In the business magazine Inc. this week writer Robert Andrew Powell

profiles the Boulder, Colo., company Newton Running, a Gear Junkie[ Top 10 pick in 2007|http://thegearjunkie.com/top-10-gear-of-the-year-awards-2007]. It’s a nice article +(click here: “Keep Running”) +with some background on the innovative business and its unlikely

trajectory to success.

But then I got to page No. 4 where the writer sideswipes the ol’ Gear Junkie here.

The questionable journalism starts in a section of the story where Powell

is looking to play the negative angle on Newton. He glorifies the

innovators for a few hundred words then segues into his own hesitant

experience with the shoes, writing in an ad hoc review that “The

Newtons did not make running any easier, as far as I could tell, but

they didn’t seem to cause damage, either.”

A couple sentences later he continues: +“I noticed that the Gear

Junkie columnist who ranked the Newtons No. 1 in his gear-of-the-year

column said the shoes kept him ‘feeling faster’ in the Twin Cities

Marathon. And then I saw that his finishing time of four hours and 36

minutes was 46 minutes slower than his time in the same race two years

earlier.”+

Powell is right that I ran a slow marathon in

the Newtons last fall. But he did not phone to ask why. Indeed, the

weekend of the marathon I was attempting an endurance feat

of sorts, as I raced in (and won) a 12-hour adventure race on Saturday,

got a couple hours of sleep, then arose early to run the marathon on

Sunday. Blogged on the epic here: http://thegearjunkie.com/12-hour-ar-262-miles

In addition to that oversight, it’s strange logic for Powell to assume or

suggest that the shoes I wore for a particular event would affect my

time so dramatically. A 46-minute difference should have been a red

flag to Powell. Any number of factors might slow you down on a

marathon—an injury, the heat or weather one year versus another, your

health at the time. But your shoe type causing a 46-minute gap? That’s

a stretch.

Anyway, my message to Powell is: Next time call and

get the full story straight. Readers, thanks for listening to my rant.

Signing off now to go take a training run. . . in my Newtons.

Want to win hundreds of dollars worth of clothes from ***** Toad? The

Santa Barbara, Calif., company has launched a competition—the *****

Toad and Instructables “Invent-a-Sport” Contest. From July 10th to

August 10th, contestants can submit their entry by visiting http://www.hornytoad.com and submitting the blueprint to a real or imagined fringe sport or outdoors activities.

As per the company’s promotional material, “there are hundreds of

sports out there with well-defined rules to follow (boring), but *****

Toad and Instructables think rules are made to be broken.”

• Toad and Instructables—the

latter which is a website specializing in “user-created do-it-yourself

projects”—want to see variations on existing sports or complete

originals. So far, entries have included flashlight tag, lawnmower

racing, skateboard sailing, extreme lacrosse, among many others.

Submit your entry with a text description, images and video (optional). Grand prize is a $350 gift card to Hornytoad.com.

I have my own entry to throw in the barrel: Nocturnal Fixie Dog-Joring.

Don’t try this at home, but as of late I’ve been riding my single-speed

fixie bike hooked to my dog (dog-joring) at night. Quite a ride, as

Rodney the 90-pound Weimaraner can gallop at 20mph for almost two miles

dead straight. I let my legs spin on the fixed cranks, trundling down

deserted city streets near my house, following a halo of LED

illumination cast from my handlebar light. Will have to get an image

and post it to the Toad page. See if I can win. . .

In one of my more strange assignments ever, last week I covered a rising form of aerobic workout that takes its cues from erotic dancing. "Strip Fitness," as the class was called, is advertised as a way to "tone your booty, legs, arms and abs with style."

Lighted platforms, poles, folding chairs, suggestive moves and thumping music mix to create a sweat-inducing, heart-rate-raising session that can be a serious aerobic jolt.

“It’s a ton of cardio, your heart rate going up and down through different fat-burning zones,” said one instructor.

Read the complete story here:

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/24475464.html?location_refer=Lifestyle:highlightModules

I wrote about 11-year-old Jordan Romero earlier this year when the grade schooler became the youngest person to stand atop Aconcagua, a 22,841-foot peak in Argentina. Now it looks like the kid has kicked his way up Denali, summiting on June 19.

This summit brings Jordan a step closer to his goal of becoming the youngest person to climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents.

With this climb, Jordan tied the record for the youngest person to summit Denali. Jordan, along with his father, Paul, and stepmother, Karen, both accomplished adventure racers on Team SOLE, needed just seven days to reach the summit of Denali. (It takes many teams two weeks.)

Says Jordan: “The mountain was hard, there were lots of ropes and technical things to think about. There were definitely a few times that I was scared, but I wanted so badly to make it to the summit.”

In July 2006, Jordan began his quest for the Seven Summits as he climbed 19,340-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. In April 2007, Jordan summitted Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia; in July he climbed Mt. Elbrus in Russia; in December, Aconcagua in Argentina.

