When a lot is too much

To Suunto, Garmin, Nike, and all you other sport watch companies: I think you're missing an easy mark here.

You're all offering some incredible pieces of modern engineering. Watches, smaller than my great-grandfather's pocket watch, capable of doing so much more than display the time - there's alarms and heart rate monitors and altimeters and ascent rates and log books and gps tracking...

But what if I want something simple?

I want a watch that:

• Is minimalist in size and display;
• Tells the time;
• Tracks my routes using GPS;
• Tracks for longer than 8 hours, preferably to 24;
• Let's me share that data with others.

Battery life is the crux of GPS sport watches - 1 second GPS fixes is the norm - but it doesn't have to be. It would be an easy addition to allow the user to change settings from 1s, to 15, 30 or even 60 seconds - at least that seems easy to me. Switching to a 60s GPS fix would allow any of the watches on the market to have an extended battery life of 20 hours, if the 1s/60s battery ratio for the Suunto GPS Track Pod is any indicator (the only device that has this feature, and none other).

Such a simple watch would certainly be cheaper - less than the $300 Suunto Core altimeter watch I wear while guiding, or the $400 Suunto Ambit 2 HR that my wife runs with.

The closest match I've found so far is the Soleus GPS Mini or Fit watches, both for $99, but with GPS track limiting the battery to 8 hours.

Oh well - I'm still looking.

photo: etsy.com

Packing Lists: Alpine Style Car Camping

Its springtime, and with spring comes the road trips - places near and far, for a day, a night, or a week. The longer I'm gone the more elaborate my car camping gets - the shorter the simpler, especially for overnights, when I've been known simply to throw in a sleeping bag and called it good.

Somewhere along the way in our culture/community/sport/lifestyle/whatever, car camping became complicated. REI is probably complicit in this - just take a walk through and look at all the modern conveniences of the modern world re-built for the camping life.

Yes, car camping can be luxurious. But I live in a city, without off street parking, so packing means filling up a collection of plastic bins and duffels. If I'm lucky I found a parking spot on the block in front of my house and I can simply move the bins/duffels to the door, and then out the door to the car. If I'm unlucky the car is parked all the way around the block on the other side. And then I get to repeat the process when I come home, usually to the excited barking of two 50 lbs dogs who want me to wrestle while simultaneously unpacking.

Its a pain in the arse. So instead I go without - I sit on a foam pad or stand instead of a chair. I get cold deli food from my local grocery instead of cooking. My stove is primarily to boil water for hit drinks.
So here, then, is my alpine style car camping list. I use it for a night out or a weekend.

Kitchen:

• Car coffee mug
• Spoon
• Fozzil Bowl
• MSR Reactor Stove with a handful of half-used canisters
• Via instant coffee or French Press with ground coffee. This really depends on the trip - if its a single overnight and alpine start, I'll go with the Starbucks. If its a longer, or more leisurely, trip then I'll use the real stuff.
• Tea/Apple Cider for dinner
• Pastries for breakfast
• Fruits and bars for lunch
• Deli sandwiches for dinner
• Chips and salsa for appetizers
• Adult beverage(s) of choice - I prefer something stronger than beer because it doesn't need to be refrigerated.

Sleeping:

• Tarp or tent. I actually prefer sleeping under a tarp - but if the fly's are bad a tent is a must.
• Air mattress and a foam pad. My concession to comfort - and the foam pad doubles as a seat. Be warned: an air mattress and dogs do not mix well together, no matter how well behaved or intentioned the dogs are. A crash pad can be substituted if its coming along already.
• Sleeping bag - duh! I prefer a 20 degree synthetic that I got years ago. I don't have to worry about holes, or stains, or spilled coffee.

So my Kitchen stuff (minus the coffee mug that already lives in my car), gets thrown in a bin. My tent, unstuffed sleeping bag (its going in a duffel, why bother?), pads and extra clothes get thrown in a duffel. My climbing or ski gear get thrown in a separate pack, and that's it. A weekend in three containers, I can be packed up in less than 30 minutes and a quick trip to the grocery.

One day, I'll reclaim my road trip mini-van and eliminate a lot of the packing list. Who wouldn't like a car pre-packed with the kitchen and bedroom already set up? Meanwhile, I know it can be fun to bring along the expedition dome tent, camp chairs, the big coleman stove, and an entire cooler of food.

But more often, I like this method instead:  grab your s#!^ and get going.

photo from the Model T Ford Forum, www.mtfca.com

Ski Tuning 101

I first learned how to tune my own skis from the ski patrollers at Jackson Hole back in 1999 (more on that tune in another post).  I still use the methods they taught me - for a fairly crude, but quick and effective, tune-up.  If I needed anything fancier, I would take it into a shop.  Now that I work with Pro Guiding Service and Pro Ski & Mountain Service, I have access to one of the best benches and ski techs in Puget Sound.  But still, my basement is a lot closure and more convenient.

