There have been several trade shows in outdoorlandia in the past couple of weeks. I just spent the last two days at SIA, the big snow sports show in Denver. 

If you’ve never been to a trade show, it can best be described as a spectacle. Picture an enormous room larger than a football field in which hundreds of companies large and small set up snazzy displays, couches, tables, and promotional paraphernalia, most of which are nicer than my house. The exhibitors showcase lots of shiny new gear that consumers won’t see on shelves until fall. They also come up with all sorts of curiosities to draw people to their booths, like men in gorilla suits, buxom women in fishnets, bunny ears or stewardess outfits, DJs in sunglasses spinning tunes, and big-name athletes like freestyler Patrick Deneen and mountaineer Chris Davenport, to name a few. It’s overwhelming, and you can’t possibly see everything. But I survived the bright lights to emerge with some ideas as to where the ski and snowboard industry is headed. If there’s one word you should know, it’s this: rocker. A wide range of ski and snowboard companies are embracing rockered boards. In fact, K2’s entire ‘10-’11 line will be rockered. What the hell is rocker? It’s essentially tips and tails that rise early. The most obvious benefit is better float in the soft stuff, but it can also help you initiate and switch turns more easily. Try it. You’ll like it. 

It also seems that a lot of companies are catering to sidecountry and backcountry riders with split board bindings, fancy new alpine touring boots and apparel designed specifically for the rigors of touring. Here are a few of the products that caught my eye. 

1. Salomon Quest Boot

It’s like there’s an unofficial competition amongst ski boot companies to make the stiffest yet lightest alpine-touring boot possible. Virtually every boot maker has new models for next season, but Salomon’s new Quest line got the most buzz. The series of six new alpine-touring boots, including one women’s version (hooray!), combines the power of Salomon’s alpine boots  with a rubber sole and cuff release system for walking. These boots are for folks like ski patrollers who need uncompromising downhill performance with a walk option. There is a Dynafit-compatible attachment, but these aren’t for the super weight conscious… 

2. Dynafit TLT5 

This boot is on the other end of the alpine-touring spectrum. It’s designed for what Dynafit calls speed touring. I tried it on and it’s uncanny: When it’s in walk mode, it literally feels like a hiking boot. Then you switch it into ski mode and insert the tongue and it stiffens like magic. A boon for super speedy ski tourers. 

3. Arc’teryx Alpha SV Glove 

Arc’teryx is at it again—whipping up beautifully designed, highly functional, and rather expensive gear that I covet. This time it’s the Alpha SV Glove, which is basically an articulated seam-taped Gore-Tex Pro Shell for hands with a removable fleece liner. You get a surprising amount of dexterity and Arc’teryx says the seam-taped design will be more waterproof than other gloves on the market. 

4. Marker Tour Binding

Maker of the Duke and Baron backcountry bindings, Marker is one-upping themselves with the new Tour model. It’s hollow, making it far lighter than its predecessors and just about as aggressive. Skiers who rip fast on big skis, take note. 

5. Rab Infinity Jacket 

U.K.-based Rab isn’t all that well-known in the U.S., but that is quickly changing. The Infinity Jacket will only hasten the process. It’s made of 850-fill down and a new kind of rip-stop fabric called Pertex Syncro that is outrageously light for how burly it is. What that means is it’s far less likely to rip or leak feathers. It looks (and feels) pretty sweet. 

–Kate Siber

Original post by Travel Robot

Daron Rahlves sustained a heinous crash in the ski-cross finals of the X Games yesterday, dislocating his hip. He was wincing as an ambulance sped him from the course, reported the Denver Post. This brings up the obvious question: Will he recover in time to compete in the Olympics? 

–Kate Siber

Original post by Travel Robot

With the 2010 Winter Games fast approaching, there’s no better time to experience the Olympic thrill. Parents of Olympic athletes share their advice for successful snow-filled vacations.

Original post by Travel Robot

The videos and pictures showed everything. Search and rescue teams digging through rubble. Haitians praying, then hushing, in hopes of the sound of a loved one. Rescue dogs sniffing for signs of life. Bodies decaying in the streets. Reporters weaving through crowds. Women singing towards the sky in the streets at night. A Haitian boy in the middle of a mob bleeding from the head after a brick to the head. Surgeons amputating limbs with rusty hacksaws, and sterilizing wounds with vodka.

