Ice Tool Umbillical Review – By Dane Burns

February 2nd, 2010

The Joke Slinger, on the BD Spinner leash, Jan. 2010, the Cascades.

With the invention and popularity of leashless climbing a once condemmed and decades old climbing tool has come back. While they are not mandatory, they are in vogue. It has been over 35 years since I saw the first pair of umbilicals in use.

The author’s umbilicals of 9/16″ webbing being used on a quick ascent of Polar Circus in the winter of 1979.


Gregg Cronn photo

Back in the late ’70s and into the early ’80s umbilicals were looked upon as a weak man’s crutch. Mostly thought of as something the Canadians used (but never really did much) to aid sections of rotten, cold and really steep ice. We can blame all that on Bugs McKeith inventing the idea of ice aid while putting up some of today’s modern classics, like Nemisis and Polar Circus. Just two among his many, many difficult ice climbs. Most visiting American climbers thought they were way ahead of the game by not using umbilicals while running up the first “free” ascents of the Canadian test pieces. Few outside Canada really made the “first free” ascents many claimed. Canadians had already been there on most of them and didn’t fight back the cat calls.

No Internet back in the day so info was often sketchy and incomplete or just a fubar rumor. It was hard to keep track. Of course not every one used umbilicals even back then. But a few did. 1st and 2nd ascents of Slipstream did.


Jim Elzinga photo of John Lauchlan on the 1st ascent of Slipstream

They were not used for aid or for hanging to place screws. Although when required you could do either. The real use was to save your ass if you happen to fall. Hopefully an umbilical would keep you on the ice. BITD leads were long and run out. Ice screws could be hard, difficult or just plain impossible to get in, depending on the ice and out side temps. Weighting your umbilicals is a way to save the 2nd’s strength while pulling screws if you can deal with that idea ethically today.

No one sane thought the idea of falling with tools and crampons OK. Falling on the old gear generally required a hospital stay or worse.

Once I switched from Chouinard curved tools to a set of Terrodactyls for technical ice I seldom climbed without at least one umbilical attached to my harness or swami. As the tools changed the old umbilicals generally went straight on the new tools. Big jumps from Terros, Clog, Chacal, Pulsar.

Pretty simple change as mine were just a set of tied 9/16″ nylon tube webbing.

The first manufactured umbilicals I saw..years later (’05) … where done up by Grivel. The “Grivel, Double Sping Leash” with a mini wire gate “biner” specifically designed for the task. While leashless tools really hadn’t caught up with the possibilities yet, Grivel umbilicals were seen on some pretty amazing climbs often used by climbers sponsored by competing tool companies. The umbilical had finally “arrived”. But no one outside a tiny circle of hardcore alpine climbers really knew it yet. A quick Goggle Images search will get you photos of Steve House, Marko Prezelj, Raphael Slawinski and a host of others using both the Grivel and BD umbilicals on hard alpine climbs all through the new millenium.

I worry more about dropping a leashless tool, than I do falling off. But when you can protect yourself from both mistakes it makes sense to ante up and use that protection. More than one really good climber has poked fun at me because of my support of umbilicals. More climbs and climbers I admire used umbilicals and have been suggesting you do as well.

http://www.psychovertical.com/?doublespringleash

http://cascadeclimbers.com/alpine/colin-haley-alpinism-hardware-part-two

Ueli Steck, Grand Jorasses, record speed solo, Jan ‘09. Jon Griffin photos

Will Sim on the final pitch of the Ginat, Le Droites

Will again this time exiting the Croz Spur, Grande Jorasses

http://www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions

Easiest way to get yourself a pair of umbilicals is by reading Dave’s web site and making your own. Good stuff!!

http://www.alpinedave.com/leashless_rig.htm


Alpine Dave photo

The second way is buy a pair of the commercially made ones.

Grivel offers several versions and Black Diamond offers their “Spinner” unit.
For what it costs to make a “good” pair of umbilicals both Black Diamond and Grivel offer real value imo.

Here is some detail on what I use and my observations.

Grivel was my first commercial set. I was lucky enough to get the original Grivel 3KN mini biner version with a girth hitch atatchment. Not a big fan of the mini locking version out now. Or a biner attachment to the harness. Good elastic and webbing that attaches to the harness by a girth hitch (small loop is passed through harness belay loop and tails are feed back through and out the small loop cinching tight on the belay loop) Very simple. Length is shorter than some seem to like but if I sit down on the leashes (6′1 and normal ape index) at full extention for both tools the Grivel leash will allow my tools to be out of reach. Just barely so, but still out of reach. It is durable.

Black Diamond had dozens of Spinner Leash prototypes out the last couple of years for real world testing and feedback. Again I was lucky enough to get a pair of those and used them a lot. Better yet for good feedback, I let all my partners use them.

Only thing I can see that has changed in the Spinner leash is the over all length has been shortened on the current version. I’ve seen current reviews commenting that the BD Spinner leash set up is now too short. Trust me? The Spinner IS NOT too short for anyone under 6′8″ and a huge ape index that I know! The “too short” comment doesn’t make sense unless the reviewer is mistakenly writing about a short early prototype?

