You can help him win the slot by simply voting for him. Voting will run through 11:59 p.m. PT on 11/29/09. Good luck Jake!

By "there" I mean that I would be driving snowboarders up and down Lake Tahoe's hills. And by "driving snowboarders up and down" I mean racing up to the mountain top and back to the mountain base. And with "mountain base" I really mean bar.

I guess I won't be driving the Trax—with its 400hp engine, cat tracks, and four-snowboarder sleigh—a lot, after all. [Autoblog via Techeblog]

Geek readers made their way from the surrounding areas—the temperate climate of the bay, the big little glitter of arid Reno, the capital of our state and strip mall hell known as Sacramento, the college town Davis—to the mountains to play with gadgets in the real world setting of Tahoe, in the winter. The day started out slow, with accidents the night before and morning of the event clogging up route 80. But by the end of the day, more than 100 of you made it, with skis and snowboards in hand.

The weather was colder than what I'd expect this time of year, and the high winds swept away the two inches of fresh powder that came on late Thursday. When you did find patches of good snow, they were only covering icy chop. That made for some interesting use of our most engaging outdoor gadgets. First up was MotionX GPS, which we used to track the paths of iphone users through the day, collecting them into a giant map of the paths used. Total mileage for tracked runs was over 111 miles.

We also had snowboards from Lib-Tech there. Lots of boards were snatched up for test runs, and the hard surface was dealt with well by the serrated edges, while the rocker shapes of the board sailed over chop.

The colder than usual temperatures made for some slick surfaces that helped set up some interesting crashes. Some that were captured by the popular GoPro Hero Wide cameras, some mounted to helmets, some mounted to chests. Chris Mascari took a particularly funny fall, captured by Adam Frucci.

Snowmodo Crashes from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

The cold also made Ardica heated jackets much more useful than had it been a mild Spring day. People were ratcheting up the heat on the chair lifts, and turning them off when on the move.

Zune brought loaners loaded with Adrian's playlists for slow mellow runs, fast runs and night runs.

Nokia brought some smartphones and the photos, as usual, were very good. (Especially compared to those photos taken by phones from Apple.)

It's hard for me to express how cool it is to connect readers with the gear I appreciate and use on my own time away from the computer, which is an entirely rewarding thing (as opposed to writing about gear online, where most of the news releases are of new junk that does the same old shit).

And in the biggest mess up of the day, I deleted an incredible slow motion video of a guy in a thong skimming a snowboard across a pond shot with a Casio. Yeah, so instead, I leave you with this video I found on Youtube.

Thanks to all the companies that came and gave away prizes and thanks to Zune for throwing a party after the day was done. And thanks to Northstar I'm glad to see so many companies making the effort to come and talk to you readers directly, face to face—an otherwise impossible thing at trade shows or across the internet.

In the end, Snowmodo was a great time and I made lots of new friends. It's always amazing to meet in meatspace, readers. See you next year.

P.S. Special thanks to AqueousBeef for helping us man the room, and to JT and Tali for the photographs.

People are using their own phones to upload the shots, but some of the nicest photos are coming in by way of Nokia handsets packing high megapixel sensors and optics. [Full Snowmodo event details here]

*Adam Frucci at Homewood

Location:
Northstar's Basque Room. Located adjacent to TC's Pub and directly across the walk way from Earthly Delights. For exact location please refer to Northstar's Village map [LINK] and search Basque or refer to the blue image on the map below.
For driving directions to Northstar-at-Tahoe please refer Northstar's site. [LINK]

When:
Saturday April 4th. Event room opens to the public at 8:30 am and closes at 4 pm.

The Price: $5

Transportation: We recommend you drive or carpool. The official Gizmodo carpool thread is here.

The Ticket and Housing Discounts: Huge Dealzmodo Lift tickets discounts at $57 (vs $79) for commenters; 30% off housing if you want to come the night before and have a drink with me in the village, or stay the following night at 10% off. (You'll have to call to RSVP for housing. Check out the options on Northstar's website. Northstar is providing 10% off lodging booked for Friday 4/3 or Saturday 4/4, and for Sunday 4/5 lodging is 30% off. Here's how to receive the discount:
Just call Northstar at 1.800.GO.NORTH (466.6784) and use our coupon code GI0404 when booking your reservation.

