BD athlete Mason Earle making the first ascent of Real Talk (5.13+), Lower Mill Creek, UT from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

The team around the BD athletes Nalle Huakkataival and Fred Nicole met every morning at the parking areas of the most popular areas in Fontainebleau (Isatis, Cul de Chien, and Valle de la Mee). Talks and flipcharts were used to draw the attention of visitors and climbers to a responsible behaviour, such as: clean climbing shoes thoroughly (sandy climbing shoes polish the rock), use magnesium sparingly and leave no tick marks, stay on the designated trails (risk of erosion), leave behind no rubbish (in particular no toilet paper), light no fires.

The boulderers then set off with compostable plastic sacks and collected rubbish. After the boulder and cleanup session the bags of rubbish were disposed of in the Black Diamond bus and all the participants received a small surprise. The cleanup day ended in a relaxed mood with live music from Nico Favresse, fresh beer and animated exchanges of information about the most recent boulder routes. On Easter Monday, the Black Diamond group itself went out and cleaned up the popular "Elephant" climbing area of rubbish.

Chasin' the Rubbish 2.0 in Fontainebleau, France from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

Over the four days, a total of more than 250 kg of rubbish was collected. This rubbish was then handed over to the regional forestry office to be disposed of. The local forestry officers were full of praise for the cleanup operation and thanked all the participating climbers on behalf of the forest.

Black Diamond also warmly thanked all the hard-working boulderers! Through this cleanup operation Black Diamond wants to ensure that it will still be possible to visit this unique climbing area in the future as well.

BD athletes Daniel Jung and Nico and Olivier Favresse climbing first ascents in Norway from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

The community is small and quiet. Traffic comes in the tourist season, along with the fair few folks who return to their homes from the lower valleys as the warmer weather comes around. For a while this place was one of those not-so-secret “secret areas”... A local’s spot, kinda kept below radar and above the clouds. Twas thin and sporadic, seasonal and indistinguishable from that of the valley dwellers come up for a taste of the mountain life: a trout dinner and a drive through history past. It’s hard to keep secrets anymore, and over the years folks began to come to Brione as weather heated up in Cresciano and Chironico, to see the perfect rock and jump in the river, climb the big free walls and hang in the green grass.

It’s an interesting place with an interesting situation: climbers are a fairly distinctive group, sometimes travelling in packs, many with different perspectives regarding the outdoors. In a tight space like you’ll find in a place like Brione, it’s a good idea to be on your best behavior. To the folks that live there, we stand out pretty well. In a town that small, not much goes unnoticed.

We’re lucky to be able to climb in places like this, which are nothing short of living magic. We’re lucky to be able to get just a taste of life in these mountains, of this air and water, and damn near that of another time. That’s worth some respect. Some quiet. Some consideration. If I lived there I’d hope to have it the same way.

BD athlete Chris Schulte climbing 8B boulder problems in Brione, Switzerland from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

[Please note: The climbing in Brione is often on, or accessed through, private property. Please behave with courtesy and respect, and help keep this incredible area pristine and peaceful.]

Video #2: BD athlete Alex Honnold making the first ascent of A Gift From Wyoming (5.13) on Yosemite's Leaning Tower from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

Video #1: BD athlete Alex Honnold making the first ascent of A Gift From Wyoming (5.13) on Yosemite's Leaning Tower from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

But there is a reason that we have a blurb in all of our instructions for use stating, “do not modify this product in any way.” It’s not that we’re trying to limit creativity.  It’s because we’ve gone through painstaking efforts to ensure that our products meet all necessary strength and certification requirements, and behave how they are intended. We need to consider typical use, misuse, and abuse. We need to consider ultimate strength, durability, manufacturability, ratings and certifications. The end result is a product that we’re psyched about and meets all external and, just as importantly, internal requirements we put on it.

When people modify their gear, they may unwittingly be changing a critical design or strength feature.

When I’m out climbing I see some of the mods that people have done, and I cringe. I also get lots of emails asking if I recommend a particular tweak, change or modification to a product.  A few examples and my immediate thoughts:

These are just a few random examples among many we’ve encountered, but we decided to choose three instances of modification that we’ve seen come up lately and test them here in the lab. Many modifications fall under the category of “not a good idea,” but the examples below are ones we think might actually be legitimately dangerous in situations of consequence.

This one has been covered before but it’s worth revisiting. Re-slinging Camalots with open loop or extendable slings—one of our most frequent questions. Could we replace our slings with either an open-loop sling/runner or an extendable sling? Sure. But we don’t, and we don’t recommend it. Open loop slings, narrower spectra slings or extendable sling configurations result in a higher likelihood of tweaking your thumb loop under normal falls, and in the worst case, cutting the slings at lower than originally intended loads.

