Speed is important on long routes. many alpine routes are so big, that unless you are fast, you are going to get benighted. Trust me, there's a huge difference being six beers down in the pub after finishing the climb and suffering a cold night somewhere high on the route. The easiest way of shaving minutes and hours from the ascent time is to be efficient. There are few recent blogposts giving excellent tips regarding the speed on big routes. Be sure to check also my earlier entry on the same thing: Multi-pitch efficiency.

• Notes on Simple Tricks for Speed. There's been a bunch of discussion over on rockclimbing.com about the last speed post, thought I'd post a few things that answered good questions on there. By Will Gadd at Gravsports on 2010-03-03.
• Simple Tricks for Speed on Multi-Pitch Ice Routes. After a week with my friend Andreas Spak in Norway I've got some things to say about speed on big routes. Andreas climbs faster than most, is always up for a big route, and is tough enough to get the job done, but I always seem to learn or re-learn some stuff when doing big new routes with him in Norway. Here are a few "speed" tricks for big routes that are primarily multi-pitch without walking steps (those steps call for T Bloks etc., not covered here). By Will Gadd at Gravsports on 2010-02-24.
• Speed on big routes. Follow up on speed article by Will Gadd. By Doug Shepherd at Dougie Fresh on 2010-02-24.

All that said, it doesn't hurt to train. Hmm, bad choice of words; actually, if it doesn't you aren't doing enough of it. One of the more effective ways of training more is to make it so easy that you run out of excuses of not to. In this regard, home wall is a great. No I don't have one, but I probably should. Due to housing arrangements, it may be a challenge to build a wall anchored to walls. However, there's no reason why it would have to bolted on, it could just as well be free-standing.

• Building A Home Climbing Wall. At Chockstone.
• Climbing wall (single panel). At Climerware.

Finding a glove system that works is anything but straight-forward. Kelly Cordes has a good article regarding to this, which might give you good ideas.

• Chasing the Holy Grail: Winter Climbing's Glove Problem. For all the advances in gear, one clear, “last great problem” remains for the serious winter climber: gloves. What does everyone want? The holy grail, of course: Warmth, waterproofness, and dexterity. Just like we want gear that’s lightweight and durable, low-fat ice cream that tastes like real ice cream, and parties without hangovers. Be sure to read also additional info in his blog. At Spadout.

Even if it looks like the Everest movies isn't going to come to theaters near you anytime soon, there's still others. More specifically movie Nanga Parbat Joseph Vilsmaier covering the tragic Nanga Parbat Rupal Face expedition by the two Messner brothers in 1970, on which Reinhold Messners younger brother Günther died.

• Mountain gives up its tragic secret. Discovery of remains dashes claims brother was left to die 35 years ago. By Barbara McMahon at Guardian.
• Nanga Parbat film restarts row over Messner brothers' fatal climb. Movie tells of 70s ascent of treacherous Pakistan peak. Portrayal of sibling's death false, say team members. By Kate Connolly at Guardian.
• Trailer. At Kulthit.de.
• Watch free online Nanga Parbat German movie Trailer Germany Superhit Nanga Parbat Film. Contains full film in low quality webstream. At Hollywood Movie Watch Online,Review and Full Cast,.

There seem to be few interesting items just out or coming in the near future. Without further ado, here goes:

