simple mods: petzl myo xp

Why oh why oh why can’t the big gear companies get the simple things right?

Take Petzl for example, and one of their best selling headtorches – the Myo XP. This torch is owned and used by more outdoorsy people than I care to think about because it’s powerful and effective and just works. (Ok, so there have been issues in the past with these torches, something to do with a batch with a wiring fault, but I’m not going to get into that on here – the new ones are all good as far as I know). My issues are far simpler…

The Myo is my torch of choice for pretty much everything, from night time searches, to early morning approaches to Alpine climbs, to evening descents from the Ben, to just finding stuff in the car in the dark – this torch does it all most of the time. It is however, quite a long way from perfect.

Issue 1: The on/off button is, quite frankly, rubbish. Tiny, utterly unusable with Mitts on and next to impossible with gloves, and annoyingly difficult to press if the torch is sat flush in it’s cradle. But there’s nothing I can do about that so I’ll just have to make do for now.

Issue 2: The diffuser. This is the main reason I chose the Myo actually – a good, high output luminosity, and a diffuser lens to spread the beam (great for snow descents!). I love the diffuser, I think it’s great when I’m using it, however, when I’m not using it, the thing is an utter pain in the backside. Why do I say this? After all, you just flip the thing down out of the way so what could possibly be the problem? Well, you see, the manufacturers in their infinite wisdom, failed to realise that with the lens flipped down, light from the LED gets perfectly diffracted and reflected straight down into your eyes through the little lever knob bit on the diffuser…utterly utterly naff!

Anyway, whilst I can’t do much about the aggravation caused by Issue 1, I have taken a simple, yet effective step to eliminate Issue 2:

 

Matt black enamel paint. Simple, doesn’t void the warranty, and it works! No more glare in the eyes for me! It will be interesting to see how long the paint stays on there before I have to recoat it, but for the short term I’m one happy bunny and highly recommend this little modification to all Myo users – go to it!

brand new 2010 petzl nomics and elite mountain supplies

So, I’m now the proud owner of a pair of the brand new for 2010 Petzl Nomics.

I will write more about these once I’ve started using them, as a simple play on the board doesn’t really count, although they did feel fantastic for this.

I have a couple of minor gripes, but they really are tiny and I will be writing more about these in a short while, but overall I’m really rather pleased with them.

I just want to say a thank you to Adam at EMS for the fantastic level of service he provided when I placed my order, and just send a shout out to anyone looking to buy any climbing equipment in the near future as he is offering a 20% discount on the rrp of all of his stock to members of the BMC, MCofS and a good number of climbing clubs.

http://elitemountainsupplies.co.uk/ 

Bring on the ice!!!!

super duper uber light

Disclaimer: I mean no offense to anyone whose primary hobby is lightweight backpacking or camping, in fact I have a great deal of respect for the ideals and practices of those for whom the way of the scales is a way of life, however, this way of life is not mine, and as such I may just take the pee a little. Sorry.

Going lightweight.

‘Oh my god’, you’re probably all thinking, ‘please don’t turn into one of those thousands of lightweight backpacking blogs’ – you know, the ones written by people seemingly obsessed with cutting every last gram of weight from what they’re carrying, quite literally.

Now, I’m not one to slag off what are often very well thought out, entertainingly written and occasionally inspirational articles and posts, but come on people – cutting off the handle of your toothbrush to save weight? Is this not a tad excessive? Besides, why are you even carrying a toothbrush on a single night’s wild camping on Dartmoor?
So what’s my point? Well I guess my point is that the ‘going lightweight’ concept does very much have a place in modern day hill sport, be that walking, climbing, or in the most critical and extreme cases, Alpinism. However, it often seems to me that the increasingly popular gram counting, lightweight backpacking obsession is just a futile exercise designed to encourage people to buy more and more expensive gear.

That said, some of the lightweight backpacking forums are actually full of homemade kit ideas, where people have decided that commercially available products either aren’t light enough or simply don’t do what they envision wanting. Sometimes all this yields is a vast number of slightly different designs for gravity defying alcohol stoves, which, whilst looking like great fun to make, would likely be woefully inadequate when battling your way up a 3 day route on a large Alpine North face. Sometimes though, these homemade options really do make a difference.

