GearFlogger

Gear Junkie Choose-Your-Adventure Sweepstakes

GearJunkie has launched a new Choose-Your-Adventure Sweepstakes, where one winner and a guest will pick between five adventure-vacation itineraries in the Alleghenies, a mountain range in the southeastern United States. The winners will travel this fall on the all-expenses-paid vacation, which includes airfare plus gear from sponsor companies. Gear Junkie readers and the general public can sign up now through Sept. 15 for a chance to win:

www.gearjunkie.com/sweeps09

Merrell gives away free gear for a good cause

Merrell has recently teamed up with the National Park Foundation (NPF) to help promote widespread appreciation of the outdoors. Merrell and the NPF’s shared goal is to work together on a long-term basis to educate and motivate people of all ages and activity levels to get outside and play in our national outdoor playgrounds.

In July Merrell donated $10 to the NPF for every $100 sold. Starting July 17th, Merrell sponsored a contest with the aim of disseminating our love for our national playgrounds. The grand prize for this contest is a one-year free pass to all the National Parks for a family and a whole wardrobe of Merrell footwear and apparel to assure that these adventures are as enjoyable as possible.

To take part, all readers need to do is visit Merrell’s Facebook Fan Page and post their favorite National Park story in 150 words or less on our Wall. Participants are encouraged to include pictures or videos of their previous outdoor adventures  The stories receiving the most “thumbs up” will win.

Merrell's Facebook Fan Page

CAMP Warehouse Sale

If you live near Denver this is your lucky weekend. From the press release: CAMP USA Announces Spring Warehouse Sale in Broomfield, CO. The late season dumps are over, spring is in full effect and with it the climbing season. Launch into the season with new gear at great prices.

CAMP Technical Adventure Equipment (makers of all things climbing) will be holding its Spring Warehouse Sale in Broomfield, CO (directly between Boulder and Denver on Hwy 36) from Saturday, June 20 – Monday, June 22. Join us for the best prices on climbing gear you'll see this year. The sale will be in full effect from 8-5 each day.

Hundreds of closeouts, overstocks and samples on sale. Killer deals on harnesses, carabiners, protection, axes, crampons, helmets, packs, backcountry ski gear and other climbing and alpine equipment. CAMP USA - 580 Burbank Street, Ste 105 - Broomfield, CO 80020.

xRez Big Ass Photographs

xRez Extreme Resolution photographs are gigapixel shots of urban and natural environments that allow the viewer to zoom in to ridiculous levels of detail.

Why do we care? No reason, it's just cool. Check out the images of El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite. Click on the word "zoom" below the images and you'll be able to drill down from a full view of the monoliths to a level that suddenly makes it interesting to climbers who want to trace a full route up the rock.

Now someone needs to start adding route lines to the pix...

Choose Your Own Adventure Sweepstakes

Don't just sit there: get off your duff and get on over to GearJunkie for their Choose Your Own Adventure Sweepstakes. In addition to airfare and the all-expenses paid trip, the winner will be outfitted head-to-toe with all the essential gear from REI, including backpacks, apparel and hardgoods like snowshoes and ice axes (depending on the adventure).

The winner and a travel companion will pick between one of five REI Adventures trips, including: Mount Washington Winter Climb, Sequoia Winter Mountaineering Clinic, Yosemite Snowshoe Trip, Ice Climbing Basics in New Hampshire, White Mountains Hut-to-Hut Snowshoe.

Attending the winter adventure with the winner and a guest will be The Gear Junkie, Stephen Regenold, a nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist and founder of GearJunkie.com. After the adventure, a party sponsored by Lazyman will celebrate the weekend's accomplishments with music, food and drinks – with participants having "earned their lazy." Finally, participants will receive additional gear for the chosen adventure from Adventure Medical Kits, Bear Naked Trail Mix and Wigwam, co-sponsors of the sweepstakes.

