Kolin Powick from Black Diamond posted another excellent gear testing article, this time on the different methods of extending slings on cam placements. He illustrates the three common methods he uses (same as mine) and then examines a sling-on-sling approach he thought was dicey.

The sling-on-sling method of extending a cam sling does save the use of a biner but in my opinion is cumbersome for both the leader and the second. It also appears to reduce the ultimate strength of the system, however, in most cases not so much as to be the weakest link in a real-world climbing situation.

New S10 Black Diamond Products – TetonAT.com

Five Ten’s Prisms – The Mountain World

DMM Dragon Cams – UKclimbing.com

La Sportiva Exum Pro – Colorado Mountain School

Arc’Teryx Alpha LT jacket and the CAMP USA Alp 95 harness – GearFlogger

Chaco Pro Series Sandals – Trailspace.com

New dual axel cam from DMM – Carabiner development blog

New Petzl Tikka and Zipka headlamps – trailrunningSoul.com

If you’ve seen any good climbing gear reviews recently, please link them in the comments.

GearFlogger looks at pro reviewing the DMM Wallnuts and also reviews the Arc’Teryx Dually belay parka.

Cupcake Mafia reviews the PrAna Natural Sticky Mat for yoga and the Petzl Bug Bag. That Bug Bag intrigues me.

The Adventure Blog reviews the REI Traverse Pack. I just bought one of these to use as my main laptop bag.

Sicky Gnar Gnar looks at the Five Ten Projects, while ClimbingNarc reviews The Players DVD.

SplitterChoss reviews the Black Diamond LiveWire quickdraw and the Petzl Fuse 9.4mm rope.

The Mad Rock Con-Flicts (and especially their rubber) was reviewed by straight outta bedlam.

reel deep snow looks at the Five Ten Freerunner

More trad gear as the RockClimberGirl reviews the Black Diamond Camalot C3.

Colorado Mountain School discusses the Sterling Ion 9.5mm rope and the Black Diamond RPM pack.

It Came from the Garage reviews the Mammut Champ Pants.

And finally, RockClimbing.com reviews the Five Ten Projects.

With the next installment of the gear review roundup, I’ll be changing the format a little to make them easier to scan and read.

- incorrectly using a standard belay device as an autoblock device
- using multiple biners as the “brake bar” in order to make taking in rope easier

Regarding the multiple carabiner test, they found that using two biners increases the amount of force required to take rope in and increases the amount of holding force.

Check out the post for the full results.

(via @BlackDiamondUSA)

As climbers, we suffer from numerous injuries. One of the more common climber injuries is medial epicondylitis or golfers elbow. Essentially this is pain on the inside of your elbow and it originates from overuse of the flexor muscles. All our gripping without exercising the opposing muscle groups is usually the culprit for climbers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been suffering from this condition for months now. I’ve been seeing a sports medicine doctor and slowly my severe pain has reduced. When I started rehab, my pain was about an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. After about three months of daily ice baths and exercises to strengthening opposing muscle groups (including a couple initial weeks of ultrasound), I was finally down in the 4 out 10 pain range.

So when I was contacted by the inventor of a device called Armaid, I was initially quite skeptical. First, if there was some device that would help, why didn’t my doctor or any literature mention it? Is this really going to help me and how long will it take? But since I really had nothing to lose at this point, I decided to try it out. The company saw a few of its customers were climbers and was interested to see what the reaction from the climbing community would be for this device. My goal was to test it out using my own pain and injuries as a guinea pig and provide some critical feedback to Armaid.

Amazingly, I felt pain relief from the Armaid device immediately. And before getting into details about Armaid, let me give you a quick summary. I’ve been using the device daily for about 2 – 3 minutes each on each forearm and my pain level has dropped at least another full notch on my pain scale after only a couple weeks.

Details of the Armaid Device

Armaid costs $99.95 and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. Initially I thought was that this was a high price for an unproven device for notoriously cheap climbers. But after using Armaid and finding it actually works, I changed my mind about the pricing. Let’s assume you have medical insurance. For the price of about two co-pay sessions with a doctor or massage therapist, you’ve paid for Armaid. Comparing the cost of Armaid to all the other medical treatment I have received in the past for climbing related injuries, a hundred dollars is a steal.

