Technology Research Lab – Exploration at the Edge
Welcome to the Technology Research Lab at Angle Hozary—a place where curiosity is our compass and innovation is the trail we follow. If you’ve wandered out here wondering where nature meets cutting-edge thinking, you’re in the right place. Whether you’re a survival enthusiast, a backcountry adventurer, or simply a seeker of what’s next in rugged tech and trail-side breakthroughs, this is your launchpad into what’s quietly shaping the wilderness journey of tomorrow.
Founded by Valdran Vornhaven, and rooted in the rolling spirit of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Angle Hozary serves explorers with sharp tools for navigating backroads, far-flung trails, and the ever-changing frontier of outdoor survival. Out here, we don’t just catalog gear—we test it against reality. We don’t just theorize technology—we take it into the trees, the streams, the storms. This lab exists for those who want to understand what’s out there and what’s possible with the right knowledge, skill set, and design strategy beneath your fingertips.
What We Study
The Technology Research Lab is our engine of experimentation. You won’t find white walls and blinking servers here—we keep mud under our boots and a tested blade in our pocket. Our work centers around the following:
- Gear Innovation: From modular backpacks to ultralight shelter materials, we probe what truly holds up when the weather turns and the trail stretches on.
- Navigation Tech: How do you find your way offline, off-grid, and under pressure? We’re exploring satellite communication, analog compass readouts, and hybrid GPS systems customized for deep wilderness use.
- Sustainable Systems: Portable solar mats, gravity filters, DIY energy kits—everything we’re testing supports the autonomy of long-haul survival with a nod to environmental sensitivity.
- Extreme Field Tests: New doesn’t mean better if it can’t take a hit. We bring our lab to the backcountry to trial tools in rain, cold, isolation, and unpredictability—pushing limits so you don’t have to gamble when it matters most.
Our Guiding Principles
This isn’t just about proving features—it’s about practical resilience. We build our research around a few fundamentals:
- Work with the wilderness, not against it. Every function should complement the environment, not fight it—no need for noise when the quiet will show you where to go.
- Fail forward. One busted buckle might be the thing that propels us toward a better design. We don’t fear mistakes—we chase what they teach us.
- Nothing is truly rugged until it survives neglect. Gear should be smart enough to handle poor planning. Our tests aim to anticipate that margin of real-world failure and build buffer into success.
Meet the Field Team
This lab isn’t just Valdran behind a dusty desk. It’s a rotating band of engineers, thru-hikers, rescue medics, material scientists, and weekend wanderers who all test tech where it actually lives—in the mess and reward of nature. We use their feedback loops to refine models, challenge assumptions, and steer innovation with a nose for the practical, not just the pretty.
Each contributor in the lab has field scars to match their credentials—they’ve carried gear through blizzards in the Alleghenies, dug into canyoneering rope fibers in Utah, or mapped a blind route with only analog tools out in the Taconic Range. They don’t test tech—they live it.
What We’ve Already Built
So far, the lab has helped shape several in-house innovations and collaborative proofs-of-concept with field-tested credibility:
- A collapsible ultralight basecamp stove fueled by natural biomass only, requiring no cartridges.
- Trail-smart headlamps with dynamic dimming and storm-response auto-lockout.
- And a hybrid analog-digital compass system that stores terrain profiles and wind direction history on low-memory e-ink.
This is just the beginning. Each creation answers a call from out in the wild—sometimes urgent, sometimes quiet—but always vital to the person relying on it out there.
Who This Lab Is For
If you’re tinkering with your gear layout months before a hike… if you’ve ever stitched a strap back together with moss and hope… if you know that duct tape and thoughtfulness are equally important in the backcountry… this space is built for you. We welcome gear testers, survival educators, off-grid thinkers, and anyone passionate about making the basics better, tighter, and more trustable wherever they go.
Outreach and Collaborations
We’re also building a bridge—connecting small tech companies, wilderness instructors, and lone creators with shared goals. If you’ve got a concept, a problem, or a prototype that needs sweat and soil behind it, reach out to us. We partner with upstarts and veterans alike to turn big outdoor ideas into something real, humble, and highly fieldable. Sound like your trail? Get in touch via [email protected].
Behind the Vision – Valdran Vornhaven
Valdran Vornhaven launched Angle Hozary after a solo three-week stretch in the windy gulches of eastern Utah sparked a single idea: survival thrives on preparation, but adventure leans on adaptability. Valdran’s approach to outdoor gear and tactics is part scientist, part scout—always rooted in the long arc between innovation and intuition. Today, that spirit carries into the lab, fueling work that feels at home in the world’s harsher corners and wildest skies.
Visit Us – For the Grit and the Thought
Want to see where our environment-seasoned insights are born? Our headquarters is proudly located at 232 Lucky Duck Drive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219, United States. Though the prototypes might be drying over the radiator or waiting on a frost test in the backyard woods, the doors stay open to those passionate about the possible.
Open Monday to Friday, 9 AM–5 PM
Phone: +1 412-837-7488
Email: [email protected]
To the Edge and Back
This lab isn’t for infinite funding or awards shelf dreams. It’s for better buckles, smarter firestarters, and tech that doesn’t panic when the cell tower fades. For us, the measure of success is whether our insights serve someone, somewhere, at the edge of their map—and bring them safely home, or onward, into something new.
The field is waiting. Our pack is always half-full on purpose—to leave space for what we might discover next. Let’s walk into it—and build what’s needed where it matters most.