New Years on Pender Island

I usually don't do too much for New Year's but this year was super fun. Kim and I rented a house with several other friends on North Pender Island for four days up until New Year's day. Our plan was to kayak over so we loaded our gear up and set out from the Swartz Bay ferry terminal area. However, once we hit the crossing to Portland Island, the wind was foul, there were white caps everywhere and the forecast was for gale force winds in several hours. We had checked out the weather but figured we'd still have enough time to make it across before the weather got too bad. Since we were both just not having fun and didn't want to encounter and serious problems, we quickly decided to turn around, load up, return home, swap our paddle gear for bike gear, and make it back to catch the Pender ferry. It was a bit of a rush but we managed to catch it with no problems. On the ferry ride over, the winds had actually dimished substantially but we were still both happy that we made the decision as it could have really turned nasty. On the coast, you really can't take chances when it comes to the water.

After arriving at the house, we were in for a weekend of fun.

Disc Golf!

Pender has one of the best disc golf courses out there with 27 holes, technical terrain and lots of trees and obstacles. Beer on the course wasn't mandatory but preferred by most players. The player with the worst tee shot also had to down some fireball. Good stuff.

Sailing in Swanson Channel

A bunch of us went for a nice sail to drop off a friend in Swartz Bay. The wind was blowing through Swanson Channel allowing for some good upwind speed with minor jibes and tacks. The return sailing allowed us to put out the spinnaker and cruise at a solid 8 knots. Was a good time.

When I wasn't drinking, playing disc golf or rocking out on some guitar hero 3, I was out running. I got in two solid runs with the second one covering a good 25km over both North and South Pender Island. The highlight was definitely Mount Norman Park as the view from the top of the grind was great and the singletrack down the backside was well worth the climb. There was another trail that I hit up called the William-Wallace trail (I'm pretty sure it was this but maybe I got Braveheart in my head for some reason). Anyway, this trail was sweet. Nice twisty singletrack with a good amount of elevation. Well worth it.

My Reward - View from Mount Norman

For New Year's Eve, Pender Island held a Latern Festival that was filled with fire twirlers, giant puppets, some shows, a kayak ballet, and lots of characters on tall stilts. It was a neat event.

Pender New Year's Latern Festival

The 'Old Year' Puppet

This last puppet symbolized the old year. He walked out to a dock on the water which was released to float away from the shore. As this happened, paper latern 'balloons' were released into the air and ascended into the sky. The old year was over and 2008 had begun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

TNO

Day of Four Peaks

Ok, theses weren't huge peaks but a fun day nonetheless. It was Christmas Eve day and Kim and I wanted to get in some good hiking. We didn't have a plan but ended up moving from peak to peak and covering some good ground. We started with Mount Douglas, headed to the Observatory hill (which I had never gone up before), Lone Tree Hill, and finished with Jocelyn Peak in Gowland Tod Provincial Park overlooking Finlayson Arm. What a gorgeous day too; Christmas Eve day and almost could have been in shorts.

View from Lone Tree Hill - Mount Doug centre with Observatory Hill to the left

Gowland Tod Trail - Mount Finlayson in Background

Jocelyn Peak - Malahat in Background

Joceyln Peak - Looking Down Finlayson Arm

If you've never been to Gowland Tod Park, I would highly recommend it.

Cheers,

TNO

Party Time!

Whew! It's been awhile since I last gave an update as I've been too busy having fun over the holidays, new years and into 2008. Here's some updates.


Kim and I held a Christmas party just before the actual 'Christmas' and had a number of friends and co-workers over to celebrate. Lots of good food went around and we had tons of fun playing recycled secret santa, charades, and the infamous 'box' game. I'm not sure what the last game is officially called but here's how it works. There's a present that's wrapped in several boxes and wrapping paper. Everyone gets in a big circle and a pair of dice is rolled in a clockwise direction around the group (we used large foam block dice). Whoever rolls a double gets to put on a santa hat, put on some oven mitts, and try to hack, stab, and unwrap their way into the present using only prescribed tools; we used a bike pedal wrench and some flip-grip pliers although some other favourites are barbaque utensils or a pizza cutter. Basically, the cruder the tools the better and the person cannot use their hands in any other way (ie: they can't hold the box with one hand). While the person is hacking away, the dice are continually rolled by the group and the next person to get doubles gets to take over. Sometimes you get to really work at the present while othertimes a double is rolled very soon after and you lose your turn before you even start. It's a pretty fun game and brings a lot of energy to the group. The person who gets at the gift first gets to keep it.