Lift Tickets:
All Snowmodo attendees are eligible for discounted Northstar lift tickets. To receive these discounts you must first pay the $5 attendance fee at our event room to receive a wristband. Once you have a wristband you will be able to purchase a discounted lift ticket form Northstar's Season Pass Office and Copper Lane Ticketing Office. Ticket information will be available at the event.

Raffle:
Upon paying the $5 attendance fee you will receive one raffle ticket, which will be valid for our event prize raffle held later in the day. More information regarding the raffle will be available at the event.
Once your attendance fee is paid you are eligible to buy more raffle tickets at $5 per additional ticket and there is no limit on the amount of tickets you can buy.

Product Demos:
The companies in attendance will be offering various product demos that you can take out on the mountain for testing. You will be required to leave some form of ID or Credit Card in return for a demoed product. More information regarding product demos will be available at the event.

Friday Night Drinks:
We have not yet decided on where or when we'll be sitting down for drinks on Friday night. We'll be announcing details on Friday, so please check back then.

Fun stuff anyone can do: Ski, Snowboard, Showshoe, take ski/board lessons for first timers, ice skate, tube/sledding, geocache scavenger hunt, cross country ski, borrow and test out gadgets, win prizes, drink beer, eat food, shop. Northstar has a huge village and every snow activity you can think of, except double flipping snowmobiles. We'll have more details on the fun stuff we're going to do together with the companies and gadgets, later.

Zune Party Details:
Where: TC's Pub in Northstar's Village. The pub is located right next our event room. For location details please refer to Northstar's site. [LINK]
When: Party starts at 3 pm with Morgan Page starting his set around 3:30 pm.
How To Get In: Only Snowmodo attendees who have Snowmodo wristbands will be allowed in. That means you'll have to stop by our event room at-least once during the day to pay the $5 admission fee and receive a wristband and raffle tickets.

To Do Before Coming: There's a few things we recommend to make your Snowmodo experience that much better.
• If you have an iPhone, download the Motion-x gps app, and you'll be able to track your travels, speed and other cool stuff which we'll be able to share with all our attendees.
• Check out the Official Snowmodo Soundtrack. [LINK] Giz's own musicphile Adrian Covert has compiled an Official Snowmodo Soundtrack filled with three different playlists of riding music. Most of these songs will be pre-loaded on the demo Zunes available at our event. So if you don't want to load up our playlists on your own player, stop by the Zune table at Snowmodo, grab a demo Zune and go hit the mountain.
• Subscribe to the snowmodo twitter feed so you can keep track of updates when you're on the mountain, like what lifts the Gizmodo guys are on, and when we're eating lunch. You know, updates.
Gadgets to Borrow and See Demos:
• Zune
• Ardica, maker of heated jackets.
• Lib-tech, makers of awesome snowboards.
• Nokia
• Vudu
• Smith Optics
• Go Pro Hero helmet/snowboard/bicycle/surfboard/racecar/whatever wide angle sports cameras
• Fullpower Motion X GPS
• Casio and their Slow Motion cameras
• Otterbox
• Griffin

Prizes in the raffle:
• Zune: Zune Players.
• AKG: AKG hooded sweaters. AKG earbuds and the demoed AKG headphones.
• Nokia: Three Nokia N96s.
• North Face: 10 Flyweight Rucksack packs. 10 Khumbu Jackets.
• OtterBox: Five OtterBox Defender Series for iPhone 3G cases.
• Vudu: VUDU box.
• Ardica: Mountain Hardwear jacket with an Ardica Moshi system.
• Nixon: Headphones.
• Griffin: 25 AeroSport armband for Zune. 25 Streamline armband for iPhone. 20 AeroSport armband for iPod classic. 20 AeroSport armband for iPod nano.96 TuneBuds.
• GoPro: 2 GoPro Helmet HERO Wide camera kits.
• LibTech: Mystery Item.
• Casio: EXILIM EX-FH20 Camera.

