​The greatest adventures are always more about the journey than the destination, but that truism can be easy to forget when you can't wait to get that heavy pack off your back. If the actual hiking isn't the most enjoyable part of your backpacking trips, then you just might be going about the whole thing the wrong way, according to Boulder-based athlete Andrew Skurka, whose new National Geographic book The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide hits the shelves at local bookstores and gear shops this week.

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Ashley Tauch shows off her iPad inside the Folio around the Westword office.

The Denver-based company F3 Designs, has stumbled upon success in that much-coveted of technology niches: Apple product accessories.

Its flagship product, the "F3 Folio," has become a local hit and has begun to gain momentum online and even internationally, with publications from Italy and France singing its praises.

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​This week I've been inundated with press releases from various companies headed to Denver to show off their wares at the SnowSports Industries America Snow Show, January 26-31, at the Colorado Convention Center. One actually caught my eye: The new iON Goggles from Boulder-based ZEAL Optics features an embedded camera capable of shooting both 1080p True HD video and 8-megapixel still shots.

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​Flylow, a Denver-based gear company specializing in skiing outerwear and accessories, won the first-annual Something Independent Snowsport Entrepreneur Award last night, presented at the Sypder Showroom at Battery 621. The $1,500 award comes with a marketing package to help take the winning entrepreneur to the next level, and was established to recognize Colorado's "adventurous risk-takers who are putting it all on the line in pursuit of a dream."

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​If, like us, you spent some of your Labor Day weekend trying on winter gear in stifling heat at the Ski Rex and Sniagrab sales, here's a quick reminder that the day after Labor Day is a great time to buy summer gear. Gotta love living in topsy-turvy Colorado, right? We perused some local offerings to put together a quick guide...

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​After featuring the cool Revolights Kickstarter project last week, local reader Greg Hydle reached out to see if we'd have a look at his own Kickstarter project, which similarly solves a problem for adventurous types: Namely, saving your laptop or iPad from certain death.

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The Revolights v4 prototype, via Revolights.com

​Look out, Moonlight Classic 2012, here's a product surely destined for just about every nocturnal bike in Colorado: The Revolights project is less than $10,000 shy of its $43,500 goal on Kickstarter.com, with 42 days to go as of this writing, which means fully-functional wheel-mounted cycling lights could soon be a reality.

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Check 'em.

​There's nothing like a sweet pair of sunglasses on a sunny summer day. Whether we wear sunglasses for style, protection, expression or color, its evident they are both an accessory and a necessity for looking hot in the heat -- so if you think sunglasses are, well, just sunglasses, think again. We went out on the 16th Street Mall to chat with some random people about their goggles, and returned enlightened. So take off those sun blockers and feast your eyes on what these unsuspecting people had to say.

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​Gear geeks, rejoice: Bruce Johnson brings his History of Gear project to Boulder's Neptune Mountaineering tonight at 8 p.m. (Table Mesa Shopping Center, 633 South Broadway) for his Great Gear Pioneers of Boulder lecture, where a display of vintage gear from pioneering historic Colorado companies will stand in stark contrast with the high-tech tools of today that the shop carries, many of them also made by homegrown brands.

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​I've been checking in with cool Colorado companies and trying out their goods on a mission to assemble a locals-only gear bag. This month I've been testing three different pairs of ski/snowboard goggles from Boulder-based Zeal Optics as well as the company's sweet new solar panel pack that helps power my gadgets (including Zeal's high-tech Transcend GPS goggle).

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