Reviews - Recent

I've just popped down to the allotment and that first chill of the end of Summer made me reach for my trusty fleece. You know the one, you reach for it all the time, its the first thing you throw on when you want to feel cosy and comfy. You always take it to the crag just in case, it's been on every camping trip of the year, its thrown in when you go biking so that are warm when you stop. When my last trusty fleece died it was saggy, bobbly and looked pretty frumpy. The Liberty Jacket is quite different. Its cut is flattering and feminine, and the shape has kept well over a year's use. After vigorous exercise, the "zoned construction" is effective as you stay warm but your skin still breaths; opening the pockets also helps you to control warmth vs. breath ability. The cuff structure works well for staying warm (no airy gaps) and they don't get in the way when you are climbing. It fits well with my climbing harness if I unzip at the waist a tad, and slips well onto damp-from-the-sea skin. It's weight also adds to its versatility as you don't think twice about bringing it along for whatever you are doing. The only downside to The Liberty Jacket is that over a year of regular use, the material has thinned and pilled somewhat. Incidentally, the close fit is also good for midge avoidance! So this jacket is a good technical fleece that is so versatile it can also double up as your trusty fleece that you grab on your way down to the allotment.

RRP £75.00

Reviewed by Sophie Heason

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The Rab Generator is a gilet that you put in your rucksack in case the weather gets chillier when you are out in the day, and then wear in combo with a layer system in the evening. The Primaloft One Insulation and Pertex Quantum outer and inner result in considerable warmth in relation to a weight of 290g. It packs into its own pocket in quite a nifty way. The elasticated hems contribute to the insulation, and there are two hand warmer pockets. Because it dries quickly it is effective in damp conditions and it can withstand a light shower although getting it soaked, unsurprisingly, decreases performance. This is not a large down jacket that will keep you warm at basecamp but it is a very effective lightweight booster layer. Motor bikers use it under their leathers and that is a perfect example of it's usefulness. It is good for lightweight camping and I have even been known to wear it inside a sleeping bag that was a bit too lightweight for the conditions, and it was excellent.

The Generator vest is very simple in design, with all that it needs to be a fairly versatile piece of additional kit. I also think I'll be packing it for a long time to come as I have had the Rab Generator for a year now and it is still performing as it did brand new despite a lot of outings.

RRP £75.00

Reviewed by Sophie Heason

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These shoes looked great worn down the pub a few times it was a while before i worked out what they were designed for. Struggling to find a time when i could do a long walk to test them, I read Scarpa's blurb to discover they are a running shoe.

Now i really enjoy running across rough varied terrain but for me there is one major drawback and this relates to my earlier confusion. My size 44's weigh in at 790 g whereas my usual winter fell-running shoes weigh 330g. They are very tough, well made and obviously going to last a long time but the price paid for this is the weight is pretty high.

The shoe coped well with running over rocky grit stone outcrops and high boggy moorland. The grip was excellent on wet and dry rock and coped surprising well on steep grass and mud considering the sole has the appearance of a trail shoe. Still not convinced this is a running shoe I tried the shoe out on some scrambles where it felt very secure on the dry rock. The grip continued to be impressive during ghyll scrambling activity on wet rock with the rand giving good toe protection.

A real positive for me is the lacing system which felt secure, holding the tension well and contributing to good stability on steep ground including contouring. On flat hard trial the cushioning was good with plenty of support. The upper synthetic leather and nylon mesh were breathable but the robust design did mean the shoe retained water longer than a simpler fell running shoe.

In short they were very comfortable and a pleasure to run in though the well constructed design and build could be too luxurious for the established fell runner.
For me they had the appearance of a lightweight, fast-paced walking shoe rather than Scarpa’s idea of a lightweight running shoe. For some the high levels of comfort, protection and stability would give the confidence to run in rugged terrain though for me I think the Epic is an excellent choice for summer scrambling or ghyll scrambling activity where they give a very comfortable wear when out all day moving quickly. I guess that makes them a pretty good all-rounder.

Scarpa Epic on the Scarpa Website

Reviewed by Andy Barnett

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 I've been an Alpkit fan for quite some time. If you're not familiar with the name take a look at their website. From humble beginnings they tight-knit bunch of mates appear to have flown in the face of modern commercial directives and developed a highly reputable business based on customer care and listening intently to customer feedback. They are a company very much suited to the advent of online forums and Blogs where they can react in real time to questions, comments and complaints (I recall a question on a popular forum a few Christmases back where a customer had posted a message asking if anybody knew whether he would receive his goodies by last post and in time for Christmas. Within half an hour of the post going live there was a photo of one of the Alpkit guys trudging through knee high snow out of the industrial estate where they are based on the outskirts of Nottingham, with a package addressed to the message-poster! Even if it was set up it was a stroke of genius and the sort of attention to detail that the big dogs just can't match.

Anyway, on with the review. Jeans are without a doubt the most popular type of trousers in the Western world. Worn by virtually every man and a sizeable number of women virtually every day of their lives, it made sense for somebody to catch in on this vast, vast market, and produce a pair that are suitable for true 'outdoor' use. They are water resistant, wind-proof, and breathable, but look like regular run-of-the-mill jeans. The only way that you'd tell they are not regular Jeans is that the material feels a teeny bit stiffer due to the waterproofing. If you do get caught out in the rain in them they are nicely waterproof, but do soon start to feel clammy as do any waterproof and breathable trousers on the market - but that's a whole lot better than the cloying, claustrophobic feeling of wearing wet Jeans! I've had them now a couple of months and worn them probably every other day. There's a teeny unravelling of stitching down the outside of the left leg which you wouldn't notice unless you were actually reviewing them, and the left hand pocket has a very small bit of stitching coming adrift. I called Alkpit about both of these issues and they offered to take a look, and assured me that nobody else had had the same issue.

Retailing at £50 (though I noticed they are cheaper in the current sale!) they represent good value for money and the funky zig-zag mountain scene stitching on the back pockets makes you stand out from the crowd in a subtle manner.

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Supertopo have been producing PDF download guides for a while now. Clearly it's a successful enough medium for them. This guide to Zion is a whopping 232 pages long and 28.5Mb in size so you'll need a half decent connection to download it. The reason it's such a large file size is clearly to allow you to print it out once downloaded. The beauty of such a PDF download it that you can print out just the pages you need and take them on the route with you. This works particularly well for Zion routes as they tend to be very long multi pitch affairs where travelling light weight is the order oft the day and a single page is far better than a whole meaty guide. A friend of mine recently printed the relevant pages from the Rockfax deep water soloing PDF guide on waterproof paper which I thought was a good idea. I've been known to laminate pages if I am worried about their longevity. The downside to PDF guides is that it's difficult to imagine sitting at your computer for any length of time to appreciate the decent quality images, and accomplished Rock Monkey artwork by Renan Ozturk, let alone the wordy history and geology sections. 

The guide itself looks great. I've not had the pleasure of travelling to Zion since receiving the PDF, so can't comment on the accuracy of the topos, but with Supertopo's track record it's a safe bet to assume that the quality is as good as ever. Th full page images are stunning. It includes 250 routes.

Zion Climbing by Bryan Bird - PDF download - 28.5Mb - 232 pages - $26.95 (the price for the actual book is $29.95)  including 3 years of updates...

A sample page:

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