Women’s Edition Outdoor Medical Kit
March 24, 2009
The Geargals were all abuzz when we heard we were getting a sample of the new Women’s Outdoor Medical Kit by the folks at Adventure Medical Kits. My musings about what could be in the kit that would render it women’s specific were met with a flood of suggestions, all much more creative than my boring guess of “tampons”. “I think it includes chocolate and red wine,” declared one Geargal. Another was more practical: “A kit for emergency repairs to your acrylic nails, a special gadget for reattaching a wobbly spike heel, or maybe some evening primrose for the sudden onset of PMS.” Struck by inspiration, I jumped back into the discussion with the idea that the kit should have one of those Japanese pillows shaped like a man’s torso and arm, for those nights when you feel like snuggling and a fellah ain’t handy; a suggestion met with a loooooong silence. *crickets*
One thing we all agreed on, though, is that the Women’s Adventure Medical Kit should come with a masseuse (“for the women AND their dogs!” insisted one of our search dog handler Geargals). Well surprise, surprise – NONE of these brilliant ideas were included in the kit. Hmph! And we thought our opinions were valued for product development! But lo! What is this? Oh, look, I was right – tampons! Yes, the kit comes with tampons. Hah.
I didn’t think to ask for a regular kit so I could compare the women’s version and the regular version, but I did go through and check out the contents at face value, and what you get is a really comprehensive, lightweight, well-packaged medical kit that seems to have thought of everything (OK, except for the chocolate, red wine, stiletto fixer, acrylic nail repair kit, and masseuse, but hey). The women’s specific stuff seems to be limited to the tampons, some cramp medication (“Cramp Tabs”, hee!), and extra ibuprofen, but since I don’t have a regular kit to compare to I could be wrong about that. This kit seems to really have thought of everything, down to a little packet of lip balm (perfect for me, since I love re-enacting the desert scene from “The Three Amigos” when trips start turning into epics: “Lip balm?” Oh, I crack myself up).
One of my favorite items in the kit is a little packet of insta-towels. They are about 3/4″ diameter disks that apparently turn into towels when you activate them by putting them in water. I SO want to activate them now, because I bet I’d never get tired of that little trick, but I’ll resist until I really need them. I suspect they won’t be as compact and easy to carry once expanded, and it will be difficult to get them back into little disk form, to say the least.
One of the first things I always do with a new pre-packaged med kit is to assimilate all the little packets of medications into little baggies or jars, because I don’t like dealing with the little individual packets, but that’s up to you. The meds run the gamut from painkillers to antidiarrheal agents, and it seems that with this kit you could deal with a weekend’s worth of minor issues to one significant injury or illness. In addition to the meds, there’s bandaging material, gauze, moleskin, antibiotic ointment, gloves, biohazard bags, bandaids, burn dressings, you name it. With a few choice additions you could easily up the ante and turn this kit into a mini-trauma kit and outfit it for more serious issues. The kit comes with a first aid book, which I first thought was kind of silly considering I’m a lightweight gear junkie and don’t want to lug a book around, but the book is so comprehensive and helpful that it should definitely stay in the kit for anyone who isn’t 100% savvy about responding to medical emergencies. If you’re good to go on the knowledge front, you can take the book out and have even more room for stuff in the little kit bag. The bag really holds a lot of stuff; my one complaint being that only one side of the bag has a zip-shut pocket. The other side (the “medications” side) has folder-style pockets, which I don’t get because things tend to fall out of folder pockets so you have to be careful when you open the outer zipper. I will give the designers props for resisting the urge to apply the dreaded velcro solution, but nevertheless it would be nice to have a way to close that side of the kit.
A great little medical kit, plus tampons and “Cramp Tabs.” You can’t go wrong! And here’s a little tip: you can always slide your own chocolate bar into the amply-sized pouch. You’ll have to figure out another way to bring your masseuse on your trips.
APF Powersox Ski Socks
March 18, 2009
[Yes. I know this is not a picture of ski socks. But this is the best I can do. Imagine the socks pictured above, only with about a foot more sock above it, and there you have the socks I tried. -HG]
Why do socks need to be left foot-right foot specific? I don’t know, but it certainly seems to help. These ski socks, while adding a level of difficulty to getting dressed in the morning, really are noticeably more comfortable than unifoot socks. They stay secure on your foot and don’t twist or shift. I don’t know about the idea that they are supposed to give your foot more support, because I pretty much just shove them into ski boots and believe me, those ski boots give me all the support I need. I do like the extra padding (but not too much!) on the uppers, and the gentle-ish elastic at the tops. They seem to have pretty good wicking power and stay comfortable even after a full day in ski boots.
