Delmarco

Is this still available?

nice

About the same financially (same job(s)). Better mentally (BA to MUP to MS). Worse physically (my belly's fatter). About the same romantically (same dame). I do think that I'm alot less happy over all with everything going on in the world especially the USA.

Thanks Dane. What is this "-25/30c"? Celsius? -25 to -30 celsius*? If so that is pretty warm for a single leather boot-The Nepal Evo! *transalated to -13 to -22 Fahrenheit!

How warm are they? In NY we tend to either end up ice climbing in 40 F degree weather one day and then sub zero F degree the next day. Sometimes you get both weather in one day of climbing and plastics aren't the most comfy and versatile so I'm this month looking to update my Koflach Verts with these new popular GTX Nepal Evos. I just don't want to give up the warmth. Everyone says they are the shit, but no one seems to have an agreement on how much "more warmer" they are than other leathers and how "less warmer" they are than double plastics?

I'm in the same boat. I been climbing ice the last 2 years with my plastic Koflach Verticals (which I got a few years ago for a Torres Del Paine trip). My problem with the Verts is not wieght (those babies are as lite as sugar waffles), But as my climbing improves I want a little more flexibilty and Everyone is telling me to get Sportiva Nepal Evos but no one can tell me how warm they really are. I tend get cold feet during belays. I learned that the hard way from an rental plastic Koflach Degres that gave me damp, cold feet in sub zero Adirondaks weather so I'm worried about trading warmth for something way more agile than the Verts. But the Evo's or the Baturas seem to be what I may need. Does anyone really know how warm those Nepal Evos are? Also can you use them comfortably (without sweaty feet) for a Summer/Fall alpine trip in the rockies?

That Merrell "Fill-it-yourself" Gatherer Jacket is tizight!

sickie Don't get it twisted huckleberry! LMAO! Hear something funny, I did an Semester Long Alpine Mountaineering Outward Bound Course in 1994 when I was wee lad in HS and I did this 3 day marathon challenge (where we had to run a distance of 28.2 miles whiles picking up trash along the trail and running with it. At the end your garbage was weighed in and compared to other teams garbage), We won first place and I got a lifetime subscription to that Backpacker magazine. I went away to college, moved to San Franscisco, then New Jersey, then I came back home to New York and found my Mom kept about 7 years of unread magazine in my room. All that time I was travelling I forgot about it. I collected them and I spent a month reading all 7 years of that Magazine which is how I got back into the outdoors. Now I live in Westchester and I still get them every month (but lately I think my neighbor has been stealing my copies). EDIT: Oh...we won that challenge because the morning of our last day we found a fking 19th century rusty metal chimney deep in the San Juan mountains and we ran that shit all the way to the finish line. Team Vader of Leadville 1994!!!!!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! (washing eyes out with soap!)

That might be a good idea. Did you ever follow thru with this? SummitPost is not that thorough and pretty rustic with some of what they have reviewed there. There is a BackpackerReview.org (google it, my spelling is off) website that reviews gear via user submission and they require pictures (especially of stuff being used in the field), and full articles for reviews with pros and cons. It is not some fanboy talking about how TNF makes the coolest jackets, like most other review sites, or some $1000 Sat Phone that 99% of us won't ever buy or need being reviewed in Outside Magazine. But that site has realistic, indepth and impartial reviews of stuff that people actually buy and toil in. It need more membership and traffic to be better, but it is along the same line of what you are thinking of. Trailspace.com is another site that is decent for gear reviews. But they are specific to big name brand commercial American stuff like the N.Face and Patagania and you prolly wont find CiloGear , Granite Gear or eVent gear like Loki on there. Another really great site for innovative gear is OutdoorsMagic.com. This UK based website usually not only gives you juicy, indept reviews of what is already out there, but often "sneak previews" various brands full line of what is coming for the next season. The only downside is this site is UK based and you prolly won't recognize names of what they are talking about (their GoreTex is eVent and their NikWax is Granger) and they review brands that are hard to buy in the USA like Lowe Alpine, Eider, Ajungilak, Mammut, Millet Berghuas, Haglofs and the current God of all outdoors brand "Mountain Equip". Still they are pretty keen on what's really good, what's not and they have full articles on gear care and even buying gear.

