Climbing Extreme

Though the sesons isn’t starting quite yet I thought to list out few web stores I’ve used to stack up with the climbing and mountaineering gear. Actually the idea for this article came through my friend who tried to figure where he could purchase a pair of good ice climbing gloves. As you can see these reflect somewhat the fact that I’m from Finland and the foreing language I know best is English (so Finnish and British web stores appear more frequently than thair fair portion suggests).

Anyways here’s are few of which I have some experiences:

• www.barrabes.com – A large web store, deliveres fast, though problem sometimes is the limited selection, especially in terms of different sizes (some time’s I’ve got the stuff in about day or two to Finland).
• www.needlesports.com – Has a good selection of ice climbing gear and as a added bonus they stack spare parts too.
• www.outside.co.uk – Another UK based web store with plenty of gear and clothing.
• www.draussen.de – Limited but high quality brands, their delivery time was kind of long, though it might be the product (Hilleberg Staika) that caused the delay.
• www.backcountry.com – Another big web store with plenty of stuff in it.
• www.summitsports.net – Their products were good as was their service, located in Finland.
• www.varuste.net - Largest Finnish climbing gear seller on the web (I guess), selection is pretty good and purchased from them pretty frequently, pricing could be abit more competitive (though once you’ll get frequent customer status, you’ll get to enjoy a discount)
• www.completeoutdoors.co.uk – Another UK based web store with plenty of gear and clothing.
• www.extremegb.com / www.outdoorgb.com – Another UK based web store with plenty of gear and clothing. Their specialty is the fact that they’ll sell some military stuff too (like night vision etc.)
• www.mountainshop.fi – Their selection is somewhat limited, but the service is good and personal, even when ordering through web.

And here’s few more which I have been browsing frequently or purchased from their real world store, but not from the web yet:

• www.cotswoldoutdoor.com – Another UK based web store with plenty of gear and clothing.
• www.alpenstock.co.uk – Didn’t order anything, but their prices seemed to be good and they had a personal service also on web, on the problem side though was the fact that their web store is kind of “basic”.
• www.camu.fi – Another Finnish store that has also a web front, visited their real world store quite often and I have liked their service attitude and knowledge.
• www.vuoripuro.com – Stocks some pretty interesting products, though the brands are somewhat less known (atleast for me) they should be high quality.
• www.shelby.fi – haven’t ordered anything through their web site (I live nearby), their differentiator is their own made to measures clothing brand.
• www.scandinavianoutdoorstore.com – Interesting selection of products, though somewhat more geard towards less extreme sports.

Hopefully you’ll get started with these. Please let me know, if you know particularly good web store that stacks climbing gear. Any shared experiences are warmly welcome.