Fit was pretty good, although I found the socks just a tad too long for my wee little legs, and I have taken to folding them over on the top so they don’t cut into the backs of my knees. That doesn’t seem to affect the performance or fit of the socks; they don’t shift or slide down. Because of this issue and the fact that the foot is a little long, they seem to be sized just a tad large, so if smaller sizes are available they’re the ones to go for.
As ski socks, these are one of the two pair I consistently reach for and have been known to wear even if they are dirty (a sign of high esteem indeed)! I’m keen to try the running and cycling socks from Powersox – if they can make ski socks that don’t shift, the running socks must be phenomenal.
Mountain Hardwear Synchro Pant
March 18, 2009
30% off at Backcountry.com! Click here!
Always a sucker for a new pair of ski pants, I nonetheless am quite fickle about them. I like all of the pants that I have, but I usually have one little thing about them I’d change. So when the Synchro pants arrived at the Geargals’ door in a bright blue color, I was sure that the color was the thing I wouldn’t like about these pants. I even warned my ski partner I’d be looking like a clown that day in blue ski pants. He didn’t believe me until I showed up in my new blue pants….and regular pink jacket. As it turned out, I couldn’t go through with it, and I switched to a black jacket, which went nicely with the black accent stripes on the Synchro pants. Now that I’ve seen the pics from that day, I’ve been won over by the blue color; it looks sharp and it’s a nice change from the standard “black or khaki” ski pants staples.
I was also won over by the pants themselves – I think they might be as close to perfect as a soft shell ski pant can get. I’m a little low on creativity today, so let me just list all of the things I like about these pants:
1. They have that nice ski boot-cut without an inner gaiter. They fit perfectly over my boots – not too tight, not too loose. And no gaiter! I dislike inner gaiters on ski pants; they are a hassle when switching from walk to ski mode and don’t seem to do anything special to keep snow out of my boots. I don’t have a “snow in boots” problem to begin with so I really get annoyed with an extra layer of snap/zip/velcro to deal with. Don’t buy these for climbing, they have a perfect boot cut cuff that is clearly intended for ski boots.
2. They have 3/4 length zippers that make venting a breeze (pun intended)! Gaining lots of vertical usually requires generating some heat, and it’s so nice to be able to just zip down the Synchros and let the excess body heat out. There’s no goofy mesh inside the vent zipper either; it’s full access to your base layer. it’s great. I have been struggling all year with finding the right venting situation for my ski pants, and this is it. There is zero reason to not have a vent zipper as simple and effective as this one on ALL ski pants. I was in perfect comfort all day just by adjusting the vent zipper. It seems simple, but trust me, there are gear manufacturers out there who can make a vent zipper waaaaaay too complicated.
3. The material is awesome. Admittedly I’ve only worn these pants twice, so perhaps the water shedding ability will disappear over time, but for now it certainly does seem fully waterproof. They’re waterproof AND a billion times (at least!) warmer than hard shell pants. Perfect!
4. They are extremely flattering. Yes, yes, I know, it’s only function that matters. But not to me! The accent stripes and the flared cuffs make my rather well-developed skier’s legs look long and lean. Hmm, I wonder why these are my favorite pants….
Yeah, I really like the pants! But I would be amiss in my gear tester duties if I didn’t include a note on fit. In my regular size, the Synchros fit really well except for the waist. The waist is too high and therefore too loose. I had to break out my trusty web belt to keep these on, and adding more things around my waist in addition to my backpack hip belt and transceiver harness is not my favorite thing. But it was almost a non-issue, just a slight inconvenience. It seems that taller ladies with a smaller hip: waist ratio might fit these pants perfectly, but that’s going to be an individual thing. For average-height me, the length was good but the rise was about an inch and a half too high and the waist therefore too big. Luckily I can compensate for it, because I’d hate to miss out on wearing these pants.
Yakima High Roller Bike Rack
March 11, 2009
Get a start-of-season deal at REI.com – the High Roller for $179. Click here!
