The GSI Outdoors Fairshare Mug has been a staple of back-country enthusiasts for over a decade. Basically a measuring cup with a screw on lid, it’s a favourite of alpinists, backpackers, climbers, skiers, etc. The reason: It works! It’s the perfect size to dupe an unsuspecting cook into giving you an extra scoop of grub, it’s easy to clean and it’s very multi-functional working as … Continue reading Review: GSI FairShare Mug II
La Sportiva came out with a new line of technical approach shoes this past spring and the lightest of this new trio, the TX2, caught my eye and begged to be looked at in detail. This new shoe was designed to be lightweight and packable with a sticky sole. A great combination of features for a place like Squamish. When first testing them out I was blown … Continue reading La Sportiva TX2 Approach Shoe Review
Squamish, located at the head of Howe Sound, is home to world class rock climbing on granite cliffs that seem to poke right out of the ocean amidst a thick forest of lush, towering trees. It is also home to the annual Arc’teryx Climbing Academy. Organized and run by Arc’teryx, the event will take place July 20-23, 2017. The line-up looks fantastic! Educational seminars and clinics … Continue reading Arc’teryx Climbing Academy 2017
The dark art of piton craft has faded into obscurity for the vast majority of climbers. Because of the propensity to damage and alter the rock when driving a piton, forward thinking climbers started a movement in the 1970’s away from such destructive forms of protection and towards “clean” alternatives. This has evolved to the point where today it’s unthinkable to approach any popular crag … Continue reading Light Piton Hammer Review
Mammut’s innovative new helmet, the Wall Rider, features an Expanded polypropylene (EPP) foam body with a smallpolycarbonate cap on the top. This hybrid of exposed foam and hard-shell blends the features of two different helmet designs: the traditional lightweight in-mold helmet design and the super-light exposed foam design of the Sirocco (Petzl is upgrading the Sirocco with a similar composite design but I haven’t gotten my … Continue reading Mammut Wall Rider Helmet Review
When making the step from single to multi-pitch rock climbing you no longer have access to all the kit at the base of the climb. This means that you have decide what’s important enough to haul up the wall and what can be left behind. Below I provide an outline of the technical gear that I typically carry with me into the vertical world. I … Continue reading Essential Gear for Multi-Pitch Rock Climbing
With summer fast approaching I’ve started planning for my annual trip into the Bugaboos, an area renown for towering alpine granite spires in the Purcell Mountains of Southeastern BC, which got me to thinking of my last trip. This past summer I camped at the Applebee Dome campground for a few weeks, a favorite of climbers visiting the area, and met a lot of great … Continue reading Bugaboo Essentials
Exped is known for making some of the best sleeping mats available anywhere. However, like many people I’ve only every tried their down fill mats, never a synthetic fill. To find out how their synthetic mats perform we decided to test out the SynMat Hyperlite. This tapered, 3-season mat is sold as the lightest mat for its warmth which I take to mean that it’s … Continue reading Exped Synmat Hyperlite Review
Like many back-country enthusiasts I do a lot of camping to facilitate my addictions to skiing, climbing and alpinism. This can involve easy car camping where I drive right up to the camping spot (Indian Creek, Red Rocks, Yosemite, etc.) to locations where I take a helicopter or plane into a camping area (Tantalus, St. Elias, Ruth, etc.) to where I actually need to hump … Continue reading Helinox Chair One
While camping spoons may not be as sexy as new ice tools or cams it’s still nice to have a well thought out and functional food delivery apparatus when you’re in the backcountry! So when I saw the new GSI Outdoors Essential Spoon (long version) at the Outdoor Retailer show last summer I was intrigued. Needless to say, when it hit store shelves I grabbed one to … Continue reading Quick Look: GSI Outdoors Essential Spoon
