Dane

Used one day. Not the best fit for my foot. Optional gaiter included. $700 shipped USPS. Pay Pal F&F preferred. more info here: https://skimo.co/scarpa-alien-1.0-boots

My thought originally was it is just Haston's magic fingers as well. It aint, trust me. 2 minutes with one and you'll be just as quick as Hastion appears to be with them. I am not chitting you here. It really is that easy. Was able to pick up a few wire/solid gate samples and been playing with them. Although I thought/wanted the pear solid gate versions. Used the wire/solid combo for a few days. Then today just replaced all my glacier skiing lockers with the wire/solid Twin gate version. Kinda like a Nomic..once ya try it you aren't gonna go back to something less. Here is what I think of them and the impression just keeps getting better/stronger the more I use them. http://coldthistle.blogspot.fr/2014/04/grivel-twin-gate.html I have never, ever liked lockers. Detest them truth be told. And only used them when required, sparingly at that. That is now gonna change. Lots of places I'd like an easy to use and fail safe locker beside the typical. Racking ice screws is a start. But there are others. Bad pro, short q-draws, bolts. List will get longer I suspect once I start looking around. Certainly going to change the profile of my Spartan rack for rock, ice or alpine. If you get some extra security with little weight penalty and virtually no extra hassle, why not?

Didn't find a thread on these. Pardon me if there is one already and feel free to delete this one if so. Old news it seems but new to me. My impression is the new Grivel Twin gate really is the chit deserving one I think. I'm very impressed. Just as easy to use as Haston shows. No magic fingers here just really good design work. Call it a PSA.

here ya go.. have fun! http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2010/12/polar-circus-route-description-photo.html

Solid, good qualiy ice go short. Nasty rotten ice like Raf generally climbs, go long. Situationally dependant. Really Look at a Dartwin. Intentionally the outside point is longer than the inside...everyone splays their feet some is why.

You can only switch the levers not the entire heel pieces. Easy switch. Last ones I bought were around $15 each ($30 a pair) IIRC. Easy through BD customer service. BD levers on a Petzl Dartwin. If you still have the Sabers just pull them off and use 'um. Not like you'll hurt them any.

New more loft or want to get back what you had? Throw it in the drier and run it on a hot cycle.

Complete Lever set up? BD customer service @ 1-800. Complete heel set up? May be the same but wouldn't bet on it.

Thanks Wayne. I am thinking it is time for another lap. I saw that people were looking at the thread. Didn't realise the pictures were gone. So thought I'd tease them with the old pictures. Need some young bucks to give me a full condition report on route before I walk in Some early Snoqualmie Love from Wayne Flow Reversal bit on the end as well.

Original pictures are here: http://firstascent-dane.blogspot.com/2010/12/blue-moon-snoqualimie-mountain-central.html

Of the two, BD heels work better and are easier to get. Been doing it for years on Petzls.

Is the road still open?

Ha, ha! Cale that was funny. Trango Extreme is a pretty commmon boot on Canadian ice in warm weather. Batura and more likely the Phantom Guide when it is cold. Helps MEC sells Scarpa. New Nepal Cube is just a lighter more water proof, durable, carbon mid sole Nepal..similar upgrades as the Batura to Batura 2.0 previous. Nepal in any version is no light weight (as far as support) and in fact offers the most ankle support and less flexability of any boot mentioned in this thread. Not a lot more support in the Trangos than the Batura or Guide. All have enough to climb long sections of vertical ice. Newest Rebel Ultra has more support than the Trango by a good bit and is lighter than any of them..but not by much and not as warm as most. Pretty much like the Trango Extreme for warmth I think. May be a little warmer depending on how you fit it. Rebel Ultra is a narrow and snug boot with a very technical fit. Almost like a fruit boot as much a mtn boot I think. Not for everyone I suspect. But I would really encourage anyone of any skill level to at least try them on. I believe they will make anyone a better ice climber simply by lowering the size of your foot profile and enabling you to climb on smaller more delicate ice features that were unavailable to most previous. Me included. I still believe the Rebel Ultra is a "game changer" in technical ice foot wear. Just as the 1st ICE/Batura was almost a decade ago now. You were right ECB, Batura 2.0 version is lighter than the Trango Scrapa Rebel Ultra size 45 1# 14oz Scarpa Phantom Guide size 45 weight 2# 7.5oz La Sportiva Trango Extr Evo GTX size 45 weight 2# 3oz La Sportiva Batura 2.0 size 45 2# 2oz hope all that helps some.

