From the category archives:
I loved their clothing (still have a ragged t-shirt), so it’s exciting news that Ropegun is returning. 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 [...]
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Trango is recalling some #5 Big Bros because approximately 100 of the devices manufactured March through October 2008 have improperly aligned inner tubes. 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. [...]
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Months ago, I wrote how I thought it would be beneficial for the entire climbing community to read more gear reviews on the web. I’ve started to see many more since then and it’s a great trend. In the spirit of encouraging even more gear reviews, I decided to compile some of the recent ones [...]
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If you have your own home climbing wall or run a climbing gym, you should definitely take a look at the Climbing Hold Review blog. 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 [...]
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Following up on their climbing shoe rubber friction test, Spadout has recently released a belay device friction test. While highly unscientific not rigorous, this is at least a nice starting point for an objective debate over which tube-style belay device is best (they did not test auto-blocking devices). Their overriding view on the tests were: [...]
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Mark Silliman, founder of Spadout, provided me the following feedback on the climbing shoe rubber study I recently posted: 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 [...]
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Most climbers have a preference for climbing shoe rubber and love to argue about which is the best. Spadout sponsored a test of nine popular climbing shoe rubbers and published the results. The surprising winner was the Evolv Trax XT-5. There is one big issue I’d like to point out in this study. The test [...]
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The GearFlogger reviews an insanely useful accessory for climbing gear. The Mark epoxy from Boulder Based Designs is 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 [...]
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I’ve been looking for a new climbing shoe for a while that was either a velcro or a slipper for mostly quick on/off while bouldering. I currently climb with La Sportiva Miura’s for just about all routes and I absolutely love them. They have the best fit and performance of any climbing show I’ve worn. [...]
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With the recent Nalgene and BPA bottle scare, I decided to start replacing my collection of water bottles. To be honest, I hadn’t looked at bottles for a while. I like the standard lexan Nalgene wide-mouth bottles, so I just kept buying them when needed without even really looking at other options. I also know [...]
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Omega Pacific recently released a notice instructing owners of their Link Cams to look for a potential defect: In May 2008, we became aware of situations in which axle nuts were not properly and permanently fixed on the axle assemblies permitting the cams to potentially become disassembled. Upon receiving the units, our Quality Assurance department [...]
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SplitterChoss.com posts a nice review of the Black Diamond Icon. Apparently, this headlamp can last for 90 hours on one charge. This is one thing I wish more climbing blogs did – write good reviews of climbing gear. Unlike books or electronics where you can quickly go to Amazon.com and find many reviews, we really [...]
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