Jordan’s sights are now set on Antarctica’s 16,000-foot Vinson Massif. He is selling t-shirts on his website, www.jordanromero.com, to raise money for the trip.

Hats off, little man!

Last month Nau Inc., an apparel company based in Portland, Ore., announced that it was closing shop. This was to my disappointment, as the startup had a neat business plan based on sustainability, plus I was a fan of the Nau aesthetic, kind of a futuristic/urban look that took cues from technical outdoors wear.

But today the news is that Horn-y Toad Activewear Inc. has acquired the Nau brand, purchasing the bulk of Nau’s remaining assets and financing a “new Nau” that will launch on August 1.

"We’re thrilled to find a partner who both recognizes and values the unique nature of what we’ve created and is committed to supporting the growth of our business over the long term,” said Ian Yolles, Nau’s head of marketing.

Nau will be treated as a separate company from ***** Toad, but the two will share operational support, sales fulfillment and logistic services.

According to Gordon Seabury, CEO of Horn-y Toad, “We saw in Nau an innovative brand representing the perfect blend of outdoor, urban fashion sensibility with an unwavering commitment to sustainability. It is all about their innovative product, authentic brand and most importantly the talented group behind those attributes.”

The Nau look.

• Toad’s long-term vision, according to Seabury, is to create a family of complimentary brands that can “learn from one another while embodying a do-the-right-thing philosophy.”

Nau’s products will continue to be sold through its website, www.nau.com. The Nau retail stores will not re-open, though the company has plans to sell through other stores around the country, starting with ***** Toad’s Lizard Lounge store in Portland this fall.

Handlebar-mounted map holders are one of those esoteric outdoors items that only complete cartographic nerds and adventure racers can wax silly about. Since I fit both molds—and add orienteering to my topographic confessional as well—the Rotating Map Holder from Adventure Racing Navigation Supplies caught my eye.

Last month, I employed the plastic platform on an adventure race along the St. Croix River in Minnesota, navigating trails and county roads for about 20 miles with relative ease. The 9×9-inch platform did not flex or flap, and the bungee cords held the map in place fine while on the go. The board does add wind drag, though less than I expected.

Made to fit all standard bike handlebar setups, the Rotating Map Holder mounts via a lever-activated clamp. You put in rubber shims to fit it tight against your handlebars. When putting the clamp on my bike, however, I had trouble getting the lever to snap down tight, though the platform stayed stable while I rode.

For reading the map on the ride, the platform rotates 360 degrees, allowing you to spin and orient the map with the lay of the land. This alone is a huge advantage to simply using an over-the-shoulder map case and trying to read a wrongly-oriented road map while riding on a bumpy road.

Indeed, pedaling and navigating has got to be one of the most dangerous parts of adventure racing. Several times while coasting downhill during races—the one time when I finally get a second to stop pedaling and try and peek at the map—I’ve squinted at bouncing details on a page and almost crashed. It’s like driving and talking on a cell phone, though much worse.

The Rotating Map Holder, on the other hand, keeps the map flat and easier to read. It costs $55 and adds just 8 ounces of weight to your bike setup.

While they seem hokey, the dual bungee straps pretty much keep the map in place. I had my map come out and blow off the bike once during my race. This was because I folded it a bit too small, and one side slipped out of a bungee, and the wind caught it, and . . . time to hit the brakes and head back for the page.

One feature that would be nice—and something I plan to add to my Rotating Map Holder—is a small stick-on compass. This way you would not have to check the lanyard around your neck for north before looking down each time at the page.

Anything you can do to make map reading easier (and safer) while riding is a good thing by me.

Price: $55

Company contact: Adventure Racing Navigation Supplies, http://www.arnavsupplies.com

This post details a mountaineering incident last week in which a personal locator beacon (PLB) was employed. One of the involved climbers, Bill Becher, a writer from southern California, had the ACR MicroFix PLB unit in his pack, though he never expected to use it. But while descending from Mt. Gilbert near Bishop, Calif., in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Becher’s friend and climbing partner fell and broke his leg. They were several miles from civilization with no good options. Here’s a quick Q&A with Becher on what they did next.

The Gear Junkie: Describe what led up to your incident.

Becher: We had hiked up out of South Lake on Wednesday and bivyed at 10,800 feet east of Treasure Lakes. We were carrying ice tools, crampons an alpine rack and ice screws and were planning on climbing the ice couloir at Mt. Gilbert. We crossed snow and granite slabs called “The Death Slabs” to get to our bivy spot at the approach to the climb. But Thurs. a.m. we woke up and it was snowing pretty hard so we decided to bail on the climb. At about 9 a.m., heading back down, my partner was hiking to a spot to set up a rappel when he slipped on a snow covered rock that was pitched at an odd angle. He broke his leg.

On the approach to Mount Gilbert. Photo credit: Bill Becher

The Gear Junkie: What were your first thoughts?

