The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market began Wednesday in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Winter Market, which is a five-day trade show of outdoor products, events and seminars, attracts an international contigent of industry professionals for movie screenings, gear demos and winter fun in the nearby Wasatch Mountains.
Outside editors Chirs Keyes, Sam Moulton, Justin Nyberg, and Alicia Carr are attending the show. Just like they've done in years past, they'll be combing the ranks of outdoor retailers for the best in gear and services, and you can bet that what they find will fill our pages in the year to come.
The Kelly Clark Foundation announced today that it has distributed its first round of scholarships, according to TransWorld Snowboarding. The foundation, established by Olympic gold-medalist Kelly Clark, awarded $11,500 to seven students to attend five schools across the country.
Clark, a Vermont native and scholarship recipient herself, established the nonprofit organization in early 2010 to financially support young snowboarders wanting to attend mountain colleges. This year's recipients will attend Carrabasset Valley Academy (Maine), Mount Snow Academy (Vermont), Okemo Mountain School (Vermont), Steamboat Ski and Snowboard School (Steamboat Springs, Colorado), and Stratton Mountain School (Vermont) for the 2010-2011 academic year.
The 50-kilometer (31-mile) Hilo to Volcano Ultramarathon is set to begin Saturday on the Big Island of Hawaii, according to UltraRunning Online. From the bayside town of Hilo, racers will climb the Mamalahoa Highway to Cooper Center in the small town of Volcano Village, which sits at 4000 feet elevation on the flanks of the active Mauna Loa volcano.
The ultramarathon is open to individual runners and relay teams alike. Individuals start at 6:00 on Saturday morning, and relay teams start at 6:30. Big Island Road Runners hosts the annual race and is looking for runners of all abilities and ages to join.
Last night, big-wave surfer Mark Visser gathered up a helicopter, a jet ski, a buoyancy vest tricked out with LED lights, and a surfboard laced with submarine lighting built for NASA, and took off for Jaws. At 2:00 am local time, he caught a 30-footer off Maui for a one of a kind ride.
"Riding in complete darkness meant I had to go off feeling," says Visser. "I had to zone out from how you normally ride and just be a part of the wave. I am so pumped to achieve something that no one thought possible and that I was told couldn't be done."
Adidas has been making outdoor gear (hiking boots, shells) in Europe for a while, but the Euro sports giant is coming to the U.S. in a big way. Expect more of the triple stripes on everything from hiking boots to storm shells, all with a fast-forward (thin, breathable fabrics), athletic (lean cuts), and modern, slightly Euro flavor.
The company was among the first (along with Mammut and Patagonia) to partner with Gore-Tex in using the waterproofing giant’s new ultralight, three-layer fabric, Active Shell, which is having its big coming out party at this year’s Outdoor Retailer. That fabric is really remarkable—a really light, silky waterproof material with the packability of a two-layer shell but the added durability of a three-layer fabric.
