crackers

Since folks seemed to want to hear about my experiences at the Winter Market 2008... The first part of the TR is on the cilogear blog. The picture isn't gross, but it's not exactly normal either.

When? I've spent a few hundred days climbing down there, so tell me when you're going to be there and how hard you want to pull down. Will you have access to a car? Would you like to stay near the climbing? Sport or trad?

if you're rich, check out the new petzl one. it's insane. if you're handy, make one yourself with these instructable instructions. I did two, it wasn't so bad. The mammut lamps are the best solution for the price IMHO...

Posing for the camera? bwaaahahaaaaahhaaa nope. i'd say it was turkish getups and tabata intervals...

I personally get a lot out of gymjones.com and mark's commentary. I think that many people think of cf, erroneously, as a great specific workout when it clearly isn't. CF is great for general conditioning, but it's crap for specific training. I think gymjones does specific training very well.

Such a jacket was made for some time by the "other" Canadians. The absence of the jacket from their current line up leads me to believe they only sold a few of them. I own one in fact, and I love it for plastic fantastic climbing days that are invariably a bit drippy here in the North East...as I recall it was $300, far more than my wife's new Stratus. Incidentally, my experience with pertex quantum are about identical to FF's and lead me to highly unrecommend it for a parka.

I'm still in SLC, and I'm flying back to NYC tonight. I slept 15 hours last night, and I'm only awake to get some stuff mailed home and get on the plane. I've got something like 200 unread, unresponded emails. I'm only mentioning the above as an explanation that I am a wee bit behind in communication and I will be getting on top of it tomorrow. Also, I can't really write or speak in complete sentences yet. This tradeshow involved me breaking a guy's nose (he literally begged for it, details to follow), my employee going into anaphylaxis when I was giving the pitch to Paul Fish of MGear (who is probably still wondering where I went / why I suddenly disappeared) and a host of other strange and interesting events.

The new 30L's should arrive before the end of Feb, and I'll be sure to get a demo pack into FF's hands. I'll try to get them one after the show, but I can't promise it...

Suge: Thank you! It's always great to get an honest critique of somebody's experience with the packs for better or worse, and I appreciate the time you took to write up your thoughts. I get five to six "love letters" a week from customers, and critiques like yours are extremely useful in improving our product and customer service. I hope that you don't misconstrue my comments below, I'm just trying to effectively communicate my thoughts, and I'm in a bit of a rush to get out the door to Outdoor Retailer... Could you PM me about where and when you saw one of my packs? I'm honestly quite shocked about your reaction, and I'd like to talk to whomever it was who had the pack. I agree that the entire workup of our packs is innovative and takes a bit of adjustment, however, that's why I try to work with shops where we can make sure that everybody understands and has used the product. You shouldn't have had those problems figuring it out, and honestly, it's my fault for not communicating effectively with whomever had that pack. There is an online manual which is available as both a downloadable .pdf for printing and as a wiki for those of us who don't want to print it out. We are currently almost done with the new manual showing everything in pictures in a LOT more detail... The straps work like this: Suge,I'd bet that you had the strap upside down. Incidentally, we've got several patents pending for these things, and we've got just over a thousand (non military and about 20k Turkish Army soldiers but they don't count IMHO) users of these packs who are using them successfully to adjust them on the fly. I'm really sorry that whomever showed you the pack didn't know this. I apologize for that. I'm also really shocked that you couldn't get the lid to fit over the extension. From the first packs we've made -- check out Calvin in Patagonia for an example -- to the newest ones, the straps on the lids are designed to fit over boots stuck on top of the totally full extension. Recently, over on Mountain Project the ice tool attachments were called: I'm really unclear what confused you about these, and any specific information you may be able to provide would be a great benefit to me and surely to other potentially confused customers. Could you tell me what kind of crampons you were using? I designed the crampon pouch around Grivel Rambos, Rambo4s and G14s. Some customers reported minor problems (almost too snug but still managable) getting their newmatic style crampons into the V2 pocket, and the V3 pocket is just a teensy bit bigger to accomodate newmatics. Any information you could provide me about crampons that don't fit, and how they didn't fit would be most welcome, especially pictures. In terms of weight, I've gotta say that the CiloGear packs are lighter and have proven significantly more durable than other alpine climbing packs on the market. Comparing the MEC packs currently on their website (and may I say that I really do like their packs and their people) to our packs, the CiloGear packs are made from uniformly more robust material and are still significantly lighter. Compared to the MEC packs, CG packs are about 200 grams lighter (MEC 30L to 85L alpine packs range from 720g to 2.3kg "standard" I don't have the time to call my contacts there and get the low down on how they weigh things but our max weights run from ~840g to 2kg for the same size packs). Compared to CCW, WT or BD, it's more like 300 - 400 grams. Our packs are all about versatility and user discretion: while we provide a ton of straps, we really wouldn't recommend using them all at the same time. Stripped down, the pack bags are among the lightest packs available for their capacity. Interestingly, the 30d SilNylon that we use in the extensions has been the cause of only 23 returns for repair in the last three years. In comparison, there were about 35 people who convinced me to use grommets in 2007 alone. The V3 packs are all made using grommets for the extensions. Several guides -- from folks at AAI to IMG to JHMG to TMG to ... -- have put several hundred days a year on their packs. The packs aren't wearing out any faster than anything else put through that level of abuse, and I'm working on a picture gallery of these packs that I hope to get up in March. All the above said, there is a learning curve, and one of the reasons we're so excited to work with Feathered Friends is their willingness to get the packs on their staff to use, learn and enjoy. We are currently working a new manual that should be done by the second week of February. We are also working on a new hang tag that will show the three basic techniques used to get the most out of these packs. Edit: Forgot: Suge, I wanted to conclude my post by thanking you for your feedback again. It's always useful. I hope that I have the opportunity to show you our packs again, and perhaps when I come out to the PNW in the early summer, I can personally show them to you and get your feedback. I'll gladly buy the beer!

