CHICAGO, UNITED STATES (Team Geared Up) - I’m guessing Avril & co could use one of these on the Primal Quest! The WASP Injection knife, great for taking down grizzly bears!

This weapon injects a frozen ball of compressed gas approximately the size of a basketball at 850psi nearly instantly.

This is insane, it is a knife with gas cylinder in the handle that ejects the gas through the tip of the blade on stabbing. It states that it will freeze all organs and tissue around the point of puncture. Not only that but it fills the tissue with a basketball size piece of air instantly shooting underwater predators to the surface.

Via The Goat feed.

• His first impressions, after using it on his first race of the season
• A video showing the size differences between the Garmin, the Polar S625X, RS800 and Suunto T6
• Pointing some issues when using it to measure calories on a 18.5 mile bike

After it was announced a few days ago Hydrapak’s Gel Bot won Health Magazine’s 2008 Fitness Award, I googled a bit to see what buyers were saying of this innovative bottle that holds water and sports gel in one container. This is some of the stuff that I found:

• In October 2006, Steven Regenold tested this product and concluded “the Gel-Bot is solidly built and worth its $16 price tag in spades“
• On the other side of review spectrum, a blogger’s opinion after being sent a bottle for reviewing
• Gel-Bot got 4.5 stars out of 5 at reviews site buzzillions.com
• From a biker’s perspective: “Ever since I received the GelBot demo bottle, I have used it on every ride, and I have no intention of giving it back“

The Skull Candy Link Hydro Pack is a hydration pack tested by Daved Brosche for several weeks in Costa Rica that has a particularity: its built-in speaker system that can handle iPods, mp3 players and even cell phones with a set of controls incorporated into the straps to adjust volume, skip songs, etc.. Read the review here

Three of the bloggers at Outdoorzy.com tested the New Balance 920, an outdoor shoe specially designed for water sports, and they all put together their experience into a single post.

Designed with a low profile and a sticky rubber sole, the Inov 8 Roclite 285 is a trail and adventure shoe useful, as per the post author, for 5k to 50km trail races or 6 to 8 hours adventure racing. Read how they performed here

The new Garmin Colorado 300 is an outdoors specific hand-held GPS receiver that comes with a built-in worldwide basemap and some new features like the 3D topo maps or an SD card slot. This device’s review at outdoorsmagic.com.

And this week’s video is a short clip from Kami Semick on how to tie a heel lock for long-distance running

Thanks for reading!

-Ed-
More about trail, ultra and adventure running at trailrunningsoul.com

• The Nathan Sports HPL 020 reviewed. This is a lightweight hydration running vest with some interesting features like
  a 3-way propulsion harness or a 2 liter bladder. Read the review here
• A short review of the Vibram Fivefingers from the perspective of a barefoot runner that may be helpful for those who are thinking on transitioning to barefoot running.

On the adventure running side, we’ve got some news on different races:

• The Coastal Challenge (TCC), the World’s Expedition Run, has opened registration for its 2009 race, the “Rainforest Run,” scheduled February 1-6 along Costa Rica’s tropical Pacific coastline.
• A Nepalese runner won the Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon 2008 for the third consecutive year, finishing the world’s highest marathon in 3 hours 53 minutes and 14 seconds. The marathon is held on May 29 each year to commemorate the first ascent of Mt Everest by Tenzing Norgey Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953.
• The 10th anniversary of the Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset ultra marathon will take place the week of July 5, 2008. The event “allows runners to experience some of the most spectacular and pristine trail running in the world as well as an opportunity to visit Mongolia - the land of Chinggis Khan, nomadism and infinite wilderness“. Sounds like you’d like to run it next year? This article will give you more info on the race and how a runner is preparing for it.

And closing this week’s post, a video of The Turas. I’m sure my fellow Irish TGUs can give more insight on this competition (Robin already posted about it), but to quickly summarize it, The Turas is a grueling adventure race across the Cork and Kerry countryside where athletes will compete non-stop, day and night, for over 90 hours with few stops points to get food and sleeping unsheltered along the way, completing 650km and climbing 18,390m by trekking, kayaking, swimming, rafting and many other disciplines.

-Ed-
Find much more trail, endurance and adventure running at trailrunningsoul.com

Image Credit - Shanghaidaily.com

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Today, AlpineKit launched Jamalots® to offer a new breed of ultra passive protection using the latest in spacer block technology. For years companies have been short-sighted in looking at the aerospace and space technologies to provide solutions whilst ignoring technology in the home.

The Jamalot® has been designed to provide an easy one shot placement along with stamina training for weak seconds.

They continue…

Our new jams offer the greatest opportunity for block solid placements by utilising a fixed expansion range. Significant weight, better rigidity and no action make these new jamming devices the best protection available. Designed, manufactured and tested at our manufacturing partners.. Ilkeston Brick Works.

Enjoy the day. That’s only the start of it!

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Tom Creaney and James Osborn work together in the Clothing Supply Chain for Tesco Stores Limited. Based at their largest distribution centre in the uk the pair struck up a friendship on a charity expedition in the Scottish Highlands back in 2006 where they bagged 5 Monroes in 36 hours for the charity ‘Whizzkids’. Between the pair of them they have over 25 years mountaineering and climbing experience and it was following this that they
found out it was both their life long ambition to climb ‘Everest’.

