The event really was one of the hardest things I’ve seen, as the course covered 18km around Southport, including running on the beach, with 35 different man made, military style obstacles punctuating the route.  Obstacles like a 10m high cargo net climb up on to the pier after running a mile on the sand.  Or how about the final obstacle after 18km, The Apocalypse! A monster of a creation that started with an 8metre rope climb up a slippery 45degree slope, then a slide down a firemans pole in to a tank of ice cold water before hauling yourself out, up another steep climb, only to drop down over a railing on to the ground to run to the finish.  Brutal!

These kind of events have started to pop up around the UK and Xtreme Storm is by no means completely ‘new’, following in the footsteps of Tough Mudder and the like, although where the organisers scored big here was the in the use of the town of Southport as a venue, as this makes this event completely unique and a brilliant tourist attraction for the town.  Also having interviewed many of the finishers, a majority of whom spend their weekends competing in endurance events like this, the general consensus seemed to be that this was one of the hardest they had done.

So congratulations to the organisers and all those who took part in what was a ‘muddy great day out’ in the sunshine.  And according to Laura, we will both be entering next year…….I’d best start training now!

The image below capturing the feel of the event brilliantly was shot by and is copyright Joe Topping Photography.

Television presenter and outdoor enthusiast, Kevin Harris running in Wales on the front cover of outdoor fitness magazine.

Last month was pretty cool, when I happened to find a running shot I did with Adventure Lifestyle photographer Ross Woodhall on the front cover of Outdoor Fitness Magazine.  Ross is one of the industries best action sports photographers so it is always pleasure to to run, bike or ski on one of his shoots, as you know the results will be great.  I’ve added another example of this from a shoot at the end of the last ski season.  With poor snow and light on the day, Ross got the flashes out and we still got an awesome shot or two!

Television presenter Kevin Harris skiing for a shoot with photographer Ross Woodhall.

You only have to peer inside an Alpine café mid morning on the worst of days in a particularly harsh winter to see the ski instructor casually and comfortably enjoying their ‘café au lait et pain au chocolat’ looking like he or she has only just left the apartment. While the group of keen debutant skiers surrounding them are looking like they have been through a car wash and then freeze dried in a frozen food factory with expressions of bemusement on their faces wondering what on earth they are doing on this kind of ‘holiday’. Is this polar opposite of coping with the terrible weather conditions down to some sort of heroic power only possessed by ski professionals? Although some of those same professionals would have you believe it is, the truth is more likely that the professionals are kitted out correctly for the job in hand, unlike their rookie customers.

So with this in mind you will understand how happy I was to travel to Breckenridge in December with Sweet Protection clothing in my suitcase, having been told that the Colorado ski area is often referred to as “Brecken-fridge”.

Sweet Protection is created in the Norwegian town of Trysil, Norway’s largest ski destination not far from the border with Sweden and approximately 200km from Oslo. This part of Scandinavia is home not only to cold, harsh weather conditions but also some pretty serious and lets face it, style conscious big mountain skiers. It’ll come as no surprise then that the clothing made by Sweet Protection is exactly that – seriously functional and incredibly stylish.

The ski outerwear that I had to use and test on my trip was the Supernaut jacket and pant from the Sweet ‘Resolution Series’ in a classic colour combo of ‘scorch red’ and bird blue’.

On my top half I layered up with a Helly Hansen base layer, then a Sweet protection Saviour fleece top, Sweet protection ‘Nutshell’ primaloft jacket and then the outer shell of the Supernaut jacket itself. On my legs I had my faithful Snow Skins compression tights, Sweet Protection Saviour pants and then the Supernaut pant to complete the layering system.

The weather in Breckenridge, was amongst some of coldest skiing I have experienced in the last twenty or so years, but what struck me more was the speed with which it could change from being pleasant and warm in the Colorado sunshine to severe high winds and ‘white out’ causing the chair lift to slow and ultimately stop as a consequence. I can honestly say though, I was supremely comfortable thoughout my trip with the layering system from Sweet that I was wearing.

The Supernaut jacket is a triple layer Gore-Tex pro shell designed to be worn as the outer part of your layer system. It is engineered in such a way that you get a 100% waterproof, maximum breathe-ability jacket, that maintains a full range of movement and offers comfort that feels like you are almost wearing nothing. The jacket is full of features that make it one of the most practical, no nonsense jackets I have seen.