• DMM Dragon Looks a lot like lighter and somewhat improved version of awesome Black Diamond Camalot C4. Looks like the final production design is different from the prototypes so that final model does not have a thumb loop. Before actually trying it out this feels disappointing.
• Scarpa Phantom Guide This one looks like a no-brainer to me. I've been using excellent Phantom Lite's for years. However they are starting to leak due to wear and tear, so I need to replace them anyway in the near future. Phantom Guide seems like a new and improved version. The only question that remains is whether to get them half a number larger than my Phantom Lite's; they are very snug, climb excellently but walking downhill would be more comfortable if there was more room for toes. See also introduction/review.
• Petzl ice tools for season 2010-2011 Petzl are revamping their ice weaponry for the next season. Once again, they have changed the pick system. This time around it actually makes sense though, as now their technical line-up (Quark, Nimic and new Ergo) use the same picks and modular head. This same system also fixes (one of) the biggest drawbacks of their excellent Nomic, the lack of hammer. Other revamps include clever-looking slider/trigger system for all of the tools and improved trigrest. For Nomic and Ergo this means studs added to the bottom of trigrest. This is not ideal in my book, as there's still no good solution for using umbilical cord-type system should that strike your fancy and such studs are most likely not as good for support as real spike (like used in Black Diamond Fusion 2nd gen). However, improvement still compared to current Nomic. Since I don't use Nomics for alpine climbing anyway (I use somewhat tricked Quarks for that) I can easily live with that drawback though. The hole in the handle works for attaching yourself to tool in case of emergency, especially if you expand it somewhat with a file. For the Quark Petzl did exactly what I wished though, by making the spike clippable. They seem to have some new ideas regarding to wiregate carabiners up their sleeve as well. New Ergos look funky, interesting to hear how they perform.
• Hagan Nanook There are situations where some form of flotation aid is unavoidable in order to get to the climb. While full-on ski touring kit can get you to the bottom of the climb as effortlessly as possible (not to mention the joy it provides while descending), it is also very heavy unless you can leave it below the actual climb. Furthermore, climbing shoes are much better to climb with than skiing shoes, but they really such in skiing even if you could use them (with Silvretta 404 binding you can). Howeverer, this effectively means that even if your skis would be great for downhill skiing, the shoes aren't up to the job. The other option would be to climb with your skiing boots, but they are big, bulky, heavy etc. Basically everything that makes a bad climbing boot. This solution is very much workable, if the climbing isn't too difficult (especially not on rock). Not being much of a skier myself, I figure the ideal solution for me though would be a very light and compact skis that can get me to the climb using my climbing boots and that I can strap to my backpack for the climb if I need to descent to different side of the mountain. The fact that they aren't too great to ski downhill is negated by the fact that I couldn't ski down anything difficulty anyway, especially not when wearing my climbing boots and a backpack containing the climbing kit. it seems that Andy Kirkpatricks reasoning is very similar in this matter.

I tumbled on two very informative videos featuring the gear tips and tricks of Steve House.

• Steve House and Vince Anderson: Gear for Nanga Parbat Ascent (Alpine Climb). Patagonia Alpine Ambassador Steve House goes through the gear he and partner Vince Anderson used on their alpine-style first ascent of the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat in September, 2005. They were awarded the 2005 Piolet d’Or Award, recognizing the significance of this innovative route climbed in a clean and committed style. Patagonia ambassador Steve House first laid eyes on the Rupal Face as a 19-year-old member of a Slovenian mountaineering expedition to the Schell Route, then considered the standard route to Nanga Parbat’s summit. Since then he’s been working to return and attempt the line up the central pillar of the Rupal Face. In 2004, Steve and partner, Bruce Miller, made that attempt, reaching 25,000 feet before Steve’s altitude sickness forced them back. Colorado native Vince Anderson climbed his first mountain at age five and has only looked skyward since. Equally at home on rock, ice or mixed routes, he’s led expeditions in North and South America, Europe and Asia, and has summited 8,000-meter peaks in the Tibetan and Pakistani Himalaya. He has full IFMGA certification and is the owner and lead guide of Skyward Mountaineering.
• Steve House: Patagonia Clothing System for Nanga Parbat Ascent (Alpine Climb). Patagonia Alpine Ambassador Steve House goes through the clothing he wore on his and Vince Anderson’s alpine-style first ascent of the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat in September, 2005. They were awarded the 2005 Piolet d’Or Award, recognizing the significance of this innovative route climbed in a clean and committed style. Patagonia ambassador Steve House first laid eyes on the Rupal Face as a 19-year-old member of a Slovenian mountaineering expedition to the Schell Route, then considered the standard route to Nanga Parbat’s summit. Since then he’s been working to return and attempt the line up the central pillar of the Rupal Face. In 2004, Steve and partner, Bruce Miller, made that attempt, reaching 25,000 feet before Steve’s altitude sickness forced them back. Colorado native Vince Anderson climbed his first mountain at age five and has only looked skyward since. Equally at home on rock, ice or mixed routes, he’s led expeditions in North and South America, Europe and Asia, and has summited 8,000-meter peaks in the Tibetan and Pakistani Himalaya. He has full IFMGA certification and is the owner and lead guide of Skyward Mountaineering.

Some months back it seemed like the Everest movie based on 1996-events was actually going to get made when the reigns were passed over from Stephen Daldry to David Fincher. In recent months things seem to have gone pear-shaped again for the project. Now the holdup being mr Fincher being tied up with a Facebook-movie.