Open-loop replacement

Older-style Camalots had an open-loop sling; C4s, C3s and X4s have a sewn sling that is double thick where it contacts the wire cable of the cam. This is for two reasons:

1) Ultimate Strength

These slings are designed to attain the strength ratings we desired. During loading, the cable thumb loop pinches down, and in-effect eventually cuts through a single thick sling at between 9kN-10kN. The double thick sling distributes the load, and allows the sling to meet higher load—up to 14kN.

2) Tweaked thumb loops

During a loading situation, the single layer of webbing isn’t firm enough, and the thumb loop pinches down resulting in a slightly kinked cable.  The double-thick sling alleviates this.

Double loop replacement (aka, extendable sling)

Lots of people seem to think an extendable sling on a cam is a good idea. There are three reasons why we don’t use extendable slings on our cams and why we don’t recommend replacing BD cam slings with extendable slings:

1) Extendable slings are bulky and just make a mess of your rack.  Plus, if you look at a typical extendable cam sling vs. a non-extendable, it’s only about 1 carabiner height longer.  Use a shoulder length sling when you want to extend the sling and avoid cams walking and/or rope drag.

2) When used in extended mode, they result in  lower strength values than standard slings

3) Again, there is a high possibility of tweaking the cable in the event of a fall

Not all manufacturers use the same diameter of toe and heel bail wire, flats on the ends of the wire, or holes which they fit into on the front and rear rails. Use a smaller wire with the larger hole, and the crampon won’t meet the CE and UIAA strength-of-bail-attachment requirement of 1kN. More importantly, you risk the possibility of the bail popping out mid-pitch.

This test involves pulling or prying the bail wires away from the crampon rail. Check out the following link to see how we set up the test: http://www.theuiaa.org/safety_standards.php

[Note: test performed on BD rails. EN893 requirement (section 4.3.3 transverse strength bails) = 1000N (224.8lbf) proof load.]

The above data shows that using mix-matched bail wires and crampon rails can result in it being pretty darn easy for the bails to pop out. Not ideal.

Word on the street is that some folks believe ice tool tethers are capable of arresting a fall. News flash: they’re not, and that’s not what they’re for. It seems that I’ve already been through this (http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/journal/climb//qc-lab-how-strong-is-the-spinner-leash), however, I’ve still had a few people ask if they replaced the attachment points with “full-strength” biners, would that cut it?  No.

I’ve even caught wind of some creative folks out there wanting to incorporate a “Screamer” into their tether system, so it reduces the load, acting more like a via feratta. Still not a good idea. Don’t believe me? A few of the crew headed down to the drop tower to demonstrate.  We connected a spinner leash to two ice tools and rigged up a Screamer to the mass in our drop tower and did a few realistic drops—representing either one or both arms of the tether taking the load should your feet pop.

Therefore this showed that even with an energy absorption system in the mix, it doesn’t matter.  The load generated is still high enough to break the tether.  Short falls onto static material send the loads through the roof.To reiterate for the umpteenth time. Ice tool tethers are to stop your leashless tool from falling into oblivion should you drop it. They are NOT designed, tested, nor intended to catch you should you slip and fall.

Bottom Line

Any time you modify your gear you’re potentially affecting something that you may not be aware of.  Cutting off some excess straps off your pack to save some weight is one thing, but modifying PPE (personal protective equipment) is another. Most gear manufacturers have gone through great lengths to provide the equipment in the way it was intended, so it’s likely better to just leave it that way.

VIDEO #3: BD Athlete Nalle Hukkataival bouldering in Peñoles, Mexico from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

[Ines Papert during the first ascent of Finnmannen (M9+ WI7, 400m) together with Bent Vidar Eilertsen on the island of Senja, Norway Photo by visualimpact.ch | Thomas Senf]

A trip to Norway is a must for any self-respecting ice climber and after visiting the Romsdalen region last year, this season Ines Papert decided to travel even further north, namely 350km above the polar circle to Senja, Norway's second-largest island. Papert made the journey together with Thomas Senf, Nina and Christian Schlesener to find out more about the island's untapped potential and, in particular, to climb a stunning 400m mixed line she had seen on a photo to the right of the classic WI6 ice climb Finnkona.

[Ines Papert during the first ascent of Finnmannen (M9+ WI7, 400m) together with Bent Vidar Eilertsen on the island of Senja, Norway Photo by visualimpact.ch | Thomas Senf]

Papert teamed up with local Bent Vidar Eilertsen and after kayaking towards the base, the pair proceeded on their first attempt at forging a direct line which proved impossible due to the lack of holds. A tricky 20m rightwards slab traverse was the answer but after running out of gear at the end of this, they decided to retreat. The duo returned the next day and managed to climb the entire line in an impressive 19-hour push, with Papert leading and redpointing all the pitches past difficulties up to M9+ WI7.