Mike Sanborn - Winner of the 'box' game

RAID THE NORTH EXTREME Coming to Global!

Canada's premiere wilderness expedition adventure race, Raid the North Extreme, arrives in an unusually urban location this January - your television set!

The one-hour High-Definition feature broadcast will air on Global TV across Canada on Saturday, January 12 at 9 p.m!!!

This six-day, non-stop, 500+km expedition race features coed teams of four from around the globe facing the challenges of nature, team dynamics, sleep deprivation, and gear failures as they bike, trek, paddle, portage and navigate the wilderness around BC's North Coast - Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii. Nearly thirty teams of four from across North America, and from as far as Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, blew away their physical and emotional limits during Raid the North Extreme.

As Gary Robbins of Squamish-based Team Helly Hansen/MOMAR said after the race, "Raid The North Extreme is a genuine expedition style race and they practice exactly what they preach: Real Wilderness, Real Navigation, Real Freakin' Tough...OK I made that one up, Real Adventure".

Canada's top adventure race organizers, Frontier Adventure Racing, in partnership with ATV Productions of Vancouver, had a vision to take adventure racing to new heights on Canadian television. Using boat, ferry, helicopter and aircraft support, along with caffeine and bug nets, film crews captured the action, the drama and the emotions as teams traversed the incredibly rugged northern BC terrain.

This broadcast is a first in Canada. Never before has the mystique, intensity and human drama of this incredible sport reached Canadian homes on a national network in prime time. Following the Canadian broadcast, the show will air in the US on PBS, will be seen on menTV and the Extreme Channel, and will be available for purchase on DVD and on iTunes.

Here's your opportunity to share your passion for adventure racing. It'll be a cold dark night in January - what better time for friends, food, drinks and some great adventure on TV?

It's surprisingly easy to organize a full-on pub night screening. Call up a few sports pubs with good AV equipment (a big screen, or tv's throughout the place), and ask what they can offer if you can bring 30-40 people there to watch a sporting event. Most will offer up free apps and a drink per person at the very least. Make a call to your local sports/outdoor store and offer a partnership for some prizes - they'll promote the event for you, too. Send out invites to everyone you know, post the event on Facebook or evite - then just show up and have the pub turn on Global that night. Parties at home are just as good, but more work. Or if you have money to burn, rent a hall or auditorium and make an event of it!
We'll help you make it happen. Just let us know about your party plan, and we'll send you tips, a poster, and an "RTNX Party Package" with prizing and an RTNX 2007 Buff.
Let's get all of Canada watching Adventure Racing on TV, and create a new wave of excitement about AR for 2008!

Check out the RTNX Facebook group for news about parties near you.

TNO

Stratford Visit

Man I miss the snow.

While I have been in Victoria for over three years now, I still have a strong attachment to my former home in Stratford, Ontario. People like to complain about the snow since it slows down the business machine and it doesn't let you drive as fast but if you know how to enjoy it, it's pretty awesome. Living in Victoria can be hard at times since we basically have two seasons: raining and not raining; while it's never really cold in the winter, it's never really hot in the summer. The contrast is so little compared to the cold -30 days in the winter and the super hot and humid summers of Ontario.

Fortunately for me, we got a good snowfall in Victoria two weekends ago but I spent much of it driving to and from Seattle to partake in the BEAST race. So, I booked a plane ticket and was exited to visit my family back in Stratford and enjoy the crisp cold air and the good ol white stuff hung on the trees.

I brought my running gear and was determined to wonder through the back streets of Stratford in search of old memories.

The weather was perfect for snow; about -3 to -5 degrees and about 4 inches of snow. I went on two ~15km runs with the highlights being the lake run, queens park, and of course, the beautiful cemetary and old grove park.