P.S, here's a video shot on a RED camera from last year. I don't know who those people are, because none of us ride like this, but it was a great day.

P.P.S. This is a random sampling of a few people who showed up last year, and who weren't afraid to hike to the backside.

We'll update with a location to meet sometime this PM, but I'd guess its going to be close to Northstar/Truckee since we'll be setting up later. Suggestions are welcome.

And look, Adam Frucci back on skis after 4 years. [Full Snowmodo event details here]

Zune is throwing an epic party for our Snowmodo event on Saturday April 4th at Northstar. They've lined up Grammy nominated Morgan Page to play some music and there will also be food and drinks available for all of our attendees. Zune has also made custom Snowmodo Zunes just for our event , which we'll be giving out as prizes in our raffle!

Zune Party Details
Where: TC's Pub in Northstar's Village. The pub is located right next our event room. For location details please refer to Northstar's site. [LINK]
When: Party starts at 3 pm with Morgan Page starting his set around 3:30 pm.
How To Get In: Only Snowmodo attendees who have Snowmodo wristbands will be allowed in. That means you'll have to stop by our event room at-least once during the day to pay the $5 admission fee and receive a wristband and raffle tickets.

On a music related note, Giz's own musicphile Adrian Covert has compiled an Official Snowmodo Soundtrack filled with three different playlists of riding music. Most of these songs will be pre-loaded on the demo Zunes available at our event. So if you don't want to load up our playlists on your own player, stop by the Zune table at Snowmodo, grab a demo Zune and go hit the mountain. I personally suggest Pheonix - 1901, need I say more...

Night Runs - Uptempo - Hip Hop

• Black Star - Respiration [amazon] [zune]
• Camp Lo - Luchini (This Is It) [amazon] [zune]
• Clipse - Keys Open Doors [amazon] [zune]
• Busy Signal - These Are The Days [amazon] [zune]
• Benga and Coki - Night [amazon] [zune]
• The Bug - Poison Dart [amazon] [zune]
• Souls of Mischief - 93 til Infinity [amazon] [zune]
• Wu-Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M. [amazon] [zune]
• Outkast - B.O.B. [amazon] [zune]
• The Knux - F!re [amazon] [zune]
• J Dilla - Two Can Win [amazon] [zune]
• The Cool Kids - One Two [amazon] [zune
• The Streets - Blinded By The Lights [amazon] [zune]
• Madvillain - America's Most Blunted [amazon] [zune]
• Cypress Hill - I ain't goin out like that [amazon] [zune]
• JayLib - Raw Shit [amazon] [zune] [zune]
• Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says [amazon] [zune
• El-P - Delorean [amazon] [zune
• Company Flow - Lune TNS [amazon] [zune
• Beastie Boys - Sabotage [amazon] [zune] [zune]
• Cannibal Ox - Iron Galaxy [amazon] {zune]
• Zion I - Critical [amazon] [zune]
• Dilated Peoples - Worst Comes to Worst [amazon] [zune]
• Talib Kweli - The Blast [amazon] [zune
• Ghostface Killah - Run [amazon] [zune

Short Runs - Agressive - Rock

Cursive - Red Handed Slight of Hand [amazon] [zune]
• K-Os - Born to Run [amazon] []
• RJD2 - The Horror [amazon] [zune]
• M83 - America [amazon] [zune]
• Bloc Party - Banquet [amazon] [zune
• Birdy Nam Nam - Trans Boulogne Express [amazon] [zune]
• Phoenix - 1901 [amazon] [zune]
• Peter, Bjorn and John - Lay It Down [amazon] [zune]
• Wavves - Beach Demon [amazon] [zune]
• The Walkmen - The Rat [amazon] []
• Digitalism - Pogo [amazon] [zune]
• Studio - Self Service [amazon] []
• The Faint - In Concert [amazon] []
• Black Flag - Rise Above [amazon] [zune]
• Bad Brains - Sacred Love [amazon] [zune]
• Sex Pistols - Holidays in the Sun [amazon] [zune
• DFA 1979 - 1979 [zune]
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give it Away/Under The Bridge [amazon1 amazon 2] [zune]
• Nirvana - In Bloom [amazon] [zune]
• TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me [amazon] [zune

