More New Gear

I love getting new gear and enjoy the playing with and testing, Firstly the small bit, I added a North Face decal to my Black Diamond helmet, Purely aesthetic but i think it looks great, Shame we didn't have any in the store so i bought it from Amazon, For a helmet that has many angles you need to get one with each letter individually cut, The top i am wearing in the photo is a Borod hoodie which is a new take on a light fleece, Very comfortable and you can wear as a layer or just a top

Finally the Summit series Cobra 52ltr backpack came back into stock all but briefly and i grabbed one before it went back out of stock which was about 2 days, I had played with the old model in a 60ltr size and although it has nice features it was a little heavier than i would have liked and the one i tried had stiff belt straps, The new model is much nicer, Really nice and strong material, Its lost some weight and feels very light when on, The straps tighten very smoothly and the hip straps are big and comfortable, The hole for my Osprey hydration pack tube was tight but thats ok, You can remove the top and hip belt and take out the back strengthener for light summits or as a day pack, Somebody has looked at the old model and given it some considerable thought, At $219 its a bargain, My main worry was the lack of netting on the back like my Osprey and that my back would sweat, After 11 miles on the Mountains to Sea trail in 65 degree weather my concerns were unwarranted , It has a crampon sleeve on the front and has a helmet holder, The one minor thing i would say are the bottle holders on the side being short and i have no idea why they did not put a taller netting there but my bottles stayed in place by using the straps, Looks like a winner

Spare gloves, I have a really good pair of severe weather glove from Outdoor research, They have a built in liner glove and i took them to Everest base camp and my hands and fingers were always toasty, They are kinda big and lack feel but work great, I need a spare pair for Mera, Just like sun glasses if you loose a pair and dont have a back up things can go downhill quickly and i dont want to loose fingers due to frost bite, i looked at The North Face Himalayan mitt but decided to get the Summit series G5 Goretex pro belay gloves, The gloves are very soft to the feel and with 100g of Primaloft Gold and 700 fill Goose down, very warm but they are also very dexterous and have great feeling, When you put the mitts on your index finger goes into its own slot away from the rest, these will now be my main glove with the OR gloves as a back up
Here you can see the glove hanging from the 'idiot' straps to stop you dropping them if you take your hand out

I now have just about everything i need although working at The North Face there is plenty i would like, We have managed to track the 1 pair North Face of mountaineering boots in my size down and i should know more about these next week

Dave