ColdAvenger looks like some kind of a Star Wars thingy, but in fact it is a winter mask that makes use of a special breathing valve that mixes the cold outdoor air with your warm breath while still keeping your face dry. Didn’t get it? ColdAvenger traps moisture and creates an air chamber while you breath. By this it also keeps your face dry.

The company behind the mask is Talus Outdoor, and they claim that ColdAvenger can make even -20° weather feel comfortable. How about -35° which is pretty common up here in north? Not even talking about Verkhoyansk in Siberia where the average yearly temperature is -50 °C. The coldest temperature measured in Verkhoyansk is -69,8 °C while during the “hottest” day they have measured +37 °C. This makes the whopping difference of 105 °C. I guess even ColdAvenger doesn’t work in such hostile environment.

Anyhow, ColdAvenger is an interesting innovation because it can be helpful at least for people working and living in cold environment. See what the company says:

“ColdAvenger mixes inhaled cold air with exhaled warm air to achieve a dynamic balance of warmth while keeping the face dry. Inside mask temperatures are 40º to 60ºF higher than outside, depending on activity. The patent-pending ventilation design allows for easy breathing during exertion, a critical feature for high endurance outdoor activities.  Moisture from exhaled air binds to the plastic piece, keeping the face dry.”

The ColdAvenger starts at $50.

As they say in Yibb home page, “the Yibb is a snowsports product that can be mounted on to any standard snowboard. It allows you to snowboard without the use of bindings: your feet are not attached to the board and you ride with the use of your entire body, including your hands”.

This gives not only a new riding experience, but also a new way to learn snowboarding. May be it makes learning even more fun as you don’t crash every three seconds.

The Yibb was invented to open up snowboarding to everyone. It makes snowboarding accessible to kids from 3 years old. This makes me really interested, because my daughter is currently three years old, and I want to teach her skiing and snowboarding. But will this thing really teach real snowboarding or is it just a crutch that will be useless for learning proper technique?

Yibb was invented by Dutch designers who have their background in designing products for sports and outdoor. Read more about the history of Yibb and the designers in Yibb website.

Check out the video below for more about Yibb snowboard.

So, Make contributor Will O’Brien figured out a way to mount a ATC3K camera into his skiing goggles. Here’s the whole story on how he did it.

In short Will purchased an Oregon Scientific ATC3K digital camera and wanted to mount it to his helmet. Unfortunately that idea didn’t work well, so Will decided to try something else. After disassembling and soldering Will was able to mount the camera into his ski goggles.

It’s not over yet. Wires and batteries must still be placed somewhere.

Ready to rock!

Guys over at Scarpar say “We want to give the worlds board riders a powersports option that will compare to ATVs, snowmobiles, and off-road motorbikes“. I am convinced.

Scarpar is a privately held small-size company in Australia. If you want to know more details of the company or the powerboard, check out their F.A.Q. There are many interesting details in this innovation, such as the powerful engine and huge speed!

Oh, and guess who is their test rider? Darren Powell, the fastest snowboarder in the world.

Check out the videos of Scarpar powerboards below. Sick!

Why the Twin Parabolic Ski would be a revolutionary idea? According to Pyott, the number of edges helps maintain downhill speed in a turn, which can be seen when comparing standard skis vs a snowboard when turning at high speeds. The snowboard only has a single edge to turn on and therefore has fewer grips on the hill in a turn then a skier who can use two edges. This means that a snowboarder will have to check their speed to stay on a racecourse before a skier.

Is this really going to work? I’m not sure, but it got me interested. Anyhow, I can’t imagine all difficulties and obstacles of this idea. Look at those binding saddles below. Would they be strong enough to cope with all the forces of skiing?

One thought came to my mind. If doubling the number of edges and giving more surface would lead to faster skis, why not doubling again..? I mean, instead of two parallel skis a person would have four parallel skis under each foot. He he.. may be four parallel skis under one foot would require too much horizontal space.

So, what do you think about this innovation?

Well, we have also seen these kinds of “special skis” in the past. Remember the skis made of stone? How about Hublot All Black skis? Although I prefer skis like Praxis Powder Boards, it would be interesting to test skis like the Lacroix Ultimate. Anyhow, as an experienced skier I wouldn’t really waste my money on Lacroix skis or anything similar, so it’s really interesting that some people actually DO buy these sticks. Maybe it’s just the fact that I don’t have money to burn and I’m just skiing on budget. How about you? Would you buy these?.

Cheetah Ultra Sports says, “The main purpose of the opening is to reduce the amount of surface which comes in contact with snow. Smaller surface means less drag, which translates into more gliding speed.”

