The most important reason for carrying an ice axe up in the mountains is to be able to “self-arrest” or stop yourself from sliding down and off the mountain if you fall. It is not, as some people think, a glorified walking stick with a pointy end for showing off in the parking lot. To […]
Mountain Hardwear Trango 2 Tent
Few tents out there come even close to being as tough as the Mountain Hardwear Trango 2, a tent that really is built to be bombproof. The Trango is not exactly light, nor is it compact, but it is tough and roomy and makes a great first mountaineering tent that will see you through a […]
The Most Famous Ice Axe Belay Ever
Anyone who has been around mountaineering for any period of time will have come across the name of Peter Schoening, a real legend of American mountaineering. He spent a life on high mountains and was famously on Everest in 1996, an ill-fated year in which scores of mountaineers died on the mountain. But he is […]
A Classic Wood-Shafted Ice Axe Reinvented: The Grivel Monte Bianco
Climbers with a real sense of nostalgia often look back on classic wooden-shafted mountaineering ice axes with a real sense of loss. Many of these were works of art. And there is something to be said about holding wood in your hand. You can feel that it is a living material, rather than just a […]
Mountain Hardwear EV2: One of the Best Mountaineering Tents You can Get
The first thing to note about this tent is that is comes out of a collaborative effort between Mountain Hardwear and Ed Viesturs, who is famous for not only having climbed all of the world’s 14 highest mountains but also for having brought many of them to a wider audience with his prowess as a […]