So I was excited to learn that Greg Whittaker was offering a ski tuning clinic at his shop, Mountain To Sound Outfitters, just a few minutes away from my home in Seattle this past Tuesday.  Greg and one of his shop techs, Doug, gave an awesome clinic on home tunes to a crowed of +15 people.  Its was chuckling to learn that some of my techniques were as crude as they looked, but that much of what that crusty crew in Jackson taught me so many years ago still applied today.

Special thanks to Greg, and the folks at M2S, for a great clinic!  Check them out online at http://m2soutfitters.com/.

Ski Straps

I always carry a few ski straps.  These rubber straps with simple metal buckles have tied my skis together, lashed a rescue sled up, and replaced a busted buckle on a boot.  I also think they could be used for first aid bandages, splints, and traction splints for femur fractures (!!!). I carry 2 to 4 in the winter, and just 2 in the summer.

During my Mt Baker circumnav trip, Dan's top cuff buckle failed on day three, and he simply started using a ski strap instead, including skiing down the expert-only Park Glacier headwall.

Two weeks ago on Baker with Ro and Apoorva, we met Rob and Mike, two skiers.  Rob discovered on the approach that the top plate on his heel piece was starting to shear off, and the pins were no longer able to apply enough pressure to keep the heel locked in.  But the tower was intact, and with a ski strap we were able to lash his boot into the ski.

These ski lash straps come in a variety of lengths, but I'd rather have to much strap then to short, so get the longest ones you can find.  Many ski shops get them produced with their logo on the strap, so show some local love by buying from your shop instead of online!

Close up of the failed heel piece - you can see the top of the tower pealing away.  This top piece
is held in place by four screws, and is actually under a lot of pressure from the spring-loading
mechanism in the pins that lock into the boot.  Both screws closest to the boot had failed - one
had sheared off, the other was lost completely.  This was most likely due to old age.

My solution:  A ski strap under the back of the tower and over the arch of the boot.  Rob elected to keep the tow piece
locked in tour mode as well.

Packing Right for Mt Baker

I just came home from a 5-day, 4-night circumnavigation and summit of Mt Baker.  While I wait for the photos from Chrix and Dan, I thought I'd write a tech piece on what it takes to decide what to take, how to pack this...

...into this - a 42L, Black Diamond Sphinx pack.

Systems.  I pull things off the shelves by groups - sleep, camp, food, cook, emergency, clothing, technical, and bits and bobs.

My sleep system consists of a sleeping bag, pad, camp socks and camp footwear.  For this trip where we were camping between 6000' and 7000' on snow, forecasted for a low of 31F, this meant:

Feathered Friends Vireo sleeping bag (personally rated to 30F)
Thermarest Neolite Air full length (all ready packed in the photo)
Patagonia wool expedition weight socks
FF down booties - but just the inner pieces to save space
Ski socks - the spare pair that I'll pull on day 4

And this all fits into an XS compression stuff sack.  If I had used my FF Swallow sleeping bag (rated to 20F), I'd have to use a size small sack instead.

For tents, we needed to decide on what to bring.  The forecast was for light winds and moderate rain at middle and lower elevations.  I think weight is critical for ski tours, and being able to cook inside and pass around water is incredibly useful.  So instead of taking fully enclosed, 2-person tents, we took a Black Diamond Megamid.  It sleeps up to 4, and the floor-less design lends for setting up on snow, bury all the edges but the door-side, and dig out a lower floor.

My food was simple - three ziplocks of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My cooking system is equally simple.  Since all of our meals require minimal actual cooking, and a lot of hot water, we packed a MSR Reactor stove.  I've found that cannister stoves work great, especially for lower elevations.  The Reactor is also has one of the fastest boil times, and a 1.5L pot.

When I have to melt snow for water, I budget 3oz per person per day for fuel.  So for this trip, that's 9oz per day x 4 days = 36oz, or 4.5 x 8oz cans.  Since we were considering staying out for a 6th day, we added a dinner and an extra canister.

Emergencies.  We needed to be able to repair any broken gear to continue out to a trail head, to repair any person enough to keep them stable, call for assistance, and to transport them to a site where we could wait for a rescue.

Brooks Range Ultralight Rescue Sled, with Pro Spreader Bars and extra ski straps
Repair kit with multi-tool, tape, key parts, ski straps, and zip ties.
Radio
Cell phone (not shown, but appropriate for this trip)
Adventure Medical Ultralight first aid kits
Brooks Range 8'x10' Guides Tarp - velcro lining allows it to double as a 8'x5' bivy sack.

I don't bring a lot of extra clothing - at most a pair or two of socks.  That means at the end of the day, when we were sitting in camp, I was wearing everything I brought except for my goretex.  It also meant that I didn't have a lot of extra clothes to pack away - so I pulled out the clothes I would be wearing for the trailhead, and packed the goretex, insulation, gloves and hats.  Because of the rainy weather forecast, I opted for bringing bulkier synthetic insulation jacket and a belay parka versus down.