The Armaid device works by relaxing and releasing tight muscle tissue by massaging and stretching muscles in the arm. It comes with a detailed DVD with instructional videos as you must use the device in a specific manner to achieve results.

The Armaid appears to be constructed well. The apparatus is made of a sturdy plastic mounted on a swivel that allows for moving to a variety of angles. There are different stiffnesses of the therapy balls that actually run over your forearms to adjust the level of pressure.

Another small climber-related complaint I had was the size of the device. Armaid is rather large (about 16″ long), but to mechanically achieve its mission I realize it pretty much has to be that way. My initial opinion (before testing it) was that climbers may not want to take it on our frequent road trips. After using it, I realize that if you have chronic pain like I do, you’re not going to care about the size and you’ll throw it in the car. It’s really not that big, but you can see for yourself in one of Armaid’s demo videos. It also weighs just over a pound so it’s not too heavy.

I haven’t seen much discussion of this device elsewhere, despite it usefulness. I did see a brief recommendation in Clyde Soles’ training book, but other than that the Armaid appears to be quite unknown to climbers.

My next obvious question was what is this company all about? Who are they and why should I trust them with my health?

Armaid’s Founder

I had several conversations with the founder of Armaid, Terry Cross, and asked him some very pointed questions that I knew climbers would be interested in learning before committing to this product.

Terry is a former sports injury and occupational injury therapist and I asked him how he came up with the idea for Armaid:

“I would see sometimes as many as ten clients a day and over time I began to develop repetitive strain (tendinitis) in my arms and hands. I began to do more self massage to maintain my own level of strength and fitness. This worked for a while by using my free hand to massage the other arm but this method often aggravated my problems and after trying several different products I felt there was not a good massage tool available for specifically helping the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. I tried many different prototypes and designs until I came up with the idea of using a lever (as in the mechanical advantage of a nutcracker) to easily amplify the pressure on the trigger points (sore areas) without using a lot of strength necessary from the free hand.

There is a particular type of therapy that I used as a hands-on therapist that I use constantly and it is the most efficient method I have ever found to work to relieve tight muscles. I built Armaid to specifically incorporate this therapy technique. To keep it simple, I call it “trigger point therapy” on our website. It is called different names depending if you are talking to an Occupational or Physical Therapist, Rolfing Therapist, Chiropractor, etc. I’ve heard it called Myofacial Release, Client Assisted Release, Active Release etc., but it is always the same technique of maintaining static pressure on a sore spot and then stretching the muscle under that pressure (see the “two therapies” video on our website). This releases the muscle fiber much more quickly and efficiently than cross-fiber technique or mere stroking (effluerage). It also has the added benefit of letting the sufferer discover which muscles and which range of motion is the culprit in their problem.”

And on who is using Armaid and why climbers should think about using it:

“Disgruntled sufferers that have had the surgeries, taken the drugs, been upset with unending appointments with expensive therapy sessions and still not happy and are looking for something that they can do for themselves. They hear about Armaid mostly through word of mouth or a search online. For the cost of one or two medical or massage sessions they can buy an Armaid and be in charge of their own arm, elbow and hand health.

It must be made clear that Armaid is only useful if the problem is based in the forearm muscles that can create painful problems in the elbow, wrist and hand. The question that I always ask someone who is considering using Armaid is “Do you have sore forearm muscles?” if they say “yes” then I know that Armaid is perfect for them and will deliver relief when used as shown on the videos. Armaid will not be of use if the problem originates solely in the neck or shoulder region with a pinched nerve or injury “upstream” of the arm.

Armaid is not a cure all or a one-time magic bullet. It does give the sufferer a way to relieve their symptoms and to maintain their own hand, arm, elbow health. Armaid use is like brushing your teeth, regular maintenance is best for health because as an athlete you are constantly using your body and muscles and creating tension and metabolic waste products. That is why professional athletes have massages constantly before and after every work out and performance.

Summary

The Armaid is a useful product that can be used to supplement other healthy physical therapy for rehabilitating several conditions climbers experience. If you have chronic pain, the Armaid by itself will not cure you. But an overall change in habits along with this device can be an effective solution to getting back to lower pain levels.

