EastCoastBastard

I should preface this by saying that I ALWAYS get pulled out for "random" bag checks/extra scrutiny. I dunno, maybe a clean cut, white, male university student sets off lots of warning bells for the TSA. A few years ago, I was flying with a rope and a rack in my carry on and I got pulled aside and had to show the TSA person how every piece worked and they made me remove the rope from my carry on. All of my other bags had been checked already, so they had to find me a box to put it in, and checked that. Fortunately they didn't charge me for having 3 checked bags (2 bags and a box). I asked them why, and they said I might try to rap out of the plane. I've never had this happen in North America, but I fly around New Zealand a lot and I have gotten in trouble for my carry on being too heavy (with a rack and rope in it). my two cents...

I don't think I'm going to review the Convert 2 - Alpinist did a good job, and there are some other reviews floating around the internet (also positive). I couldn't find anything on the Marmot tents, so I wrote the review.

I wrote a review of the Alpinist (both the original and the current model) here a little while ago - do a search for it. It sucks. Big time I returned it to REI and got a SD Convert 2, which got rave reviews from Alpinist magazine, and rave reviews from me too. convert 2 review

I know this is a bit of a long shot, but I'm going to be in the Ouray area from 2/11 - 2/18 without any partners (I'll be there the week before too, but my partner has to go back to work). I'll have all my gear, but no car. Anybody heading out that way that would want to meet up and go climbing (not neccessarily at the ice park, but maybe some of the classics around CO - Rigid Designator, Ames Ice Hose, etc...) Me: lead WI 5, M5 trad on a good day, Student on a small budget. Have tent and camping gear. Safe climber, reasonably nice guy. Thanks Graham

I have a pair of Charlet Moser Blackice which work great. Petzl also makes a replacement bail for their crampons that fits with tele boots. I'd probably just bring your boots to a shop and try some crampons on them and see what fits. Happy tele-ing

As promised, I'm back from my trip (a dismal failure) with a report on the new Trango Extreme evo's. They're pretty nice, kept my feet warm and dry, climbed rock pretty well and did just fine on ice. The lacing system was great - so much better than my old ones. My biggest gripe is that the soles flex a bit when frontpointing. Apparently all the modern ice boots do this nowadays, but my previous ice boots (the old trango extremes) didn't flex nearly to this degree. It's just something I'll have to get used to. My other gripes are about the durability of the boot - the lorica stuff started to get a little rough around the edges just from walking through snow, and the edges of the rand got worn faster than my old boots. The kevlar mesh stuff got very fuzzy where my gaiters rubbed against them, but that's not such a big deal. Overall, I give them a solid A- . They'd get the A if they were a little stiffer.

The Omega/Alpha is sized using the UK sizing system (which is 1 away from the North American system), which explains your "weird sizing". Nice boots...

I thought this idea was worth sharing Bacon Sushi Maybe call the hospital before you consume - and alert them of your impending arrival.

My extreme's just arrived and I'm looking forward to using them. The workmanship isn't as nice as on my old extremes (the original yellow leather ones) - some of the new-age fabric around the ankle has a fold in it, but it's not a high-wear point so I don't see it being a problem. And they're so much more user-friendly than my old ones - those were a big pain in the ass to get on and off. I've got a big trip coming up in the next couple weeks, so I'll write a report on how they hold up.

I don't own a pair, but I have used them and they are sweet! They are a bit lightweight without the head weights (included, I believe). Really nice tools, good clearance, nice pick, comfy grip. Cheap too. Camp may have made some lousy stuff in the past, but their current line of ice gear is excellent.

Oh man, bummer. I just ordered some Trango Extreme Evos to replace my worn out old trango extreme's. Those Primes look like they'd be a better replacement though. Better insulation and I like yellow. "Hello, REI....?"

It is! In NZ. The Remarkables ski area opened last week, found some good snow on Ruapehu last month. Snowed 30cm last saturday in Nelson lakes. Too bad school gets in the way of skiing.

Damn, you were so far off route in that photo, you weren't even in the Cascades! Good luck with the show all the best from down under.