For this trip, we were traveling on glaciers extensively and needed to be prepared for ice conditions.  So our technical systems needed to provide for safe travel and still save weight.

Beal 8.1mm x 30m rando rope - in pink.  The blue line was an 8mm x 20m rope that we brought along for crevasse rescue practice.
Black Diamond Couloir harness
3 locking biners
4 non-locking biners
shoulder length dyneema sling
double-shoulder length dyneema sling
5mm x 3m cordellette
6mm x 3m power cord cordellette
5mm autoblock cord
BD Raven Ultra Ice Axe, 50cm

K2 Backup, 174cm - not the lightest ski on the market, but I prefer how it handles icy and manky snow conditions.  Paired with Dynafit Speed bindings and BD Quadrant boots.
Backcountry Access Magic Carpet skins
BCA Carbon 260 probe
Dyanfit ski crampons
BCA B1 Ext shovel
My hybrid Life Link/BCA snow saw
BCA Tracker 2 beacon
BD carbone fiber fixed-length poles.

Finally the bits and bobs.  The little bits that have to come to make the trip possible.
Personal cook gear - thermos, 500mL nalgene, Fozzil bowl, spoons, iodine.
Navigation - maps, compass, gps, and notebook
Ski - skin wax, scraper, thermometer, inclinometer
Sun - goggles, sun glasses, sunscreen
Light - headlamp, second headlamp, 3 lighters
Other stuff - camera, blue bags (for the toilet)

With everything pulled and sorted, my goal is always to pack as much stuff inside the pack as possible.  The less things dangling outside of my pack means the less likely that something is going to fall off or get ripped off by a random tree branch or classic tomahawk fall.  So the long skinny stuff - like the probe, shovel, snow saw, and rescue sled spreader bars - fit in the water bladder pocket inside the pack, and they're convenient for a quick grab in an emergency.

Then I'll start stacking in my sleep and food, then my share of the group gear - emergency, cook, and camp.  My share of the tent or the bivy sack, is pulled out of the stuff sack and stuffed into the dead air space in the pack that inevitably forms.  Water bottles, lunch food, and extra clothing ends up on top.  My boot crampons fitted inside as well for this trip, so they were kept near the top for quick access.  The shovel blade fits on the very top, down the front of the back.

The final result - my ski crampons usually live permanently on the outside of my pack, and for this trip I needed to add my ice axe and the rope.  By the end of the trip I was able to fit everything inside.  The bits and bobs - and my hats and gloves - fit mostly in the lid.  Total pack weight:  41 lbs.

Long in the Tooth

Working with Outdoor Research and Backcountry Access has gotten me thinking about realistic expectations for the absolute lifetime of clothing and backpacks.  And I'm starting to wonder if we have conflicting wants and needs for our gear.  Like, we'd all like our backpacks to fit perfectly, weigh next to nothing unloaded, and is exactly what we need for a day hike, a day at the crag, an alpine climbing weekend, AND the week-long ski tour.  Oh, and keep working for 10 years.  And cost less than $100.00.

But that ignores the fact that I don't need a precisely fitting pack for a day hike, but I do for a 50 mile trail run.  Or that a 55lbs load needs a different suspension system from a 20lbs load.  Or that to get a lighter pack I need to use lighter fabrics that either 1) aren't as durable or 2) are as durable but cost twice as much to use in the pack, driving up the cost.  We're ignoring that a crag pack needs to be much more robust and durable than my trail running pack, or even my expedition pack.  And I'm forgetting that UV damage will make the stitches and the fabric in this pack fail a lot sooner than 10 years from now, irregardless of how many patches and repairs jobs I perform.  Packs that do last that longer are made out of heavy-weight cordura, not sil fabric.

This carries over to our clothes too.  We seem to want one outfit for winter, one for summer.  Period.  That works in all temp ranges, in all conditions, that breathes out to let me make as much heat as I want on the uphill, but that insulates me when I'm standing still, and keeps me dry when its raining.  And fit me exactly.  And last a lifetime.  And weigh next to nothing.  And cost less than $100.00 (see a trend here?).

We're ignoring that something simply can't let heat out at one moment and then insulate the next.  Goretex - or whatever else waterproof whatever you're using - eventually breaks down, no matter how many times you re-treat with that bottle from Nik-wax.  And that for something to be truly water-proof, it physically cannot be breathable.  But on any rain-proof "breathable" anything and run uphill for 10 minutes, if it doesn't feel clammy on the inside against your arm, tell me what miracle fabric you're using.

Unless you're 175 lbs, 5'9", with a neutral ape index and a 17" back, most things won't fit you exactly.  I'm 185 lbs, 6'1", with an 18.5" back and a +5 ape index, and I'm constantly having to decide if I want my shirt to fit my shoulders but be short on my wrists, or fit my arms and be baggy.  Even then, most things won't fit you exactly, and I've learned from trial and error that just because one pair of pants fit me well it doesn't mean that every pair of pants from that company will fit me well too.  Most will - but there's always little nuances in the cut, and today outdoor manufacturers actually distinguish between a trim/athletic/slim fit (nice for base or single-layer systems); a regular/standard fit (nice for colder or two layer systems); and loose (great for belay parkas).  I am not exactly a trim fellow, so some people's idea of "athletic" sucks for me.

