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.”




2006-05-12 at 10.34 pm
真是有趣的產品,符合”一物多用”的原則。我朋友大部份都是掛LED的小營燈。我的習慣是天黑前多熟悉附近的地形及地貌,儘量待在看得到營火或營燈的位置。
有很多女孩子常常會走到較複雜的地方或草堆中上廁所,結果一起身就看不到來的路及方向。教官有教一個方法就是,上廁所前,把登山杖指著回去的方向。這樣回去時,順著登山杖的方向走就好了。畢竟不是每個人都會帶指北針的
2006-05-15 at 10.51 am
我個人是屬於「不生營火」派的,所以恐怕還是要靠營燈或是指北針。
你說的「複雜的地方」上廁所,還蠻含蓄的,基本上,如果我半夜起來上廁所,我也不會跑太遠,反正那麼暗,誰真的看得到我呢?