More from the Outdoor Trade Show: Stoves and Socks and Poles and Books and Chargers

Day 2 at the Outdoor Show produced a nice surprise in the form of Darn Tough socks. I've been looking forward to trying these as reports from the USA suggest they are very hardwearing. Now they're available in Britain and I have a pair to test.

I'm also looking forward to trying new stoves from Jetboil and Primus, especially the Eta Light from the latter, which replaces the Eta Solo, which wasn't that good. The Eta Light looks far better. Jetboil meanwhile has made the first stove with an inverted canister that sits under the burner. With a big 2.5 litre pot it's designed for group cooking.

Brunton's Hydrogen Reactor won the Product of the Year Award (I was one of the judges). This new way to charge electronic devices really does look exciting.

There's a couple of good books from Cicerone out soon. One is Alan Hinkes' 8000 Metres, which I'm really looking forward to reading. The other is Trekking in the Himalaya, edited by Kev Reynolds, to which I contributed a chapter.

Finally Komperdell had some excellent looking carbon fibre trekking poles on display. These are lightweight and very stiff. Komperdell say the carbon fibre is very strong too. They have external locking adjustments that are easy to use. If they had Pacerpole handles they'd be just about perfect.

The tent picture below is one of Terry Abraham's and was decorating the Vango stand. All the show pictures are direct from my HTC Desire S phone.