I had the trails to myself as most people in town don't go out much once the snow hits. The differences in people's lifestyles at home versus the west coast is evident. If I was in the greater Vancouver area, there would be lots of people out enjoying the snow whether it be cross country skiing or running (no mountains to climb in Stratford :) ).

Instead, the only people I saw looked at me with a crooked grin and asked if it isn't just a bit too cold to be out running.

They don't know what they're missing :)

Check out these photos I took from the plane.

Mount Baker in the Clouds

An Ocean of Clouds

Alberta Badlands

Vancouver

Howe Sound

Fall BEAST Videos

Here's a of video of the crazy weather we experienced on the way down to Seattle and one video during the race. For some reason, the downloaded video is much darker than the original. I'll have to figure this out for the future. Enjoy.



Snowstorm!




Running to the finish with one control left to go.

Fall BEAST

We survived!
That's right, we survived the Fall Beast. I say survived because it was one of the harshest racing weekends I've yet had to endure. I talk here of not only the race itself but the drive to and from the race. It just so happened that a winter storm decided to show its head and start puking huge flakes of snow on the way down to Seattle.

After a windy crossing on the BC Ferries boat, I arrived late at the Tsawwassen terminal where Gary was waiting for me. We loaded my gear quickly and were off in blowing snow conditions. It didn't take us long to discuss whether or not the race was even going to be held if the snow continued. We budgeted for a least a 1/2 hour at the boarder crossing but were not going to be suprised if we had to wait for several hours; this has been due lately to the savings-crazed Canadian shoppers tring to save a buck in the US (by spending an entire day of their lives driving and spending money on gas!). I wasn't too concerned but Gary has an issue with not getting aggressive back to the US boarder guards whose job it is to make you feel like shit. So, with a plan to just be calm and be non-reactive we pulled up to the booth with no line-ups.

"Where do you live?"
"Squamish and Victoria"
"What do you do for a living"
"I manage an Athletic store"
"I do consulting work"
"Where are you going?"
"We're doing a race down in the Seattle area"

At this point he looks at the bikes on the car as it's puking snow and freezing cold, looks at us, smirks, and says
"Have a nice time" as he hands back our passports.

Whether the boarder guards were just too reluctant to get out of their booths or not, in less than five minutes, we were across the boarder and back on the road. Gary couldn't believe it. Maybe my calm demeaner is rubbing off on him :)

The weather from here was just constantly changing. At one point, it was snowing hard, the road was full of snow, and the lanes went from four to kind of three to basically wherever you wanted since you could no longer tell where the lanes were supposed to be. We counted no less than 10 vehicles in ditches and several more that simply pulled off the road and gave up. Luckily for me (who's from Ontario and who knows how to drive in a multitude of conditions), it was great to have someone at the wheel who I was confortable with (Gary is a skilled winter driver who comes from the far reaches of a place called Newfoundland). Unluckily for both of us, we were surrounded by complete winter newbies who were out to kill us. We went from travelling about 50km/h in these conditions to suddenly going into rain and no snow at 120km/h in under 5 minutes. The weather was all over the place.

After a few wrong turns and a trip to the 'Supermall', we made our way to Colin and Connies' place right close to the race site. I had sent out a quick e-mail to Eric Bone (the race director) about a place to stay and within a couple of hours, had a place all lined up. We had briefly met Colin and Connie at the Squamish MOMAR during our Baja presentation but didn't know it was them until we arrived. They set us up for the night after hanging out and partaking in some good dark beers. We couldn't have been happier and were flattered by their generosity.

Gary, me, Connie and Colin

It wasn't much of a surprise at this point that the rain turned to snow and the race area was covered in inches of the white stuff by morning. We weren't even sure if the race was going to go ahead but we still prepared like it was and headed to the race start.

It started to rain.
At this point, I think both of us were hoping that it WOULD be cancelled so that we wouldn't have to go out into the wet and snowy conditions. Gary, who is sensitive to the cold, was not looking very anxious. Fortunately for us, lots of other crazy adventure racers had showed up and quickly changed our minds into thinking that going out into slushy snow and rain to do a race was a completely normal and ok thing to do. The race was definitely a go. Team Dart/Nuun members Ryan Van Gorder and Aaron Rinn came out as part of a teaching type position for newer teams. I think this is a great idea and way to help teach new adventure racers and hopefully rub off some of their years of experience to them.

