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Mountain Hardwear Men’s Typhoon Jacket: Resilient Repellent

Washington’s mountains experience a summer drought and a winter monsoon. Between these perfect conditions for climbing and skiing, spring and fall bring persistent storms that deposit large quantities of rain or wet snow during shoulder-season outings, leaving me no choice but to pack a hard shell. Generally, mild temperatures cause me to loathe wearing a rain jacket, as sweat inevitably builds up. I pull on my hard shell when I reach the point where I am getting wetter without it than I will be while sweating in it. Get stuck in rain or wet snow on a long climb with no waterproof layer and, as Canadian guide Scott Davis says, “the forecast calls for pain.” That said, there are days where nothing less than waterproof will work. Despite marketing claims, no fabric is both adequately breathable and waterproof. I thus prefer my shell jacket to be light, compressible, totally waterproof, and able to be worn over a soft shell.

THE RISKS OF ADVENTURE SPORTS/PEOPLE

Public attention in these sports generally focuses on tragedies and as such are highly emotive and sensationalized. Dramatic accounts of accidents and hardships often lead to fierce debates on the merits and ethics of these sports.

ALL SHOULD FEAR THE DANGER OF LADDERS. NOT BOLT LADDERS.

Yes, that’s right. Ladders. Now, this may blur the line for a climbing website, but I did find it by googling “climbing”, so I feel moderately vindicated. Following, is my slightly longer rant that will theoretically tie us back to the actual act of climbing mountains or rocks or small rocks or whatever else it is that we do..

EIFFEL TOWER PROTEST CLIMB LEADS TO ARREST

“Mike Robertson (45) of Wareham, Dorset, the deep-water soloist, photographer and recent Banff award-winning author of Deep Water was arrested on Monday whilst climbing the Eiffel Tower in Paris. “Mike was protesting against Total’s – the French oil company, based in Paris – continued involvement in Burma…”

Rab Generator Jacket: Lightweight and Brilliantly Designed

For this past summer’s guiding season, I wanted a jacket light enough that I could carry it along, even if there was the possibility I might not need it. I found that this was a common situation in the Tetons–I would start summit days in shorts, convinced that the conditions would prove comfortable, but inevitably the winds would swirl and the temperatures would plummet to below freezing. So while guiding in the Tetons this summer, the lightly insulated Generator Jacket from Rab proved itself to be a brilliantly designed, key lightweight layer.