There’s a wide range of alpine ice axes or piolets on the market and it can seem confusing or intimidating when trying to choose one. However, when it comes to a versatile alpine climbing and mountaineering tool the Petzl Sum’tec has no rival. If you’re in the market for a great tool for summer mountaineering and alpinism this is it! Features: Options*: 52cm Hammer 52cm … Continue reading Review: Petzl Sum’tec
New to the climbing shoe scene, the Korean company Butora (BOO-TORE-AH) has come out with some great shoes and a unique fitting ideology that is sure to please climbers with hard-to-fit feet. While it would be fun to test the entire line-up we have to start somewhere and so chose the Butora Altura, a laced high-top like the TC Pro, to get us started. Features: High-top … Continue reading Review: Butora Altura Rock Shoe
Exceptionally light and compact, Evolv’s Cruzer Psyche is the way to go when you expect to spend most of the day with your approach shoes in the pack or clipped to your harness. This of course means that they excel on multi-pitch climbs that require a walk-off but they’re also good for the crag and I even as a hut bootie. So what’s the downside with these … Continue reading Review: Evolve Cruzer Psyche Approach Shoe
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
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
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
The Tycane line of sunglasses by Adidas Eyewear have been specifically designed for climbing, skiing and mountaineering as well as for watersports. And while not necessarily a household name in eyewear, Adidas boasts a wide range of high quality, sport-specific and casual sunglasses with top notch optics. If you’re looking for a pair of glasses that will work for ski touring, climbing, glacier travel, mountaineering, … Continue reading Review: Adidas Tycane Pro Outdoor Sunglasses
Osprey has the reputation for making extremely comfortable packs and the redesigned Mutant 38 doesn’t disappoint. This spacious 38L top loader fits like a glove, making it easy to forget how much heavy gear’s in it. It’s also a very well thought out and versatile pack with features for just about any alpine mission. While it’s not perfect, the Mutant’s a fantastic tool for the … Continue reading Long Term Review: Osprey Mutant 38 Pack
A good knife is an essential tool for all types of climbing. It’s used for cleaning manky tat off at a rap anchor, cutting cord for a v-thread, removing tape gloves, cutting a stuck rope out of a crack, slicing up a crag apple or cheese and much more. Despite the obvious importance of a knife in climbing it doesn’t seem to get discussed much … Continue reading Climbing Knife Comparison Review
Last year Petzl released the RAD (Rescue And Decent) system which is basically a lightweight rope kit. The idea is that skiers and mountaineers can take it with them into mountains to deal potential issues such as rappelling cliff bands, undertaking crevasse or cliff rescue and for roping up when crossing glaciers. While light-weight kits of this nature have been available to Guides for some time Petzl … Continue reading Petzl RAD Kit Review
