Safety first for skiers: The death of Natasha Richardson sparked a raft of coverage about the risks of skiing and the benefits of wearing helmets on the slopes. It's impossible to know if a helmet could have helped the actor, but it does seem ludicrous that we wear bicycle helmets as a matter of course but are willing to hurtle unprotected down mountains strewn with ice, rocks and trees. A new generation of lighter, stronger and more attractive helmets, such as the polycarbonate Red Theory (€120, www.great outdoors.ie) leaves helmet holdouts with few excuses.
Swiss outdoor footwear maker Mammut claims its plastic inserts in the Mt Trail GTX walking boot (£150/€165, outdoor retailers, www.mammut.ch) will help prevent ankle sprains. The insert helps keep your foot stable, says Mammut, which points out that the ankle is the most commonly sprained joint, requiring up to eight weeks to heal. This column’s gimmick alert is starting to buzz. I’d be very interested if the device will give you any more protection than a tightly laced pair of good leather walking boots.
Flash drives are those little USB memory sticks that are very convenient for taking with you on trips, so you can store loads of vital computer files and digital photographs, then lose the drive before you’ve remembered to transfer the information back on to a hard drive. LaCie’s Iamakey makes that process more difficult: the water- and scratch-resistant device is shaped like a key and designed to be hung on your key ring. (4GB €19.90, 8GB €29.90, www.lacie.com/ie).