At the risk of not being rad... Since you have decided to start counting lets be fair and add the number in this thread: http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2012/12/black-diamond-heel-lever-concerns_19.html Not that those numbers are anyway definative. I seem to remember others having a similar problem in the deleted thread. Hard believe I am the only one here that remembers that. BD says it is only "two". That would be 1+1. In case anyone missed remedial math. I've suggested using BD heels (because they are mostly metal compared to Grivel) on any crampon. In 2011 alone at least three times on CT. "I own 5 pairs of boots from La Sportiva and Scarpa currently. And 6 pairs of technical crampons. The crampons are from Petzl, Black Diamond and Grivel. I mix and match heel pieces and toe bales on each brand to get the best fit possible" I use BD levers on Petzls because I like the levers and strap position and heel contact surfaces better. I haven't changed mine...but I have checked them. Thanks to Joe's original post. Might be a mistake suggesting anyone changing heel pieces to get a better and more reliable crampon fit. I had that happen, a mistake..being wrong before, but only "2" times. In case anyone is counting. But have to admit that is some simply amazing customer service to see a totally new heel lever design over just "two" failures. Obvouisly a full up turnip truck in Boseman these days. For heaven's sake, be sure to hold on tight.

"the heel piece that I just received used a harder alloy and different plastic design than previous generations....on first glance they look much better. the plastic piece is designed to pop onto the heel with more accuracy" Only two known failures? The first in public mid Dec 2012. Nice of Joe to give us all a heads up on what to look for. And your second warning Keenan. An anomoly I am sure. Now a new heel piece design from BD. Seems like an over reaction for just two. But a new fix? How can I complain. Hard to keep up on all the problems and the resulting redesigns/fixs being done for so few failures. You seem to imply this is only a larger size boot issue? 46 and larger by your implication? Or just not an issue...until it is an issue? I only ask because you and Joe brought the heel lever failures to the public. Joe ended up dumping his from what he said in his last public accounting. You now seem satisfied with yours. Seems what I get from this is we are back to, "inspect your gear" and some gear just requires you to "inspect it more often". May be the lesson is gear fails, complain on the Internet until the company calls you and fixes their shite. Then go back on the Internet and make nice. Tell us how good the stuff really is once fixed. Side track here..in case there is any misperception. I have no loyaities to any gear manufacture. And no bone to pick personally or professionally with any gear manufacture. Much to the consternation of a few that have commented. I simply keep track. And I rely on my own gear to not fail. Two BD heel levers obviously fail. 2 months later we get 2nd hand word of may be a new design to solve a problem that may be is caused by using bigger boots. Not sure wher that leaves me with my heel levers but OK...I've been warned anyway, thanks to Keenan and Joe. And the Internet. All too familiar territory and scenario imo, if you are keeping track. The flip side? One broken connecting bar on a well worn (worn out!) Grivel G20 comes to light at Grivel. No Internet fuss. Just a simple email to Grivel. Grivel replaces the entire crampon in trade for the pair with one broken connecting bar. Couple of months later totally new design on the connecting bar. Grivel makes a public statement of the improvement and offers free replacements for anyone in the older G20s or G22s. Just to go a little further. I still own BD Sabertooth and Serac crampons. If I could simply trust them to NOT FAIL I would climb everything from hard M to WI6 in Sabers. I like how they climb and have done both in them. But in the current stainless versions, from experience (rememeber I keep track) I simply don't trust them to be reliable. That started with the first failures reported back in the winter of 2010/2011. I continue to read reports of their failures today. Never been any word as to why they fail. May be it is the big boots, soft boots, beginner climbers, walking in them, climbing in them (seriously?) or the other paultry answers BD "officially" pronounced early on. But never a faulty crampon...just more "fixes" never acknowledged, that are still failing on occasion. Now folks (such a gentle term) on the Internet tell me that horizontal crampons are not made for techncal climbing and that big feet cause crampon failures. Which of course defies history and common sense. Or that some of the best and most well respected alpine climbing boots ever designed are NOT appropriate for use with that crampon. Better yet some want to quote the statistical failure rates based on the manufacture's information. If the company had a history of being open and transparent I might take those numbers to heart. Grivel and Petzl for example..seem pretty open about gear failures. Only statistics that concern me are the ones I generate from my boots and my crampons. Those numbers I trust and are the only ones meaningful to me when I clip on my crampons. I may have fallen of a turnip truck. But thankfully I didn't fall off yesterday.

