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northvanclimber

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Everything posted by northvanclimber

  1. Here's a pic of rambles right. if you compare it to the pic in west coast ice, you can clearly see how the P-S dihedral now goes right to the top.
  2. i'm glad you guys weren't too pissed that we passed you. was nice having you guys up there to chat with for the rest of the day. good to see you were able to fix your crampon!
  3. Took my g/f to Cherry ice a couple weeks ago and the ice was pretty fat. very easy approach too. the only thing is that it's not very big so won't accomodate a large number of people...
  4. That argument is reasonable as long as: 1) the company maintains the current staff in Canada, and 2) they keep a close tabs on the garments coming out of china to make sure the quality is up to spec. i'm just glad they haven't yet shipped everything over there and that there head office is still here in vancouver. i like the idea of a local manuafacturer that i can easily get in touch with... the zipper on my 5 year old jacket stopped working the other day and i was able to just drop over there, give it to them so they can fix it and get a loaner jacket in the mean time.
  5. revivex + 1 hour in dryer = great water repellency actually, even taking a jacket that hasn't been treated with anything and hucking it in the dryer for an hour will often help things dramatically...
  6. seeps during a downpour... wear your gortex and try not to mind the water dripping into your face out of the roof crack you're fishing gear into.
  7. you can see the clip on the discovery channel/how it's made website if you look for it. tried posting the link but it didn't work after a while...
  8. Thanks for all the replies. i think i might pick up a pair of cyborgs soon and get out onto the ice ASAP to try 'em out. will probably take along my old crampons (charlet moser black ices) so that i can see how they perform head to head. now i just have to get over this cold
  9. no, i realize that this is the common logic. i've only been using horizontals for waterice so far because, probably like a lot of people, i bought horizontals first because i was mostly using them for alpine use. now that i'm doing much more waterice i was gonna buy a pair of verticals specifically for that. however, my question really is: are verticals really that much better for water ice than horizontals? do you notice your feet feeling that much more secure with 'em? from some previous posts, people like don serl have suggested that horizontals can be plenty good for ice climbing so i just wanted to see what other people thought.
  10. For years I've been using crampons with horizontal front points for ice climbing (pure waterice, no mixed) and starting thinking the other day about switching to vertical points. However, after trolling through old threads there doesn't seem to be a total consensus that vertical points are neccesarily the best. Any thoughts?
  11. Thanks for all the input guys. much appreciated. also considering the newest BD crampons and the grivel G14's. too many choices! too true. a flip through west coast ice shows many a hard climb being done using some pretty old school equipment... oh well, the better gear helps me feel more hard core
  12. I'm curious what features the sarkens have that are liked so much compared to some of the newer petzl models (ie, dartwins or M10s) and why people would be reluctant to trade them in. i've been thinking about getting a new set of crampons myself (ones with vertical front points) and have been considering both the M10 and dartwins...
  13. Rambles was wet but climable on friday. got warmer after that so i think a snorkel would nicely compliment any climbing gear taken up there now. went to oregon jack on saturday and also found it very wet, especially on the left. partner led up to the cave about halfway up but neither of us liked the unconsolidated curtain that followed so we rapped off a v-tread in the cave. looks like a couple more weeks of good, cold weather would be required to really get things more solid and filled-in.
  14. i think it's called a "tease". duh. looks like the conditions are good. let's all just get out and climb!
  15. i personally found this more effect than spraying the shoes with lysol (ie, alcohol; although i do spray them down after climbing just to help minimize "growth" in there). a good scrubbing pad (like the kind you'd use for dishes) and some tide detergent seemed to really get the gunk out of there and made the shoes look like new again. was kinda gross though how nasty the water turned after a couple minutes of hard scrubbing!!!
  16. Totally true... i was just down there last week and found this to be particularly frustrating. i understand that it's hard to put together a guidebook, but stuff like that can drive you batty, especially if the one landmark climb described in the book has a really wishy-washy description. (ie: "climb starts near boulder" (but there are 50 boulders around!!!). the newer book at least had better pics of the crags so it was much easier to orient yourself.
  17. i had one blow last year and won't touch 'em anymore. my camelback just seems a lot more resistant to leaks (maybe because the plastic doesn't crease over time...)
  18. having swung a bunch of different tools from several friends, i'd also recommend test driving a couple tools before plunking out a lot of money. at a minimum, grab ahold of them at your local gear store and see how they feel. i personally find the bd tools a little too heavy for my liking, and instead prefer petzl tools. my buddy's the exact opposite. and yeah, for more vertical ice, try a tool with more clearance than a venom. that being said, lots of hard ice was climbed before these new-fangled tools were ever made...
  19. Depressed? no way dude, we're totally psyched that our so-called funny money is now worth so much! to my g/f the whole US now looks like one big shopping mall. personally, i'll be in red rocks later this month!
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