Last Fall (2011) I purchased a Cold Cold World Ozone backpack. The Ozone’s simple design and durable ballistics nylon fabric make it the perfect guide’s pack for rock climbing. With no external straps, no spindrift collar, and a stiff foam backpad it packs and unpacks easily and carries well between routes and climbs well on routes.

To my surprise, the Ozone ended up being a great winter pack too. For most moderate ice objectives the tools and crampons, plus my kit of 6-8 screws, lightweight puffy, water and a small thermos all fit inside. The pack worked as well for winter cragging as it did for summer cragging. Placing the tools inside the pack frequently confused my partners but also meant easy hiking through thick brush, no chance of a lost tool or crampon and no worries while taking the pack in and out of cars or houses. I’ve done a number on more than a few car bumpers and walls trying to sneak packs into small spaces only to leave a big scratch. Having the sharp stuff inside, which never occurred to me before having this bag, makes good sense.

Both Ozone packs, side by side

After only a few weeks using the bag I noticed some things. The stock 18.5” torso length on the Ozone is a good length for individuals that are under 6′ tall. The bag carries fine because it’s small, packs well and rides close to one’s back, but if you want the waistbelt to ride on your waist for carrying heavier loads you’ll want the torso length customized for your back. The other thing I noticed is that this design has extreme potential for 2-3 day alpine routes and longer days on alpine ice routes. Having the option to carry a picket or ax externally in the mountains for a bit more internal carrying capacity made sense.

This spring I contacted Randy Rackliff, who makes Cold Cold World packs, about making me an Ozone pack with a longer torso, a floating/removable lid, a spindrift collar, and external ax loops. We discussed other options and the potential for making a similar yet slightly larger pack. The time needed to construct a new pattern for a bigger pack was prohibitively costly. When all was said and done I had also decided to have the new pack made with 500D Spectra grid fabric, which is essentially half the weight of the ballistics nylon but still durable enough for heavy use.

Close up of floating lid attachment points

I eagerly awaited the arrival of my new pack, which took only one day to ship from Jackson, New Hampshire to my home in western Massachusetts. A new Cold Cold World pack is a thing of beauty. The design is simple and the construction is flawless. There are no loose threads, no missed stitches and each fabric panel fits perfectly with all the others. Little details stand out too – the inside is yellow so that it’s not so dark while you digging for small items deep within the pack, and the haul loop and rope strap are red, which stands out and looks nice too. Even the shoulder strap length was adjusted for someone with a longer torso.

Traditional ax loops were added to the outside

I was feeling hesitant about using this beautiful lightweight bag. Really, not use it? No way. I took it out for a spin at the crag the other day and many of my feelings about the bag were confirmed. It’s the nicest pack I’ve ever owned and the timeless, no-frills design is exactly what most climbers need year-round. There’s nothing extraneous on this bag and it’s going to work equally well at the local crag and in the Cascades and Alaska on big alpine routes.

The 2” longer torso length makes the webbing hip belt ride perfectly on my waist and increases the carrying capacity of this pack enough to make it useful as more than just a crag pack. The floating lid and spindrift collar will help with this too. At the crag I can now carry more than just a single rack comfortably, without overstuffing the pack.

A side-by-side comparison shows the substantially greater potential volume of the new Ozone.

This summer I’ll be able to take the same pack on multiday guiding trips in the Cascades. A BD Firstlight, Big Agnes Aircore pad, and Mountain Hardwear Phantom 32 will all fit inside along with a small climbing kit plus a jetboil.

