Not very long time ago, I wanted to purchase a new harness in order to substitute my old -and loved- harness, the Mammut Ophir. In that time, I wanted to have an all around harness, with emphasis on trad and multi-pitch climbing and therefore I got the Petzl ADJAMA.
Although the Petzl ADJAMA is a great and very comfortable harness, due to the fact most of the days I spend them on sport climbing crags, I also got the new Hirundos model by Petzl.
Rock climbing is an activity that is done outdoors and provides a feeling unlike any other outdoor activity. To reach that feeling, though, you need to have the correct gear to keep you safe in case of a fall. A climbing harness is a crucial piece of equipment: it’s the contact point between you, your rope and your belayer (the person on the ground on the other end of the rope to stop you from falling).
There are many climbing harness options to choose from and it all depends what kind of climbing you are planning to do and how the specific harness fits on your body.
Headlamps are essential items for the mountaineering gear list, and a good headlamp is a must for winter mountaineering activities. Even well-planned hikes can end up taking much more time than anticipated (due to bad weather, injuries, blocked trails etc.) and to ensure that you don’t end up being stuck in nature in pitch-black darkness, it is crucial that you bring a headlamp in your backpack. A headlamp also gives you possibility for planning a trip in the dark, taking a run after sunset or simply getting an early before-sunrise start of your hiking trip.
In the market there are many different options and actually, sometimes is a bit tough to select the best possible headlamp. A mountaineering/hiking headlamp should work for a reasonable amount of time without having the batteries recharged/replaced. In addition, a headlamp for hiking, backpacking or mountaineering should provide good brightness and beam distance. Furthermore, as mountaineering/hiking is not limited to dry weather, a hiking headlamp should be waterproof or at least water-resistant. Water resistance is typically measured by the IEC standard 60529 which includes ratings from IPX1 to IPX8.
Every new winter season, I try to upgrade some of my old mountaineering gear and change my old gear to new models. Mountaineering gear can be rather expensive and therefore I do such upgrades gradually. Recently, I have updated my helmet and I got the new Mammut Wall Rider helmet, but I have also got a new ice axe, the new Petzl Quark.
Like always, prior of purchasing a new item, I do an extensive market research. For the new ice axe, I had specific needs and wishes. I wanted the new ice axe to be a multipurpose ice axe that I could use it for general mountaineering, but also on more technical terrains, such as on couloirs and more mix climbing activities.
Recently, I have decided to upgrade some of my older pieces of equipment, and during this process I came to the conclusion that I wanted to upgrade my harness system too. Having used the Mammut Baffin harness for few years now, I came to the understanding that such a bulky harness was not what I wanted to have anymore. Although the Mammut Baffin performed great so far, I looked for less bulky and most of all for lightweight solutions. After extensive research on various harnesses from different high-end companies, I decided to purchase the new lightweight harness from Petzl, the ALTITUDE Harness.
Olympus Mountaineering 