Now, I’m not interested in carrying a pack that weighs less than one of my bras when I go wild camping, far from it – for me, the heavier the bag (within reason), the better the training effect*.
I am however, hugely interested in ways of reducing the load needed for an Alpine bivvy, and also ways of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the equipment I do carry. And this is where the lightweight backpacking concept steps in to provide ideas and inspiration.

Often the best way of reducing the weight of what you’re carrying, is simply not to carry it. Leave the things you don’t absolutely need behind. To this end, my latest project has involved cooking equipment, or more specifically, my cooking pot.
I own several pieces of ‘camping cookware’ from kettles and large pans, to mugs you can cook in. By far the most useful and versatile item I own though, is a simple 1l ‘solo’ pot made by Primus (I think it’s called a Trek Kettle or something like that). Now, it may not be the lightest option out there, but it’s a good size, it’s sturdy and well made, and most importantly, I like it. The only negative side it has is the fact that the ‘lid’ is actually a mini frying pan.
Why is the frying pan lid a negative? Surely it just makes the thing more versatile? Well, yes and no. Yes it does make it more versatile in principle, but I’ve never used the damn thing and can’t ever envisage doing so. It is also quite heavy, so leaving it behind is no loss, except of course, it is a loss because all of a sudden the pan has no lid and loses a great deal of cooking efficiency, meaning you use more fuel.

So what to do…
I decided to make a new lid. A lovely, simple, homemade, cheap (aka free), lightweight lid:



Ta da. Yep, it’s a CD.

I was stunned and delighted to discover that a normal CD was actually the perfect fit, and upon testing it proved to be really rather efficient as the inside layer is of course reflective. The only question then was of what to make a handle out of when a blinding flash of inspiration hit me – Phil was drinking wine…So I simply carved the cork to wedge in the hole in the centre of the disk.

I don’t know how long this lid will actually last, but seeing as it was essentially free to make from waste products and only took about 2 minutes to work and assemble, it won’t exactly be a problem to replace it every once in a while.

On a slightly different note, anyone with some time to kill could do worse than to entertain themselves by browsing some of the ‘lightweight’ forums, especially the American ones…there really are some fantastical and bizzarre ideas out there…


*For anyone who hasn’t been following this blog for long I shall just summarise – I’m primarily a rock climber, but am also broadening my horizons into the world of Alpine Climbing and Mountaineering, so for me, days spent hacking round the Welsh hills with a hefty rucksack, provide good ‘hill training’ in preparation for carrying big loads of climbing equipment on top of basic bivvy gear, at altitude. The fitter I get, the better I will do when I head out to the proper mountains. So whilst carrying a rucksack that weighs less than a packet of crisps is undoubtedly more pleasant than carrying a full load of ropes and hardware etc, it simply won’t provide as great a training effect.

pimp my harness

Disclaimer: Modifying your harness in any way is not to be recommended. You will definitely void any kind of warranty, and what’s more, you could end up causing structural damage to what is one of the most safety critical pieces of climbing equipment you will ever own.

If you don’t like something, change it.

This is a philosophy I have been known to apply in many areas of my life, from where I’ve been living, to the job I’ve been doing, the kind of food I’ve been eating etc etc, but in this instance I’m talking, once again, about climbing equipment.

Now, anyone who has been following this blog for a while will know that I’m not averse to ‘improving’ pieces of equipment that I’ve bought but which have just not been quite right (a prime recent example being the sprung leashes for my ice axes).

This time it is the turn of my harness. I have already made small modifications to it in the form of adding extra webbing straps for fixing more ice screw clippers, but this time I have finally gotten round to adding a much needed fifth gear loop on the back.

Basic info:

• My harness is a Petzl Corax, and is about 7 years old (I can’t remember exactly when I bought it, but it is certainly no younger). It has been used extensively over it’s lifetime, from indoor top roping, to long runout scary ice leads, to Alpine mountaineering, but by far the greatest amount of use it now gets is for UK trad climbing.
• It has four plastic moulded gear loops which all slope forwards in order to bunch all your gear up in a horrifically annoying fashion.
• I am a total wuss when it comes to downclimbing/scrambling on wet grass in rock shoes, and as such I often like to carry my approach shoes up with me, clipped to my harness.
• I sometimes like to carry the guidebook clipped to me in a lovely guidebook cover, along with my camera and sometimes other items.
• I also sometimes tend to carry quite alot of gear.