Eric Bone - BEAST Race Director

I should note that the Fall Beast isn't really a big competitive race, so Gary and I really treated it as a good training session and a wake-up call to get on the training program. It was definitely a hard cold weather training session.

The course was comprised of two back to back mountain biking legs (with a check-in at race headquarters after each leg) and then an orienteering foot course. In order to prevent bike congestion at the start of the course, Eric had us run a small loop to stretch out the teams. We hit the bikes in first and pretty much kept this spot for the entire race. We were both pretty cold at first but quickly warmed up. Ok, most of us warmed up but eventually our extremities (particularly our feet) became blocks of ice attached to our pedals that we could transer energy through. We both had our Helly Hansen waterproof jackets, which worked awesome in the conditions, but Gary didn't bring a shell pant which enabled the blocks of ice on his feet to move up to his knees similar to the freeze over in the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' except in slow motion.

We hit the second mountain bike section and actually started to have some fun in a good singletrack section of the course. It was challenging to ride everything with the conditions how they were and we also had to fight through vegetation that was bogged down over the trail from the snow fall. We were essentially clearing the trail for the rest of the racers.

Once we entered the transition and put on the running shoes, I knew that the next 45 minutes on the feet was going to be painful. Running out onto the orienteering course, we both couldn't feel our feet and I ended up slipping several times on the snow due to having no foot awareness. Some early bushwacking warmed us up and after a few more checkpoints, I could finally feel most of my toes. We got all the checkpoints without issue and made it to the finish line happy but cold, extremely wet and with a unstoppable desire to get into dry clothes as soon as possible. It was great to see Colin's team come in as the first co-ed team (2nd overall) and it was great to see so many people come out in such unfavorable conditions and push themselves.

After some quick goodbyes, we were back on the road heading north to Canuck land. As we drove off, we were passing some of the course that we had just been on and all the snow had melted already. Basically, the race was held in the worse possible conditions and once over, everything was simply just wet.

Soaked and Frozen

We faced pouring rain and hydroplaning on the way home, had a quick stop for some Mexican food in Bellingham, and hit the boarder with a longer but equally uneventful crossing. In typical Canadian fashion, as soon as we hit the boarder, the snow had returned in full; it couldn't have been a better sterotype.

Thanks again to Colin and Connie for their hospitality and to Eric Bone and the Team Mergeo.com members who helped make another Fall Beast a success.
Also, a big no thanks to whoever made the BC Ferries bomb threat and screwed up the schedule so that I was an hour later in getting home.

TNO

Fall Beast This Weekend!

So, it's almost winter, the snow is starting to come down into the valleys and there isn't too much going on in terms of off season races. Well, if you want to get off your ass and hit up an awesome race this weekend, you can!

The Fall Beast runs this coming Sunday December 2nd and takes place just south of Seattle Washington. Because the race is on Sunday morning, you can travel down on Saturday, race Sunday morning, and then make the return trip all in the weekend without taking off a work day. The event is put on by Eric Bone and the crew of Team Mergeo.com members.
Check out their website at http://www.beastrace.com/
For a mere $60 US (that's only $59.74 CA) you can sign up and have a blast.

The race length is similar to a MOMAR with a time ranging from 4 to 7 hours. Disciplines include running, bushwacking and mountain biking. Of course, there will be lots of navigation with little or no marked sections of the course. There is no kayak stage in the race.

So, if you want to get on the ball and get in some practice before the 2008 MOMARs, this is the race to do. Hope to see you there!

Doug Doyle is The Master!

Sometimes I think that I'd better get training hard and doing all the big races now because once I hit the mid thirty's, it's all going to be downhill from there. While I don't mean that I won't be able to do anything after that point, it's just that I have this feeling that my performance will just start to suffer. Then I went riding with Doug Doyle.

