Dane

FWIW I use and love the Beal Ice twins all winter. I'm on my third set. I figure two maybe three winters. If you climb much 3 is likely pushing them. Love 'um except when it comes to steep raps like off the Pencil or the Midi bridge...there or places like that they are a little sketchy. New Petzl Reverso helps some though. But the flip side to that is the they are a pleasure to carry in the alpine.

If Pro Mtn Sports burns down in the really near future...I just want you to know I am going to claim senility, and blame it on the young Dr. in SLC Mix and matching heels and fronts can be done..easy enough but I refuse to do it. Front and rear bails are bad enough. New boots or new crampons would seem in order.

Funny you should ask. I sent an email a few days ago that wasn't answered fast enough for me. No big surprise of course as I get a little anzy not having tools. So I called the front desk today. They in turn hooked me up with Matt in warrenty and returns. Two minutes later (and they don't know me from John Frieh) I had an RA# and a UPS label in my email. 20 minutes later I hooked up with the UPS truck.

I sent my tools from last year in today. I was told that the new tools are ready and would be shipped within a day of mine arriving in SLC/Clearfield. Hard for anyone to do any better.

Good book, crazy guys. Nice to hear they are still climbing.

Better to have what you need and not need it than not have what you need and REALLY need it

What a great thread! I've always wanted o do a day of "old style" ice climbing, with wool, leatehr and wood involved. May be we should do a day of trad shoes, hexes and swami belts in Leavenworth before the snow flies. I should be safe enough if Sobo comes along Josh and I did laps on Givlers a few years ago with only a small rack of hexs. It was way fun.

I know Paul ...but if you thought the Whillians was a nut crusher the 2" flat stuff would cut and bruise your gut badly in a fall. On the other hand a 2" tube swami was pretty comfortable in a fall and never got close to your family jewells Not cuts and little bruising. No question almost everyone climbs circles around me. But here is what I find interesting. How Burgner and Stanley did Prusik before the Culchuck/Stauart trail head. Or Easter Overhang with pins. Robbins by himslef on Cavel for the 2nd ascent. Lowe and Jones on Twin in 1974! Different points of interest but all amazing adventures I suspect. But no more or less than Gorilla's in the Mist. The big alpine faces haven't changed but how we appraoch them has. What were truly amazing and painful winter ascents in the Alps in the '70s we do as day climbs now. That I find amazing. The fact that gear has made such a big difference (and climate change) in what is possible. The Eiger is still hard....the climbers may be hard today. But the Eiger in wool, leather and hemp rope...that is the definition of HARD. I like seeing the changes and being in it long enough to experience the changes. Respect is due to those that came befor us and the ones ripping it up now. I like being a part of that community no matter how often anyone of us wants to puff up his own chest and crow a bit For no particular reason other than I am still standing, my turn!

Matt you are correct. Good catch, more likely a bowline on a coil. We used the bowline, then 1" tube and then 2" tube. 2" was a big jump up in comfort. I used that (later with leg loops when required but didn't like them) through the '80s and lots of good rock climbing. We bypassed the 2" seat belt stuff as too painful and had the Whillians inbetween (and all the alpine stuff) a bowline and 2" tube. Funny memory along those lines. I once took a clean 70' fall on lead with a 2" double wrapped swami and about that much rope out. Easy catch and no ill effects. My partner a 150' on a Whillians and hip belay. Easy on the belayer a little rough on the leader as he hit some things on the way down. I distinctly remember climbing with Ron Burgner in the early '70s and him using a bowline on a coil. I remember it because it was rare that anyone still used that system intentionally on difficult rock. But Burgner and Thom Nephew used a 2" swami belt more often than not from my limited memories. Likely the first I saw of that system as well.

Well done Mark, congrads! You make it sound easy And great write up. I remember the angle well. And happy to have it for that mantle even with my fingers greasing off it and I tried to shut down my lizard brain telling me I was about to die and start climbing again. Still amazes me they freed that crack and placed pins while doing so back in 1967. No calk, no sticky rubber, not even in Eb's yet and in a swami belt all the while. How cool was that?

Mark asked and answered a few questions here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1035647#Post1035647

Now I am curious. Anyone been up there recently? Is there still a pin at the crux?

Easily could have been. Where was the pin and what pro did you get "nearby"? Right side in it is easy to describe where the pin was originally.

This is the outside profile of the Lynx. The second set is angled back. The earlier pictuce angle is deceptive. The small third point on the inside, shown in the picture previous, isn't adding much, but nice to have.

MH2's photo from the Taco I've always thought the crack on Easter Overhang was straight forward and the chimney as well. The transition between crack and squeeze chimney not so much. Bloody awkward. The fixed pin was a god send for me on every ascent. The chimney on the last pitch on Reeds Direct seemed similar enough and a bit harder to me. But the grade creep seems typical these days and I suspect happens to many climb that are awkward and not easily duplicated in a gym and/or the pro marginal. I did a old school 5.8 from the '70s a few weeks ago. It was bumped to a 5.9- back in the mid '80s in the local guide but the route description was lacking enough that you have to wonder if the author ever climbed the route. The most recent guide book simply copied the previous. Still wouldn't give the climb a 5.9 rating. But we thought Damnation was 5.8 back then as well. And the climbs do have a lot in common. My partner who lead the same climb on sight last week with minimal beta. He thought it some where between .10a and .10b. And he is no kid, but a gym rat by necessity most of the year. Nothing changed on that route either in the last 30 years. Nothing but the sticky shoes and more expensive pro. Passive pro actually did a better job on this one bitd. No surprize that Ron Burgner was involved in both FFAs. 1967 on the FFA of Easter Overhang with Jim Madsen, the 1968 Burgner/Stanley on Prusik and a very early free ascent of the climb below with Thom Nephew. For the locals Ron also did a FFA of Arachnid Arch, 5.11d, back in the '60s as well. Arachnid Arch was originally rated 5.10.

