Made it back from Utah after about a week in the desert sun. You don’t even need peyote to have a vision if you walk around in that desert heat for long enough. Describing Outdoor Retailer to people who’ve never been there is a bit difficult. I usually use a Mall of America analogy and try to explain that it’s like a massive mall that’s only one floor and the stores are really small. Every big and small outdoor company (besides skiing and cycling) opens a storefront to hawk their wares. But it’s a bit odd because they’re selling gear from the future. The stuff that populates the booths at Outdoor Retailer will hit consumer shelves next spring. The buyers from all the shops head to Outdoor Retailer and place their orders based on sample pieces that are handmade, and then the orders get shipped overseas where they’re produced in bulk. So basically, these designs have been on drawing boards for a year or so at each company, and now the industry is getting a look and then voting on the best things with their orders. But pretending that Outdoor Retailer is some massive outdoor gear shop of the future is misleading. Walking the floor year to year fells almost exactly the same. The same booths for each company are setup in the same areas. From the outside you couldn’t tell if it was 2007 or 2009. It feels like stepping into an air-conditioned time warp where climbers stick to their turf and paddlers congregate around an above-ground pool. That said, I love going there, for about a day and a half. They serve free beer beginning at about 3:30 if you know where to look, and the Salt Palace convention center people don’t give you the boot until about 6:30.

And the fact is that most gear companies aren’t releasing massive new lines with loads of changes. A company like Exped might be putting out a new mat with a different valve system, and CamelBak might have a new purification system, but overall things don’t change too much. You have to step into the booths and chat with people to find out what’s actually changing among their gear offerings, and it’s usually a couple new products added to their line and a handful of updates to their old gear.

Here are a few of the random goodness things I found at OR this year:

1. Alite Designs

These guys make a rad chair, and now they’re selling a wearable sleeping bag designed for having sex. It’s a bit odd.

2. CiloGear

Great packs that have gone mostly unnoticed outside of hardcore mountaineering circles. They’re coming out with an urban line next year.

3. Granite Gear

Dry bags made for space.

4. Kor

Will $30 water bottles get people off buying bottled water? Maybe. The things look like some kind of equine suppository from space.

5. Adventure Medical Kit

I hope no one I know ever needs me to dump the Quik Clot Sport pack I found on the floor over their open wounds.

6. Light My Fire

They guy selling this waterproof Spice Box showed me the proper way to use firesteel. I had no idea what I was doing with that stuff.

7. Western Mountaineering

The purveyors of the best down goods on the planet are coming out with some pants Stay Puft Marshmallow Man pants for next year.

8. Exped

Flat valve technology for next year. The two valves are each one-way, so it’s easier to blow the thing up to its max pressure.

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