allison

I have had a lot of what I thought was pain in the arches of my feet while in the first hour of rigorous exercise for the last several years. I finally figured out that it's my plantar fascia, and they are cold and need warming up. It's tightness on the bottoms of both feet, from the back of the big toe to the front of the heel. I'd love to find a way to not have to be gentle on them for the first half hour or so of skiing, running, climbing, doing floor classes at the gym, etc. NOTE: this is not just first thing in the morning. Thoughts?

What is he talking about?

Oh, come on, it can't be that bad!

Post deleted by Lambone

...and it fits like a garbage sack... The Women's One fits like a garbage sack? Well, that's amazing! It's looked great on everyone I've seen it on, even little old me.

Dryskin and PS are totally different fabrics. I have the Ferratta and will be adding an REI One jacket to it in the fall. I think the One will be better for skiing and it's way more styling for wearing around town.

There be some rilly nice rock just outside of Lisbon, right next door in friendly Portugal, if you are interested.

Yep, the Slackline Brothers were the cult hit of the Winter OR show. didn't see their booth flooded with retailers though!

Nononono the slackline itself is webbing, but the tensioning line is a static rope. There are lots of ways to rig a slackline, from my very limited experience. And Fern thanks for your comments. Maybe it was just because we were tensioning the system with a dynamic rope last weekend, but the added drag of biners would have made it hella difficult to get the slackline tight enough if we'd been fighting the friction of the biners as well.

So slackline ankle breakage can commonly occur when the slackline is just above the ground and the landing is soft? Ours this last weekend was rigged about 3' off the ground, and as tight as we could get it (with the tensioning line being unfortunately a dynamic--not recommended) so at the middle you were like 6 inches off the ground. I guess with the ferocity that the slackline can spit ya, anything's possible....hmmmm....more input please!

Yes, I'm talking about plain little pulleys. Sorry, at my work we call the kind used in climbing applications "rescue pulleys" to distingush them from the myriad other kinds of pulleys and things we use. I prefer pulleys to the biner method because there is so much less drag. I know a prusik would work but a Tibloc or similar is a bit more elegant. And yes Erik, I do have horrible ankles. To wit, I don't plan on making it a daily activity, and the landing's got to be mighty soft. The actual activity of slacklining looks to be super good conditioning for the fu'ed up anklets too.

I just started learning to slackline last weekend. It is soo much fun. Now I want to put together a system of my own. I'm looking for a device that is cheap and easy to use (not a GriGri) that will grab the tensioning rope when the people tightening let go of it. It's okay with me if the grabbing device needs a couple of half hitches to keep it grabbing. Someone last night said a Tibloc would be the best thing. You agree? The system will always only be set up temporarily as I don't have a good place for it at home. Also looking for 2 rescue pulleys and a piece of static line in the 30' range to complete the kit, if anyone's got something they want to donate or sell cheep. The system will prob never be set up more than 3 or 4 feet off the ground, so old gear you maybe wouldn't climb on will be fine. Finally a good use for some of my own old or questionable gear!

Wal-Mart also has the distinction of having some of the most heinous business practices in America. There was even a neat book written about this, called In Sam We Trust .

or you can have MSR do an overhaul for......FREE.

So I took my new-to-me Synchros out on a little bit of rock a few days ago. They are snug, as in my toes are crumpledf but my whole feets aren't smushed. I was a crappy climber before, and without the precision of a true slipper, and having my foot act as part of the shoe, I was skittering this way and that way, and climbing even worse than I usually do, if that is possible. Ugh, I hope I get used to them. 60 feet is a long way to climb with your feet paddling all over the place. On the other hand, if I have a better chance of being something less than crippled when I'm 60, it's all worth it!