If your bike is your most treasured possession, chances are you’re riding it most of the time. At least I am – but when I’m not riding it, I like it to be riding on my car, so I can take it with me to ride later. Until this year, my bike had to ride IN my car, because I didn’t have an external bike rack that would carry my fancy pants full-suspension bike. Then Yakima hooked the Geargals up with the High Roller bike racks, and now my bike can ride in style.
The High Roller installs in a snap onto any type of crossbar. Mine went on my Yakima crossbars and, naturally, that worked really well. The High Roller has three mount points and just screws on, and has a cable lock to lock the rack onto the bars when there’s no bike in it. It took about ten minutes to put the High Roller on my car since I already had the crossbars on, and I’m pretty picky about getting everything even so you could probably install it in five minutes if you are less fussy. Putting the bike in the rack is super easy too – just put it in the gutters, push it against the front hoop, turn the knob until the back hoop tightens, and then ratchet the back wheel strap down. You’re done! Of course, if you’re not tall or if you have a tall car, getting the bike up there can be kind of a hassle. I struggled with it for a few minutes and ended up standing on a bucket (and bringing the bucket to the trail head to stand on as well) to get the bike up and down before remembering that my car has an adjustable suspension and would politely lower itself for me if I asked it nicely by pressing the “down” button (no, really, it really does have an adjustable suspension, it’s quite handy). When I first put my favorite bike up there, I was a little nervous driving off – it doesn’t really LOOK super secure in the High Roller, but trust me – if it’s properly mounted, it’s not going anywhere.
The High Roller is designed to not touch the bike frame, so if you love your bike, you’ll love the High Roller. My favorite thing about this type of rack is that I don’t have to take my front wheel off – that just makes for extra hassle and less bike time. I’m not crazy about the cable lock – it’s kind of a pain to lock and unlock it all the time, but if you don’t lock it to something, it will just flop around and bang up the top of your car. I’d much rather have some sort of wheel hoop locking mechanism or something. There’s probably a reason Yakima didn’t go for that option, but I don’t know what it is.
I also don’t quite understand what’s keeping someone from simply unscrewing the mount points and walking off with my bike rack with my bike attached to it (other than the fact that it’s probably a big hassle to carry a bike attached to a bike rack and then try to get the bike off it), but the “pain in the ass factor” is probably a significant one for most thieves so I’ll take my chances. The cable lock, like all locks Yakima, works with the standard Yakima SKS lock cores, which is handy if you’ve been sufficiently forward-thinking as to buy enough lock cores that are all keyed the same. I didn’t, so I had to use a different key for my bike racks, but there’s probably a way to buy more lock cores keyed to your existing lock cores. But it’s bike season now and I’m too busy biking to go look that up for you, so you’re on your own.
Sport Science 2.0 Wool Zip T
March 1, 2009
Being old school means wearing stinky polypro underwear for athletic endeavors. Yes, they are functional, wicking away the sweat and keeping me warm even when wet, but recently most of my friends have jumped on board with the wool revolution. The sportswear manufacturers have resurfaced wool as the best fiber for layering, swearing by the ultimate qualities of merino wool. I do not want to be old school anymore, and I jumped on the opportunity to test out SportScience merino running shirt that was to be free of nasty odors and made out of all natural fibers.
The fit of the shirt was a little different than my previous upper layers. The neckline is tight fitting, which made me wonder if it would work with my anatomy. Then I went running in -10F and actually preferred the close feel around my neck to keep me warm. Today I ran in it at 40F and left the zipper undone to create more airflow around my neck. This shirt works like mid weight polypro and functions well as an only layer or as part of layering in colder weather. I tested it mostly running, but I also used it while Nordic skiing and backcountry skiing.
I was pleasantly surprised by the thumb loops, even though I was first wondering if the sleeves are too short to use the loops. To put the loops on, I need to stretch the sleeves some, but after the application, they don’t restrict the movement of my arms yet feel snug. I am a normal built 5’7” and size S shirt is a good fit.
Before jumping into the merino shirt, I was worried about the scratchy feeling of fibers. With dry and sensitive skin, I was apprehensive that the shirt would be itchy. No problem, the shirt feels almost like a soft polypro shirt. Another worry was the ease of care. As a happy go lucky laundry person, the last thing I need is a high-maintenance running shirt. I have been washing the shirt in normal laundry in warm cycle and it has not lost its qualities or shrunk on me. Excellent. Now I am ready to upgrade to a merino T shirt and a heavier layer that is hooded with thumb loops.
