Two aluminum posts at each lace hook allow for super-tight lacing that kept our testers’ feet securely anchored in all conditions. Note: This boot fit our high-arched testers best. vanssnow.com…

ALL MOUNTAIN Good for All Mountain Developing an easy-flexing ski that still offers hard-snow performance has long been the holy grail of ski design. With the World Cup–inspired D2 (or Doubledeck), essentially a ski on top of a ski connected by free-gliding joints, Atomic has all but broken the…

Good for Resort Feel free to go big: An extra dose of cushioning in the Grail’s midsole makes for plush landings. Our big-footed testers also liked its low profile; their Shaq-like toes and heels didn’t hang as far over their boards, giving them more control.

Good for Big Mountain The all-new Gotama features both tip and tail rocker like a powder-specific, but Völkl claims it still carves a high-speed turn like a … Völkl. We were dubious. And although the Gotama doesn’t transition smoothly through the entire turn like the other skis…

On a slope full of shiny happy helmets, Pro-tec has a response: canvas. But don’t let the army-issue look and the sweet price fool you: The Ace has two adjustable front vents and two mesh-covered rear vents. pro-tec.net…

Built for the NTN (New Telemark Norm) binding system, the three-buckle, one-piece, overlap-shell Prophet is softer and smoother than the first-gen NTN offerings, which were all about big power and big skis. “This is the only NTN boot to truly match the feel of a normal tele binding and boot,”…

All Mountain From a man who skied it all, a ski that does it all. The late C.R. Johnson spent years developing this ski, and testers found it a fitting legacy. It’s got full rocker at the tip for float, reverse sidecut for smearing, scrubbing, and changing direction, and just…

The best compliment this snowboard received from our testers: “This is a powder champ that doesn’t need to sit in the closet until the big snows come.” The keys to its versatility are Kevlar plates, which transfer energy to the edges for powerful turns on groomers, and bands of…

Retightening your boots has never been easier. A cord on the outside of the Ryker’s upper cuff lets you control the inner lacing system without having to loosen the rest of the boot. They look dangly, but the external cords never snagged on anything. TAGS: quick-adjusting, all mountain…

Ski-Mountaineering Master With straps, loops, and holders designed specifically to carry skis, snowshoes, a helmet, ropes, ice axes, and trekking poles, the 40-liter, ski-mountaineering Spindrift is without a doubt the most versatile pack we tested this year. Even more impressive is how intuitive it is to affix all of the…

BIG-MOUNTAIN RACER It’s the skinniest ski we tested in the big-mountain category, but with its wood core and two sheets of chatter-absorbing titanium alloy, the Sultan was also among the most powerful. So much so that it would have been overpowering if not for the rockered tip, which effectively shortens…

Why It’s CoolOnce you roll and buckle the top of this vinyl pack, the Cilaos becomes a giant drybag. Impervious to any water intrusion save a prolonged dunking, it’s perfect for canyoneering. » The harness is beefy beyond what you’d expect in a sub-4,000-cubic-inch bag—a framesheet and two aluminum stays,…

Atomic’s WORLDCUP SKATE BOOT is light and stiff.

Why They’re CoolThe uppers—open mesh on the outside and brushed nylon within—of these two-pound-eight-ounce shoes are woven as a single piece, rather than sewn or glued together. The result is unimpeded airflow, which I appreciated on a hot hike through Saguaro National Park. » Tall, nubuck-reinforced uppers guarded my ankles…

Alpine Touring With its alpine buckle configuration and beefy power strap, the respectably light Shaka is one of the burliest women-specific boots on the market, capable of driving the biggest, fattest skis. Even better, it’s also Dynafit-compatible and, thanks to rockered soles, sure-footed in the backcountry. 7.2 lbs. TAGS:…

