OutDoor is THE trade fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
Here youâll find everything from anyone and anywhere. All thatâs new, improved, changed or just so good itâs still there.
As Dennis is Industrial Designer and Iâve been (professionally) into all climbing aspects and weâre both sponsored by a few brands; we just had to visit the show.
One day
For a change we had just 1 day and a few hours to meet our sponsors and see whats on the market now.
So no time to view it all.
Plan was to narrow our focus to our biggest interest: climbing equipment, especially technical hardware. On the way we spotted other things, and missed things and found old things.
As we always do; here a small review on some products we noticed.
Overall
This was our sixth time on the show, so weâve seen quite a bit. Both âgear-freaksâ weâre collecting old climbing stuff too and got to know a lot of the development within the market. How harnesses have changed within the past 50 years (they didnât even exist before that time) and how carabiners differ now.
Alltogether we were a little disappointed. We didnât notice a lot of innovation. It was there, yes, but by far not as much as what we were hoping for.
Maybe we donât notice it so much as weâre too much into the process of development ourseleves. The changes are too small for us. But maybe for the consumer the changes are still huge.
I donât know thoughâŚ
Harnesses
DMM showed a new harness using a finer lycra-like material for the padding instead of the more common mesh padding.
It looks smooth and well shaped and the bright blue looks fresh.
DMM Harness
Black Diamond has a kids-harness that actually might work. It has the connected leg-loops that make sure your child canât âpop out of itâs harnessâ when their legs go upwards towards their face (because of the different body-shape of a child and lack on body tension this move happens more often)
Edelrid made an even lighter version of the LoopO-light and updated some other harnesses too. They already have a super nice kids-harness that works. With padding and all, brands like Petzl and Skylotec are far behind on this.
At the booth of Wildcountry I saw a woven textile that looks different from other harnesses. Just nice, for the looks, nothing more.
Grivel decided to make their harnesses more comfortable with a big padding. Itâs yellow, it donât like yellow. Maybe it works, I donât know.
The EN-norms and how equipment works
For a while Iâve been advocating a change in the EN standards. To my opinion the standards are old, outdated, not safe (anymore) and blocking the actual development of products.
An good example is the way equipment is tested. Take a quickdraw.
A quickdraw used to be a single non-locking biner you clip in the bolt and rope. It changed into two biners with a textile webbing to avoid friction and make the process of clipping in rope/bolts easier and safer.
The way the quickdraw is tested is outdated; you test every individual piece on a 10mm (or 8mm) pin-bolt to see if it holds the required minimum force.
The manufacturer then puts the biners and sling together and there you have the quickdraw.
Now what if you test the whole linked system? Will it hold the same force?
I (and others) tested this andâŚthe linked system holds far less and sometimes even below the EN standardâŚNot to mention the difference between a year old quickdraw compared to a fresh-out-of-the-factory version or the difference between different âindependentâ testing institutes.
Now you can question:
What is the standard based on?
Why this exact amount of kN?
Whatâs the research behind it?
why test individual pieces if itâs always used as a linked system?
Why not test used equipment too, so you can determine use, wear, fatigue ect.
I can go on with my question list for a while here but maybe this gives you a hint on why I donât believe the EN standards actually make climbing safer.
Edelrid now showed a product that challenges the EN norm.
A harness that has an integrated shock-absorber and fall-arrest system (via-ferrata kit).
I really wonder how they get (or got) this right through the norm.
The idea is brilliant. I think this integrated shock absorber system should be used in many more products like industrial harnesses in for example the windmill-industry.
Carabiners
How climbers use carabiners has been something similar for ages. The general shape, closing system and amount of force it holds has been pretty much the same since the time of Pierre Alain.
Still, small improvements are made, like the closing system (twist-lock, ball-lock, safe-biners) but altogether the âscrew-gateâ stays most common.
DMM did a whole improvement on their carabiner range.
From changing the standard diamond-shaped profile on the barrel to the closing system itself. The issue âoh, I canât open it any more, Iâm screwedâ has been solved.
The tri-act version. Also available in screw-gate version.
Belay devices
Black Diamond finally has an auto-locking device. That looks like a Edelrid Jul2 that f*ed a Mammut Smart, the result: the Salewa Ergo. Wel done guys, you copied the Ergo. Took a while though.
The Trango Cinch had a makeover and a new name: Vergo
Wild Country managed to look beyond the climbing scene and got into sailing. They showed a two way turning wheel that locks when it gets too much speed. The good thing is; the lowering of a climber is identical to the lowering when using a tuber-like device. So no awkward handles, pulleys or other extra maneuvers.
