dan_e

This is the first failure I've personally seen in 18 years of climbing. I've only owned one product that was ever recalled, the BD Switchblades. They were such pieces of shit, I have no idea why I bought them. Still BD did the right thing and recalled the product. Petzl recently had a recall on the Sarkens and so on... Grivel has pulled out of the US and it's becoming clear they don't care much for the customers they left behind. I am not quite ready to fully disclose the details, but I hope to soon. I am giving them one more chance to do what is right, they have two strikes so far. I have no problem with a company that occasionally makes a mistake and admits it, recalls the product and insures the customer is fully satisfied. In the end we all need to fully assume the risk of relying on the equipment that we use for climbing. It's up to manufacturers to do the best they can to make sure defective product does not make it to the consumer.

I wonder if anyone that is modifying Nomics has actually talked to the engineers at Petzl, I would safely assume they haven't. A modern ice tool like the Nomic is vastly different than the tools the old schoolers used. The increased stress from hammering could cause disastrous results. One possible problem might be weakening the connection that joins the head to the shaft. Either way, there is no way I would use the Nomics to pound pins, with or without a hammer. Your safest bet, like others have suggested would be to get a more suitable tool like the Cobras or possibly the new Fusions. I modified an old X-15 hammer for pounding pins, it's a bit more weight, however it will put in a pin way faster than any modern ice tool. I still plan to get the Cobras, but they're not cheap so it might be a while.

Moved from original post on "Stainless Steel Crampons" As promised an update on the Vector Nanotechs after first use, which sadly has only been on rock. PROS: 1) Weight. As in lack of...these are the lightest, technical steel crampons made. They are even lighter than the Darts which are pretty damn light. 2) Durability. The Nano-engineered steel is not BS. The points show no significant sign of wear after climbing four rock routes at the Squak crag. The front points are showing some wear, but they are most likely made of CrMo. 3) Quality. Fit and finish is excellent. Easy no tool adjustment for size. 4) Extras. Nice custom case, tools and spacers included. Yes if you order the dual points for $4 extra you get two spare points when you convert to Mono's. 5) Rust free! It's nice to finally own a pair of crampons that won't rust. CONS: 1) Price. At $255 retail these could be the most expensive crampons ever made, ouch! At least you know you're paying extra for the bomber materials. 2) Flexy center bars. I noticed this before climbing, but not during so not sure if it will be an issue. I need to get them on ice to learn more. Summary: I found these to be the most precise crampons I've ever used on rock, even more than the Darts in my opinion. I only climbed up to M4+ with them, however I was testing them so I intentionally used tiny holds and used them on a variety of climbs. So far so good, the next post will be about their ice performance, hopefully that will be soon.

Camp Vector Nanotech update - first use POST MOVED HERE: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/921115/Camp_Vector_Nanotech_Crampons#Post921115

There is no "stainless layer", stainless steel is a mixture of steel alloy and chromium. There are different grades and ways to finish the steel, however it is 'stainless' throughout. Regarding rust: Most crampons are still made with carbon steel or CrMo which means they will rust. There is no harm with a little surface rust, it just looks bad. If you want to prevent rust, clean them good with a wire wheel (Dremel tools are very handy for this) and then spray them with silicone spray. After climbing hang them to up and when dry spray them with silicone spray again. The same works very well for ice screws. If the rust really bugs you buy a new pair of stainless steel crampons. The advantages to SS in crampons is reduced weight and little or no rusting. The front points are not stainless, however they are usually painted to prevent rust. See this thread: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/915694/Re_Stainless_Steel_Crampons#Post915694

This is off the subject a bit, however you may want to think about this image when considering ANY product from Grivel. Maybe they're materials engineers don't know much about aluminum?! More to come...

I just ordered the Vector Nanotech's. I will re-post after I've used them. These are probably the lightest technical crampons made and arguably the strongest. CAMP is using some pretty high tech materials for these crampons, "Sandvik Nanoflex". I saw these for the first time at the Ouray ice fest. I was amazed at how thin the metal was. A few excerpts from their website: "Sandvik Nanoflex® offers higher corrosion resistance in aqueous solutions than ordinary stainless steels, such as ASTM type 304." "Sandvik Nanoflex® has attracted a great deal of attention through its combination of hardness and toughness - normally two opposing properties in material physics. Conventional hard steels are brittle." "Cold-forming of hard and brittle materials is normally impossible. Sandvik Nanoflex® is anything but normal. Formable in the as-delivered condition; cutting, turning, grinding and bending present no problem. Once the desired shape has been attained, heat treatment is applied at low temperature, thus dramatically increasing the strength of the final product. "

JP and I went up on Sunday to check out Colfax with gear in hand knowing the route wasn't in (fully that is). We confirmed that the second ice tier is not there, however it's starting from. The route should come in soon if there are no major warm-ups. A tad more snow would might not hurt. We bailed and ended up having another great day of climbing Seracs. We found a pretty big one higher up and it was surrounded by lots of crumbling ice (lots o' spooky cracking sounds).

