Outdoor Gear Winter Test 2025

If you are interested in cooperating to test the equipment of your company that manufactures quality products in winter conditions in the Alps, take a contact

Testing mountaineering and Outdoor equipment

I have been testing various outdoor, camping and mountaineering equipment for 20 years in various arctic conditions in both special forces and mountaineering. I know the most important features of all available camping and mountaineering equipment in varying weather and mountain conditions, and I can quickly assess whether it is worth taking them for a test, and if I do, I test their functionality in practice.

My specialty is testing mountaineering clothing, various shoes (climbing, mountaineering, trail running) and mountain tents. I also give recommendations for electronics, often practical testing and recommendations are better than laboratory testing. As an example, using headlamps with gloves in the dark in the cold is a different story than testing at the factory, with 20 to 30 brand name headlamps bought.

As for skis, I only test the lightest skis, for rock and ice climbing equipment I use my networks in the Alps.

Testing in the Alps and Himalayas

I test equipment using a qualitative testing method based on my own observations and those of other professional mountain climbers.

When testing camping and mountaineering equipment, simulating sufficiently harsh winter conditions is very difficult. In Finnish Lapland, the wind is not strong enough, in the Himalayas you need to acclimatize for 3-5 weeks to be able to test in snowy, windy and cold conditions, and in the Alps, the sufficiently hard midwinter is short, which varies annually between January and February, and snowstorms are occasional. When the storm starts, you have to be ready to go to the mountain.

A tent after a snowstorm at an altitude of 7100 meters on a 45 degree wall.

In the Alps, in a blizzard, winter conditions are completely different above and below the tree line (2000 m). The good thing about testing near a tree line in a winter storm is that if the test fails or due to the equipment not working, I can easily get to the shelter of the forest. Equipment sold for extreme cold (down jackets, sleeping bags) and windy conditions (shell jackets, mountain tents) must be tested in the right conditions. The water column value is not the decisive feature.

Regarding materials, I have noticed that different operating conditions and lengths of operation require different fabric materials. What works in the forest of northern Sweden in October does not work in the Alps in January. In rock climbing, you need a different belay device and a climbing center for sport, multipitch and indoor wall. When it comes to outdoor clothing, balancing down, merino wool, primaloft, coreloft, goretex and rubber is an art form of its own. When it comes to being active, the breathability of fabrics has started to gain more and more importance.

If you want to hear how my Arctic conditions equipment principle has changed through the LIM and NIMM principles to the Gear Picking principle, I’ll be happy to tell you. The most important thing is not to know how to file a gram or to leave the equipment completely out, but to pick up the most suitable equipment and the best shell jackets with you, which will not leave you in a pinch.

In mountain climbing, pictures are not taken in bad weather, because then you have to act quickly with gloves on. This time the weather was good.

Annual testing option

If you want to test my equipment in the most demanding arctic conditions, please contact me. Every year, I only test equipment and clothes that, based on my own preliminary assessment and experience, belong to the world’s top 10 best products. Regarding shell and down jackets, I take products to the test on a wider scale. In the Alps above the tree line (2000m) gear tested in a January blizzard has a different performance requirement and marketing value than untested gear.

If you want test experiences for the winter of 2025 – 2026, the equipment must be delivered in December 2024.