pac man

I have used the Corsa Nanotech ice axe, and if I were going to plunge the shaft often on a route I would take a different axe. The Corsa Nanotech has a narrow head that becomes quite sharp on the palm of your hand after many plunges. Also I have noticed multiple Corsa Nanotech ice axes that have a small crack forming in the rivets attaching the steel point to the pick that doesn't inspire confidence in me. I doubt it would cause any issues, but who knows?

Good to hear that it's useful for others. As time permits, other products will be added to the database. At this time, most of the nylon Cilogear packs have been added. The others should be added in the near future.

I had a chance to try the new MH Direkt2, albeit only in my living room. It is much MORE sturdy than my 7yr old Lighthouse (I think it was updated to the new HiLight tent). The narrow strips of X-Pac fabric on the Direkt2 running adjacent to the poles tensions the poles more than the HiLight seams without adding significant weight (the strips are probably at a max 2 inches wide). However it isn't as sturdy as my old (and much heavier) Bibler I-Tent. I would have purchased one if it wasn't so short. At 6' - 6' 1", my head and feet significantly touched the ends without a sleeping bag. It does have much more length than the Brookes Range Rocket Tent.

More products for the other categories will be added in the near future. After that, the plan is to update once or twice a year when new products are released. Other products not listed can always be added by members in the future.

Light'n'Fast Over the past year I’ve been working off and on developing a website that helps you select products that can reduce your overall pack weight. It works by determining appropriate products to replace your current items and then selects the products that will reduce your overall pack weight the most for your chosen dollar amount; the product selection is done intelligently so that it does NOT suggest replacing your -40F bag with a +35F bag, but it may suggest replacing it with a similar bag close to the -40F range. For example it may determine that replacing oval biners for lighter weight wire gate biners may be the best way to reduce your overall pack weight if you have $80 to spend. If you are currently in the market for buying a new item not to replace an old item, it has a list feature that can be used to order products with user chosen criteria by weight ( Products List Tool ) The website uses a Facebook Style login with Facebook authentication, so you do not have to remember another username and password. It only collects public Facebook info (i.e. your username and user image) and any products that you save to your packs. Other features found on the website: Save packs to your account (requires you to be logged on) Print a checklist of the entered packs Print a checklist for saved packs (requires you to be logged on) Enter new items into the database Enter items not in the database for saving in your backpack Calculate your overall pack weight where it determines the percentage of different categories (the numbers might be shocking) The plan is to continue to expand our database and feature set. I hope you enjoy it

Funny, we almost crossed paths both days; we ended up trying Denman's middle line on Friday. How was the third pitch? Unfortunately I wasted way too much time trying to exit pitch 2 too far to the right in an attempt to get a bush/tree anchor. We ended up bailing after that.

Headed to Rainier National Park yesterday and climbed a portion of one of the many lines on Denman Peak's north face. Overview Left low angle curtain Main flow We climbed the first 2 pitches of the main flow. Once on the ice we found they were definitely steeper than they appeared going at: WI3+ for 30m pitch, WI3 for ~40m pitch, the top pitch looked more tiered.

We didn't climb W Ridge, but here are some photos from 7/27-7/29 that show some a good portion of the route. Stuart from Ingalls Pass: Stuart from Ingalls Lake:

We climbed the upper N Ridge 7/28. 4th class approach gully is filled with snow (with kicked steps) with what I'm guessing is the chockstone and some other rocks sticking out. Above the gendarme, we might have gotten off route trying to avoid some small remaining snow patches near the crest. The gendarme bypass looks like it has a decent amount of snow. Cascadian has ~400ft of snow immediately below the false summit (I don't recall much snow from the summit to the false summit), then ~400ft of scree, and then a long section of snow, probably close to 800 vt. ft. Hope that helps.

Here is a conditions update for ice in Rainier National Park from a snowshoeing trip on Jan 1st. Unfortunately we did not get to climb. Narada Falls (there was flowing water behind a thin layer of ice on the left, right side looked decent but had some spouts of water) Mikey Likes It area (I believe Mikey Likes It is the center climb and Mikey's Gully is the right climb) I believe Mikey Likes It Hopefully someone gets on one of these climbs.

Thanks Jon for the Welcome. We are introducing our new Delta Pack, a lightweight nearly frameless alpine rucksack. As a kickoff for this new pack, we are hosting a photo contest where the photo with the most votes wins a Delta Pack. Visitors to the website vote for their favorite photos and choose the winner! For more info, check out our Contest Page.

Did you end up traversing to climber's left after exiting Dike Chimney? I would imagine lower Dike Chimney would be an awful funnel for the crap from above, or at least the left side. Scary!

