OP Pad Magazine Awards

Just had the news in from Rob our agent in Benelux that we scooped a Bronze award at last nights Annual OP Magazine Awards in the catergory of 'Sleeping bags and Mats' with our Titan 450 Sleeping bag.

Rob collecting the award - 4th from the left

The Titan 450

Designed to appeal to backpackers and mountaineers who appreciate the solid value and reliability our core bags provide, the Titan 450 offers improved thermal efficiency and more warmth for less weight and bulk.
A new anatomically profiled shell has been matched to our previously patented EXL® technology to give a bag that mirrors the profile of your body more closely without being restrictive. It uniquely provides
a bag designed to fit as well as your favourite clothing with a corresponding improvement in performance to match.

The Titan 450 is a bag that will warm up faster, retain heat better and for longer. In short it will more effectively do what any sleeping bag should, keep you warm and comfortable. The Titan 450 is filled with some of the best Duck Down we can find. Our pure 85/15 duck down not only gives fantastic loft with a minimum fill power of 625 but it remains resilient after compression and is ecologically and ethically sound. It is sourced through our ground breaking Down Codex project, the industry’s first complete audit of the down supply chain. In conjunction with the IDFL and our suppliers we ensure that all down is sourced with no live plucking or harvesting, high standards of animal welfare and solvent free processing. It has been independently verified that there is no live plucking or force feeding and that all birds are slaughtered humanely after living freely outdoors. Our duck down is a natural by-product of birds reared for egg production. As a consequence the down comes from birds that live for longer, producing better, more resilient down, even than that which comes from young geese. For the first time you can sleep with guaranteed piece of mind as well as in comfort.

Technically the Titan 450 is engineered using box wall baffles, ensuring the down is stable and can loft more effectively without unnecessary weight whilst the shell incorporates a revised anatomical hood. Ergonomically formed and with an integrated HALO baffle to reduce heat loss from the head, it is comfortable in a wide range of conditions with and without the use of the adjustable drawcord cinch. Used inconjunction with the offset 3-dimensional neck collar and these bags can be taken to the very limits of their performance offset.Check out more information on our Titan Range of bags here

Andy hits Canada

ME Pro partner Andy Turner has just touched down at Calgary Airport, Canada with photographer and friend of the brand Lukasz Warzecha for a 3 week ice climbing and photoshoot trip.

We'll have updates from the guys over the coming weeks, however you can also keep up to date with all the latest at Andys Blog and Lukasz Blog too.

BMC International Meet - Video

Thanks to Simon and Justin from Reeltime Adventure for mailing me this short film shot during the recent BMC International Meet at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland.

Keep your eyes peeled for Nick and for those of you with really good eye sight Andy Turner in action at the beginning during Nick Coltons introduction.

Golden Piton Award for Dave

Congratulations to ME Pro partner Dave MacLeod on winning The Golden Piton Award 2012 for Traditional Climbing with The Long Hope Route Direct (E11/5.14a R/X) St Johns Head, Orkney, Scotland.

You can read more information about the 10th Annual Climbing Magazine Golden Piton Awards here   

Whitedot Team: Testing concept skis in Chamonix backcountry

Latest post from Mark Perkins of Whitedot Skis 

"Having returned to a very cold and powder laden Chamonix I had a very enviable task ahead of me - go and test Whitedot's concept carbon skis!

The aim of these initial testing days was to see how the lightweight composite versions of the production skis performed and how the materials interacted between the mountain and the skier.

First off, the conditions needed assessing. There was a lot of fresh snow and the temperatures had dropped, but in the back of my mind was a reminder that it was raining in Chamonix town when I left the previous week. Clearly, an ice layer would be hidden somewhere below the light cold powder, and this was backed up by the avalanche level which was set at 4 out of 5. Caution would be needed and choice of aspect and route essential.

After some thought, I focused on the varied terrain of the north facing pitches below the 'Mont Blanc chain' above Chamonix town. The access lift, Plan d'Aiguille, is found directly out of the town centre (1050m) and delivers you to 2350m. Although not a set of serious routes (Pres du Rocher and Combe des Glaciers), they lie on 30-40 degree pitches with both open powder fields and deep forests. Moreover, with the amount of snow lying on the valley floor, over 2 metres in places, it was a great opportunity to 'ski hard' for the full length of the route. But ultimately, it is also an area where 'you have to know your way around', i.e. fresh tracks aplenty!