‘From loosing the map at 6000 ft, having no tea bags whilst stuck in the snow, being chased through valleys by raging bulls; forgetting the gas and having cold dinners all week, compass breaking… The list goes on! There really isn’t much misfortune that the pair haven’t endured, James even survived a 15 ft fall from an ice wall in 2004.’

Later this year in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care the pair are joining the Jagged Globe expedition in the Himalayas with the same team as Ranaulph Fiennes. Eoin O’D wrote about Ranaulphs 2008 Everest Expedition back in November. Setting off after the Fiennes party returns, the pair will be attempting some tough Ice Climbs on Everest over a period of 6 weeks.

One of the things that I find interesting is to see the personal equipment that a high altitude climber uses and I asked James to add some of the kit he’s bringing to our Gear Profiles. You can check their gear out right here and note that I share the same Patagonia shell layer, while Eoin has the same Crux AK47 Pack. Also interesting to spot the Spantik boots are on someones wishlist too.

Good luck the the lads - we’ll try and track them here and go see how much they’ve raised (£23k! 100% for Charity) on their expedition website www.coldfeat.co.uk. You can also see James profile on TGU.

-Robin.

(Image Credit: Tom & James on Helvellyn last weekend.)

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Not just for the fishermen among us (yawn), I would imagine that this would be ideally suited to photography too!

This is the only kayak available that uses a patented extendable outrigger system to stabilize the craft, enabling outdoor enthusiasts to fish from a standing position. Made of durable polyethylene with stainless steel and aluminum hardware, the kayak has two independent outriggers that pivot outward 45 to its centerline, yet both swing back into position to form the aft section of the craft to allow for smooth paddling. Both outriggers can be removed for easy transport and each has a watertight storage compartment.

It also has a bar that pivots up as a handle to steady yourself. I think it’s clever.

I thought it was an idea worth sharing. Simple is best.

-Robin.

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - This has to be the best, strongest, toughest bag on the market. It’s absolutely super for travel converting between a massive chasm of space down to a compressed pack suitable for hand luggage on a flight.

Pictured above is my grey 140L duffel strapped to the back on a mule/horse in Peru. It really did get treated tough in rain & snow/hail on that trip to over 4000m on horseback and didn’t leak or show signs of wear.

The classic bomber expedition duffel. Whether you’re going to Tahoe or headed to Ama Dablam, the Base Camp Duffel gets your gear there with you.

That bag has been with me everywhere since I bought it in 2002, 6 years ago and it’s still going very strong. It has been in more plane holds than I can imagine and it just brilliant. Want something suitable for travel, suitable for in your car boot, suitable for stacking in your tent porch… this is your buy. Between a few of us we now have the red, yellow, grey & black models and when we all have them when travelling together it looks a sight.

-Robin.

P.S. You may have noticed something new up at the top of this post (you’ll need to be signed-in for full effect, create an account if you don’t have one). Yes - it tells you own owns the gear we’re talking about and lets you add it to your own gear or wish list. The plan in the next few days is to match up the people who own items to sell them to people who wish for the same thing. We’ll see if it works! Feedback gladly accepted.

EDITOR (Team Geared Up) - Wow… I’m really excited to eventually launch this. It’s been 6 months in the pipeline and a good few of you have already played with it. Today we launch gear.teamgearedup.com and people.teamgearedup.com. You’ll find links on the new navigation bar above.

Our new platform will allow us to build out features nice and quickly for you, making us far more than just a blog. Do have a look around. Make sure you create your gear profile and then check out the gear leaderboards!

We’d love as many improvement suggestions posted in the comments as possible. It’s for you, so have your say!

-Team Geared Up Bloggers-

P.S. Have you proclaimed your Gear Love?

The store has a vast range of outdoor clothing, equipment and accessories from well known brands such as Berghaus, The North Face, Helly Hansen, Mountain Equipment, Scarpa, Meindl, Salomon and many more, as well as a selection of ‘apres outdoor’ brands such as Animal, White Stuff and Weird Fish.

I will be back. (And if you’re in the vacinity you can also visit the Banbridge Puma Outlet and buy a pair of these!)

-Aisling-

Image from US Parks.

SINGAPORE - Picked up on Springwise, Nvohk is a clothing company managed by the people who wear it. Here’s how it works…

Sign up for US$50 and own a part (a 1/20,000th) of an outdoor clothing (surf) brand.

# 35% of net profits are distributed to members via “reward points” that can be used to buy nvohk products

# upon activation members will receive 1) an exclusive nvohk t-shirt, 2) member sticker, and 3) a “plant-a-tree” seed pack

# members will receive regular business updates and vote on major business decisions (e.g., logo design, product designs, advertising, sponsored athletes and musicians, etc.)

# members will receive a 25% discount on all nvohk product purchased directly through nvohk.com; as well as a 10-day exclusive purchase window before products are offered to the public

What if, you got 10,000 Irish people to sign-up…. you could you hold a controlling stake in it, and influence all the benefits of sponsored athletes and events back into Ireland! Nice! I’m kinda half tempted to join!

-Robin.