Enter the GearJunkie Sweepstakes

Mountain Hardwear Pack-A-Day Giveaway

This just in from your friendly neighborhood outdoor gear manufacturer. In other words, this is a press release, but it involves free gear, so we know you cheap bastards want to read it. Note: link not active until August 1:

Mountain Hardwear wants to support your pack-a-day habit. Mountain Hardwear, a leading outdoor equipment and apparel company, is out to prove not all habit are necessarily bad ones. Throughout the month of August 2008, Mountain Hardwear will give away one pack, each day, everyday.

During the month of August go to http://packaday.mountainhardwear.com, answer a couple of easy questions and you'll be entered into the daily instant-win sweepstakes. Winners will choose one of the following packs from the new Urban Reality series: Paladin, Guardian, Defender, Sentinel, or the Natural 22, a limited pre-release destined for stores in Spring 2009.

Mountain Climbing Kills Brain Cells

"Three attributes of a good mountaineer are high pain threshold, bad memory and... I forget the third." So begins an article in no less an authority than Scientific American as it weighs in with a critical piece of evidence that all climbers are stupid. Maybe not before we start climbing, but definitely after.

Figure you're just a recreational climber? You're probably more at risk. Never had AMS, HAPE or HACE? Doesn't matter. Climbing only fourteeners? Sucks to be you. In effectively all aspects of the studies cited, climbing caused permanent loss of brain tissue. You would expect this of 8,000 meter peaks like Everest, where all thirteen of the climbers they studied lost gray matter, but it was also true of all eight Aconcagua climbers studied, over 1,000 meters lower, and even two of seven 4,810 meter Mont Blanc climbers.

What can we do about this? There's only one practical solution: rationalization. I'll get us started: we only use ten percent of our brain, so we have 90 percent to waste climbing. Next?

GearJunkie Contest

TheGearJunkie.com has launched a new weekly gear giveaway contest. Sign up at http://thegearjunkie.com/giveaway to be entered into a weekly drawing for prizes the likes of a half-year supply of Clif Bars, Tech40's TrailLeader Watch, a pfd fro Kokatat, the Thule Echelon Bike Mount, a Kelty Light Year XP 0 degree sleeping bag, and much more.

Vote for GearFlogger!

Click here to vote for GearFlogger, you ingrates: vote early and vote often!

Rock & Ice 2007 Gear Guide

Despite the fact that those bastards at Rock and Ice magazine ripped off my frigging in the rigging tagline for a story in their 2007 gear and safety guide, I'm going to throw them a bone and pimp their rag.

Seriously, this is the best old-school media production out there and their editors know from shinola, at least when they're sober. In this edition of their annual gear guide they're mostly off the sauce as they roll out their "Best in Gear" or B.I.G. award. Like Playboy, it's worth the money just for the articles, but we all know we want the shiny gear-porn.

So what do they like? In rock shoes, the Five Ten Piton, Mad Rock Maniac, La Sportiva Venom, Scarpa Spectro, Acopa Spectre and Mammut Goblin. In ropes, the DMM Revolver, CAMP Nano Wire, Wild Country Helium quickdraw, Faders SUM and Black Diamond Hotwire. Yes, I know, none of those are ropes, WTF? Harnesses and packs: no awards. Again, WTF? Ice tools: Grivel Monster, Petzl Nomic. Cams: Black Diamond Camalot, Omega Pacific Linkcam. Boots: Kayland M11, La Sportiva Mega Ice, Lowa Ice Comp GTX. Yes, two of those are fruit boots, WTF? Crash pads: Black Diamond Mondo, Organic Full Pad. Helmets: Petzl Meteor III. Sleeping bags: MSR Reactor, MontBell Super Stretch Down Hugger #7, Macpac Epic 300 SF. Yes, the Reactor is a stove, so once again, WTF? Tents: Nemo Tenshi. Lights: Black Diamond Icon.

So, to sum up: a seemingly random collection of awards with limited utility. However there is some good buying guidance, copious tabular data and some good safety articles, so for $5.99 we're going with a buy recommendation. Maybe they'll get the award thing together next year.

$5.99 at a newstand near you