How I measure insulated down jackets?

I've looked at a lot of down jackets here at Cold Thistle. Synthetics I generally use the weight of the insulation, 60g per square meter as an example or 100g per square meter.



Down jackets I want to know a couple of things.



Construction? Fully box baffled or sewn through. There can be a lot of different combos along with that. But that is the first. What is the construction?



SecondI want to knowwhat the quality of the downused. The fill rating? 750 cu inch per ounce or 800 fill or 1000 fill?



How much actual down fill, as in ounces used? And the jacket's size. Most importantly how that size fits me personally.



Three additional measurements matter to me. Cana full size climbing helmet EASILYfit inside the hood?



Length of the jacket's back from shoulder seam, @ the base of the hood to the hem.











And finally the height of the insulation measured 1/2 way between the neck and the point of the shoulder with the jacket laid flat and completely zipped up. It means little other than as a comparison of loft in the jacket one to another. This number could easily be fudged to gain or loose insulation depending on your bias and sway the charts.( even the pictures are difficutlt to read accuratly so I don't post them intentionally) I know that and try to make a consistent and realistic measurement so that I show no favorites here. It is also why I don't go smaller than 1/2 inch in differences.






Close up of the height of insulation at the shoulder. This jacketactually has 3" of loft Although the angle of the camera shows almost 3.5". You have to be consistent on every measurement and honest when you postthe numbers.









Shoulder between point of shoulder and the hood on ajacket

Danny Friedman

Danny was always the guy on the other end of the phone.Danny I need200M ofrope. Danny I need 50 harnesses. Danny I need 100 carabiners.Danny works at K2, I manage a school camp. So it was a delight to meet him and find out he's a really sweet guy and a motivated climber.













Now when I say sweet guy, it turns out he's got a creepy side.





Like you,I browse the net for comforting stories about kittens and sunshine.

Danny's guilty pleasure is immersing himself online in the ugly world of gruesome crime.

I know, what a sicko! But it turns out he is a trained Forensic Scientist. OK, forgiven.



I feel sick, let's see some climbing.













Danny set off in , climbingthe modest grade of 21, to Turkey, Kaly and Ton Sai, picking up four grades along the way.













Then more Thailand, Castle Hill and Bluies. And before youcan say deoxyribonucleic acidhe is ticking "Spoonman" 28











Danny says his goal is to tick 8a by the end of his Euro Tour this year.

His friends say he is stronger than he thinks.

Senior climbing analysts here at jjobrienclimbing have reviewed the available data and can confidently predict he will better it by .





I don't want to make this sound like a dating profile but here's the twist:

He's a sweety, no doubt. He has a jones for Gummy Bears, butdon't expect him to sit through a Rom Com with you. He likes his films Noir, and his music on the dark side.

Danny is off to the Grampians tomorrow, presumably to leave his fingerprints all over Taipan Wall.

Theinvestigation continues.



jj

Easy on the Eyes!

After spending nearly six weeks in the dry, mostly brown, desert regions of Texas and California, I left Death Valley this morning. About an hour ago, just west of Tehachapi on California Highway 58, I drove into this wonderful, refreshing area that was definitely easy on the eyes. I didn't realize how much I've missed seeing "green" until I came into this... I stood there alongside the road for abut 15 minutes, just taking it all in. So nice!


I've decided to take a "break" from the desert scene for a few days and am headed for the Coast of California! I'll be joining some friends at the Grand Canyon about the middle of April... For now, I am looking for a State Park near a community with a library with good wifi so I spend some time writing some blog posts and get them scheduled so that I can get caught up. Stay tuned, more posts coming soon, I hope!

This post is coming to you courtesy of McDonalds and AT&T wifi near Bakersfield, California. Moving on now. Will "see" y'all later.

