GearFlogger

MSR SweetWater water purifier solution

Ever been too hot to trot? How about too hot with the trots? For every one of us who has experienced the Hershey squirts at the most inopportune moment - and really, when it comes to peeing out your bunghole, every moment is inopportune - MSR has a solution. Literally.

SweetWater Purifier Solution is nothing more than sodium hypochlorite - common household bleach to the rest of us - in water. Sure, you could do it yourself, but they know you're too lazy, so they give you a whopping 2oz bottle, which is enough to treat 80 gallons of water. An eyedrop sized bottle that only treats 40 gallons would have been sufficient, but since most of the cost of this product is undoubtedly in the packaging you still would have paid $9 for it.

Still, if you're wanting convenience here it is. The taste is tolerable, and it does what it says: just add five drops per liter of filtered water and wait five minutes and presto, virus be gone. Ignore the "only use with MSR filters" part. Chlorine is chlorine.

$10.00 at REI

BioBags dog waste bags

Man's best friend is, of course, the SheFlogger. But right after that is the GearDogger. Our four-legged coprophilic companions are an integral part of many backcountry adventures. In general it seems like there's a trend for more dog-friendly places to roam, and to keep that trend going here's our plug for poop removal.

BioBag makes all kinds of eco-conscious bags for food storage, etc. BioBag Dog is Norway's attempt to do for canine world peace what the Swedes did with their so-called Nobel Prize: an easy and environmentally friendly way to pick up after your dog. Billed as "the world's first fully certified biodegradable and compostable pooper bag" the BioBag dog is certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute. I'm betting the guys who have been there a while get to certify the cool stuff, like the Brazilian Supermodel Biodegradable Thong, but you just know the new guy has to certify the shit bags.

Either way, it's a great idea and they work just fine: slip over your hand, grab a hold and reverse the bag, then pull it through the hole at the top and it's sealed. A great deal too, since you can buy two four-packs - total of 400 bags for a year's supply - and get free shipping from Amazon. Save money, save mess, be a good K9 ambassador. What's not to like? Other sizes available for cats and large dogs.

$15.25 for a four-pack, total 200 bags at Amazon

Brooks-Range Professional Guide Toolkit

There's a big difference between hitting the backcountry with your buddies for fun, and doing it as a j-o-b where you're legally responsible for people who are paying you for your competence. Professional guides take systems to the next level, and helping them get there is Brooks-Range with their Professional Guide Toolkit.

The PGT is BR's most comprehensive collection of useful tools for backcountry risk management, not just for guides but for anyone serious about learn-to-return. A bright yellow ripstop nylon field organizer has sleeves for the Rite-in-the-Rain field book #311 and other included items. A map tool has ten scales and slope indices, three UTM rulers, a compass rose with 360 and 64 notations that can be modifed to work as an inclinometer, and a metric-to-english conversation table. The All-in-One Emergency Latitude/Longitude Ruler has the same ten scales(1:20,000 through 1:250,000) in a slightly easier to use longer form on a piece of paper.

Those are cool enough, but the PGT also includes six double-sided cards with checklists and walk-throughs for conducting guide's meetings, planning a tour, tracking vital party stats, avalanche hazard forecasts and helicopter landing zone preparation. Most of us hacks just collapse into our fart sacks once camp is set up. The morning and evening guide's meeting cards show what kind of work professionals do in their downtime to make sure things keep running smoothly: hazard evaluations, weather observations and forecasts, client-specific needs from coaching to health to attitude, group dynamics and decision making quality to name a few.

If you want to take your game to the next level by systematizing best practices, the Brooks-Range Professional Guide Toolkit is a great place to start.

$59.96 (on sale from $74.95) at Backcountry

Brunton Eterna Monocular

I always thought that a monocular was one of those little round pieces of glass that evil villains wear in one eye. Turns out that's not it: the correct answer is monocle. Monocle. After getting over my initial disappointment that Brunton had not sent me some good villain kit, I discovered that the Eterna 4070W 6x30 monocular is nonetheless a great piece of gear.

The nitrogen-filled Eterna is water- and fog-proof, weighs only 10oz with caps and leash, and is compact at 6in long by 2in diameter. It's not the smallest monocular Brunton makes, but the tradeoff is an armored body with a grippy rubber rand that makes it easy to hold and point with gloves on. It's easier to maneuver and stow than a pair of binos, making it much faster to get into action.

The optics are very nice, fully coated with a sharp 341ft field of view at 1,000 yards. The 30mm objective outperforms its size, offering superb low light performance. A generous 19mm of eye relief means no mashing your eyeball against the lens. Overall the 6x magnification is great for mountaineering use such as scoping out routes, observing other climbers and other useful tasks. If you want a long looker for dedicated trail use, check out the Eterna.

