C.A.M.P. one-handed helmet

This January C.A.M.P. will unveil a helmet you can operate with one hand. Their unique system uses straps and turning dials to secure the helmet to your head rather than the conventional buckle you have to pinch with both hands.

A tensioning strap at the side of the helmet, like the style you use to tighten your rucksack straps, tightens and losens the helmet around and under the chin. Turning dials, one at the side above your ear and one at the back, fine tune the fit to within the milimetre.

Freeing up one hand is a bonus in precarious terrain and extreme conditions like snow, altitude and exposed situations where helmets are vital. The French ski mountaineering specialists see this £60 head-protector being scooped up by all types of mountaineers in the coming year.

Boots that breathe easier

French company Lafuma will launch a completely different way of waterproofing boots that makes them more breathable this February.

Boots are traditionally made with a tough outer fabric and then lined with a separately made waterproof bootie, inserted and glued into place. Water can pass through the outer fabric and build up between the bootie and outer layer, reducing breathability, comfort and even freezing in cold weather.

Lafuma's new lamination process, OutDry, avoids this by ditching the bootie and laminating the waterproof layer straight on to the outer fabric, similar to what you find in a three-layer jacket. This leaves no gaps for waterlogging so your stinky foot sweat is free to escape.

NEWS: MSR purify water with gravity

MSR make gravity do the hard work for you with their latest water filter, out February 2008. The new Auto Flow Gravity Filter plus two bladders and attachment hoses will cost you £65 and save your arms from the pumping that conventional purification systems require by harnessing the obvious effects of gravity on flowing water.

Their "Why didn't anyone think of this before?" invention attaches to the hydration hose of your water bladder. Fill your bladder with water from a stream, attach it to the hose and filter combo, hang it from a tree, then kick back and relax as you watch clean water flow from the system.

It takes just over half a minute to filter a litre of water, removing 99.9% of bacteria and protazoa with no pumping whatsoever.