Petzl Nomic and Ergo.."danger danger will robinson"

Petzl's answer on 12/21..less than a week after Petzl France got a look at the first pair of damaged tools.



http://coldthistle.blogspot.com//12/petzl-issues-recall-for-new-nomic-and.html







"I have always been of the belief that the pommels needed to be as strong as the leashes they replaced since climbers will be betting the farm on them, like they did the leashes."







It should be obvious I am a big fan of the Petzl line of tools. I'm been using Quarks and Nomics from almost day one of production.













One of the few weak points on a Nomic is the lower Delrin pommel and the upper grip support. The upper grip support has been known to break off on occasion and generally a warranty issue at Petzl where they have in the past simply replaced the tool.



If you have read the "Old Nomic, New Nomic" comparison you have seen how the pommel male/female interface differs on the old and new model. I had written about and speculated thatthe sloppyfit on the pommel/shaft interface would likely bean issue. But I had thought the tools would make it through more than a few days of climbing.



The pictures here are from Daniel Harro'snew set of Nomics with less than a dozen water icepitches total on them. As in less than a total of 12 full pitches of climbing and the pommel is stripped on one tool and about to go on the second.



My new Ergos are seeing similar wear issues with the interface and already dinged and showing prematurewear. Petzl says they will warranty them but replacement isn't going to stop it from happening again. It is obvious we will need a better fix asap. The metal inner face between shaft and pommelis 3mm on the pommel with one tooth and 6mm on the aluminum shaft end so it is not full strength and the harder stainless is cutting through the softer aluminum shaft with relative ease. Before anyone criesfoul and that it must be climber abuse, my original Nomic pommels are going on FOUR full winter and alpine seasons, hundreds of pitches by nowand nevera bobble as we start on the 5th season.



If you have the newest tools Nomic or Ergo and have climbed on them...check your gear now.. as you likely already have somewear happening. Only two of us in our small climbingcommunity that are on the newest tools, and we do.



Less teeth, and rounded teeth are making the new pommel much, much weaker in comparison to the older style tools with full width interface and a square cut interface. Add to that the serrated "spike" digging into the ice, loosing the ability to slide around a bit under that kind of force applied with each swing of the toolandfailure seemsassuredon the newest Nomic and Ergo pommels.



The only answer I have at the momentis set the pommel in one position and use some very good steel based epoxy to keep it from moving and hopefully give yourhandles some added life. But I don't know if that will void the warranty at Petzl yet. (12/07/2001update.. Petzl says it will void the warranty..so don't do it)



No easy long term fix, but worth thinking about as well, is pull the new pommels off completely and bolt on the older pommels. (they bolt right on but only in a "BIG" size) The grip will be bigger but at least that way you will strip a plastic part and not your aluminum shaft and need a new tool. That way if Petzl does come up with a quick answer your shaft won't be totally useless when they do.



Update directly from Petzl this morning 12/07/



This is info I gatheredfrom a conversation withRick Vance @ Petzl. For those that wonder Rick is a climber just like the rest of us. You can take him at his word.



These are the first failures Petzl has seen. They are on to the problemnow and working to identify the exact issues that caused the failure and most importantly along term fix. Broken tools will be covered under warranty. So no worries there. Don't start modifying tools or adding epoxy. Give Petzl a chance to solve the problem first. Petzl will give a public update once they know what caused the problem and their proposed solution.

OR Day 3

I'm two days behind on this post already. The Show ended Saturday afternoon.



Day three for me was a marathon of appointments and wild eye wonder (as usual) generally finding something new around every turn.



The OR shows (summer and winter) are the ultimate toy store for grown ups. And thankfully for me...nothing is for sale that you can walk out the door with. Much of it not yet available but a 6 month wait on production.



This year three of us went down. And all of us had differing interests. Makes for some fun discussions.



Even with three of us looking there is no way we see everything let alone get all the details on what we do see.



I simply get over whelmed so I really try to concentrate on the alpine climbing arena and in general vendors I already am aware of. Point is I never see everything and what I do see is generally biased in part from the get go. (Part of that is I so easily get lost in the dang place it really is huge!)



One of the things I find of interest and likely out of date for most climbers trying to go fast and light is amini haul bag. I saw three that really interested me but there might be others I haven't seen or wouldn't recommend.



Grivelhas smaller two modelsI really like. And Metolius has a couple of smalelr bagsand nowsome "cross overs" as well. I'll come back to all of theselater.









