EastCoastBastard

I thought the music was the best part! Turn your volume UP if you like the 80's Strange jump from the top of Cerro Torre to Arapiles.

Yes, it is a true pain in the ass to install them. I found it helpful to sort of pre-crimp the metal band (like bend it past the correct point before you put it on the tool) so that you don't need as much pressure from your fingers. But yes, I was incredibly frustrated when I put mine on. Good luck

I found this (Long) movie of the 1953 Everest expedition on youtube 1953 Everest Movie Not a re-make or anything - the real deal from 1953. Neat!

I'm up north and have been climbing lots of limestone and ice with them. I haven't climbed any ice less than a 4 with them (as someone else pointed out, there are better tools for that angle of ice) and have climbed up to about 5+, M8. The ice has been of all sorts - from nice plastic stuff to cold and brittle to extremely rotten. I think they feel really good. I like them better than the nomics actually, but that's probably more personal preference than anything else. For more ice and moderate mixed, I still like the Vipers/Cobras, but for harder mixed and good ice performance, the Fusions are a great tool. I think they're great tools.

So I've been using the new fusions for the past couple days - I really like them. they're really solid on rock, have a nice swing. I needed to adjust my swing a bit to get them to work well on ice, but once I did that, they were great. Comfortable to match on, secure hooking. No worries. Nice tools.

Not my tools/don't know the seller http://www.mec.ca/Apps/outdoorGearSwap/gearswap_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302884082&refNo=193234&category_cd=Climbing&sub_category_cd=SnowIceHardware&bmUID=1260230944941

I was pretty keen to get one of those once upon a time - but after some deeper digging, I found out that it doesn't have a mesh door - a feature I really like in a tent - keeps 90% of snow out while breathing better than any conduit/todd-tex/whatever, and allows some airflow. I can't remember if it didn't have mesh over the vents or not. The EV2 also doesn't have a vestibule - it's just one long tent inside. So getting in and out in a storm - the inside of the tent's going to get wet. So, in my opinion, the EV2 is more like a 1 season tent. If your approaches involve going through buggy areas before getting to the good stuff, I think you'll curse it (or at least I thought that I would). After trying both incarnations of the Marmot Alpinist (Sucky and Suckier), I got the Sierra Designs Convert 2 (check the alpinist review) - it's reasonably light, well designed, includes a big, removable vestibule (if you're going to have a vestibule, you might as well make it functional- the Marmot vestibules were just a pain in the ass), the vents are huge, the DriZone stuff breathes well, and has a mesh door, and has zippered mesh windows over both vents. And it's cheaper than the EV2. I special ordered mine from REI, but I've probably put 40 days on it since getting it last year, and haven't had any real problems or complaints. Another one I'd check out is the NEMO tenshi - I haven't actually seen one, but I've heard good things. Pretty pricey though. One feature I really like in single wall tents is the ability to set them up externally (clips/sleeves) without having to get inside and roll around like a cat in a bag with the door open to get the thing set up. With any of those I've mentioned, you can stake the thing out and set it up without getting the inside wet. Nice in wind/rain/snow.

Are you sure that's not the back closet of some REI? all that stuff looks brand new!

I found this movie, in it's entirety, on YouTube. This is an absolutely terrible "climbing" movie. Bad story, bad acting, bad climbing scenes. But it was filmed in the Cascades (it jumps around a lot, but I'm pretty sure I recognized Johannesburg and a few others). Only watch if you've got NOTHING better to do. High Ice

This is also me: Shortly after putting up a new route on Mt. Ruapehu (on the north island) last year. A relatively typical day (the weather, not the new route) And this is me too (but not in NZ!). I'm on the left. We got sponsored by a beef company (but they didn't give us any meat!). Alpamayo in july of this year.

