Dane

Too bad they didn't continue to improve with those successes. EB was never cutting edge in design or manufacture but simply available to the American market. Their down quality and designs were bad then (50/'60s) in comparison to the Euro down garments available. Think miner as opposed to climber....when it came to design. Now they have the designs lets see if their manufacturing can live up to the price point they have targeted

Couple of thoughts come to mind. First, fall energy is defined by amount of rope in the sysyem. So "hard" or "soft" falls can happen no matter the terrain. "The fall factor is a derived number used to evaluate the shock loads generated on the climber, belayer and anchors that occur when a climber falls. The higher the fall factor, the greater the forces placed on the components of the system. The math is simple: Fall factor = length of fall / length of rope" You need to understand this info when choosing a rope and how you decide to use your climbing system. http://www.southeastclimbing.com/faq/faq_fall_factor.htm#dynamic We all seem to use half ropes or even twins in similar situations to save weight. Same places where we figure a lighter rack is appropriate as well (to save weight) and more than likely the risk of a high fall factor incident (run out "easy" ground) is likely to occur. As Mike pointed out 1/2 ropes are not tested to the same weight loads or impact forces. If the rope doesn't break from being cut (rope damage being the reason dbl ropes were intitially used) the IMPACT force will be important to the climber held on the rope. Something not mentioned yet in the discussion is light impact forces (which you want in a fall) mean a really stretchy rope. In the case of a twin and some of the lighter dbls some *really, really stretchy* rope. Enough stretch that you might just hit something well beyound what you might have thought possible in a fall. BTDT, not so pleasant. I might suggest being really careful where you decide to use ropes not rated for your purpose and accept the fact the leader must not fall. But then if the leader never fell he would not need a rope right? Super stretchy top ropes can be and usually are a really bad idea. DBls through crevassed areas make sense, (easier to get out) as do dbls on some technical rock. That gives you a single strand to run out easier ground or steeper snow and ice....but *are* you going to use enough pro to minimize your fall factor so you don't over load the entire system to failure? I doubt it. Mt Hood comes to mind. We all want to save weight. Hard to do when you are packing 60 and 70 meter ropes or worse yet two of them. I have recently gone back to a single rope in any size for most climbs. Super thin ropes in the 7mm sizes make a lwt dbl rope system when I can get by with only 100' or 110' pitches, which you can on most alpine climbs. But they are dubious as single ropes when you realise everything involved and required of a climbing rope. Ropes like the Beal Joker make good lwt single ropes if you want to climb faster by having fewer belays. Heaven forbid we go backwards but 150' ropes (or less) made the first ascents of everything from El Cap to "modern" hard waterfall climbs. 45 and 50 meter ropes in modern lwt single rope form (like a Joker or its equal) might be a good compromise that you never have to worry about. Lots of very experienced opinions already on this thread. I have done exactly as you are intending for years and as recent as last month. I have over the last two winters been rethinking my own use and no longer suggest using a dbl rope as a single any time outside of simple glacier travel where the likelihood of a severe fall is limited. I wonder how many here using a dbl as a single have fallen on one while in that use? Top rope or lead? If so I would be the first to replace that rope. That makes it a one fall rope and rather expensive. Ropes don't break, they are cut or burn through by contact with another rope. (Dan Osman's was a burn through ) But they do have a service life. Thin ropes obviously have a shorter service life than thicker ropes. Here is a REI speil on twins (they offer a couple of brands) as a short single rope. So many folks thinking along the same lines. This is the rope I am most likely to use on Rainier today but I also know its limitations.

pm sent on the Omegas

Guilty of wasting time and band width myself. As far as juvenile revenge? This thread reads like a 12 year old girl's heart broken lament with her girl friends then piling on. I've had terrible partners and clients. Been a terrible partner or guide in someone's eyes I suspect. Been left by partners on climbs and left partners on climbs. And had many more incredible partners and clients. None of the above met over the Internet. But many I'd never met until we got off the plane in some far way airport. There are always two sides to every story. Dinner and a beer after a climb might be considered a "thank you" or a tip....guess your "client" didn't think you worthy. You start hauling someone's gear for them, you have at some level taken responsibility for them in the mtns. You should have had this discussion in private on the mtns weeks ago. And then that conversation should have stayed private, IMO. Still unclear if you met on the mountain or now as it seems, the trip was originally planned as a three some. Haven't even heard the other guy's side. He has no place to go but up

Yes, new tooth design and tube finish is why. Grivel Helix, 360 and newest BD are about equal. In our little clan preference is to the Helix. Helix and 360 have the same teeth and tube finish. I have all three and use them. (Helix and BD Express not a big fan of the 360s because of size) My thought is BD is micro seconds behind them.

