Climbing Report
Though the Black Diamond Fuel ice tool doesn’t stray too far from the common look and feel of the modern ice tools, there are some pluses and minuses. Honestly, our test crew ended up split on how they felt about these ice tools. If you have really big hands (like mine) and hate difficult-to-clean picks then maybe look at some other options. If you have hands that fall within the normal range of humans and like an easy to place ice tool, that cuts down on multiple swings, in exchange for..." go to full review
We see a lot of climbing shoes here at Climbing Report and I have to say that honestly this shoe is a bit of a surprise. Cypher has put together two climbing shoe properties that we very rarely, if ever, see used together. The Cypher CoDex is a down-turned shoe with a very stiff sole, and it made me very excited when I first pulled them out of the box. I am not a small person. I am 6’3″ and 190 lbs. Sensitive climbing shoes don’t usually work very well for me unless the route is severely..." go to full review
Our testers took a few falls on these new cams, no really big whippers, but the falls held well with the new cam designs on these Ultralight Mastercams. The overall impression is that the new work as well, or better than the old. The standard Mastercams worked great so it’s had to tell if the new actually work better or not. What do know is that even if performance is the same you’re dropping a lot of weight with a new set of Ultra Light Mastercams and lighter weight, especially when..." go to full review
Everyone needs a quality all-day shoe that can ramp up and handle tough routes when needed and the Cypher Phelix never let us down. The fit works great for female feet and the flat last means you don’t need to take these shoes off after every climb. The synthetic material constricted air flow a bit but wasn’t too much of a problem. That same material proved to be very durable, with little to no wear showing after a month of heavy duty testing. The blue/red/black color scheme looked great and..." go to full review
I feel a bit like I’m gushing, but everyone of our testers that used this harness fell in love with it and didn’t want to hand it over to anyone else. It might just be the dirtiest harness in the gear closet now with all the use its been getting. It comes in Blue for Men and Purple for the Women’s model. Weight is only 395 grams, so it won’t be holding you back on any of your objectives. We fully endorse anyone that wants to pick up the Arc’teryx AR-395a as their new harness. MSRP $159.go to full review
Both of our testers gave the Vapor V women’s shoe two thumbs up. Their main comments were about how comfortable the shoe was while still being an asymmetrical downturned shoe. One tester said that she felt more confident and could get more tries on her project because her feet didn’t feel so sore and fatigued. Both the men’ss and women’s Scarpa Vapor V are priced at $159, which isn’t cheap, but well inside the realm of quality performance oriented rock climbing shoes.go to full review
The La Sportiva Genius is not your hang out at the crag all day or multi-pitch shoe. It is a shoe you should give a serious look at if you’re working steep sport or boulder routes and trying to get that red-point. The fit is spot on for medium-narrow feet. The sticky sole with the no edge design do a great job at deforming just enough to give a 3-D grip on all available surfaces. Check them out. They are a tad pricey, so just like you expect to pay a premium for a sports car that holds the..." go to full review
The Verdon is made of suede leather lined with an exceptionally smooth polyester material. We found that these stretched about 1/4-1/2 size after a few dozen routes and we expect that they will stretch another 1/4 size–just enough to make a little more room for toe knuckles. The tongue is made of a soft perforated foam and keeps the fit comfortable even when cranking down on the laces for a solid fit. The rubber on the heel goes all the way up the back so heel hooks with the tight fit are..." go to full review
It is indeed perfect for dry tooling, but I’ve found it works fantastic for steep ice as well. The cure allows me to keep my fingers from getting bashed on bulges of ice and makes hooking much easier. The best thing about it is the comfortable angle in which your hand is placed. It is so much easier to maintain a relaxed grip on your ice tools with the grip much more near a horizontal angle. To put it in terms of rock climbing, it’s like every hold is a big jug, versus, most other ice tools..." go to full review
To sum up our experience, we found the Grivel Light Machine to be a great technical alpine tool. Most of our testers agreed that if they were heading to route that required ice climbing they would take the Light Machine as their main tool on the climb. Grivel quality is still second to none and we found this to be true in our testing. MSRP is $219.95 and can be bought at many climbing shops including Libertymountain.com.go to full review