Climbing Gear Reviews UK

We’ve been testing several over the summer and found them to be brilliant for Alpine adventures and lightweight trad. I’ve been using the DMM Thors for quite a while now, I also have a couple of Spectre 2 quickdraws on there as well. The Chimera have the same action, nice and smooth and DMM have cleaned up the nose and still been able to retain the wire gate. The gate has been tapered cleverly to fit under the nose hood.go to full review

So, in conclusion I can’t fault the new DMM Dragon Cam. There are lighter cams out there but with such an important and expensive purchase I feel that Dragons offer great value as they will last years. They are superbly engineered and the updates are well thought out and do make, I wouldn’t advise clients to upgrade for the sake of it but if you are looking for a replacement or even thinking of purchasing your first cam then you should take a good look at the DMM Dragon Cam 2.go to full review

So in conclusion, the Wild Country Electron quickdraw is a great value sport climbing quickdraw that would be perfect suitable as your first set of quickdraws, you could quite happily use them for trad climbing as they were light at 112g for the 12cm version. The only real issue (which is a big one) is that they won’t fit into a standard mass market clip stick.go to full review

So, is the DMM Mithril a true all season harness and one harness to rule them all? Well I think the answer is yes. If you want a lightweight harness that you can use for summer rock, multi pitch days out, Alpine fun and winter gnarl then the DMM Mithril isn’t going to disappoint and it’s well priced too, oh and I forgot to mention British made which always gets our thumbs up :-)go to full review

In use I found the Jul² really easy to use, it offered plenty of assisted braking when mates were working routes. It must be noted though that the Jul² is not a hand free device (I always teach my clients that no belay device is hands free) and I did notice on a recent Dry Tooling day out with my 8.9mm alpine rope there was a little slippage through the device. Also it works best with a HMS screwgate carabiner. Since then, Edelrid stated that the Jul² is engineered to worked with the Bruce..." go to full review

I consider myself an all round climber and although having Malham and Kilnsey on my doorstep means I tend to sport climb quite a lot (it’s good for fitness)I found the Boreal Lynx a great shoe for all occasions. They can claim to be in the performance category as the fit is supreme as long as you get the sizing right for your foot shape. The claim to be an all rounder is a tough call but I believe Boreal is onto a winner with the Lynx and if you are currently wearing Jokers and are looking..." go to full review

Another master rope maker producing harnesses the Edelweiss Strato is a lightly padded adjustable leg loop harness with a double mini-buckle waist belt that allows you to keep the belt ‘centred’ as per the Grivel Poseidon. The Strato is the top harness in the small Edelweiss harness range. I mainly used this harness for summer Alpine routes both rock and mountaineering for which it is ideally suited, in fact the Strato probably best fits most people’s idea of what a traditional alpine..." go to full review

I reviewed Edelrid’s Orion harness awhile back and commented that it was the most comfortable harness I’d ever used. Now while the ‘Leaf’ doesn’t quite reach the same level of comfort it is close and completely trounces the Orion in terms of weight and packability – important considerations when sorting that sack for a long day in the hills.In fact the Leaf proved the lightest of the harnesses on review. If you want a harness that does everything with perhaps more of an emphasis on the..." go to full review

Overall the Poseidon’s construction looks very durable and promises many seasons use. The buckles were smooth and adjusted easily with gloves on. In use the harness just disappeared, it was comfortable on hanging stances, I found the gear loops easy to locate and clip gear to and it never constricted or hindered movement whilst climbing or walking. The Poseidon has become my favourite Scottish winter harness. Having said that there was one small niggle -the rear leg loop straps are attached..." go to full review

In conclusion, the Petzl Meteor is great update. I’ve been using the Meteor III+ for a while for both climbing and mountain biking and I feel the new one is worth the upgrade. It feels more compact, lighter to wear and supremely comfortable. The new, larger vents help keep my head cooler. The straps are easy to adjust and the magnetic clip is great. The overall, compact shape and the new colour scheme makes the helmet look cool too. The Petzl Meteor climbing helmet has always been and will..." go to full review