edwardsm

gamma lt or gamma sl? the gamma sl is an amazing piece. the gamma lt is a basic midweight softshell.

lightweight windshell: Rab Cirrus. *awesome* jacket, great fit. great, lightweight softshell with excellent durability: OR Ferrosi.

you may be able to find the Mammut Bionic for cheap under its old name, the Vader Alpine...

This little document is an interesting read and pretty relevant I think. http://www.safeclimbing.org/education/Heavy_Climbers_Beware.pdf The part I find most interesting is that even at 200lbs loaded down with gear, a climber would only generate between 8 and 9 kN up to a fall factor of 1.7, which is high!

Very shortly BD is going to release the new OZ biners which will have the same hood as the hoodwire. if you want to spend the money, these could be a fantastic racking 'biner except for the lack of colours. That said, i've been using the neutrinos and they're great. same boat as counterfeitfake though with plastic gear loops - they're a little less convenient if you're racking on slings

If you liked the old friends, you'll like the helium friends. stem/loop design is very similar to the C4 but calling a single-axle cam almost identical to a double-axle cam seems like a bit of a stretch. using the helium friends, I found them straightforward and the action felt very simliar to the C4's. the thing I like the least about them is the lack of easy colour differentiation...the ones we have up here don't seem to follow a pattern with respect to colours vs. cam size...kinda a nuisance if you are used to quickly grabbing cams based on colour. overall though they seem to be a very well designed set. plus, if you make your way up to the great white north, MEC is selling helium friends for a measly $54-57 (depending on size) which is a smokin' deal for made-in-the-UK cams!

MEC Hoodie was called the "Expedition Stretch" and has been renamed the "T3 Stretch" It's beyond awesome and only $62CAD...get it!

this was my impression as well but the Gore rep said Paclite was more breathable! get your stories straight hahaha

the only screws that touch $36 are the BD turbo's at MEC in the 10 or 13cm size... i WISH the express' were $36 here in Canada! hot damn!

with most laminates on the market, breathability is about layers and moisture transfer. i.e. more layers = less breathable (air is a layer) and moisture transfer relies on a humidity gradient between the environment inside the jacket and outside. which is why pretty much nothing breathes on a wet spring/summer day. if the humidity outside = that inside, no moisture gets out. (although I haven't seen anything on the matter, I'd be curious if membranes actually worked in the reverse direction if you somehow had less humidity inside than outside...in theory they should pull moisture into the jacket) this is the premise that gore-tex works on, and its the premise that most standard low-cost PU membranes work on. as far as layers go, the idea is that each "layer" is a barrier to breathability. so jackets with fewer should breath better. according to Gore, this is the reason that Paclite should actually breath better than Pro-shell *under ideal conditions* (paclite is 2.5 layer, proshell is 3, and performance shell in a 2-ply jacket is 4 because of the air layer between the lining and the membrane). in your entire clothing system, everything represents a "layer" in a way...something to keep in mind. so if you're winter climbing and you have a base and a light fleece under your waterproof jacket, you actually have at least 4 extra "layers" in play: base-air-fleece-air. what eVent and NeoShell do differently is allow some air permeability...I think the idea is that this facilitates the evaporation of sweat before your body heat turns it into water vapour. so the perception is that eVent and NeoShell breath better but that they may also feel "colder". (also, DryQ is actually the eVent membrane licensed to Mountain Hardwear so the same applies to them.) I think Pertex Shield is also air permeable but don't quote me on that. Active Shell still uses the same PTFE membrane that is in every product Gore makes, but the lamination process has been refined so as to eliminate the breathability-killing glue layer. realistically there are tons of options. find what fits your pricepoint and application and get that. for example pro-shell may not be the best choice for summer alpine but for winter alpine when you have tons of layers in play and you're more concerned with durability, maybe it's what you need. i'll reference Dane's blog here in saying that the membranes these days all breathe really well, but what sets jackets apart is their activity-specific design. the best jacket for backpacking is not the best jacket for climbing.

OR Alibi...jacket and pants! both of them are just plain awesome.

some food for thought... http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/thoughts-from-the-outdoors/trans-atlantic-tog-war-explained/7302.html that said, the therm-a-rest ridge rests are great. only downside I heard was that sometimes in the high-wear areas the metallized coating wears off (thus theoretically reducing the R-value). if i remember, though, the MSR rep claimed the reduction was insignificant because the "valleys" in the pad still had the coating.

Buy "local' - USA Made pads! Revolution and Organic made pads in the USA and are among the most highly recommended ones as well - spend a little extra, get a lot.

if you run hot the MEC fusion is a bad choice...the WB-400 from schoeller is not the most breathable of softshells. also the hood is just wrong. the ferrata from MEC would be a good choice (as would the kinetic recommended above) and if you got lucky you could find the red one on sale for $70 i think. The OR Alibi is another option. the stretchy back is grand and the jacket provides plenty of weather protection as well. OR also makes a thin stretchy softshell that's absolutely brilliant but the name escapes me right now. Or you could spend the money on a NeoShell jacket and be satisfied that you own a piece for every condition

if you're willing to wait a month or so, the new Mountain Hardwear DryQ jackets have been getting pretty good reviews, and DryQ = eVent so you know the performance you'll be getting. Or wait until fall/winter when the NeoShell starts trickling onto the market...