The best thing of all – the packs are made locally and Randy is willing to work with you to make sure you get the right setup. If you’re interested in a bag like this here are my suggestions:

• Unless you’re really counting grams, Ballistics nylon is the way to go for durability. The weight difference, when compared with most clunky modern packs, is neglible.
• Decide whether you want the pack’s hipbelt to ride above your waist (like a BD Bullet or Hollowpoint) or like a real load carrying pack, on your hips. This will determine carrying capacity and torso length.
• If the bag is a crag only pack consider omitting the spindrift collar, which can make repeated packing and unpacking challenging. I have one friend who cuts the collar out of most of his bags
• .If the bag is a crag pack, omitting the external ax loops would be fine. The tools will fit inside handily.
• The floating/removable lid is nice even if you don’t have a spindrift collar. Then while climbing with the bag the lid can be placed inside the pack, which is largely empty now that you’re carrying all of your kit on your body.

All these comments aside, I’ll probably stick with my current design even though the spindrift collar makes packing a tiny bit more challenging. At some point I’m going to get a Ballistics nylon version for hard, everyday crag use.

This bag, and many of the modifications are based largely on recommendations from Dane Burn’s fantastic blog Coldthistle. If you’re even more curious about packs head over there and have a look. He just finished writing a series of three posts about pack design and construction, components an alpine pack should(n’t) include and how to fit packs properly.

All told, this pack was $158 with shipping. That’s a steal for a versatile, well-made and durable all-around pack. Here are some useful links regarding this pack and versions of it:

• Cold Cold World
• Cold Thistle

Winter’s over. Time to start ogling gear for next ice season….

Earlier this year I reviewed the Black Diamond Fusion pick, as I have been using them with my Cobras all season long. My Nomics, which have lots of mileage on them but are still serviceable, were getting used less and less. This got me thinking. I became curious about the Black Diamond Fusion ice tool. Would it climb well? After lots of hemming and hawing I purchased a pair of the Fusion tools back in early February.

The Fusions hanging on a fence above Cox’s Cove, NL

Before I start my review of these tools, it’s worth mentioning that I look around a lot at gear reviews on the internet before buying and reviewing gear. Is there information publicly available about the specific item? Is it accurate? My own internet research has led me believe that most magazine gear reviews are favorable even if a product is only “ok” and that many guide services and sponsored climbers will review gear favorably as a friendly nod to their free gear source. I am not sponsored, I am rarely given free gear and I don’t think I’ll ever favorably review something I don’t like. At the same time, reviewing something unfavorably is not a bridge I’m keen on burning.

I want to compare the Fusion to the Nomic, it’s most obvious competitor, so that readers can make an informed decision about this tool.

First Impression

When I received the Fusion I was impressed. Like all the other BD tools, the Fusion is beautiful. It’s clear from this, and their other newer tools that they value form as much as they value function. Petzl’s tools, on the other hand, are not as pretty but are highly functional. Actually, this theme is prevalent throughout each company’s products – some BD products look great but just don’t work well, while most Petzl products won’t win a beauty pageant but operate smoothly and last a long time.

The tool is shaped identically to the Nomic, has a great handle that doesn’t require taping and feels like it will be really durable. This should come as no surprise considering the track record of most other durable BD tools. It feels heftier than the Nomic (it’s an ounce or two heavier and this is noticeable in hand) and has a different balance. The tool is balanced with most of it’s weight at the bend in the shaft. This means the dynamics of swinging this tool are going to be different than the dynamics of swinging the Nomic, which has most of it’s weight in the solid aluminum head and  steel pick weight. More on this later.

The stock pick on the Fusion is, duh, the Fusion pick, which I know from experience is burly and durable. The head is easy to clip, the removable spike easily accepts umbilical tethers or full-size carabiners, and the head is easy to clip into an ice clipper. The overall design seems good.

Climbing Ice with the Fusion

If you’re going to climb any substantial amount of hard ice with any BD tool, the logical pick choice is the Laser pick. It’s thin, sharp and penetrates easily. I took my brand new Fusion tools with me on my February trip to Newfoundland. Using the Laser picks, I found that the Fusions climb ice well. The swing takes some getting used to. Unlike the Nomic, which is head heavy, the Fusion has a tendency to dive sideways upon impact with the ice. It felt weird at first, but many of the sideways placements where just as secure. Unconventional doesn’t necessarily mean insecure.