Wow! Wait a minute.. Less surface means more gliding speed? Maybe this idea works on hard slope, but when riding powder snow I guess the opening will cause some serious trouble. I believe you get tons of snow right on your face through the big opening. I might be wrong, but what else could we expect?

Then those huge “shelves” for attaching bindings of Whip F-117 look really interesting to me. Why so big? Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to my question, but there must be a good reason. Anyhow they look cool, eh? The cool design has also the negative side, and it is the fat price of $1,900. I gotta say I would think twice or even few more times before investing almost two thousand dollars to a board which has a huge opening in the middle, but you know, we can’t be sure until we have tested the snowboard.

Btw, Cheetah Ultra Sports say that Whip F-117 is the Lamborghini of snowboards, promising to make riders go faster, feel lighter, turn quicker, edge harder, carve sharper.

Are you kinnding me? “Forever” sounds pretty heavy…

First of all Ski-Mojo fits under clothing to provide support and help skiers hold a tuck without leaving their thighs burning. Despite of the funny name, Ski-Mojo really uses springs strapped to the side of the legs to boost thigh power, according to the inventors of this thing it’ll help you ski all day long without feeling tired.

They say Ski-Mojo is equivalent of adding power steering to a car. I wonder how it would feel to ski powder while wearing Ski-Mojo?

“The ski~mojo works by supporting your body-weight, reducing strain on your thighs and knees by up to 33%. Powerful springs act like shock-absorbers, improving stability and smoothing out bumps. The result is that you can ski further for less effort“, says Ski-Mojo website.

If you think you don’t have power enough to ski Vallee Blanche of Chamonix, consider purchasing Ski-Mojo. The Ski-Mojo website says that it took 11 years to innovate the product. Not really sure if this thing works but if it does then it’d be good news for those with weak knees.

I just wonder why most of these “great innovations” never become super popular. Shouldn’t they sell “automatically” if they are so life changing? just wondering…

Source [SkiMojo via Guardian]

Home Ski Simulator from Proidee looks fun, and in fact it looks like a PlayStation game. Home Ski Simulator is supposed to be both entertaining and teaching. It might be a nice tool for those who can’t ski the slopes that often. Career rockets who spend their days in offices can practice skiing late at night, and when hitting the slopes they might feel more comfortable and familiar on skis. Can’t really comment on if it’ll help you learn skiing though…

Home Ski Simulator features 32 racetracks and slopes in the most famous ski resorts in the world. There are levels for pro skiers and beginners and between. The ski simulator vibrates, rotates, tilts – exactly like a real ski descent. Price for this German Home Ski Simulator is $2285. With that amount of money you could pay for a multi-day heli-ski trip though.. or 3,000 bottles of cheap beer. You decide.

Source [RandomGoodStuff]

GCH is located halfway between Golden and Revelstoke, BC in the heart of the world’s most renowned heli-skiing belt. People say this is an incredible heli-skiing terrain, and sure I believe it. Holder of this ultimate heli-ski pass is guaranteed a seat on A-Star B2 helicopter every day between December 26 to March 28, overriding all other bookings. Now that’s something I call service!

GCH operates from the ruggedly beautiful Heather Mountain Lodge in the heart of the Purcell and Selkirk ranges in the Columbia Mountains, part of the North American Rockies. $80,000 is much, but the holder is also provided a personal concierge whose duty is to provide his customer optimum heli-ski experience including weather forecasts and some other services.

Just couple of days ago I discussed with Mattias Cöster who runs a heliski company in Sweden. I asked about his prices because we are planning a heli-ski trip in Sweden, and I must say this time his offer sounds better for my wallet..

Photo: doglotion Source [GCH]

“These very special limited edition Spada (the Romanic word for sword) skis are the first ever made to have a heart of Grisons granite“, says the source. Zai skis look pretty nice, and they are actually very interesting. I just wonder how it would feel skiing with these “stones”. They must be pretty heavy..

So, would you buy?

Måns and Catharina fed up with unhandy paper maps, and designed a new ski map concept that actually looks like a papurys scroll. Tear-resistant ski resort map is stored in two plastic poles (13.5 cm long) and can rolled up and unrolled pretty easily. Papurys-style ski resort map can be kept inside the jacket or a backbag, and it requires only a little space.

I think MYWAY 2 ski map is a pretty cool invention. I am not the only one thinking like this, because MYWAY 2 ski map concept is the winner of ISPO Brandnew design competition 2008. I hope ski resorts soon update their piste maps to MYWAY 2 ski map.

What do you think about MYWAY 2 ski map?

Source [ISPOBrandNew]