If you happen to fall on the Spinner you’ll have some work cut out for you getting back to your tools. The Grivel set up is managable but only just. The Spinner will make you work for a living it you weight it unprepared. But if you are using the most modern ice climbing techniques you should be stacking your tools on top of each other which should help. You’ll need the extra reach to accomplish that and still have only a short fall for your Spinner to catch. It is a tough balancing act to get the right umbilical length and still get it to do everything required of it.

If you need to weight your tools intentionally, you had better stack them or you’ll not be able to reach a tool using either brand name.

While I like simple and wasn’t impressed with the swivel of the Spinner originally, everyone else that used mine was. I’ve come to accept its advantages over time. And no question having a leash set up that avoids all the tangles and twists that will come with umbilicals is an advantage. Grivel no longer offers their 3KN wire gate mini biner version. On the other hand BD took notes and then used them on all the details. BD uses a proprietary hydrophobic webbing, a over built mini swivel and mini wire gate biner that will fit most tools head and spikes. It is a good piece of kit. And would cost a small fortune to duplicate in the same quality.

I try to climb smart and if a technical ice tool goes in my pack so does a umbilical system. See ya out there!

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Backcountry Skiing by Martin Volken et. al.

January 18th, 2010

Mountaineers books recently sent us a copy of Backcountry Skiing: Skills for Ski Touring and Ski Mountaineering by Martin Volken, Scott Schell, and Margaret Wheeler.  For those of you who don’t know, Martin owns Pro Ski Service in North Bend, WA and a guiding service by the same moniker, with the other authors of this book being fellow guides for his operation.  Below is what we hope is a comprehensive review of the this excellent book.  The Chapters are organized as follows…

Chapter 1 Gear and Equipment
Chapter 2 Decision-Making in Avalanche Terrain
Chapter 3 Navigation
Chapter 4 Uphill Movement
Chapter 5 Transitions
Chapter 6 Ski Mountaineering Techniques
Chapter 7 Downhill Skiing Techniques
Chapter 8 Taking Care of Yourself and the Mountain
Chapter 9 The Mountain Environment
Chapter 10 Rescue Techniques and Emergency Preparedness

As pointed out by Sky Sjue in his backcountry skiing article backcountry skiers really come two origins.  The first are traditional skiers looking for new challenges.  These skiers typically have the necessary skiing technique to ski challenging terrain but lack the backcountry knowledge to safely navigate “out of bounds”.  At the other end of the spectrum are backcountry users like climbers looking for a easier and faster method for traveling during the winter and spring months.  Martin clearly recognizing the disparity in skill sets between these two groups and successfully emphasizes these differences throughout the book.  One passage that particularly caught my attention was pointing out that good skiers ski literally hundreds of thousands of feet and that this is something that a new skier cannot do in the backcountry.  Along the same lines lack in skiing competency and being able to travel quickly greatly compromises safety.

Every chapter is very thorough with tons of tips. More importantly I found the book really engaging; I suffer from half-read book syndrome and didn’t encounter this with this book. The flow of information is well thought-out accompanied by great pictorial and graphical examples.  Coming from a resort skiing background, with most my partners doing the same, I really found the uphill movement and transitions chapters helpful, learning tricks I didn’t pick up through my skiing partners over the years.  I found there were so many tips I had to write them all down and take them with me to read before I started a tour.  Throughout the book the authors are constantly emphasizing mountain safety and what aspects of backcountry travel contribute to safety; efficiency, aptitude, speed, awareness, and proper judgement.  This book doesn’t for a minute pretend to replace needed backcountry training like avalanche classes and in-bounds skiing.

We highly recommend this book for anyone, even the most advanced backcountry skiers.  There is no filler in the book, it absolutely littered with useful information from combined decades of professional guiding experience.  Martin Volken’s end product is a highly comprehensive, engaging, and well-written book on almost every aspect of ski mountaineering that I’ve seen.  It’s a real impressive piece of work in what could be Martin’s doctoral dissertation on ski mountaineering.

Backcountry Skiing can be found at many local retailers that support cc.com as well as Amazon.com.

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Cascade Alpine Guide Vol. 3 Edition 3 by Fred Beckey

January 18th, 2010


We know this isn’t exactly fresh meat here but we were asked to do a review of the new edition of Fred Beckey’s Cascade Alpine Guide Vol. 3 more commonly referenced to as the “Red Beckey Guide”.  Released in the Fall of 2008 this edition was rumors to be the last update of CAGs by Fred.  It goes without saying that the Beckey Guides are the Bible to the Cascades, and while there is the occasional nebulous approach information there isn’t anything that comes close to the pure volume of information on climbing routes in the  Cascades.  In page count alone, this update is much smaller then the previous update, with only about 15 new pages.  That said, most of the new content is updated and/or corrected  routes and Fred went to considerable effort to solicit info for revisions.  This guide, along with its two companions, remain the staple for the climbers bookshelf and for anyone new to the Pacific Northwest or new to climbing it should be on at the top of the list for guidebook purchases.  For various reasons some recent new routes weren’t included, many done right after the submission deadline, and there is a thread here on cc.com that tracks these and in most cases with the accompanying trip report.