Good info Bill. I did mine in less than 2 hrs by stopping to rest. Feet had been wet (got wet crossing a creek but not soaked enough to think of changing soxes) but not cold for the previous 8 to 10 hrs. I decided to take a nap and let the cold wake me up...done so many time before but never with really damp feet and tight boots. I spent the next 9 months getting the feeling back in mine even with no visual damage. Much more succeptable to cold now. With some extra care I was able to climb the rest of the winter in the Cascades and Cnadian Rockies with no additional damage although complete healing may have been extended considerably. I've had small bits of frost bite in the distant past and none have effected me as much as immersion foot has or for as long. Many including myself might even pass it off simply as bruised toes and feet.

I'll take the Pulsar. PM sent.

Not you Mark. My mistake...should have said, "useless thread".

Rad pretty much summed it up. The old data (leather boots and prevention) doesn't really address current philosophies, conditions and gear. Modern fabric boots that either aren't water resistant or are water proof and cause additional sweating and wet feet, most with a tight technical fit and many trying to do long days without enough hydration are a quick ride to immersion foot or worse frostbite. More often than not many winter climbers have already had immersion foot, didn't recognise it, and are even more likely to get frost bite in similar condions the second time around. What you really need to be aware of is keeping your feet dry, and staying hydrated. Generally being inattentive of both will cause cold injuries. Staying hydrated in really cold condions is extremely important in keeping all 20 digits intact. Tight boots that work fine on road side crags are often not suitable for off the road cold weather alpine climbing. Over night cold weather trips involve keeping your boots unfrozen and hopefully dry. Same reason plastic dbl boots were such a hit. Double boots are still the key to long term use on cold weather trips. Additional help is the use of anti-perspirants on your feet, vbl sox if your inner boots are not foam and water proof. Using 2 layers of liner sox and no additional insulation soxs with the newst foam liners allow for extra soxs to be carried easier. Easier changed when damp..and dried easily against your skin in the bag or while climbing if required. Another piece of gear that is now often replaced by the pant cuff, the knee gaiter, is an additional lay of insulation and wind barrier for the lower leg. Gaiters are easily over looked in the new "fashion" alpine pants. But they add more warmth and protection to the current bunch of fabric boots than you might first suspect and a quick way to add a few degrees to your boots, fabric, leatherr or double boots in any weather.

Useless post.

Good picture looking up from the belay at the start of the Difficult Crack. Funny how many drop their packs mid pitch Rhote Fluh above. And one of the easy mixed pitches directly above the Crack just below the Hinterstoisser. Eiger window is straight down and directly right of the climber on the pictures edge about mid frame. IIRC it is just below the little split pillar with a snow shelf on top of it and the steep horizontal snow slope below.

55L is a lot of pack. I'd carry less. You've also listed a couple of climbing packs with some that aren't. I own and use packs from all the manufactures you've listed except a BD model which I sold. Big fan of CCW packs but you have to wait and my Acteryx 35...which you can buy anywhere and walk out with. I have several custom CCWs that were well worth the wait and the best packs I have ever seen/used. The quality reminds me of the older Wild Things gear. Makes sense since the owner of CCW used to sew the Wild Things packs. If you like your CCW call Randy up and have him make you exactly what you want.

I'd suggest using the moisture sealing electrical tape/rubber slicing tape, same stuff Petzl uses and sells with the Nomic. Couple of brands available at Home Depot or Lowe's. 3M and Scotch brand. I like the thicker Scotch brand stuff on my Nomics and the thinner stuff on some of the other axes. All of the tape is cheap, sticky when wet and pretty durable. Trigger? Most manufactures have stopped offering triggers on their tools. No matter how they are adjusted in use they tend to stress/rip finger tendons, made worse yet with cold hands and even more chance of injury. The real advantage isn't the directional or limited additional support of a trigger anyway but of a higher grip to match on and do fewer placements. You'll want a bigger platform than a trigger to do that, something like the Slider that can support your entire hand. What ever you decide to bolt on it will work better to add the tape first. Lots of ways to attach umbilicals this is what I thought the easiest answer. I drilled a hole just big enough to hitch a spectra QD through. The biggest improvement you can make in your own climbing on steep technical ground is ditch the leashes, add a second, higher, grip to match on and use umbilicals. Lots of tools out there. Making a tool into a leashless tool, is a start but sad fact is you really don't have a tool designed to climb with leashless. Not something anyone wants to hear but the best tools designed from the start to climb leashless really do make ice and mixed much, much easier. Hard to make a pommel tool like the Nomic or Fusion at home