For the superior gender, breasts and hips make this exponentially harder, and you have my fullest sympathies.

Stuff wears out, but I'm starting to think that outdoor manufacturers make things to last for around 100 days.  I know they don't use that as a metric, but think about it - the average climber gets outside may be one full weekend a month, hopefully two more day-trips too, and a week a year.  The weekend-warrior/reservist routine.  Not slamming on it, these are the folks who buy enough product to make it financially viable to produce sil fabric tents and ultralite anything - because they need it to maximize their time off.  So that means in a give year, that softshell pant may be worn 50 days - assuming they wear it every time they go out, which isn't a realistic expectation.  Even less if we're talking about a goretex jacket.  So let's assume they wear it half the time - 25 days.  That's four years of life using my 100 day rule, which seems like a reasonable expectation to me for something to last until the knees or the elbows or the straps start to fail.

Its nice to know that somethings do have a lifetime warranty.  Like zippers.  And that companies like Patagonia and Outdoor Research that are offering lifetime manufacturing guarantees.  But I think we need to realistically expect things to wear out in about 4-5 years of use, less if you get after it more.  And we shouldn't bitch about it - the alternative is to have things that cost too much to invest in, or simply have fewer choices.

And we need to have reasonable expectations of what we do buy.  If we purchase an ultralite backpack and then go climb a chimney in red rocks with it - or use it roughly in any way, than you're shortening its useable life.  Ditto for clothes.  So plan on it, budget for it, if you can't afford to replace that ultralite pack next year, maybe get the next-heavier choice that will last a year longer.  Or if most of your time is spent at the crag, get a burly pack that can withstand the abuse of getting dumped in the dirt, the rocks, and the parking lot multiple times a day, for a lot of days.

I guess that's what it boils down to - creating a reasonable expectation of what you need, filling it with the appropriate piece, and replacing it as needed.

FWI: Snow Saws

Steve Romeo called it FWI - F@$%ing With It.  Taking something that works fine, and messing with it to make it work better.  I've been complaining about snow saws recently - they are either too long, too fancy, too thick, etcetera etcetera etcetera.  So last week I decided to cobble together my own.

This was what I had to work with:
The Life Link snow saw is 55cm long, making it too long to fit in a pack, and its big aggressive teeth make it great for snow but useless for anything else.  But it's just a flat piece of cut aluminum, making it the simplest and easiest for a FWI project.
The BCA Snow Saw is a little bit shorter, around 45cm overall and fits into some - but not all - packs.  The handle is beefy and thick, making it awkward to pack.  But it's blade has the lowest profile and teeth that cut snow, ice, and wood.
The Brooks Range Mountaineering Snow Saw folds in half making it the most packable, but I (just being me) somehow bent it right at the joint and now it won't lock open.  Nor is it straight.  So it's KIA.
I suspect what I actually want is a G3 Bone Saw, but at $40-60 retail they're twice to three times as much as any of the snow saws listed above.  Ouch.  I don't want one that much.

At first I was just going to cut down the LL saw to a shorter 45cm length.  But it still wouldn't cut through wood - so I decided that I would use the BCA saw blade, and it conveniently came off the handle with a couple of philips head screws.

Originally I was going to use the BRM handle, but the metal proved to be too tough for my flimsy plastic hacksaw.  I opted instead for the LL handle.  This turned out to be a blessing - the LL handle gave the saw a shorter overall length than the BRM handle would have.  So I lined up the BCA blade to determine where to cut, drilled two holes for the blade attachment, and filled down all the rough edges as well.  A quick trip to the hardware store for some nuts and bolts, a couple of squirts of lock-tight, and...

Finis!  The BCA saw blade guard refuses to stay on anyways, so I trimmed down the LL guard to the shorter BCA blade.  Now I have what I need - a wood/snow saw blade that is slim, lite-weight, and short enough to fit in my pack easily.  And it still has the BCA logo on it.  No reason not to carry it now.

The Dark Side

A gift from a generous friend, I've finally left the side of all things good - my father (an IBM and PC lifer) must be turning in his grave.  Its taken me a few weeks to figure out how to manage my photos (important), blog (more important) and music (most important).  But I'm starting to get a handle on it, and I'll be updating this blog today with a lot of new-old content.  Here's the start:

A Cold Weekend

I briefly posted about this on Tuesday morning, and in a fit of editorial angst deleted the post.  Afterwards a few friends wrote to ask "What happened?" and provided some needed encouragement.

So this is take two.

