Dane

http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2012/02/first-north-face-climbing-boot-verto.html http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2012/11/light-weight-mtn-boots.html I had a size 12. Fit was true to size and more LS than Scarpa for width. Easy replacemnt for the Triolet.

It is still available. PM me if you are interested. Seller left the jacket with me here in the USA (Seattle) for shipping and payment.

Petzl sponsored climbers typically run the Hirundos. Black Diamond sponsored climbers the Xenos. I'll leave it to your imagination who has the bigger budget and how those $s are spent at Ice festivals.

Jeff Lowe and Slipstream's first ascent party commented in print that they considered Slipstream the longest "waterfall" climb in NA and one of the longest in the world with the added objective dangers of an alpine climb bitd. It has been done on water ice bottom to top early season. 900m of elevation gain. Polarity, around the corner from Slipstream on Snow Dome should put the "longest" notion to rest by a KO. No snow slogging on that one. http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web07f/wfeature-canadian-rockies-ueli-steck Riptide, Gimme Shelter, Reality Bath come to mind. Even lowly Polar Circus has 500m of ice tucked in with the slogging and even more elevation gain. Central Pillar and Weeping Pillar offer 160m @ WI5+ & 180m @ WI6. 7 pitches of steep ice ( almost like a 7 pitch vertical pillar in fact) with a nice belay ledge in between My understanding is all the Canadian guide book numbers are elevation gain not the amount of climbing. STH in Provo is easy and short and not very serious by comparison to the others listed here.

Petzl Hirundos. May be not the "best" But seems good enough. Never been on a climb that I needed more screws than you can rack on two Petzl clippers. If that ever happens I'll need a rest anyway. So I'll rig a belay with the last two screws I have available and start over. YMMV

Mike. sent you a PM. Bottom line? I dropped down on the inner a full size (matched shell to stated liner size) and then intentionally over cooked them a bit to make the bootie really tight in the boot shell while fitting. Result was a a very tight and supportive boot. Much more so than the original Baruntse liner I fit. Makes a pretty good endurnace ice boot now I think. Kinda suprised on the signifigant change in support. More to come on that change over and how it worked out in the blog later in the month.

ADK is right on. Spantik has a stiffer ankle, not so good for climbing on really technical ground for the unwashed masses, good for endurance ice, front pointing, skiing and likely snow boardiung

45 and 44.5 shells are the same. There are no true half sizes in the La Sportiva dbl boots. A 45.5 and the 46 are the same. 43.5 and 44 are the same size shell. Doesn't matter if it is the Oly Mons, Spantik or Baruntse. No half sizes. Baruntse's fit a bit bigger in the toe area than the Spantik. You have several options. You can get a boot guy to punch out the toe a little on the Spantik. And trim your toes nail often. Just use the much bigger 46 shell and a bigger inner boot. Or switch inner boots and put a Baruntse inner in the boot you have and then have it heat formed to your feet with enough room for you bigger foot. I've done all of them and settled on the Baruntse inner in the smaller shell. Having climbed a lot in the 46 and 45 shells the bonus is for a warmer and lighter boot when you are done. All the details to those comments and more than you'll likely ever want to know about the Spantik here: http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/search?q=spantik

Why no email Nate? May be all those comments as why the hammer is better is why you bought them On your version, from last season, cut the picks. 5 min job. DO NOT cut the hammer. FWIW I am just now starting to ship the last batch of hammers for this season. I have 20 pairs left. So they won't last long. These you don't cut, and they drop into old or new Nomics and the newest Quark or Ergo with the current picks. http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2012/11/petzl-hammers-one-last-time.html

PM sent

For what? Your "action suit" climbing? Or just cold weather, like sitting on a chair lift? "Layering" is an interesting term. Not really very descriptive any more. What you have described would work fine in a cold dry environment with a couple of definative caveats. It will work best with a very breathable shell. Hopefully your shell offers some moisture protection for the down, so it doesn't fail from moisture on the outside. And the shell breathes well enough that your sweat doesn't soak the down on the inside first. Best to match your use to the shell's abilities. The shell will define how consistantly warm your down will be. What you have suggested is a fairly common system. Just not a very effective one. Down is great if you can protect it. And know how and where to use it. Once wet it is not very useful.