$96.20 at Amazon

Sitka Gear Flash 20 backpack

Sitka Gear likes to push the envelope with their designs, and their Flash 20 technical daypack has a few tricks in its bag. The Flash is designed for hunting but photographers and other gearheads will like it too. It comes dressed for success in Gore Optifade, a camouflage pattern specifically designed to fool animal vision.

The 3lb 7oz pack is rated at 2,000ci, enough for an ultralight overnight or a day trip with room for small to medium game. The silent and waterproof StealthTex fabric is stretchy so you can really stuff it in. The Flash is a top loader (no floating lid) with pockets galore: the main compartment has a smaller zipped hydration pouch pocket with clip, as well as a smaller MRE-sized mesh zipped pocket. There are two fleece-lined pockets, a small one on top and a large one on the back, perfect for lenses and scopes.

Also on the back are two more pockets, one large sized, open at the top with a buckle closure and one smaller with a side facing zipper.  All the zipper pulls are sausage-finger and glove compatible, with stay-open rubber half-rings. Finally there are two quart-bottle-sized open mesh bottle-pockets on the sides and two zipped compact-camera-sized pockets on the waist belt. For strap-on gear the two side compression straps and two rear straps give you plenty of options.

The removable aluminum frame and stiff framesheet do a great job of supporting the load, and the Flash carries better the more you load it. There's plenty of air on your back thanks to the curve of the frame, and in a pinch you could stash some of your load there. There are adjustments galore: the sternum strap has a good bit of vertical travel, and the waist belt is trick: the adjustment webbing routes through a cool little redirector that allows you to pull them forward to snug it up. This is a much more natural motion than pulling back and once you get used to it you resent packs that don't have it. One nitpick in an otherwise great pack: it's one size fits most and the limiting factor is the shoulder straps, which could use about six more inches of travel to fit longer torsos.

$199.00 at High Mountain Outfitters

Mountain Hardwear Hydra glove

Mountain Hardwear is pushing glove design a bit with their new OutDry extreme waterproof technology. We've been testing the men's Hydra glove, with a waterproof membrane welded directly to the soft shell outside, and it's a comer.

The Hydra is intended for alpine climbing, and as long as you understand the tradeoffs you'll love it. It doesn't have knuckle guards or a lot of insulation, and it fits snugly so if you want to wear anything thicker than the thinnest liner you may want to size up. With that in mind, the Hydra excels where you need waterproof dexterity. It has a medium thickness tough leather palm that provides excellent traction on your tools, an elastic wrist and a comfy fleecy lining inside.

The cuff has a supercool feature: there are two toggles, which confused my little climber's walnut brain at first. I finally figured out that one cinches down the cuff, and the other one - wait for it - loosens the cuff. Brilliant! No more pinching and pulling those munchkin-sized cordlocks to loosen the cuff before you slide it on over your jacket sleeve. Just crank it and yank it. The OutDry tech works as advertised too; it's always a good idea to have the membrane as far towards the exterior of a laminate fabric as possible, otherwise everything outside the membrane gets wet and compromises performance. None of that here. For its intended application the Hydra rules.

$99.95 at Altrec

Gordini Silkweight Briefs - Men's

As we all know, the primary purpose of men's underwear is to protect your pants from your ass. You gotta keep 'em separated, like the Berlin Wall or the 38th parallel. Gordini has a little something for you here.

Gordini's Silkweight men's briefs due a good job of wicking and after a few months of wearing and washing the elastic - usually the weak point for technical underwear - seems to be holding up just fine. Supposedly there's some kind of anti-microbial treatment to reduce bacteria and odor. My butt bacteria is usually pretty tough, but the Gordinis are going all Russian mafiya on my ass and keeping things under control.

These have a fly, which I've always wondered if anyone actually uses. I'm a fan of the yank-em-down method, much faster than tunneling for treasure if you know what I mean. The only downside is the fit, which is generally small especially around the thighs. If you have skinny legs order your normal size, otherwise you might consider going up one.

$8.93 (on sale from $14.50) at REI Outlet

Sport Climbing by Andrew Bisharat

Readers of Rock and Ice magazine are familiar with Andrew Bisharat's spleen-of-consciousness writing. That voice is absent as he takes a first try at the long form in his book Sport Climbing: From Top Rope to Redpoint, Techniques for Climbing Success. The result is a bit of a mixed bag: some good advice, somewhat disorganized, ultimately unsure of its audience and with some glaring omissions.

The first chapter of SC is great, covering the history of SC, how it differes from bouldering and traditional climbing, and even gets straight to the heart of the matter: climbing is about falling, failure and fear, no matter what level you're operating at. There are a number of nice psychological nuggets like this throughout the book, even if the author does let his yoga fetish go a bit too far, e.g. "Let any expectations float to the surface and evaporate in the sun." I don't know about you, but when I'm pumped out at a scary bolt it's all I can do to keep my expectations from squirting out my butt onto my belayer's head. The detailed strategy recommendations for onsighting and redpointing are likewise worthwhile.

