Tendon Orbix: helmet review
Well, how much can one talk about a “lid” without sounding silly… Not much, I can assure you. However, what I discovered, is that it is inversely proportional to the amount of time one spends choosing a good one. I started climbing in a time and culture where helmets were used only for motorbiking and were slowly transitioning from the road to the rock. The major impact I noticed then was an acute stiffening and possible long term strengthening of the neck muscles so I promptly gave up on wearing a helmet. Lucky there was, at the time, no other major impact… I got converted again, in the late ’90s, to the plastic bowl with a brim. It was much lighter and still ugly as hell. What I remember most about my helmet then was the habit in vogue at the time to stash in the mesh the survival blanket and a dry pack…
Solar power: GoalZero gear 2014 – 2016
Two years ago GoalZero expanded its ambassador’s programme to the East and I was presented by Absolut Explorer with a nice selection of gear to use and abuse. Up until then I either assumed that expeditions will mean long periods of disconnect or that at best an eclectic combination of devices and solutions (not all of them compatible) will manage somehow to keep alive a phone or an e-book Reader while camped in a tent up on a mountain. Partnering up with GoalZero changed that dramatically. In 2010 it was the first time I used, on an expedition in Alaska, a solar panel with a battery. The aim was to power up a sat-phone and a PDA so I can communicate back to Romania. A fairly light setup, it was also light on offering… Car lighter connectivity and low output battery it meant that I could charge only one device at a…
Tendon Master 7.8 half rope
Tendon Master 7.8 half rope – a somewhat long winded rope review – Disclaimer: I am brand ambassador for Tendon ropes. However, in relation to all equipment sponsors I had or have, I have never endorsed to guided clients, friends or in articles a product I would have not paid full retail price for. Ropes: every climbers has an opinion on them, has favourites and good and bad stories. However, funny enough, a lot of discussion on ropes nowadays is carried on purely on specs. The other day, on a climbing forum, a beginner climber was asking a simple yet very complicated question: “I’d like to buy a rope and I have narrowed down my choice to two models from two brands. I’ll be using the rope mainly for…. What do you suggest I should choose?” The answers poured from several posters but, of course, as on…
Rope-care: washing the rope.
Whether I have received it or paid for it full retail price I like to take care of my gear. It’s not only a show of respect for the trade’s tool but also a common-sense thing to do. A waterproof jacket thrown in the booth of the car and forgotten under wrenches for ages is anything but waterproof when you need-it, a rope trampled on and turned into a bird’s nest has a very short life-span if you value your own, some smelly climbing shoes dumped at the bottom of the backpack and used for seasons at end will guarantee you a room under the stars on grounds on personal hygiene. The list can go on but surely you got the point. I know quite a lot of people who after purchasing a new rope scream murder if a leaf ends up on it at the crag but after one…
Tendon Master 8.9 Rope (Review)
Tendon Master 8.9 – Rope review The specs tell by themselves a story but an incomplete one by far: At 8.9mm diameter and weighting 52g/m, the Tendon Master 8.9 is rated as single rope (it can be used by itself including on bolted / sport routes), as half rope (for example on trad or alpine routes together with a half rope) and as a twin rope (together with another twin rope on water-ice climbs for example). Nevertheless I do not believe that the option of using it as a twin rope bears any practical purpose in this case as for the given scenario I’d rather carry a 6mm tag-line in my backpack. Nevertheless, what the climber not too fussed with genuine statistics or gear factoids can learn from these are a few basic points: it’s light, it’s strong, it’s stretchy. In other words that means: it’s easy to carry,…
Enjoying Odin (Review)
I hate cold! I love alpine climbing! Quite hard to reconcile the two and quite a lot of misery to have been through to do what I love. That until recently… Everything about going to climb in Alaska sounded exciting and fascinating. Everything in pictures looked cool and inviting. Everything but the dreadful ‘it’ll be cold as hell’ (well, if hell would be in reverse, but you get the point….). Arriving at home in two big boxes an Odin sleeping bag, a Sirius jacket, booties and mitts put a massive smile on my face. The warm sunrays of a beautiful spring day looked like the best omen. The Odin began its business as soon as ten days after being born, and it was a busy month. For thirty straight days it lay, literally, in between the cold and me. The bag weighs 1836g and packs incredibly small. Changing the original…