Hey Rafal, yes opening the pick angle on the Fusion did help on pure ice. Never been a M climber so for me 2 degrees means nothing anyway. Funny though that the Fusion with the newest pick now has less angele than a Cobra or a Viper! As I mentioned but didn't really make clear, it was all the other things that really made a difference with a Fusion on pure ice. Not just the drop in pick angle. Opening the pick angle a full 2 degrees tells me again a lot where BD is with the original design. Seems silly to offer it as a mixed pick though. Just my thought but an ice specific pick would seem more appropriate if you drop the angle. Changing the pick angle is so easy to do on BD picks in production. I was looking for a Aermet style pick so durability was what I really wanted from the project. Turns out my picks were more durable than aermet from my testing but I was never happy with the field testers results compared to the cost of manufacture. Really unhappy when I knew the Petzl picks were so good and by comparison so CHEAP! I finally stopped playing at it when I was asked to cut a half dozen Petzl picks to fit BD tools. Problem was solved in my mind by then. I just needed to change handles

I have no problem voiceing an honest opinion based on experience John. Some hard climbs obviously get done on the Fusion. So how bad can it be? Not bad at all having used them myself a good bit. First year of Fusion II production I cut all sorts of picks @ several angles for BD tools to see if how they climb ice couldn't be improved. BTDT already..and as I said there are other more subtle issues involved. Shaving the heads, opening the grip angle, ditich the spike for more rotation and opening the pick angle will help the Fusion climb ice better. The details have all been listed here on CC.com a few years ago. Or you could simply buy a Nomic from the git go as you suggested. If you want to see the actual numbers on pick angle of all the BD technical tools they are listed here: "Black Diamond's technical tools change slightly in the angle of the pick to the shaft in every model, with increases starting with the Reactor @ 28.5, then Viper @ 30.5, Cobra @ 31, Fusion II @ 32 and Fusion I @ 33.5. Thickness of the grip also changes with the steeper tools having slightly smaller grips for more precision. How those numbers compare to Petzl is a guess in many ways. Shafts may be exact copies of each other, and are for angle, but at what angle the picks attach to the shaft is an other matter all together. How the pick design changes between Petzl and Black Diamond is another issue. As I said the differences are subtle." http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2010/10/ice-tools-part-two.html

I've seen a lot of nice down jackets in the past couple of years. And the industry has a twice yearly "game changer" @ OR. Some real and some imagined. Here is what I have been told. YMMV. I simply don't know enought to comment any further. But call me skyptical. Water proof down goes back to/comes from the fly fishermen. I have not talked with any of the current proponents of water proof down directly. But I did happen upon two of the major manufactures that have decided not to use a treated down in their garments. The reasons as I understood them? Not hard to turn 700 fill down into 1000 fill down by this process. Just hard to keep it 1000 fill down in long term use. Not hard to make water proof down. Just hard to keep it water proof down long term. My opinion? Down garments and bags will last generations and fully functional if properly cared for. The good ones are and have always been expensive. I want mine to last and work as expected from day one till I decide to ditch it. I understand the reasoning behind wanting water proof down. Great idea. And it may well be a game changer. But when two of the best manufactures in down gear currently decide they want to wait...and for what seems like good reasons. I'm hestitant. The flip side to all that? I've had the chance to spend the winter in the newest Patagonia alpine line of clothing. Guide, Mixed Guide, North Wall and Knife Blade/Piton combos. Gotta say I am really impressed with every piece of the line. The designers and the althetes have obviously come together in the alpine line with some amazing synergy. I really am impressed. Even though I think it might better be described as a dh ski line as easily as a "alpine" implied climbing line. It works for both and looks pretty natty All of which bodes well imo for the new down. Just not convinced yet.

"I'm told it sounds like the new ice pick might even the playing field between the nomic and the fusion." Ha, ha, that is a good one. Make a poor copy and not understand the nuances of design and you get..well you get a Green Fusion. It is going to take a lot more than 2 degrees less pick angle (back to almost the Cobra angle now with the new pick) to put the Fusion on an even playing field with a Nomic. It is a bit longer list than just pick angle.

The reviews are serious... My comments on how independant reviews are finanaced are not

If you have to ask? But there are two choices. Most independant gear reviewers will have both and a daddy in the oil business :-)

48? Yes. But why do I have to check for you? Go to the scarpa link at the end of the review and add a pair to your want list. I ask nicely and have a Black Card. Kinda like asking nicely with a loaded gun...people seem to pay more attention :-)

Biggest change in boots I have seen in several decades. Full review in the link to Cold Thistle. http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-scarpa-rebels-part-one-ultra.html

Doing the counter clock wise circle tomorrow, coming down Byrant coulior. Leaving the upper lot at 8am. Snow should be good if anyone else is interested.

Interesting follow up to Twight's original comment. http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2013/02/epictv-interviews-ueli-steck-on.html