I need to find a alpine climbing pack for trips where I need to carry a tent, sleeping bag, pad and few days worth of food on top of all the gear needed for technical climbing in mixed alpine terrain. My approach is to take as small a pack as possible so that it will be easy to carry while on the climb as possible. For this goal, I am willing to compromise during the approach by overpacking and attaching gear outside if necessary. I figure the size that is just large enough would be around 40 liters.

Other than the correct size, the features I am looking for are:

• Lean-and-mean single compartment design
• Reasonably durable fabrics
• Low weight
• Side attachments for ice tools
• strap for rope
• floating lid for overpacking

Some models worth consideration:

• Arc'teryx NAOS 45 (ridiculously expensive)
• Berghaus Arete Pro 45l (too large?)
• Black Diamond Sphynx 42l (Very narrow design, seems fine. Doesn't have fully floatable lid. Much more durable than Speed.)
• CiloGear Dyneema 45 or CiloGear Worksack 45l (looks very interesting, expensive)
• Cold Cold World Backpacks made by Randy Rackliff. Very nice looking line of backpacks with realistically priced possibility to order custom made. Should be great for climbing, as Randy's personal experience actually out using the gear as intendeded is pretty much second to none (including stuff like 3rd ascent of of Moonflower and 1st ascent of Reality Bath come to mind...early solos of Slipstream..Tear Drop etc.). For us Euros the ordering though the company website means that the price gets bumbed up through shipping, customs and VAT though. See also introduction/review)
• Crux AK47 X (Lean and mean design, light for the size.)
• Haglöfs Ascent 38l (too gimmicky, heavy)
• Lowe Alpine Mountain Attack Pro 45+10 .
• Mammut Granit 40l (no floating lid, crap chest strap)
• Mammut Ice Pack 45l (Alpinist Mountain Standard. Looks like it has the same crappy chest strap as Granit though.)
• Millet Prolight 45l .
• Mountain Hardwear Dihedral 40l .
• PODsacs Alpine 40 (Looks good, probably the closest thing to my wishlist so far. Not perfect though. I don't particularly like the classic ice tool loops, IMO Black Diamond PickPocket type of attachment is far superior. Even bigger downer is that they seem to be using same crappy chest strap fastening system (plastic clamp sliding on plastic rail) that I positively hate after breaking that same system in two previous packs.)
• PODsacs Cragsac (looks good, but unnecessarily large in sizes suitable for taller person (47+10l))
• PODsacs Black Ice (looks good, but unnecessarily large in size suitable for taller person (53+12l))

In his book "Extreme Alpinism" (0898866545) Mark Twight pushes forward the idea of layering on top, which contrasts with traditional layered clothing approach. While layering under works very well in theory (and in some activities in practice as well), it isn't at home on climbing. Hanging belay is hardly a place to start removing your jacked to be able to add extra insulation layers. This layering on top works very well, as long as the kit used for it are appropriate. For example, layering belay insulation on top of shell jacket means that the shell jacket doesn't have to (in fact, it must not) be very loose. Furthermore, as the insulation jacket is bound to get wet, synthetic may be a better option than down.

Buying new gear may sometimes be highly frustrating. It is quite possible that despite the numerous offerings on the market, no one is making exactly the kind of gear one would need. I have found the following items most bitterly frustrating.