* Special Discount *

Terry also gave me a special discount only for readers of All Climbing. If you mention you saw Armaid on All Climbing, you will receive 15% off your order of the device. Just mention it when ordering online or when calling them.

Disclaimer: It pains me to even write this, but let me reiterate – I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. If you have medical problems, please consult a doctor or other medical professional.

I always find articles and videos on how climbing gear is constructed quite fascinating. A couple months ago I posted a video on how DMM makes carabiners and now Backcountry.com has written an article on Black Diamond‘s process of making carabiners from start to finish.

“Whenever you design something, it starts with a need,” says Bill Belcourt, BD’s Climbing Hardgoods Category Director. The BD carabiner that eventually ends up on a climber’s rack begins as a brainstorming session or a simply sketched idea in the design department. Product designers determine what they want the carabiner to do and look like, and from there, they design computer models. Before they physically make anything, the design team uses FEA (Finite Element Analysis), which helps determine the shapes, angles, and features needed to fulfill the company’s strength requirements.

(via Backcountry.com and @BlackDiamondUSA)

Steve Casimiro of The Adventure Life reviews the Coleman Lantern, the Therm-A-Rest NeoAir, and the Timbuk 2 Doctor’s Bag.

Climbing Narc and Sicky Gnar Gnar have some first impressions on the Five Ten Projects.

Climbing Hold Review examines Jason Kehl’s Cryptochild holds.

A La Sportiva Speedster preview from Joe Kinder.

BJ at Splitter Choss looks at the Black Diamond Chaos harness and the new Indian Creek guidebook.

GearFlogger reviews the Metolius 18mm nylon sling, the DMM Revolver screwgate carabiner, and the Julbo Explorer glacier glasses.

Colorado Mountain School also reviews the Black Diamond Chaos harness.

It’s not the ultimate strength of a rope-worn biner that makes me the most nervous; it’s the risk of cutting a rope. As the biners get grooved or “trenched” from rope wear, a sharp edge begins to form on the sides—and the rope runs directly over it. This edge would seem to be especially dangerous to your rope during a fall, lowering or winching/dogging up. I’ve had several friends whip onto sharp biners with the end result being the “sheathing” (i.e., the sheath gets cut and exposes the core) of the rope and possibly soiling of their shorts.

Check out the article as the results are fascinating.
(via Black Diamond on Twitter)

(via Trailspace)

Between working to set-up the auction and receiving my REI dividend this week I have been thinking a lot about buying gear. As you’ll note from my previous blog, Gear on the Brain, my decision making was based on how much I can get with my coupon and dividend but then I took a step back. I realized I shop at REI because I like supporting their amazing Stewardship Program. So what if I based my brand decisions on something greater? In a time when corporations are cutting their charity budgets how can I show them my support? Easy, show it with my dollars. Buy from organizations that give back.

Ropegun was created in 1999 by a group of rock climbers that wanted to produce simple, hip clothing geared toward rock climbing.  Their creations included skate shorts, board shorts and jeans.Then in 2002, Ropegun was brought to the Bay Area by climbing guru Greg Loh, and Jaime Grant. In 2008, Ropegun moved yet again to a previous Ropegun team member Joe McDaniel and Rey Cruz.  The pair held onto the brand and worked feverishly to put out a new design that would work for the evolving climber, and now in 2009, the time is finally here to release their vision to the public.

Through an error in CNC machining, the inner sleeves on these units are rotated slightly to the side. This rotation causes the ends of the unit to be slightly out of parallel. Although barely noticeable in use, this off center orientation is not to spec and should be corrected. It could cause additional instability in some placements, particularly more parallel-sided cracks.

The defective Big Bros can only be visually inspected as there are no batch markings. To check if your units are among those being recalled, please visit Trango’s website for instructions.

(via Mountain Project)

Online Climbing Coach takes a look at Clyde Soles new book, Training for Peak Performance.

The Colorado Mountain School reviews the La Sportiva Miura VS climbing shoes, the La Sportiva Trango Extreme Evo Light, the Black Diamond C3 Camalot, and the Marmot Ion Windshirt.

Dream in Vertical reviews the women’s Patagonia Plush Pants and a great overall review of several brands and models of climbing ropes.