Why don't you look for a used Serratus pack? There's always some on the MEC gearswap. Canadain made, great packs (they used to be owned by MEC, but they couldn't be competitive anymore - all of their designs have been absorbed into the MEC label). I've bought/sold heaps of stuff on the gearswap (including a Serratus pack) without ever having any problems. Here's one Serratus Pack That particular model (the Alpine Guide?) is a great pack (and no I have no relation to the seller)

Same sort of story. Waterfall Ice: There is no easily accessible ice on the south island (and the stuff on the north island is too short to be worth mentioning). Or I guess what I think of as easily accessible - Poko style approaches for you east coasters (a 5 minute stumble from the car) or Weeping wall style. The "best", easiest access ice on the south island is Wye creek - about a 2 hour ski in. There's about 10 routes from WI 2 - 5 and it is unique in that it's easy to get in and is high enough (it's accessed via a ski field) to get cold enough temperatures to form consistently. Much of the other waterfall ice on the south island is hard to get to, and so low (elevation wise) that it is subject to wide temperature fluctuations = poor ice conditions. If you get it when it's on, it can be good. It just usually isn't. There is an pdf guidebook for a place called Bush Stream - it looks awesome (pm me if you want me to send it to you). Great routes. Except it's a 4 hour bush bash in, up a roaring stream bed. I've bashed in there 3 times and climbed 1 route. There are other places like Twin Stream that have ice, but that's a 7 hour walk (haven't been there). There's also the Darrans - which has roadside ice sometimes (I guess that's the easiest ice to access), but 90% of it is threatened by avalanche slopes above the climbs, and the ice doesn't form consistently at all. Maybe for 1 week every 2-3 years is enough stuff formed to make a trip down there worthwhile. It's also the rainiest places in NZ. 700cm/year. The thing you have to understand about NZ is it doesn't have seasons the way we north americans think of seasons. In winter, sure it's colder and darker, but you don't get nearly the fluctuation that you'd get almost anywhere north of Mexico. To me it feels like a perpetually wet spring. I guess what I mean by that is that things trend in one direction or the other temperature wise, but anything can happen at any time. And because it's a tiny little island(s) in the middle of the pacific, with warm currents coming down from the north, and cold from the south, nothing stays cold, or warm for very long. If you get a good powder day skiing, get it while it lasts because within 2 or 3 days it will turn to glop. I skied powder so deep and fluffy that I was chest deep in it and my bases were still hitting rocks on one day and the next day it was all glop. Alpine snow/ice routes - this is mostly what I've been talking about in my previous posts. There is very little "alpine rock" climbing, except in the Darrans (which are granite! but it's always raining). If conditions are good, there are some awesome routes, good alpine ice and a maritime snowpack. The weather usually conspires against you though. There are also very few routes that are accessible enough to be able to do in a weekend (unless you flew in, which is cost-prohibitive). Most alpine routes here are big-ish trips. 3-4 days minimum. I'm not NZ-bashing, it's just highly overrated as a climbing destination.

haha - too true Cracker-jack, except it rains then too! Oh the mud and the blood... In fact, it's rained almost every day for about 3 weeks now. Today was glorious in the afternoon though. My point about NZ is that yes, you can get some good stuff done, but the chances of that actually happening are far outweighed by the chances of you sitting in a hut, or a tent for the majority of your stay. In light of that, and in light of the fact that very few of the NZ objectives are world class, (the rock is pretty crappy) in my informed opinion it would be a waste of time and money to come here solely for the purpose of climbing. There is currently a debate (it's not really a debate in my opinion) in the NZ climbing community about why the internal standards of NZ alpine climbing are so low (any good kiwi climbers quickly move overseas, or do the majority of their trips elsewhere). This debate, in all it's infighting glory, can be seen on MountaiNZ under the State of the Nation thread. MountaiNZ is a candle to CC.com's bonfire, but it's growing. Anyway, one of the major factors are weather and difficulty of access. Access can be changed (helicopters, trails, etc...), but weather can't. Another factor that's been brought up is the reluctance of people to go on big domestic expeditions to put up new lines etc... People simply aren't willing to put out so much effort for such a small chance of a positive return. It's far easier, and more productive from a climbing standpoint (and often from a financial standpoint) to simply go elsewhere. Patagonia was brought up - I've never been, but from what I understand, there's amazing rock, stellar lines and bad weather. NZ has decent lines, poor rock and bad weather. Alright, back to the studying - my 4th final exam in a row is tommorow and I'd like to pass (plus 3 more next week...) The Anti-NZ crusader, Graham

I was always taught that as long as the rope's not impaled on your crampons, you're probably alright. If it looks good, it is good.

I've had the current vipers for a while now and have been using the micro hammer/adze. They work... barely. I've taken several chunks out of my micro hammer from pounding pins with less-than-perfect aim, but it works. The adze is too small to dig anything quickly, but works well for clearing ice away, and yeah, it's functional. As far as swinging better - I dunno, I've never tried. A little more weight in the head might be useful for some, but I like the way the vipers swing as they are. No problems for me there.

