Dane

Nice photo, W!

You may already know this but others might wonder. Alaska routes even short ones like mmf are way more than just the technical grade. If you aren't climbing WI5 at the home crags MMF might be a fairly big bite to chew at WI4. As John said...alpine routes change...season to season...or week to week depending on conditions.

My point was only that even if I can't imagine using armor I can imagine the need and the resulting possibilities.

yep...pain is generally natures way of telling you get better or slow down I like the old idea of "rack, sack and shirt on you back." Armor I like to save for frags and incoming rounds. But I'd never intentionally step on imagination and armor is certainly looking at another step to the edge.

He was indeed French and a true gentleman. Besides being a hard ass alpine climber with an obvious way with the women So yes, he did live up to the French sterotype. But then the French have enough fashion sense not to wear their 'pons on the wrong feet. Disposable? Yes, they are disposable...which is why they sell replacement parts... Some companies sell front points....Petzl sells you half a crampon. I love the design but have to question the rational.

Good info. I have a fairly intensive belay/bivy jacket review (nine Denali weight jackets reviewed) coming soon that might help enlighten you on choices these days. My conclusions/results may surprize you. But at least you'll see many of what I consider the better choices and their detailing. DAS and two Feathered Friends jackets are reviewed and two of my first choices originally. And all three nice jackets. But none of the three get high marks in the side by side comparison of my review. Which came as quite a surprise to me.

Talked with the actual designer of the Dartwin this weekend. When asked his thoughts on the shorter inside front point and his design work, he looked at me like I was completely ignorant (he was close obviously )and said "it is for your splayed feet of course" and never missed a beat as he continued telling about new tools.

Their wire gate is slick...single wire gate with a ball head lock up. I'll post those as well. $10+ each @ retail! Check out the newest pictures at the alpineexposures web site.

i'll have a bunch of detail photos to post once I get home mid week. Maybe someone else can or will sooner? That was Friday nite Mike not last night Come on, ya gotta keep up!

So few have climbed on the Ergo yet Rafeal. Even Ueli Steck didn't get his till last week and I was told everything out is still prototypes and even showed why. Really only cosmetic changes but all the tools at the show are marked "sample not for sale". Couple of Petzl guys were able to got out on them last night but I didn't get to talk with them. But from the guys like us using Nomics my take is they might well have some advantages on mixed. And still be good on moderate ice in dagger and a high grip swing, even though the tools was designed for the overhanging world cup type stuff. So is the high end Grivel tool (radical bend) that is very close to the Ergo in clearenece and House/Anderson used that tool 2 years ago on Alberta.

Other Scarpa is more Nepal Evo like. Looks like a good boot. The umbilical attachment is new and hidden on the Nomic and Ero. I have detail pictures I'll post next week when I get home. Can't remember if they used the same system as well as the spike hole on the new Quark but I'll look.

gotta be a c2c time.

I only saw the Phantom Guide and Phantom 6000 both brand new lwt weight mtn boots. Guide is lwt single and the 6000, Scarpa's newest lwt dbl. They both ROCK http://www.scarpa.com/scarpa.php

Yes, they call it the "Trigrest" and it is listed as a seperate part. It will work on three now tools and Isuspectthe old ones as well.

Couple additional bits of info on the new Petzl hammer and adze. The hammer weight is 58g The adze weight is 69g pick weights per pair is 65g The cold thistle hammer is 33g and a closer profile to the shaft offering a better balance on the tool. Same idea with our adze. CT adze weights less but I can't qoute the numbers right now. I had hoped that our pick cut and Petzl's would have been closer. No doubt you have two options now. Petzl's version is built to pound a lot of pins but you loose some of the amazing balance of the tools because of that. Our version is lighter certainly strong enough for the intended purpose but offering a lot better balance in use. Fun to see that our design work is exactly the same as Petzl on the interlock with the full weight of the hammer and adze slot supported inside the tool head.

