Alpinists know that a tool capable of performing well in a variety of mediums and serving a variety of tasks is, indeed, quite pleasing. All the time. The Petzl Sum'Tec tools go a long way toward accomplishing that.

I'm one of those guys who have a different pair of shoes for every situation and will debate my options to an embarrassing extent. Over a year ago, while searching for a good all-around pair of approach shoes, I tried a pair of Salewa Wildfires.

High on El Cap a few years ago, I found myself 30 feet runout with ledge-fall potential breathing up my neck. A small fissure too small for any micro cam yet too parallel for any stopper split open the granite in front of my face. Placements like this made me wish I'd brought a set of slider nuts, though the need I had for that specialized protection is a rare moment in my life as a climber.

"For the safety of all of our customers Wild Country are issuing an immediate recall of certain batches of Wild Country Classic Rocks and Anodised Rocks."

I have spent the last year and a half plugging the Heliums into cracks throughout the Western US, including the North Cascades, Smith Rocks, Red Rock, Lover's Leap, Yosemite and a few other areas. While they have a design common among high-quality cams, they were trickier to place and to clean because of their stem length and, in the case of the larger sizes, trigger placement.

In all, the Club's new publications database will serve as a magnificent improvement over its finicky and frustrating predecessor (though there are still a few deficiencies to navigate). Users will find more of what they're looking for, and less of what they're not—presented in clean, readable format.

I rarely find a backpacking or climbing equipment problem that cannot be solved with intelligent application of webbing and Speedy Stitcher. And because its potential is limited only by your imagination, it's easily the best $21.99 of gear you will ever buy.

I bought the C.A.M.P. Scorpio V-Threader as a replacement for my C.A.M.P. Joker, a near-perfect v-threader that I dropped in the Alaska Range. Though both tools are light, simple and thread Abalakovs effectively, two differences make the Scorpio frustrating and ineffective at half its purpose.

While the design looks too strange to be functional, and the price tag steep, I have to admit the performance of this odd shape signals a notable advance in ice axe technology.

Every climber has a different torso length, forearm length, wrist flexibility, posture and middle school softball trauma; everyone's swing is different. Consequently, the swing of this tool will feel good to some and not to others. The Nomic climbs beautifully for me. It is one of the very few pieces of equipment that actually increases my ability level dramatically, rather than simply making me look the part.

Wild Country issued a voluntary recall of the Helium carabiner on December 10, 2012. Find details in the following press release.

After spending several months playing with Wild County's new Ropeman 3, I began to wonder if I was using it incorrectly. Should it really be this hard?, I wondered. When Alpinist was contacted recently to help spread the word of the recall, I felt relieved that it wasn't just me.

Geography is a big determinant of destiny. So it's only logical that Italy, a mountainous and boot-shaped country, would be home to many of the companies producing high-end footwear for our alpine endeavors. The nation with a centuries-old heritage of crafting fashionable and functional shoes is home to brands including La Sportiva, Scarpa, Kayland and the makers of my recently worn ice boots, Asolo.

It's the modular components that really make the new Quarks stand out: I'll start at the spike. If climbing more snow than ice, simply use a hex wrench (provided) to remove the bottom grip rest. This allows for a great plunging experience from a technical tool.