boatskiclimbsail

They make good filters for prospective Aid partners. Hold one up and say "So this is what we'll be hanging the ledge from on pitch 9, sound good?". If they get scared, they're no good. If they call you a moron, you'll probably be set

I try to stay out of Storm Warning, they have decent stuff but I have gotten absolutely horrible service when I go in there. The guys at 2nd wind I have found to be a lot nicer/helpful/laid back about everything. You can also haggle prices a little there if youre buying a bunch of stuff.

I used to ski my AT setup skiing in northern VT, whenever it would get crowded or the snow would get sloppy we would just zip over to the backside of the mountain and ski/skin for the rest of the day. It was nice to not have to go back to the car and change gear/boots. My first pair of diamirs broke on a soft landing one of the first times I had them out, but I am assuming that was a defect. They replaced them for free and I have been on the new pair for over a year, and have hucked 10-20' onto east coast landings (ice and hardpack) with no trouble thus far. At high speed on groomed snow my AT boards do get a little scary though...

The REI in Tualatin had some in a clearance bin a week or two ago, I think they were the wide BD ones for $30 or $40 a pair. Next adventure will have some imports that'll be a little cheaper. Try also second wind in Hood River, they have a small used ski section there.

Wow! Anytime we wanted to use one of the rooms, or had someone come to the outing club wanting to do a pres, they were welcomed with open arms and coffee. Must me that northern NY hospitality... We used to watch DVDs in the 300 seat lecture hall every now and then

As far as Petzl biners go, the william comes in all four Petzl gate locks, screw, ball-lock, spinball, and their "new" tri-act. The Attache is quite a bit smaller, and comes in screw and spinball. They also make the Am'D which comes in screw, spinball and ball-lock and tri-act. They brought back their locking ovals, but only with a screwgate. I personally find Petzl biners to be "The sh*t", and they populate my rack except for my pile of aid ovals (mostly BD Cheap-ass Ovals @ $3) and a few lightweight wires (WC Wildwires). I Loooooove the ball-lock but almost everyone I climb with curses at them everytime they need to open one. I've not had a single problem with them, even in the ice and snow.

A relatively inexpensive option would be to get prints of the digital pics you want to show, and get an optical front projector (kind of like an overhead projector). Prints are a lot cheaper to make than slides, and a "slideshow" caliber projector shouldnt run more than a few hundred dollars. There are usually some on eBay if you hunt for them.

A lot of my buddies back East swear by them climbing hard WI and mixed routes. I think they do just about everything almost as well as having a specialized crampon for each activity (walking, climbing, etc.) I would probably have a pair by now if I didn't get a pair of S12s and some makos for free a few years ago :-D

There are a lot of venues that already have the $10-20k projectors installed, check out any local college theaters or lecture halls. They are usually cool with doing outdoor presentations, as it gives the students something to attend. They might even provide some foodservice

...of skis!! How far do I have to drive to find good snow this weekend? Anything in BC?

I am having difficulty understanding why anyone would expect a "lightweight" boot to also "crank" turns. Isn't this why there are bigger, stiffer boots, because you can't "crank" in "lightweight" gear?

Get it now before they jack the rates up in the new gym!

Watta watta watta

I would tend to agree, reflaxes in the welding and carpentry shops change from "Oh I should grab that ___" to "Crap, I better get out of that ___'s way" Heard stories of workers getting knives and tools through their feet and starting their pants on fire... No thanks!

In my experience taking beginner ice climbers out, the first 4-5 trips it wont matter what tools they are using, but as soon as some technique is developed, there will be a substantial performance difference if they are using Hummingbirds/BPs vs. Cobras/Quarks. You will get used to whaever axes you buy, but some will give you an edge over others. Hard thing to consider when dropping $1000 at a time. Reminds me of the first kiteboard wing I bought...

