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| The Best Big Wall Gear Sling
We took four big wall gear slings and tested them on Yosemite's big walls and in our gear lab. We scored each gear sling in five categories: comfort, adjustability, organization, ease of getting on, and overall bomberness. We scored each gear sling, added up the points, and then awarded our Editors'...
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| The Best Big Wall Hauling Devices
There is no part of big wall climbing reviled as much as hauling. To ease the pain we looked at the four top hauling devices and put them up against some monster El Cap loads. We evaluated each device on its ease of hauling, ease of setup, durability, ease of use, and portability. We found that all ...
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| Best Climbing Helmet for Your Dome
We chose eight top climbing helmets, dragged them through tight chimneys and up big walls, sport climbs, and long trad routes. We took the occasional leader fall and descended big climbs in the dark with a headlamp strapped to the helmet. In the end we ranked and rated each helmet on five key points...
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| The Best Climbing Belay Device
We tested 13 top belay devices in the gym, up and down Yosemite’s walls and in our lab (our garage). We tested belay devices for efficiency in throwing rope fast to a leader, smoothly belaying a second, rappelling single or double ropes of varying diameter, and for overall durability. Then we select...
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| The Best Small Camming Device
We took six of the best camming devices and put them in head-to-head competition in hundreds of placements. We scored them on how well they did in four main situations: parallel cracks, flared cracks, tight placements and horizontal placements. We also scored them on how prone they were to walking a...
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| The Best Climbing Harness - Men's
There is no piece of climbing gear you will spend more time with than your harness. Climbing shoes come and go and ropes wear out, but your harness will last for years or maybe a decade. There are a lot of great harnesses out there. In fact, this is the first gear category where we almost did not pi...
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| The Best Nuts and Stoppers
We looked at 11 different types of nuts and tested them in a wide range of cracks in a mixture of rock types. We compared their ability to hold a fall in a full range of fissures, from pin scars to parallel sided cracks. We compared and weighed factors that we believed most appropriate for alpine, a...
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| Picking the Best Ice Axe
We looked at 14 different ice axes and compared them head-to-head in the following categories: self-arresting, anchor digging, step chopping, use as improvised anchor, steep ice and snow climbing, and comfort to carry. We also looked at their advantages and disadvantages across different user groups...
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| Finding the Perfect Big Wall Aider
We reviewed eight of our favorite big wall aiders and used them on more than 100 walls from El Capitan to Baffin Island. We evaluated aiders using five main criteria: comfort, ease of walking up, durability, ease of use free climbing and top-stepping. We then chose our top aiders in three categories...
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| The Best Climbing Harness - Women's
There is no piece of climbing gear you will spend more time with than your harness. Climbing shoes come and go and ropes wear out, but your harness will last for years or maybe a decade. There are a lot of great harnesses out there. In fact, this is the first gear category where we are not yet able ...
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| The Best Medium Bouldering Pad
We selected seven of the medium bouldering pads, lined them up, and fell on them repeatedly. Then we dragged them around, loaded them up, unloaded them, and fell on them some more. We found a big difference in all the pads when evaluated by foam, design, durability, and features. We put them through...
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| The Nuances of Nut Tools
We took seven of the best nut tools and tested them at cleaning a variety of cams and nut types in all sizes and over a broad spectrum of rock types. We compared their weight, durability, ability to clean a nut, ability to clean a cam, the comfort level while pounding on the nut tool with our hand, ...
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Recent Editor's Award Winners
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