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Feathered Friends Ptarmigan Sleeping Bag
Some people say you shouldn't kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Well I say screw them. They obviously haven't frozen their ass off on top of some godforsaken mountain in Lesser Trashcanistan. I say kill the damn goose and make a sleeping bag out of it. Feathered Friends is a Seattle-based company dedicated […]
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Black Diamond Raven Pro ice axe
Black Diamond knows axes, and they know not to mess with what works. The Raven lineup has expanded to four: the Raven, Raven Pro (lighter), Raven Ultra (lightest) and Raven with grip. The updated Raven Pro gets a little work done to improve an already stellar design, but don't worry, they haven't ruined a classic like […]
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Denali Climbing Weather Forecast Now Up
The first summit of the season came early this year, with two climbers succeeding via the technical Cassin Ridge route and enduring a white-sphincter descent that saw their tent shredded by high winds at 19,000 feet. Preparation, judgment, technique and gear are all necessary components of your safe ascent and descent, start by checking out […]
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Black Diamond Camalot Ultralight Cams
We love us the shiny-shiny, and it's hard to beat the look, feel and sound of new climbing hardware. Black Diamond knows of our addiction and feeds the habit with their Ultralight Camalots, improving on the standard version in all areas except, alas, cost. Regular Camalots are still available, and in a slightly greater range […]
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Leatherman Skeletool Multitool
Some marketing exec at Leatherman is sitting around one Saturday morning, probably stoned, watching Masters of the Universe and eating a third El Capitan-sized bowl of Crunchberries. Because stoned, because Colorado because legal now. "Skeletor," s/he thinks after watching the evil villain be defeated by yet another dumb do-gooder trick, "is a Skeletool!" Hmm, s/he […]
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Black Diamond Magnetron VaporLock Locking Carabiner
Carabiners are the glue that holds the climbing world together, and you can never really have enough of them in your kit. Black Diamond has always made stellar biners, and with the introduction of their Magnetron technology – available in the VaporLock, RockLock and GridLock models – one-handed locking and unlocking has never been easier. […]
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Black Diamond Vapor helmet
6.6 is the number of the beast. Sure, we dropped a six, but how else to explain the weight in ounces of the new Black Diamond Vapor brain bucket? Clearly someone sold their soul to make this puppy. The Vapor features an EPS foam liner molded into a polycarbonate shell. You'd expect a featherweight helmet […]
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Ortovox Kodiak shovel
Spring skiing is still going strong, big mountain adventures are just starting, and all that means being prepared for snow camping and avalanche country. Ortovox knows backcountry safety as good as anyone out there. Perhaps best known for their avalanche transceivers, they also make some great shovels, backpacks and other accessories. We recently fell in lust […]
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Mountain Hardwear South Col 70 OutDry Pack
Choosing a big mountain pack is always a nail-biting experience. It has to be big enough, but not an ounce bigger. We've all agonized over the threshold: is it big enough? Is it light enough? Mountain Hardwear gives us some respite with the South Col 70 OutDry, a pack that's just big enough. The South […]
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La Sportiva Olympus Mons Boot
It's not true that mountaineers have to take off their boots to count to ten. OK, maybe sometimes it's true. If you want absolute certainty that all your little piggies will be there to count on you need to go big with a true 8,000 meter boot, and La Sportiva's Olympus Mons is the state […]
