Gear of the Week | Christmas Special 2020

Alexander Schober (Social Media) - capture peak design

With my Christmas wish, I hope to find a solution to an omnipresent problem for every amateur photographer who is increasingly out and about in the mountains: If the camera is stowed in your backpack, you don't take any photos anyway - if you hang it around your neck or put it in an extra bag, it often gets in the way on the ascent and descent on a ski tour. This isn't quite so tragic with my compact system camera, but I still often find myself putting my camera in my backpack for nothing. A camera mount for attaching to the backpack strap should now provide a remedy. The most common solution is to attach a base plate to the backpack strap and screw the counterpart into the tripod thread of the camera. Now the camera is always ready to hand and doesn't dangle around annoyingly. One of these systems is the Capture from Peak Design, which costs around €60. Whether this will affect my photo yield remains to be seen, but I'm in good spirits.

German Wehinger (Conditionsreport) - gravity edition fidlock bottle

Finally, an end to the annoying bottle cage on the mountain bike. The cage has always annoyed me when handling the bottle. Whenever possible, I go mountain biking in summer. Gravity biking in particular is pure adrenaline. That's why I'm hoping that the Gravity Edition of the Fidlock Bottle will be available this year. This magnetic bottle holder should hold up on rough trails and is much easier to handle.

Johannes Wolf (Technik) - LEKI TOUR STICK VARIO CARBON

When you're skiing or mountaineering in particular, you often have to stow your sticks during climbing passages. I've always found it annoying to attach the long poles there. That's why I've been toying with the idea of getting folding poles for some time. Thanks to its small pack size of 42 cm, the Tour Stick Vario Carbon fits in any backpack. It can also be adjusted in length between 115 and 135 cm. That's why I finally want a pair of folding poles for Christmas this year.

gear of the week

presented by

Lea Hartl (Editorial Director) - Normality

My touring bindings are now missing a few plastic parts and the battery compartment on my camera no longer stays closed. Repairs or a gear update are due. But I actually wish that the standard answer to the question "how's it going?" was no longer: "actually quite good", or "actually not too bad", or "well, I can't really complain". Because a lot of things are actually quite difficult at the moment. And sure, you come to terms with it, you get used to it, you know that it could be much, much worse if your circumstances were less comfortable. But I still wish, actually, that we could forget which side of which border our favorite tours are on again. That we can spontaneously visit grandma or friends we haven't contacted for far too long. To summarize: I'm not in the mood to wish for the latest equipment innovations right now, although I usually like to do that, actually.

Lorenzo Rieg (gear reviews & tours) - Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski 3-Finger

I actually already have the gloves, but unfortunately after many years of use they're not quite as fit as they used to be. I only recently reordered the inner gloves, but now the shell is also slowly but surely giving up the ghost. But I don't want to do without good gloves and the Army Leather Heli Ski in the fast mitten version offers everything I need. They're warm, you can grip them surprisingly well, they're waterproof, robust and extremely durable with the right care.

Lukas Zögernitz (Conditionsreports) - Zwetschkenröster with homemade Kaiserschmarrn

Since you won't be able to enjoy this classic Austrian dish in the ski huts until 6 January at least, my gift tip for this year is homemade Kaiserschmarrn. For me, however, it's only perfect with the right topping. Homemade apple sauce or compote are popular options. My favorite, however, is the organic plum roaster from the traditional Viennese company Staud's. With this recipe, the Kaiserschmarrn should be a success and you can order the plum roaster (and other treats such as apricot roaster) here. I hope you can alleviate your longing for the mountains and huts a little with my gift tip and wish you good luck, enjoy your meal and have a peaceful Christmas

Patrick Wehowsky (Snowboard & Splitboard) - Christoph Möllers: "Freiheitsgrade"

Freiheitsgrade - that fits as a title both to decisions under uncertainty in winter sports and as a groping exploration in the field of political or legal philosophy. Möllers does not give the diverse heterogeneous currents, which historically and currently can be identified with the label "liberalism", a new assault, but presents them in their contradictory nature. If the book lives up to the promise of his pre-pandemic lecture, then I look forward to further trenchant insights into the world of the history of political ideas.

Steffen Kruse (Gear of the Week & Cooperations) - 30% discount on the White Risk Standard subscription

I want a great tour planning tool, a piece of safety, a learning module and a wealth of knowledge about snow and avalanches!

In addition to the latest avalanche bulletin (CH), White Risk offers topo maps with slope inclination layers for Switzerland (swisstopo), France (IGN) and Austria (BEV). Automatic recognition of potential key points helps (CH maps only) to draw routes accurately and points out places that are particularly important for assessment in relation to the terrain. There are map layers for ski slopes; aerial photos and public transport stops can be displayed. The opacity of the individual layers can be set by the user. With the tour planner, you can prepare or adapt tours completely online or offline with the White Risk app and they are then also available offline in the app. Planned tours are synchronized between the web and app and can be easily shared with colleagues.

Would you like to secure this Christmas deal? Then send an email to whiterisk@powderguide.com and you will receive a code that you can enter when you register for White Risk. The deal is limited to 150 licenses and is allocated on a "first come first serve" basis.

Here you can go directly to the White Risk website

Totti Lingott (Kooperationen & headoffice) - Mehr upcycling

I would like to see a more conscious approach to our environment and the (obviously not always) omnipresent climate change for Christmas this year. The current pandemic shows best that we suddenly have time, space and, above all, money for important and urgent problems. Why can't we (yet) make the same effort to change the climate? We have to change something if we want our children to have bright eyes after a powder run. That's why I would like to see more upcycling instead of new products. There are already almost as many man-made products as biomass on planet Earth (in terms of mass) - this year the threshold will probably be exceeded. That's why I would like to see more upcycling instead of new products. It would be nice if we only received gifts of recycled or upcycled products or products made from natural raw materials for Christmas! Like the hut shoes from Doghammer. A little bit of climbing skin remnants, a little bit of cork from the tree around the corner, a little bit of wool from the sheep behind the tree, a little bit of howerty felt and a good portion of handicraft from the family business - in Portugal, of course, because there's no cork here. Climate change sounds that simple - if we start small!