As some might already be aware, Outdoor Retailer recently hosted its 2011 Summer Market event featuring sneak peeks of some of the best outdoor gear in the industry, open air demos and over 1,000 retailers in attendance. There are a couple of us here at Outward Bound Costa Rica that can get rather excited for this type of event, and by a rather excited we mean full on “geeking out” on sweet new gear. It’s more than likely that we won’t be able own this gear, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fawn over some of the coolest and most advanced equipment available. Some of favorite picks from this year’s show include the following:

Head lamps are in many respects one of the most important pieces of equipment when embarking on an outdoor expedition. Their practicality and necessity are immediately realized when you don’t have one, and when you do, the night no longer inhibits your every move. Cooking, eating, packing, playing cards, and doing basically anything that involves two hands without having to carry a flashlight, is made easily possible. Due to the fact that Costa Rica’s sun leaves the sky at about 6:00 pm, there’s still a lot of day left that requires some good light. The reasons are bright and clear – head lamps are good!

One headlamp at this year’s Summer Market which spiked interest was Snow Peak’s Snow Miner, which takes its simple and clean mantra into the head lamp arena. The Snow Miner is a basic lamp that boasts 140 hours of battery life on low and 55 hours on high, and it is water resistant (which is certainly good for wet conditions in Costa Rica). It weighs 87 grams/2.9 ounces, which is light enough so that it won’t be noticed, until you need it!

Now with any luck, the folks at Snow Peak read this and send one for us to test!