The snow started to fall around 4pm on Friday.  36 hours later the Cascades were blanketed in 34 inches of fresh powder, with drifting as deep as 4-5 feet from westerly winds reaching 20mph.  The avalanche forecast, calling for only 3-6 inches in that time, was completely turned on its ear.

There were at least six avalanche incidences that I know of from Sunday.  Two of the incidences killed their victims - one at Alpental, three more at Stevens Pass.  I knew some of these people, so I can't and won't go into the particulars of accidents here.  You can follow some of the links I'm listing below if you want to learn more.

The one survivor of the Stevens Pass accident credits her airbag pack with saving her life.  As the weight and cost of these pieces of gear comes down, it's only a matter of time before airbag packs are added as necessary item along with the avalanche beacons, probes, and shovels.  But most importantly is learning how to select the terrain you want to ski, and avoid the terrain that's less safe - so taking an avalanche awareness or level 1 course from a local provider should be a rider's first priority.

Lowell Skoog, the historian of skiing in the Pacific Northwest, had this observation on one of the local forums:

Losing more than one member of the skiing and snowboarding community in single day is a horrible shock. It has only happened twice before. In 1999, one snowboarder and one skier were lost in the huge Rumble Gully avalanche just outside the Mt Baker ski area. In 2007, three snowboarders were buried at their emergency bivouac in Union Creek near Crystal Mountain. Yesterday, we lost three at Stevens Pass in a single avalanche and another at Alpental in a separate accident. It was deadliest day for avalanches involving skiers and snowboarders in the history of Washington state.
There have been even worse days in history, but they involved climbing parties. Fatal accidents involving multiple skiers are extremely rare in this state. I think that's why this event seems so overwhelming.

There's been plenty written about it on cascadeclimbers.com, turns-all-year.com, and the TGR forum.  More surprising was the attention it received from the common public media - the Seattle Times has a series of articles, several on the front page, one the front page feature.  Fox News, NBC, and ABC reported it.  Even my mother heard about from the news on the East Coast.  I was approached by King5 news on Monday for a piece on airbag packs.  Another guide I work with was on Fox News to discuss avalanche preparedness.  Links to those pieces are below too.

Sunday night there were four less souls shining in the world.  Please light some candles for them, and think of their friends and families this week.

Stay in trouble - but stay safe out there, OK?

LINK: Me on King5 News at 5:30pm Monday night, discussing airbag packs.

LINK: Margaret Wheeler, IFMGA Mountain Guide, AMGA President, and Pro Guiding Service Guide, on Fox News at 10:00pm discussing avalanche safety and preparedness.

LINK: Seattle Times Feature pieces, with several side bar links to further stories.

Gaiters

An essential piece of equipment for glacier travel - especially in the Pacific Northwest - are a pair of gaiters.  Beyond keeping the snow out of your boots, they also help keep rocks and mud out on the trails, and protect your $200 pants from your $150 crampons with only $60 of fabric.  But there are some do's and don'ts to fitting and wearing gaiters.

First - what not to do.  The goal is to minimize the number of things that can create a crampon tripping hazard on the inside of your feet.  Gaiter strap buckles are an excellent example of this - so they go on the outside.  Most models also have a velcro strip that runs up the front, and the logo also is displayed proudly on the outside of the ankle - not the inside.

Gaiters on the wrong feet creates a tripping hazard.
Having the strap too loose reduces their effectiveness.
Worse still, you don't look as cool!

I have three pairs of gaiters - for my approach and running shoes, for my lighter climbing boots, and finally for my heavier leather and plastic climbing boots.  Most people won't be able to get away with the same pair of gaiters they use backpacking for mountaineering - the boot cuffs are just too different in size.  I'll review my ankle gaiters in another article.  For now, here's a step-by-step idea of how to fit and wear gaiters effectively.

To fit your gaiters to your boots, unbuckle the stirrup strap
completely and open up the velcro.  Remember - the buckle
and the logo go to the OUTSIDE, and the velcro goes FORWARD.

Step 2:  Attache the velcro strip as evenly as possible to
maximize the velcro grip.  Don't worry about the stirrup strap
right now.

I find it best to work the velcro from the bottom to the top.

After the velcro is line up, pull the gaiter down as low as
it will fit, then buckle the stirrup strap as tight as it will go.

With plastic boots, I typically don't need to bother
with the lace hook in front.

Keep the velcro strap that's common on most models loosely
closed unless your wallowing in the snow past your knees.

For your other gaiter, simply buckle the stirrup strap to
the same number of holes as the first gaiter, then step into
it and close the velcro.  In really warm weather,
you can also roll down the gaiter to increase ventilation.

Petzl | Tikka XP2 Headlamp

photo | petzl.com

In the first week of September I wrote a review about the Petzl Tikka2 Headlamp, one of my long-time favorite pieces of gear.  Its limitation is the distance the light travels - about 30m or so.  Petzl got wise and added a focusing lense to the Plus model - flip it up and away and you get a wide, typical, 30m spread on high power.  Flip it down and in place and - presto - you get a focused 60m beam of light, at the same weight and size as the the rest of the Tikka line.  This is key when you're trying to routefind across a glacier at the backside of dawn or if you're looking for that next rappel station as you descend way after sunset.  I got one of these at the beginning of the summer and it has already proved its worth.  It now lives in my alpine day pack for those marathon sessions when car-to-car means dark-to-dark.