• Hardshell pants. Manufacturer's just don't seem to get this right. First and foremost, almost all hardshell pants are way too wide. Because of this, they are heavy and constantly get stuck to rock and crampons. There's no need for hardshell pants to be any wider than soft shell pants, most of which are too wide as well. Furthermore, I find full-length side zippers to be both unnecessary and harmful. Not having them would make it easier to have proper fit, as well as making the pants lighter, more supple, more waterproof and cheaper. There are few models with half-length zippers on the market, but they have the zippers backwards. For taking a dump, the zippers would have to be from waist to somewhat above knee. Stretch fabric panels in seat and knees would be useful, although not mandatory. And finally, I don't like bib-pants one bit, especially ones with same fabric used above the waist, which just makes the pants heavier and also seriously impair the breathability. There seems to be no pants on the market fulfilling the criteria. Possibly the best option is to buy ones that suck least, then have them made narrower. Some paclite models might be good fit and featurewise, however, Paclite can't take the abuse of alpine climbing.
• Tools for steep ice and mixed. Petzl Nomics are mostly excellent. However, they have two major faults: missing hammer and clippable spike. Because of these shortcomings, they suck whenever you need to pound pitons, on very low angle terrain often found during approach or descent and whenever you'd need to either secure your tools to yourself with lanyard or if you'd need to clip yourself to tool for resting. BD's new Fusion seem to have these areas covered, though. Whether they can deliver remains to be seen. If they do, hopefully Petzl will come back with Nomic 2.0.
• Carabiners for racking. No matter how hard I've looked, no one seems to be making carabiners which would be optimal for racking gear. Plastic ice clippers are form-wise the best bet (large and deep enough), they are however too easily broken (I know several occasions where general portion of the rack was dropped because of this). If someone where to copy the form to aluminum carabiner and throw into it noseless design ala DMM Shield or Wild Country Helium, I'd buy them in a heartbeat.
• Climbing gloves. Frankly, most ice climbing gloves have one fault in common: they are unsuitable for climbing. Which in my book is rather bad given their intended purpose. In order to be able to actually climb with a glove, they can't be too thick. furthermore, while all sorts of knuckle paddings would certainly have been welcome ten years ago when shafts were more or less straight and fangs didn't exist, with modern tools they are utterly useless and only serve to make the gloves too cumbersome and stiff. Suppleness-wise dry-tooling gloves are great. Also several softshell models, such as Mountain Equipment G2 Alpine glove are great if the temperature is high enough. However, whenever the temperature is significantly below zero, one does need some insulation. There needs to be a balance somewhere between very thick and uninsulated which most manufacturers seem to ignore. Gore-Tex lining is not mandatory, IMO. Come to think of it, despite having owned countless pair of Gore-tex gloves, I'm yet to own a pair which would be actually waterproof. Outdoor Design Diablo is good though, as well as BD Impulse. That's about it though, everything else seem to be either uninsulated or too thick. If the weather is too cold for such a gloves, I doubt any glove will work. Then probably the best pick is to use thin liner glove in combination with mitten. Mittens are warmer than gloves and because of way fewer seams, seem to be more supple. Unfortunately mittens are crap when dealing with screws, so you need to take them off for that. Not quite as cumbersome as one might think, as mittens are easy to put back on. Unfortunately spindrift tends to find its way into the mittens when they are dangling from your wrists, thus making the mittens wet, which will render them cold shortly.
• Alpine climbing pack. For shortish alpine endeavours (like 2-3 days) I find that size around 30 liters is just right to fit climbing gear for technical ice, rock and mixed, stove, food, bivouac bag and just enough of clothing. Yet the size is small enough so that there's no room anything unnecessary (obviously this size doesn't really fit for longer trips or for cases where tent, pad and sleeping bag need to be carried). Given the size, the pack doesn't need to have very stiff hip belt, which wouldn't really work with harness anyway. It doesn't have to have all sorts of bells and whistles which only add weight and impair the functionality. It has to be relatively sturdy fabric though, especially if there might be the need to haul it. Mammut seemed to have got this quite right with their Granit. Unfortunately they have felt the need to spoil otherwise great design with two mistakes: non-extendable lid and down-right gimmicky (not to mention stupid) chest strap (I think mine broke during the first day out). Black Diamond Speed seemed like a great candidate as well. However, I soon enough found out that there's such a thing as too light a fabric. I don't expect my gear to last forever in alpine use, but it shouldn't tear on the first touch against the rock either.
• Helmet. Hardshell helmet with proper ventilation seems to be impossible to find. Well, time-tested Petzl Ecrin Roc or newer Vertex might fit the bill, but they are so very heavy and sit on too high. Black Diamond had this down with first generation of their Half Dome; however, they had to go on and ruin the perfect design by changing the inner completely thus severely impairing the ventilation and adding all sorts of useless gimmicks.
• Camera for climbers. Small and light, with manual controls, sensitive wide-angle lens and ability to shoot raw. Almost as elusive a combination as yeti. There seems to be some models coming to market though, that might hit the mark spot-on (Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1, Canon Powershot S90).
• Approach/trekking shoes. I am looking for a show with no shaft. I find the shaft useful only if it was high and sturdy enough to actually support the ankle. So far none of the boots (including full-on trekking shoes) are stiff enough for that. And if they were, they wouldn't be good to walk in. As it is, the shaft only adds warmth, bulk, weight and price, none of which is beneficial. However, the shoes must have stiff sole (especially torsionally) for walking in rocky terrain carrying a pack. And of course they must be durable and shouldn't soak too easily, the features which are badly impaired with countless seems. Why can't anyone make a classic trekking show without the shaft is beyond me.
• Grivel Rambo IV antibot. The antibot is made of hard plastic and elastic rubber with the big idea being that the elastic rubber reduces snow buildup and boosts longevity. In reality this doesn't really work, as the rubbery parts come off way too easily. I am yet to meet owner of Rambo IV's who have taken few approaches/descents wit their antibots intact. Once they come off, they start to do so very readily and they are virtually impossible to fix with super glue (even proactive treatment doesn't work).

