Mentor to many aspiring mountain guides, Marc Chauvin once told me, “When you’re out of options, you’re dead.” Now that statement might seem obvious, but he meant it with some wordplay: perspective often has an influence on the options you see.
While the basic anatomy of a pack hasn’t evolved much since the hand-sewn rucksacks of Norman Clyde, a thoughtfully designed pack can be a major help to a day in the mountains. There’s a fine line, however, between a smooth design and gimmicks.
Mary Williams considers climbing approaches and descents at Rocky Mountain National Park a necessary evil. For improved traction, she wears micro spikes to cross icy terrain. “I have used [them] with light hiking boots, my ice-climbing boots, running shoes, and even a few times over my ski boots,” she writes.
Alpinists know that a tool capable of performing well in a variety of mediums and serving a variety of tasks is, indeed, quite pleasing. All the time. The Petzl Sum’Tec tools go a long way toward accomplishing that.
I have spent the last year and a half plugging the Heliums into cracks throughout the Western US, including the North Cascades, Smith Rocks, Red Rock, Lover’s Leap, Yosemite and a few other areas. While they have a design common among high-quality cams, they were trickier to place and to clean because of their stem length and, in the case of the larger sizes, trigger placement.
In all, the Club’s new publications database will serve as a magnificent improvement over its finicky and frustrating predecessor (though there are still a few deficiencies to navigate). Users will find more of what they’re looking for, and less of what they’re not–presented in clean, readable format.
While the design looks too strange to be functional, and the price tag steep, I have to admit the performance of this odd shape signals a notable advance in ice axe technology.
Every climber has a different torso length, forearm length, wrist flexibility, posture and middle school softball trauma; everyone’s swing is different. Consequently, the swing of this tool will feel good to some and not to others. The Nomic climbs beautifully for me. It is one of the very few pieces of equipment that actually increases my ability level dramatically, rather than simply making me look the part.
Geography is a big determinant of destiny. So it’s only logical that Italy, a mountainous and boot-shaped country, would be home to many of the companies producing high-end footwear for our alpine endeavors. The nation with a centuries-old heritage of crafting fashionable and functional shoes is home to brands including La Sportiva, Scarpa, Kayland and the makers of my recently worn ice boots, Asolo.