Still, we noticed itâs needs quite some fine-tuning before it will get to the market. The device on the show had really sharp edges. The device is less bulky and heavy then I thought.
Everyone on Social Media is talking of the new Gri Gri. Personally I donât find it much of a ârevolutionary designâ as some say. That itâs still shaped like the commonly know Gri Gri is a good thing. People know the device, so they feel comfortable with it. Which might help the sales a lot.
The lowering where the handle lays lower, more natural is indeed better. It has a anti-panic function that helps you using the device correctly (and thereby safe the climber and the rope) But having a device that can change in mode from top-rope to lead, might confuse the beginner too much. I think it might lead to unnecessary errors in the beginner-user.
Devices like the Jul2 are far more simple and clear, a better option to my opinion.
The Mega-Jul had an update, making it more durable (less wear on the edge where the rope runs) the âfatterâ design makes it look bigger and therefor the âold fashionedâ climber that doesnât trust thin devices might start to feel better with this design. Personally I find it a step backwards to have the âbulkyâ look. Still, the function and simplicity is great.
MadRock launched their Lifeguard again, an updated version of two years ago.
Theres a brand that isnât well known in the âWestern climbing worldâ, itâs called IceRock (IR).
They make super nice ice axes and recently introduced their new belay device called âGnomeâ. It has an EN standard and it runs so smooth, far better compared to the conventional devices like Grigri or similar.
Skylotec showed their auto belay device. Huge thing. Expensive thing. But great enigneering. Wondering who will buy it.Â
Bolts, cams, anchors and other pro
Totem has a bigger (and smaller) cam. The orange (bigger) and black (smaller) cam.
Great cams.
Kong got tricked into paying an man that makes small electrical devices.
I guess he came from a different business first where the âtrigger fingerâ wasnât so popular after all.
The guy made a âretrievable anchorâ. You can clip out the draw/cam/whatever on a 100m distance using a remote control.
Maybe itâs something that can be used in canyoning.
But it needs quite some improvement to convince the buyers (would it meet any EN standardâŚ? I donât thinks soâŚ)
Still interesting to see electrical devices making their way into climbing.
I know my brother did a project using LEDâs in holds, making climbing a game at about 8 years ago. He published his research at the TU Delft back then.
Finally these kind of things are being implemented more and more.
Curious to see what other uses Arduino-likely things will have in the climbing scene soon.
Slings and other tapes
Mammut has a new sling webbing. Looks more durable.
Interesting to see most brands get back to the âbulkyâ way, understanding the thin slings are not so strong after all (after testing it seems Poly Ethylene doesnât last so long in slings).
A small company got the idea to braid nylon differently. Itâs like a daisy-chain but different called RunLock. They said the small version holds up to 170kg, the thicker versions more. Funny stuff, I guess rope manufacturers might copy it and sell it too, soon.
Still, good stuff, I wonder how it will work with stronger materials like aramid.
Ropes
Black Diamond brought out their rope series. Not made by BD themselves. Not pretty much every brand has ropes. So it seems we will get a âfightâ between the different brands soon about who makes the best ropes.
Well, if itâs all the same braiding machines, all the same supplier theres not much difference after all.
Iâd stay with the real (German/Swiss) manufacturers like Mammut, Teufelberger and Edelrid or ropes that are re-branded but originally from these manufacturers.
BD rope
Other climbing stuff
Mammut makes climbing more personal by having a chalk bag you can cross-stitch. Looks funny.
Edelrid and Monkee are together now, making fashionable and functional climbing wear away from the original Edelrid-green.
The whole new Edelrid line; shirt, trousers (with extra handy shoe-wipe function) and city-bags.
Helmets
Kailas made a see-through helmet, it felt really flexible, not sure it it will be available on the European market.
Grivel got a new range of helmets too. They look so ugly in yellow.
Sorry, I know the Grivel brand-colour is yellow, but itâs just like Ryan Air yellow, Lidl/Aldi yellow of Mac Donalds Yellow, it just doesnât look attractive.
I wonder if all the triangular surfaces are okay. The round surface normally makes it so that itâs less likely to get a full impact of a rock on a helmet. The flat shapes, donât they actually âattractâ rocksâŚ?
The silver version looks a little better compared to the yellow one.
Edelrid did a re-do on their helmet designs. Just a fresh new update and one extra: glow-in-the-dark. Something I actually like, for example in alpine terrain where itâs hard to see your fellow climber in the dark.
Not sure if I want to take a look in a dark black German hole.
