Sick North Face jacket. The hood works like a flexfit hat and needs no adjustments to cinch it down...whatever, the ninja breather is the radest part anyway.

Extended cuff. No cinching or hook-and-loop closure on the wrist. Just a streamlined design with a hand stirrup...or whatever those things are called. Monkey thumbs? That name's no better than hand stirrup.

New North Face boot based on a pack of theirs from the '70s.

Nau's collared down shirt. I mean this is a nice way, but it's kind of like a leisure suit. "Hey, look at me, I'm skiing! Hey look at me, I'm wearing a puffy shirt to work!"

It's like that awful show on Bravo, but it's at OR and they're making outdoor gear.

Sea to Summit's sleeping bag liners made to add serious heat for late fall and early spring backpacking.

Gear to facilitate Leave No Trace practices is bigger than ever. Here's a bunch of water-hauling and waste management stuf from Sea to Summit

Either Black Diamond went to shit or this knock-off company is going to get sued sometime soon.

The Garmont Masterlite is filling the gap between AT racing boots and ski mountaineering boots. Super light but substational enough for dedicated touring.

Loki glove eating my hand. All of their stuff is like this. Gloves and facemasks are built into all their jackets. Remind me to cut my nails if you see me.

Alite, the San Francisco purveyors of fine camp chairs, showed up with a tent at OR this year.

The climbing demo area. Some rough-horsing going on. (combination rough housing and horsing around)

Mmm. Burlap. Adding some texture to bouldering.

I can't stress enough how much these people love slacklining.

Tall Boy. Still a Classic.

Canada Goose combines down and softshell. A sick midlayer on insanely cold days, or a good around-town jacket.

Baby head holds

So Ill Holds biodegradable hold cleaner. A nice product for any climbing gym employees sick of trying to work with muriatic acid.

Mission Workshop bags. Super high end cycling gear. Their stuff is insanely rad.

A view of a small section of Outdoor Retailer from above.

Any company that manufactures in North America is working hard to push that point.

Chaco will begin selling clogs. They have the same footbed as their sandals. Finally, you can wear them with socks and not be ridiculed.

Ever wonder what seam tape looks like before they put it all over your coat? Me neither. Here you go.

There are a lot of Chinese manufacturers trying to find people to work with. They didn't do a great job proofreading their marketing copy in this case.

Short tall-bike is not an oxymoron in this case. Outside Tibuk2 bags.

ABS avalanche airbags. The thing on the sternum strap is a remote detonator. Your ski buddy will be able to set off your airbag if you can't pull the ripcord in time. The ensemble retails for about $1600.

That guy from Dave Chapelle's movie Half Baked was on local Utah TV promoting some comedy stops. They made him put on a hat from the earlier segment they'd run on Outdoor Retailer.

Some of the best-selling outdoor gear of all time. The Toaster was Coghlan's first product, and they say they've sold over 3 million of them.

Rab has a big presence at OR. Should be interesting to see if the brand grows a lot in the U.S.

This is the tent city that sprung up for day one of OR. All of these guys handout skis, poles, boots, snowshoes. Whatever you want to try.

It's Outdoor Retailer so there is, of course, slacklining.

Leki was nice enough to lend me some poles that matched my ski pants. This is part of next year's Pimp My Pole Program. You'll be able to order up any graphics/locking mechanim/basket/etc.

A pair of skis on my feet.

More skis. A bit ambitious on width considering the conditions.

Lunch! That salad was totally worth $14, there was hardly any lettuce in it, and 10 minutes after eating it I found a chunk of bacon stuck to my ski pants. Mmm.

The Snowbasin Lodge. The resort is crazy nice. I heard that some guy with loads of oil money built it for the Olympics, but I haven't had a chance to confirm that with my source since he told me it over the urinal divider.

To give you an idea of how nice Snowbasin is, this is their toilet. All marble. I didn't even have to use it but I still hungout in there for a few minutes.

Not exactly, but it has been a few years since I was on cross country skis.

The cross country mini Hooverville.

I decided to do this idiotic challenge. I think it was a few miles long.

I finished the challenge but couldn't find the tent where I was suppoed to collect my free prize. So I went home.

The bus ride home. Turns out that guy in the photo and I worked together at Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis for a couple years. I didn't recognize him until after I took the photo. Yes, I realize the irony inherient in a store named 'Midwest Mountaineering.'

Me testing sleeping bags circa 2008. Tough to get a spot that close to the cooler.