Sierra Designs makes some really nice coated nylon jackets/pants, from super simple anoraks to jackets with pockets hoods and pitzips. They go on sale every now and then for like $15-$20 a piece. I have a rain jacket that stuffs into its own pocket, to like 6"x2" and is always in my climbing bag. Seam taped nylon, keeps me bone dry unless the rain is blowing sideways, in which case I shouldn't be standing around outside waiting to get cold, lol. Goretex is nice because if you do get wet inside or you sweat, by the end of the day you will be a little dryer than you would be with the coated stuff. But it is expensive and heavy. I still have a GTX shell, but use it mostly for ice climbing and as foul weather gear on the sailboat.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the "Mountain tent" was their mid to late 80s two person mountaineering tent (which was absolutely bomber) and the "Mountain 25" is the newer one with some performance issues (though still relatively bomber). We had two of each when I was running the club back home, and the older ones were nicer!!

Just saw the new TGR kayaking video last week. Sick!!! There was a surprising parallel this time between hucking tricks off big waterfalls and big snow air, and between sliding down steep creeks and grinding skis. Will these guys ever stop :-D

Receipts are how they know; that's what should be in your fireproof safe. I dated a girl for awhile who's father was an insurance investigator. He and I made up a scheme for documenting the gear collection. Everything valuable is indexed in a spreadsheet and keyed to photographs with me in them. All of this is backed up online as well as on CD. Only took an afternoon and a few hours here and there when I update it. The other cool thing about insurance is that it is all replacement value so all those good deals you got just got better Disadvantage is that you have shiny new gear again. New gear is so un-hardcore. ...and the horn refers to a trumpet, something that 'can' be replaced but won't have a chance of sounding the same. It took me 8 months to find a sound I liked. What was I thinking posting that to this group

All my gear is insured, all my data (with scans of most of my important or family photos) is backed up online... I'd grab my horn and my car keys.

I would have to agree with everything said about the Sabertooth. BD bot plates are horrible and way overpriced but most people I climb with including myself make em out of plastic and zip ties anyway.

I don't think you can really quantify the number of ways to place a particular piece of gear... Do you also count the "there is a hole the size of the wire/sling in the rock so it doesn't matter what size the pice is" placement, or those fun alpine placements where you need to stack two pieces you have? In the case of the latter, we should add another 4*13=52 placements where the hex is placed next to each nut size. What about the one where you use it as a shim to make a small piton fit an angle-worthy crack? This argument is like specifying how many ways there are to fit a #3WC cam into a crack from 1"-2", it is as infinite as you are imaginative!

If you consider a CNC mill a robot (which it is by definition) then BD makes all their gear with robots... Also I've met lots of climbers (myself included) in the control/automation field.

I have serious beef with BD gloves. I tried a pair of their guide gloves and a pair of dry tool gloves and was apalled at the lack of craftsmanship (and warmth /waterproofness). I have had excellent luck with Marmot for both skiing and ice climbing gloves. I have a pair of their Alpinist gloves, some windbloc liners, one of their ski gloves (can't remember the model) and all of them are still holding up, the alpinist gloves I have been climbing hard in for two seasons and they are still as good as can be expected. The leather palms are still intact, no stitching is pulling out, foam hasn't shifted and they are still warm! I got a pair of the cloudveil leather/primaloft gloves to replace an old pair of EMS gloves of the same construction that I can't find anymore (wore them almost every winter day for 5 years!) and the CVs seem to be working well but time will tell.

I found that would happen on almost all the new ropes I have bought, but once I got a PMI Cirque with the indents that would not go away, even after flaking it several times and TRing on it once. It bothered me a lot so I sent it into Chuck Weber at PMI. He cut it open and checked it out on the pull tester and such. Turns out it was fine but they had gotten many many calls about the same model/color of rope that year. I got the (slightly shorter) rope back and now it is my sport TR for shorter stuff. The problem was that the dye in that particular model had some issues with the dry treatment and it caused some funky stuff to happen with the way the sheath compressed when it was strapped. They strap the ropes before they dip them for dry treatment. I agree if it bothers you by all means send it back to Edelweiss but if it is the same flat spot from the nylop strapping that I experienced I wouldn't worry about it.