• Modified Ice Climbing Tools. Attaching Quark Hammers to Nomics. At Ascent Design Inc.

Steve House, one of the foremost alpinist at the moment, seem to have published hist first book "Beyond the Mountain" (9780979065958). It appears to be short-listed as one of the candidates for The Boardman Tasker Prize. I've previously written about Andy Kirkpatrick, Andy Cave and Joe Simpson, all of whom are among the previous winners.

• Beyond the Mountain. House's storytelling didn't always work for me (particularly in the chronological back-and-forth of the final Nanga Parbat tale), and the book could have used another proofreading. But on the whole Beyond the Mountain is a richly rewarding work. Above all, House succeeds in humanizing an activity—an extreme—that few humans will ever experience. By Dougald MacDonald at The Mountain World on 2009-08-24.
• Beyond the Mountain. Denver mountaineers have a chance to spend an evening with alpinist Steve House as he reads excerpts from his new book Beyond the Mountain and presents an adventure slide show. By Jilly Salva at Examiner.com on 2009-09-01.
• Book Review: David Falt on Steve House's "Beyond the Mountain" . Highly skilled sport climber but 8000+ newbie, Swedish David Falt is moved by Steve House’s recently published book Beyond the mountain. By David Falt at MountEverest.net on 2009-08-07.

Few years back there was some buzz going on about Stephen Daldry making a Hollywood movie about the 1996 Everest disaster. Back then Nicole Kidman was rumored to play Jan Arnold, the wife of Rob Hall. The movie them send a group of renowed mountaineers (including Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson and David Breashers) to climb Everest and shoot action shots. Then not much was heard about the project, it seemed to have been lost in development hell. It seems that Daldry has stepped aside but the project has dug itself out of the said hell. And here's good news, the torch has been passed over to David Fincher. Mr. Fincher has some relatively well knows movies to his name, including "Alien", "Fight Club", "The Game" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Talk about the High Expectations. I am yet to tumble on any rumors about the schedule or casting though.

Meanwhile, documentary directed by David Breashers carrying the name of movie Storm over Everest David Breashears is out and available in DVD.

• Erich Waschak & Leo Forstenlechner. The pair, who may very well be unknown for even the climbers familiar with climbing history (I certainly had never heard of them before I read "The White Spider") put up a first one-day ascent of Eiger North face as early as July 26 in 1950 in astonishing 18 hours. The ascent was way ahead of its time, the next single day ascent was pulled of 24 years later, when slightly more well-known rope team of Reinhold Messner - Peter Habeler climbed the face in ten hours.
• Michel Darbellay. First solo ascent as early as 1963.

movie Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Stein Scream of Stone Werner Herzog .

• In this battle, there can be no winners.... "Nice climbing at Arapiles, ludicrous plot, clunky acting. And Herzog is supposed to be one of the great film makers. Glowacz was embarrassed by the film, but said it got him 6 months of paid climbing." By Chockstone forum users at Chockstone.
• Scream of Stone. Scream of Stone, on the other hand, seems torn by compromises, split awkwardly between a romantic drama and a Herzogian inquiry into extreme existential states. In its final ten minutes, during a bracing dual climb with Roccia and Martin racing one another to the top, the film at last settles into the latter mode for good, working its way towards a breathtaking final few moments, along with a clever little touch that resonates back through the rest of the film. It's an interesting but badly flawed film, an expression of frustration that is itself marked by the sources of that frustration. By Ed Howard at Only the Cinema on 2009-04-16.