[Ines Papert during the first ascent of Finnmannen (M9+ WI7, 400m) together with Bent Vidar Eilertsen on the island of Senja, Norway Photo by visualimpact.ch | Thomas Senf]

The route is protected with trad gear and a handful of pegs only and while Eilertsen commented that their Finnmannen "is a route for real men", Papert explained "it's a pretty serious outing, in particular the finish which involved a 10m runout. Falling from this point would certainly have been not that great."
The team made the most of their 10-day stay to climb a series of other routes nearby which include the first ascent of Aurorabuttress M7/WI6+ 250m (Ines Papert, Thomas Senf) and a repeat of Great Corner M7+ 300m (Christian Schlesener, Thomas Senf).

[Ines Papert during the first ascent of Finnmannen (M9+ WI7, 400m) together with Bent Vidar Eilertsen on the island of Senja, Norway Photo by visualimpact.ch | Thomas Senf]

I have had many significant changes in my life recently. The end of school turned my life and climbing into completely different perspective. Loads of time, total freedom to travel wherever I want is something I had been dreaming about for years. Finally I have the time to travel abroad along with a drill and create something inspiring enough to put a massive effort into. To find the first proof of this change, instead of heading south as always when we go climbing, we headed north instead. Change is life.
Norway. This country had always been a bit mysterious when I was reading about it. I knew I would visit the country one day even though I didn't even know about the possibility of sport climbing or bouldering up there. When the photos of Flatanger struck my eyes two years ago, it was decided. Summer 2012. The enormous cave of Flatanger definitely didn't let me down despite high expectation when I first saw it. I could stare forever into endless sea of brown and orange granitic gneiss, trying to find some line to bolt. I felt like a kid having a sand playground in front of him, tempted to create something as kids like building castles out of sand. My eyes were lost in this playground, confusingly scanning the features of the rock again and again, trying to find the perfect line. I climbed a couple of days on established routes and then finally made the decision of bolting.

After two days of bolting, the route was ready to climb. I couldn't wait to check out the moves, to find out whether the holds, which seemed good enough while hanging in the rope, are good enough in reality. Though I was sure that it was incredibly hard, it seemed climbable. Absolutely ridiculous bouldery sequence at the beginning, athletic middle and pumpfest to the top, it included all my requests for the great project. A true testpiece of various climbing abilities. It was like my baby, I was looking forward to every single try. With this attitude, I made pretty fast progress. After 5 days of working the route, I managed to climb the first pitch (20m) up to the no-hands rest. It was an incredible fight, I couldn't climb more on my limit. I was very happy, I felt that the success was close as I managed to recover quite well in the rest and continued a bit. I thought the route couldn't be more than 9b, as the first pitch felt like 9a+ and the rest is so good.

But after many days on it in summer, despite feeling much stronger in the lower boulder problem, I didn't manage to climb through the first pitch any more. A good attitude to project and the joy of trying, turned into a different story. Pressure, nervousness, loss of self-confidence. After three weeks of trying, I had to give up, admitting that I lost my shape and training for the World Championship in Paris was a better thing to do. And a return with full power afterwards.
Well, but not everything goes according to plans. I returned stronger indeed, but it had been raining three weeks before our arrival and the route was seeping. I tried anyway, but climbing at my limit with humid holds, that takes the whole thing beyond my current limits. After the temps improved a bit, I crushed the first pitch easily. I started climbing through the second pitch, but my sore legs from the no-hands rest couldn't squeeze two compression heel-hooks and popped off. Damn! Despite two wet holds above, where I would probably fall anyway, I gained self confidence again. After two humid days and falling again in the first pitch, my self confidence was low again. After failing two times more in the first pitch with improved conditions, my self confidence was close to point zero. It seemed I was out of shape, getting pumped after a couple of moves, the belief and faith despite making all the effort to not lose it, was disappering. I needed some kick, something to raise my self confidence and belief that I could do it. In the end, it was nothing more than horrendous wind behind the windows during the restday. I could see the temps would be awesome the next day.

The wind gave me the hope, but didn't blow the pressure away. I couldn't fall asleep, having the nightmare moves in my mind played again. Morning was just as random as always. Every day had started with hope and ended up with no or mininal success by that time. The wind has almost stopped, clouds were down, I wasn't too sure about good conditions. Paradoxically, that blew the pressure a bit away. Having driven 5 kilometres, having hiked 15 minutes to the cave, I stood underneath again. I could see the conditions had improved. I warmed up and I set off. The pressure was away, until I was up in the crux of the first pitch again. Despite feeling strong as hell, a little mistake almost cost me a unique chance, but I stabbed two fingers into the pocket somehow and continued. A no-hands rest and I am getting through the most difficult part from the psychological point of view - switching into the fighting mode, forget the pressure, forget the doubts, just flow. And flow is exactly what I manage. The higher I climb, the more pumped I get, but without a single mistake.

