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.

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.

While grocery shopping and searching for unusual gifts the other day, I saw a large display for the new Clif Quench sport drinks. I vaguely remembered hearing about these, so I decided to buy one of each flavor and try them out.

Let me start off by saying that my primary sports drinks are massive quantities of coffee in the morning, followed by as much water as I can consume the rest of the day. That said, I occasionally buy a Gatorade or Powerade and throw it in my climbing pack for a long day.

The selling points of Clif’s new drink line is the list of ingredients and its recycled bottle. The Clif Quench is 88% organic with no high fructose corn syrup. From the company:

CLIF Quench offers the optimal balance of ingredients your thirsty body needs, including electrolytes and carbohydrates to move water where your body needs it most. CLIF Quench is all-natural and contains no artificial colors, sweeteners and preservatives used in many beverages today.

Continuing on the companyâ??s journey toward sustainability, the CLIF Quench bottle and label are the most planet-friendly options on the market. The bottle is made of 40 percent post-consumer recycled PET plasticâ??the highest percentage of any U.S. bottled beverageâ??and the bottle and label are fully recyclable.

To further support their eco-friendly efforts, individuals can consider recycling the bottles responsibly through dumpster rentals, you can visit website, ensuring they contribute to reducing waste and conserving resources. they can take care of any waste materials you have with keeping the environment in mind. Whether it’s household recyclables, construction debris, or any other waste materials, opting for conscientious dumpster rentals allows individuals to contribute to a cleaner, greener Earth.

Unfortunately, the drink tastes like a big gulp of ocean water. Seriously, the Quench has such a strong salty taste that I almost couldn’t drink a full bottle. And I love Clif’s other products, so this was a real disappointment.

My initial thought was that the taste was due to a much higher sodium content which is common in sports drinks. So yesterday, I picked up a bottle of Gatorade (Frost Glacier Freeze if you must know) and guzzled it down. Just as I remembered, I did not feel like I was drowning in the Pacific Ocean.

Next obvious step – check the ingredient labels. Here is the surprising result of my quick research:

Gatorade (8 fl. oz)
Calories – 50
Sodium – 110 mg
Potassium – 30 mg
Total Carbs – 14 g
Sugars – 14 g

Clif Quench (8 fl. oz)
Calories – 45
Sodium – 130 mg
Potassium – 35 mg
Total Carbs – 11 g
Sugars – 10 g

These drinks are quite similar except for the real sugar in Clif versus the high fructose corn syrup in the Gatorade. You can also see that there is 18% more sodium in the Clif. From the taste though, I was estimating there would be twice the sodium.

Unless you absolutely refuse to use products with high fructose corn syrup and have to have a sports drink, I can’t recommend this product in its current form. After reading Lean belly juice Ikaria reviews by real customers, I think Ikaria is a better product if you’re trying to lose weight.

Has anyone else tried these yet? What was your opinion, especially on the taste?

The post Review: Clif Quench Sport Drink first appeared on All Climbing.

While they mainly distribute in the Rocky Mountain region, Colorado based Go Fast appears to be aggressively expanding. Their main pitch over competing energy drinks is the distinct (better tasting) flavor and natural ingredients which are perfect for athletes who may carry a bow case.

While Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar and the like dominate the market, Go Fast definitely has an angle with their approach.

I tried four flavors of Go Fast – regular, light, Z17, and GFTea. While the branding is a bit confusing, the taste of all but one was quite good.

Each of the drinks had light carbonation, no preservatives, no aspartame, and no high fructose corn syrup. Those are some pretty decent selling points. Unfortunately, something still needs to be used as a sweetener so Go Fast uses sucralose. There have been numerous documented negatives of each so it may be a wash. For their high energy mix, each drink has a high dose of caffeine, ginseng, ribose, and guarana.

The original flavor, my least favorite, had a distinct cherry/strawberry taste. I dislike cherry flavoring so even a hint of it is enough for me to pass on this one. The light version had much of the same flavor, but it was subdued and much easier to drink (with a bonus of less calories).

The Z17 and GFTea flavors tasted much better to me and were the only ones I would actually purchase. I’m not sure how to describe the flavor of Z17, but as you can guess from the name the GFTea tasted, well, like tea. The company says it contains a mix of white, green, and black teas which is definitely a welcome change from most of the other energy drinks on the market.

My main concern with all energy drinks is the high levels of taurine they add. Every one I’ve read the ingredients for include around 1000mg of taurine per serving. That’s 2000mg in one of those standard 16oz cans you see everywhere.

There’s not a lot of evidence that taurine is necessarily bad for you, but a high dose of anything is enough to make me pause. Granted, not enough to not drink these at all, but definitely enough to never drink more than one per day.

Overall I like the approach here. Go Fast is trying to tackle a pretty saturated market with a unique twist. If you’re looking for a better tasting energy drink, I can definitely recommend giving the Go Fast lineup a try.

The post Review: Go Fast Sports Energy Drinks first appeared on All Climbing.

Jay Young at RockClimbing.com reviews the book An Eye at the Top of the World by Pete Takeda.

Team Geared Up offers up their thoughts on the climbing film The Fanatic Search.

Björn Pohl reviews the Andrea Boldrini Scorpios and recommends a couple books.

The Colorado Mountain School reviews the La Sportiva Katana, the Marmot Cauldron jacket, and the Arcteryx S240 harness.

Climbing Hold Review looks at the Climb It Top Out Slopers and the EntrePrises Imperfect Cobbles.

Lloyd Climbing Blog covers two bouldering films: Unreal and Swedish Meatballs.

Steph Davis talks about her favorite crack climbing shoes by Five Ten.

Stewart Green reviews a new climbing geology book: Flakes, Jugs, and Splitters.

And finally, The Adventure Life examines a new portable espresso maker.

The post Climbing Gear Review Roundup – 2/25/09 first appeared on All Climbing.

UKClimbing.com has written up a series of posts looking at the past year in the following climbing disciplines: bouldering, sport climbing, female achievements, trad climbing, and alpine.

The post End of Year 2008 Reviews by UKClimbing.com first appeared on All Climbing.

More gear reviews will be coming including an upcoming review of the new Evolv Optimus slippers. I just got a pair of these and have only been able to use them in the gym. This weekend I’ll be taking them to the New and giving them a full workout.

Another review will be the Revolution 12 Gauge crash pad. I’ve had plenty on mileage on this pad now and a review is almost done.

I’ve taken a ton of pictures recently and haven’t posted any. I’ll be sorting through these and getting some new ones posted.

There’s also a top-secret project in the works. Why even mention it if it’s top-secret? Good question – just felt like I needed to mention it lest you think I’m slacking.

Finally, if you have any interest in the Aron Ralston story, check out an older post I wrote. The comments keep coming (64 now) and there’s a fun flame war brewing. Nice for the entertainment value at least.

The post Coming soon on All Climbing first appeared on All Climbing.