I want trekking poles, help me keep 'em light.

kinohead · 7 days

I want the same thing, but I need adjustable to use with a tarp.

I like the look of these, which are very light, adjustable and have the latest DAC locking mechanism.

I am a bit unsure about carbon poles... Worried about breakage. The gossamer gear lt4s supposedly snap quite easy.

briantheperson · 9 days

Oh cool, I guess they also make those pack towels there. I fucking love my packtowl!

briantheperson · 9 days

The European platypuses are made in Ireland :)

I love my platypus!

leevs11 · 10 days

Mountain hardwear are the only hiking glove manufacturers with really good waterproof tech. They licensed the Italian OutDry method, where they blow up a balloon liner inside the glove. It works, has no tape, doesn't break easy and is very dexterous.

I highly recommend anything from that line.

bucherm · 11 days

Dude, simple explanation!

Your compass was upside down!

boognishrising · 14 days

Since the last time an external frame got any major technological upgrades in the Gregory Evolution packs of the mid-'90s

Not really true at all, the Klättermusen Mjölner is external frame, very advanced, relatively light compared to most internal frame backpacks today. Very popular in Scandinavia, despite the crazy high cost.

Ethanol_Based_Life · 14 days

A year ago I did a run down on the options, and whiskey won!

I love a little plastic bottle of Jamesons, great to turn hiking-grade coffee into something special.

Although sometimes, on special occasions, I bring champagne :)

(From my honeymoon, kayaking in an archipelago).

biotech9 · 14 days

Bingo! It was an autoblock. I like much more than a Prusic, and the Bachmann always gets messy for me, not sure if it's because of the double ropes.

biotech9 · 14 days

I liked it :)

biotech9 · 14 days

It's Henrikdalsklippen in Stockholm, and the route was Adidas. Insanely nice route!

biotech9 · 14 days

It's the Corax, and it is so damn comfy!

biotech9 · 14 days

Screw that, Crutches time!

I had NO idea crutches were so fucking difficult. I was soaked in sweat after 100 metres. I am going to have the upper body of a boulderer after this!

biotech9 · 14 days

Not really sure, I got it ages ago for some stupid reason, and now I have it, and I love rapping with it even though it's over kill, and it looks fucking amazing... and That's kind of it!

et_Spiritus_Sancti · 15 days

I used to think I was a good belayer, because I am one of those guys that reads everything before doing it, and so knew all of the belaying techniques early on.

However, once my most experienced climbing friend, on the way home from a great days climbing, told me I sucked, and what to work on. Today, I know I am a good belayer.

Forget about having a smile in the rope.

This is totally normal standard advice, once you get over 2 or 3 clips, depending on the situation, you should have enough slack in the rope so that there is a 'smile' between you and the first clip. This is fine if you can't see your climber, but if you can, don't have so much slack out. You just pay 100% attention to them. When they start to stretch up, you move in to the wall, as they reach down to grab the rope to clip in, you mirror their movements exactly, grab the rope and feed it through the brake exactly as they pull it up. You should have way more time and be way less stressed than them, so you can even see exactly how much rope they need before they know. Ape them close enough and it almost looks weird, but they never have more slack out than they need, and they should never even realise what you are doing.

Let them know you are there

After every clip, I pull the rope in, to remove the slack from clipping. At the same time I give it a little tug, and because they are below the bolt, or almost equal to it, the rope just gives the smallest reassuring little pulls on their harness upwards towards the bolt. They know the bolt is clipped properly and they know you are there and watching. This is REALLY gentle, not a pull. Just a tensioning of the rope for a second.

In the past, I have done this and the rope had popped out, it had only been caught on the gate of the QD. So it perhaps saved us from a nasty situation.

Don't stop the fall.

A lot of people instinctually react against a fall. So your belayer falls, and you BRAKE 100%, and squat down. This can be the right thing to do sometimes, like if the climber is just over a ledge and you Really don't want them to hit it.

However, almost always it's not like that, and tensioning the rope so hard will cause two things.

The climber will experience maximum forces from the fall.
The climber will swing inwards towards the wall. This is a matter of the fulcrum of the swing, you can imagine whipping a conker on a short string, versus whipping it on a long string. Tense the rope and the climber will swing hard into the wall.

Instead, if your climber falls, brake 100% but let yourself be pulled up into the air by the fall. If your climber is heavy or equally weighted, you can even jump a little and rise up on purpose.

This reduces the force of the fall a huge amount. In a trad anchor/sketchy bolt scenario this is very important.

And it causes your climber to swing downwards, decelerating, instead of straight into the wall.

PAY THE FUCK ATTENTION TO YOUR CLIMBER AND NEVER LET GO OF THE FUCKING BRAKE LINE!!!!!!

Shnook said that in another comment, and it's the most important thing. A lot of accidents occur from people letting go of the break line. And as a belayer you should always pay 100% of your attention to the climber. Watch everything they do.

cucchiaio · 15 days

Not the d80!, I have one and use it all the time hiking, and it takes great pics, but the only Dslr that I would consider today is the d7000. Look it up on dpreview, it is miles ahead of almost all other options. It won the red dot award deservedly.

I plan to sell my d80 body and pick up a d7000 this summer. Heavy, but if you are not going micro 4/3rds, the d7000 is the slr to get.

hebron1212 · 15 days

Laufbursche Huckepack, made in Cologne, Germany. Very high quality.

delightedwhen · 16 days

I was referring to the Rap. AFAIK Petzl used to recommend a Grigri as a rap tool, but no longer do. And I guess because it's the wrong tool for the job.