After the Victoria 'Pushing the Limits' presentation on Sunday night, Doug and I decided to take the afternoon off work and hook up with Gary Robbins before he headed back to Squamish for some good old mountain biking. I didn't have any particular route planned out but was able to show both of them lots of new trails that they had never ridden before. Lots of sweet singletrack was had by all. It was a pretty cold start but once we got the blood flowing, everything was good. With a pace that made me wonder if we were racing at times, I ended up taking a small bail that seemed like nothing at the time but made me stop and catch my breath minutes later to slow down the adrenaline. It wasn't until I arrived home and took off my tights that I found some deep chainring gouges in my right calf. This was far from stopping our ride though.

Several more climbs and flowing technical trails later, the rain picked up and turned to snow on the mountain. It was pretty special riding some of the best trails Vic has to offer with some big chunky flakes falling. As we decended, the snow turned to rain and soon enough, we wound up at the main Hartland parking lot with two hours of solid riding behind us.

After some quick "I'm freezing... gotta go" goodbyes, we parted ways and Gary and I loaded the bikes and headed down the mountain.

"Man, Doug's super fast eh? I mean, he was with us the whole time"

"Yeah, Doug is super impressive. He must be almost 50 by now. I only hope that I'm as good as he is when I reach that age."

"Yeah, when I grow up, I want to be as fast as Doug" :)

A BIG THANKS

Thank you to everyone who came out and attended the 'Pushing the Limits' presentation put on by Gary Robbins and myself. It was really nice to revisit the big races of the season and try to inspire others to either get out and do some bigger races, or to simply follow their own passions whatever that may be. Thanks to everyone as well for the great feedback on the show that will allow us to put on an even bigger and better show in the future. A big thanks to Marc Campbell of Helly Hansen and to Bryan Tasaka of Mind Over Mountain Event Co (MOMEC) with whom the shows could not have been possible. A big thanks to all our sponsors as well for letting us use some of the best gear around: Helly Hansen, Nuun, Princeton Tec, Carbo-Pro and Kinesys.
Looking forward to 2008!!!

Paddle to D'Arcy Island

Last Sunday, Kim and I decided that it was time to get out for a nice relaxing paddle. We stayed up pretty late the night before and slept in so we were both eager to get out of the house and into the gorgeous day that was unfolding. It was still a little cool out but the sky was blue with some wispy clouds. We packed the boats and headed down to our put-in on Cordova Bay.

The water was glass.

We would do a small 7km paddle out to D'Arcy Island, relax and explore, and paddle back. It was such a relaxing paddle with tons of diving ducks, harlequins and bald eagles to be heard and seen.

D'Arcy Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve and has seven campsites with limited facilities. It was once a leper colony from 1894 to 1924 and the remains of buildings and farming areas can still be seen. It is a pretty neat little island with beautiful coves, large Arbutus stands, and lots of wildlife. There is a little trail that runs most of the islands circumference and allows for a nice run or stroll. While the west side is mostly bedrock, the island does offer some gravel and smooth cobble beaches with lots of weathered driftwood.

The only other people at the island were a couple on their pleasure craft anchored in a bay leisurely reading on their deck. It was a nice day.

Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR Multimedia Presentation

* CLICK ON AD TO ENLARGE *

Mind Over Mountain is proud to sponsor Pushing the Limits -- a multimedia slide show featuring Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR's adventure filled year of expedition racing.
Join us as team captain, Gary Robbins, and navigator, Todd Nowack, takes on a compelling journey through the Baja, Queen Charlotte Islands, and Austrailia.
Show dates are on Wednesday, November 21st, in Vancouver, or on Sunday, November 25th, in Victoria. The Vancovuer show will be held at the new Helly Hansen store and they are offering everyone 15% off everything in the store. Frontrunners (Langford) will be hosting the Victoria show -- Mark and Nick will be offering everyone 20% off so come ready to buy some new shoes.
We'll be going to the pub after for drinks so plan on staying out a bit later for a casual beer and more good times.

Admission is by donation with all proceeds go to the Team's racing funds for 2008. Please book your seat by simply emailing info@mindovermountain.com or by calling 604.999.3331. Please spread the word!

