23rd September 2009
There’s a via ferrata a couple of km down the road at the Moiry Barrage, I’ve not been over that way this summer although it’s a popular ski spot in the winter with a few lines crossing the barrage itself.
12th July 2009
We’d planned to go and do this route last year but never quite made somehow so today we grabbed the chance to go and try it. It’s actually a bit odd, there’s two lines on this part of the mountain and you need to descend via one of them, that’s a problem as you’re likely to meet people coming up. We took the slightly harder line as an ascent and enjoyed a great section traversing over a wall then descended via the easier line but of course met some people coming up. Rain threatened all day but apart from a few spots we remained dry so it was a good day out.
13th June 2009
We’d planned to do this for a while and Julie had a vacation today so with good weather it was ideal. Moléson are perfectly setup for all kinds of activities and seem to drain every bit of utility they can from the facilities they’ve got, it’s a real pleasure to go there and do things. I first went to Moléson as a ski station but it’s been a couple of years at least since I’ve actually ridden one of their lifts and skied down a piste, but we’ve been many times ski touring, snow shoeing, hiking and taking family sight seeing.
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26th May 2009
We recently got Camp rewinds for local VF’s after looking at a bunch of other sets on the market.
The main choice comes to whether you want a stitched shock absorber like the Petzl or Black Diamond sets or ones with a friction device like this or the Salewa one for example. I’m not entirely happy with stitched ones, once you fall and tear through the stitching it’s good only for the bin and if you’re halfway up a VF at the time, assuming you’re able to continue, you’ve now got a non-functioning set. I think a lot of people argue that no one falls off a VF so it’s moot but I’m not much convinced by that argument, once I’ve left the ground on anything I try not to fall off
There’s a couple of Eastern European manufacturers knocking out VF sets and some of the local stores have them, they look reasonable, mostly friction devices and UIAA approved but some inferior quality around non-safety components. For example, I looked at one with the squeeze action locking carabiners and the squeeze mechanism felt flimsy, this matters I think as you end up bashing the gear around the crag.
I also felt I liked the squeeze action idea as opposed to the older twist lock and variants, a squeeze action is quicker and easier and there’s no failure case (I can detect) where the gate can be left partly open.
The other feature I liked in the Camp set is the elasticised lanyards, this really helps keep them out of way moving around and lets Camp get a half decent run of dynamic cord into the system without leaving the lanyard a metre over your head. This feature is available on other sets of course.
The only feature I saw on another set, the Petzl, was a extra loop from the harness attachment for resting that allows you to clip to a bit of gear. That looked like a good idea but I’m not sure in practice if it would be much use, it’s easier to keep a belay sling on and use that, it’s longer and I can clip to a couple of bits of gear as a rule so it’s more flexible.
Here’s Julie using the Camp rewind in France :