Becher: I had a PLB, the ACR MicroFix, and we decided that since there was no way for him to hike out we needed to switch it on and send the distress signal. I carved out a platform in the snow and set up the tent while my partner splinted his leg with trekking pole sections and duct tape. We got in our sleeping bags to wait. We decided if nobody showed up by the next day and the weather cleared I’d hike out and go for help. I’d left a detailed description of where we were going with my wife.

ACR MicroFix PLB unit.

The Gear Junkie: Did the PLB work immediately?

Becher: It was about noon when we heard a helicopter—three hours after I turned on the distress signal. I put on my red jacket and went out and waved. The chopper circled looking for us. It was difficult to spot us and because we were on a snowy, rocky slope there was no place for the helicopter to land. But it did make a good snow blower! They finally lowered a medic. His name was Zack. He checked my partner out—the leg appeared to be broken but no bones sticking out or bleeding. The helicopter lowered a basket and hoisted him up. I put on my harness and the medic and I clipped into the line and we were hoisted up.

We were able to take some gear, but had to leave my pack and the tent. They took us to the Bishop hospital where they did X-rays. He had a spiral fracture of the right fibula. They put a cast on it. The SAR (search-and-rescue) deputy drove me back to the trailhead but my key were in the pack on the mountain. Fortunately, he was able to jimmy the door open.

The Gear Junkie: Can you explain how this PLB process worked?

Becher: The way the PLB system works is it sends a signal to satellites that circle overhead every 45 minutes. The PLB is registered at NOAA with my name, emergency contact number, address, etc. When NOAA received the signal, an Air Force SAR coordinator called my wife, who told them where we were and that it was unlikely that I’d accidentally triggered the device. The second satellite pass—45 minutes later—confirmed that the PLB was still on and they rolled the helicopter out then from China Lake Naval Air Station. The Inyo County Search and Rescue team coordinated and was in contact with my wife. I felt bad that she had to get that call but she was able to give them detailed info our climbing route.

SAR helicopter to the rescue. Photo credit: Bill Becher

The Gear Junkie: What was the rescuers’ reaction after they got to you?

Becher: The Navy SAR team thanked me for having the PLB. They said they wished more people carried them as it makes the search part of “search and rescue” much easier. The SAR sheriff said they’d just had a training session on PLB and this was the first experience with actually using it. He was impressed with how well it worked. If they hadn’t been able to get the chopper in it would have taken a 12-man team with a wheeled litter to get my injured partner out, according to the deputy.

We were very thankful that the Navy team flew in the bad conditions and showed great skill and professionalism. We were also thankful we had the PLB or we’d likely still be on the mountain with me facing a difficult and treacherous descent and not being able to enjoy beer and Vicodin in my Winnebago as we are now!

The Gear Junkie: Did you guys have to pay for the rescue?

Becher: The PLB alert is a public deal run by NOAA. No cost for that. Sometimes the rescue costs are passed back. But in our case the Navy loans their helicopter to the Inyo County SAR for the practice and the only cost was the SAR deputy’s overtime: about $270.

The Gear Junkie: Anything you’d do different next time?

Becher: The SAR deputy said we did everything right. But one lesson learned is that the PLB isn’t that precise and you need some way to signal rescuers. They had difficulty spotting us until they saw my red parka. The traditional signal mirror doesn’t help much in a snowstorm.. I was thinking about getting my LED headlamp but wasn’t sure if it was bright enough. Eventually, jumping up and down in a red parka and waving my arms worked to get their attention.

Going green is not a new phenomenon in the world of outdoors gear. But today's eco-friendly gear is a far cry from the hemp hoodies and low-tech "earth gear" of yore. Take these four products as examples. . .

Sierra Design Cyclone Eco

This mid-weight shell -- which can be used as a rain jacket or a cool-weather top -- is touted to be the most sustainable jacket on the market. It is made of a recycled PET face fabric with PVC-free seam tape and a solvent-free waterproof-breathable laminate. $149.95, www.sierradesigns.com (Available starting this summer.)

REI Organic Cotton Cadet Cap

Touting an eco ethos with a Cuban flair, the Cadet Cap is an organic cotton alternative to the workaday baseball bill. Bonus: The cap comes with a worn look and feel that requires no break-in time. $16, .rei.com

Aquapac Hard Lens Camera Case

This plastic waterproof camera case is now 100 percent PVC-free, meaning the case employs no polyvinyl chloride, a chemical cited in some studies as a pollutant and a carcinogen. Made for tiny digital cameras, the case has a polycarbonate hard lens for clear images and a watertight seal to keep moisture out. $45, www.aquapac.net

Teko Ingeo Light Hiking socks

Made of a biodegradable corn-based fiber, these socks have extra reinforcement in the heels and toes for durability. The fabric transfers moisture and sweat to keep feet dry and prevent blisters. $13.95, www.tekosocks.com

Go here for 7 more green gear items: http://thegearjunkie.com/green-gear-2008-part-i