Gear Junkie Crew Back Home from Utah, OR Show, Mountain Climb

It’s been a big week at GearJunkie.com. Our crew was out in force at the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City, where we demo’d gear, hung out with our “Most Durable Person” contest winner, put out two reports — “OR Show Gear, Part I” and “OR Show Gear, Part II” — and played a heck of a night of media softball at a full-fledge minor league stadium (our team crushed to win four games in a row!).

Today, we’re rounding up the best of what we glimpsed at the OR Show, and soon we’ll crown our 2011 “Best in Show” winners. But first, a bit of recovery and unpacking here. The GJ crew, after the intensity of the trade show, escaped for two days this weekend to climb King’s Peak, the highest point in Utah at 13,528 feet. A 28+ mile hike, several thousand feet of elevation gain, a scree-chute climb (we took a unique route to the top), and a long hike down at night — which included the sighting of two mountain lions in headlamp beams with glowing eyes! — were all a part of the adventure. We’ll report back soon about the climb as well as the best new gear from the Outdoor Retailer trade show floor.

—Stephen Regenold