Kolin Powick from Black Diamond posted another excellent gear testing article, this time on the different methods of extending slings on cam placements. He illustrates the three common methods he uses (same as mine) and then examines a sling-on-sling approach he thought was dicey.

The sling-on-sling method of extending a cam sling does save the use of a biner but in my opinion is cumbersome for both the leader and the second. It also appears to reduce the ultimate strength of the system, however, in most cases not so much as to be the weakest link in a real-world climbing situation.

The post Extending Cam Slings first appeared on All Climbing.

New S10 Black Diamond Products – TetonAT.com

Five Ten’s Prisms – The Mountain World

DMM Dragon Cams – UKclimbing.com

La Sportiva Exum Pro – Colorado Mountain School

Arc’Teryx Alpha LT jacket and the CAMP USA Alp 95 harness – GearFlogger

Chaco Pro Series Sandals – Trailspace.com

New dual axel cam from DMM – Carabiner development blog

New Petzl Tikka and Zipka headlamps – trailrunningSoul.com

If you’ve seen any good climbing gear reviews recently, please link them in the comments.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 8/25/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

The post Using a Sharpie to Mark the Middle of a Rope first appeared on All Climbing.

The post How to Clean Carabiners first appeared on All Climbing.

GearFlogger looks at pro reviewing the DMM Wallnuts and also reviews the Arc’Teryx Dually belay parka.

Cupcake Mafia reviews the PrAna Natural Sticky Mat for yoga and the Petzl Bug Bag. That Bug Bag intrigues me.

The Adventure Blog reviews the REI Traverse Pack. I just bought one of these to use as my main laptop bag.

Sicky Gnar Gnar looks at the Five Ten Projects, while ClimbingNarc reviews The Players DVD.

SplitterChoss reviews the Black Diamond LiveWire quickdraw and the Petzl Fuse 9.4mm rope.

The Mad Rock Con-Flicts (and especially their rubber) was reviewed by straight outta bedlam.

reel deep snow looks at the Five Ten Freerunner

More trad gear as the RockClimberGirl reviews the Black Diamond Camalot C3.

Colorado Mountain School discusses the Sterling Ion 9.5mm rope and the Black Diamond RPM pack.

It Came from the Garage reviews the Mammut Champ Pants.

And finally, RockClimbing.com reviews the Five Ten Projects.

With the next installment of the gear review roundup, I’ll be changing the format a little to make them easier to scan and read.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 7/21/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

– incorrectly using a standard belay device as an autoblock device
– using multiple biners as the â??brake barâ? in order to make taking in rope easier

Regarding the multiple carabiner test, they found that using two biners increases the amount of force required to take rope in and increases the amount of holding force.

Check out the post for the full results.

(via @BlackDiamondUSA)

The post Black Diamond on Autoblock Misuse first appeared on All Climbing.

As climbers, we suffer from numerous injuries. One of the more common climber injuries is medial epicondylitis or golfers elbow. Essentially this is pain on the inside of your elbow and it originates from overuse of the flexor muscles. All our gripping without exercising the opposing muscle groups is usually the culprit for climbers.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been suffering from this condition for months now. I’ve been seeing a sports medicine doctor and slowly my severe pain has reduced. When I started rehab, my pain was about an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. After about three months of daily ice baths and exercises to strengthening opposing muscle groups (including a couple initial weeks of ultrasound), I was finally down in the 4 out 10 pain range.

So when I was contacted by the inventor of a device called Armaid, I was initially quite skeptical. First, if there was some device that would help, why didn’t my doctor or any literature mention it? Is this really going to help me and how long will it take? But since I really had nothing to lose at this point, I decided to try it out. The company saw a few of its customers were climbers and was interested to see what the reaction from the climbing community would be for this device. My goal was to test it out using my own pain and injuries as a guinea pig and provide some critical feedback to Armaid.

Amazingly, I felt pain relief from the Armaid device immediately. And before getting into details about Armaid, let me give you a quick summary. I’ve been using the device daily for about 2 – 3 minutes each on each forearm and my pain level has dropped at least another full notch on my pain scale after only a couple weeks.

Details of the Armaid Device

Armaid costs $99.95 and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. Initially I thought was that this was a high price for an unproven device for notoriously cheap climbers. But after using Armaid and finding it actually works, I changed my mind about the pricing. Let’s assume you have medical insurance. For the price of about two co-pay sessions of a tantric massage London, you’ve paid for Armaid. Comparing the cost of Armaid to all the other medical treatment I have received in the past for climbing related injuries, a hundred dollars is a steal.

The Armaid device works by relaxing and releasing tight muscle tissue by massaging and stretching muscles in the arm. It comes with a detailed DVD with instructional videos as you must use the device in a specific manner to achieve results.

The Armaid appears to be constructed well. The apparatus is made of a sturdy plastic mounted on a swivel that allows for moving to a variety of angles. There are different stiffnesses of the therapy balls that actually run over your forearms to adjust the level of pressure.

Another small climber-related complaint I had was the size of the device. Armaid is rather large (about 16″ long), but to mechanically achieve its mission I realize it pretty much has to be that way. My initial opinion (before testing it) was that climbers may not want to take it on our frequent road trips. After using it, I realize that if you have chronic pain like I do, you’re not going to care about the size and you’ll throw it in the car. It’s really not that big, but you can see for yourself in one of Armaid’s demo videos. It also weighs just over a pound so it’s not too heavy.

I haven’t seen much discussion of this device elsewhere, despite it usefulness. I did see a brief recommendation in Clyde Soles’ training book, but other than that the Armaid appears to be quite unknown to climbers.

My next obvious question was what is this company all about? Who are they and why should I trust them with my health?