The Fusions feel like many of the other BD tools. When placed well the in-hand feedback you receive is more like a dull thud than the tuning fork reverberation of the lighter Quark or Nomic. Once you get that secure dull thud, which frequently took me several swings in colder ice, the tools feel good, and using the upper grip isn’t scary at all. In fact, once they were well placed I felt like the tool was more secure in the upper grip position than the Nomic. For better and worse, the Petzl-Charlet picks seem to release more easily and this always made me a bit hesitant when using the Nomic’s upper grip while ice climbing. The flip side of the Fusion’s secure feeling is that the tool was harder to clean on low angle ice or high-density ice. I frequently had to yank the tool so hard that I would destroy the placement entirely instead of leaving a hole for the next climber to draft in. Ultimately, this leaves me wondering about the integrity of the placements I was trusting in the first place.

On steep, funky and chandeliered ice the Fusions climb very well. The grip is easy to hang on to and the tool felt responsive even when the placement was less than ideal. In fact, blown out and wobbly placements are where the Fusion shines. It’s stiff and responsive so hooking doesn’t feel sketchy the way it can with many other ice tools.

With the Fusion picks, climbing ice is a little less straightforward. A friend, and devotee of the Nomic, tried the tools and commented “I always swing one too many times with this tool”. There is a tendency to “explode” tool placements necessitating many more swings before one finds a good tool placement. This “digging” for placements can become exhausting. The Nomics, even with the “Rock” pick climb ice well and have almost no learning curve. You can give a beginner ice climber a Nomic and they’ll find good ice placements. The Fusions, on the other hand, would probably confuse, exhaust and dismay a newbie.

Climbing rock with the Fusion

The pretty green hydroformed shaft is what makes the Fusion shine on mixed terrain. The tool, when paired with the Fusion pick is stiff and responsive on steep rock terrain. My first real mixed day with them included a flash attempt on Hydropower in the Black Chasm. I let go only 4 feet from the ice, in the midst of sustained M9- climbing. I doubt I would have climbed any better with my Nomics, which I’ve used for miles of mixed terrain. The Fusions edge well, match well, and don’t flex as much as the Nomics when hooking and torquing. They are really good for technical rock mixed terrain.

During my second effort at Hydropower I worked my way through the rock and up to the ice. I was ferociously pumped and the high density ice was challenging to get good sticks in. Here, I felt, was the Achilles heel of the Fusion. If you’re too pumped to use the tool effectively on ice it’s not going to climb well. With the Fusions I kept destroying perfectly good ice placements. Fortunately, I was able to keep it together and get decent tool placements despite a bad pump and funky ice.

Bottom Line

The Fusion is a good tool for someone who has a quiver of tools and climbs a lot of rock terrain during the winter. It’s a tool designed specifically for hard mixed climbing and steep, funky and low-density ice. Climbers looking for a radically curved all-around tool will be better off choosing the Nomic, which climbs all types of ice terrain well and will still climb mixed terrain admirably. Other good all-around choices include the Cobra and Grivel’s Quantum Tech.

I’m going to continue using the Fusion into next season and will hopefully dial in it’s swing even more. I like it’s stiffness for mixed climbing but am unsure whether it’s a logical replacement for the Nomic, which climbs most winter terrain admirably.

Here are two useful reviews of this tool for readers who are more interested:

Cold Thistle – http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2011/01/black-diamonds-fusion-2.html

Cascade Climbers – http://cascadeclimbers.com/blog/2011/03/12/black-diamond-fusion-vs-petzl-nomic-review/

From what I’ve seen over the past few seasons, I’d be willing to bet 60% of climbers on the East Coast are using Quarks or Nomics. 30% probably use BD tools, and the other 10% are spread out among Camp and Grivel. I’ve used both Petzl and Black Diamond tools pretty extensively and find that both work extremely well. Choosing a tool nowadays is like choosing a car – many brands perform well and last a long time. It all boils down to one’s own preferences.

