Packs

For summertime adventures when I don't have to carry crampons, ice axe, or ice tools I really like my Black Diamond Sidewinder. It is fairly comfortable for long days and its low profile and low weight (960 g) work well for technical climbing. It carries a rope nicely and has just enough room (30 L) for some extra clothes, food and water.

For wintertime outings, or any time when I have to lug a lot of gear (such as snowshoes, crampons, ice tools, lots of warm clothes, etc) I use an Osprey Ceres 38. It's comfortable and holds a lot of gear well. Personally, I like all the straps and stuff for attaching snowshoes, ice tools, crampons, etc to the outside of the pack (though I know some don't). Osprey doesn't make this pack any more - I think it was replaced by the Exposure series. It's a good pack though.

Boots

I purchased some La Sportiva Trango Extreme Evo GTX to use for everything snow and ice. These replaced my Vasque Sundowners. So far they have worked well for snowshoeing, a little ice climbing, and snow climbing. They seem to be warm enough for Colorado pursuits.

I like almost everything about my Montrail D7s except their durability. I blew out the seems in my first pair after about two months of use, and I blew out the seems in my second pair in another couple of months. I wouldn't have minded going through shoes so fast if they really were worn out - but everything else about the shoes looked brand new, including the tread. Although they hiked and scrambled great, I won't be buying another pair.

La Sportiva Sandals are comfy and look damn cool - what more you could ask for when you're trying to impress the basecamp bunnies?

I've never had much luck scoring good, cheap gear at REI garage sales, but I did score a pair of Five Ten Coyotes for $15 one time. I know they're nothing fancy, but then again I'm not climbing anything very hard. They are comfy though, and did I mention I got 'em for $15?!?

Ice and Snow

The Black Diamond Raven mountaineering axe is really basic, but it works fine and it was cheap. I also find it very comfortable to hold, so that's a nice bonus.

I bought a pair of Back Diamond Rage ice tools off a dude on ebay for $150 (for the pair). It was a price I just couldn't pass up considering that most new tools go for over $200 each. I wanted something with a slight curve but still straight enough to plunge. The Rage's are a bit heavy, but so far they've done the trick.

I bought some Black Diamond Contact crampons back when I was using my Vasque Sundowner boots for all snow and ice, so I didn't have many options. Never-the-less they have worked well, even for vertical waterfall ice. Some day I'd like to replace them with some Grivel G-12's, but it's hard to justify the expense when these cheapo crampons seem to be working just fine.

After watching sales for quite a while I scored a pair of MSR Denali Classic Snowshoes for $100 at REI. These are cheap, easy to use, and bomb-proof. I especially like how simple and easy the buckles are to use, even with bulky mittens. They're nothing fancy, but they're super reliable.

Electronics

All the photos on this site taken after January 2007 were taken with a Canon SD800. I bought it due to several features I really liked: (a) optical image stabilization (b) an optical view finder (c) small size (d) 7.2 mega pixels. The only down side is that it doesn't have an option for raw format. You can be the judge on how the photos turn out.

Pretty much all the videos on this site were shot with a Panasonic PV-GS150.