"The Petzl rear bails are too wide for the small sized boots, period." Agreed. Neither Petzl or BD heel up rights fit my 45s like they should. Grivel has that part figured out. I use the BD rear levers on my gear because the bottom of the lever offers a better platform and more surface area than does Petzl's imo. Switching rear bales doesn't change the fit any, just makes the crampon more secure by the leverage and retainer strap position BD uses. Having a pair of boots that the soles are in good shape will help that as well. But I am rethinkiing the BD levers at the moment. They were just easier to get than the Grivels. But either will work on Petzl crampons and offer the similar benefits other than the adjusting nut on BD's version is aluminum and Grivel's is plastic. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/1092529/gonew/1/BD_heel_bails_inspect_for_wear#UNREAD

Petzls might work. I fit a pair of Lynx to Yokum's (mens) 39 Trangos. Not the best fit in the heel. Her boots was very worn, but she was able to climb well enough with the Lynx. Petzl heel is likely going to be way too wide though on an even smaller women's size 38 boot. Looks to me to be a market the hardware companies are simply missing. But then they have a hard time getting it right for an average mens 44/45 as well. I often wonder how any industry that is so specialised, have so much liability at risk, and still be so clueless.

What size Woman's Nepal Evo are you using? Likely the crampon combo that will fit very small boots the best will be a Grivel (G22/20) (they have the smallest/narrowest heel retainers) with a Petzl front bail. Typically Nepal Evos are easy to fit with most any crampons, despite the fact you have read other wise. Small boots on the other hand and/or inexperience knowing what a decent crampon fit should be are two totally different issues. I can't speak from experience on small boots, having only fitted a few. But I have fit just about every combo (literally) of modern ice boots and modern crampons in a 45. From that experience I think you have done well. I would never pick a specific crampon to climb in. I'd pick the boot that best fits my feet first and then find/fix a crampon that will climb well on your choice in boots. Let us know what you come up with and good luck!

Nice climb, Congrads ! & thanks

I agree with Daniel. Hydra? Great glove. Money well spent imo. I use 3 different styles of Mtn. H. for climbing. Hydra is certainly my favorite for the warmth. And I have had very good luck with them. I have used a lot of the current production gloves including everything mentioned above. RAB is another good one. They just don't fit me as well. But I've also warrantied a couple of pair of Hydra in the last 3 years. Worn others totally out on mixed, raps and ice. Decent warranty now. In the past they would replace walk in faulty gloves from the retail store's inventory, no questions asked. But they no longer do that. Warranty turn around has been quick enough. Quote below is from their web site. So why worry? "Mountain Hardwear also provides a limited lifetime warranty, to the original owner, on all products against defects in materials or workmanship. All defective or damaged products should be returned to us for evaluation and will be repaired or replaced at our discretion."

Might be worth a look. Could be an early Chirstmas if you are the right size. http://coldthistletools.blogspot.com/2011/12/cold-thistle-review-gear-for-sell.html

Not much help but try this or better yet just call John. Although the burger place isn't likely an option. But who knows Goggle search "north face of split peak john roskelley jim states" The Roskelley Collection: Nanda Devi, Last Days, and Stories Off the Wall By John Roskelley