one, Salewa Hinged, size 2, 324g one, Dartwin, 460g

It was rated 5.9 in both the 1976 and 1982 Brooks' Leavenworth Guides. Previous to that it was listed as an aid route in the Becky Leavenworth guide iirc. I first did it in '76 and it seemed like pf hard 5.9 to me But not out of line with all three pitches of Reed's either. I was more than happy to clip a fixed pin up in the squeeze chimney. But the hexs lower down were bomber. Scary and insecure getting into that chimney. Cams? Shit, it was years yet before we saw cams. Viktor's 1991 jump of EO to .10c seemed a little excessive to us that had already been climbing it for over a decade. But nothing changed that I know of besides the number.

You are correct the Baruntse liner is a vbl.

"Huh?" Nothing personal Mike or Daniel. Comments based on pictures, Petzl ads, speculation or a 2 minute look see at the shop or at OR haven't been very accurate so far. When a 40 year old Salewa strap on can get you up most anything, ice or mixed, isn't everything a little hyped? If you think your M10s are a better crampon...that is cool with me. I like the Dartwin more but I am a aware it isn't a "better" crampon.

Thanks Jake. I haven't spent much time in the Omegas. Good idea and materials though as you noted. They just don't fit me well. And I had a hard time lacing the ankles and the hinge placement. None of the plastics fit me very well that I have pictured, except the original style Koflach shell. Even that I modify to fit my girlie size ankles. And I'd want a different inner boot than the production model before I'd use them again. But any boot should be judged by how it fits, no matter what the material it is made from. Omega might well be the sheeet for the right foot. Just not my foot.

Some might find my conclusion interesting. "I have probably spent more time in plastic double boots that any other style of mountain boots. Two decades to be exact. I was climbing in leather single boots before that for the most part with the occasional foray into leather double boots. But the older and better double leather boots were heavy. Really heavy even compared to a good single boot and a Super Gator. So what I ended up with was a very good pair of leather single boots (Haderer) and a custom pair of Carmen/Chouinard Super Gaters that were modified by adding more insulation (synthetic pile) and a zipper down the front that was backed with flaps and Velcro. Once I got into a pair of Kolfach Ultras (shown above) I never looked back. Even if that did require a few layers of mole skin every week during the first winter season climbing and guiding in them." More here on what is currently easily available in double boots in NA and the EU. http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2011/09/double-boots.html

I've actually got a pair late last week and will be using them in the next couple of weeks. First impressions? The price thing only makes sense if you want to use them on multiple boots and boot styles. Looking at it that way you get two pairs of crampons for the price of one. So lots of ways to look at the price...and how the additional price might be off set for your own use...... that is just one way. But not the only way. Mono and dual fronts for example. Off set fronts for another...call it three pairs of crampons just by changing the front points. For me the off set front points is a crampon I am really looking forward to using on steep and mixed. Counter point..Cyborg will do two (dual/mono) but no offsets. BD decided to make a mono specific crampon by simply copying the Dart. You can just which is a better crampon for your use. Lighter than a Cyborg, but not as light as they might/ should have been. Bots are still, well not so good. BD or Grivel has better bots. Up side the front bails on a Petzl crampon is way better than the BDs. BD's back bails are light years ahead of Petzl's rear. Bottom line for me? It is a technical crampon. No technical crampon out there that will allow you to take advantage of the front points like the Lynx will. Is that worth the price of admission to you? When it comes to putting a technical crampon on a double boot...the Lynx has no competition unless you own two pair of the same style crampons one with a wire and one with a basket. I am not totally awed by the Lynx but it does have some features I like, a few I don't. But a closer look will tell you there isn't anything else around with the same features or that will climb technical ground as easily or as securly imo.. Some serious missed calculations and mis information posted above by guys who would know better if they had 5 minutes with the Lynx in their own hands. One more time. Is it worth the price of admission? Personally I like the Dartwin better. But it is costly replacing the front points. I will take advantage of the basket front and the offset front points on my double boots this winter though with the Lynx. Anything that lets you climb harder with less effort in a pair of doubles might well be worth an extra $50. Likely the last pair (but may be not) of fronts @ $100.+ I buy for my Dartwins. My prediction? When people get a chance to climb in them I suspect they will make quite a good impression on hard technical ground compared to everything else out there. Offset fronts will be why to those that can take advantage of it. My guess it the Lynx and new Ergo will be touch stones just as the original Dart, Quark and Nomic were. But then I could just as easily be totally full of shit too

Here is a heads up for anyone interested in the new tools. My impression from email conversations I've had within the EU recently is there aren't going to be a lot of the new tools around. If you want a pair might be best to pre order yours. I have nothing to do with Petzl past climbing on their tools that I BUY with cold hard cash. And I don't have the new ones yet myself. But mine are on order and have been for a while now. Just saying...if the EU is any indication...and you want a pair...might be best to get your order in now.

I'm driving from Iss. to Denver. ONE WAY. Stopping only for climbing along the way. Leaving real soon. Any one need a ride..for part or all? Share gas. Sleeping out. Driving a nice new rig, but definate dirt bag trip. Room for 3 or 4. Only schedule is i have to be in the SLC area for the day, 9/17. Act fast or I'll be gone.

FYI.."new" Nomics are being delivered in the UK and EU already. We should be next.