makes biomechanic-friendly bodypacks. With front and back pockets, an Aarn bodypack balances perfectly on its wearer’s center of gravity and keeps the weight off the spine and on the hips. In other words: where it’s supposed to be.
New Zealand-based Mark Keown met eponymous founder Aarn Tate and contacted his Colorado Springs-based niece, Windy Haddad, and her husband, Dana Adoretti, about bringing bodypacks to the U.S. market; the trio inked a deal to become the company’s exclusive North America distributor last November.
“With heavy loads, you get that traditional forward lean,“ Adoretti says. “That uses more energy. With Aarn bodypacks, you use a lot less energy. We create better balance and posture.“ $140 to $300 retail.
Made by Aarn Design Ltd., Aotearoa, New Zealand, and imported by Aarn North America LLC, Colorado Springs, (719) 492-4206, www.aarnusa.com.
KATABATIC GEAR SLEEPING BAGS
Avid backpacker Aaron Martray wanted a lighter, better sleeping-bag setup for his trips, so he made himself a quilt-style sleeping bag a few years back. Now he’s gone into business producing an ultra-light system based on his design. Named for the cold wind descending from glacier-clad peaks, Katabatic Gear makes two down-filled models without insulation on the bottom where they physically attach to the sleeping pad. Martray says this eliminates the mummy-bag experience where “you wake up and you don’t know where you are in the bag. That doesn’t happen with this bag. Everything stays where it’s supposed to.“ $315 to $355 retail. Hoods and a bivouac are also available.
Made by Katabatic Gear LLC, Wheat Ridge, (303) 984-4189, www.katabaticgear.com.
ROAD SHOWER
Joel Cotton, a retired Colorado Mountain College computer science professor and avid climber and windsurfer, hikes Utah’s White Rim Trail almost every year. “It’s pretty dirty and hot,“ he says – too dirty and hot, in fact, for standard hanging solar showers. So Cotton designed a rack-mounted solar shower for his support vehicle and started selling them last year.
Users can pressurize the Road Shower’s four-gallon reservoir with a hand pump; it mounts to most standard ski racks. Cotton aims to enter a deal with partners this year to go into mass production. “I’m looking for an investor to help finance this next stage,“ he says. Road Shower: $179 retail. Curtain and accessory kit: $59. Made by Road Shower LLC, Silt, www.roadshower.com.
SIERRA DESIGNS LT STRIKE 2 TENT
“We’ve been making ultra-light tents since day one,“ says Kenny Ballard, president of Sierra Designs’ parent, the Boulder Outdoor Specialty Group. The latest and greatest in the company’s lineage, which includes such 1980s classics as the Meteor Light, the LT Strike 2 is a two-person edition of last year’s award-winning Lightning XT 4. Ultra-light at 54 ounces, both tents’ proprietary “eye-pole” design saves weight without sacrificing tent space.
Ballard says he’s backpacked since he was a kid, but is now a “re-emerger” after a long layoff: He personally tested new tents on an overnight trip with his daughter last summer. “It was arguably the best trip I’ve ever gone on.“ $379 retail.
Made by Sierra Designs Inc., Boulder, (800) 736-8592, www.sierradesigns.com. Available at numerous outdoor stores in Colorado.
Denver-based writer Eric Peterson is the author of Frommer's Colorado, Frommer's Montana & Wyoming, Frommer's Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks and the Ramble series of guidebooks, featuring first-person travelogues covering everything from atomic landmarks in New Mexico to celebrity gone wrong in Hollywood. Peterson has also recently written about backpacking in Yosemite, cross-country skiing in Yellowstone and downhill skiing in Colorado for such publications as Denver's Westword and The New York Daily News.
Enjoy this video? Share it with others.
Readers Respond
Leave a comment
Commenting is not available in this section entry.