How do you make the Pacific Crest Trail feel like the Pacific Coast Highway? Let this pack smooth out and speed up the miles. I literally ran the San Juan Mountains’ nine-mile Hope Lake Trail with the Arreba stuffed full. Credit the pre-curved harness, narrow back panel, and Wraptor…

  Stiffer plastic in the upper cuff and lower shell make the Impact Pro beefy in all the right places. But it also has a soft side: Low-density plastic over the instep makes the boot easy to get on and off. salomonsports.com          …

LEATHER GOES NEW-SCHOOL While others try to reinvent light hikers with synthetic materials, Merrell went another route: It transformed the classic leather midweight into a new breed of light hiker instead. At just over a pound apiece, the Phasers are built for light-load cruising, but the sturdy, no-nonsense construction and…

DAY TRIPPER If your passion is touring, get the nimble Drift. “It’s the perfect size and profile for the typical day trip,” said a tester who put miles on the pack in the Colorado backcountry. Skis or snowboards strap on easily and stay rock-solid, with three different carry options. On…

TOUGHER THAN IT LOOKS The waterproof Terrex may look like every brightly colored sneaker out there, but one of our testers proclaimed it “rugged as hell” during an off-trail scramble up Santa Fe’s ski basin. We think he was referring to the outsole’s combination of soft, grippy rubber and deep…

The lightest shoe here, the Lodi is ideal when piling on miles at top speed with little weight. The mesh upper offers natural air conditioning and saves ounces, yet the shoe still has ample arch and ankle support. Tip: The Lodi suits slimmer feet. 11 oz; ahnufootwear.com…

Good for SnowshoeingThe rubberized body of this waterproof-breathable, military-style boot is insulated with ultra­light material. But it has a softer side, too, with a faux-fur collar and tongue. salomonsports.com…

The 3,970-cubic-inch, top-loading Sentinel may not look as sleek and stable as the other packs here. But it’s sturdier than it looks. The traditional suspension system consists of two aluminum stays, while the main compartment includes rear sleeping-bag access and a generous stuffsack. What impressed us were the extras…

Mobile Repair Stand This is a pretty smart add-on. By using one of the four adapters (price includes one), you can easily turn your Saris, Yakima, Thule, or, of course, Kuat hitch-mount rack into a bike stand. The clamp is totally serviceable if a bit finicky, and you can adjust…

Most Versatile You can certainly find less expensive day hikers out there, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any as versatile and sturdy as the Thunder. Testers reported this lightweight hiker was comfy and reliable during every stage of the review process—right out of the box, on day hikes, and…

Hiking up may be hard, but it’s the downhill that your joints will really feel. Bring along a pair of trekking poles so they can take the brunt of the impact instead of your knees. The thermofoam-handled Aergons are lightweight and easy to adjust on the fly.

Size, Price: 64 oz, $23; 100 oz, $25Flow Rate: 2*Funk Figher?: Yes, with cleaning tablets, sold separatelyFilter-Compatible?: YesValve Shutoff?: YesGotta Love: Big Bore wide opening: Throw in the ice!Bummer: Rigid valve can be tough on teethSplat Test: Survived *Ratings: 1=Average, 3=Excellent…

Why They’re CoolTo keep the mesh uppers on the XA Pro 2 adventure-running shoes from stretching after repeated dunkings, Salomon topped ’em with a polymer exoskeleton this year. » These shoes protected me from sketchy terrain better than tall models: Their ground-hugging profile meant I had less chance of rolling…

BRING ON THE BREEZEYou don’t know ventilation until you’ve experienced the GCS Pro. The uppers are like a screened-in porch—take off the shoe and look straight through it to read your watch, if you wish. But its real worth comes with every stride; on a warm fall day in the…

ALL-WEATHER, ALL-TERRAIN Finally, a forecast-be-damned trail shoe that doesn’t make your feet feel like they’re in a sauna. The Trail Sensor’s water-resistant, breathable upper—a synthetic fabric with Nano-Tech treatment—kept our feet warm and dry even on sloppy fall runs in Boulder, while the fully gusseted tongue kept out grit and…