And thereâs so much more. On my FB page I made a full album of all that we saw. Sharing is allowed (copying not) :)
OutDoor 2016
OutDoor is THE trade fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
Here youâll find everything from anyone and anywhere. All thatâs new, improved, changed or just so good itâs still there.
As Dennis is Industrial Designer and Iâve been (professionally) into all climbing aspects and weâre both sponsored by a few brands; we just had to visit the show.
One day
For a change we had just 1 day and a few hours to meet our sponsors and see whats on the market now.
So no time to view it all.
Plan was to narrow our focus to our biggest interest: climbing equipment, especially technical hardware. On the way we spotted other things, and missed things and found old things.
As we always do; here a small review on some products we noticed.
Overall
This was our sixth time on the show, so weâve seen quite a bit. Both âgear-freaksâ weâre collecting old climbing stuff too and got to know a lot of the development within the market. How harnesses have changed within the past 50 years (they didnât even exist before that time) and how carabiners differ now.
Alltogether we were a little disappointed. We didnât notice a lot of innovation. It was there, yes, but by far not as much as what we were hoping for.
Maybe we donât notice it so much as weâre too much into the process of development ourseleves. The changes are too small for us. But maybe for the consumer the changes are still huge.
I donât know thoughâŚ
Harnesses
DMM showed a new harness using a finer lycra-like material for the padding instead of the more common mesh padding.
It looks smooth and well shaped and the bright blue looks fresh.
DMM Harness
Black Diamond has a kids-harness that actually might work. It has the connected leg-loops that make sure your child canât âpop out of itâs harnessâ when their legs go upwards towards their face (because of the different body-shape of a child and lack on body tension this move happens more often)
Edelrid made an even lighter version of the LoopO-light and updated some other harnesses too. They already have a super nice kids-harness that works. With padding and all, brands like Petzl and Skylotec are far behind on this.
At the booth of Wildcountry I saw a woven textile that looks different from other harnesses. Just nice, for the looks, nothing more.
Grivel decided to make their harnesses more comfortable with a big padding. Itâs yellow, it donât like yellow. Maybe it works, I donât know.
The EN-norms and how equipment works
For a while Iâve been advocating a change in the EN standards. To my opinion the standards are old, outdated, not safe (anymore) and blocking the actual development of products.
An good example is the way equipment is tested. Take a quickdraw.
A quickdraw used to be a single non-locking biner you clip in the bolt and rope. It changed into two biners with a textile webbing to avoid friction and make the process of clipping in rope/bolts easier and safer.
The way the quickdraw is tested is outdated; you test every individual piece on a 10mm (or 8mm) pin-bolt to see if it holds the required minimum force.
The manufacturer then puts the biners and sling together and there you have the quickdraw.
Now what if you test the whole linked system? Will it hold the same force?
I (and others) tested this andâŚthe linked system holds far less and sometimes even below the EN standardâŚNot to mention the difference between a year old quickdraw compared to a fresh-out-of-the-factory version or the difference between different âindependentâ testing institutes.
Now you can question:
What is the standard based on?
Why this exact amount of kN?
Whatâs the research behind it?
why test individual pieces if itâs always used as a linked system?
Why not test used equipment too, so you can determine use, wear, fatigue ect.
I can go on with my question list for a while here but maybe this gives you a hint on why I donât believe the EN standards actually make climbing safer.
Edelrid now showed a product that challenges the EN norm.
A harness that has an integrated shock-absorber and fall-arrest system (via-ferrata kit).
I really wonder how they get (or got) this right through the norm.
The idea is brilliant. I think this integrated shock absorber system should be used in many more products like industrial harnesses in for example the windmill-industry.
Carabiners
How climbers use carabiners has been something similar for ages. The general shape, closing system and amount of force it holds has been pretty much the same since the time of Pierre Alain.
Still, small improvements are made, like the closing system (twist-lock, ball-lock, safe-biners) but altogether the âscrew-gateâ stays most common.
DMM did a whole improvement on their carabiner range.
From changing the standard diamond-shaped profile on the barrel to the closing system itself. The issue âoh, I canât open it any more, Iâm screwedâ has been solved.
The tri-act version. Also available in screw-gate version.
Belay devices
Black Diamond finally has an auto-locking device. That looks like a Edelrid Jul2 that f*ed a Mammut Smart, the result: the Salewa Ergo. Wel done guys, you copied the Ergo. Took a while though.
The Trango Cinch had a makeover and a new name: Vergo
Wild Country managed to look beyond the climbing scene and got into sailing. They showed a two way turning wheel that locks when it gets too much speed. The good thing is; the lowering of a climber is identical to the lowering when using a tuber-like device. So no awkward handles, pulleys or other extra maneuvers.