• Degrees of Freedom. From dry tooling to figure fours, M-climbing in the mountains is redefining the vision of what’s a climbable line. First published in the American Alpine Journal. By Raphael Slawinski at Sport Climbing - Canadian Rockies - Mixed Climbing.
• Dry-Tooling - What's it all About?. The article below was published in issue 20 of The Scottish Mountaineer, and has proved to be extremely controversial. By Scott Muir at The Mountaineering Council of Scotland.

There seems to be quite a few movies and books popping out in last two years covering the historic, and in many cases tragic, events on the north face of Eiger. I've mentioned movie The Alps Stephen Judson already earlier. Now I finally got around ordering movie Nordwand Philipp Stölzl as it became available in Blu-ray. When searching the net to find out where to order it, I also tumbled on movie The Beckoning Silence Louise Osmond , based on a book by Joe Simpson (yes, the very same one who Touched the Void). Both movies deal with the same tragic event on 1936 when Adreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz, who joined forces with Austrian party of Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer while on the face, were trying to put up a highly coveted first ascent. They failed and the entire party was killed at different times during their retreat attemp. Nordwand (aka The North Face) is a drama movie based on true story but with some fictional elements injected into it, while Beckoning the Silence appears to be documentary.

The same event, together with many other early attemps, the first ascent, and the ascents that followed are all described in "The White Spider" by Heinrich Harrer, himself a member of the first ascent party (and later famous for Hollywood movie "Seven Years in Tibet"), considered a classic piece of mountaineering literature.

• North Face Blu-ray . Expertly lensed and terrifically acted, Philipp Stölzl's North Face is very easy to recommend. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of British distributors Metrodome Video, looks and sounds great. Fortunately for film aficionados residing outside of Region-B territories, it is also Region-Free. Highly Recommended. By Dr. Svet Atanasov at Blu-ray.com on 2009-06-07.
• The Beckoning Silence . In this fascinating documentary charting Joe Simpson's obsession with mountaineering, the beckoning silence is the long drop from the top of the mountain. By Louise Osmond at MovieMail on 2007.

"Just before the rocks separating the Second from the Third Ice-field, I looked back, down our endless ladder of steps. Up it I saw the New Era coming at express speed; there were two men running - and I mean running, not climbing - up it." With these words describes Heinrich Harrer the significance of the modern crampons during the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger.

I recently tumbled on an interesting article about the Nut Museum, which contained quite a bit of information about the development of trad pro. As it was interesting read, I though to throw together some pointers to various articles describing the history and development of climbing gear.

• How crampons changed mountaineering. By Sam Roberts at eastern Mountain Sports.
• Ice axes. At Grivel.
• Nut Museum. "A long, long time ago, when God created our good old earth, He had already thought to throw various stones into the bowels of the mountains, but we are not sure that God had demonstrated some interest in rock-climbing. So the idea of deliberately placing stones in cracks to act as chocks and protect climbers was credited to Morley Wood during the ascent of Piggot's Climb on Clogwyn du'r Arddu (North Wales) in 1926. With this fundamental gesture the Nuts' Story began!" By Stéphane Pennequin.
• The Cam Book. Friends and other SLCD (spring loaded camming devices) have always been difficult to understand at the best of times - and to the uninitiated they can be a nightmare. Thats why in 2002 Wild Country published 'The Cam Book' - and in depth look at Friends and cams in all their forms and the principles that guided their development, and guides their operation and use. This book was immensely popular, combining a bit of science with a lot of common sense about using one of the most essential pieces of equipment ever made - the Friend. So click below to download your copy and learn a lot more about how to use (rather than abuse) these brilliant protection pieces.... At Wild Country.
• The Evolution of Crampons. By Sam Roberts at Spadout.
• The crampons. At Grivel.

No matter how finely sculpted the hindquarters of your climbing partners is, having their buttock have a central part in your climbing photos is bound to get old. So there are plenty of tips and trick of how to avoid the dreaded butt-shot.

• Better Mountain Photography. The reason behind the article, was a response to correspondents, both at UKClimbing.com, but also in various photographic magazines. Many continually expound the mantra that if you utilise the latest camera with all the prevailing technology, complete with plethora of lenses etc and apply the 'Rule of thirds' (rule for turds), and if the photograph is technically correct (i.e., in focus and exposed right), then a good photograph is the result. Wrong! By Sean Kelly at UKC Climbing on 2007-09.
• Branching out- Tips on expanding your mountain photography style. At Alpine Exposures.
• Photography Tips for the Mountains. At Alpine Exposures.
• The Ultimate Guide to Digital Photography in the Mountains. In my (very biased) opinion, mountains are the most beautiful environment on the planet, and certainly a very important source of great photography. But besides their intrinsic beauty, those big stacks of rock have another attribute that makes them of special interest to imagemakers: they are inaccessible. Or rather, very difficult to access, requiring special knowledge, equipment, and physical abilities. Which means that the perspective from mountains is likely to be very unique, only having ever been seen by a very select few. By Alexandre Buisse at Climbing Magazine.