All of these points add up to this: a fifth gear loop out of the way on the back of my harness would be awesome. I could clip my shoes on it so they don’t get in the way so much, and I could also clip all the ‘non-primary climbing equipment’ bits onto it to allow more room on my main gear loops for, yes you’ve guessed it, gear.

Here we go then, time to pimp my harness:

Firstly, what do we need? Well, I’ve decided to use some 3mm climbing accessory cord, inside some 5mm diameter PVC tubing (bought at my local hardware store):

Next, I worked out the length of pipe and cord needed to make a sensibly sized loop, then made it by threading the cord through the pipe and tying an overhand knot in each end, allowing 2-3mm of space between the end of the pipe and the knot each side:

Next, I used some strong cotton thread and a decent needle, to sew one end of the cord onto the padding of the harness (note, I am not sewing through the strength critical harness webbing). The technique I’ve used to fix the loop on is to simply sew round the cord underneath the knot so it can’t slide through:

Finally I sewed the other end of the gear loop onto the harness, making sure that the loop was going to be nicely central, and of a sufficient depth to make clipping things to it simple:

And this is the final result:

 

Hopefully I have used enough stitches (if you do decide to copy this, make sure you stitch over and over and over again, the more thread you use, the stronger it will be), and the loop will prove to be yet another ‘life extender’ for my old friend.

grivel with a swivel

Apologies to everyone who is interested in reading something, well, interesting on this blog, as this is yet another gear and engineering post, once again related to ice axes although this time to do with leashes and lanyard systems. I promise I will come up with something different to write about soon! Anyway…

Climbing ice or mixed routes with a pair of ice axes is an exhilarating and fulfilling experience, but should something go seriously wrong, say for instance you drop an axe, it can go from being fun and challenging to serious and terrifying in a matter of seconds.

I’m not going to talk about the differences between climbing leashed or leashless, as for me it is a no brainer – I am very firmly in the leashless camp. That said, I do own a set of clipper leashes for my axes, but I somehow doubt they will ever really be used again…


I used to use my clipper leashes in scotland in winter on mixed routes where, if I did somehow drop an axe things really wouldn’t be good. So they were more for tool security than my own (I’d rather shake out when I’m pumped than simply hang all my weight from my wrist loops). On a trip to Cogne climbing frozen waterfalls and deciding to try out the clipper leashes whilst seconding a WI4+, I discovered just what a pain in the butt they can be – I got pumped simply trying to detach from the axes to remove the ice screws. Ok so I’m sure I would get used to the clipper system through use and wouldn’t feel so much like no sooner had I unclipped, I would then proceed to dislodge my axe and send it plummeting down into the void, but, why would I bother? Why would I try to get used to a system I don’t particularly like when there are much better options?

And so we get to the meat of the post. Leashless lanyards.

On that same Cogne trip, the evening after my little escapade with the leashes, I decided there and then that I wasn’t going to wear them on anything steep where I felt I could knock an axe down. So how would I stop them being easily droppable? I took a length of 7mm tat out of my bag and tied two cord lanyards.


Now, these lanyards worked brilliantly. Long enough that you could still swing at full stretch, and pretty unobtrusive on steep ice. They did have one major shortcoming however: on anything less than vertical they dangle round your knees providing a very real tripping hazard (especially dire in easy angled gullies), so my thoughts shifted to the new type of ‘spring leash’ systems now being made by both Grivel and Black Diamond.

Now, me being both skint and keen on anything I can make myself, I decided initially that I would make my own version using 16mm tubular webbing and shock-cord, but an epic evening spent not being able to get the cord far enough through the webbing (a problem that could be worked around I’m sure) led me to want to have a proper look at the commercial systems, to see whether I really was wasting my time for very little saving.

