If you search, racking karabiner on any climbing forum you will come up with literally hundreds of threads jam packed with climbers’ opinions on which krab is best. A racking karabiner is a ‘biner that you use to hold all your wire nuts, or any type of protection, on your harness. Often oval shaped karabiners are slagged off as useless, with several half witted excuses thrown in as justifications. If these people are anything like me they probably haven’t even used said karabiner and like me have thought, “A symmetrical ‘biner will never work out. Which way up it is? I’ll probably drop all my wires.”
Wild Country Superlight Rocks 1 - 6 by Tom Ripley
When it comes to climbing I'm a total wimp. I hate falling and will resort to most things to aviod it. However I realise that if I'm going to push myself then the occasional plummet earthwards is inevitable. Extra text here.
more... Mammunt Base Jump Pants by Iain Munro
When it comes to climbing I'm a total wimp. I hate falling and will resort to most things to aviod it. However I realise that if I'm going to push myself then the occasional plummet earthwards is inevitable.
more... Women's Berghaus Gore-tex XCD 'Retract' Jacket by Authors name
When it comes to climbing I'm a total wimp. I hate falling and will resort to most things to aviod it. However I realise that if I'm going to push myself then the occasional plummet earthwards is inevitable.
more...
Black Diamond Ovalwire Karabiner
May 3rd, 2009Prana Stretch Zion Pants
May 3rd, 2009Like everything else these days, there is a wide selection of climbing trousers on the market. I’ve had a fair few, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, a glance through my wardrobe would reveal: Ronhills, Lost Arrows, S7s, Mammut Champs, and various pairs of Prana and Patagonia. All of these work, but if I’m heading out for a day on Scafell, Dow Crag or Gogarth, there is one pair which is invariably selected; Prana’s Stretch Zion Trousers.
Black Diamond Recator Ice Tools
May 3rd, 2009Throughout the last year I’ve used the Black Diamond Reactors for most aspects of winter climbing. I’ve given them a fair bit of hammering and am yet to break them. Below is a brief overview of how the axes performed in different aspects of winter climbing.
Primus Primelite Race Head Torch
May 3rd, 2009Head torches – a piece of kit that every climber has or should have, in the top of their rucksack. Ten years ago you could open the lid of every climber’s sack to find a Petzl Zoom shinning back at you. Zooms were great, indestructible, bright and very reliable, and for their day, very lightweight [...]
Red Chilli Mescalito
May 3rd, 2009Until very recently I believed that you couldn’t climb hard without super technical rock shoes. This is a result of staring at too many pictures of Dave Macleod cranked into tiny rock shoes, pushing on a foot hold the size of a quark and thinking, “if I wore shoes like that maybe I could climb that hard, or at least look like I do.” Dave climbs in a different league to me, he needs to sacrifice comfort for that level of performance. I, and the thousands of other VS to E3 climbers who religiously cram their screaming toes into super tight stickies, don’t. Enter the Red Chilli Mescalito, one of several rock shoes available that are super comfy yet still technical enough for ninety percent of British climbers.
The first rock shoes I owned were a pair of blue Scarpa Helix’s. I was around twelve or thirteen and remember being pretty chuffed as I left Needle Sports with my new purchase. During the Helix’s lifetime I began climbing regularly. They were a great shoe, but my shocking footwork and endless lunch hours at Penrith wall, quickly brought about their demise. By this time I was beginning to consider myself a climber, I had started to read the mags and I wanted to climb hard. However, a quick browse through On The Edge, showed that no one who climbed hard wore Scarpa Helix’s. Thus began my somewhat ridiculous belief that I couldn’t climb hard without super technical and often painful rock shoes.
The GoLite Gust
April 28th, 2009by Ruth Luckhurst My first attempt at long-distance backpacking was brought to a halt by a knee injury after just 70 miles. “You’re going to have to carry less weight if you’re going out again,” cautioned the doctor. The pack was going to have to go. It was sturdy and capacious; but it was heavy. [...]
Scarpa Omega Plastic Boots
April 17th, 2009by Tom Ripley Buying boots is a long and boring process and can be a real pain in the ass. However for winter and alpine climbing, where you are on your feet for in excess of twelve hours, it is essential that one’s foot is well supported for one to be able to move around [...]
DMM Phantom Karabiner
April 16th, 2009By Tom Ripley When I first received a DMM Phantom karabiner, over two years ago, I was initially rather concerned. DMM had gone too far this time, saving weight by making karabiners out of plastic. Quickly I came to my senses, realizing that those magic machines that lurk inside DMM’s Llanberis factory had used hot [...]
Coleman F1 Lite gas stove – excellent value
February 27th, 2009The Coleman F1 Lite Stove is one of the lightest stoves on the market weighing just 77 grams and (with a bit of online hunting) costing as little as £22 or so – that 10 grams or so lighter than a Pocket Rocket, and about half the price of a Primus Titanium stove. Constructed from [...]
Show your support!
February 21st, 2009There was a great article on Get Outdoors this week surrounding the threat from right-wing killjoys to ban some of the more frivolous competitors in San Fransisco’s Bay to Breakers race. If you’d like to join the campaign to let it all hang out in a west coast sort of way please visit the Save [...]