Tag: review equipment

equipment | YOUR starter pack

This is about everything you need to start your climbing career. Depending on your area of choice, Bouldering or Climbing, the invest varies massively. While bouldering is less capital intensive, Climbing, particularly outside and in traditional areas (excluding alpine and bigwall climbing) can be very costly and easily far beyond the 2.000€. But let’s start with the easy version:

Bouldering

  • In general bouldering is much more versatile and athletic than climbing. For your shoes that means they should be able to support you along the whole style range: toe and heelhooks, jams, small ledges, sharp edges, slaps, etc. The shoe can be tighter and much more aggressive than your climbing shoe as if necessary you can take them off after each boulder and just need them for 30-60 seconds, max 5min if it’s a really tough and high one. You can identify the aggressive shoes by their banana-like form from the side. Make sure the heel is well covered with rubber as well as the upside of the front foot.
    More under: La Sportiva
  • This might seem a little odd, of course you can use your chalkbag from climbing, but I would suggest a different approach. Take one of the special bouldering chalkbags. The difference is the size. While at climbing the chalkbag is attached to a cord around your waist, during bouldering you don’t necessary need to carry the chalkbag with you during the boulder, but you might need much more chalk and have a few accessories (like the brush, tape and other stuff you can store in the chalkbag.
    More under: Bergfreunde.de
  • Back in the days when I started with bouldering around 20 years ago, we used normal toothbrushes to clean little holds in the woods, or used large cleaning or steel brushes for the tougher work. This sounds romantic but had a little downside, a) the steel brushes still in use today, destroy not only the moss or dirt on the rock but also the integrity of the rock itself, b) the toothbrushes were actually a bit too small and even the hard ones not good enough to clean the holds from rubber dirt and chalk. So the bouldering industry decided to take action and develop dedicated brushes. Key features compared to toothbrushes are: they are broader, longer and with tighter brush-settings.
    More under: Bergzeit.de
  • The crashpad is only needed outside of course, but there unequally more important. 20 years ago, we didn’t have the comfort of protection no matter how high the highball, climbing cuel de chien in Fontainebleau without crashpads is completely unthinkable for today’s boulderers, but a reality to us, back in the days. Nevertheless I fully support the use of crashpads in bouldering and to be honest I sometimes find myself walking through the High Sierra with 3 Crashpads on my back. When buying a crashpad test it first. If it is too firm it’s not of much use, same applies to a crashpad that’s too soft. In general take a look at the layering inside the pad, it should have a thinner harder layer, a thicker medium hard layer and again another harder layer. In general most of the big brand pads are reliable and high quality enough. No name ones should be compared to one of the pads in the pictures below. I personally favour the Edelrid, but have used several others, including PAD crashpads and BEAL pads. In Bishop I prefer to have 3 with me, In Fontainebleau 2 are enough, same applies in my view to the Grampians, but that’s all subjective. You should have at least one!
    More under: Bergzeit.de
==> Continue to the full article




equipment | Polar Loop

_Summary | Not quite sure what to make of this… complex stuff…

Polar | loop - package

Polar | loop – packaging

Interesting enough I ordered the POLAR LOOP shortly after buying the NIKE+ FUELBAND SE. And that wasn’t a coincidence. I thought initially the lack of functions and ridiculuous inacuracy of the FUELBAND SE would bother me in the midterm, but after around 1 week with it, I actually started to like the incredible comfort the FUELBAND SE. That’s when the POLAR LOOP arrived. At first ou notice the a bit lackluster packaging of the LOOP (see pic). OK, it’s a lot cheaper (50€) than the NIKE competition but that doesn’t necessarily justify shabby packaging. After unpacking it the next shock, the armband of the LOOP needs to be manually “adjusted” or more precise: you need to get out the scissors and  cut the damn thing on both sides, oh and before I forget it: you need to use the precision gear included in the pack in order to separate the clasp from the armband. In one word: stupid!
 
==> Continue to the full article




equipment | La Sportiva SPEEDSTER

_Summary | The FUTURA without stability

La Sportiva | Speedster | evaluation

La Sportiva | Speedster | evaluation

To  be honest the heading is probably a bit of a harsh judgement but in the essence kind of true. The SPEEDSTER is indeed based on the same design as the FUTURA, but given the fact it’s a ballerina/slipper it lacks the added stability that the velcro gives its bigger brother. I cannot support some of the other testers coming to the conclusion that this is one of the most aggressive ballerinas ever made. In the contrary I think it’s a relatively tame version of a slipper, the problem is that even if you buy it tight, it lacks in stability what it tries to make up for in aggressive form. At least for me the compromise doesn’t add up. In addition it has the same design drawbacks as the FUTURA, particularly the lacking sustainability due to the ‘edgeless’ sole design. On the upside though the SPEEDSTER is relatively ‘cheap’ compared to the nearly 50€ thus 50% more expensive bigger brother. So if you can forgo the additional stability of a velcro or a lacing, and don’t want to spend ridiculous amounts of money on a climbing shoe, the SPEEDSTER is a decent alternative.
 
==> Continue to the full article




equipment | Nike+ FuelBand SE

_Summary | stylish motivation missing out on the basics

Nike+ | Fuelband SE

Nike+ | Fuelband SE

Just got the NIKE+ FUELBAND SE in the mail the other day. After months of considering whether to get the JAWBONE UP, the FITBIT FLEX; the POLAR LOOP or the NIKE+ FUELBAND SE I finally decided for the latter. The decision was not an easy one as the FUELBAND SE isn’t necessary the cream of evolution among the activity trackers.

It does not track movement acurrately except walking, it does not work in water, it does not measure pulse, heartrate or anything concretely related to your body, it only connects with iOS devices and actually only really with the iphone.
 
==> Continue to the full article