$55     LINK

Petzl | Tikka2 Headlamp

photo | petzl.com

It only takes one lesson to learn that with a headlamp you're hiking out tired; without a headlamp you're shivering through the night and then hiking out tired in the morning.  On overnight trips a second headlamp is more convenient when the batteries die on the first or when you're partner says, "I forgot."  The Petzl Tikka2 is small and compact, but with a user-friendly head or helmet strap and push-button activation that has never turned itself on inside my pack. The 4 LED bulbs will illuminate up to 80 feet away on the high setting, last up to 120 hours on the low setting, and the emergency strobe can double for that full-moon rave party you've been wanting to go to.  For 81grams and less than two Andy Jacksons, you'll be whistling in the dark as you follow the trail to the car.

$30      LINK

Climbing Revolution T-Shirt

Once upon a time, climbing was revolutionary.  Now?  ClimbingTrash.com wants to bring the revolution back.  Reclaim your heritage and raise a fist against the system.  Screen printed on a Gildan, 5.6 oz., pre-shrunk, standard-fit cotton tee.  I got mine in less than a week after sending in my PayPal'ed order.

$12  LINK

Dyneema - More Talk, Less Information

DMM (a UK gear company) recently shared some drop testing done on a collection of Dyneema slings.  The results have created a lot of new discussion in the blog-o-spere and on the forum circuit.  But is this really breaking news?
Dyneema and Spectra are synthetic fibers that have a much higher strength-weight ratio than typical nylon, and they have become the "top shelf" material to build light and fast fabric.  Really applicable for backpacks and...climbing slings.  But here's the rub:  these fibers also are a lot less able to stretch than their nylon equivalents.  And that ability to stretch is what allows our safety system to absorb much of the force that is generated in a fall.  So if you were to take a 2 meter fall in a dynamic system, where much of the force generated is transfered into the stretch of some of the materials, then the end result is you healthy and whole.  That same fall in a static system will have no absorbtion of the forces generated, causing the force to break equipment and the climber, sometimes both with catastrophic consequences.

DMM's video of their tests can be viewed here.
And a short article about it, with the same test results can be read here.

Does this mean that Dyneema has become more dangerous?  Hardly.  This is simply one more piece of data that only adds to a body of work collected over the last couple of years.  Dyneema is less static, less durable, less heavy, and less bulky.  That doesn't mean its innappropriate for its application.  What is does mean is that more responsibility is on the climber to think about what they're doing, and rely less upon the "recipe" taught to them by their climbing club, gym, or best friend.

What is shows is what we all know - that the rope is the single best and biggest piece of equipment in the system.  A dynamic rope absorbs the lion's share of impact forces in any scenario, making it the key piece in any factor 2, 1, or 0.1 fall.  That's why carabiners and slings are required by CE to meet 22kN, but protection is not.  And this re-inforces my personal opinion that using the rope to tie into the anchor is not only the most efficient method, but also the safest.

On other plus sides, if you carry your shoulder-length slings tripled up, as I do, then you'll quickly discover that Dyneema slings outperform Nylon slings in the bulk category by 3:1.  I typically carry 8-12 shoulder-length slings on any gear route, and two more double-length slings on alpine routes.  If I'm cragging or day-tripping, I'll often replace those two double-length Dyneema slings with Nylon equivalents, because I think they're more likely to run over edges at anchors or be used for personal anchors during rappels.

On other negative sides, Dyneema slings appear to be more susceptible to UV radiation, aka sunlight, becoming brittle and loosing strength at a much higher rate than nylon.  In animated objects this is called aging - it happens to everything.  So if all things are equal, then Dyneema slings need to be replaced more often than their nylon counterparts.  Following the example of an AMGA Examiner and mentor, I replace mine annually out of prudence.

And finally, this isn't an absolute.  All Dyneema slings are actaully a nylon/dyneema weave, since Dyneema can't be colored.  So every manufacturer has a different blend combination, resulting in wider and narrower material.  Don't like the ultra-skinny Mammut slings?  Then go for the uber-wide Metolius (this is relative, they're still narrower than nylon) or the middle-of-the-road Black Diamond - my personal choice.

Spring Skiing Considerations

Spring conditions last week.

Its spring here in the Sierra Nevada. Truckee and Tahoe City are melting out. The corn season is in full swing at all elevations, and a lot of people are talking about going out-of-bounds for the first time in their lives. They perceive springtime as the "safe-time" to ski beyond the ski area. After all, if there's no new snow, then there's no danger, right?

Not exactly.