This is in the blatent plug department. Feathered Friends, one of your finest local stores, has the finest 45Lish backpack available to play with, paw or even buy: CiloGear Dyneema 45L WorkSack. It's a medium. Just for the record, this is the same model of pack that was used for first ascents of Farol East, Mt Epperly, Mt Vinson, Mt. Ryan something or other in Patagonia, and a whole bunch of just normal climbing in Pakistan, Patagonia, Antarctica, Alaska, Colorado, California and the Adirondacks of New York State (including that funny part up north called Quebec). It's the pack of choice of Kelly Cordes, Maxime Turgeon, Damien Gildea, Jarmila Tyrril and a few other folks who can open beer bottles by just looking at them and drink the bottle down before you get a chance to grab from them. Truly the light and fast group. But don't let that intimidate you, oh no, go down to 119 Yale Avenue North, and have a look at this amazing piece of petrochemical load carrying puissance. And btw, thanks one and all for your sense of humor...I've been writing Propaganda all day.

Mattp: You should check out the Winter Wildlands Alliance. They exist solely to give non motorized recreation folks a voice on the use and management of public lands.

It's almost impossible to find production embroidery in the states. I just ordered a whack of patches from butler patches. I'll post up when I've gotten them. you might try calling the industrial sewing stores and asking them who's got embroidery machines. Also, the textile business doesn't go so well with technology. Good luck.

Anybody here had one? Anybody here know anybody who had one?

there is (or was) a fantastic german (okay, schweizdeutsche) butcher in north van. I did the west coast trail with him and his wife back in 1997 or so. Absolute best landjaeger I've ever had. I'll see if i can find their contact info...

As many of you know, I work with the stuff on a daily basis. I think that Joseph is not far off, but not for the reasons he believes. I would be willing to bet that it is a matter of width and weave. The nature of most of the skinny weaves combined with the care they get in my rack results in diminished strength in our applications.

Is it fucked up that out of 1.6 million registered voters in Iowa, only some 100k or so are expected to caucus? Is it fucked up that caucuses only happen in the evening? That there are no absentee ballots? Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan can't vote... Is it fucked up that this is supposed to be the bellweather benchmark of whom the presidential candidates are supposed to be?

Colin writes: "Yeah, we did get a nice 3-day window for Christmas. Max (Turgeon) decided to go climbing with Zoe (Hart), and they did the classic Ciaro di Luna on St. Exupery (the "Beckey-Chouinard" of Patagonia). I went and climbed a new route on Aguja Desmochada with a german guy, Carsten." They had good weather the last couple of days, might well have gotten more done...

Well Ivan and TT, I think that comparing the assassination of a tribal chief by parties unknown, but surely politically motivated as a first motive, does not bear worthwhile comparison to RFK's assassination, which furthermore did not result in another 10+ folks getting the whack. Oklahoma, 9/11, JFK, MLK, nope, nope, nope, nope. In my little book of misery, those are very different situations. Now, if you said Sadat, Guiliano De Medici, or several other that come to mind, I might agree with you. But I'm going back to work, so have fun with your spray...

MLK too. Stuff like this doesn't happen in this country. Conflating Bobby Kennedy, MLK and Benazir Bhutto makes me sad and wonder about the educmakatinal sistem.

The thing that I think you are missing is that Bhutto never was a democrat, or elected in anything more than the most perfunctory manner. The enmity between the Bhutto and Sharif clans is substantial, they've jailed each other and repeatedly stated that they would not form a government together. Musharraf's government was declared to be legal by the Pakistani Supreme Court back in 1999 based on the precedent of a case won by Bhutto's father. If Bhutto had been elected, what would you see? More "democratic" cronyism, more graft, corruption and factional politics such as experienced in Europe in the premodern period or the other half of Pakistan (Bangladesh...) today. Her husband would no doubt have been pardoned for the massive graft, corruption and stealing that marked his involvement in her previous prime ministry. I think confusing Bhutto and democracy is foolish. I also think that Musharraf or the ISI had anything to do with it is extremely unlikely to the point of laughable. Thinking that Musharraf is "violent by nature" fundamentally misunderstands the man, the current political situation and the reality of politics in Pakistan. The one voice that my analysis of Pakistani politics to be democractic is sitting out this election -- Imran Khan. He, too, is a clan leader, but his political party is far from based on his clan status or even his cricket power. Finally, hashashim is a persian word. Sorry arch.

I'd disagree. It might well have substantially good medium term effects. The real work right now would be move the anti suicide bombing discussion into the provinces generating the bombers. It's not musharraf, it's the bombers who take away our freedom, and enslave us. whoops. i'm going back to making some backpacks now.

Here's a picture of the boots after 60 days of dysentary, climbing, drinking and MMA. Honestly, if my buddy doesn't like something, there is often a 10 minute shitstorm of invective...these boots did not generate anything but praise.

He says "They work really well actually on the double boots. I didn't like the old ones. They managed to get it so I could have tight spots and looser spots on the inner boot, which was key. It allows for "zone" lacing of the boots now. I was really pleased with the boots. They climbed really surprisingly well." Since my friend has said significantly less favorable things in the past, I'm actually going to check these suckers out.

IMHO, LS's approach shoe sizes got slightly smaller this model year. I used to have a good fit with 45's, and now I need 46's, but haven't changed size in my other shoes at all (NB, 5.10, Merrell).

Until the knicks fire Isiah?