Doctors practiced medicine with primitive tools after the quake. They flew in from the best international medical centers to treat patients under makeshift tents.

Dr. Paul Auerbach arrived with an emergency medical team from Stanford. Auerbach, the founder and former president of the Wilderness Medical Society, knows how to treat medical conditions in the absence of resources and infrastructure. He wrote a footrest of a book on it, Wilderness Medicine. It’s a textbook that addresses how to treat some of the worst medical conditions in extreme conditions.

Auerbach established the society to treat people in remote wilderness areas and poor rural areas in emergency situations. Doctors in the rubble of Port au Prince need those skills just as much. Some knew it before they left. One packed the book next to a creole dictionary. Another expressed gratitude for a WMS workshop he attended.

For his part, Auerbach got right to work with limited resources. He updated his healthline blog to provide a picture of emergency medicine in Haiti. Here are a few excerpts from those posts.

January 22
Today’s story is about our 5 year old survivor of a week beneath the rubble. He was pulled from the ground and came to our team emaciated, dehydrated, frightened and confused. (For reference, we have heard that some victims under the rubble were forced to try to drink their own sweat and blood from faces dripping into open mouths. I apologize for being graphic, but this is reality.) Our doctors and nurses gently hydrated him, then began to nurse him back to health. He has made a remarkable recovery, as have others. With so many people affected, there will be many such stories, but for each tale with a happy ending, there are thousands with a tragic outcome.

Haiti, January 24
We continue to have new patients enter the compound, including nearly 100 emergency patients today, many with injuries related to the earthquake. This is done in two new triage tents provided by the army. We are receiving patients referred from the countryside and other hospitals. The operating rooms are busy with orthopedic and wound care, skull fractures, hand surgery, facial reconstruction and the like. Neurosurgery is still not ready to go at this facility.

The Swiss have a pediatric surgery service next to our pediatric area. This is a part of the compound that breaks your heart. The tented ward is full of children with multiple amputations and severe injuries. There is no candy coating this - their lives will never be the same. A half a block away, when the wind shifts, it smells of death from bodies buried in the rubble of the nursing building. We have learned to adapt, to walk past this place and wrinkle our noses. We no longer need to wear facemasks.

Haiti, January 28

Our two-tent E.R. continued to be busy. The doctor teams were swift,
efficient and resourceful. We added service for HIV patients, and the
number of patients with tuberculosis increased to the point that we
created an isolation tent. These patients are coughing and cachectic.
On the opposite side of the compound, the population in the pediatric
tents in growing rapidly. Unless there is a concerted effort to create
an off-site location to house patients that can be discharged from the
hospital, there will once again be space problems.

I am so proud
of my Stanford colleagues and all the other doctors present in the
compound who have worked tirelessly for the past two weeks. The teams
from California, Hanover, Boston, New York, Switzerland, Norway,
Canada, Spain, and many other locations all pulled together in a model
for collaborative behavior. There are always a few people more
interested in citing their credentials than in getting the work done,
and media people looking for the sensational angle, but they stood out
in stark contrast to the dedicated and tireless people who rolled up
their sleeves coming in and hugged going out. Take it from someone who
was, as someone suggested to me, in the belly of the beast that when
the memories finally register, they will be indelible and
life-altering. I wish the people of Haiti every good fortune from this
point forward and hope that you will find it in your hearts and
schedule to assist these people, and others in need, in some fashion.

The extreme surgical triage has stopped, but the surgeries and treatment continue. The World Health Organization estimates that doctors still carry out 30-100 amputations every day. Left untreated in hot unsanitary conditions, minor wounds fester into life-threatening injuries. The rainy season is coming, and the WHO fears that epidemics may add to a body count feared to already be 200,000. Tetanus, cholera, and diarrhea may take more lives. That’s to say nothing of the mental and emotional toll.

After a string of 18-hour days packed with surgeries and logistical headaches, Auerbach has returned home. His skills remain in Haiti in the hands of other doctors who practice wilderness medicine in a city’s rubble. They are good skills to have, but the next wave of medical emergencies—diseases, PTSD, diarrhea—will require more.

–Joe Spring
twitter.com/joespring

How to donate to Haiti.

Original post by Travel Robot