I have one of the newer Marmot Alpinist's (with the pole clips as opposed to the first generation's sleeves) and overall, I quite like it. I've found that it breathes as well as any of the Bibler/Integral Designs tents I've used, and is just as strong in wind/snow. My big praise for the Alpinist is it the amount of room on the inside, while still maintaining a relatively small footprint. Because of the bend in the poles, there is a lot more elbow room in the tent. the I-tent/Eldorodo/MK1's all make me feel like the roof is collapsing on me. A side effect of this is that the fabric actually stays away from your bag, allowing it room to breathe, thus your bag stays dryer. In the other singlewall tents I've used the walls slope so steeply that the fabric is resting on your bag, which usually means you end up with a wet spot. The light colour of the alpinist also makes the interior quite pleasant to spend lots of time in. The pole clip system works great and is super fast to set up - no crawling around in a collapsed tent while it tries to blow away. The detractors for the alpinist are the vents and the "bat wing" that covers them. This aspect of the tent is very poorly designed, and was heaps better on the original Alpinist. there isn't enough room under the bat wing for the flap of Membrain that covers the vent to lie flat against the tent, which can cause condensation to rise up onto the bat wing and then drip back onto you. That being said, that's only happened once when I was cooking in the tent, and it was raining outside (high humidity). Most of the time it's just annoying. The bat wing, which supports the brow pole is also a lousy piece of design. I'm not sure what it's function is (other than cover the vent, which could be fixed with a better vent design). It flaps around a lot in the wind, and when wet, presses against the roof of the tent, effectively closing the vents. I have thought about just cutting it off, but the zippers for the vent are not waterproof and I'm worried about rain leaking in. Marmot also advised me not to cut it off as the flap stabilizes the brow pole - without it the brow pole might flap out of it's grommets. A less annoying, but still poor design trait of the alpinist is it's door. There is only one, a sort of integrated membrain and mesh door, instead of a shell door and a seperate mesh door. The mesh only covers half the door (the bottom half) and there is a flap of membrain that covers it when you zip it closed. I'm not sure why they did this, as having two doors (as is normal) would add a marginal amount of weight (the zippers are almost two full seperate zippers anyway, the extra weight would be in maybe a meter of zipper and a square meter of mesh - grams at the most) and add a lot more mesh to allow moisture to escape/breeze to enter. I still like the Alpinist, it works well, is light, has a small vestibule for stashing boots/packs - it packs small, is easy to set up and once set up is really roomy inside. It handles the weather well and has plenty of guy out points. The vents leave a lot to be desired, but the fabric breathes well enough that it's mostly an annoyance at very poor design rather than something that is going to go drastically wrong. If they changed the vents back to the original Alpinist, they would have a great tent on their hands. As it is, it's just pretty good. Oh, I'm 6' and there's plenty of room for me lengthwise. Hope this helps you make up your mind. Can you tell I'd rather not be studying?

Has anybody been up to climb on Vancouver Island recently? I heard some good reports early season, but I haven't heard anything since. Any ice? Cheers

I know you said that an outdoor leadership programme is too expensive, but check out NOLS - I did a semester programme with them several years ago, and it actually worked out to be cheaper than a normal semester at school, plus I got 12 credits, so I didn't "miss" a semester either. NOLS give you a super solid background in whatever discipline you choose. It seems like most NOLS grads don't go on to do lots of outdoors stuff, but that's their problem. You don't need to pick the Andes mountaineering semester to learn good climbing skills, a semester in the PNW or the rockies would be great. The semester programmes don't focus on one area in particular (for instance, mine was 1 month alpine rock, 1 month canyoneering, 2 weeks caving and 2 weeks backcountry skiing), but so many of the skills cross over that it really serves to make you a well rounded outdoors person and be able to incorperate techniques from other disciples into whatever your eventual focus is. my 2 cents..

Hey I'm going to be in Victoria in Feb and would like to get out ice climbing, sometime during the week. Anybody keen to cut class/work to go climbing? I've got all the gear, lead WI 5, M6 but have no car. I don't know exactly what dates I'll be free, but is anybody interested? PM or e-mail me. I'd be keen for some 1-day alpine stuff too. Cheers.

A mate of mine wants to make his aztars leashless - I've seen people using the Quark griprest on aztars - anybody have an experience with this setup? How easy is it to attatch? How well does it work? Cheers

I've used both the DMM Rebel and the Raveltik. The DMM is very nice, has a beautiful swing and the pick is very aggressive, but still pretty easy to clean. I wouldn't pick it for any really overhanging stuff, it's not as comfortable to hang onto as Vipers or Ergos but I would be more than happy to climb pure ice/easy mixed with them. The Raveltiks suck. The balance feels off, the picks are not so great and they just don't swing very nicly, nor to they pentrate very well (a related problem, I realize). My 2cents and study avoidance strategy Oh they don't take the same picks. My friend with the raveltiks said he tried to fit cascade picks on them but the holes didn't line up or something

I have a couple of the new Trango's and I don't really like them. I've got 1,7,9 (smallest and largest, and then one in the middle) I hate the opposing lobe design of the smallest one - gunk is always getting in there and clogging it up, and the springs are quite weak - it doesn't have that nice resistance when you pull the trigger. The largest one is on the same diameter cable/stem as the smaller sizes, but it feels very "floppy" on the 9. It also has weak springs. That said, I like the #7, it's nice.