The chapter on gear is decent, with helpful tips on when to retire different pieces, but gives incomplete advice like "wire gates are... less likely to come unclipped," and "don't clip your belay carabiner through the tie-in points" without explaining the why and why not (triaxial loading and gate lash respectively). On the other hand, great detail is given to SC-specific techniques like regaining your high point, stick clipping and cleaning a route. Even here, however, there is no mention of simply walking to the top and setting an anchor, which even for SC can be useful.

The biggest shortcoming of the book is its superficial treatment of safety. The author lists wearing a helmet as the first safety rule on page 101, but it's barely covered in the gear section and worse, there's not a single photograph or illustration of a helmet being worn anywhere in the book. Talk about too cool for school. There's also no discussion of setting anchors, fall factors, multi-pitch climbing techniques or how to escape a belay. The advice to quickdraw yourself to a bolt and climb above it also deserves more discussion: the author notes that a static fall can hurt, but neglects to mention the increased probability of total gear failure, especially with a high-tensile dogbone.

This book is the first I've read that dilutes the otherwise stellar quality of the Mountaineers Outdoor Expert series, and fails to make the GearFlogger Backcountry Bookshelf. Hopefully they'll go back to the drawing board with a more focused, balanced and comprehensive second edition.

$15.80 at Amazon

Mountain Hardwear Hooded Compressor PL jacket

The Mountain Hardwear Compressor jacket is a GearFlogger favorite from way back. It's sturdy, versatile and well-designed. It also used to be just for men, but now there's a SheFlogger specific version that makes a few sacrifices to form over function that limit its suitability for alpine epics, yet are sure to make it a big hit with the double X crowd.

The women's Compressor has a feminine cut with a nice bit of extra length in the hem and more attractive stitching pattern, including a subtle logo design and floral pattern on the inside. Instead of an external chest pocket that might ride up on the bustline when stuffed, there's a zippered pocket on the inside of the left bicep. Sounds strange, but for wallet-sized stuff and lift passes it works well.

Another difference is in the cuffs, which replace the rip-and-stick adjustment on the men's with a hidden elastic cuff. Finally, the hood is listed as helmet-compatible, but it's really not in any comfortable way, at least not over the helmet. The hood is designed more like a drop hood where the collar can stand up in front while the hood lies flat in back. On the men's version the collar stands way up, which is great for chin protection, but the women will have to tuck down a bit to get some lovin' on their Leno.

Other features match the men's version: two zippered handwarmer pockets with a microfleece lining, an interior zippered chest pocket, adjustable hood and hem and much appreciated zipper garage to save your neck. The fill has been upgraded to Primaloft ECO, which is 50% recycled. The Compressor delivers great warmth for the weight, and the wearability is excellent: it just fits and works great. It layers well thanks to the low-friction DWR ripstop nylon shell so you can easily take it into single digit backcountry excursions, or throw it on over a dress shirt for work. For serious alpine use we'd like to see more coverage of the chin, a true helmet compatible hood and rip-and-stick cuffs, but for anything else the Compressor is first rate.

$190.00 at REI

La Sportiva Spantik boot

Evolution is a beautiful thing, resulting in sublime forms such as the platypus, Brangelina, and now the La Sportiva Spantik. Three years after our original review, the Spantik still truly represents all that is good in the (alpine) world.

The Spantik achieves the holy grail of boot design: it's a double boot that feels like a single boot. It even manages to feel lighter than its 5lb 1oz scale weight, combining and improving on the best of composite shell technology from the Nuptse and the mid- and outer-sole of the Nepal EVO GTX.

What this means to you is not having to sacrifice warmth for technical prowess or vice versa. Does it work? Not just yes but hell yes. On vertical ice at temperatures well below freezing it feels nimble and precise, yet even with just a liner sock on I never felt even a tinge of cold. The fit is just a little roomy in the toe box (I have slightly narrow feet) for a perfect fit once I added a thick mountaineering sock.

The lacing system is what you first notice on the Spantik. It's a single very thin lace on each boot that closes either with a velcro tab (inner boot) or by wrapping around a disc (outer boot). Here's the beta: modify the pull on the outer boot lace so it doesn't slip over the keeper knot and carry a spare set in case of breakage and you will absolutely love it. It sets the cuff to the desired stiffness around your ankle for great support and does not slip: hallelujah!

If you can afford the price of entry, rest assured that the Spantik is not just some marketing exec's overhyped glands at work; it delivers true innovation.

$700.00 at Moosejaw