Longer Runs - Mellow - Electronic

• Skream - Summer Dreams [amazon] [zune
• Daft Punk - Voyager [amazon] [zune]
• Burial - Raver [amazon] [zune]
• CFCF - Arctic [amazon] [zune]
• Kanye West - Coldest Winter [amazon] [zune]
• Junior Boys - Double Shadow [amazon] [zune]
• Dan Deacon - Of the Mountains [amazon] [zune]
• LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great [amazon] [zune]
• Cut Copy - Out There on the Ice [amazon] [zune]
• M83 - Run into Flowers [amazon] [zune]
• Royksopp - Eple [amazon] [zune
• Animal Collective - My Girls [amazon] [zune]
• The Zombies - Beechwood Park [amazon] [zune
• Boards of Canada - Roygbiv [amazon] [zune
• Ellen Allien and Apparat - Way Out [amazon] [zune
• Black Moth Super Rainbow - Don't You Wanna Be in a Cult? [amazon] [zune]
• Zomby - U Are My Fantasy (Street Fighter II Theme Remix) [amazon] [zune]
• Booka Shade - Night Moves [amazon] [zune
• The Avalanches - Since I Met You [amazon]

For complete Snowmodo event details please head over to our Snowmodo Event Information post.

It's cool because it uses open source maps that can be cached for offline use (unlike google maps), and uses the iPhone's accelerometer to augment and improve GPS accuracy. It also caches your max speed. My brother hit 46mph the other day, which is not so bad in slush. AND you can not only take geotagged photos from within the app, but you can mail yourself a Google Earth file with the tracks and the photos, or simply view them in Google Maps. It's a great app. The free version has all the functions of the paid $3 version, but you can't save more than one track. I have the paid one.

If you've got another GPS or phone platform, and can track your miles, I'll be collecting that data, too.
Just fwd your speed and mileage to the email snowmodo at gizmodo.com after we're done with the day. And no points for top speed. Be safe. Wear a helmet and all that. If you get hurt at our event it will ruin my day.
[Motion X GPS on iTunes: Paid, Free]

Snowmodo is our snow sport winter meet up at Lake Tahoe, California, with prizes, discounts, tons of fun snow activities, a party and GADGETS. If you can make it please RSVP and find out more info by clicking on the banner below. I'll let you wear my hat (below).

This may sound strange unbelievable to you, but it is real and it is true.

Snowmodo Event Information Below!

Location:
Northstar's Basque Room. Located adjacent to TC's Pub and directly across the walk way from Earthly Delights. For exact location please refer to Northstar's Village map [LINK] and search Basque or refer to the blue image on the map below.
For driving directions to Northstar-at-Tahoe please refer Northstar's site. [LINK]

When:
Saturday April 4th. Event room opens to the public at 8:30 am and closes at 4 pm.

Zune Party:
Party will start at 4pm, all information will be available at the event.

Instructions:
Upon arriving at Northstar, please head over to our event room to pay the $5 attendance fee. In return for your $5 you will receive a wristband and a raffle ticket. You're wristband will not only show you paid the attendance fee but will also grant you discounted lift tickets at Northstar's Season Pass Office and Copper Lane Ticketing Office.

Raffle:
Upon paying the $5 attendance fee you will receive one raffle ticket, which will be valid for our event prize raffle held later in the day. More information regarding the raffle will be available at the event.
Once your attendance fee is paid you are eligible to buy more raffle tickets at $5 per additional ticket and there is no limit on the amount of tickets you can buy.

Product Demos:
The companies in attendance will be offering various product demos that you can take out on the mountain for testing. You will be required to leave some form of ID or Credit Card in return for a demoed product. More information regarding product demos will be available at the event.

