Nestled in amongst the awe-inspiring Italian Dolomites is the small village of Ziano di Fiemme, this village is home to a modest sized factory run by 150 people which at first could be mistaken as nothing special. However this is in fact home to La Sportiva Italy an outdoor footwear company that has continually raised the bar when it comes to high performing mountaineering footwear.

The Rab Batura Jacket isn’t your average, walking the dog on rainy evening, type of jacket, this is specialist jacket, designed for expedition use in high altitude and polar environment. The narrow box-walled baffle is chock full of that special 800FH hydrophobic down that is more water resistant than normal down, and also retains loft better and dries faster than traditional loft.

The Oakley Flak 2.0 XL is the next generation of Oakley’s bestselling Flak Jacket XLJ. Straight out of the box you get a hard protective case, a scratch proof Microbag, nose pads and the glasses themselves. The first impression from handling these glasses is how light they are - the frames are made from Oakley’s trademark O-Matter, a superlight and flexible plastic, with Unobtanium® (a rubber material to you and me). Earsocks and nosepads keep the glasses firmly in place even getting more grippy with perspiration.

The Motion XL from Thule has big boots to fill as we gave exceptional reviews to his brothers the Carrier (Aug 15 issue) and the Carrier (Sep 15 issue) so we were excited to test this roof box.

Reef was established over 30 years ago by two south American brothers Fernando and Santiago Aguerre, their vision, to produce a high quality active lifestyle sandal. The Rover XT sandal isn’t the typical socks and sandal, dads on holiday kind of footwear, these are all action sports sandals (yes there is such a thing). Featuring thick multi-cross straps across the top of the foot and another around the ankle, lined with a soft slightly padded material that feels comfortable against the skin even when wet.

Have you even been put in charge of tea duty whilst out in the wilderness, only to turn you back for a second and then find the whole thing has tipped over? The Primus Lite+ stove features a unique locking system and a lower burner that makes the whole system much more sturdy than the usual camp stove.  There are so many great little things about this stove, firstly it packs down to a really compact little bundle, if you are using a 100-gram gas cartridge, that and all the accessories can be safely stored inside the 500ml cooking pot.

The AirZone Pro is designed to be a four season hillwalking and lightweight trekking, it is absolutely rammed with special features, first and foremost is the most distinctive aspect about this bag and indeed its namesake, the AirZone cut out. The idea behind this is that it keeps as much of your body away from the rucksack allowing your skin to breathe, keeping you cooler and less sweaty, the parts of the bag that are touching your back are made from a breathable mesh this also reduces the weight and is anatomically shaped for increased comfort.

Tom Hennessy, hammock user and enthusiast, took 6 years and over 50 prototypes to make the perfect replacement hammock for his own personal hammock that was never returned to him by a friend. 18 years later Hennessy Hammocks produce a variety of hammocks as well as accessories all made to a similar high standard as if he was to use them that night himself. The Explorer Deluxe is suitable all year round and comes with attached mosquito netting, detachable rain fly, support ropes and stuff sack with set up instructions on the back.

In 1993 two inventive Swiss brothers, Markus and Daniel Freitag, created a weatherproof messenger bag from recycled truck tarpaulins, bicycle inner tube and a car seatbelt consequently the FREITAG company was born. Anytime a company uses recycled goods in their production they immediately score brownie points in our books but the FREITAG F14 Dexter Messenger bag really has gone above and beyond when it comes to upcycling. These funky looking bags are completely unique; no two bags are alike making yours as individual as your finger print.

For those not familiar with Australian mountains, Bogong is Victoria’s highest mountain, Bogong is an aboriginal word for Big-fella making it an appropriate title for Skandika’s 65lt +10 trekking all-rounder backpack. My favourite thing by far with this backpack is that you can access the entire main pocket from the front as well as the top, so you don’t have to think about keeping essentials at the top of the bag or diving in head first to try and get your spare pair of socks that you just know are at the very bottom of the bag.