I was reading some old articles on snowbliss.com and came across these two interesting products: RibCap and Psolar BX Balaclava.

RibCap is a piece of headgear; it’s soft and wears comfortably but could act as a helmet. RibCap uses a special material called d3o which consists of free-moving molecules: when your body moves slowly, they move with you, and therefore you should feel the material soft and flexible. However, when d3o encounters impact, the molecules lock together to absorb the shock.

I am intrigued by this product since I am still looking for a ski helmet. Although the testimony snowbliss.com quotes lowers my doubt, I think I’ll stick with traditional hard-shell ones for now after reading the disclaimer from the official website of RibCap: “The ribcap doesn’t offer a complete head protection and doesn’t comply with any standards established for protective headgear like helmets.”

Psolar BX Balaclava and other Psolar products use a heat exchange module called QXtec®. This module warms up the cold air you inhale by forcing a phase change from vapor to liquid, and it could raise the temperature of the air from the freezing point up to over 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here is a quote from their website describing how QXtex works: “a QXtec module that is made of desiccant coated plastic. The desiccant grabs the moisture from the air, forcing a phase change from vapor to liquid. This phase change releases heat that is added to the natural heat of exhalation, warming the plastic. This warmth is transferred to the air as it is inhaled.”