Top ten innovations of all time

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Meo

Meo

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Hello all

I need advices from fellow experienced outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen. I'm writing a paper about the top ten innovations that revolutionized the outdoor sports world. Could be gear, apparel, technique, etc. For each, I must tell what we did before, how (and when/by whom) these innovations changed things, etc.

The selection must have passed the test of time. A short insert will present recent (last 10 years) innovations that COULD change things in the future. They could have appeared at a precise moment (1985, for instance), or less precise (in the early eighties). It could be associated to the elite, but it's better yet if it touches everybody that enjoys the outdoors. It could be associated to almost any outdoor sport, particulary hiking, camping, mountaineering, cycling, paddling, canoe/kayaking, cross-country skiing.

Here's a first -incomplete- selection. Better to have too much items and cut than not enough! Tell me what you think and what you'd suggest.

Historic items (must have ten):

- Gore-tex (unavoidable!)
- Free-standing tents
- bike suspensions
- Internal frame backpacks
- Fast and light alpine style climbing a la Reinhold Messner
- aluminium/plastic snowshoes
- automomatic ski bindings
- headlamps? (relevant?)

- etc.

Recent items (3 or 4 max):

- GPS
- Soft shells

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Meo
 
Any and all high tech fabrics. just imagine being stuck with only cotton or wool to choose from. No polypro, capilene, fleece, quick drying nylon shorts etc.
 
How about modern hiking boots?

I'm not sure what materials were used say 100 years ago, (leather I would assume) but I bet there were plenty of cold feet.
 
Crampons, particularly front points. (opposed to hobnails ect)

Low impact cook stoves. (v.s more distructive fires)



Cheap easy to use compass'

Commercialization of the outdoor experience providing a larger market and funding product innovation. ( v.s military surplus gear ect)

ESPN, outdoor media (magazines and outdoor cable programs)

Curious about where we will be with personal beacons 10 years from now

Computers and mapping software tie in with gps, beacons ect.
The internet :) web pages and e-mail;

Land use regulations ( Resource Management)
Maintained trails. Access.
Outdoor advocacy group.
Leave No Trace (Out door ethics)s.
 
Externally pressurized white gas backpacking stoves. The older style self pressurizing stoves, although reliable in a skilled person hands, had such a steep learning curve that many folks avoided them altogether ( or sold them real cheap at garage sales). Plus the self pressurizing stoves usually had a relief valve located right under the burner that made for some very interesting stove flare ups.

Although the coleman single burner stoves had used the concept of a pump for years, I think the MSR whisperlight (or one its ancestors) was the first real lightweight stove that used the concept. (although I have seen retrofit pumps for the older style European stoves)
 
Socks, socks, socks. I don't get half the blisters I got in my teen years and I would say at least half of that is the result of better socks. When I started out ragg wool socks with a liner if you were lucky was the pinnacle of technology. Now I would never contemplate taking those socks on a long hike.

I guess this is a variation on fabrics.
 
I could swear that the old Optimus 111b and 8R had pumps but that was a long time ago and I was but a child and not to be trusted with anything that could go boom. Surely they predated MSR.
 
I agree with Tahawus - high tech fabric and socks. Also lightweight boots. The MSR stoves are good too. I guess I'm dating myself. I remember hiking with real crap in the '70s - although by Boy Scout mess kit silverware still gets used.
 
What a fun thread, the ideas keep coming. How about new materials for canoeing and kayaking. Aluminum or wood was the choice when I was young, then came royalex and all the other types of composite hulls.
When I first went Kayaking with NOLS in '83 I came back from my trip and checked out what was available. Kayaking was still not a very well known sport then. The first rotomolded hulls were just showing up then. Would the sport have exploded like it did if cheap and durable plastic kayaks weren't available?
 
innovations

since most of my other ideas have already been mentioned i'll say the digital camera.
i did not like carrying my big expensive 35mm hiking. now with the advent of digital cameras, my new one is small and light and fits into my pocket. and the pictures are great!
i definitely agree with the new lighter materials, whether you're talking boots or clothing. i love that i can still be warm and comfortable in 1/2 the weight - that has really made a difference to me.
i'm still waiting for the perfect backpack tho: a cross between the ultralights and those with good support & comfort. they're getting there....
oh here's one i just thought of: have you guys read about the packs and stow sacks you can eat? how crazy is that? use them on the way in to store stuff then eat them so you don't have to carry them back out. a whole 'nother twist to edible underwear!:p
 
"Forest and Crag" had a chapter about innovations in gear that occurred after WW II. I'd list nylon tents, aluminum-frame backpacks, portable stoves and down sleeping bags as the items that revolutionized the backpacking world the most. These changes generally occurred prior to the backpacking boom of the 1970s. Since that time there certainly have been improvements, but I would call them evolutionary, not revolutionary.

For climbing, the major innovations would be nylon ropes, hard steel pitons, passive chocks, SLCDs, frontpoints and drooped ice axe picks.
 
pants!

For me I would say the best time came when women got rid of the heavy, full length skirts.

Next, maybe when they put rubber on the bottom of boots.

Then came sunscreen.

And Gatorade...
 
Carole's mention of Gatorade brings to mind the development of freeze-dried foods -- meals in a pouch and the like that were reasonably tasty and very lightweight and enormously convenient (compared to what had been before) when they first came on the market in the 1960s and 1970s. Culinary options on extended trips were greatly enhanced by those things.

Anybody remember Tang? Or that old standby, Wyler's powdered lemonade?

G.
 
An innovation from the last decade:

Online trip reports / trail conditions. Talking with people this past weekend on the trails in the Adks., I was struck by how many were doing certain trail-less peaks because they knew the trail was broken out after reading about it on the web. Changes the game significantly.
 
maineguy said:
The correct answer is (rico had it right)...the automobile.
Click to expand...
Certainly A correct answer, and certainly high up if not atop the list.

G.
 
Portable and lightweight water filtration systems.

Clean water! We all need it and forget how important this need is until we can't get it, get sick from it, or spread disease through it.

Especially as humans have encroached into wild lands and certain disease spreading animals have exploded into areas with fewer natural predators.

Water filtration has enabled us to go light, cheap, practice LNT techniques (as opposed to burning wood to make fire to boil water), make backcountry travel more accessable to more users (ok, not always a good thing), and most importantly, saved lives along with our personal plumbing systems. Now if we could only send them en masse to third world countries who still suffer from such primitive challenges!

PS: Great thread topic!
 
Last edited:
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