DaveH

Every review of the Helium friends says they are lighter than C4's. I've read all the technical reviews about the differences - I'm trying to get comments from the average joe climber who has used both to find their comments on what they did or didn't like about the Friends compared to C4's and Dragons.

Has anyone tried the new Helium Friends? How do they stack up against C4's and Dragons?

Was up there over the long weekend at the end of July. Road conditions are good apart from one section of alder jungle. One of our group managed to get a Toyota Matrix to the trailhead without too many problems. The climbers trail is a mess, probably due to the heavy snow winter. Tons of deadfall everywhere and plenty of trees leaning over that haven't sprung back up. On the way in, we tried to stay reasonably high. Coming out, we took the lower route. Neither seemed any less unpleasant or easier than the other. We did find quite a bit of flagging but joining the dots wasn't easy due to the mess. We didn't attempt the NW ridge due to poor weather but did grovel up the E ridge (normal descent route) in an intermittent snow storm. There was a ton of snow near the top of the mountain and it looked like the top section of the NW ridge ran into a large snow head-wall with suitably sagging cornice. Given that there has been 10 days of hot weather since, most of that snow has probably gone by now. Oh, and take several gallons of Deet, the mossies were the worst I have seen.

Dru's picture is out of date - that was definitely the situation for a while after 10 metres fell off the summit in December 1991. However due to the fairly active erosion processes that happen in the NZ mountains, the overhanging ice dagger which was what the summit turned into has slowly returned to something more "normal". However the very top is still unstable and the final approaches up the summit ice-cap can vary significantly in steepness and difficulty depending on the time of season, amount of snowfall over the previous winter etc. However as Dru mentioned, it is definitely no easy walk.

Dane, you forgot about dominatrix's - don't they use leashes as well? (I've only heard about this from others, never tried it myself of course....)

The Rab Latoks at Europe Bound in Vancouver are CDN$75 + taxes (12%) so that makes them CDN$84 which at current exchange rates is basically USD$84. I wonder how those sticky silicon palms will hold up handling screws and other metal hardware bits compared to leather palms - anyone had any experience with them so far?

As an ex-pat Kiwi now living in Canuckland and with more than 20 years experience in NZ's Southern Alps, I strongly support the comments made by Off_White and a couple of others earlier - if you are inexperienced and want some local assistance, go with a local. Climbing at Mt Cook is not like climbing in the Cascades - if you think the weather can be wet and miserable in the PNW, wait till you see what a ripping nor'wester coming off the Tasman Sea looks like. It can go from cloudless blue skies to a roaring storm in a few hours and that storm can last a day or 3 weeks. Add to that shitty rock, lots of crevasses, ice fall danger (the standard Linda Glacier route up Cook is a shooting gallery for much of its lower half) and long routes. It is not great newbie country. If you're going to fork out a heap of $$$ for a trip like this, why not give yourself a bit of insurance - at least a local can offer good advice on options when the weather hits so you don't spend most of your holiday sitting in a hut or inside the pub staring at the rain outside, or suggest different routes if the ones you want are out of condition or out of your league.

Anyone seen or tried on the new Metolius Safetech helmet? It is meant to be designed to give greater protection in a fall. From the catalogue photos, it looks as if it still has the back-of the-neck protection deficiency that I mentioned above.

I have a helmet story from several years ago that has affected my views on head protection. I was descending a peak in New Zealand's Southern Alps (my home stomping ground) with a group - 5 in my lot and 4 in a separate team. It was late in the day and we had to drop down a steepish snow-filled couloir that was a rockfall funnel. One from each team were climbing down together when they both got hit. Strangely, they were both wearing the same type of helmet - the old bucket style Edelrid plastic. My friend was hit bullseye on the top centre of his lid. The rock punched an almost perfectly circular hole about an inch and a half in diameter - when he took the helmet off later a blue plastic circle fell out of the helmet cradle. Apart from a bit of a headache and a sore neck, he was fine. The dude from the other team was not so lucky. He curled himself up which exposed the back of his neck. A rock caught the back of his helmet, took a nice triangular chunk out of the bottom edge and left him with an inch long gash in his neck just missing his vertebrae. He was also knocked out for a few minutes. Fortunately, he was being belayed from above so didn't go for the big slide. Both groups combined to get him to safety and a cold damp night was spent sheltering under an overhanging ice wall. Next morning, with his gear distributed among the rest of the team and fixed lines set up, he was able to get down to the glacier and walk out 4 hours to his vehicle with just a stiff neck. Ever since then, I instinctively do the turtle thing if rocks or ice are coming in my direction, ie. I try and pull my head straight down into my shoulders rather than bending my head forward which seems to be a more natural position. Most modern helmets don't appear to have much neck protection. They are usually shaped high at the back so you can look up without stabbing yourself in the back of the neck every time - I guess statistics indicate that neck hits are a rare occurrence.

Hey guys, don't knock long axes. I climbed Point Five and Zero Gullies on the Ben back in '86 with a 70cm bamboo shafted Chouinard axe. Something shorter and more technical would have made it easier but it can be done. And then it can also double up for the bar fight later on...

They're all fleeing north from south of the 49th parallel to escape Obama.