As I reach a good rest, I can hardly breathe, but it is still about 8b+ to go. This wasn't supposed to be big deal, but it is clear to me that this is not going to be easy. I fight, I can't get the lactid acid away, but hold on. After 26 minutes of fighting, I clip the chains and can't really believe if it is true. A stream of emotions are present, slowly filling my empty mind, tongue is sticking to my gums, I am extremely thirsty.
Even a couple of days after the ascent, it is hard to stop smiling. I have never had such rewarding feeling after having done a climb, probably it is because it was a first ascent. The name of the route symbolizes the changes of my recent life, a step into new level of climbing (after thinking about it, I conviced myself to go for 9b+), changing of various styles in the route itself and definitely the change of the Flatanger climbing area which is a world-class area. I need personal change as well. Move on. Find a new challenge. But definitely it is not the last time in this beautiful country.

-Adam

I remember that Markuz called me a friday afternoon and told me somewhat aroused that Vettisfossen was in condition. I had myself visited the fall before only to find out that it wasn't frozen even in cold temperature.
The thing with this icefall was, because it formed quite seldom in the past and together with the "early" spectacular ascents, that it received a somewhat mythical reputation. I think the first ascent was done by "Hot" Henry Barber and Rob Taylor in 1977 in a quite spectacular manner with sand glued on gloves that were used to lay-back icicles. The second ascent was done by Frans Fisher and Carlos Wagner in 1997, also in a spectacular way since they had to negotiate series of 10m, 45 ̊overhanging mushrooms in very cold and wet conditions.
Later that evening I met up with Markus and Henrik Peel, and left around 7 pm, to drive all night from Stockholm to Øvre Årdal. We arrived at 5:30 am and an hour later we were organized and started to walk the three hour approach through the long canyon of the Vetti river. We became quite excited when we turned the corner to the amphitheater, and saw what we saw. Inside was standing a marble-like hidden treasure in the form of a frozen pillar. Henrik, the photographer, seemed very pleased, and soon found a balcony to the left of the amphitheater. We all had our roles now; I did the leads and Makuz speed seconded every pitch. He is really fast at that.
That year 2006 it exploded with ascents, almost ten years after Frans Fischer and Carlos Wagner's second ascent. Since then it has been in condition many times due to really cold winters, with even more ascents. So the early reputation of the fall is now more down to earth.

-Peter Värvell

Via ferrata sets from several companies have recently been involved in a series of recalls due to safety concerns.

To see what via ferrata systems are currently under recall, click here. If you need a new via ferrata set that is not affected by the safety recall, please visit your local Black Diamond dealer or use our dealer search to find the nearest dealer that has Easy Rider or Iron Cruiser sets in stock.

To read an in-depth report with photos and testing videos by our Quality Assurance Team on proper via ferrata usage and retirement, click here.

As always, we strongly encourage everyone to read and follow the manufacturer’s instructions regarding proper use, inspection, lifespan and retirement of your via ferrata set. Here is further information from BD instructions regarding inspection, retirement and lifespan of BD via ferrata sets:

The maximum lifespan of Black Diamond products is as follows: up to 10 years from the date of manufacture for plastic and textile products, and indefinite for metal products. With normal use and proper care, the typical lifespan of a metal product is three to ten years, and the typical lifespan of a textile product is two to five years. The actual lifespan of your gear can be longer or shorter depending on how frequently you use it and on the conditions of its use.

Inspect your gear for signs of damage and wear before and after each use. Damaged gear must be retired and destroyed to prevent future use.

Factors that reduce the lifespan of climbing gear: Falls, abrasion, wear, prolonged exposure to sunlight, saltwater/air, harsh environments.

Before and after each use, unzip the package and remove the energy-absorption webbing to inspect it.

Retire the system if the energy-absorption lanyard:

•  is cut, worn, melted or abraded

•  stitching is broken or show signs of wear

•  has any amount of energy-absorption webbing separated

If your Black Diamond energy-absorption system and carabiners have been involved in a fall, but are not obviously damaged, they still may be ready for retirement. If you have any doubts about the dependability of any of your gear, retire it. Anytime you retire a piece of gear, destroy it to prevent future use.

Please contact Black Diamond Equipment if you have further questions: climb@bdel.com and climb@blackdiamond.eu (Europe)

VIDEO #2: BD Athlete Nalle Hukkataival bouldering in Peñoles, Mexico from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.