featheredfriends

Hope ya'll had a great time! Thanks a bunch to all of our sponsors and a special thanks to Adam and Leavenworth Mountain Sports for bringing the grill out and being the local connection. Next time you're in Leavenworth, make it a point to get into his shop. Cheers, The FF crew.

But almost sold out! We have a full set (minus the smallest ones) left with some doubles in key sizes. If you love Aliens, yer gonna love these. Get 'em while we still have them.

Hey Y'all, The schedule of events have just been posted. Check it out here: http://www.featheredfriends.com/rockfest/2008/event.html New this year is Mike Schaefer's clinic on climbing photography. Space is limited for the clinics. Make sure to RSVP!

Hey CC.commers - write the dates down and join us for the 9th annual Rockfest. This is our grassroots festival to celebrate Pacific Northwest climbing and to kick off the summer season in style. This year we're excited to have Kate Rutherford (see the cover of last month's Climbing magazine) join us to teach clinics and show us some great images during her slideshow. If you're not familiar with this event, it's simple. We have free camping for you on Saturday night at Bridge Creek Campground in Icicle Creek Canyon, we'll provide the food on Saturday night and Sunday morning and we'll have free clinics on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. This is a family friendly event, and we'll have clinics for everyone from brand new to experienced climbers. A complete list of clinics and an event schedule will be posted on our website by the end of the week. See ya there!

Hey Ya'll, we're trying to make room for our new boots this spring and have decided to put these on sale. We have a few sizes left - give us a call if you have any questions. - Eddie

Good advice all around. To clarify a couple of points mentioned: 1) Yup - still handmade down the street from the shop. 2) For mummy bags: at each temp rating we offer a few different widths (as many as 4)per bag. If your buddy's bag seems too tight, try a wider model for more room. Cheers, and thanks for you continued support! - Eddie

One of the most significant alpine traverses in modern climbing history, Colin and Rolando Garibotti finally accomplished the link-up of Aguja Standhardt, Punta Herron, Torre Egger, and Cerro Torre in a single alpine-style outing. Come early - this show will be packed!

Heidi Wirtz, a North Face athlete, and Lizzy Scully, Rock & Ice Senior Contributing Editor, traveled the world on climbing expeditions for 12 years. After a disastrous trip to Pakistan, their perspective on life changed and they decided to found Girls Education International.

They recieved the McNeill-Nott grant from the American Alpine Club this past year and, inspired by Paula Abdul, established new routes in East Greenland over the summer. Join them for stories and images from the Fox Jaw Cirque in East Greenland's Schweiterland Mountains.

Feathered Friends was indeed robbed early on the morning of March 9th. We are working with the Seattle Police Department to collect video feeds and eye witness reports from members of the local business and residential communities. The items taken included Frontpoint Jackets, Icefall Parkas and Rock & Ice Parkas. We would appreciate any information that may help to recover the stolen goods and/or lead to prosecution of the perpetrators. As always, thanks for your continued support. We look forward to seeing you here in the shop AND out in the hills. -FF

Feathered Friends was indeed robbed early on the morning of March 9th. We are working with the Seattle Police Department to collect video feeds and eye witness reports from members of the local business and residential communities. The items taken included Frontpoint Jackets, Icefall Parkas and Rock & Ice Parkas. We would appreciate any information that may help to recover the stolen goods and/or lead to prosecution of the perpetrators. As always, thanks for your continued support. We look forward to seeing you here in the shop AND out in the hills. -FF

Thursday, March 13th at 7:30 PM. This will also be a silent auction to raise money for the new American Alpine Club grant in Lara Kellogg's honor. I'll have a list of the items going up soon

Featured on National Geographic and the BBC, David begins his show by sharing his stories, shows slides and short video clips of film jobs that he's done as a buildup to his mountaineering exploits. It includes helicopter filming over the frozen Arctic Ocean, filming grizzly bears, wolves and lions in the Rocky Mountains and filming cows in Texas (yes, there is a story that goes along with the cows). As a part of the adventure theme he will also briefly tell of sailing on a tall ship for five months from Scotland to Greece and of a 3000 mile, 175 day backpack trip along the Continental Divide from Mexico to Canada.After a six part series on K2 he filmed for National Geographic, he was hired as the hight altitude cameraman for the Italian "Everest Speed Expedition" in 2003, putting the first Italian woman on the summit. In 2006, he shot the first video footage of Everest's West Ridge on a British Army Expedition, and will conclude with images from one of the most intriguing expeditions on Everest. The Medical Research Expedition's (Xtreme Everest) conducted medical research never done before, and at elevations higher than ever before. The film, "Everest: Doctors in the Death Zone" was broadcast in England this fall and reported the highest ever audience approval rating of any BBC Horizon program in Horizon's over forty year history.

