Check out Alpine Select from Elaho Publishing. It was based on weekend trips from Vancouver, so if you are willing to get up a bit earlier, then you should have a good idea of what can be done.
To me this is interesting.
I have seen a few polls (or maybe a few reports of the same poll?) suggesting that a signifigant number of Americans beleive that WMD were found in Iraq...
So, if people are that uninformed about basic facts, it makes me wonder if they really are going to put as much thought/effort into making a choice of who they vote for as you guys are. It seems to me that the election will be decided by impressions and rumours rather than facts and positions. Not that our elections are that much better.
AFAIK, the story is this... Rock Exotica was it's own company, and made several ascenders and solo devices. Petzl bought them out at one point but did not take on the solo devices, at which point Wren Industries formed to make those.
If you were to put a foot prussik where the left hand is grabbing the rope in that picture, then I think it might make things a lot easier on truly steep ground.