I had a look at the Grivel Double Spring Leash and the Black Diamond Spinner Leash, making comparisons of their respective advantages as I played around in the shops making myself look like a deranged idiot:

Grivel Double Spring

• Available with or without crabs
• Supplied crabs feel less crappy to me than the BDs
• Less tension than the Black Diamond meaning they are less obstructive to your axe swing
• Cheaper (buying without crabs makes it significantly cheaper than the BD)

Black Diamond Spinner

• Same strength rating as the Grivel (rated to 2kn, equivalent to the 200kg claimed by the Grivel)
• Very snazzy looking and innovative springy webbing stuff
• Captive crabs (for some these would be an advantage, even though I don’t like them)
• In-built very neat little swivel, meaning that tangles are completely avoidable 

So they both have their own relative merits, but I think it’s probably pretty obvious which set I plumped for.
I bought a set of the Grivel Double Springs, without the supplied crabs (£15 without and £25 with) – I had my own 400kg rated ‘accessory crabs’ I bought a while back (when I was thinking about making my own clipper leashes, but I digress), which, seeing as the spring leash itself is only claimed to hold 200kg, are perfect. Sadly I can’t seem to find these little crabs in the shops again anywhere as I’d like to buy a few more.
So, yes, I bought the cheapest ones. I really like the swivel on the Black Diamond, but am not prepared to pay £40 for them, just for that, especially when I can self-engineer my own version (it’s the best of all worlds, mwahahaha!).

A tiny bit of effort later and here we have it, the Grivel with a Swivel.


The swivel is a 6mm stainless steel captive eye swivel shackle, bought for about £3-4 from a sailing chandlery (incidentally the swivel itself has a SWL of 1tonne – meaning that it could probably be shock loaded with a force equal to about 5 times that without breaking), larksfooted into the leashes and with a short length of 4mm accessory cord tied through the other side to attach to my harness or wherever I decide to attach. Ok so the swivel is definitely heavier than BD’s offering, but significantly cheaper and stronger. I will detach it and leave it behind when I want to go super lightweight (i.e. Alpine climbing) – an option the BD simply doesn’t offer you.


To say I am pleased with these is an understatement – for me, this is pretty much the perfect system. That is, until I find an even smaller and lighter swivel capable of fitting my needs.

axe update and a brief tutorial on using self amalgamating tape

I’m an engineer. I trained and studied as an engineer. I worked as an engineer. My husband is an engineer. What is my point? Well my point is that I have an engineering mind – I like to solve problems, I like to improve things, I like to find alternative ways of doing things and most of all I like doing it all myself. This may be part of the reason why winter and ice climbing appeal so much to me – gear and glory and all manner of opportunities to utilise an analytical mind.

I post previously about modifying my ice axes to make them a bit more user friendly (primarily when dry tooling) by using self-amalgamating tape to enhance the grip of the shaft. I also promised I would write an update after I had tested the new grips out, and this is it.

My concerns about the tape getting worn and damaged still stand, but don’t feature too highly as an issue as replacing the tape is very simple and inexpensive. Anyway, not only have I tried out the new grip position on the dry tooling board, but I have tried them out on an ice route (see previous post about Aladdin’s Mirror Direct). My observations:

• When dry tooling, the tape provides a much better grip than just the slippery shaft, allowing gloves to ‘stick’ rather than just slide around.
• When ice climbing the grip is likewise improved, which does provide you with additional options for gripping and resting when climbing leashless, especially noticeable when wearing thick gloves (I liked it, lots).
• When out in winter, when it is cold and damp out, you are plunging the axes in snow, using them in ice and just generally getting cold, the tape insulates the shaft and makes the axe much more pleasant to hold (i.e. not freezing cold metal).

The biggest revelation for me was how much more pleasant the axe shaft was to hold with the tape on compared to the bare metal shaft. Holding onto the shaft was like connecting yourself to a heat-sink – the metal is COLD, and as such makes your hands cold, even through gloves. Now, this is all fairly obvious stuff really, but one of those things that I needed to try out and experience to learn the real lessons…

So, some further modification has had me make a ‘third grip position’ with tape, this time at the top of the shaft, not for pulling on in the conventional sense, but to make using the axes in the daggering* position more pleasant and less likely to induce the hot aches.

To say I am pleased with these simple little modifications is an understatement, not only are they hugely effective, but they actually look quite good too (there’s definitely something about tools that look like they’re used and cared for, and that some thought has gone into their use, isn’t there? A bit like the opposite of the ‘all the gear, no idea’ notion).

