Backcountry.com copywriter Andy Anderson stoked to have a good tape job on the 155-foot-long Lite Not Solid (5.10d)
The difference between a good tape glove for crack climbing and a bad one can be fairly minor … or it can cost you a send. Good tape gloves save your hands and let you get away with a bit of thrutching when things get desperate. Bad tape gloves can be worse than wearing nothing at all. I’ve had tape gloves ball up and keep me from putting my hands in a crack, I’ve had them come off on the fifth pitch of an 18-pitch route, and I’ve even seen a friend who went with the old-school full-wrap method accidentally clip his tape glove (with his hand in it) to a piece of gear. Needless to say, that one took some doing to get out of.
A good tape glove should be thin enough that it doesn’t really change your hand size, it should be durable enough to last 20+ pitches, and it should leave your palm completely clear of any tape. There are several “perfect” tape gloves out there, but this one is my favorite.
GTS: Get The Shot
By: Adam Riser | June 25th, 2010No Comments »
This is the beginning of all hell breaking loose, but I missed all the gnar.
“I’m ready!” you tell your friend above, and a couple seconds later hear the distant response of “OK, dropping!” You fire off frames as your friend bursts from the lip of the jump, but he lets out an “Oh S#!T” as soon as he’s in the air, and you both know this is going to end badly. You have two choices. You can either lower your camera, and cringe as your buddy takes a massive digger, or you can hold down the shutter release and fire off frames like a machine gunner making his last stand. Either way, strange as it may seem, the first thing your friend will say when you get over to him is, “Tell me you got a picture of that.”
I’ve seen some pretty nasty stuff happen to friends while I was holding a camera, but I rarely got the defining photo because I didn’t want to be that jerk who stood there taking pictures while his friend got broken off. Read More …
Tags: backcountry skiing, climbing, outdoor photography, photography
Posted in Commentary, Outdoor Articles |