Here is Pertz's new line up, sadly for us tool junkies, not available until Fall of 2010. Pretty radical new Ergo. But then we all thought the Nomic was radical when it was introduced. Costs run from some where around $330 on the Ergo $300 on the nomic and $250 on the new Quark. All the past tools are now discontinued Picks and parts will obviously be available for most for some time yet. Nothing past the old Nomic pick and the new hammer/adze is interchangable. Takes a new tool to get the new end piece. Nomic Ergo Nomic/Ero and Quark hammer (adze otion as well)

Oct. delivery on the new tools. The tools we are seeing at the show now and out climbing right (Ueli Steck and the Petzl web page) are still prototypes. Close but still protos. I found it interesting the even Steck hadn't seen or used the new tools till just last week. All the new tools are now taking the older style Nomic picks. But now they are cut to take hammer and adze (the coldthistle hammer and adze are lighter fwiw). All the picks are now T rated as well and with a 3 year guarantee! Both are extra cost wise..tools come with nothing but a washer spacer. My take is buy the old Nomic/Quark at a discount. New pick/hammer/adze will work on the old Nomic.. The new "spike" and weight drops aren't going to be appreciated by everyone The radical Ergo on the other hand is going to add some more options to steep ice and mixed. Damn I forgot ato ask price.. $325, 300 and 250 I think were the suggested retails. Hidden place to add umbilicals on all three tools...which is very tricky. I'll post detailed photos and lots of them up whenn I get back mid week. Scarpa has some incredible new boots, the Guide and the 6000...which I offered my left nut for Of course no one was nterested in the trade. They should be out in March.

Hey Mike what booth # are you at? Petzl's newest biner is pretty cool. BD stuf has already been outed obviously. A suspected 3 new tools from Petzl. Allfor the technical crowd and pretty sweet. Hammer and adze for all and all using the Nomic pic now. I'm trying to up load pictures.

ryan's guess was pretty good..that is a new Nomic.

Thanks for the link. Awe inspiring on all accounts...their effort on NT leaves me seachless. you gotta check out the Robson video as well.

We've had some pretty cool stuff go through "pay it forward", but no Nomics yet, sorry

PM sent.....ever heard of pay it forward

Here is some info on the materials used in the Simond 'pons Rhyang asked about earlier. http://vacaero.com/News-Info-From-Industrial-Heating-Magazine/News-Info-From-Industrial-Heating-Magazine/Advances-in-Martensitic-Stainless-Processing.html It is worth noting that Aermet, a true super alloy by any definition, is one of the most expensive and hard to work with steels available. BD was the first, and only as far as I know, climbing manufacture to use it. That was 20 years go now iirc. But maybe Bill can give us the dates. BD no longer offers Aremet picks. I suspect because the market wouldn't support the price point. Climbers who know still clammer to buy original BD Aermet picks. But the reason I bring it up is Aermet was one of the first "super alloys" and is still produced, still extremely hard to manufacture from and extremely expensive. There has been huge technlogical advances in steel and manufacturing techniques in the last 20 years. 20 years ago Aermet had no competitors now there are dozens of similar steels. Depending on your application and requirements some better or some worse.

"If you are still raving about the it in a year or two." Seriously if a piece of clothing lasts a year or two alpine climbing it is obvious I aint doing enough of it. The XV has made it through a bunch of big mtn trips. Nothing I will do alpine climbing will trash one like those trips do wearing a XV for days and days in a row. There was a good reason Allen needed to wash his XV. Bags and down gear are usually trash from one trip like that. Ever tried to buy a bag used on Denali....stinky! Nepal trips are generally 2 times as long. You may be worried about me giving bad info about the XV....I bought one and have no worries about it being one of the best values available @ 269. If you need that style of jacket....and most never will. I don't give gear raves or endorsements lightly, although it may seem that way from the volume of my writing. Why would I? Nothing in it for me. I do like talking about good gear finds. I don't have to wear anything long to know it is good or bad. Knowing it is good in my office just tells me if I want to take it someplace BAD. "I asked my dad over x-mas when he got me started" You are obviously destined for politics with that answer In my DAS commentary I was simply pointing out that by your suggestion of searching out the "proven and refined"...which i did with the DAS...my continued search found what lay below the tip of the iceberg of "proven and refined". I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth about the quality of the DAS. I was just using it as an example of what I found with a little more research. The easy answers are not always the best. I originally though the DAS was actually one of the very best jackets available for my own use and at a decent price in comparison to some. I obviously have a lot more faith in my own judgement that you do and after some research I found myself wrong on both counts. No one more surpised than me! But I also found much better jackets and what I would consider even better values ..although they might not be less money than the DAS. I use this forum to stimulate my mind and open my "eyes" to other posibilities. If it were not for this thread I would never had made the effort to walk into EB last week. The surprise purchase of the XV made me rethink what I thought I knew about "belay" jackets. Only then did the real learning begin. Hopefully I've helped a few open their own minds as well. That I do get something from.