Lift Tickets:
All Snowmodo attendees are eligible for discounted Northstar lift tickets. To receive these discounts you must first pay the $5 attendance fee at our event room to receive a wristband. Once you have a wristband you will be able to purchase a discounted lift ticket form Northstar's Season Pass Office and Copper Lane Ticketing Office. Ticket information will be available at the event.

Friday Night Drinks:
We have not yet decided on where or when we'll be sitting down for drinks on Friday night. We'll be announcing details on Friday, so please check back then.

Appreciation for investment will return high yield, just sending fully insured money order to vacation residence in Gabon. I hope to hear from you in no distant time through the email address below.
jjsos@amerivas.tur.br

Thanks to all the companies that are participating in Snowmodo we are able to offer all this stuff, and then some, to our readers who attend.

Want to see exactly what you could win, well here you go:

Zune: Zune Players.
AKG: AKG hooded sweaters. AKG earbuds and the demoed AKG headphones.
Nokia: Three Nokia N96s.
North Face: 10 Flyweight Rucksack packs. 10 Khumbu Jackets.
OtterBox: Five OtterBox Defender Series for iPhone 3G cases.
Vudu: VUDU box.
Ardica: Mountain Hardwear jacket with an Ardica Moshi system.
Nixon: Headphones.
Griffin: 25 AeroSport armband for Zune. 25 Streamline armband for iPhone. 20 AeroSport armband for iPod classic. 20 AeroSport armband for iPod nano.96 TuneBuds.
GoPro: 2 GoPro Helmet HERO Wide camera kits.
LibTech: Mystery Item.
Casio: EXILIM EX-FH20 Camera.

For more information regarding our Snowmodo event you can check here. If you're planning on attending and haven't already illed out the RSVP form below, please do. Thanks!

Our Snowmodo Event on April 4th is packed with fun things to do, including the Zune party. But before the event starts on Saturday, the Giz crew and a few friends will be getting drinks somewhere in the Northstar Village Friday night. Since everyone is welcomed to come and we'll probably be out late both Friday and Saturday night, we've arranged discount lodging just for you guys.

Northstar is providing 10% off lodging booked for Friday 4/3 or Saturday 4/4, and for Sunday 4/5 lodging is 30% off. Here's how to receive the discount:

Just call Northstar at 1.800.GO.NORTH (466.6784) and use our coupon code GI0404 when booking your reservation.

Be sure to check back this week as we'll be posting Snowmodo updates and if you haven't already please filled out the RSVP form below. Thanks!

The Price: $200

The Verdict:This is the best sports cam I've ever used. The various mounts allow it to be strapped to a helmet, a chest, a rollbar in a car, or on the glass or metal of an auto's flat surfaces via suction cup. There's a plug mount and 3M mount for surfboards, or a 3M mount for ski/snowboards. There are even bicycle mounts for facing rear and forward. And I could see the chest mount being applicable to almost any sport, from martial arts, to kayaking, to hockey. (The mounts are sold separately.) It's cheap enough you shouldn't worry about it too much either, at $200. Although I did still worry about it a little bit: The mounts worked, but I've popped the 3M mount off a snowboard on a hard day of riding, and since then have depended on the large suction cup and a tether for safety.

It's housed in a tough plastic case, that locks tight, which makes it waterproof enough to submerge it 100 feet. The camera takes SD cards, and between the 2xAAA battery life and 2GB of storage, you end up with about 1 hour of footage and life in the cold. Buy rechargeable batteries. (The camera is noted to have shorter battery life in colder weather and using lithium or NiMH you can get 2-3 hours in regular climates.) Video quality comes in at 512x384, and works well on cloudy days, but in bright environments it shines. The Hero also has a 5MP still mode which can record stills continuously at 2 or 5 second intervals. (I've included some samples in the gallery.)

The f/2.8 lens has 170-degree field of vision which allows for not only better light sensitivity, but the full context of whatever maneuvers you're pulling, and reduced jitter from vibrations. But it also has the effect of reducing the visual impact of what you're doing. A small jump will look small. Don't take this the wrong way — I prefer this wide angle lens to the alternative, which is having a zoomed-in, shakey cam shot. One other gripe I have is that the camera's group delete icon looks like the multiple still shot mode icon. I deleted a batch of great videos one day, by accident. I swear, I jumped over a house that day. Really.