Gaping openings make for fast, thorough cleaning. 70–100 ounces; deuterusa.com      …

A TRAIL SHOE FOR ROADIES Sometimes you drive to the trailhead; other times you just run there. This is your shoe. Built to have the same smooth heel-to-toe transition as ASICS’s road shoes, the lightweight Attack is sufficiently cushioned for gravel roads and packed dirt, yet it still feels responsive…

CAN HANDLE HEAVY STRIKING The Elixir is like a Ferrari with all-terrain tires. It combines the barely there mesh upper of a race shoe with the full-foam midsole of a distance trainer. A snug heel cup and soft forefoot flex promote maximum thrust at toe-off, while a thermoplastic spring mechanism…

ROAD-AND-TRAIL HYBRID Good for Packed Trails Take a road trainer and a trail runner, smash them together, and voilà: the Adrenaline ASR 5. Medial posting (a.k.a. denser foam) in the midsole delivers moderate pronation support, a rarity in trail runners, and the slender fit feels nimble…

Mild Stability Which sounds more like your morning ritual: Trying to set a new PR, or trying not to hit snooze again? If it’s the latter, the SyncroPace III is your shoe. Like most of Pearl’s running shoes, it has a remarkably comfortable, seamless upper and a…

If cushioning shoes are mattresses, the Cruise is a futon. “It’s firm, but good firm,” said one tester. The Cruise has Pearl Izumi’s trademark seamless upper, fabric eyelets that allow fine-tuning of the laces, and unique cushioning pads under the forefoot and heel that deliver a responsive ride. Best…

When the slope rips out beneath you, your beacon will help friends find you, but how deep you’re buried will likely determine whether you survive. The BCA Float 30 (with an insulated hydration sleeve; shovel and probe pockets; and, new for this year, a diagonal-ski-carry system) deploys a 150-liter…

Produced by a Basque collective in the heart of Spain’s Pyrenees and raced by Iban Mayo’s Euskaltel-Euskadi team, Orbea bikes are like cask-aged single-malt: They’re all about small-batch quality. With the Mitis you get classic European geometry — a stretched-out cockpit and a glute-engaging position — freshened up with…

LIGHT AND STIFF “The 595 is less yielding than Dick Cheney on Meet the Press,” quipped one tester. It’s true: The naked-carbon tubes might appear a bit thin, but the integrated seat-tube/seatpost system takes out lateral flex under the saddle. And where stiffness counts—at the bottom bracket, in the head…

This cleat stays cool on the hottest days. It has all the performance features you’d expect—rigid carbon midsole, removable mud cleats—combined with an upper that’s supercooled with swaths of mesh venting. northwave.it…

Whether you’re cutting blocks to build a snow shelter or testing slope stability, this light and compact (12-inch) metal saw won’t let you down—it’s durable enough to cut through wood or ice. bcaccess.com…

Surprisingly inexpensive despite its radical design, the fin-like Zuma cuts through the air but not your budget. rudyprojectusa.com…

BELIEVE THE HYPE Yes, actually, the iPhone is all that. First off, it’s sexy. The aluminum-and-glass build gives a nice solid feel, the 3.5-inch touchscreen and Mac OS X make operation fast and intuitive (despite the typing learning curve), and it’s a breeze on the Web. Thanks to its…

Heat-moldable sections in the upper give the M230 a custom-fit feel, while the carbon-reinforced nylon soles nail the balance between efficient pedaling stiffness and hike-a-bike walkability. shimano.com…

With unlimited expandable memory (through an SD-card reader/writer slot) and a market-leading 3.5-inch full-color screen, the XL’s raison d’être is onscreen mapping. After a road trip through the interior of British Columbia—with detailed maps uploaded—it was demoralizing to go back to a smaller screen. When I traveled by bike,…

