Mountain

With a growing focus on powder and backcountry riding, some of the snowboard designs that have come out over the past few seasons look more like original designs from the 60s and 70s than modern day equipment. They have swallowtails, pointy noses and odd profiles. Some - like the Rome Hammerhead - just look downright strange and otherworldly. With the launch of its new experimental division known as Shape Shack, Colorado-based Venture Snowboards plans to take this trend a step further in designing all kinds of Franken-boards. It may just come up with odd yet functional board designs that big companies just aren't developing. Read More

The Romantik Hotel Muottas Muragl located in Switzerland has recently been awarded the highly-coveted Swiss Solar Award 2011, Milestone 2011 Tourism Award and the PlusEnergieBau (PEB) Solar Award 2011, the only prize in the world for buildings that generate more energy than they consume. The 104-year old Berghotel underwent extensive renovations during 2010 to transform it into an environmental-friendly location, giving rise to the first plus-energy hotel in the Alps. The hotel's recent success demonstrates that luxury accommodation can be implemented within the framework of a plus-energy building concept even at 2,456 meters (8,058 ft) above sea level. Read More

Zipping down the side of a mountain on a downhill mountain bike can be incredibly fun, but getting the bike up there ... well, you can pedal the 40 to 50-pound thing to the top yourself, pay to use a zero-exercise chair lift, or add to your bike's weight with an electric-assist motor. In an approach we've seen before in the form of the Mountain Monk, German gear company ORTOVOX is offering another way to get to the summit and back down again. It's called the Mountainskyver TRAIL, and it's a folding downhill scooter(?) that a hiker carries to the mountaintop in an included custom backpack, then quickly assembles and rides back down. Read More

Sledding can be a lot of fun, but pulling your toboggan, inner tube or sled back up the hill ... well, that isn’t part of the fun. Yes, it definitely is good exercise, but it’s not fun. While the rest of us just quietly resign ourselves to the long climb back up, however, Pennsylvania’s Josh Smith did something about it – he built his own powered sled-and-rider-towing winch. Read More

While electric commuting bikes are currently experiencing a surge in popularity, electric mountain bikes such as the Conway E-Rider and the KTM eGnition are also showing up on tradeshow floors with increasing frequency. Most of these are designed as cross-country and/or trail bikes, with the idea that the motor can extend their range above the reaches of pure human power – of course, they might also appeal to couch potatoes who want all the fun of mountain biking, with a minimum of the exercise. The EGO-Kit, however, is an electric motor that can be added onto an existing downhill mountain bike, with the specific purpose of replacing a chair lift for getting bike and rider to the top of the mountain. Read More

The Austrian KTM eGnition was definitely one of the more interesting bicycles at last week's Eurobike show in Germany. It has the frame and components of a freeride mountain bike, but with a 1,000-watt Clean Mobile electric motor that delivers extra power when the rider is pedaling. The fact that the electric assist is only available when pedaling was a key factor in the design of the eGnition, as KTM wanted it to be clearly different than an electric motorbike. The folks who run Eurobike obviously approved, as it received their Design Award for this year’s event. Read More

You may have just read our take on the KTM eGnition freeride bike that was on display at this year’s Eurobike, but it wasn’t the only electric mountain bike in attendance. German bike-maker Conway also used the event to premiere its burly-looking E-Rider. Its motor can generate up to 2,000 watts, which definitely separates it from the commuting ebikes, while its weight is somewhere under 20 kilograms (44 lbs.) – not bad for something with a motor and a battery. Read More

Serious mountain bikers are always looking for a competitive edge. Often, that can mean extracting every ounce of energy from their bodies and their equipment. Danish high-end mountain bike builder Pronghorn has designed a bike frame the company calls its Anti-Power-Loss-System (APLS) where the rear shock absorber is mounted on the top tube. This, says the company, better utilizes the rider’s energy by delivering power more efficiently to the back wheel when the rider needs it - climbing uphill or negotiating technical courses - while performing like a full suspension model on the downslope. Read More

Google has ripped the camera rig off one of its Street View cars and slung it on a snowmobile to bring slope view to Google Maps. Now web skiers will be able to experience some of the runs the world’s best skiers will be racing down when the Winter Olympics kicks off this week. The slope-level imagery complements new aerial imagery of the Vancouver-Whistler area to give sports fans a different perspective of competition venues and courses. Read More