I've been frustrated with the driving instructions of quite a few climbing topos. No matter how good the verbal instructions, you just can't beat the map. However, if the map is rough, it can be even more frustrating than the verbal description. If you have schematic map and not all of the roads are marked, figuring out which ones are marked is nearly impossible unless the map clearly identifies which roads are marked using either (or both) the road name and/or number.

Don't even consider drawing any map as a raster image. Vector is the only way to go for scalability and editability. If you need it as a raster image, fine, export it into a raster format of your choice, but don't ever consider drawing the map as a raster image.

My take on the best way of drawing maps is to draw them in scale. By far the easiest way of doing this is to use real geographic map as a guideline, then draw a vector map over it. Very easy to create scale-accurate maps this way. Using layers available in all remotely good illustration apps, it's even possible to easily create different versions of the same map within same image. This is very handy e.g. for different language versions and for different scale versions. Granted, vectors scale nicely but if you downsize a large map to very small size, there's often so much detail, that you just can't read the map any more. Not to mention that text needs to be certain size in order to be readable.

Furthermore, in the current era of GPS navigators the GPS coordinates are valuable help as well.

To ease the pain of drawing multiple maps, use symbol sets for common symbols.

• Cartographic Symbolset for Illustrator CS
• Creating Road Maps in Adobe Illustrator. At blog.spoongraphics.
• Map Font Basics (Article 1): Typography. At Professional Geographer on 2009-01-02.
• Map Symbols & Patterns for NPS Maps

I've tumbled on few interesting articles recently, mainly on trad climbing:

• Handjams Are Your Friends: Crack Technique. "The key to pure crack climbing, as with every type of climbing, is the feet. I like to start from the basics, which with cracks, is the hand crack. Hand cracks are the nicest, easiest thing you can climb, so you can focus on body position and movement technique, rather than the more precise jamming. If you have never done a handjam, it will feel alien and bizarre at first, but just slide your hand straight into the crack, and flex it, especially the meaty area under your thumb. It will stick, and that’s a handjam. I always say, if I fall out of a handjam, I deserve it :-) , so I tend to run it out if I’m in solid handjams." By Steph Davis at High Places.
• Rock Secrets: Tricks For Advanced Trad Climbing. Trad climbing is different to sport climbing in a number of fundamental respects: you will not generally be climbing as physically hard as you would be when sport climbing, although the total amount of energy you expend during the day could be far greater (particularly if you’re climbing on a mountain crag or sea cliff with long approaches). A large number of skills are required for advanced trad climbing that are either not required - or very seldom required - for sport climbing. By Dave Pickford at Planet-Climbing.com on 2009-06-08.
• The PlanetFear Guide To Extending Gear. Extending protection correctly on the lead is an absolutely vital skill to both trad and sport climbing. In this article we explain why, where, and how gear should bve extended. By planetFear at Planet-Climbing.com on 2009-06-22.
• The PlanetFear Guide To Route Reading. Perhaps the most important non-physical technique that will improve your onsight climbing is route reading skill. Practicing it doesn’t require an exhausting training programme. In fact, it requires no physical effort whatsoever. And nor will you need any equipment other than your own eyes – and maybe a note pad and pencil, or a pair of binoculars if you’re feeling keen. By planetFear at Planet-Climbing.com on 2009-07-13.
• Trad climbing techniques, tricks, & tips. Rick from Cremnomaniac has complied a nice list of trad climbing techniques, tricks, and tips. By Rick at Cremnomaniacs on 2009-06-12.

Web can be treasure chest for climbers searching for maps and information about the climbing destinations. Google maps is a good resource in planning. However, their maps don't offer sufficient details for mountain areas. Furthermore, when zoomed in into greatest detail, their maps cover only small area. Google doesn't allow users to save a map for offline use either. This is easy enough to circumvent by taking a screen capture though. However, if you need a larger area than what fits into screen (or viewport if viewing embedded map), then you are out of luck. Well, sort of. This can be circumvented just as well, simply by:

1. Taking multiple screen captures
2. Stitching them together in image editing application

Depending on the number of screen captures required, this can be a very painful process. There are some tools to automate the process when working with Google Maps though, search and you'll find.

