It’s been my pleasure to be able to spend quite a few days climbing during last few weeks; six altogether. That’s two trips, three days each. That’s much more than last your at the same time. So it actually seems that I might be able to rise my grade during this season. At both of these trips, we climbed [...]
The season has started and the Christmas is closing, but what kind of wish list should be posted to Father Christmas? Here are a few hints. I found most of this stuff from our upcoming www.tribevine.com service, which actually proved to provide quite interesting details, especially on when it comes to alternatives and gear that’s used [...]
A medical student Kathrin Lampl asked me to help her on finding ice climbers for her diploma thesis. She’s conducting a study which tries to map out the typical injury patterns and map out the ways to make ice climbing safer. She asked me to post the following message: — cut here — Hey climbers! My [...]
It’s snowing, finally the long waited winter seems to be at reach. Just a few weeks, but the end of November at latest, and there’s enough good ice for climbing at Korouoma, Finland. It’s going to be exciting winter, there will be of course plenty of climbing at Korouoma and the usual trip to northern [...]
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 [...]
What does an ice climber do during the summer? An obvious answer would be rock climbing, but in this case we spent the day fixing our ice climbing tower for the next season. Besides I don’t climb rock that much anyways. The weather was nice, as was the company and we got most of the [...]
One of the most difficult issues in terms of ice climbing related gear is the selection of right gloves. Over the years I have tried dozens of different gloves in all sorts of climbing conditions. I have climbed with my friends in temperatures ranging from +5 to -30 degrees in Celsius. We have climbed in [...]
Here are few images from the Kebne Easter Ski Touring and Climbing 2010 event. I originally had a plan to stay there for two weeks, but had to cut it short. Still, we had an opportunity climb to Kebnekaise South Peak, do couple of ski touring trips and climb some ice in Tarfala and Skarttacohkka. [...]
Some time ago I reviewed Wild Country Helium quickdraws. At the time I just couldn’t find anything negative on them. I’ve used the quickdraws happily ever after. They’ve been great, but since the first article I have discovered some weaknesses too. The realization of the fact that quite a few pieces of quality gear also [...]
For some reason descending using Abalakov thread (v-thread) is always kind of exciting experience. Though it is known, when created properly, Abalakov thread is as safe as any ice protection; it just does not feel as secure as hanging in a screw. In an Abalakov thread one of the biggest question marks, from reliability stand [...]
