Until the press-tour I was vagualy familiar with FERRINO. I knew that they developed waterprofing for tentfabrics and made a name for itself with its expeditionary tents. Like La Sportiva, Ferrino has a very rich history and is still a family own bussines (yes dear slovenan businesses.. instead of getting a new manager who srewes over 100 years of company heritage and know-how.. the italians keep it running in the family.. and that`s why these companies are still here and top notch). Ferrino was founded in 1870 in Turin and has been working hard on alpine gear  ever since.

The highlab softshells.

Of course the company has come a long long way since than and expanded its expertiese by creating a “Laboratory”, the Hut Quintino Sella on Monte Rosa. Even today the development goes on at 3585 m above sea level and as we were told, every customer of Ferinno is welcome to stay in the test tents on the Monte Rossa for free :). Of course the company doesn’t only make tents. Backpacks, Cloathing, Snow Shoes, Sleepingbags for high alpine and safty equipment. 

The most interesting of the softgoods was the Highlab line of alpine products. Specialy the new LYSKAMM softshell looked proper and was a nice fit when I tried it on. A lightweight durable and breathable shell with glued zippers. As the outdoor segment has grown in dubble digits compared to the rest of the snowindustry the Market has been flooded with a lot of different shells from different companies. Ferrino seems to have taken a more cautiouse approach to this trend and presented the new softshell.

AIR SAFE

The Airsafe

They also have a cool Boss 🙂

Antoher thing that the company has expetional expertiese in is saftey equipment. As it works closely with the SNATE (Italian School of Alpine Rescue Technicians) and Mountain Medicine Clinic of Aosta Hospital,it has also developed a own avalance breatihing system the Air Safe. We all know the avalung. This one thou has a different system that does eleimitante the hissing sound and so makes it easir not to panic while breathing. It also has a uniqe antichoke tube system. It`s also very light. These kind of breathing aids are the thing that mostly helps prolong your survival when you are under an avalanche. 

The Avalanche airbags.

What keeps you from sinking under an avalanche is of course an Avalanche airbag. This season is definetly the boom season for the avalanche airbag producers. Snowpulse and ABS-Systems are selling like hotcackes as most people realise that 700 bucks is not that big a pricetag on once own life. The two backpacks with this are the 

Powdersafe 18

Could be considered as Ferinnos go to Airbag backpack. It uses Snowpulse tehnology so it is a singe airbag system with the benefit of covering your neck area. The Powdersafe is the big bag that offers a enough space for all your gear and a bit more. 

Cybersafe 13

The cybersafe is the second and smaller of the two. It has 13l of space so it´s a light weight solution for your daily powder dose. From the basic design the two are very similar except for the size. 

Last year a lot of tests were conducted with the airbag systems survivability. The most imortant aspect of a airbag is that it lets you stay on top of the avalanche. The tests conducted in swiss showed that the median depth of burial with an airbag was around 20cm, while without it was 60cm. Now ad the snowmass at depth 60 and you are more likley to die from a broken back then from suffacation. 

Ferrino really used to be a tent company and still is but I really like it how they developed a complete portfolio of products, and even if they see an option to offer a supperior solution, they don`t seem to stubornly try to reinvent the wheel but have an open mind about other inovations and there integration like they did with Snowpulse. On the other hand If they know they can innovate they don`t falter but just do it. 

Mazzalema trophy

One thing that Ferrino is very proud off is the Mazzalema trophy. An anual high altitude ski mountaineering event at Cervina. It is one of the big tree events, think of it as a kind of TTR 6star event for mountaneering. It takes place on the Monte Rossa masif and has been taking place since 1933 *talk about herratage :P*

Also it is a testbed for advanced tehchnologies like this

Up to the top of Monte Rossa in record time.

This is only 190 g !

Mazzalama 20 backpack. Made from high tech fiber it looks like a shoping bag but has the strength of a normnal backpack. it has a 20 l capacity and weights .. weit for it .. 190g. You really have to hold it in your hand to grasp that 😛 oh and guess what, the next trophy is this year at the end of april. Who knows I might even be there. And since at the last trophy the slovenian Nejc Kuhar was  4th we might have a shot at the podium 😛

Wow seems like the more I write about ISPO the longer the articles get 😛 so for the end something for Nejc and my other snowboarding powbuddies. Ferrino also makes snowshoes under the Baldas Brand that it aquired in 2008. So check them out ! 

Next up we move to my standard fetisch.. as some of you know… Salomon .. but before that I was at the WORLD FREERIDE TOUR in Fieberbrunn. Sure the contest is postponed till saturday but that did not stop me to check it out XD