Last week I went out on a fun run of Outer Outer Limits with some friends. We were ready for what was least likely: we had avalanche beacons, probes, and shovels. But only one of us - me - had anything more (like a first aid kit). And that - I have to admit - was because I was still packed from my AMGA Ski Mountain Guide Course that I've been writing about.

Our greatest hazard? That someone was going to hit a tree or wrench a knee in the breakable crust we found in places on the way down to the road.

On the chairlift, people see my randonee bindings and start asking for directions, wanting to "check it out" for themselves on that run, with nothing more than their boards and a cell phone.  On a local online forum, one poster said he planned on "following the tracks out and figuring it out as we go."

Please think again. Dead-cell zones are common in the mountains.  Often you have to be on a ridge or summit to get any signal at all, an unlikely scenario in most avalanches or accidents.  It really sucks to discover this for yourself when you pull out your phone to call 911. If you're skiing the "slackcountry" or "sidecountry" of a ski area, it is still the backcountry.  Ski patrols are not obligated to provide assistance, and even have the right to refuse assistance if they are too occupied within the ski area. Regardless, I can tell you that it will be at least one hour before anyone will reach you. If someone is badly injured and laying in the snow for that entire period of time, the shock from the trauma and exposure to the environment alone could make what would be a routine evacuation inside a ski area into a major, major emergency.

Please consider having the following with you:

1.  A SMALL first aid kit. Just enough to patch up one hole in one person. I carry the Ultralight 0.3 from Adventure Medical Kits for just these kind of days. I also add a small roll of duct tape (also for sale from Adventure Medical), 5 long plastic ski straps (like these from Brooks Range Mountaineering), and 18' of 6mm cord.

left / 24" plastic ski straps / photo brooks-range.com

right / a truly minimal medical kit / photo adventuremedicalkits.com

2.  Avalanche equipment. Yeah, it's spring. Yeah, it's unlikely. You're more likely to get knocked over by a pinwheel, or washed over a cliff, then get buried. Still, a shovel is an invaluable tool. Your avalanche probe, doubled or tripled up, can be used for splinting material.  Just a few weeks ago in Colorado an experienced mountain guide was buried and killed in a surprise early climax event as she toured across the deposition zone of a clear avalanche path. So it really can happen.

3.  A partner. Sometimes its fun to ski by yourself. I do it quite often. No, my mom does not aprove of it, but PG tolerates it, even when I fall into a lake.  But one of this winter's highlights was skiing every Thursday with my friend Sander.  I think you should consider inviting someone - or someones - to join you if:

1. you're going out to ski advanced terrain, or
2. you're going to new terrain you're not familiar with, or
3. you're going someplace where evacuating will be problematic or impossible to do if anything (equipment or human) breaks. 

Its a Good Thing When Your Ski Leashes Do This:

Leash failure - at some point, I want my leashes to break.

Ski leashes save weight by eliminating brakes, but they also turn one's boards into two 1.75-meter torture devices that will beat their rider to pieces in a big fall.  Anyone else remember the ski straps back in the day before brakes?  It feels just like that.  In the backcountry, a ski leash will also turn your skis into big anchors if you ever get caught in a slide, dragging you down when all you can hope for is to end up on top.

A solution?  I make sure one component of my leashes - the clips - will fail at a certain load.  They're strong enough to hold the skis, but weak enough to blow apart.  This means I might loose my ski in a big fall, and I will loose my ski if I'm caught in a slide, but that's a small price to pay when weighed against the trauma they could cause by being still attached to me.

In past year's I've salvaged clips from old telemark leashes, but I've run out and had to look for alternatives.  This year I'm experiementing with S-Biners from NiteIze Innovation.  I first tried out the #0, but they proved to be too small to work with gloves.  I've settled on the #2 - big enough for gloved fingers, light enough to not notice, and rated to 10lbs.  That's plenty strong enough for my boards.  They cost $1.59 from my local hardware store.

So that photo above?  That's what happened on the 30th, after a day of great powder with four teenage rippers, making the upteenth turn down Art's Knob at Mach 1.  My tips suddenly plowed into a hidden compression, launching me into a double tomahawk.  My right ski stayed on, but the left was launched and released.  Exactly what I wanted.

Ski Leashes

Dynafit bindings are arguably the greatest strength/weight randonee binding on the market.  But ski areas require some sort of braking or restraining device on skis.  You can get Dynafits with ski brakes, but the weight penalty climbs quickly and if weight savings isn't a priority, then you may as well be going with a Maker Duke or Jester binding instead.  You could, of course, use those big calf-manacle straps that come with the bindings, but there is a much more elegant solution: a skie leash.

Step 1:  Most randonee boots don't have the d-ring for leashes like a telemark boot does, so something has to be manufactured.  One of these days I'm simply going to add a D-ring under one of my buckles, but until then I simply add a loop of cord at the bottom of the tongue of my boot.  Note:  I have no idea what I would do without a boot tongue for this step.

