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One of the most outlandish Kickstarter projects of 2023 is about to spawn a product series meant to create a new breed of superhuman outdoor adventurer. The Hypershell Omega motored onto Kickstarter last March as a real wild card, a wearable set of AI-driven robo legs promising to give man the power of a horse in high-alpine environments in order to offset backpack weight, extend natural range and ease the journey. The campaign was a US$1 million success story, and now the Chinese startup is preparing to show its two latest refinements at CES 2024.

The Hypershell Omega felt more than a little pie-in-the-sky when it first appeared on Kickstarter, and we were rather surprised it ultimately attracted more than 2,000 backers pledging over $HK9 million (around $1.2 million). Judging from the comments section of the campaign, those backers are still waiting for their actual exoskeletons, so Hypershell hasn't quite escaped the vaporware stage just yet, but it has been tweaking and delivering its exoskeleton and providing updates of its progress.

Whether or not the first adventure exos start finding their way to backers in the immediate future, Hypershell will be showing its latest refinements at CES, which officially kicks off on Tuesday, January 9. Hypershell will be showing two different Mountain Exoskeleton models, the ProX and the GoX.

Since its initial Kickstarter introduction last year, Hypershell has added a larger battery size that gives its exoskeleton up to 22 miles (35 km) of range. The latest Hypershell images show the addition of a larger hardware box on the back of the unit and discs on the upper legs.

We're still not completely sold on the Hypershell exoskeleton being the force that will "revolutionize outdoor exploration," but we can't deny that we're interested to see how it evolves and works in real-world conditions. For now, though, we'll have to settle for the showroom conditions of CES.