www.nols.edu Kevin McGowan, NOLS Rocky Mountain boot expert, describes the finer points of getting the proper fit for your boots!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Olympus Mons Evo Mountaineering Boot Yellow/ Black 43.5 by La Sportiva
!±8± Olympus Mons Evo Mountaineering Boot Yellow/ Black 43.5 by La Sportiva
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| Price : $849.00 | Post Date : Dec 16, 2011 00:30:28Usually ships in 24 hours
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Monday, December 12, 2011
Tips For Rock Climbing
Climbing is rarely about actual strength. Of course strength helps but the better and more experienced you get you'll find that balance and technique are FAR more important. Climbing well does not always mean getting to the top. Climbing is about being in control, moving decisively and fluidly up the rock and not thrashing and scrambling.
Work on balance and overall strength and not on building large muscle groups. Build your heart rate and work on finger strength.
There are three types of climbing. Trad (traditional) climbing is identified as routes where you must place you own safety gear. You are free climbing and using combinations of stoppers, cams, hexes and even pitons as protection. Sport climbing is usually short face climbs (though they can be milti pitch) using all bolts. Bouldering is done without ropes and done on free standing boulders. These routes are between 3 and maybe 20 moves; they are practice for sport climbing and often involve gymnastic or dynamic moves. The rating system in the US is called the Yosemite System and goes from 5.0 to 5.14. Ratings at 5.10 and above also include letters 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c, 5.10d, and 5.11. Boulders are rated with V1-5 based on difficulty.
Question on leading a trad route - say you start a route placing gear as you go. You get halfway up and can't get past a crux, so you drop down. Now, how would you get the gear out that on the in the wall? (i.e. the top piece that you came down on.)? You don't. Unless, you can walk to the top and rappel down to retrieve your gear. Be careful when lowering off climbs on one piece of equipment, that fails, you die! Better to lead trad routes several grades below your ability level.
Why does most mountaineering guides require you to have plastic boots instead of leather? Simply, the warmth, plastic boots have several layers and are quite a bit warmer. Most guide services do not want to deal with any frostbite problems while guiding. As a beginner/recreational climber...find a size that is snug...but comfortable. If you could not wear the shoes for one hour without discomfort....then the shoes are too tight.
I have been climbing 5.10/11 since 1977. In my experience, a little bit of tightness may give you a slight advantage....you get up a 5.11a when normallly your limit is 5.10d...but I would much rather enjoy my recreation than climb at my ultimate limit.
RP's are a brand name for artificial chock stones. Like Stoppers, Rocks, Walnuts, Offsets, etc, it is the name given by the manufacturer; Pacific Crossing. Typically RP's were small to micro sized brass alloy nuts, similar to the Black Diamond copper/steel nut made today.
RP's were used, almost to the exclusion of any other micro nut, in Yosemite to push the frontier of what was possible with clean aid climbing in the late '70s, '80s, and early '90s. With the huge growth of the sport of climbing in the 1990's, many other companies began producing micro nuts similar to the RP.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Mountaineering Boots - A Revolution in Progress
A few decades ago frost-bitten toes were considered an unfortunate but unavoidable consequence of mountaineering. If you climbed enough you were bound to have a couple go numb or worse. This is no longer the case. A revolution in mountaineering boots has produced footwear that can stay dry even after days of trudging through snow and that can keep your feet warm even in the icy cold of high-altitude peaks. And the revolution is still continuing. New materials and insulation are leading to boots that are lighter, warmer and safer than ever.
A brief history of mountain footwear would have to go all the way back to 3,300 BC and Otzi, the iceman whose body was found in a glacier between Austria and Italy. Otzi's shoes were waterproof and insulated to allow him to walk across the snow. In more recent years leather boots came to dominate mountaineering. These were often made of double layers to help insulate toes and the leather would have been impregnated and treated to help keep water out. But even the best leather mountaineering boots will wet through after a few days on the snow. And wet boots means cold feet and the risk of frostbite.
The more recent innovations have been in plastic double mountaineering boots. One of the most famous of these was the Scarpa Vega (in America it is known as the Scarpa Inferno). This boot is made of thick waterproof plastic on the outside and it has a thick foam inner boot for insulation. The Scarpa Vega was revolutionary for its time and for years dominated the field. This Scarpa boot has probably been to the summit of more high peaks than any other boot in history. Yet even this has been surpassed and Scarpa now recommends this boot for low 8000m peaks with over-gaiters and suggests it only be used to temperatures of -30 C (with special high altitude inner booties). But this is a clumsy and uncomfortable boot to wear and is not loved much.
The boots that have surpassed it include the Scarpa Omega which is much more nimble and offers almost the same degree of insulation. Even warmer boots include Scarpa's Phantom 8000, which is light and warm and rated down to minus 40 C. Another is made by the rival firm La Sportiva. Its Olympus Mons Evo boot is also super warm and light. These advances in mountaineering boots mean that the risk of losing a toe or two while on high mountains is significantly reduced.
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