Schlagwortarchiv für: Storm

With a Ski Tour Jacket on a Moon Landing

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Snow Storm – Ski Tour Ends in Moon Landing

The wind is beating and howling, by now I pulled the jacket’s hood as tight as possible over my helmet to get some shelter from this storm. You wouldn’t think that a thin neckwarmer can make the difference, but without it I would suffer serious forstbites. Grindingly I put one ski by a time forward slowly making my way to the top, fighting against mother nature.

One wouldn’t believe that this spot ever was visited by a single human soul. It feels like a moon landing. The ski tour jacket also reaches the limits of its capabilities, the wind rocks it, but still not feeling any cold of this rogue storm. Soon I’ll see the chine, then the weather conditions will be better.

wendejacken testen winter skitour herren

Finally, I can feel the reward for this straining ski tour with my fingertips: The view onto the valley reveals 1.000 metres in altitude of untouched powder. Without wasting anymore time I check my skiing gear and prepare for an awesome downhill ride. If you’ll ever be this close to heaven, you’ll also have the feeling of a moon landing. Arriving a the station in the valley my knees are still shaking a bit, but I know that I wouldn’t want to miss this kind of adventure for no reason.

On this ski tour was tested: Alta Verde Alpine Jacket for men and polychromelab Flipneck. Additionally we tested some textile prototypes for lower body parts, on which we’re feverishly working at the moment. All products by polychromelab are available in our online shop.

shop functional jacket men reversible
winter neckwarmer flipneck ski tour

The Snowstorm and the Jacket

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Wearing Outdoor Jackets the Right Way on a Skitour

Marc is an outdoor sportsman. He searches for sports experiences all year long and doesn’t want to get sick. So he aims for wearing outdoor jackets the right way. He loves extreme conditions and that’s why he’s happy about heavy snowfalls around Easter to go skiing: in about a few minutes he looks up his destination, equips his skis with skins and starts the car.

There Marc notices that snowfalls are getting stronger and temperatures are sinking. Because of effort on the way up he chooses to wear a baselayer and a polychromelab Alta Quota 3 layer jacket on the cooling silver side. Marc won’t freeze this way, because at his skitour to the top the jacket keeps his body warmth inside the jacket despite high breathability of the inner layer membrane. The result is that on one hand Marc doesn’t have to sweat and on the other doesn’t become hypothermic.

After all his efforts he doesn’t get rewarded at the peak: the snowstorm gets heavier and heavier and he decides to wait for a clear sky. Marc easily reverses his Alta Quota jacket to warming black side and additionally puts an a fleece jacket underneath it. But weather won’t get better and his body emits a lot of warmth. So he’s happy about choosing three different layers of gear and making comfortably some pictures.

Half an hour or so later there is still no silver lining. Marc doesn’t care and goes downhill skiing in a snowstorm wearing outdoor jackets the right way this day.

polychromelab concept store

 

outdoorjacken tragen winter skifahren

Outdoor Funktional Jackets Test – Alpine Proof

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Alpine Proof initiates a Functional Jackets Test for Outdoor Extreme

One might could think of some things concerning textile research, but what specifically this work looks like isn’t always well known. Therefore we present a functional jackets test like we run it in our alpine range outdoor laboratory.

Step 1: The Perfect Spot

Weather in polychromelab Alpine Proof textile lab is always freezing, stormy and extreme in winter. Seeing that one unwillingly wants to go outside a mountain lodge, where you can enjoy a majestic view on peaks all around this spot drinking a cup of hot tea. But such days are perfect for testing functional jackets, because over night it will ge cold and windy.

funktionsjacken test hochgebirge funktionalität vergleich

Step 2: What will be tested?

Quivering we run a coldness test. Therefore we perpare two functional jackets made of similar fabrics on dummies. This way we want to detect which fabric performs better at extreme cold. This kind of test are important to improove suitability for coldness in product development processes.

vergleich kälte test funktionsjacken polychromelab

Step 3: Waiting

Soon it’s dark night. Temperatures are low. Sensors we placed inside the functional jackets begin to collect temperature and draught data. But the low point of temperature isn’t reached yet.

funktionsjacken test nacht kälte tirol

Step 4: It’s always wise to bring a sleeping bag

It’s night now. Spotlights make it possible to examine both functional jackets at night. By now temperatures are weigh under 0°C. We’re thrilled to find out which one of these functional fabric responds better to this freezing coldness. Only by running these kind of outdoor tests we can learn what jackets are capable of worn outdoors.

nachtaufnahme funktionsjacken test outdoorjacken im winter

Step 5: Early Bird catches the Worm

Dawn. Night is over and the functional jackets are covered with a thin layer of ice. We start immediately working and sort out measurement data on our laptops. By comparing graphs we can tell which fabric is better and on which places the functional jackets are warmer. This conclusions are worth a mint for product development. This is the only way to improove weak spots of jackets.

auswertung funktionsjacken test was ist besser

If you’re interested in hearing stories of our everyday work in the Alps, visit Alpine Proof’s facebook page!

Have a look on functional jacket Alta Verde, successfull graduate of Alpine Proof extreme-cold-test, in our onlienshop.