Help support the Northwest Avalanche Center! In 1982, Lowell Skoog began what would become a twenty-five year project to ski the Cascade Crest from the summit of Mount Baker to the summit of Mount Rainier. In 2000, Lowell launched a parallel effort to uncover and document the 100-year history of backcountry skiing in Washington. This presentation is a personal look at how these two journeys have become interwoven over time. The one-hour program includes a mix of modern and historical photographs as well as rare movie footage of Cascade skiing between the 1930s and 1950s. Lowell Skoog has been backcountry skiing and climbing in the Cascades since the 1970s. He is founder of the Northwest Mountaineering Journal (http://www.nwmj.org/) and chairman of the Mountaineers History Committee in Seattle. His research into Northwest skiing history and the full story of his quest to ski the Cascade Crest can be found on his website, The Alpenglow Gallery (http://www.alpenglow.org/). Lowell works as a software development consultant in the Seattle area, where he lives with his wife and son.

The new ArcTeryx X350a has arrived at Feathered Friends. This innovative harness uses Warp Strength Technology to create a low profile, low volume 12.2 ounce adjustable leg-loop harness that is easy to wear AND easy to carry. The craftsmanship and finishing are consummately ArcTeryx. Come in and take a look at the next step in harness evolution!

If demand is any indication, these boots are excellent. They are the single most popular model we have sold in both 2006 and 2007. We have to re-order these boots every few weeks. Our customers love them. They fit differently from Garmont Towers, Sportiva Trango S Evo, and Kayland Apex XT. The Triolet has a roomier toebox and fits a higher volume foot better than the Trango S, but it's also heavier. What you get for that extra weight is improved durability. The leather construction takes a beating from scree, snow, etc. a lot better than the fabric panels in synthetic boots. Plus they are a little less expensive than other popular models in that category. Our staff also love them, a few of the folks here wear Triolets. They have worn them into the Pickets, on Baker, on Rainier, all over the Cascades, really. They work well on steep-ish alpine routes, but start to run into limitations when you get to really steep ice. The soles are a stiffer than the Trango, but not as stiff as the Tower or Apex XT. It's a great boot for the textbook Cascade climb of Grade 3 route with Grade 4 approach.

You are welcome, it's good to hear our input is valued from time to time. Regarding our products made with eVent, we make no claims about the waterproofness of the item. We guarantee that the fabric is waterproof, but we don't say the same for the seams, zippers, and other usual suspects for water entry. There is no doubt that a Volant made with eVent is going to be the most water resistant option of all our fabric configurations, but it won't keep liquid water out indefinitely. We do not have plans to weld our products. It is something we have considered, and there are two main reasons we have not. First of all, the cost of the equipment required is pretty high given the size of our company. Secondly, if we were to weld our seams, we would have to fundamentally alter the designs of many of our products. One reason that FF products are so refined and work so well is that there is a high degree of manufacturing complexity. Part of the price of our products is due to the high wages and benefits we pay our employees, and this is tied to the time it takes to make stuff because we do it the old fashioned way- by hand. If you ever want to see an impressive example of design, engineering, and manufacturing skill, you should see how a Snowy Owl or down suit gets put together. Making our products by hand does not allow us to engineer in waterproof technology like welding, but it does allow us to make products that fit well, work well, and last a hell of a long time. This is not to say that welded products don't fit/work/hold up well, but that we place a high value on the overall quality that archaic hand crafted construction results in. The bottom line is don't expect welded technology to show up in FF products any time soon. We also have toyed with seam-taping our products, but the amount of weight that would add is prohibitive. As far as Seam Gripping your jacket goes, I don't recommend it. Functionally it will achieve the desired goal for a while, but the long-term effects of applying Seam Grip are not the most aesthetic. Eventually the Seam Grip will turn yellow, start peeling off, and then you have a nasty looking jacket that is no longer waterproof. That being said, people have done it, and it kind of works for a while. If you want to try it out, go for it, and please bring your jacket into the shop in a couple years so we can see how it worked.