A Classic Reinvented In an effort to lower the price of admission, Ellsworth offers up the Glimpse, its first-ever non- commuter bike not entirely made in the USA. The aluminum tubes are still produced here, but the shaping, welding, and assembly happen in Taiwan. (You probably wouldn’t have known had…

The 3x-optical-zoom-equipped SP-350 has all the trappings of an SLR—manual exposure controls, an ergonomic grip, and external-flash hot shoe—but without the bulk. During a late-summer trip through Jasper National Park, I tucked this 9.6-ounce black beauty into my jacket pocket and carried it everywhere, even on fast-and-light hikes. The…

Utility Multi-Purpose Marvel A water-resistant, breathable, seamless soft-shell upper, rubberized toe box, and an aggressive ride/hike sole made this a favorite multi-condition shoe, and testers loved that its runner-like profile meant it was inconspicuous and comfortable for walking around (quietly) off the bike. 15.4 oz; pearlizumi.com…

Along with having every other feature you can imagine (PC connectivity, workout logs, and more), the t3 can detect over- or under-training and help you adjust on the fly. It’s the sleekest model here, but its chrono settings can be tough to read midlap. suunto.com/training…

You can’t really consider a Dell a single piece of equipment. Each made-to-order notebook is like a rack of climbing protection you’ve customized for a specific big-wall route. The basic vanilla version—40GB hard drive, 1.6GHz processor, and 256MB of RAM—will get you safely up your backyard crag. When you’re ready…

Need to keep up with colleagues in exotic places like Caracas, Karachi, or Denver? Simply adjust the time-zone pointer of the OAKLEY GMT ($650) to any of the 24 cities stamped around the bezel. The hands of this quartz timepiece move to each locale’s time.

If you’re more likely to be looking at distant couloirs than shorebirds, this featherweight (5.3-ounce) monocular does the trick. It comes with a tripod mount and, like its two-tubed cousins, has a twist-up, twist-down eyecup and an ergonomic grip. 8×25; minox.com…

ASK MORE FROM YOUR PHONE Some friends and Web sites give great directions; others, not so great. So why not get the info straight from the pros? With a subscription to a third-party GPS application like TeleNav ($10 per month), the 8703e smartphone becomes a full-featured on-road navigator, providing onscreen…

Though smaller than an Etch A Sketch and weighing only two pounds, this highly portable, iPod-charging speaker system—with dual two-inch drivers, auxiliary input, and seven hours of playback per charge—sounds huge in the room or at the beach. alteclansing.com      …

Designed to play and charge iPods but also sporting an auxiliary jack, this sleek system will really rock a hotel room, but you’ll probably set it up back home, too. Lightweight but unflimsy, it thumps ten hours on a charge. logitech.com…

Rock this oversize titanium chronograph—with tachymeter and sailing-inspired style—confidently on deck or ashore. nautica.com…

EASY PHONE HOME This Belkin number syncs with Skype, the free online-telephony app, making for a simple but truly effective device for those who regularly go abroad or frequently make calls to friends or family overseas. Once you’ve got an account, you can call—and be called by—other Skype users directly.

Durable body, high-pressure capability (160psi), presta-Schrader compatibility…yes, yes. We loved it all. But it was the small drawers hidden in the ergonomic handle—big enough for extenders, valve caps, and patch kits—that sold us. blackburndesign.com…

This intuitive machine logs workout data and helps you meet goals by dictating what’s next. Pair it with the GPS Pod ($169) and it feeds you real-time pace and distance, plus, with the included heart-rate monitor, it records calories burned. suunto.com…

Tired of the Matrix-inspired graph-ics favored by most bike-apparel companies? Get your very own maillot jaune with this boldly simple polyester jersey. twinsix.com…

Garmin took a page out of Apple’s book with the Oregon 400t, the first handheld GPS unit with a touchscreen and an icon-based interface. The result is the most user-friendly and intuitive GPS unit we’ve tested. The touchscreen keyboard makes entering info a cinch—something testers really appreciated when temperatures…