Gear Review - Montrail Hardrocks

Product Features and Impressions:
The Hardrocks are probably the first real full off-trail shoe I have ever tried. I say off-trail as that's what they really excel at. While there are barely any shoes that I would really call 'off-trail', these shoes definitely fit the bill. These shoes are stiff, have great lateral support, have tough uppers, and have protection plates in the midsole. While all of these features come with the cost of increased weight, it is well worth it when travelling off the beaten path. These are absoutely bomber shoes. Sharp rocks? Don't even think twice about powering through them in these babies.

While I really like these shoes, I find the fit is a little off for me. I have a long, standard width foot with a pronounced heel. So, I do find there is some heal slip even when I have the shoe tighened up well. This review is for the 2006 grey and red model. Unfortunately, I bought the black and red model (shown above) and this shoe did not work for me. The fit was suddenly way too tight for the same shoe size and I got blisters from the heel plate in the back of the shoe. I have recently switched to the Montrail Continental Divides which I'm absolutely loving. I'll review these once I've logged some good miles on them.

Weaknesses:
Overall, I would have to say none for the intended use other than the fit of the shoe which is very personal. The downside of the shoes durability is you'll want to continue to wear these shoes even after their worn-out as the uppers and soles will still look decent.

Overall Impression:
This is an awesome shoe for anything from off-road ultras, to good hikes through rough terrain. When going to adventure races, rogaines or regular orienteering meets, you'll see a lot of people with these shoes. If you talk to most of them, you'll probably get the same answer; these shoes are the best! These are not for everyone though. Weight weenies no need to apply.

Try not to get the black and red version shown above though. I guess there has been fit problems with this 2007 model. Other 2007 colours seem to be fine though. Go figure.

Gear Reviews

Here's a bunch of older gear reviews on some Helly Hansen and Princeton Tec Gear. I recently figured out how to add labels to my posts and then be able to navigate to them from the link list. Should work well in the long term. The Mars jacket is probably still my favourite :)

TNO

Gear Review - Princeton Tec Yukon Bike Light

Product Features and Impressions:
My first impression of this light was good as the lighting seemed fair and I liked the ability to switch from Xenon to LED lighting. After I installed the light though, I was a concerned with the handlebar mount and the inability to adequately adjust the light bezel.

Weaknesses:
My main issue with this light was the bezel mount and lack of adjustment. Instead of being infinitely adjustable, the bezel only adjusted in large, set increments. As I have a map holder and other items on my handlebars, the light mount had to be installed offset; because of this, I could not set the light to look straight ahead. The beam was either to far to the left or right of centre. Also, the up and down angle was limited and could not be easily adjusted. For the bezel mount, it would be easier if it installed with a quick release.

Overall Impression:
This is a adequate backup bike light which works ok for long climbs but is not bright enough to be comfortable taking on speed in a downhill section. While burn time is decent, the beam is too narrow to see immediate trail features and the bezel movement is too limited.

Gear Review - Princeton Tec Quad Headlamp

Product Features and Impressions:
This was a solid proximity light. While racing, I was only going to use this light as a backup to the APEX but found that it was especially useful as a map reading light during night cycling. A normal high intensity bike light is just too bright for map reading as it creates glare off of the map and causes temporary blindness when looking away. The Quad was easy to attach to my helmet with the supplied helmet mount strap and the bezel tilt always stayed where I wanted it to. Off the bike, I ended up using the QUAD when I ran out of batteries for the APEX and found that it performed just as it should; bright enough for scrambling down rocks and avoiding some nasty cactus thorns. Operation was easy and intuitive even with gloved hands. I even ended up dropping this light out of my pack into a pool of water with no issues. This light rocks!

Weaknesses:
None for the intended use.

Overall Impression:
This is a great proximity and backup headlamp that is durable, easy to use, versatile, and completely waterproof. Great product.

Gear Review - Princeton Tec APEX Headlamp

Product Features and Impressions:
To give context for review, I have never used an LED lighting system that has been able to match the power of a halogen setup. I've tried LED's from other companies but have always found that they did not deliver and left me wanting more light to see the trail or to navigate well through the dark bush. That was until I used the APEX. This light delivers.