I suppose this is as much a review and endorsement of BD’s more conventional ice tools as it is a Fusion pick review. Over the past three or four seasons I’ve used a pair of BD Vipers or Cobras for all of my guiding and most of my personal ice climbing. When the climbing gets harder or turns to steep mixed terrain I use a pair of Nomics. It’s funny, I want to love the Nomics. They swing easily, climb ice and rock well, and have almost no learning curve. I’ve climbed many new mixed routes in the Catskills with them.

Fusion Picks on the BD Cobra

However, most days over the past two seasons I’ve left my Nomics at home in favor of my Cobras. I know, some of you are thinking I’m crazy. I’ve come to appreciate the stiffness and simplicity of the Cobras. The pick angle is less steep, meaning you need to use more caution on cauliflower ice but once they’re placed they feel very solid and secure. They seem to work better on low angle ice and stick easily on the first swing too, once you know where and how to swing them.

The stock pick for the Cobra is the Laser pick. It’s thin, sharp and displaces very little ice, making it good for really steep pure ice routes. In fact, the Laser pick is so thin and sharp that it can get stuck easily. One needs to be careful not to overdrive the top-heavy Cobra on steep ice.

The Laser pick isn’t durable though. I replaced my Laser picks with Titan picks immediately last season. I was, and still am, puzzled by the shape of the Titan pick. It’s nearly identical to the Laser, but with a chiseled front edge and a thicker profile. Initially, placing the Titan felt like trying to stuff a square block into a round hole. After a bit of filing, to make the Titan look like the Laser, it climbed well. It’s like a Laser pick that displaces a little bit more ice. This all makes sense, right?

A close up of the serrated top

A very similar shape to the Laser pick

This season I purchased a pair of Fusion picks to use on the Cobras. The Fusion pick is nearly identical in shape to the Laser, with the exception of a thicker profile (like the Titan), serrated top (similar to the Petzl Astro/Rock pick), and a slightly longer front tooth. You’d think, with the near-identical shape to the Laser that they would climb well right away, wouldn’t you?

Nope. For the first day they were the bounciest picks I’ve ever used (kind of like the Fusion tool on ice). I was a bit irked. What gives? However, after a few days of mixed climbing the front tooth gradually began to shorten. As this occurred they began working better. Honestly, I’m not sure if they’re working better or if I’ve learned to swing them differently, but I’m loving the Fusion pick. It’s the pick I’ll be using for most of my climbing from now on.

So, if you’re using BD tools and feel like your Laser picks are wearing out quickly because you accidentally strike rock once in a while give the Fusion picks a whirl. After a bit of playing you’ll barely notice a difference between the two.

Finding well-fitting, durable handwear is a challenge most winter climbers face each season. Gloves are expensive, easy to lose, and usually don’t last very long. Additionally, it’s good to have a quiver of gloves for warmer and colder conditions, a set of gloves that work really well for harder ice pitches and a thin, sticky pair for hard mixed climbing.

Back when climbers used leashes glove selection seemed less important. If your hands were getting tired you could tighten down your leashes and keep moving. With leashless tools, thin gloves with a good grip are mandatory.

I have tons of gloves in my closet at home, but only a few pairs get used regularly. The gloves that I do use regularly can be divided into two groups – work gloves and sending gloves. Work gloves are used for belaying, rappelling, climbing easy pitches and for approaching. They get trashed. These gloves need to be durable, waterproof, relatively warm and not too expensive. I will frequently wear out 2-3 pairs of “work gloves” each season.

Black Diamond Glissade Glove

My work glove of choice over the last two seasons has been the Black Diamond Glissade. At $59 a pair of Glissade gloves costs far less than most other waterproof gloves. With a leather palm, Thinsulate insulation, a gauntlet shaped wrist, and a BDry insert these gloves get the job done and won’t break your bank.

How does Black Diamond make a fully waterproof, full-conditions glove for $59? Well, for starters, they’re made outside of the US. However, the real alchemy here involves the BDry insert. Black Diamond started using BDry four or five seasons ago as a substitute for Gore Tex in their less expensive gloves.

