Winter

As winter continues its icy grip on the northern reaches of the planet, cabin fever may cause some of us to rethink our policy of staying indoors until spring. If you don’t live near the mountains, however, many of the winter outdoor activities available to you might seem kind of ... tame. Some people buy snowmobiles, although such vehicles require a truck or trailer for transportation, can be expensive, and are generally “more machine” than a lot of people want. Such individuals might instead be interested in the Skizee – a powered tread that pushes skiers across the snow at speeds of up to 35 kph (22 mph). Read More

For powder hounds looking for a convenient way to keep track of the best runs down the mountain winter sports accessories manufacturer Zanier has announced the X-Plore.XGX – the first glove with full GPS functionality. Aside from making sure skiers won’t lose that gnarly stash of powder or get lost, the GPS enabled gloves also record altitude, speed, distance, duration and other route data for upload to the web once back at the ski lodge. 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

Winter sports offer all manner of exhilarating and exhausting possibilities - from negotiating seriously difficult trails, to mountain trekking or adrenaline-producing snowmobiling. But what if your boots aren’t up to the job, and you have to confess to your fellow hikers that you can’t go on because your feet are too cold? Enter Columbia’s Bugaboot Thermo Hiking Boots - the first hiking boots to integrate a three-temperature heating system to provide protection from the cold…and scornful looks from your hiking buddies. Read More

This looks like serious winter fun. What if you could ride your high-performance, lightweight dirtbike in the snow? Imagine throwing huge snowy rooster tails, wheelieing across snow-covered fields, carving corners through the powder and cranking your bike down to elbow-dragging lean angles - all the while knowing that if you overcook it, you'll fall into a nice soft pile of the white fluffy stuff. The US$4250 2moto snowbike kit is a bolt-on mod that takes about 2 hours to fit to a range of common dirtbikes. In place of the front wheel, you get a tough, flexible ski on the end of your forks. At the rear end, you swap your swingarm, wheel and suspension out for a thin paddle track drive unit - and voila! You've got half a snowmobile, except it leans over in the turns and looks like a helluva lot more fun. Read More