Trouser-harness combination and shoe friction testing machine

The Rossignol Harness Pant builds the harness into the trousers to presumably make it more comfortable and convenient, you won't ever forget your harness and you don't have to worry about taking it on or off - you always have a tie in point available. The converse idea is to build the harness into the rucksack harness - Lowe patented something along these lines about 30 years ago but as far as I know never made use of it.

Rossignol Harness Pant, photo from gearjunkie.

Another interesting idea came from Mad Rock at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Show. They had an adjustable smearing slope for people to try out Mad Rock shoes and compare their 'stickiness' to other brands. The test slab appears to be some kind of sand paper (could this have some effect on results?), but with just about every show maker claiming to have the stickiest rubber this seems to be a very clever way of cutting through the claims - it's hard to beat first hand experience.

The Mad Rock hands on friction test, photo from rockclimbing.com

Finally - a radical shoe design from Vibram, could this be the future for rock boots?

Photo from gearjunkie, where they have a review aswell.