Blog Roll

Black Diamond is at it again, here comes the Magnetron!

2011-07-12T22:36:00.001-07:00

Check out Black Diamond's new locking carabiner technology that utilizes magnets to achieve the carabiners locking ability. I will find out more at the Summer Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City Utah August 3-7 2011.

Magnetron Video

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One Climber Rescued, One Dies On Mt. McKinley

2011-05-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

[As reported by the National Park Service]
Friday, May 13, 2011

INCIDENTS
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Denali National Park & Preserve (AK)

One Climber Rescued, One Dies On Mt. McKinley
Park rescue personnel were able to save the life of an injured climber at 19,500 feet on Mt. McKinley the night of Thursday, May 12th, but a teammate from the same guided expedition was found dead at 18,000 feet. The guided client rescued from 19,500 feet had broken a leg when the four-person rope team fell near the summit ridge very late on Wednesday or early on Thursday. After the fall, the team's guide secured the injured climber in a bivy sack at the `Football Field' while the other two clients descended. By morning, the guide and one of the two uninjured clients had separately descended to the 17,200-foot high camp, where they were treated by another team for frostbite to the hands and feet. The third client never returned to high camp. At the request of the National Park Service, the 176th Wing of the Alaska Air National Guard launched an HC-130 aircraft from the 211th Rescue Squadron on Thursday morning in an effort to spot the injured and missing climbers. Pararescuemen from the 212th Rescue Squadron on board the HC-130 spotted the client with the broken leg at 19,500 feet, though they were unable to definitively verify the location of the other client. Winds gusted to 70 mph throughout the day on Thursday, and the park's high altitude A-Star B3 helicopter was unable to safely fly above 14,200 feet. The winds subsided by 5 p.m., though, and both the HC-130 aircraft and the NPS helicopter were able to make a reconnaissance flight up high on the mountain. The helicopter pilot and an NPS ranger verified the location and status of the injured climber at 19,500 feet, and for the first time rescue personnel were able to confirm the location of the second climber above 18,000 feet. With a rescue basket secured to the end of a 125-foot-long rope, A-Star B3 helicopter pilot Andy Hermansky returned to the climber at 19,500 feet. The injured client was able to climb into the basket as the helicopter hovered overhead. Once the patient was secure in the basket, the helicopter flew down to the Kahiltna Basecamp to an awaiting LifeMed air ambulance for transport to Anchorage. The A-Star B3 helicopter then returned to the site of the climber near 18,000 feet, this time with NPS mountaineering ranger Kevin Wright on the end of the 125-foot shorthaul line. Hermansky hovered while Wright set down adjacent to the climber and buckled him into a canvas sling known as a `screamer suit'. The climber, who showed no obvious signs of life, was flown on the end of the shorthaul line to the Kahiltna Basecamp. He was transferred to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the 52nd Aviation Regiment out of Fort Wainwright for a more thorough medical assessment. Two NPS ranger medics, also on board the CH-47, confirmed that the climber had died. The cause of death is unknown at this time. The guide and the client, both of whom suffer from frostbite, currently remain at the 17,200-foot camp. The names of all climbers involved in the incident are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. [Submitted by Maureen McLaughlin, Public Information Officer]

Goal0 Nomad 7 and Guide 10 Video walkthrough

2011-04-16T01:36:00.000-07:00

The new Nomad 7 outputs

2011-04-07T19:53:00.001-07:00

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Goal0 Nomad7m and Guide10 round 2!

2011-04-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

It just so happened that when I walked into Costco yesterday, Goal0 had a booth set up showing off some of there products. I spoke with Curtis the rep about the issue that I was having with the older style Nomad not charging the Guide10 in the time that was claimed and he as well as one of the technical reps that I talked to the other day confirmed that the newer Nomad7 that has the 6.5v output would charge the Guide10 in 1.5 to 2 hours in good sunlight. (Photo of new outputs above) Luckily they had tons of them available at the Costco booth, and they were the same price as a pro-deal with shipping included! Needless to say I bought a new one.

Today it was mostly sunny out and conveniently my Guide10 was dead. I placed the new Nomad7 in the sun to charge the Guide10 off of the 6.5v output at 9:30am. By 11:45am the Guide10 was fully charged!
The 6.5v output is a must if you are charging the Guide10. If you already own an older Nomad7 that does not have the 6.5v output, one option is to use the 12v output with a cigarette adapter that has a selectable voltage. Typically they will have a 6v option that can be selected, and this would solve the problem of buying a completely new panel.

The verdict is still out on whether or not my old Nomad7 panel is working correctly or not. I will have to continue to test it as the sun starts to come out more and more.

More to come I am sure!