Hey - the routes vary - from <20m to 8 or 9 pitch routes on some of the bigger towers. I guess the avg. length would be about 2 pitches. It's usually possible to run pitches together, but this a pretty dumb idea - rope drag is a real problem.

Trip: Arapiles, Australia Sept. 2007 - Date: 9/1/2007 Trip Report: There seems to be a lack of down-under postings since Blake left us , so here goes (hopefully these photos work): After drowning for several months in the perpetual rain that is Palmerston North, NZ (If, by some unlucky circumstance you have to go to NZ, don't come here) http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/cleese-tirade-upsets-kiwis/2006/03/07/1141493650426.html I decided to blow off school for a while and head down to the "greatest crag in the world" While that might be a tall order to fill, it's pretty awesome. I flew into Sydney, met my friends there, and we all piled into the car for the 12 hour drive down to Arapiles We arrived just in time to see somebody being picked out of one of the descent gullies via helicopter after having fallen and broken some bones. He was stable, and the prognosis was good. An inauspcious start, however This being the end of winter/early spring in Australia, it was hot (in the 20's Celsius during the day), but don't tell that to the aussies, who huddled in their "downies" whenever they got a chance. The camping is great - you can basically shout from your tent to your friends up on the wall to tell them when lunch is ready. The general plan of action is to go climb something in the morning, walk the 5 minutes back to camp, feast, and then go climb something in the afternoon. The climbing is phenomenal - I don't know if I'd say best in the world, it's awesome. Almost all trad, very few fixed anchors at the belays - there might be one rap station for every 10 or 15 climbs (I think somebody told me there are 3000 named lines at Arapiles) - most climbs you can walk off (via the moslty decent descent gullies), or if you're close enough to the rap stations, then rap. The lines are VERY stiff in the lower grades, - most everybody you talk to will say "that was the hardest 15 (about a 5.6) I've ever done!" (or 12, or 13 etc..) or " I just backed off of a 16!" Full on feet-cut loose overhangs on 5.6's, really awkward moves, strange sketchy looking but solid chickenheads, but mostly bomber gear - the rock just sort of sucks in good pieces, especially small to medium nuts and tricams. The grades get more "accurate" the higher you go, with a 19 feeling about right (~5.10) It's very similar in feel to the Gunks(though the grades are stiffer at Arapiles), only about 50x better. The campgrounds may be full, but once you leave the camp, it's very unusual to be around other people for most of the day - even on the mega classics. The rock isn't all greased up or even overly chalked up, though it does often get too hot to climb, even during "winter". Animals: For a North American, there are all sorts of crazy animals that live in and about the campground - kangaroos, echidnas (a marsupial hedgehog/porcupine), cool parrots called rosellas, and some very cool lizards - Stumpies! (blue tongued lizards/shingleback) Stumpie (not my photo) Kangaroos at the base of the cliffs All in all, some great climbing - defineatly worth travelling a long way for. Racking up below Tanin - a classic 19 and up at the top And my lovely hosts Meg and Steve (photo credits to them, except for the stumpie) Stay tuned for more adventures from the other side of the world...

This is kind of a related question - I've got some Ascension STS skins and for the first season, I used the "skin saver" thing to pack them up each time I put them away. No problems, all was cool. Then, I took them out of the bag as normal and the skin savers stuck to the skins, and basically degraded onto the skin to such a degree that there are bits of skin saver the whole length of the skin. So I stopped using them (there wasn't much of the skin saver left intact - it was literally in taters). It hasn't really affected the stickyness of the glue, it's just a pain in the ass. Has anybody else had this problem with the skin savers? Note: the skins get stored in a closet with little temp. fluctuation, and there was nothing remarkable about the last time I used the skin savers, nor was their a long period of time between uses

While people are weighing in with their 2 cents, here's mine - Marmot Alpinist - pretty light (even with the vestibule), very easy/fast to set up, bombproof and quite roomy for the size. Reasonably priced to boot. The current model is worlds better than the original (clips vs. pole sleeves) in most respects.

hey "welded baffles" means that the baffles are closed without stitches /thread - this is the new thing in all sorts of clothing/gear. Have a look around - most of the top of the line shells will have some sort of welding on them. It's supposed to be more durable as no threads can come loose, as well as a bit less bulky (marginally so) For your fill count question - many of the companies' websites will have very technical descriptions of what the fill count means and will probably be able to answer your question better than I. Hope that helped