The weight of the ski plays a huge part of how a ski performs, e.g. how a ski cuts through chopped powder. In this case the lightweight version did take some adjustment but reassuringly it still felt like the production model. And there was obvious benefits such as up-weighting of the ski was far easier and less tiring, meaning I could ski for longer on a single pitch.

The carbon/aramid/flax combination is completely new to ski manufacturer and our main concern was that the organic dampening material, flax, would not combine well with carbon/aramid. But the skis behaved remarkably similarly to the production model - so 'well done' to our design team and bring on more testing!

Thanks again to ME for their clothing support to Whitedot test team."

Timing is everything

Having spent most of last week looking out of the office window at the fantastic cold clear weather I was very keen on getting out on the weekend. On Friday I watched in horror (mild concern) as the forecasters pronounced that a band of rain and snow would propagate westwards on Saturday and thought I'd better get out early to dodge the inclement weather.

I picked Andy up at 7.30 and we drove out to the Roaches. It was cold and clear, the tops of the Roaches were glowing golden in sun as we got near and it was obviously going to be a fantastic morning.

I took this picture a couple of weeks before on another early mission. Cold, still, sun rising: a perfect place to be.

Brrr. Walking in to the Tetris boulder at the Clouds was chilly, -4.5 according to the car with a very cold breeze. Warming up took ages, mainly focusing on the delicate balance of chilling hands on rock then warming them in the pockets. Just the right mix is required to get them functioning and not just going solid with cold half way up the problems.
Eventually I was warm enough to start climbing but Andy never quite got going, claiming a harsh training session the day before had ruined him. Hmmm.

Andy attempting to use a piece of rubber to warm up. He failed. Nice boots though..

I worked up to a high point on Hard Arete, actually feeling good on the previously very hard feeling start but not quite getting the body position right on the throw to the good left hand higher up. Pleased though to be making progress. Anything 7A ish not on a slab has always been impossible before and I am definately getting somewhere..

I then had a few goes on the lip traverse of Trust, apparently called Thrust, which was absolutely the perfect problem to climb in such conditions. Rarely will slopers feel as good as they did that morning. After some deeply ungraceful udging I turned the lip and made it to the top..

Having got up something we hastily called it a day and walked back to the car. Ah, the joy of an early start, a mint day and a problem climbed. To cap it all the snow/sleet/rain started about an hour after I got home. Result!

Happy on the velcro slopers of Thrust

Long Hope Night at the RGS - Tomorrow Night

This is your last minute reminder that Dave, Andy and Paul are presenting the story of the Long Hope route at the Royal Geographical Society in London tomorrow night. 

The latest exciting news is that Dale Templar, the Producer of the BBC's Human Planet series, will be our host for what promises to be a fantastic evening of speaking and film. 

If you live in the London area don't miss this rare opportunity to see Dave MacLeod in town and hear first hand the truly remarkable story of the hardest sea cliff climb in the world.

Tickets are still available; you can reserve them here or buy them on the door tomorrow night.

Dave gives us more information below...

"On February 8th, myself, Andy Turner and filmmaker Paul Diffley will be speaking at the Royal Geographical Society in London about the Longhope route. Mountain Equipment, Gore-Tex products and Cotswold Outdoor have helped us arrange an evening of entertainment at the RGS to share with you what was pretty memorable adventure for us, both in terms of the climbers involved in attempting to climb this cliff over 40 years, and in documenting it on film.

Myself and Andy will be speaking about our experiences in preparing and attempting the first free ascent of the original Longhope Route as well as some of the history behind climbing on the cliff, and then we’ll present The Long Hope film made by Paul Diffley. In particular I’ll talk about some of the psychology behind taking on a three-year sporting ambition to open a new route at world class difficulty like this, how I’ve learned to be comfortable with the dangers involved, and some of the hurdles that you just couldn’t plan for along the way. Andy will be speaking about how his winter mountaineering adventures in Scotland, the Alps and Norway were about as good preparation as you could get for this type of adventure, yet still not enough to avoid some knee trembling moments on a 1400 foot loose, bird infested sea-cliff.

We’ll have a bar and plenty of time to meet up and talk about adventures on cliffs during the evening or ask questions. We’ll also have some signed copies of the Long Hope DVD and various other films and books we’ve made. Doors open at 6pm to start 7pm. It should be a great night!

Tickets and full details are available in my shop right here. It’s going to be a busy show so it would be a very good plan to get your ticket early."