zxcv, to answer your question, the deterioration of the Endurance coating should not affect the loft of the jacket. Eventually you will have tiny bits of the coating floating around inside the jacket getting mixed up with the rest of the down, but this won't be something you'll notice with regards to the loft. I want to make sure the durability issue of Endurance/Endurance Quantum is taken in its proper perspective: the coating is not going to deteriorate to the point of being useless overnight. This is a process that occurs over years of use, and the one example I have seen of this was of a 4-5 year old garment that saw heavy use in the rental fleet and was not cared for in the way you might care for your own gear. A more important consideration than the durability of the coating is the durability of the face fabric. Pertex EQ is very light and not as resistant to tears, abrasions, and that kind of wear as some other fabrics are. In deciding to buy your Rab jacket, you might find it helpful to consider the benefits of the jacket (weight, warmth, and water resistance) against the costs (price, durability). If you have realistic expectations of the lifespan and performance of the jacket and you are willing to pay the sticker price for it, then you should buy it. If you place a higher premium on durability, then you should buy something else. If you place a higher premium on price, then you should buy something else. Basically, figure out what is most important to you and base your decision on that. Also, read the fine print of the warranty policy of any company's product you are considering buying. They vary widely.

Darstog, your point about the need for a WPB belay jacket in the Cascades is well taken. It is indeed a wonder that nobody has yet made the peanut butter + jelly realization of eVent and synth insulation. I would expect Rab or Westcomb to be the first. Especially Westcomb. Maybe you could drop them a line and suggest it. It's hard to know if a product designed for the "unique" conditions of the Cascades/PNW would find universal appeal. Most folks at FF are with you on the "no hardshell" gear combo philosophy. Our NanoSphere fabric hasn't had enough of a chance to garner sufficient feedback, even though we've had it on the market for a year and been testing it for a year previous to that. I guess I can tell you that we haven't had many complaints about it, but it's too soon to know how the durability compares (although we have our theories). The light weight and water resistance are clear advantages, but the breathability is not in fact as good as Epic. FF's experience has been that the advantages are best gained by using it in summer weight sleeping bags and our lightest down jackets. A few of our folks have used Nano jackets on alpine and ice climbs and found it works okay, but not as well as eVent jackets. We have even had a few staff outings where all three fabrics are present on different jackets and we have compared notes on how they work. Good luck on your search, and please share news if you do find something that fits your needs.

Feathered Friends used Pertex Endurance for a number of years on our products, but the last time we had an Endurance garment in the store was 2004. We still have some of the fabric, and use it for bags in our rental fleet. One of the advantages of Endurance (and especially the newer variant, Quantum Endurance) is light weight. I don't have exact specs on hand, but I estimate the weight of EQ to be a hair over 1 oz/yd. We have a couple new prototypes made up from EQ in the shop, and they are ridiculously light. Endurance does have pretty good water resistant properties, but we stopped using it for a variety of reasons. Chief among these are breathability and durability. Unlike ePTFE membranes (like eVent), Endurance is a polyurethane coating. This gives it less breathability than eVent. We haven't done any scientific testing on it, but our staff who have used both fabrics report that Endurance doesn't breathe as well as eVent. Then again, no laminated/coated WPB fabric does. I have seen old FF Endurance products taken apart, and one of the interesting effects of age and use is that the coating wears off from the inside. It is impossible to tell from the outside, and since Endurance is a coating rather than a laminate, it doesn't take on that bubbly appearance and it doesn't delaminate. The coating just scrapes off eventually, which improves the fabric's breathability but obviously reduces its water resistance. I would imagine this effect is amplified by the coarseness of synthetic fiber insulation, which is more abrasive than down. This isn't so much a concern for the products in our rental fleet, since we use the fabric on warm expedition bags that get taken to Denali and Aconcagua once or twice a year. That amount of use on a bag isn't enough to be of concern, but on a jacket it's a different story. The second durability issue is that EQ uses such a light face fabric (Quantum, a 15D calendared ripstop nylon) that the abrasion/tear resistance is very low. Again, not a big deal for a sleeping bag, but problematic for a jacket. If you are looking for a belay jacket made with eVent, you should look at the FF Volant. We make the jacket standard in Epic, but if eVent is what you want we can make you one in that fabric. Heck, we can make any of our products from any of our fabrics. You could even get an Endurance jacket if you wanted. The combination of synthetic fiber with WPB fabrics is fairly uncommon. TNF used to make synthetic bags with DryLoft, but those were short lived since their price to durability ratio was not very good. Arc'teryx makes Gore-Tex and Windstopper insulated belay jackets that are very nice, but also very expensive. OR also makes a great Windstopper belay jacket (the Chaos) that is more reasonably priced, but is not among the warmer options on the market. From a design standpoint, putting a waterproof shell on a synthetic jacket doesn't make a ton of sense. The insulation is designed to function (albeit at a heavier and slightly diminished rate) when it is wet, and adding WPB fabrics always results in a more expensive product and usually are heavier, both important customer considerations when making a purchasing decision. FF has noticed that in this current season, the Mammut Stratus belay jacket at $189 has been far more popular than the OR Chaos at $240, and we have never in 4 years sold an Arcteryx Fission SV for its list price of $550 or whatever it goes for. That was a bit more info than what you asked for, but the bottom line is that Endurance is not as breathable or as durable as eVent.

