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Solitude Mountain Resort • Hard-packed snow conditions were not ideal for many backcountry products available for testing Wednesday at Outdoor Retailer's All-Mountain Demo Day.
No matter. Outdoor types know how to adapt to whatever the weather dishes out. And there was reason to take heart. Sometimes gusty winds reinforced predictions that — finally — a big storm was on its way.
"It's been great, a little busier than we expected," Solitude spokesman Nick Como said of the Outdoor Retailer crowd that filled most of the resort's lower parking lot by midmorning. "With snow in the forecast, people are psyched to come out and try new gear."
Five dozen companies and organizations had booths at Demo Day, the traditional prelude to the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market trade show, which opens Thursday and runs through Sunday at the Salt Palace Convention Center. More than 21,000 participants are expected, a record.
Exhibitors offered retail buyers and testers a chance to try products that will hit the market next winter — everything from telemark bindings, snowboards and backcountry stoves to earphones, sunscreens and energy-inducing snacks and drinks.
As usual, Holladay-based Black Diamond Equipment attracted considerable interest. Its introduction of nine new models of touring skis shared the spotlight with easier-to-use climbing skins.
"It's witchcraft, it really is," joked Thomas Laakso, Black Diamond's ski category director, describing the technology of the skins, which are rugged enough to grip the snow on steep climbs but flexible enough to lay down for smooth gliding.
And when it comes time to shed the skins for a downhill run, a glue developed by Black Diamond makes it easier to separate the skin from the ski.
"You don't have to blow out a shoulder pulling it apart," Laakso said.
At the booth of Ogden-based Goode, the assets of backcountry skis built with carbon composite technology were being hailed by Kirk Langford, vice president of global marketing and sales.
"They have more edge grip and power because carbon composites are so much stronger," he said. Skis range from broad-based Pyramids, named after a popular backcountry skiing area outside of Snowbasin, to a narrower all-around ski dubbed Wasatch.
"It's pretty cool to have that name on it," Langford said.
Next door at Kahuna Creations, also from Ogden, marketing manager Cory McBride showed off the latest rendition of the company's "Big Stick."
Originally built to enhance the maneuverability of longboard riders, the 6-foot-long stick has been adapted for use in snow. A rubber end with seven teeth arranged like a gear "grips the snow so you're able to paddle on the snowboard," McBride said, noting it works well slogging through flats as well as carving turns on steeper slopes.
"I was shocked how well they worked," he added. "Paddle, paddle, lean back, carve. It's pretty rad."
New to this year's show is the Marquette Backcountry Ski, which owner-creator David Ollila called a cross between a ski and a snowshoe.
Short, squat and available only in black — "it's the Henry Ford model of skis," Ollila said — he touted the model as ideal for traversing hilly country, where it's inconvenient to repeatedly put on or take off skins.
"This is a perfect fit for [Demo Day]," he said. "Word of mouth is important to us. But getting people on this ski is really important because it's so different."
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Outdoor Retailer
Although not open to the public, the winter market trade show is expected to draw 21,000 industry representatives to the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center.