IMPULSE BUY You don’t have to think too hard about springing for a pair of these affordable and versatile shades. Oversize wrap-back lenses give protection high, low, and peripherally, while the brownish polycarbonate produces a bright, sharp-edged view on par with glasses twice the price. The toric lens design—which follows…

A reasonably priced HRM watch that lets you target one of four heart-rate zones, beeps when you slip out of the zone, and ticks off calories burned. A light, highly readable training tool with three-striped Euro cool. shopadidas.com…

Women don’t need to settle for the Terminator look just to get performance shades. In this totally feminine number, you can break hearts, then whup some ass on the beach volleyball court. The Envy is a powerful sun buster with polarized poly lenses in a gray tint deep enough for…

One-Second Photo Polaroid is dead. Long live Polaroid! When the company announced in February 2008 that it was discontinuing production of its iconic instant film, reports about the end of an era ignored the fact that Fuji has supplied “Polaroid” film to the commercial industry for years. To fill the…

Prints from the EPSON STYLUS PHOTO 900 ($199) use a special quick-drying ink, so they come out smudge-proof. You can also print on plastic: Fire up the enclosed software, insert a CD into a special holder, slide that into the printer, and you’re ready to immortalize an image directly onto…

Meet the jacket version of that warm friendliness Germans call gemütlichkeit. The microfiber inner cuffs are soft and help retain heat, the collar is snug but not too tight, and the fleecy collar caresses bare skin. Testers favored the coziness on gusty alpine ridges, when wind-resistance trumped breathability. 1.3…

Use this 8.5-foot electronic probe when trying to pinpoint someone beneath the snow. As you probe closer to the mark, it chirps, beeps, and, once you’re within eight inches, emits a solid tone. Used in conjunction with an avalanche beacon—BCA’s Tracker2 ($335) is a tester favorite—it should help eliminate…

You get Swiss precision detailing (incredible fit, impeccable flat stitching) with a price tag to match. This bib isn’t cheap, but the full-coverage design and chamois are the most comfortable we’ve tried for long days in the saddle. www.assos.com…

Chaco’s retooled midsoles are almost 25 percent lighter than their weighty predecessors but still hike like supremely ventilated boots. The double straps and split toe yield good control but don’t work well with socks. www.chacousa.com…

Lab-coat white may be questionable by day, but after dark this shell’s seams shine when caught in the glare of headlights. 4 oz; www.adidas.com…

For nighttime running on busy roads, flip this jacket inside out and you’ll flash like a human traffic cone, thanks to a fluorescent mesh liner and reflective trim. 8.5 oz; hellyhansen.com…

These lightweight do-it-all pants repel a drizzle and dry quickly if soaked. The slightly tapered fit doesn’t flap around in the wind, and the soft chamois-trimmed waist belt is a welcome bonus. arcteryx.com…

WARMER THAN IT LOOKS When warmth matters most, grab the G50. On a late-fall backpacking trip in New Mexico’s Pecos Wilderness, with temperatures plummeting into the single digits, one tester (who had forgotten his puffy) simply battened down the G50 and said, “I’m fine.” The surprising warmth-to-weight is due to…

FAST UP AND DOWN Not surprisingly, this aluminum hardtail easily kept up with competitors on climbs. But its standout performance on descents wowed testers even more. Why? Fisher’s Genesisters geometry works with a woman’s biomechanics, helping us flow effortlessly through tight switchbacks. The four-inch Fox F100 RL front fork can…

Don’t judge these pin-striped slacks on their looks alone. They’re completely waterproof-breathable, and thanks to an extra bit of insulation in the seat, you won’t freeze your ass off on the chairlift. ridedna.com…

Look good, smell good: In addition to being sensible (moisture-wicking and stink-free), this buttery, 100 percent merino polo is also pretty stylish. iobiocompatibles.com…