Hi Mike, I can't remember the source of the info. Tried looking through my reprint of the White Spider. The older version we had in '78 included way better fold out topo. Jeff Lowe was talking about some details on the face @ super topo recently and am pretty sure it was one of those discussions that reminded me when you asked. But I also remember reading that info somewhere else before we got on the face. Here is a better look at the face. There is a natural line that goes way left of the Rote Fluh. It is closer to the Eiger Station as you have guessed. They hit the 1st ice field and then another rock wall to get on the 2nd Ice field. Many of the early attempts went that way as well as being the "direct" in later ascents. The obvious rock fall in summer conditions kept most from getting up it. Common approach for even the modern winter attempts these days. Easy to mix up the window and station..."holes". Dark blue line on the topo should be close to where Max Sedlmayer and Karl Mehringer went. When you look at the face it helps to remember that when you get to the base of the Difficult crack...the first hard climbing on the '38 route, you are already 2500' off the ground. Wall is 5900' high with about 10K feet of actualy climbing. Most parties, until just the last couple of decades or so climbed to the shattered pillar and bivied in the "wet cave" above it. Then got on the "difficult crack" first thing in the morning....which if the face was in good nick generally made for a pitch of very unpleasant verglassed and difficult rock, climbed bare handed in crampons BITD. Modern dry tooling has made that little corner way... way easier. But even Ueli still uses a rope on that 80' of climbing. One of the few places he does while soloing the '38 route. Getting in and out the window is another story altogether. It's is simply cheating the experience either way. But makes for an "easy" more sane way of getting off. Still from the right side of the Hinterstoisser we down climbed four pitches, rapped another two and then down climbed and traverved another 4 or 5 to get to the window. The neatest thing about the Eiger is just how it stands out when you arrive by train...you see it from miles out! Big piece of rock that dominates even the magnifigant chain of north walls that surround it.

Internet info is worth what you paid for it. Just make sure your body can cash that check They call and RATE them as 1/2 ropes and twins for a reason.

They climbed a more direct line under the 1st ice field to bypass the traverse. Way more dangerious in the conditions that use to be acceptable. Which is why it is avoided now. Also, hell of a long ways, much of it traversing and very exposed, when you are on the face from the end of the Hinterstoisser to Death Bivouac. Also much farther than it first appears from the Window to the Hinterstoisser. Some scale here with the bottom 1/4 of the face out of the picture. Topo's here. http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=864904

Two points I was attempting to make by the pictures. (and I can't figure out why they don't all show up) First I suspect all the summits shown and mentioned have been climbed...a lot. I doubt many have had winter ascents and I'd bet on the fact that there are several major lines in each photo that have never been done and many never even attempted. Alpine climbing is all about conditions. What might well be crap in summer might be exceptional in winter. For those looking for real adventures you now have a picture of it. I thought some before posting the pictures. Of course anyone wanting to get on them first will tell it is all crap. That is how it works.

By JS captions 'cuz I have no clue past that. Booker Goldenhorn Larabee Luna Phantom Spire Tupshin Left click and the name should be in the properties link.

Shortly we'll have a couple of styles of BD picks that will fit any BD tool. And a modified BD end piece for the newest Fusion that will help a bit on pure ice. I have a set of new Vipers on the way I am really excited about using the new picks in. I think the hybred pick will up the performance of the Viper to Cobra/Quark levels at least in the head/pick angle. No way to make a aluminum shaft into carbon fiber and get that kind of lwt weight and rigid shaft. But our pick may make the Cobra a even better tool for some users. (myself included, which I am really stoked about:) Link will be up tomorrow hopefully for PayPal purchases of Nomic hammers and the rest as we get them done in volume an available for shipping. It is a realllllllly slow process to get it all done right with decent quality control I'd trust for my own climbing. Certainly been an education as well to see what people are willing to pay for as opposed to what they want to talk about. So far I have only been making things I want for my own climbing. It will be even more interesting to see if what i find useful are things anyone else eventually finds useful.

Seen a bunch of bent Grivel picks. Easy to straighten out with the other tool and a few well placed wacks while climbing. Even easier at home with a vice. Heard of folks snapping them but never seen it myself. Not that I liked it mind you but think it was an intentional part of the design/metalurgy....bent better than broken.

Nothing wrong with selling anything. Hope you get what you need out of your tools. "NEW" Cobras are worth every penny of $225 each.

Geeze Kurt same tools you keep bragging in every other thread about buying *new* at $150 each?

Couple of things I have found. The spike while useful in a few scenarios on easier ground it limits the swing arc needed to pull bulges compared to the unlimited arc of swing on a Nomic with a rounded pomel. The tighter grip radius of the Fusion's lower support also hinders the same swing at a maximum arc. I think BD gave us what we asked for but not everyone realised what we be giving up. No free lunch here. Being able to pull off the spike, which was part of the design, doesn't solve the issues completely and leaves no place to attach umbilicals or the BD Spinner. By the feed back I am getting my bet is you'll see some Fusions that have met a Dremel early on. Much hard climbing being done with the new Fusion right now. Be fun to see what the general consensus is by season's end. Voted a winner i suspect.

A look at the modern version of "Starlight Storm"? Although Gaston's description of the Eiger is gripping in my mind and a must read. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWCljD5_Rew&feature=related Simpson's Youtube video of "Touching the Void" is a must see as well.

What part of that request did you miss Kevin? Traditional mountaineering, which is what my previous post was encouraging, has never accepted bolts being used on FAs. There are very, very few (if any) alpine climbs that require the use of bolts if the climbing is within the climber's abilities. The "line" by definition is a natural weakness. How about we honor Wayne's request that the discourse stay off the subject of bolts on this thread?