How does BDry work? It’s simple really, they sandwich a glove-shaped plastic bag between the shell and the insulation in their gloves. This brilliant decision makes for the most waterproof gloves I’ve ever worn. Until the plastic lining breaks, no matter how worn the glove is, it will remain waterproof.This is more than I can say for many of the Gore-tex gloves I’ve used in the past.

Why is Gore-tex such a popular application in gloves? If I could venture to guess, I might say it’s because W.L. Gore is an industry giant that makes companies contractually “agree” to use their products regardless of whether it works well or not. Gore-tex, which really isn’t very breathable, relies on an effective DWR (durable water repellent) coating to be effective. A garment’s exterior fabric must remain dry, creating an air layer for the semi-permeable Gore-tex to allow moisture, in the form of water vapor, to pass through. As soon as “wet out” of the exterior fabric occurs Gore-tex stops being breathable.

On a pair of gloves, which get rubbed, brushed and pulled at constantly, the DWR coating might only last one day at wear points. What’s the point of having an “expensive” breathable membrane then? I’m not sure there is a point. It’s a gimmick.

The BD Glissade gloves have no Gore-tex, and they’ve never let me down. As long as I don’t sweat too much, these gloves will stay dry all day long. I’ve used them for backcountry skiing, ice climbing, working mixed routes, climbing Rainier and as a basecamp glove on the Ruth last spring. They are cheap and durable.

I’ve led plenty of WI 5 in them too. For really technical pitches something with a bit more dexterity is nice, but for pure slugging these gloves work very well. They’re good for moderate mixed climbing too.

The only drawback to the Glissade I’ve found so far is that the leather on the fingers doesn’t wrap around the edges. Like most less expensive gloves, there is only leather on the palm. I’m okay with this, for the price of one pair of Gore-tex gloves I can have two pairs of gloves that will comfortably last the entire season.

If you spend a lot of time outside during the winter you need good insulating layers. Really cold days with long belays become “two-puffy days”. On “two-puffy days” I typically wear one slim-fitting lightweight puffy and one heavier belay jacket.

Eddie Bauer First Ascent Downlight Sweater

The lighter slim-fitting puffy jacket is generally thin enough to wear while leading hard pitches and packable enough that it can fit in my pack as an emergency layer all the time. Over the past few years I’ve carried the Wild Things EP Jacket or the OR Fraction Hoody. Both of these garments were hooded lightweight Primaloft layers with a straight-sided, billowy fit. I still use them when I want a hood, or when the forecast calls for wet weather.

If the forecast is for colder or drier weather though, my insulating underlayer of choice right now is the Eddie Bauer First Ascent Downlight Sweater. How did I choose the Downlight Sweater? I didn’t, it was given to me.

Prior to my AMGA Advanced Alpine Guides Course all of the participants were given a big bag of First Ascent gear. Eddie Bauer First Ascent has partnered with the AMGA and provides alpine course candidates with clothing to use during the program. I was given a 30 Liter pack, a full 3-ply shell outfit, long underwear, a fleece hoody, and the Downlight Sweater.

First Ascent has only been producing technical outerwear for a few years. As you would expect, the fit of their garments is still hit-or-miss. Some of the garments were too generously cut to fit well for climbing. Others, like the Downlight Sweater and Hangfire Hoody, have become staples in my everyday outerwear wardrobe.

The Downlight Sweater has a Euro-style cut which makes it a great 3-season belay jacket and a perfect insulating underlayer on really cold winter days. So far I’ve led rock routes and mixed routes up to M7 wearing the jacket, and used it as an underlayer when the temperature dips below twenty degrees outside.

The Downlight Sweater stuffed, comparable in size to a hat

With a slim and flattering cut, this layer goes everywhere with me. The highly compressible 800-fill power Downlight packs really well into the empty space in my Cold Cold World Ozone, making it a perfect emergency layer. Little additions like the fleece lined pockets make this a great around town jacket too. The durable YKK zippers also feel like they’ll last through several seasons of use.

