OP Pad Magazine Awards

Just had the news in from Rob our agent in Benelux that we scooped a Bronze award at last nights Annual OP Magazine Awards in the catergory of 'Sleeping bags and Mats' with our Titan 450 Sleeping bag.

Rob collecting the award - 4th from the left

The Titan 450

Designed to appeal to backpackers and mountaineers who appreciate the solid value and reliability our core bags provide, the Titan 450 offers improved thermal efficiency and more warmth for less weight and bulk.
A new anatomically profiled shell has been matched to our previously patented EXL® technology to give a bag that mirrors the profile of your body more closely without being restrictive. It uniquely provides
a bag designed to fit as well as your favourite clothing with a corresponding improvement in performance to match.

The Titan 450 is a bag that will warm up faster, retain heat better and for longer. In short it will more effectively do what any sleeping bag should, keep you warm and comfortable. The Titan 450 is filled with some of the best Duck Down we can find. Our pure 85/15 duck down not only gives fantastic loft with a minimum fill power of 625 but it remains resilient after compression and is ecologically and ethically sound. It is sourced through our ground breaking Down Codex project, the industry’s first complete audit of the down supply chain. In conjunction with the IDFL and our suppliers we ensure that all down is sourced with no live plucking or harvesting, high standards of animal welfare and solvent free processing. It has been independently verified that there is no live plucking or force feeding and that all birds are slaughtered humanely after living freely outdoors. Our duck down is a natural by-product of birds reared for egg production. As a consequence the down comes from birds that live for longer, producing better, more resilient down, even than that which comes from young geese. For the first time you can sleep with guaranteed piece of mind as well as in comfort.

Technically the Titan 450 is engineered using box wall baffles, ensuring the down is stable and can loft more effectively without unnecessary weight whilst the shell incorporates a revised anatomical hood. Ergonomically formed and with an integrated HALO baffle to reduce heat loss from the head, it is comfortable in a wide range of conditions with and without the use of the adjustable drawcord cinch. Used inconjunction with the offset 3-dimensional neck collar and these bags can be taken to the very limits of their performance offset.Check out more information on our Titan Range of bags here

Golden Piton Award for Dave

Congratulations to ME Pro partner Dave MacLeod on winning The Golden Piton Award 2012 for Traditional Climbing with The Long Hope Route Direct (E11/5.14a R/X) St Johns Head, Orkney, Scotland.

You can read more information about the 10th Annual Climbing Magazine Golden Piton Awards here   

Nick Estcourt Award 2011

Congratulations to Mountain Equipment Pro Partner Andy Houseman and fellow climber Nick Bullock on being awarded this years Nick Estcourt Award. The Grant of £1500 has been awarded for their planned "2011 British Kyashar Expedition" - to make the first ascent, alpine-style, of the ~2000m South Pillar of Kyashar (6769m).

Andy made a trip to Kyashar back in October'10 with fellow climber Tony Stone some pictures of which you can see below

All photos: Tony Stone

We'll have more information on the expedtion as its approaches later this year.

Entries for 2012 Nick Estcourt are now being excepted - closing date is 31st Dec'11, you can find out all the details here - www.nickestcourtaward.org

The Piolets d'Or 2010

Congratulations to Mountain Equipment Pro partner Andy Houseman and Nick Bullock on making it to the last 5 for the much coveted Piolets d'Or award 2010, for their first acsent of the North Face of Chang Himal, Nepal last November.

Other earlier short list contenders for this years award included ME Pro partner Martin Moran who was part of a British/Indian team who bagged the first ascent of Changuch, India.

The Piolets d’Or event gathers together alpinists from many countries; active participants in the most remarkable ascents of the past year on every summit of the globe. Previous winners include Mountain Equipment Pro Partner Andy Parkin and his ascent of Pass of Hope ,Cerro Torre, Patagonia in 1994.

The winner will be announced on the 10th April'10 at the ceremony held in Chamonix, France

For more information checkout http://www.pioletsdor.com/

Photos : Houseman/Bullock collection

Not one but TWO awards for Innovation

Well we've just won two OutDoor innovation awards at the 2009 OutDoor trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany. What's more we won these awards in two entirely different product categories - for sleeping bags and clothing, something which really highlights our strength across all areas of our product line.

The Earthrise® II sleeping bag, the world's first sleeping bag to be part of the Eco-Circle® programme. Some people may think that we do make much of a deal over Eco-friendly products, but we are trying to do what we can, where we can and a sleeping bag seemed the most logical place to start.

Earthrise II Sleeping Bag

Nearly all recyled and recyclable, in fact other than the tiny zip-head puller, drawcord and shockcord there is nothing which cannot be recycled. To put that in perspective, by weight that is less than half a percent of this bag. And with the shell, lining, insulation and side-zip all being fully recycled to begin this bags drain on finite natural resources is minimal as well as using less energy and having a lower C02 output than if we had used a virgin material. It won in the category of ' Products of High Ecological and Sustainable Value'. It will be available from Spring 2010.

The second award was for our Shield Jacket, the next step for us in terms of lightweight, versatile softshell insulation and protection. And the best news? It will be in the shops in around 6 weeks time!

Shield Jacket - Shown in Black / Citronelle Zips colourway

The Shield Jacket uses a hybrid fabric construction, combining a new lighter version of GORE® WINDSTOPPER® as well as POLARTEC® Powershield®. Other than that what makes this jacket special? Well it uses a combination of seam sewing methods to improve mobility and fit, the hood (which is designed to accomodate a helmet) has a water resistant lining to prevent the hood absorbing moisture from spindrift and drizzle when worn down and it has an anti-wick hem lining, again to allow this product to perform better as a shell.

It won in the 'Apparel' category, will cost around £200 in the UK and is available for this winter.