Check out this video from the USC Ski team, or any of the company's samples.

Here's another of an RC Car doing a 20 foot backflip, with a Go Pro Hero camera.

At the lower end of the spectrum, I've compiled a few shots of me mostly falling.

*That song is a Hey Jude cover by Rico & the Rudies, from a Trojan Beatles Reggae box set.

As for the falls, don't worry. If you get this camera and use it to capture your adventures away from the computer, you'll likely look much better! I highly recommend this thing.

[GoPro will be bringing some Hero Wide cameras to Snowmodo.]

Snowmodo is our snow sport winter meet up at Lake Tahoe, California, with prizes, discounts, tons of fun snow activities, a party and GADGETS. If you can make it please RSVP and find out more info by clicking on the banner below. I'll let you wear my hat (below).

Our Snowmodo Event is really shaping up to be a top notch gathering. We've already lined up company attendance from Zune, Ardica, Lib-tech, Nokia, Vudo, Smith, Go Pro, Motion X, Casio, Otterbox, Giffin and next we'll be revealing a few extra companies which should truly make our Snowmodo event one you won't want to miss.

For more information regarding Snowmodo please see our original announcement here.

Be sure to check back next week as we'll be posting Snowmodo updates and if you haven't already please filled out the RSVP form below. Thanks!

The Price: $139

The Verdict: OMG warm! Although not as fitted or high quality as the Ardica jackets, which have padded battery packs and clothing designed by people who specialize in fashion like Mountain Hardware, Blazewear isn't meant for the same purpose, and is a lot more affordable. And very warm, as I said!

Wearing a thermal I took some heat gun ratings of my core and the vest at settings 1 through 5. Setting 1 is very toasty, and lasts about 3-5 hours, with 5 lasting far less than that. Here are the ratings and my level of comfort.

Setting 1: Vest temperature of 110 degrees F, skin temperature at my chest of 93. Warm
Setting 3: Vest temperature of 130, skin temperature at my chest of 95. Slightly sweaty, body trying to cool itself.
Setting 5: Vest temperature of 150, skin temperature at my chest of 99. Uncomfortably warm.

I took these measurements at room temperature, after 15 minutes on each setting, but you could feel the heat changes within seconds. The higher settings seem unnecessary but in cold environments, I'd be glad to have them. The extra heat also works to penetrate thicker clothing, too, like shirts and sweaters. The vest's three heat panels are on the back (a large rectangle) and on the flank of the zipper on the front (two smaller strips). The heat was sometimes spotty, on account of the fit being not exactly snug. In fact, the vest's fit is a little on the big side, so good for larger Americans. And the synthetic materials seemed to breath well. When the vest was off, it offered little or no additional warming, fwiw, so you won't want to depend on this jacket when its powered down.

Although Blazewear has outerjackets and gloves, I tested this one because it seemed to be the most capable of being used with your existing jackets and clothing, which you've probably chosen because they also look nice. The vest is meant for sporting, but I declined to use it for snowboarding simply because of two reasons: the battery pack rests on my hip, and would be very painful to fall on, and although it would be nice to adjust the vest's heat output electronically as I went from the chair to moving, the control are on the battery, which is in a pocket and inaccessible. I wouldn't be willing to unzip and reach inside two layers and a pocket to do so. If I was going for an outdoor activity jacket, I'd get an Ardica, but I'd have to spend a lot more money, too.

The cost, though, is very reasonable. And I've fallen asleep wearing it on cold days on the couch, wearing only it and no blanket. For those who are cold and want unbeatable warmth that is electronically generated, I'd recommend this vest for those on a tighter budget who want to wear it while commuting or hanging around.

[Blazewear]

Snowmodo is our snow sport winter meet up at Lake Tahoe, with prizes, discounts, tons of fun snow activities, a party and GADGETS. If you can make it (and people are coming from TEXAS) please RSVP and find out more info by clicking on the banner below. I'll let you wear my hat (below).