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Goal0 Guide 10 battery pack

2011-03-23T19:51:00.001-07:00

I just received my Guide10 rechargable battery pack from Goal0. Right now I am putting it through the paces and will write up my findings soon! Until thencheck out Goalzero.com

3/25/2011
Test 1 - Solar Recharge of the Guide10
I placed the Guide10 outside today, plugged into the Nomad 7 solar panel, and over the course of about 3 hours was not able to achieve a full charge on the Guide10. There was full sun for a large majority of the time that it was charging, but this falls short of Goal0's claim of 1.5 hours to recharge the Guide10 with the Nomad 7.
When I used the charge that was taken in by the Guide10 to recharge my cell phone (Mytouch 4G) it added about 20% to the existing charge that the phone had before the Guide10 was no longer able to deliver any more power.
I am wondering if the extended length of charge time is because I am using one of the early versions of the Nomad 7. The new version of the Nomad 7, that comes in the Adventure Kit looks like it has a 6.5 volt output that plugs into the 6.5 volt input on the Guide10. The input on the Guide10 can be seen in the photo above.

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Sehome Hill Bouldering Guide

2011-03-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

Download the Printable Sehome Hill Climbing Guide Updated 7-31-09

Sehome Hill is located just east of Western Washingont University. In this city park there are several areas in which good bouldering exists. Most boulders are between eight and twenty-five feet tall and are composed of sandstone. Sehome Hill is most well known by the Bellingham locals as a place to spend a sunny afternoon trying problems or making up new ones. Sehome Hill has several different areas where there are groups of boulders. Many are well established and have been climbed for years. There are still some places on the hill that contain boulders that have not been cleaned, so new projects are still out there.

There is still work to do before the guide is complete but here is what I have compiled so far. Currently there are photos for most of the upper and lower parts of Sehome Hill. There are several crags that I have not photographed yet, and a few others that I have not had the chance to go out and climb at. As long as the rain stays at a minimum I will be making my best efforts to get out there and get the beta so the guide can be complete this season. As far as using the portion of the guide that I am posting, it is not complete. There are many ratings that are missing from problems, there are no names on most of the routes and I have not completed all the routes described yet, but I think that it is a good start. I definitely want to know what your opinion on the guide is. If you have any recommendations or information on routes please send me an e-mail.

Building a splitboard

2011-03-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

Download the Printable Guide to Building a Splitboard

Currently I own a Voile Split Decision 173, and I love the thing. In the deep powder I couldn't ask for a better board. The only problem is that the length of the board does not lend itself well to the inbound terrain at a ski area, when I am accessing the lift serviced backcountry, as well as boarding inbound on the same day. Several years ago, I bought a cheap board at winter sports expo gear swap, and figured this would be the perfect candidate to be cut in half and fastened back together again using the Voile Split Kit.

Learn to build a splitboard

Building a home climbing wall

2011-03-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Every climber at one point or another decides that they really would like to have their very on wall at their house. Face it, sometimes we just lack the motivation to drive to the gym and shell out money to hang out with a bunch of gym rats. There are many benefits to having your very own bouldering wall at your house. For one you can get a ten minute training session in every day, leading to being mad strong after a few weeks. Two, you can set your very own routes and change them as often as you want and if you have been a route setter at a gym such as I have, you don't have to listen to the newbies complain about how much the route sucks despite the fact that they don't know how to smear and highstep at the same time. And finally three, everyone will think that you are bad-ass, well maybe...

Building a bouldering wall

Got Myself a Hilleberg Soulo

2010-06-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

I finally bit the bullet and bought myself the $550 tent that I have been dreaming about for at least a year. The Hilleberg Soulo is a free-standing dome style, one person tent. The beauty of it is it weighs in at about 3 and a half pounds and if a full on 4 season tent. I am looking forward to testing it out on a climb of Mt. Baker coming up June 30th to July 2nd. After the trip I will report on my findings!

The Soulo is totally habitable! I am 5ft 11in tall and fully stretched out I was comfortable and did not feel confined. The Soulo does an excellent job at keeping condensation non-existent on the tents interior. Ventilation was easy to take care of in the middle of the night, by just cracking the door, while keeping the mesh zipped up. The small vestibule isn't large enough to cook in with the fly door zipped up (unless you have a jetboil stove), but you can unclip the the tents interior and drop it out of the way, making more room, if you did want to cook inside. I just laid inside the tent with the fly door open and let my stove sit in the wind break that the vestibule does provide when open.

In the rain and snow, the tent did awesome. I was not worried one bit about getting wet. There were no drips in the middle of the night, and all the rain and wet snow was shed nicely away from the inner tent body around the perimeter.

When guyed out this tent is a little bomb shelter when it comes to wind! During the night the winds kicked up and were gusting probably 40mph and the Soulo didn't fold, flatten or flap at all!

All-in-all this tent is great if you need a multipurpose solo tent. I imagine that you could probably fit two people in it if you left the body of the tent at home and just took the fly to set up, since there is ~4-6in separating the tent body from the fly on all sides. All you would need is a footprint and it could probably double as a lightweight single wall tent. Haven't tried it yet, but most likely will some time soon.