rhyang

The biners were originally clipped to an 8mm dyneema runner. He was carrying the gear sling most of the way, and when we got back to the cars I discovered that a number of the biners and runners had been mixed up. I know that I didn't do the mixing up - I keep things in pretty strict order when I carry stuff on my harness. Like I said, we were not carrying a huge amount of gear in the first place; there is only a finite number of ways that the stuff we carried could be arranged. I know that stuff gets lost, but I am now suspicious of the way that this guy handles other people's gear. I try not to lose or damage what belongs to other people. If I were to do something that results in loss or damage to someone else's rack, then I would make sure to pay for it afterwards.

This was a multiday alpine climb where we specifically only took a certain number of biners and draws. And I'm an engineer - I do know exactly what gear I did and did not bring. The biners were new lightweight wiregates.

So let's say you go climbing with an individual, put your gear into the rack, climb, then return to the car to divvy up your stuff. You've put rack tags on all your biners & cams, marked all your ice screws, etc. You're tired, you think everything is as it should be, but when you get home and put everything back in its place you are missing a couple of biners. Your climbing partner from the last weekend lives in a different city, and you send an email & leave a phone message. There is no response, not even a "sorry, I've looked and I don't have them." Finally after a couple of weeks, you see his user ID on cc.com and send him a PM - that gets a response : i dont have them. stuff gets lost all the time if you do this long enuf... nothing new. I guess I'm a little annoyed. I printed out maps, paid for permits, led pitches, and brought most of the gear we used. Am I being unreasonable in asking him to please check again ? What would you think if this was the response you got ?

Story from the SF Chronicle.

A digression - I was discussing crampons with one of my ice partners in the car recently (it's alpine ice season down here) and the subject of whether or not crampons are aid came up. "Well of course they are" he said, and went on to surmise that there were probably "bouldering mutants who can just campus up the ice". Made me laugh

PMI Verglas 8.1's

Interesting. The documentation that came with my reversino seems to say that belaying two followers on twins is a bad idea. OK for doubles, but not for twins. Not sure why this is so, or if I interpreted the Petzl heiroglyphics incorrectly. My dual rope setup is rated for double / twin use anyway, so I'm not worried (yet).

I picked up a pair of PMI Verglas recently, and have been happy with them. Wish I'd known about the Beals though - nothing online I've seen says anything about them being certified as doubles and twins. I guess the packaging / docs that come with them show the dual ratings ?

Sorry to be off-topic; I was climbing an ice couloir in the eastern Sierras last weekend, and there was fresh snow on the "glacier" (such as they are down here) and the lower couloir, balling up like mad. The last two pitches were hard, brittle water ice. I have to admit that I was using G14's with the factory latex plates instead of juice bottles. But on petzl & BD crampons I like the juice bottles more !

Have you actually tried this? I have heard this many times but in my personal experience, they suck el supremo. Plastic blows out damn near immediately. hey Doug. I use this stuff on my horizontally-framed crampons and it works fine. Never tried it on vertical-framed crampons like your Rambo's though. Doesn't your partner Jeff use Trango Harpoons that he made antibotts for out of bicycle inner tubes or something ? Maybe he has some tips...

~660g sounds better - my scale said about 22 oz, but after seeing the 720g on the website I figured I had to have done something wrong

I wouldn't worry about the antibott plates - you can make your own from plastic juice bottles and wire ties. There's even a how-to article on the internet out there someplace ...

Could you weigh it, both with and without the removable back pad? I am very interested in this pack and would like to know the real weight. MEC lists both 390 g and 720 g for the Std pack, could it be that? If so, it'd be a sweet Genie replacement w/o the back pad. drC 720g is more accurate, and the foam pad is only about an ounce or two. "If it sounds too good to be true ..."

The Alpinelite 30 is not the same weight as the Genie - in fact, the MEC website now states the weight of the Alpinelite is 720g. Just got one in the mail and sure enough it weighs more than a Golite Jam (which carries something like 11L more) !

I had an opportunity to compare and contrast sarken's and G14's. If the ice is hard, cold, and brittle, I prefer the G14's - can't beat rambo frontpoints for that stuff. If it's more likely to be aerated, soft, or just frozen neve then the sarken's are a good bit lighter.

Doug's pics from Sunday: Hoodie N Face (Yes it is coming in for some fall action!) Camilo gets his first taste of ice The bitch wishing for some rock to drytool FYI: the ice lines Ivan named Triple C last year have started forming but with the recent weather will likely dissappear unless the freezing level drops this week. Still some nice fall WI should be coming in! If anyone goes up there could they report conditions in either this thread or perhaps start one in the ice climbing forum? Finally I am headed up there this weekend. If you are interested in going (either day) get a hold of me! ICE Anyone planning to do this again this weekend ?

I saw it on the Scarpa UK website recently. As Scarpa is no longer going to be distributed in the US by Black Diamond, I'd guess it will show up on the Scarpa North America site at some point...

I really like the darts too, and also sampled the dartwins last season. I'm hoping to check out the sarken's on some couloir ice in the Sierras later this fall. Was hoping to get them out on some alpine / glacier ice earlier but it just hasn't happened yet.

I decided to ask BD a couple of things, and got some responses : 1. shaft and pick are both B-rated. 2. hammering pickets in with the spine is not recommended. 3. Availability in mid-November.

This seems to be another variation - a longer axe with a nonreplaceable recurved pick, sort of like the grivel jorasses.

looks like they're sold out now. sorry about that.

Just curious to know if anyone has actually seen one of these things...

Unlike cc.com, SP.org doesn't have a way to associate forum threads with trip reports (it's a custom job that isn't being actively maintained on a regular basis). So in the meantime people start threads in the appropriate regional forum (in this case the California forum) and insert a link to the TR. Here is that thread. Hope this helps.

Another item on this sad event.

sweet !