Step 2:  A leash needs to be added to the binding.  I use the hole conveniently located just aft of the toe-piece lever, with a simple double overhand to tie the binding into one loop, and a second double overhand on the other end to connect it to the boot.

Step 3:  Some sort of clip needs to connect the leash to the boot loop.  It needs to be easy to work with gloves on.  The expensive solution is to purchase a pair of telemark leashes, cut off the leash cable, and use the clip - but metal clips tend to become annoying taps as you travel up hill.  G3's plastic telemark leashes might be the ticket, but you'd need to shorten the leashes and I don't have a swager.  Since I blew out all the old-school lite-weight metal telemark leash clips I had, this year I looked for something new, preferably plastic.  These S-carabiners seem to be good contenders, but the #0 was too small to work with, so I'm using the #2 size instead.

In the end, I want my randonee ski leashes to accomplish several goals:

1. I want them to fail whenever the force on the released ski becomes to great, whether that's from a spectacular fall or getting caught in an avie.
2. I don't want them to fail when I have a minor wreck in-bounds or when I drop into a crevasse.  Leashes can also keep the ski secure when you're forced to step off or mount up on steep terrain.

These S-clips are only rated to 10lbs, so we'll see.  I'm supposed to go out for a ski Christmas day!

20090424 Gear Review: Gregory Drift

Late last fall I started trading emails with some design friends over at Gregory packs about my ideal "sidecountry" pack.  I was looking for a pack that:

• was slim enough to manage on a chair lift;
• had two compartments - one for the shovel/probe/skins/avie science gear, another compartment for personal gear;
• a small pocket on the hip for glide wax, skin wax, scraper and diamond file;
• cross-draw straps for skis - faster than an a-frame system, and it leaves the compartments accessible.

Near Thanksgiving a package arrived on my doorstep - a brand-spanking new Gregory Drift.  This pack had everything I had asked for, so I've spent the winter taking it through its paces.  Here's what I found.


Size
Advertised to be 1300 cubic inches / 20 Liters, this pack is the ideal day tour size.  Providing you don't need technical gear or a lot of extra layers.  Typically mine held 1L of water or thermos, lunch, a down jacket, and a notebook in addition to my avie rescue and science gear.  It handled that much fine.

Compartments
The Drift has two compartments - a main and a sleightly smaller "shovel".  The main compartment had a "camelback" and two "pole" sleeves.  The shovel compartment had drain grommets, a small "wallet & keys" zippered pocket, and again two long pole sleeves.
Ideally, I was hoping that my shovel, probe, shovel handle, saw, beacon, and avie science stuff could live in the shovel compartment.  That way when I'm getting ready for a day out all I needed to do was open the main compartment to pack a layer, lunch, and liquids.  It would also mean that everything that can get snowy/wet would stay away from everything I want to stay dry - wet skins would fit in the shovel compartment too.
The shovel compartment on the Drift wasn't tall enough to fit my shovel handle, probe, or saw - the saw barely fit in the main compartment.  So my ideas about packing tended to be a bit haphazard.

shovel compartment / the pole sleeves and zippered pocket are 

visible / i tried several different packing systems / ended up 

keeping the shovel handle in the main compartment with the probe

Pockets
The Drift had three zippered pockets:  on the left hip, the left outside, and inside the shovel compartment.  These were great - I was able to keep a bit of skin wax, glide wax, a scraper and a diamond file in the hip pocket; sunscreen and headlamp in the side pocket; and keys and wallet in the shovel compartment pocket.  I only wished that the shovel compartment pocket was big enough for an 5.5"x8.5" Rite-In-The-Rain notebook, and that another zippered pocket existed in the main compartment for keys and wallet.

 

small pocket on left hip / gear loop on right hip

 

 

the side pocket was perfect for headlamp

and sunscreen / items you don't always need

but hate to go digging for when you do

Straps
One thing the Drift gets an 5-star review for is the number of straps:  just enough.  There are two straps for a snowboard, two straps for compression, and two straps for a cross-drawed pair of skis.  The upper snowboard strap conveniently hides in a pair of pockets - a feature I didn't discover until today!

cross-draw ski straps / my preferred system

for small packs

Usage
I've taken this pack out on 13 days this season, from mid-winter to yesterday's spring couloir tour.  Gregrory recomends this pack for loads up to 40 lbs / 18 Kg:  I'd have to recomend it for a little less than that.  Yesterday I hiked for a couple of hours with skis, poles, and boots loaded onto it in addition to the normal kit, and while I handled the load I could certainly see others who may find the hip belt too thin, and loading the shoulders over-much.  While the pack features an insulated hydration sleeve in the left shoulder strap, I never had the chance to try it out.  And yesterday we took ice axes for our tour, but I didn't have anywhere to stow mine.

Conclusions

I'm not complainig - this is a perfect pack for non-technical day touring.  I only wish the shovel compartment was taller and a zippered pocket existed in the main compartment.  So I give this pack 4 1/2 stars - you can find one for yourself at www.gregorypacks.com.