Still, we noticed itâs needs quite some fine-tuning before it will get to the market. The device on the show had really sharp edges. The device is less bulky and heavy then I thought.
Everyone on Social Media is talking of the new Gri Gri. Personally I donât find it much of a ârevolutionary designâ as some say. That itâs still shaped like the commonly know Gri Gri is a good thing. People know the device, so they feel comfortable with it. Which might help the sales a lot.
The lowering where the handle lays lower, more natural is indeed better. It has a anti-panic function that helps you using the device correctly (and thereby safe the climber and the rope) But having a device that can change in mode from top-rope to lead, might confuse the beginner too much. I think it might lead to unnecessary errors in the beginner-user.
Devices like the Jul2 are far more simple and clear, a better option to my opinion.
The Mega-Jul had an update, making it more durable (less wear on the edge where the rope runs) the âfatterâ design makes it look bigger and therefor the âold fashionedâ climber that doesnât trust thin devices might start to feel better with this design. Personally I find it a step backwards to have the âbulkyâ look. Still, the function and simplicity is great.
MadRock launched their Lifeguard again, an updated version of two years ago.
Theres a brand that isnât well known in the âWestern climbing worldâ, itâs called IceRock (IR).
They make super nice ice axes and recently introduced their new belay device called âGnomeâ. It has an EN standard and it runs so smooth, far better compared to the conventional devices like Grigri or similar.
Skylotec showed their auto belay device. Huge thing. Expensive thing. But great enigneering. Wondering who will buy it.Â
Bolts, cams, anchors and other pro
Totem has a bigger (and smaller) cam. The orange (bigger) and black (smaller) cam.
Great cams.
Kong got tricked into paying an man that makes small electrical devices.
I guess he came from a different business first where the âtrigger fingerâ wasnât so popular after all.
The guy made a âretrievable anchorâ. You can clip out the draw/cam/whatever on a 100m distance using a remote control.
Maybe itâs something that can be used in canyoning.
But it needs quite some improvement to convince the buyers (would it meet any EN standardâŚ? I donât thinks soâŚ)
Still interesting to see electrical devices making their way into climbing.
I know my brother did a project using LEDâs in holds, making climbing a game at about 8 years ago. He published his research at the TU Delft back then.
Finally these kind of things are being implemented more and more.
Curious to see what other uses Arduino-likely things will have in the climbing scene soon.
Slings and other tapes
Mammut has a new sling webbing. Looks more durable.
Interesting to see most brands get back to the âbulkyâ way, understanding the thin slings are not so strong after all (after testing it seems Poly Ethylene doesnât last so long in slings).
A small company got the idea to braid nylon differently. Itâs like a daisy-chain but different called RunLock. They said the small version holds up to 170kg, the thicker versions more. Funny stuff, I guess rope manufacturers might copy it and sell it too, soon.
Still, good stuff, I wonder how it will work with stronger materials like aramid.
Ropes
Black Diamond brought out their rope series. Not made by BD themselves. Not pretty much every brand has ropes. So it seems we will get a âfightâ between the different brands soon about who makes the best ropes.
Well, if itâs all the same braiding machines, all the same supplier theres not much difference after all.
Iâd stay with the real (German/Swiss) manufacturers like Mammut, Teufelberger and Edelrid or ropes that are re-branded but originally from these manufacturers.
BD rope
Other climbing stuff
Mammut makes climbing more personal by having a chalk bag you can cross-stitch. Looks funny.
Edelrid and Monkee are together now, making fashionable and functional climbing wear away from the original Edelrid-green.
The whole new Edelrid line; shirt, trousers (with extra handy shoe-wipe function) and city-bags.
Helmets
Kailas made a see-through helmet, it felt really flexible, not sure it it will be available on the European market.
Grivel got a new range of helmets too. They look so ugly in yellow.
Sorry, I know the Grivel brand-colour is yellow, but itâs just like Ryan Air yellow, Lidl/Aldi yellow of Mac Donalds Yellow, it just doesnât look attractive.
I wonder if all the triangular surfaces are okay. The round surface normally makes it so that itâs less likely to get a full impact of a rock on a helmet. The flat shapes, donât they actually âattractâ rocksâŚ?
The silver version looks a little better compared to the yellow one.
Edelrid did a re-do on their helmet designs. Just a fresh new update and one extra: glow-in-the-dark. Something I actually like, for example in alpine terrain where itâs hard to see your fellow climber in the dark.
Not sure if I want to take a look in a dark black German hole.
And thereâs so much more. On my FB page I made a full album of all that we saw. Sharing is allowed (copying not) :)
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