Don't forget we have a 60L Work Sack for sale here, too. Plus we have a selection of models for people to try out in person! What other store is cool enough to lend customers gear before they buy it? You can take any of the following for a test spin: - 20L - 40L - 45L - 60L Stop by for full details.

Blake, we are at a loss to explain the recent market fascination with snazzy lightweight down jackets such as these. We here at FF have been carrying them in the retail store for a few years. Last year we sold out of the women's version in no time, the men's version took a little longer. Also popular these days are the Mont Bell UL Inner Down Jackets, which are about as light, but not quite as sexy at the Patagonias. I agree with your observation that for a minimal marginal weight increase (adding more down) your return of a substantially warmer jacket is well worth it. Our own Hyperion Jacket, made with Schoeller NanoSphere fabric, weighs a scant 11 ounces AND has way more water resistance than either the Mont Bell or the Patagonia jackets. Not to mention the warmer, more water resistant FF jacket costs exactly the same as the Asian made Patagonia... I can't explain that one either. We must not be charging enough. Still, there seems to be some inexplicable perception that a less lofty jacket is somehow going to be a superior choice. Some people just don't want a jacket as warm as our Hyperion. When you enter the realm of rationalizing about 1 or 2 ounces in a $200 down jacket, you need to look at yourself in the mirror (or on the scale) and ask how much weight you can lose for free. Other than the seemingly endless obsession over weight savings, fashion preference and warmth preference are the only other explanations I can offer for the popularity of these jackets. This relates to the circular hypothetical syllogism that 1. If you're looking good, you're feeling good 2. If you're feeling good, you're climbing good 3. If you're climbing good, you're looking good In response ScottP's comment about the Patagonia's fabric being abrasion resistant, I beg to differ. Since when was 22 denier fabric abrasion resistant? Resistant, perhaps, to abrasion against a fluffy bunny rabbit. You know the fabric is not going to be tough when you can actually SEE the individual down clusters through the material, as you can with the Patagonia Down Sweater. Someday, who knows when, the pendulum will swing too far in the "ultralight" direction, and a lot of people will start getting mad that the expensive piece of gear they bought a little while ago didn't meet their durability expectations. The market will then correct itself, and eventually consumers will make purchasing decisions with more consideration given to durability. There is an obvious trajectory that we see in the store all the time: 1. Customer is just getting into activity. Customer buys introductory level piece of gear. 2. Customer gets better at activity, refines gear systems, and buys ultralight piece of gear. 3. Customer comes back, disappointed with ultralight gear's durability, and buys replacement that is slightly heavier and more durable. Boots, backpacks, and clothing are the main areas in which we see this happen.

We just got a new shipment and already they are moving out of here. We have 21 left. Come and get 'em.

Thanks to everyone for the strong turnout for Rep Night. It was a great success, as those of you who went home with armloads of stuff can attest. Results of V-Thread Competition 1. Landon, 1:00.2 (later unofficial time of 0:48!) 2. Nick, 1:09.8 3. Landon (again), 1:19.7 4. Sketchy, 1:24.9 5. Joe Sambatoro, 1:38.9 6. Dave Burdick, 1:47.2 7. Stewart, 1:48.0 Pull-Up comp winners were Brandon, 23 Melinda, 8 Nice work everyone! We gave away over $10,000 worth of prizes donated from our various reps, so a HUGE thanks goes out to them for their outpouring of generosity. We are still counting raffle money and will post again to let everyone know how much we raised.