I've heard that the new line for next year is more than cosmetics - prices will be lower and a bit more "snap" has been built into some of the models. G3 got slaughtered by Black Diamond in the market place this season so they have had to react.

wfinley, what model were you skiing? I have tried the Barons and didn't like them - in technical terms, they are described as "damp". In my terminology, they felt dead. Having said that, I have a friend with Aces and he loves them for just about all conditions. If you are looking at Shuksans, better grab 'em quick. Rumours on the street are that the Shuksan production line has done its day and next year they will be replaced by something derived from the Apache line-up.

Sounds like your Intuitions haven't beem moulded properly. I used intuitions inside a pair of Koflach vertical's on Denali last year and had no problems. I had them moulded by Intuition (I live in Vancouver about 10 minutes bike ride from their warehouse) and have never had any issue with my feet moving round, blisters etc. They are very snug and quite comfortable.

So are the new Cobra fangs able to be retro-fitted to the current Cobra or will there still be a need to resort to duct tape/super glue etc?

Bearman - I had my Intuitions fitted at the Intuition warehouse in Vancouver. They filled the heel cup with a piece of hard closed cell foam and suggested that I glue it in place although I ended up just using duct tape so I can take the foam out if I ever want to use the standard liners (in warmer conditions for example). They recommended against just letting the intuition foam liner fill the heel cup because it is a waste of foam that is better off insulating somewhere else in the shell.

If you are going to fit Intuitions into Koflachs, why shell out lots of $$ for the Arctis Expeds? The warmth comes from the liner, not the shell so get a cheaper model -I have Verticals but the next model down (the Degre) would also work. Get the same performance for less dollars which you can then spend on other toys,

Hemp, you need to do a bit of planning about what other things you want to do or see. You may find that driving a relatively short distance takes much longer than you would think, particularly in the North Island. Also, despite what others have said, October is still Spring and the weather is often unsettled at that time - you may be lucky and get a good long fine period but you may also get a lot of rain so be prepared to change your plans while you are there. Since you will only be cragging and not alpine, definitely spend time in the North Island. As others have mentioned, for a day or 2 of convenient cragging, Wharepapa is probably the best place to hit as it is not a big detour for you when you are heading south from Auckland. Bryce can give you plenty of good beta on the area. If you get the chance, stop off at Whanganui Bay on the western shores of Lake Taupo which is an hour or so drive south of Wharepapa - IMHO it's the most beautiful cragging area in NZ, even better than Paynes Ford though most South Islanders would probably disagree. Bryce can also give you plenty of info on "the Bay". In the South Island, Paynes Ford is great and Castle Hill near Christchurch is definitely worth a visit. The West Coast of the South Island is beautiful but don't even think about it if the nor'westers are blowing (which is frequent) - all you will see is rain. If you think it rains here in the PNW, wait till you get to "the Coast". Wanaka is also worth a visit. Don't bother with Dunedin (sorry Blake), there's nothing to see there and its a cold damp hole, especially when a southerly is blowing through (there's nothing but a few thousand miles of ocean between it and Antarctica, say no more!) Just remember to be flexible with your plans, check the local weather forecasts and go where the weather seems good and you'll have a great time.

DM - I have a pair of EU 10.5 Verticals. Prior to heading up to Denali last year, I bought a pair of Intuitions directly from the company (I live in Vancouver, BC) and had them fitted at their warehouse. Basically, they stuffed the largest liner into the shell that would fit - I think it might have been a 12. According to the woman who did the work, during the moulding process, the foam "flows" around inside the liner to fit into any available space. It worked really well in my case, even though before she started the process the liner looked to be too big for the shell. So don't worry about the liner being a size too big. Don't forget that the Koflach shells have a well that the heel on the liner fits into. You will need to fill that hole with a piece of hard foam or rubber before you fit the Intuitions. At first glance the liners feel flimsy and feeble but those puppies are actually really hard wearing, toasty and super light. Worth every $$ if you suffer from cold feet like I do.

A friend in New Zealand never travels in the mountains without a PLB. A couple of years ago, someone in his party wrecked their knee in the heart of an alpine wilderness area - minimum 3 day walk out to get help and the weather wasn't looking great. My friend triggered his PLB and a chopper arrived about two hours later. They didn't have an exact location to fly to but once the chopper got close, it was able to home in on the signal. The only (slight) downside was that because the rescuers didn't know what sort of rescue scenario they were heading in to, the chopper was carrying just about every kind of portable medical device known to man plus a rescue team - had they known the actual situation, they would have sent a smaller chopper with just a pilot and medic.

Nope!

Having visited Tibet and experienced first hand how the Chinese military treats Tibetans, this sort of action is no surprise to me. I was in a group crossing from Tibet to Nepal that had a run-in with a couple of very arrogant and obnoxious Chinese border guards who decided they were going to pick on a Japanese girl in our party for no apparant reason other than that she was Japanese. They emptied her pack out, threw stuff around and generally got heavy with her until a very large, bearded Tasmanian guy got pissed off and faced the guards down. Myself and a Brit joined him and the guards just got up and walked away. Every time I get reminded of this incident, I still don't know how I stopped myself from strangling one of the little shits.

Yes, Keas are edible but they are bloody chewy (I proved this during my university days). I came across an old bushman's recipe for cooking kea - "pluck or skin the bird, place in large pot, cover with water, place large rock on kea to hold under water, boil for 3 hours, then throw away the kea and eat the rock".

Don't pay parking fees at your own risk. I was up there a couple of weeks before Easter and there was a hot little chica in a green outfit checking who had paid and leaving love letters (not!) under the windshield wipers of those who hadn't.

Why not just cut off the offending strap? Or is there something more sinister about the lamp that you don't like?