And of course, even in a Rappel, compared to a single tube ATC, it's still just a matter of practice. A grigri is an ATC that locks itself off. You can unlock it with the lever, and with your brake hand. A grigri that breaks turns into an ATC.

So, imho, it is always superior as far as unlocking it goes. Feeding rope through can be a bitch, but when people complain about how hard it is to smoothly unlock a grigri, I think it's just a lack of practice. It is tricky to unlock smoothly, when you're new to it. Is it safer than an ATC in almost^§ any situation? Yeah.

^§ Referring to lead belaying still :)

delightedwhen · 16 days

I have already seen this issue happen. Someone used to the 11 mm, old and rock hard ropes in the gym, used to zipping them through a big Guide ATC, going outside for their first time and then getting scared shitless when the 9.6mm teflon coated rope zips through their ATC like liquid mercury.

Totally unnecessary pant shitting, and a burnt hand and no real harm done. I can't help wondering how often that happens though, and how often the end result is some poor bastard hitting the deck.

delightedwhen · 16 days

Hi mom :)

delightedwhen · 16 days

I highly recommend investing in a Grigri/freino combo.

There is a lot of shit against the Grigri/other autolocks amongst some climbers, the excuse I hear most often is that people thing if you use a grigri, you will get used to not having to have a brake hand on the rope, and you will start checking your phone or whatever instead of paying attention.

This is patently ridiculous. You either belay well or you don't. If you belay badly with a grigri you can just as easily belay badly with an ATC. The advantage of having a very well engineered back-up is not something to sneeze at, there have been a few accidents in my group of climbers over the years, and most of them could have been prevented with a Grigri. Even the totally bizarre, 'out of your hands' accidents that do occasionally happen (such as a stone hitting a belayer and incapacitating them), can have fairly harmless outcomes with a grigri and lethal consequences with an ATC.

I love ATCs for lead belaying, but for everything else it's grigri or gtfo.

(Edit) And the Frieno. OK it is pricey, but it's fantastic for having as your ATC/Autolock carabiner anyway. The auto-locking gate is superb, the whole thing is very ergonomic and meaty. The little extra wing though, that is fucking FANTASTIC! I got used to using it with a heavier climber when I originally had it with a Verso, but with a Grigri it's just super, you can slip the rope in or out without even thinking about it, and once it's in, the friction is so easy to play with. Tying off the rope is also very very easy to do, so for example, I hate when people are off belay (setting up an anchor or whatever), I hate to take them off actual belay. I've heard too many stories about people being off belay, having some miscommunication and then the guy up top just leaning back thinking he is on belay, but falling to his death.

So when I take someone off belay, I just knock out a few metres of rope for them to work with, and then tie the rope off. That way even if something fucks up they still can't deck.

Also nice for when someone is just burnt out, hang dogging some shit route, and they just want to hang for ten minutes.

EDIT 2!

Also the argument about grigris making you forget to be safe, is very similar to the argument that seatbelts/airbags make you take more risks when you drive. Or Avalanche rucksacks in ski touring make you feel safer in avalanche territory. They do, if you're a MORON. If you understand the issues at hand, it's just another layer of safety.

And if you think about the entire technical side to climbing, it is all about adding more layers of superlative safety, constantly trying to minimise risks in what is a very risky sport. And the Grigri is perfect for doing that.

delightedwhen · 16 days

I'm not happy using it to lower a climber

Practice

or myself in a rap/~~self arresting~~ situation.

Wrong tool

delightedwhen · 16 days

One thing that I see all the time, that I hate, is the dropping of safety considerations as people gain climbing experience. 'Experienced' people never doing safety checks, and acting insulted if you insist on it, or lead belaying their partner from sitting on a park bench reading a magazine. Show-off bullshit.

In my humble opinion, the first step on this route to an accident, is barely controlled belaying. Zipping people down by letting the rope fly through your hands, and then smoothly arresting the descent so they just land on the deck perfectly. I see it every time I'm in the gym, and fairly often outdoors too. It looks cool, it saves time, and of course if you're a badass you don't complain that you got dropped down uncomfortably fast! Right?

I fucking hate it, I usually ask to be belayed down really slowly, and I always use that time to run through the route, and check what I had done, what I should have done.

If a climbing partner had a problem with me letting them down too slowly, I would just say that is their only fucking option. Safety first, looking cool/saving minuscule amounts of time last.

edit

And as addendum, I think a grigri2, coupled with a Freino, gives you sick amounts of friction to let anyone down achingly slow. It's a superb combo and worth the price if you plan on doing a lot of TR hangdogging.

pinkshirtfedora · 16 days

Brazilian Jujitsu!

I can say only this as a way to make you give it a go. BJJ is as close to climbing as anything else I have tried in life. There is such an overlap with climbers and BJJ in my groups, and I find very similar people doing both. All of the things that took me years to learn in BJJ, I now realise are the same hurdles to success in climbing. Using your balance, tenacity and mental toughness, hips and finger strength... etc.

And while climbing (for me at least) has been second only to skiing in terms of cost, BJJ is essentially cost free. An old t-shirt and pants, and find some local club to try out.

NDclimber · 16 days

Send it to the manufacturer, explain what happened, ask them to failure test it and post a video to r/climbing.

biotech9

TROPHY CASE

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