Trip: Ingalls Peak - E Ridge Date: 8/14/2010 Trip Report: Long trip report can be found here We headed up to Ingalls to give the full E Ridge a try. Our path (Blue: partial E Ridge of E Peak, Green: Descent down Dike Chimney, Red: E Ridge of N Peak, Orange: Descent down S Ridge of N Peak) To make a long story short, we tried to climb the entire E Ridge of Ingalls E Peak and N Peak, but rappeled Dike Chimney after trying to scope a path for the remainder of the E Ridge of E Peak. Not sure if it was the angle from being slightly north of the ridge line, but what we saw was a steep "ridge"/face with little protection that could potentially take a long time to scout a path and due to its reportedly slightly loose nature, we bailed in favor of at least climbing the E Ridge of N Peak. Upon further inspection, we probably needed to make an easy southwardly traverse to easier ground on the E Ridge of E Peak (all photos of the ridge line looked easy, but what we saw did not look the same). Out of 3 cameras we got no pictures of this, probably being distracted by "John Tesh", apparently a shy alpine creature last spotted on the E Ridge of E Peak. Keep a lookout. After an interesting descent of Dike Chimney's left side (climber's left), we made our way over to E Ridge of N Peak, having a great time on easy rock with a nice position. I'm not sure I would call it exposed as that usually brings visions of 500+ ft shear drops below me, but there was a nice sense of easy technical alpine ridge climbing with little apprehension. Our route on E Ridge of N Peak to the best of my knowledge Crux (Green: probably best path to follow, Red: crack I originally chose, Orange: Branch I took after bailing on Red route) The only concerning section was the crux, where confused by some beta of staying center, I'm not sure we climbed the correct crack, and if we did, a #3 was a scary piece to protect this awkward section, though the route we climbed required a fairly large step onto a protectable but eery sounding block. With a #3.5 or #4 our original route (red route) would have been preferable, but I should not have ignored the green route. A quick jaunt over the summit and rappel down the S Ridge brought us back to the ground where we made a quick descent back to the car. Gear Notes: *Light rack for E Ridge of N Peak *1 60m rope (since we didn't simul-climb turned out to increase the length of the E Ridge of N Peak to 4 hours with ~9ish <100ft leads). I would imagine pitching it out and being able to climb >100ft leads would result in a 2 hour climb time, and a 1.25 hour climb time simul-climbing. Approach Notes: Usual for Ingalls Lake

Trip: Goat Wall - Sisyphus - 5.11a or 5.10b/c A0 Date: 7/3/2010 Trip Report: A more detailed trip report can be found HERE, with individual pitch details. Over the extended weekend, my wife and I headed up to Washington Pass area to climb some multi-pitch routes, however the looming clouds made us settle for Goat Wall's Sisyphus (10 pitches) and Prime Rib (11 pitches, 5.8ish) the next day, both near Mazama. For the slab-challenged climber, a category which both of us are trying to escape, the route lives up to its mythological name, but is protected well enough to limit the stressfulness. The leader must still climb ~10ft past bolts at a 5.10b level which gave me the perfect level of excitement. The leader can also French-free past the 5-8 ft crux section of 11a climbing on cool-looking, somewhat polished rock with small pockets. We found that pitch 2 is very remniscent of pitches 5-7, which includes the crux pitch and a 5.10a/b pitch of slabish climbing. Much of the climbing was on somewhat rounded holds with the exception of pitches 3 and 9, which I found to be superb steep climbing on positive holds, a style of climbing I am more comfortable with. If you decide this route is not for you after pitch 2, I would still recommend climbing pitch 3, which leads you to a cool position with some exposure. Pitch 3, my favorite Pitch 6, the crux pitch Stellar views along the whole climb After our 12 rap descent we debated on what to climb the next day, and decided on Prime Rib, hoping that we wouldn't have to bail due to rain, but we did encounter some nice, strong winds up high. I though Prime Rib was much more dangerous than Sisyphus, due to both the number of parties and the relative position of the rappel line to the climb, especially at pitch 8, where the pitch heads directly below 2-3 rappels. We luckily avoided a close call with rock fall here. The rappel descent for this climb was much longer than Sisyphus, but the climb was much more relaxed (aside from the falling rocks) mainly on very positive holds. Gear Notes: Quickdraws, 60 m rope, wind shirt, and helmets Approach Notes: Drive 2.7 miles past the Mazama store and park at the large pullout, heading up the steep, loose trail

Yeah, can't complain about the view even getting shut down, that's for sure. The couloir is still continuous. The only 2 tight spots can be seen in the last photo, but I would guess the rock bands are still covered with a path of snow 5-10 ft wide. These rock bands were just shy of where we bailed and were between 1/4 and a 1/3 of the way up.