That is funny! There is a PayLess Shoe store in LIMA! Starbucks I expected, but Payless...

Awesome! I love the summaries beneath each compilation. Well written.

That scarf is soooo ghey! LMAO! You could buy that same scarf off the street vendors in NYC for $5.00 and I'm sure you can trace both the street-sold and Arc'teryx branded scarf back to same factory in China, yet I bet Arc'teryx are selling their "technical" scarf for $50.00! That is where I lose respect for a brand. List already includes Nike, TNF, Patagonia-somewhat, Dana Designs/Marmot(just how that all went down), and now Arcteryx. Everyone should pick up the latest copy of Backpacker magazine. They have a great arcticle, actually its a section, in the back that is a Gear Guide based on what brands makes stuff where and how "fair and green" certain brands are in terms of production and labour.

Okay. I spoke with an American seamtress from a similar outdoors company (whose name I will not say) who informed me that Made In China is not all that bad as it sounds. In fact, the quality can even improve as some companies use the extra money saved from labour to put towards design and fabrics engineering. She did tell me labour conditions in China can be much harsher than American factories, but in regards to low pay; What may seem like peanuts to us can actually feed and house a factory worker and his/her family for a week in China. No they are not going to be buying BMWs and shopping at the trendiest malls, but a factory worker's priorities in China are basically food, shelter and saftey before the luxuries that we call norms here in America. So when we choose not to buy products in China we are mainly choosing not to support exploited labour and not to support corporate greed. It has little to do with quality. People work hard an dwith much skill in any country on the planet. Its just the Chinese are willing to do it for less pay, or enough pay that feeds and shelters them. Whiles Americans need 401 Ks, big homes, two plasma TVs, Two SUVs, Christmas bonuses, health plans, Coffee before work, cigarette breaks, 1 hour lunch, weekends off and comapny perks to do the same damn thing!

One could make a case for these jobs raising the standard of living/increasing opportunity for these people, but the true question is why are these people worth less? An Economics 101 course would be helpful to you. It's troubling when the reality of the vast improvement of hundreds of thousands of individual people's lives conflicts with one's socio/political paradigm, yes? Ever read the Time Machine by HG Wells... Everytime I go into a well lit, well air conditioned department store with the nice mind-numbing lite-FM Jazz music playing overhead for the hundreds of shoppers and I see an item on the rack, whether it be food goods or clothing, if the tags say made in China or Asia its usually way cheaper than items made in USA or Europe my mind goes back to the Time Machine. In the story we go underground, in the dark, damp caves where the Moorlocks slaved and made everything perfect for the well lit world above where the Sun People consumed everything bought to them. The Sun People stayed in total oblivion to what was going on in the workshops down below. For the Sun people, their world was perfect and in harmony with itself. However, it was not and there was always a balance to be paid and the Moorlocks made damn sure it was paid! In the story we eventually find out at the climax that the totally dependant Sun People would literally die without the Moorlocks aide. The Time Traveller soon realized it was the Moorlocks who where the true masters of the planet and the idiotic consumers, the Sun People, where in fact slaves being farmed by the Moorlocks for meat (Spoilers: The Moorlocks were cannibals and ate the Sun People whom they clothed and fattened with gifts and fresh farmed foods). Anyway..the production abilities of Mexico, China/Asia and even parts of Eastern Europe versus our American/Western Culture consumption abilities tells a similar tale that may have the same or a parallel climactic result as the Time Machine story. When these fast growing productive 3rd World Countries develop economically, militarilly and financially to a 1st World status will they still want to be the bitches of the western world or will they invade our country and take over our consumption dependent economies. Which brings me to a quote a wise man once said; "An economy based on consumption will always be weaker and eventually fall prey to the economy based on production"