Thanks other "dane", for a second I thought I had a clone! I couldn't bring myself to modify the head to make it lighter, it's a work of art. Not sure if it's investment cast, but still quality design and quality metals.

My $.02, Support your local resoler. They're the experts and who knows how much longer they will be around. It's pretty tough to resole a modern shoe unless you have the skills and the right equipment. The last pair I ever tried to resole were my 5.10 Altia's (original model). This shoe doesn't look much different than an EB! The resole was okay, but what a joke compared to my Scarpa slippers that I just had resoled at Cascade Cobbler. I have to say they look like brand new shoes, factory quality!

Okay so it's not new, just my old "spare" 40cm X-15 tool that I've converted into a winter piton beater! Specs: Length - 28 cm (top of head to bottom of spike) Weight - 1.22 lbs I am still w/o Alpine ice tools so it's another year with my beloved Nomics, still they are lacking hammers (thankfully) so I needed something for pounding in the occasional pin. Poor X-15 hammer, never even been used. As many of you may know, the old school way was to carry a spare tool in case you broke your pick on lead or dropped your tool. I've never done either (knocking hard on wood). The mod (short story)... I simply hacked off about 12 cm of the shaft, the hardest part was removing the spike. It's held to the aluminum shaft with aerospace grade adhesive and shit the stuff is tough. I had to heat it with a heat gun on high for several minutes before I could get it to budge. The only other difficult part was correctly drilling the new hole for the roll pin, not so easy without a drill press. The pick mod was simple, but again time consuming using only a hacksaw, dremel tool and file. I am looking forward to using it soon, the hammer on this tool is bomber. Sure it's a tad heavy, but I think I can manage the extra pound. Hopefully next year I will have the new Cobras. Completed "Alpine Hammer" Remnants

Never climbed in the Gunks or any where with a lot of pockets eh? Tri-cams are still very useful, but can be difficult to place and remove, however they're light and cheap!

They are Cyborgs that are made of SS, no apparent design change. I am pretty sure the front points are not stainless. I am want to try the Camp Nanotech crampons, they are superlight (794 g) vs. 1120 for the Cyborgs!

It's one of the more accessible large alpine peaks and it's a pretty serious mountain, like others have said even the easier routes have objective danger hazards, etc. I spent an unplanned night there last summer on Serpentine due to route finding difficulty and ultimately weather. We were there the day after that woman died from the rappelling accident on The Fin/Backbone. My partner and I also tried Triple Couloirs this past Spring (twice). The route was never in good shape and many (including us) bailed from different locations on the route. There was no ice and the snow was junk in many places. I took a 15' fall onto my back while trying to get around what we aptly named "The over-hanging, unconsolidated snow bulge chimney variation". This is a section not to far from where the route cuts left up on the nice ice bulge (this section was 100% ice free both times we were there).

Thanks for the replies everyone. All I can say is we need to get medieval on what remains of that trail before it's lost forever! I am hoping to get back there this fall and I will do some pruning. Do you guys think it would be better to try and blaze a trail along the river?

No of course it's not pointless to go to Static Point these days, but damn if it's not a bit more of a pain in the ass to get there and we never even made it to the cliff! I was hoping the hardest part would be having to hike in a couple of miles, but the bushwacking proved me wrong. The last time I visited Static Point was in June of 2000. My first visit was around 1996 or so, this was back when you practically drive to the base of the approach trail. I've only ever climbed Online and I was back to bring a friend to do the same route (it's an amazing friction climb on pristine granite). As many of you know the road is toast, it's not because the DNR wants to keep climbers out (some have assumed that), it's because the road was slated to be decommissioned years ago and we knew this, however it took them a while to get it done. It had been thought that they were going to log off of that road (comments in the guide books). The logging never happened, which is good right? Would we rather have the road stay open so we could dodge logging trucks and then be rewarded with massive clear-cuts? I think not, sure it's a bit more of a pain to get in there now, but all we need to do is keep the trail open (some pruning required). Here's what we learned today: 1) Sultan Basin road is closed a several miles from Rt 2 at 112 St SE. Take Kellogg Lake Rd to get past the closure. 2) You now need to park just past the registration station (Olney Pass gates). The two mile walk in to the spur road to SP is not bad, you could bring mountain bikes to save some time. 3) The spur road is just past the bridge and is marked (blocked) by a giant pile of trees and boulders (impossible to miss). It's on the right just a short distance up the road from the bridge. The good news they are repairing that bridge and it looks like it might be done before winter. 4) The old decommissioned spur road is gone and now consists of large mounds that were built to shore up the drainages that cross the road. They actually did a great job restoring the road even though it's a pain to hike and no it's not very feasible to mountain bike down the spur road. 5) The remnant of the road eventually ends at two large rocks, in the past you could drive all the way to here! The rest of the way is pretty grown over with alder. Supposedly the approach trail is marked by a culvert pipe and cairns. We saw many culvert pipes, but no cairns. It should only be a 1/4 mile from the large rocks to the approach trail which is on the left and ascends steeply through large trees to the base of the cliff. Again we never found the trail and I am pretty sure we went way too far, we turned around a tried to find the trail on the way back, but had no luck. So please, if you have any more details or photos post them. There were three parties including us on the way in and from what I know no one found the approach trail. On our way out we met another party heading in and they seem to know where it was, but they had not been there in ten years (it's been nine for me). I hope someone got to climb. This is supposedly what we were looking for: "The correct trail is by a pipe that is 1/4 full of dirt and there is a cairn marking the start." The two large rocks (old parking area) There's a person in there if you look hard The wrong culvert pipe What's left of the old spur road You reward for finding the cliff

