The Alpine Start

I really want to like this harness. It is so, so good on paper. It appears absolutely amazing, which is why I ordered it in the first place. But, unfortunately, it is severely lacking in execution details. A friend of mine — sponsored by a particular well-known company — has said this is his favourite harness and, I too, really, really wanted to love it. But after trying it for well over a year on everything from short sport routes to run-out ice pitches to wandering alpine routes, I just..." go to full review

Turns out the Photon is a full-size, full-strength ‘biner that weighs a scant 29 grams. So while I’m not saving any more weight, I have finally found a carabiner that is easy to use with gloves and still weighs around 60 grams for a draw duo: just add in your favourite sling or dogbone for an easy-to-handle, light, setup.go to full review

It’s comfortable, protects my head, seems to hold up well to various knocks, is extremely light, ventilates as well as I need it to and there’s really not much else I want out of a helmet.go to full review

Overall, I think this is the single best all-around crampon I’ve ever used (and by last count I’ve tried 12!). Coming standard with dual crampon bails, they’ll fit both three-season alpine boots as well as full-shank ice boots. And with six possible front-point configurations, they can be adapted to fit every mixed, ice or alpine climbing environment I can think of. At $215 Cdn retail, this one pair of crampons does the job of three of four: if you could have only one pair of crampons, this..." go to full review

A great axe by itself for ski touring, scrambling or low grade snow and ice mountaineering. Suitable for bigger missions if you paired it with another tool with different features.go to full review

The Volta 9.2mm is a multi-standard rope, certified for use as a single, half or twin rope, making it extremely versatile, especially in alpine terrain. At 55-grams per meter, it’s weight is similar to other ropes of this diameter. The Volta features a Duratec Dry dry treatment, and resisted every effort to wet it out, even during long, wet, spring ice days. The rope also comes with a number of other labels — UltraSonic Finish, ClimbReady, EverFlex — but all you need to know is that the rope..." go to full review

These are the shoes that I reach for first when I’m heading out for a general day of climbing. Heading out to a crag with a bunch of different levels of climbers, the gym, or anywhere else where variety will be the order of the day; these shoes are the ones I go with. I have other pairs with more specialized uses that surpass these shoes in that specific area (for example Solutions are better than this for overhangs, Mythos are better for long easy trad days) , but none have the..." go to full review

Anyway, as I mentioned they come in a set of 5 (smaller offset nuts are available in brass much like the original RP’s), each is rated to 12 kN, they range in size from 12 to 23mm (size 7 to 11), colour coded, are not inexpensive (about $16 ea.) and have a bit of a gap between sizes (I infill this gap with a half dozen of my regular nuts BD nuts) though they can be rotated to make intermediate sizes) but WOW do these things work!  Any kind of flaring or pod like crack as well as many shallow..." go to full review

These really are wonderful little biners. I honestly can’t think of anything I don’t like about them. Well, maybe that I don’t have enough as these will make for an amazingly light trad rack. Thanks to the combination of usable size and low weight, I think the Nano 22 is quite possibly the best trad and alpine rock biner on the market. (Though I still prefer the larger Photon Wire for use with gloves.)go to full review

Since receiving my review pair, I’ve actually purchased a second set and use both on a near-daily basis: one is set up with the the X-Trigger (aka third grip rest) and the Race (competition) pick for training and competition use, the other has the stock Mixte pick for ice and mixed climbing. Both tools have seen hundreds of hours of use, and have been loaned out countless times to anyone interested in trying them out. The verdict? Let me put it this way: every single person that has demoed..." go to full review