The super skinny (7mm +/-) ropes from Petzl, Beal and Edelrid have me really interested. More on that subject shortly.



I learned more again about fitting boots and ice boots in particular as the science and design continues to getter better and better IMO on alpine/ice boots. (8 boot reviews will go up shortly)



Clothes and technical wear? Oh, my! There are so many new pieces of clothingand so many exceptional fabrics and insulations. I started climbingin wool, nylonand Ventile cloth.



What we have easily accessible now, I never imagined when we started climbing.



I still think all the mountain sports fromtrail running, skimo, skiing, and any form of climbing (rock or ice) are getting closer and closer every season. The tools and clothing we use now have morecross over usethan ever before. As they get more specialised with every season and every generation as well. More specialised and still more more cross over applications? One wouldn't think that would be the direction, but IMO it is.



Many of the cutting edge designers are starting to think along those lines as well...just as they continue to design more and more specific garments.



Much of my driving is along theold Oregon trail from Seattle to SLC to attend OR. The major portion of that drive from the Columbia River to just north of SLC in fact.



In totalis a 800+/- miles/1300kmdrive one way. I have a lot of time to think and review what I have seen at OR.



What we have now for hard goodsand software for climbing is as diversein useand application as transportation,infrastructureand the generations of windmills inthe currentAmerican West.



Amazing time to beclimbing. But like the newest windmills...not all good or all bad. It will take some time to digest all the new products and add some context to what I think interesting enough to write about. Cams, passive pro, biners,ropes, boots, packs, haul bags, watches and as always some new clothing and some of the newest TECHNOLOGY (that I think will go much much farther) will all get some coverage..along with those man sized baby wipes :)

Blueberries

the berries that are blue, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Across the country, farmers' markets are in full swing. These berries were a local market and looked incredibly good. Raspberries at the market were cheap, as well as tomatoes and pretty much all the vegetables. My best find was Fresno chile peppers, which are used in Indonesian cooking - score!

Peak-a-boo-Rose

Wordless Wednesday :: Schooldaze ~ First Grade

Dontcha just love the hairdo? What was my mother thinking?

Bring your shovel, it's still snowing

Here is some cool historical data collected from the Longmire weather station. It was gleaned from the National Weather Services by NPS employee Bret Christoe and graphed by Crystal Raymond.

Bret listed the years when the accumulation (not total snowfall) at Longmire reached at least 60 inches, going back to at least 1932. Although 2007-8 may seem "big" now (particularly as we shovel into our houses and offices) you can see that there is still a ways to go to catch the really big years like 1949. Here's the graph:


Folks, bring your shovels, because according to the National Weather Service, our forecast for LONGMIRE this week is:

Tuesday and Tuesday Night - Snow
Wednesday and Wednesday Night - Snow
Thursday and Thursday Night - Snow
Friday and Friday Night - Snow

The Heat is On...

Saturday, April 2nd - - Since Butler University, located just five miles from downtown Indianapolis, was playing in the Final Four, I splurged and spent the night in a Motel so I could watch the game! Old news now, but Butler won and will be playing (for the second year in a row) in the Championship Game! My first cousin, Ralph V. Reiff, is the play-by-play announcer for WISH-TV in Indy. I was hoping to be able to watch the game on TV and listen to his calling of the game at the same time but no such luck.







Sunday, April 3rd - - Still heading West, I came across this “tribute” to the Texas Longhorn.



I stopped for the night at Copper Breaks State Park (west of Wichita Falls). Though not far, the drive had been tiring - lots of wind with gusts from 35-50 mph and it was hot! Really hot.





The photo above was taken at 5:24 pm at the campground; the van was in the shade! Yep, it was hot. I did manage to go for a very short walk (about 10 minutes) after driving up to an overlook to get this picture(below)of the lake. The “lower” campground where I stayed was on the left side of the lake. Being lower didn't provide any relief from the wind or the heat.







The sun was completely hidden beneath the hills but for a few brief moments it lit up the clouds like they were on fire, appropriate for such a hot day. The setting of the sun provided little relief from the heat. Even with doors and windows open, it was perhaps one of the most uncomfortable nights spent on the road thus far. Relief did arrive, however, when after midnight a front moved through and the temperature dropped dramatically. When I got up the next morning it was a chilly 48 degrees! And still windy.