Goathead Weed

This is another of the horrid weeds we have here in the desert. I have no idea of any other name for it besides Goathead which really makes people that don't know what it is wonder until they experience the terrible thing. It doesn't look that bad. Doesn't seem to cause allergies. Has a cute little yellow blossom. Grows in a circle that some people, at first, think is a nice growncover as it will grow with no water what so ever. Until you find the seeds which give it it's name, Goathead. The seed are round with two 'horns' that want to break of into the food or hand of what ever encounters it. And it HURTS. Boy does it hurt. I have known of several people who have had to have the 'horn' off of one of these seed surgically removed after it has become infected. One man I know of almost had to have his foot amputated. I was unable to find a seed to take a photo of as I try to keep them all picked up and all plants pulled. They are easy to pull and will die when it freezes, but leaves the seeds to sprout next spring. And each and every seed will sprout. I fight them constantly. Each seed is sent to the trashcan and each plant without a seed is pulled and turned with the root up to die. Several of my neighbors fight them but a lot of people don't fight them and they will stick to anything and make their way back to mine or your yard. They love to hitchhike of car and truck tires and on the rubber soles of shoes, as well as bike tires. They are death to bicycle tires. If you ride a bicycle in the desert you are sure to go buy the special tubes that can't be punchered by the 'goathead seeds'. And of course dogs and cats hate them as well as those of us that try to get rid of them. Again this weed is not native to the desert but I don't know where it did come from

Sunflowers

Champ de Tournesols, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

It's definitely not sunflower season yet, but I finally managed to access the broken hard drive where some of my pictures were imprisoned. These sunflowers were near the small village of St. Savin, in the Dauphiné region of France.

Owl

A big hoot owl and to the side is a bird.

New Petzl Quark?

New Quark buried in Neve with a lwt C-T adze.





Hardly new now as the first tools showed up here in the States back in Oct/Nov. of . The issues with the new Nomic and Ergo appeared and for one reason or another even the unaffected Quarks weren't available in large numbers again until mid Feb. . I played with a pair at the Bozeman Icefest. But wasn't able to get my own pair until the week before I left for Chamonix in late March.For may folks in the warmer parts of the USthe ice season was winding down by that time.the tools were available again. Hard to justify new tools at full price at the tail end of your season not knowing what will be available next year.

(I don't know ofanything new coming along for -)



More than a few waiting for the new Nomic. The Nomic may be worth the wait for some but easy to over look the more durable and likely a better all around tool, theQuark. Many will have a the option of even more/better choicesfor their own use by having the new all around Quark and the even more technical (than the Nomic) new Ergo available.



The new Quark is certainly built in the Nomic's image. The handle contours are very close and most importantly the aluminum heads are exactly the same profiles.



You have to look back at the original Quark to make a good comparison. Petzl has changed more than just the head of the tool. But changing the head made a new hammer and a new adze required on the newest tool. Even the picks were changed. Making them nowT rated instead of B rated in bothversions, the new ICE and New DRY. Add to that you get a slightly deeper pick angle on the newest Quark.







Below: pictured isthe new pick angle on the top over lay. The new pick is slightly steeper, may be 2 degrees.. Middle is the newestICEpicktip profile. The DRY versionis the same tip profile. The bottom picture is the older Cascade Nomic pick profile.





So as you can see, it aint your old Quark. The new Quark with a hammerweights in at 588g or 528g with no hammmer. The old Quark with a hammer installed is 682g.









With the new Quark that includes a second higher grip in both over all weights. With after market hammers and adzes available for the new Quark and the additional factory movable second grip the new Quark has a lot of options.



The newest Petzl factory hammer on the left on a new Quark. The C-T hammer on a original styleNomic right.Weights vary from 30g for the low profile C-T hamemr to 60g for the Petzl hammer.







The other improvement that Petzl made on thenew tool is a full size carabiner hole in the spike to clip umbilicals into. Big improvement.



This one ofmy personal Quarks, with fixed trigger for high daggering, a rubber grip wrapand a C-T hammer installed. Lots of options on how you set this tool up. And an incredibly versatile tool on any terrain. The Adze in the opening photo is its mate.



Snow slogs...





Used here to good effect onhard technical dry tooling. Jack Roberts on a bolted M7+ @ adry tooling area in France.

I have climbed with the Nomic almost exclusively since it became available. The Quark before that. Abandoning every other tool in my quiver sometimes to my detriment. Only the new Ergo has swayed me untilnow. The new Quark has taken the majority of technical advantages of the Nomic and added them to a more vestal shaft of the older Quark. All the while giving you a majority of the Nomic'sadvantages in one form or another (the moving slider grip) while offering some additional advantages on less technical ground. The new Quark is one of the few tools imo that rivalsand generally betters the original Nomic as a truly all around tool.

Hard not to be pleased with the newest Quark. For many the Quark will be a better (and more appreciated) all around tool.

Seems a lot like this one, just done upa little better:-)