Notes for those interested in performing similar modifications:

The tape you want is self amalgamating tape, available from places like Maplin or Screwfix. This tape is essentially just a strip of rubber which, when stretched and stuck back onto itself just self-fuses, so there is no adhesive involved to come unstuck when wet or anything like that.

Tips: the classic mistakes people make with this stuff (and having used this type of thing at work for 6 years believe me I’ve seen all kinds of basic errors) are firstly and most embarrassingly, not removing the backing tape and then wondering why it’s not sticking to itself. Give yourself a slap if you do this. Secondly, the other classic error is to simply stick the stuff directly onto itself without tensioning and stretching it – the tape is springy rubber and you need to stretch it out as you apply it (stretch it as much as you like, just don’t snap it), so that the elastic pull creates a sort of tensioned fusing joint where it contacts itself. Remember this tape has no glue and so it does not stick to things – you need to tape it to itself for it to stick.

If you use quite a thin tape (such as the type available from Maplin), you need a minimum to two layers of tape otherwise it will simply be too flimsy. You may even want 3 or 4 layers depending on what you are doing and the use and wear it’s going to take.

 

*daggering – holding the axe at the top of the shaft, just beneath the head and stabbing the pick directly into the slope, not swinging it from the handle. This is a technique used on easier angled snow and ice slopes.

winter climbing tips: axe transport

Ice axes – classified by police as offensive weapons. They are…well…sharp and dangerous. Not only are they sharp and dangerous when wielded by some drunken moron in a crowded nightclub, but they are also a great tool for punching holes in helmets or ripping gouges in expensive clothing when packed in your holdall, trust me on that one.

This little idea just came to me in a flash of inspiration whilst I was seated on the throne (you know, where you get all the best ideas!), and will be most useful to people transporting their ice axes when flying – that is, when the axes need to be packed in a big bag with lots of other stuff. Now, lots of people do complicated things like removing the picks or wrapping everything in bubble wrap, both options that are quite frankly a pain in the bum.

So, want a way to quickly and easily protect your axe picks and spikes (and consequently everything else in your bag)? Want it to be cheap/free and maybe even involve recycling?

Tada!

I give you, the humble toilet roll tube!

can women get man flu?

I think it must be possible, I mean I don’t think I have real flu or even swine flu, but this is definitely much worse than a cold (and it came on really quickly), it’s also not the lesser known ‘wine flu’ – that requires about 8 glasses in order for the symptoms to appear and sadly I have had none.

Anyway, today I have spent the whole day bumming around in my dressing gown feeling sorry for myself and occasionally dosing myself up with paracetamol. In my somewhat dishevelled state I managed to finish reading one of the books I currently have (had?) on the go - ‘The Real Heroes of Telemark’ by Ray Mears (book of a TV series maybe? We’re looking into that). Having climbed in Rjukan last year and having a 2 week sortie planned for February, it seemed appropriate to actually find out some of the real history of the place and what happened during WWII and the ‘heavy water’ sabotage raids, rather than simply leaving my knowledge at the ‘have watched the crappy hollywood blockbuster and so have no real facts in truth’ stage.

I highly recommend reading this book and/or finding out about these events – I for one had no idea that Hitler even had an atomic weapons programme, let alone that the simple yet incredible actions of a few highly trained men in destroying and disrupting the production of ‘heavy water’ (again, despite being interested in this sort of thing, I didn’t even know what heavy water was) in a small hydro plant on the edge of one of the most inhospitable wilderness areas on earth, could well have swayed the outcome of the war.

Right, on a different topic, today I have also knocked another item off of my chores ‘to do’ list – Phil very kindly bought me a new roll of self amalgamating tape to modify my ice axes with…

Before

After

Only trial will show whether my newly modified secondary grip position (oooh get me, sounding all techy) will actually be any good. My worries are that the construction of the shafts (hot-forged I-beam construction – more techy stuff, ooooh) will mean that the tape will get damaged/worn pretty quickly because of the big gaps behind it. A more standard shaft would not present a problem, but oh no, I have to have ‘different’ axes of course (don’t get me wrong here, I love them to bits!).

I will update on the state of these once they’ve seen some use on the board.