I just found this video: and thought it was cool enough to share. Neat to see the old tools in action (even if he does change tools a bunch during the climb - watch carefully) and I especially like his idea of an appropriate post-solo activity.

I know, but when you go to the hardware store in North America, I think they're called carriage bolts... Carrot bolts always seemed like such a strange name

Congrats!

jay - I'm in Palmerston North, and yeah, I've heard the fly fishing is excellent, and the kayaking and surfing are pretty good. I don't do any of those though... Maybe I should start. I'm not sure when you were here, but there have been some pretty good micro brews starting up (two great older ones from Dunedin - Emerson's and Green Man, as well as a couple new ones from Wellington), but by and large, Kiwi beer is pretty lousy - around the same quality level as Wildcat or Bud. Back to the original topic - I've heard excellent things about Tasmania, and it should be reasonable temperature wise, in Dec.

NEice doesn't get going until the ice starts getting climbed - then it's super active. There's a whole bunch of screws there right now: Screws Good luck

If you're in NY, you should post this on NEice and NEclimbs too. Buy local and all...

Hello GoatBoy I'm not trying to keep people away at all, just trying to get people not to waste their time/money down here. I'm in NZ, since you asked, first for grad school (south island, Dunedin) and now I'm halfway through vet school (north island). I've been down here for 4 years now, two more to go. Why here? Vet school is cheaper, and it's fully accredited (so my degree is the same as from any north american vet school)and it's heaps easier to get into. Grad school was also cheap and at a well-regarded school, and I didn't need to take the GRE. I'm not saying that you can't have a great time climbing down here, just that the odds are heavily stacked against you. Maybe you've been lucky - it sounds like you have been. I have been highly unlucky - for four years. The vast majority of my climbing trips here (talking alpine climbing) have been extremely unsuccessful. Most of the time we can't even get to the climbs (weather), or the climbs are out of condition. I've been all over both islands, in all seasons. It's not uncommon to have 3 or 4 bad weather days/week when you're up at some of the huts (NZ has a great hut system, NZAC maintains a bunch of huts on various moraines/glaciers so the access to climbing is excellent). The Darrans - the only granitic mountain range in NZ (the rest is graywacke/shist - crap, with some limestone crags here and there) also happens to be a place where they get over 7 METERS of rain/year. And that's not far from Mt. Cook etc... You CAN get days where there's rain on the west ("wet")coast and it's sunny and dry on the east coast (Christchurch, Dunedin etc...), but generally if there's a front of any reasonable size it's going to cover a good proportion of the island(it's only like 200km across). And fronts of a reasonable size are pretty common. And the southern alps run down the west coast. As far as it not being "worth it" - I've finally worked out (after spending almost every holiday trying to get some alpine climbing done - works out to about 5 weeks/year) that it's cheaper for me to fly to Australia and go cragging where it's 90% guaranteed to be excellent vs. staying here where it's an 80% chance of me sitting in a hut reading old climbing magazines. If you're going to spend the time/money to go somewhere, it's worth it to go somewhere good. So yeah, I'm not trying to keep anybody away, but if you actually want to get some good peaks in, my recommendation would NOT be NZ.

I've used plastic bread bags with pretty good success - they keep my boots dry and my feet wet, but not too wet. I always put a pair of liner socks directly on my feet, then the vapor barriers, then thick socks. I only do it to increase warmth a little bit and that might only be a few days a year to avoid pulling out the plastics.

I've been! It's fu%king great. the rock is awesome, the climbs are excellent, access is generally very easy. I got taken around by a friend from Sydney - I think we stayed at Mt. Piddington (one of like 30 or 40 different crags) the whole time. The only thing a bit strange (and this goes for Australia in general) is that a lot of the bolted sport climbs are "bolted" with carriage bolts - with no hangers. You have to put your own hangers on as you climb - they are a special sort of hanger that fit over the hex nut of the carriage bolt, but can't come off once a biner is clipped through it. It's a little annoying, but not a deal-breaker. Any climbing shop will sell them ($4 each I think?) There's excellent trad there too. I seem to remember that most of the climbs had little signs at the bottom identifying what climb it was. Useful. Enjoy! PS: there was an incident last year where some folks died in the blue mountains after some bolts pulled out of the rock. Apparently the wrong sort of bolts had been used even though the locals told the bolters (out of town-ers) not to. Be careful! Details of accident here: blue mountains accident details