Like a fooking rabid dog I can't just let this one go. Last time I did a nasty (is there any other kind?) bushwack in the Selkirks we broke a treking pole. Then in just a few short hours. We lost a trekking pole. (image how bad "that" had to be) Broke a camera. Totally wrecked two pairs of soxs and one pair of synthetic gloves (the leather ones were a little worse for wear how ever). Lost most of a long time friendship. No telling how many toe nails died and were then dragged along with us. We both certainly lost patience in the dark, amid 12' high slide alder. No clue how that could ever happen! No trail at the end of a long day should have been a warning though.. And we seemed to have lost the grizzly we had spoted earlier in the day. No clue how we lost him however. Both my shins were bleeding freely by the end ( and the black flies were getting their fill) so that had to be some kind of gloriuos miracle. Or the poor bastard simply wasn't mean enough to fook with us. Maybe he noticed the low cut runners. Friendship survived. Just barely though. Took some time and effort to mend. It all seemed part of the adventure, never thought about using a warrenty on the rest. Guess I should rethink that after seeing what Alaskans put up with in Jan. Gawd damn, I'll look around for my big boy pants now and just say fook it next time I loose the ability to take care of myself and my gear. I'll just warrenty the whole damn thing. I mean, seriously, WTF?!

For anyone wondering Here is the correct link to the jacket article.. http://cascadeclimbers.com/synthetic-insulated-jacket-layering-review-by-dane-burns/

Kirk those boots will still easily climb anything they were ever intended for. The damage is simply cosmetic and isn't going to make a bit of difference one way tor the other and the gaiter could just as easily be fixed with a few minutes of time to spare. Not defending LS or ragging on Jake. Just trying to be reasonable here.

John........cracked shells (as the plastics were known to do) isn;t a cracked sole But point taken.

Crampons can go through a plastic shell as well. Not as easily as they will in a Spantik or a Baruntse or heaven forbid my 6000s for sure. Just a little more difficult to be that klutzie.....BTDT however. Up side? How many cracked Spantiks have you heard of? None I suspect. Either way the boots don't "fail" they just get a hole in them, which may or may not leak water. Seam grip will fix the problem of a crampon puncture. It just won't be pretty. Same fix with some sewing before hand will fix Jake's boot. Nothing to keep Jake from using his WTF Baruntse's other than the bad cosmetics. If Jake can get a warrenty replacemntm good for him you. But it won't change how the boot was designed. And it won't stop brush from ripping up the fabric gaiter or crampons from punching holes in them.

Jake, you won't like this comment I suspect. Just my personal observation and opinion, nothing more. Certainly not intended as a personal insult. So please don't take it that way. Just to be clear I have no (none/zip/denada) ties of any kind to La Sportiva, past I generally (but not always) like their boots. Knowing the Baruntse fairly well resulted in my smart ass picture and remarks. If I use any piece of gear in a hap hazard manner I can destroy it in short order. Two days? How about a couple of hours? I regret having done so without thinking a couple of times. The elastic nylon cuff on the Baruntse that failed so miserably here is suppose to be a light weight gaiter of sorts to keep snow out of the boot. It is nothing more. And doesn't work all that well as intended imo. I understand the boot is new to you. But if you were expecting that gaiter to take a crampon hit (it won't) or sustained bush wacking through obvious ankle biters of slide alder without some additional protection or extra care you are mistaken (no shit Dane, that is obvious NOW, Jake says) A pant gaiter or a regular gaiter would have protected the boot's upper cuff. Which it obviously needed in those circumstances. Both the Spantik (which has the same stretchy gaiter that you destroyed on your Baruntse btw) and the Baruntse will not deflect a crampon point either. Most every leather mtn boot will. Crampons will easily punch right through the soft and foam backed Baruntse and Spantik shells. That is not a boot failure but a user failure. Catching that soft and rather fragfile "gaiter"/cuff on some seriously nasty broken brush and ripping them through aint the boots fault. More like operator error which might result in a "WTF?". Been many a Spantik and Baruntse used hard and totally worn out without that gaiter failing. Baruntse is a great boot when used as intended...as are the Spantiks. And I can understand your frustration with a destroyed boot. But let's be honest here...it aint the boots fault. Well at least in my opinion, it aint the boot's fault.

Odd to me that some how anyone would envision this being the gun's fault. Not sure an owner's manual will help. But good luck on that "warrenty".