JP is right on about NEWS, although P3 (.9 under cling traverse) was quite fun as well (great exposure). The first pitch is the worst and goes up a rotten crack/groove that doesn't protect well until you're well off the deck. Try to avoid the lichen filled crack up and left of the dihedral on P2. The SCC vol 1, ver 2 guide points to where you want to go so avoid the written description which says to go up the dihedral. This option could be fun, but the crack needs a good scrubbing. Beckey's guide has a good description and topo as well. This was my first "official" climb at Washington Pass and I have to say I am now hooked, too bad it wasn't a bit closer!

I first climbed at Squamish two years ago when I was still living back east. It was an amazing trip, we did it all from the classic trad routes, to a day of sport climbing and some bouldering. The only negative of the trip was the camping which really sucks. The one weekend day we stayed there was a nightmare. So loud from people blaring music and screaming until 1 am and the road construction which seem to go on all night as well. There needs to be way more camping there and camping for climbers who don't want to party until the sunrise! Now that I am living in Seattle I would plan to go during the week, the weekends are just too crowded.

AdrClark and I climbed 2.5 pitches of what's being called center Skookum yesterday (what Wayne1112 climbed) I would say overall rating was 4-. We climbed 55m for the first two pitches and 25m on the last pitch before we bailed. There was about 40-50m more to climb. The river crossing is fine, just look for the huge area of large downed trees. We did not see where the party fell in, but we were glad that we did not go for a swim. It was a fun route, interesting for sure and it did require delicate moves during much of the climb. The ice was heavily layered, hollow and detached from the rock in many places. There was also a good covering of snow on the ice, even on the steep sections. Belays were decent and as luck would have it there was solid ice for good anchors. You could here water running in many sections and I punched through in a few spots down low where the ice was clearly detached from the rock. I managed to get a few decent screws in, but most were crap. I wish we could have finished this route, but I don't regret backing off. This was good start to the season for me. Here's a pic of AdrCLark on a short, but exposed traverse at the end on P2. I ran this pitch out so it was either a full hanging belay or semi-hanging so I opted for the later.

I am up for some ice tomorrow, I sent you a PM.

Wayne I sent you a PM.

Looking to climb close by, Exit 38 or Alpental. Send PM if interested. I lead and have a rack/ropes.

The newest Cobras have 100% carbon fiber shafts and are quite strong. I am getting them next season to use mainly on alpine routes since the Nomics are a bit out of place in that world and they also don't no hammers.

I am glad you all seem to like it more than me, at least you are getting your moneys worth!

I bought this jacket back in late November and I've had it out in about every type of winter condition this season. Here's what I found: Waterproofness: Average to Poor (yes, I know this jacket is not designed for full on rain, still with Cloudveil making this claim: "Cloudveil's classic "do-anything" 9 days out of 10 mountain jacket". I have to say "Yeah right!" Apparently they have not tested it in the PNW!) Breathability: Average (This was a tough call, mainly because it seems like the jacket breaths fairly well, but pit zips would still be a good idea. Also, it feels clamy to me even with a thin poly top on, something that I do not feel with gore-tex, it almost feels like it's absorbing the moisture more than venting it. Durability: Good (So far nothing has torn, no stitching problems, ect.) Overall, I still like the jacket, but IMO this jacket and Schoeller material has a limited use to very dry days and with light layers underneath. I will not use this jacket on an ice climb unless I can see that it's not dripping wet. I wore it in the Rockies one day and the first pitch looked bone dry so I though I was good, until 1/2 way up the second pitch when the climb turned really wet and there was not a dry line to be found! I could have been screwed, but luckily it was -17 C that day so the water just froze to the outside of the jacket and I turned into a giant popscicle! If it had been warmer, I would have been soaked and hypothermic in a matter of minutes. I wore this jacket more than I had intended, because my old gore-tex jacket I used for ice was trashed and my other one is way too bulky. I plan to try the Arc'Teryx Beta SL jacket next season. I tried one on this year and I was amazed at how well it fits and it's super light! Dan E.