Rock Climber Girl writes up the Red Chili Corona VCRs.

ClimbingNarc reviews Dosage V and the new climbing iPhone app, Spraycaster.

Koan Bouldering reviews the Five Ten Dragon and the Evolv Optimus Prime climbing shoes.

GetOutdoors examines the Wild Country Elite Syncro Ziplock harness.

Finally, RockClimbing.com has a roundup post of some new gear from the recent Outdoor Retailer show that includes the La Sportiva Speedster shoes, harnesses from Black Diamond, new Edelrid ropes, and the Five Ten Project shoes.

I recently stumbled on this site and was impressed by the depth of each review. Each has a video of their hold testing along with suggested uses for your climbing wall.

They have a great variety of reviews on many brands of holds you don’t often see in your local gyms like Sequence Climbing, Three Ball Climbing, Teknik, Climb It, Atomik, and Project Holds; but also some of the bigger players like Nicros, Metolius, and EntrePrises.

We believe two key factors that distinguish belay devices are the range of friction the device can provide as well as the maximum friction it can achieve. You want low friction when feeding the rope and high friction when locking-off.

The friction study ranks a large group of popular belay devices on a numerical scale based on several criteria in their tests using different diameter ropes.

A locking carabiner was clipped to a bolt and each belay device was attached to the biner. The rope was passed through the belay device. The slack on the “climber” side of the device went around a pulley and was attached to a 50 lbs weight. The weight and the pulley allowed the belay device to feed and settle naturally. The “hand” side of the belay device was attached to a spring scale to measure the force.

The force on the spring scale was recorded. This test was repeated 10 times (resetting the slack on the “hand” side between each test). After doing ten feed tests, the spring scale was moved to the lower lock-off test position and ten more tests were performed.

I was pleased to see that my all-time favorite (and current) belay device, the Trango Jaws, was ranked first in the testing. I’ve tried many belay devices and I’ve always come back to the Jaws. Specifically, I feel the deep V shaped grooves on one side provide high friction and nice fall catching for even the most heavy climbers. Flip it over and the side without the grooves gives you much less friction for easy rappels. Any thoughts on this study? What’s your favorite belay device?

I wouldn’t have touched the climbing rubber test if I wasn’t willing to get criticized. This is a very hot topic. Obviously tests will always only determine how well products do against that individual test. Our goal was to create a simple test that everyone could appreciate and repeat at home (the total cost is < $1k and would be much less if you already had some shoes laying around).

The test is valid for Granite and EGrips holds. Therefore it is responsible for us to publish the results. The additional tests are not to question the results of the earlier test. They are to include more rock / plastic types as well as a few other variables (potentially wetness, temperature, edge holding, etc++).

Now that I’ve said that: We are all for positive and negative feedback. Our goal is to create the #1 gear testing website in 24 months (a huge project and investment on our end but we’re extremely excited about it and have a world class team). Rip our tests to shred. Telling us everything is great doesn’t help us get you a better product. I guarantee we are reading your reader’s feedback and taking it seriously.

Spadout has become what it is today by listening to our reader’s feedback and that won’t change.

There’s also an interesting thread on this study over at SuperTopo.

Finally, Rock & Ice addressed the question of what makes climbing rubber sticky?

There is one big issue I’d like to point out in this study. The test was based on calculating the coefficient of friction between the climbing rubber and the surface. In this study, they only looked at the rubber on granite and on a climbing hold (EGrip’s Peabody Crimp Plate). Each surface type will interact with the climbing rubber differently producing varied coefficients of friction.

In my opinion, looking at only these two surfaces is not enough to declare any rubber superior. I’d like to see the same study performed across many rock surfaces as well as different climbing hold manufacturers. From this new data, a more accurate average could emerge and shine some light on who makes the stickiest climbing shoe rubber.

like a condom for your gear: a prophylactic to prevent that expensive piece from walking away, accidentally or otherwise. Just mix the two ingredients and have about a 30 minute working time to apply to gear. 24 hours later it’s bombproof. literally: there may be some chemical to get it off but there’s no way mechanical friction or impact will do it.

Looks much better than the colored electrical tape I’ve been using for years that keeps falling off.

The Mark comes in four colors, has enough for making 250 marks, and retails for $14.95.