Very well, I found out that Map+ has maps about Switzerland available online, that zoom in all the way to great detail (looks a lot like 1:25.000 at least for mountain areas). The downside is that their maps are available only through small vieport, therefore, tens, if not hunderds of screen caps are required to cover larger areas. Which makes the manual stitching process rather time consuming and very boring indeed. So I thought there needs to be a better way. The best I've found so far (best and good are very different things, though) consists of

1. using screen capture application/add-on, that allows capturing of selection only to a file. For Firefox, e.g. Screengrab add-on is such a tool
2. Import the files into image editing application of your choice as layers.
3. Carefully align the layers. Some image manipulation tools have features to auto-align the layers or separate images. Such a features are designed for building panoramas and can be a great help in stitching maps as well. Unfortunately I had rather poor results with such features though, as they tend to crash when you throw tens of images their way. Furthermore, they tended to rotate and/or distort base images thus producing inaccurate results. If such a automation works, it would be a time saver though.

Another nifty Google service is Google Earth. It can be a great help as well in planning the trip as it makes it easier to visualize the area, therefore it can assist in trying to figure out whether it is feasible to get from place A to B. And playing with it is great fun too.

I regularly read Lifehacker which often has a great tips and tricks. I noticed they had an article about CHDK firmware for Canon point and shoot cameras, which lead me to another article about the same firmware. I had heard about that earlier, but back then it didn't support my Ixus 850IS. This has apparently changed. CHDK is a firmware hack for Canon point and shoot cameras that bring quite a few new features to those cameras. Most interesting of those to me are the ability to shoot RAW and bracketing options for shooting images to be used as ingredients of HDR images. So clearly I needed to give it a go.

After uploading the CHDK, I managed to get my Ixus 850IS (aka SD800IS with Digic III processor) to shoot RAW images (CRW), but none of the apps I normally use seemed to be able to read those. Apparently the RAW files produced by CHDK are not compatible with Canon official RAW files, so conversion is required. This was a kicker. dng4ps2 is able to convert Canon cameras RAW files into Digital Negative (DNG) format, which is ideal for this purpose. As it supports Powershot SD800 IS, which is American for Ixus 850 IS, one might thinks that all that is required is to simply select that as a camera from Settings - Camera options and be done with that. One would be wrong. This produces the error message "Can't find camera profile for this file". After some digging out, I found the solution:

• Do NOT select anything under Settings - Camera types
• Under Settings - Camera options, choose "Powershot SD800 IS" and press "copy". Type "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 850 IS" as camera name and "IXUS 850 IS" as short name.

Unfortunately, dng4ps2 loses your camera profile when you close the app, so this step has to be done every time you start the app. Interestingly enough, the created profile seems to be stored in Windows register but it doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever. Anyway, I can live with that.

XnView, RawTherapee and Gimp armed with Ufraw plugin are also able to read the files and export the files as tiff, however not to DNG. The same goes for Google Picasa, except that it can't create TIFF either.

I did some experiments with bracketing as well. I am using Allbest build of CHDK which has several extra photo oprations, one of them being Bracketing in Continuous Mode. Following the guide Bracketing I managed to get it to work. Well, sort of. I couldn't figure out the way to get to the sub menu where I am supposed to be able to adjust the number of bracketed shots. Other than that it seemed fine. There are more advanced options for bracketing involving the use of scripts. To use scripts for creating ingredients of HDR images, see Make ANY Single-Shot Intervalometer into an HDR-Bracketing Script.

As RAW files always, and uncompressed ones in particular, are much larger than jpeg images, I went on bought new SDHC memory card. Only to find out that my memory card reader doesn't want to co-operate with such cards.

• CHDK. A wiki dedicated to the CHDK firmware add-on for Canon's Digic II, Digic III and now the Digic IVcameras!
• How-To: Expand your camera with CHDK. By anwilliams at Hack a Day.
• Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera. By Adam Pash at Lifehacker.
• dng4ps2. DNG for PowerShot-2 (DNG4PS-2) is free software for conversion of Canon cameras RAW files into Digital Negative (DNG) format.