Alta Verde Men

Alta Verde Women

 

Outdoor Gear Lab in the Alps

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Working Day: Outdoor Gear Lab in Tyrolean Alps

We write the thrid year of ‘polychromelab on Mount Glungezer‘ and still unexpected things do happen. To run an outdoor gear lab in the Alps can be unnerving – or in other words: without beeing spontaneous and wearing high quality outdoor gear one doesn’t come too far.

For example, one needs spontaneousness, when a meteo station has to be transported up on 2610 meters in a backpack. One needs high quality outdoor gear to prevent freezing in conditions like at the Himalaya and storms of 300 km/h. It really gets unnerving, when one has to repair this meteo station, which got demolished by flying rocks in the storm, at freezing winter temperatures on 2610 meters.

Video: way to textiles research lab at Glungezer with Quad

Fortunately today wasn’t that unnerving: because of current weather situation there is less snow for a skitour to our outdoor gear lab and too much to go by feet.

This is how our way to the outdoor gear lab in the Alps looks like (including accident in a bend):

Fortunately, we have two nice helpers at mount Glungezer. Gregor, Youthhostel Gufl, lend us his quad, on which we made our way to the textiles research lab. Arriving on top we had to select meteo data, swap temperature sensors on textiles and repair some damages. Afterwards the innkeeper Gottfried kooked a hot soop to help us recover from freezing temperatures.

Arising of a Storm – Textiles Research Tyrol

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Textiles research Tyrol: a strom over the alpine lab

From 4th to 5th November a seriously heavy storm browsed over Tyrol. At many places the storm destroyed roofes and did a lot of further damage. At the peak of Mount Glungezer nearby Innsbruck the storm was that heavy that a grown man barely could have stayed on his feet. In our high altitude laboratory for textiles research Tyrol we measured wind velocity of 264km/h.

Thanks to our webcams, which are observating the weather situations day and night, we now have a video of the weather constellation at the days before the storm and zero hour. It wasn’t the first time that a heavy storm swept across Tyrol. Here’s the video from our textiles research laboratory Tyrol at the Glungezer:

Heavy Storm 04/05 11 2014 polychromelab 2610 264km/h from polychromelab on Vimeo.

That’s how extreme weather can be in Tyrol. The snow quickly was blown away and even so for our test dummies.

The heavy damage the storm did to our lab for textiles research Tyrol also offers an advantage for us: the measurement data afford us deep insight in the behaviour of textiles and jackets under heavy conditions, so we can improove our work for the future. This exact concept led the German company Heimplanet to us: they’ve tested their tents in our alpine lab polychromelab 2610.

Do you want to witness a storm like this one yourself or just want to go for a nice hike, then visit our textiles research lab at Mount Glungezer. More information about the alpine laboratory for textiles research and our host Glungezer Hütte you’ll find here.

The Cave under snow

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After 7 hours of shovelling it was finally done: 5 meters wide, 3 meters deep. Quantities of snow.

We tested the tent The Cave by Heimplanet this winter in our alpine laboratory at the Glungezer, Tyrol this winter. The Cave was exposed to extreme conditions like storm and snow and stood the test. But the heavy snowfalls in spring buried the tent under meters of snow. Only now when snow is melting we could lift the tent.

3 months under masses of snow: The Cave is looking brand new and functioning flawlessly. An extreme test which wasn’t scheduled but brought quality to daylight.

www.heimplanet.com

Last Snowfall

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Only one week ago one could lay in the sun in shorts here in Tyrol and today winter hits back! Freezing wind and snow on the top of the mountains: a great day for an adventure ski trip through Tyrol in the middle of spring – perfect conditions for testing our products.

polychromelab concept store

ONE WEEK AT THE GLUNGEZER HÜTTE

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Snow doesn’t always stay there where it lays down. Watch one week at the polychromelab_2610 at the Glungezer Hütte in Tyrol. The weather couldn’t be more extreme.

one week in jan 2014 from michele stinco

 

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Inferno polychromelab 2610

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Bad weather at polychromelab_2610, good weather for extreme tests on outdoor textiles.

INFERNO 13022014 from michele stinco

polychromelab_2610, the highest scientific research lab for textiles, offers stong winds, often changing weather conditions and a lot of snow, which is fortunately perfect for testing outdoor textiles.

 

polychromelab concept store

Heimplanet and polychromelab 2610

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Tents by Heimplanet tested at the alpine lab

The cooperation between polychromelab und Heimplanet has succeeded.
Because of the extreme weather conditions at the polychromelab 2610 at the Glungezer in Tyrol the tents by Heimplanet had to stand up to very much.

Polychromelab is testing Outdoor tents by Heimplanet from Michele Stinco

It is a fact that every other tent would been broken because of the severe wind.

Tents by Heimplanet don’t use tent poles, which couldn’t stand up to wind paces at 270km/h. Using special compartments filled with air the tent by heimplanet has survived one of the heaviest storms imaginable.

Scientifically proven at polychromelab 2610.

Follow us on Facebook and visit Heimplanet.

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