The single long range Maxbright LED is impressive and allowed our team to navigate down a steep canyon by spotting out the best route from 50 meters or more away. The light is even and the width is adequate for long range viewing. I was especially impressed with the quad short range Ultrabright LEDs used for proximity lighting. When not navigating up front, I would always switch to the quad setup and was amazed at how well and comfortable I found myself moving through the terrain. I was a little concerned with the weight of the battery pack on my head as I'm fond of battery packs that can be stowed remotely. However, the four AA's never bothered me as the strap set-up held the light firmly in place with little to no movement while moving fast. Lighting operation was easy even with thick leather repelling gloves and I never found the lighting bezel to tilt inadvertently. The light generally withstood continuous abuse and the light had no problems after being submerged during short night-time water crossings.

Weaknesses:
For durability, the main weakness of the light appears to be the small plastic head strap holder on the battery pack which broke off on my team mates light. While the light continued to function with no problems, the battery pack was not held as securely. My main negative feedback would be the burn time of the light. My team found that batteries had to be changed after approximately 4-6 hours of use due to a significant dimming of the light after this time. This is in contrast to the claimed 72 hours of use for the Maxbright High setting. Batteries used by our team included high output single-use alkalines and high output NMHD rechargables with no significant burn time difference being noted.

Overall Impression:
Even with the significantly lower than claimed burn time, I still feel that this is an awesome light that can deliver race after race.

Gear Review - Helly Hansen Zone Jacket

Product Features and Impressions:
My first impression of this jacket was how light it was for a waterproof-breathable and how stylish it is. I have had many comments on how good this jacket looks. It works as it should and is very functional either in the bush or on the street. Durability has been steller.

Weaknesses:
The front zipper close to the collar can get stuck and did not function well intially; this has eased up with use. I also find I get some chaffing on my neck from the zipper even though it has a small fleece chin liner. The underarm zips are not waterproof and use fabric flaps to keep the water out. Some nice waterproof zips would not only make the jacket look better, but would also drop a bit of weight on an already light jacket.

Overall Impression:
This is a great lightweight, durable, waterproof-breathable jacket that is both stylish and fully functional.

Gear Review - Helly Hansen Lifa Base

Product Features and Impressions:
I have been using the Lifa Base layers for a couple of years now and can't say enough for this awesome product. I am a big guy and typically sweat a lot in the heat. These tops allow me to stay drier by keeping the sun off my skin and wick away sweat. I find they work so well that I feel drier and more comfortable compared to any short sleeve top or even wearing nothing at all. I still have people ask me that I must be really hot with a long sleeve on as they sweat in their heavy short sleeve polyester tops. For durability, I use these tops anywhere from a daily commute to full on orienteering and see very little wear. Other than some bike crash scuffs, my tops look virtually new.

Weaknesses:
Like all synthetics, the fabric can get pulls.

Overall Impression:
The Lifa base layer is the best top I have every used. Period. It keeps me drier than anything else, keeps the sun off my upper body, is very light and durable, and fits like a glove. Why would I use anything else?

Gear Review - Helly Hansen Mars Jacket

Product Features and Impressions:
I had some reservations about taking one of the world's lightest jacket into the one of the world's most thorny environments in Baja, Mexico. For durability, this was the ultimate test. The result? No tears, rips or abrasions of any kind. Was I ever impressed!

I have used this jacket extensively on my daily running and cycling commutes along with some long training sessions and have been continually impressed by the amount of warmth that the thin fabric provides. This jacket does not insulate; if you put your arm on something cold, you will feel it like you don't have anything on at all. What it does do though is cut the wind and traps air so that you stay warmer. Because the fabric doesn't really breathe, it does wet-out especially if your doing high output activities. For long endurance exercise though, this jacket is the shit. This jacket is so light and small that when I go on rides, I can pack it in my little frame mounted beno box along with several bars! When I need it, it's there. One feature that would make this product even better would be a small underarm zip to allow airflow through; this would be especially useful on the bike since your jacket becomes a sail if you unzip the front at all. This would add a small amount of extra weight to the jacket but it would be worth it.

Weaknesses:
Not very breathable. I would say durable but the thing still looks brand new.

Overall Impression:
This jacket is easily one of my favourite pieces of clothing. I bring this thing everywhere now. It's so light and small, I don't even know it's there. Awesome product.