Armaid’s Founder

I had several conversations with the founder of Armaid, Terry Cross, and asked him some very pointed questions that I knew climbers would be interested in learning before committing to this product.

Terry is a former sports injury and occupational injury therapist and I asked him how he came up with the idea for Armaid:

“I would see sometimes as many as ten clients a day and over time I began to develop repetitive strain (tendinitis) in my arms and hands. I began to do more self massage to maintain my own level of strength and fitness. This worked for a while by using my free hand to massage the other arm but this method often aggravated my problems and after trying several different products I felt there was not a good massage tool available for specifically helping the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow. I tried many different prototypes and designs until I came up with the idea of using a lever (as in the mechanical advantage of a nutcracker) to easily amplify the pressure on the trigger points (sore areas) without using a lot of strength necessary from the free hand.

There is a particular type of therapy that I used as a hands-on therapist that I use constantly and it is the most efficient method I have ever found to work to relieve tight muscles you can grow faster using the very best T-level boosters on the market. I built Armaid to specifically incorporate this therapy technique. To keep it simple, I call it “trigger point therapy” on our website. It is called different names depending if you are talking to an Occupational or Physical Therapist, Rolfing Therapist, Chiropractor, etc. I’ve heard it called Myofacial Release, Client Assisted Release, Active Release etc., but it is always the same technique of maintaining static pressure on a sore spot and then stretching the muscle under that pressure (see the “two therapies” video on our website). This releases the muscle fiber much more quickly and efficiently than cross-fiber technique or mere stroking (effluerage). It also has the added benefit of letting the sufferer discover which muscles and which range of motion is the culprit in their problem.”

And on who is using Armaid and why climbers should think about using it:

“Disgruntled sufferers that have had the surgeries, taken the drugs, been upset with unending appointments with expensive therapy sessions and still not happy and are looking for something that they can do for themselves. They hear about Armaid mostly through word of mouth or a search online. For the cost of one or two medical or massage sessions they can buy an Armaid and be in charge of their own arm, elbow and hand health.

It must be made clear that Armaid is only useful if the problem is based in the forearm muscles that can create painful problems in the elbow, wrist and hand. The question that I always ask someone who is considering using Armaid is “Do you have sore forearm muscles?” if they say “yes” then I know that Armaid is perfect for them and will deliver relief when used as shown on the videos. Armaid will not be of use if the problem originates solely in the neck or shoulder region with a pinched nerve or injury “upstream” of the arm.

Armaid is not a cure all or a one-time magic bullet. It does give the sufferer a way to relieve their symptoms and to maintain their own hand, arm, elbow health. Armaid use is like brushing your teeth, regular maintenance is best for health because as an athlete you are constantly using your body and muscles and creating tension and metabolic waste products. That is why professional athletes have massages constantly before and after every work out and performance.

Summary

The Armaid is a useful product that can be used to supplement other healthy physical therapy for rehabilitating several conditions climbers experience. If you have chronic pain, the Armaid by itself will not cure you. But an overall change in habits along with this device can be an effective solution to getting back to lower pain levels.

* Special Discount *

Terry also gave me a special discount only for readers of All Climbing. If you mention you saw Armaid on All Climbing, you will receive 15% off your order of the device. Just mention it when ordering online or when calling them.

Disclaimer: It pains me to even write this, but let me reiterate – I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. If you have medical problems, please consult a doctor or other medical professional.

The post Review of Armaid, a Device for Treating Elbow and Forearm Pain first appeared on All Climbing.

I always find articles and videos on how climbing gear is constructed quite fascinating. A couple months ago I posted a video on how DMM makes carabiners and now Backcountry.com has written an article on Black Diamond‘s process of making carabiners from start to finish.

“Whenever you design something, it starts with a need,” says Bill Belcourt, BDâ??s Climbing Hardgoods Category Director. The BD carabiner that eventually ends up on a climberâ??s rack begins as a brainstorming session or a simply sketched idea in the design department. Product designers determine what they want the carabiner to do and look like, and from there, they design computer models. Before they physically make anything, the design team uses FEA (Finite Element Analysis), which helps determine the shapes, angles, and features needed to fulfill the companyâ??s strength requirements.

(via Backcountry.com and @BlackDiamondUSA)

The post How Black Diamond Creates Carabiners first appeared on All Climbing.

Steve Casimiro of The Adventure Life reviews the Coleman Lantern, the Therm-A-Rest NeoAir, and the Timbuk 2 Doctor’s Bag.

Climbing Narc and Sicky Gnar Gnar have some first impressions on the Five Ten Projects.

Climbing Hold Review examines Jason Kehl’s Cryptochild holds.

A La Sportiva Speedster preview from Joe Kinder.

BJ at Splitter Choss looks at the Black Diamond Chaos harness and the new Indian Creek guidebook.

GearFlogger reviews the Metolius 18mm nylon sling, the DMM Revolver screwgate carabiner, and the Julbo Explorer glacier glasses.

Colorado Mountain School also reviews the Black Diamond Chaos harness.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 5/15/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

Itâ??s not the ultimate strength of a rope-worn biner that makes me the most nervous; itâ??s the risk of cutting a rope. As the biners get grooved or â??trenchedâ? from rope wear, a sharp edge begins to form on the sidesâ??and the rope runs directly over it. This edge would seem to be especially dangerous to your rope during a fall, lowering or winching/dogging up. Iâ??ve had several friends whip onto sharp biners with the end result being the â??sheathingâ? (i.e., the sheath gets cut and exposes the core) of the rope and possibly soiling of their shorts.

Check out the article as the results are fascinating.
(via Black Diamond on Twitter)

The post Black Diamond Tests Catching Falls on Rope-Worn Biners first appeared on All Climbing.