At $180, the Downlight Sweater is competitively priced. Still though, it isn’t cheap and one pitch of rough rock could trash it. If you’re careful this garment should last several seasons, and unlike Primaloft or Polarguard, the down won’t lose it’s loft as quickly. So, the next time you’re looking for a new puffy layer, don’t forget to consider the First Ascent Downlight Sweater and Hoody.

Inflated, 2.5 inches thick and mummy shaped

I’ve spent a lot of nights snoozing on the ground this year. Between guided and recreational trips I’m edging towards the 60-night mark. For about 58 of those nights I’ve slept on a Big Agnes Air Core sleeping pad. If I was 7 again, I’d swear to you that I could catch waves at the Jersey shore with this funny looking raft-thing. Unfortunately, my 190lb body would probably sink that raft nowadays. You get the idea though, the Big Agnes Air Core sleeping pad is basically a simple air mattress with durable welded seams and full-length cylindrical chambers. At 2.5″ thick it’s easily the most comfortable sleeping pad I’ve ever owned, and I’ve slept many a sound night on it.

How did I settle on the Air Core, when there are lots of good lightweight sleeping pads on the market? Well, after several years of sleeping on thinner foam pads or 1′ thick Thermarest pads, I decided that I wanted to sleep well outside. Multiple nights on hard ground with thinner pads left my back and hips (I’m a side sleeper) feeling pretty sore. Try sleeping on bare bedrock with a 3/4″ thick sleeping pad for several nights in a row. The chiropractor will absolutely love you after your trip. Other new thicker, yet lightweight, mattress options were available to me, namely the Thermarest NeoAir and the Pacific Outdoor Equipment Ether Elite. The catch here is that I’m not made of money. The NeoAir is $120, the Ether Elite is $70, and the Air Core is only $50. I didn’t want to spend a ton, and the Ether Elite, which is 5 ounces lighter than the Air Core was backordered so I ended up with an Air Core before my trip to the Ruth Gorge this past April.

My deflated Aircore next to a 24 oz. waterbottle for scale

At first I was skeptical. After all, if you pop this puppy you’re screwed, and it seems like it would be easy to pop. The 70-denier nylon feels thin. 60 nights so far this year seem to indicate otherwise though. I’ve used the pad on glaciers in Alaska, snowfields on Mt. Rainier and in the North Cascades, and on dirt, gravel and grass throughout the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast all summer long. It seems durable to me so far, but I’ve been careful not to sleep on bare ground without some sort of layer underneath the Air Core.

Big Agnes suggests using a foam pad underneath when the temperatures dip below 35 degrees. This is sound advice, and I’d add that you should consider an additional piece of closed cell foam when you’re going to sleep on snow even if it’s 70 degrees outside. Air doesn’t insulated the way foam does. A 5mm thick piece of evazote does the trick and doesn’t weigh much either.  Evazote is hard to find in the states but can be ordered from the MEC website and has amazing insulative value. Look around at expedition pictures from the past and you’ll see people using those bright yellow evazote pads in cold climates on big mountains. A good option is to use a full-length 5mm evazote pad as the backpad in your pack and then add it to your sleeping system in camp. This option works especially well with some of the smaller overnight/alpine climbing packs that have a foam insert as their frame.

The Air Core, while not as light as the NeoAir or Ether Elite, is still small and easy to pack. When rolled tightly it’s about the size of a one liter water bottle. This is a major selling point; even if it doesn’t give you substantial weight savings over your current sleeping pad it will reduce the size of your kit. Having a smaller, tighter pack for alpine climbs makes the climbing feel easier and safer. That alone is reason enough to choose one of the new inflatable pads like the Air Core.

So, if you’re on a budget and in the market for a new pad, consider the Big Agnes Air Core. It’s lightweight, small in size, and will provide you with a good night’s sleep. What more could you ask for?