DRYMAX SOCKS AND FIBER TECHNOLOGY EARN THE AMERICAN ALPINE INSTITUTE GUIDES CHOICE AWARD FOR 2009

(Salt Lake City, UT) This year the American Alpine Institute presented six awards at the annual Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City. The equipment and clothing awarded the AAI Guides Choice designation have proven to be of the highest quality in their product category. The awards are determined on the basis of excellence in design, performance, and durability demonstrated in rigorous international field tests conducted by professional guides of AAI. Evaluations are made throughout the year in desert, cold weather, rain, snow, high wind, and high altitude environments. The American Alpine Institute has no financial ties or financial interest in any manufacturer or distributor. All testers and their expenses are paid by AAI.

A core group of AAI professional guides conduct Guides Choice field tests year round, throughout the world. Tests may be completed in a single long season (for example five summer months of intensive climbing in South America), or over several seasons (for example McKinley expeditions in the spring and Himalayan expeditions autumn). Because of the intensity and constancy of use, the wear and stress that gear receives during these tests corresponds to many years of use by a recreational climber.

Here is what the American Alpine Institute had to say about the Drymax Socks & Fiber Technology:

"Drymax has completely revolutionized the way that we think about socks.

Most sport sock manufacturers claim that their socks wick the moisture away from the foot quickly. While this may be true to some extent, the question is, where does that moisture go? The fabric in a sock that wicks sweat away allows the moisture to adhere to the sock, which ultimately makes the sock wet. The sock may dry quickly when laid out in the sun, but that doesn't help you while your foot is inside of a boot. Wicking fibers require evaporation to dry and little of this happens in the closed environment of sport footwear.

Drymax has devised a fabric which forces the water through the sock and away from the foot. This helps keep the foot dry inside the boot. This may seem like it's been the goal of every sock manufacturer out there all along, but the science to make this happen has never been there before to do it right. Drymax is the first sock manufacturer to really do it right. The socks do exactly what they're supposed to do. They help keep your feet dry!"