The new CAG can be purchased from any of your local retailers that support cc.com, as well as Amazon.com.

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Smith Rock Guidebook Review 2nd Edition- By Bill Coe

December 17th, 2009

smithrockguidebook
Falcon Guides suck. That most Falcon guides are not worth the paper they’ve been printed on is a widely known truism in the climbing world. Yet they often have been the only game in town and we all grit our teeth and buy one anyway. A good guidebook should do more than get you located in a new area: it should entertain, inform, and interest you in the area it presents. The information should be clear, well organized and most importantly, accurate. A really good one will present history along with current information or where to find current info. An excellent one will do all of this, and do it in deep rich color! The new Falcon Guide authored by Alan Watts does all of this. It breaks with the Falcon Guide tradition of settling for mediocrity, and proceeds directly to sublime and amazing.

The climbing community is still small in some sense. For as it turned out, Jeff Thomas and Jim Opdycke, two older and well known Oregon climbers both happened to be in my kitchen visiting when my wife walked in with the mail and casually said: “I think this may be the guidebook you were waiting for”. With this understatement out of the way, we proceeded to rip it open like kids at Christmas, and then wound up all trying to get the single toy to ourselves. Years ago, the best guidebooks in Oregon, perhaps in the country, were authored by this same Jeff Thomas. Jeff’s great Smith Rock Guidebooks set a high standard which Alan Watts fortunately followed years later in his first Smith Rock book, which Chockstone press published. Naturally, Jim and I deferred and let Jeff take his turn first at the pages and waited patiently for his appraisal. It turns out that Alan had sent Jeff a pre-production copy of his manuscript over a year back to sort out any inadequacies and fix any errors he could find. “It may be the best guidebook ever produced. Alan is even more anal than me”. Thus spake Jeff. Jim had a more understated view once he started flipping though it: “Wow, what a nice book” he said.

Once my visitors had left, Jim’s words took on a bit more meaning. The photos and the paper are excellent. Looking carefully at those pictures, one immediately senses that the photographer waited for perfect light, as if knowing that the picture would be shrunken down, so that the cracks and routes would still be clearly visible even in the smaller size. It isn’t so much that this book has 150 more pages and almost 800 routes more than the last Watts guide: as the fact that all of the details of this book, no matter how minute, have been apparently examined in depth and those little details ironed out so that the best result remains in the book. This is not to say that a nearly 500 page guidebook doesn’t have any errors. Rather that they tried to chase all of them down before hand. Watt’s plans on starting a web site (address http://www.smithclimbing.com/) specifically inviting any and all comers to send him any errors they discover or new routes which they complete so the Smith Rock information stays up to date.

Many of the great details of the highly regarded first Watts guide book published in 1992 are utilized in this book, and a few more well executed tricks are added. The same great clearly marked and accurately drawn overview maps found in the first guide are found in this one and still look perfect. The new guide has added overview photos clearly labeled so that you can “drill in” to an exact location. The use of letters which direct you to a detailed view of a close up topo and often a close up photo of the same location which has the routes drawn in.

Each letter in the photo below has a corresponding topo. If you selecting the letter “B”, as an example, in this less than stellar overview picture I took of the Monkey Face Overview:

You can drill in to that area in depth. See the corresponding topo and close up photo with routes drawn in and labeled as seen below.


These classic topo’s give you the true minutia of the routes and as Alan actually counted the bolts on these climbs, the bolt counts are accurate throughout. The pictures were not just taken in high res, but Falcon followed through and also published them that way in deep rich 4 color printing so you can see the details! Each climb also has a brief written description and the history of each area is sprinkled throughout the book in the overview sections of the major areas so you can read these interesting points and details of note between climbs at that area.

The ratings have both the Yosemite decimal difficulty, and the riskiness or seriousness (R and X) ratings as well. Furthermore, Alan stars the routes (no stars=bad – 4 stars=awesome) and gives a list of suggested routes a first time or harried visitor should do, sorted by difficulty. All this is done with a precision and clarity which borders on beyond human. This book also guides boulderers to the best places to look for boulders and lays out a nice mini-guide in the back of the book with several hundred boulder problems.

In an ideal world, any visitor from outer space could drop down in their spacecraft, grab the climbing guide, and head directly to the area with no troubles along the way. As Smith Rock actually seems to get some of these strange otherworldly visitors, along with lots of Europeans, Japanese and climbers from about everywhere else as well: it is critically important that a Smith Rock climbing guidebook be as comprehensive, accurate, and thorough as possible. That this one succeeds on that front, may be primarily due to Watt’s multi-year time sucking attention to detail effort: but kudos to Falcon as well for not cutting the corners and putting it all out there for us to revel in. Watt’s climbing guide to Smith Rock State Park garners Falcons first and only home run, and it’s hit not out of the park, but almost out of this world. This guidebook sets a high standard it is hoped all other guidebooks follow.

The New Smith Rock Guidebook by Alan Watts is available in store or online from long-time cc.com supporter Backcountry Gear.

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