The Price: $180

The Rundown: Smith Optics is my favorite goggle company. I usually use their sensor phenom lens on cloudy/storm days, and their full on mirror for sunny days. This goggle ships with both, in a clever zip up nylon box, so you're covered in all conditions. The original I/O had some seal issues around the nose (it, uh, didn't seal well on most people's faces, narrow or broad) but the IO/S (and the improved I/O) fixes that with a piece of foam slit above the nose, with more material for closure. (The S shape is for smaller faces, but is the same concept as the I/O) The shape of the original was also really round, so if you tried to put it on your face, the seal on the lens twisted off the frame. Less so with these, but try them on before you buy. Unlike old swappable lenses on cheap goggs, these lock into place by way of the strap holders and two switches on top. Very sturdy. And, Smith Optics almost never fog, unless you're a sweatball or in a swampy storm. I still prefer to run separate goggles for sunny and cloudy days, because I don't like handling my lenses any more than I have to, but if you can only have one set and these fit, I recommend them for their amazing versatility. [Smith Optics, Snowmodo]

Snowmodo is our snow sport winter meet up at Lake Tahoe, California, with prizes, discounts, tons of fun snow activities, a party and GADGETS. If you can make it please RSVP and find out more info by clicking on the banner below. I'll let you wear my hat (below).

The Price: $160

The Verdict: The wireless Audex system which controls your iPod works like any other iPod RF remote. There's an RF receiver dock adapter and a wireless remote for controls. The system is advertise to work with 3rd Gen iPods or newer and from our testing we found the iPod touch and iPhone can not properly be controlled.

The iPod is meant to be housed in a padded pouch inside the backpack which features a headphone extension cable that is rerouted through the backpack and down the right shoulder strap where a female headphone jack is provided. For the remote Burton has made a rubber housing located on the left should strap which makes the buttons accessible at all times. The wireless controller is removable and works as it should, providing the basic play/pause, skip forward/back, and volume up/down.

This backpack has some pretty impressive storage for its size and with only two large sections which incorporate many unique storage compartments allow for nice organization of your laptop, gadgets and small gear. When packed to the brim the bag can be a little bulky and stiff but the heavily padded back and shoulder straps allow for a somewhat comfortable fit. This backpack is not intended to be worn while snowboarding and frankly because of the shape and lack of an extra cross strap we wouldn't recommend it. It seems more fitting that the backpack be used around town or on short trips when you want to easily control your iPod's music and need to carry your laptop and other gear.
[Burton]

Snowmodo is our snow sport winter meet up at Lake Tahoe, with prizes, discounts, tons of fun snow activities, a party and GADGETS. If you can make it (and people are coming from TEXAS) please RSVP. I'll let you wear my hat (below).

Actually, why the hell are you even snowboarding on one of these things in the first place? The designers, students studying industrial design and visual communication (and bling) at the University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL), don't mention pricing on these one-of-a-kind snowboards, so you know what that means. Right, not good with numbers. But aside from that, these boards are inlaid with crystals, which means "expensive."

And lastly, if any one of you rides into town for Snowmodo on one of these things you should seriously take a hard, serious look into kicking your own ass. [Nideker via Born Rich]

Using the same logic that makes a pair of skis better at high-speeds than a snowboard, because the skis always have two edges gripping the snow during turns, Pyott's Twin Parabolic Ski concept basically provides each ski with an extra edge. By jointing two longer and narrower skis under each foot, the design allows for more grip at high-speeds since there are more applied edges griping the snow.

Overall the experimental concept seems like a significant way to make downhill racing faster and more dangerous on a pair of skis. The idea of using adjustable joints to make the set of blades under each foot flexible is pretty interesting, and I can't help but wonder if the same concept can be applies to a snowboard in some way. [Yanko Design via DVICE]

Snowmodo is our snow sport winter meet up at Lake Tahoe, with prizes, discounts, tons of fun snow activities, a party and GADGETS. If you can make it (and people are coming from TEXAS) please RSVP. I'll let you wear my hat (below).