I like clean, good design simplicity in all products be they technology, bikes, furniture or in this case, ski kit and that is exactly what you are getting here with Sweet clothing.

The zips and drawstrings on the waist and built in hood of the jacket are easy to use with a gloved hand and the huge access pockets on the front are perfect for stashing goggles, spare beanie and piste maps etc. Inside the jacket there are two zip pockets for your phone, wallet and or MP3 player with a handy headphone cord loop inside the collar.

The cut on the collar is high and this was a put to good use as I sat on the chairlifts, shoulders hunched down inside, with the built in hood rolled up bracing my neck and cheeks from the best that the Colorado winter weather could throw at me!  The hood itself is also designed when fully up, to fit over the full range of Sweet Protection helmets including their exciting new, Grimnir.

The Supernaut pants offered the same kind of high wind protection with a very functional full length, leg zip closure that made getting them on and off over ski boots a breeze. A zip top and bottom also enables practical venting for when the hiking or skinning up has raised your core temperature somewhat.  There are also full underarm vents on the Supernaut jacket, that I think are a necessity in an outer shell that you will wear all season right through to the spring when the temperature has risen or again when you have just hiked up.

For deep powder days the jacket has a full elasticated and rubberised grip powder skirt inside and the pants have a zip in and zip out braces system to ensure you don’t get excess white stuff making it’s way in and through to your base layers.

The style and cut of the jacket and pants are second to none. You really are getting an almost, over engineered, high performance alpine climbers jacket that that oozes enough style and design elegance to keep even the most ardent ‘Cham’ Sud’ resident happy. The freedom of movement that this fit allows, gives you the confidence to feel like you can ski anything or pull the kind of aerials only seen in an X-Games final.

To my knowledge, Sweet Protection clothing and helmets are not yet available for sale in the US, but this didn’t stop me getting asked on many occasions by the American skiers I spoke to, what brand was my kit and where could they get it? I simply had to direct such inquisitors to the Sweet Protection website where you can drool and order to your hearts content.

So have a think the next time you are looking out of the chalet window wondering whether to go riding…is it the bad weather that’s stopping you or your kit hanging in the hall?

To find your nearest dealer and to see the full range check out www.sweetprotection.com

Hope you like it

Twelve months ago a chance meeting and some self motivation on my part led to my involvement with ION, which developed in to my ski image shot by Ross Woodhall being used by ION as their main winter sports advertising picture across all media for this season. In fact, I’ve just seen it again on the back inside cover of Januarys Ski and Snowboard magazine as I’m sat here writing this on the plane.

The camera itself is a great piece of kit that is designed to a job and it does it really well in an almost ‘Apple-like’ clean simplicity and its this simplicity and design that has interested me from the outset.

Out of the box its waterproof to 10metres, has an awesome and very simple ‘Cam-Lock’ mounting system and is one of the lightest in its class with a design aesthetic that I’m sure others wish they had though of first.  But the deal breaker for me is the WiFi capability that not only enables you to use your iPhone, smart phone or iPad as view finder, but also to review and edit the contents of the memory card on that same device.  This is particularly handy, as you can watch back a mornings filming efforts on your phone in the café at lunchtime and then delete the rubbish and missed shots to free up space on your card and then go and reshoot accordingly.

Excitingly though, if you have clips you love and want to the World to see before you get you home you can instantly share your video clips to Facebook, YouTube and or the ION Cloud where every owner gets 8GB of storage ‘in the box’.  This ‘Shoot/Share’ capability is what sets the ION apart from the competition.

ION were the first to be doing this in the POV camera market and although Go-Pro the market leaders have now released their versions of this kind of WiFi capability in their latest models, at the time of writing this, their functionality in the accompanying Go-Pro app is nothing compared to the ION app, already in its third generation.

So over the next 10 days the posts on this blog will be from behind the scenes at The ION Mountain Classic and may take the form of written articles, photos and video content so please check back for updates. And I fully intend on adding further video content to this blog on the Air Pro WiFi, but in the meantime visit www.iontheaction.com

Catch you next time.

Promotional Video – version 1 from ION ACTION CAMERAS on Vimeo.