Andrew Bisharat

The C.A.M.P. Quartz is a four-gear-loop, all-around harness that is comfortable and versatile.

Field Test of Petz's Corax climbing harness, which is quite burly and heavy, but comfortable because of the additional support.

I’ve been whipping on the Climax all summer and fall, and still have yet to trim an end, which to me is as amazing as a car that never needs its gas tank filled.

If you ask climbers what our favorite part of climbing is, we would say solving problems. Well, we might actually say, “slaying the Gnar,” or “sending the chronicles of Gnarnia with advanced kneebar techgnarlogy,” or even just, “taking a dump on a route,” but we all mean the same thing, and that is we enjoy figuring out solutions to vertical challenges.

I didn’t want to like this pack. Anything that’s more complicated to load than a laundry basket seems too complex to my pea-sized brain.

From my vantage beneath a steep bouldering wall at the Movement climbing gym, called by some “the best crag in Boulder,” I sat hypnotized by the sight of a tight little package, all hot with hair full of body and bounce, pumping an elliptical machine. I enjoyed this nice moment until the guy (jerk) next to her diverted my attention.

A desperate search for climbing's soul.

During a hot summer day, while climbing with my friend Dan, I took off my shirt. Sorry, it happens. The muzzle-loading firearm that is my pallid skin shot a round of the sun's white-hot reflection at everyone within range. There was an instant massacre of eyeballs and appetites.

You can run, but you can't hide

Field Test of the KONG Scarab climbing helmet. The expensive helmet took rock fall like a champ.

Field Test: The Slimline Elite would be an excellent choice for big-wall rats and grade IV tradsters.

My penchant for long day climbs makes me particularly interested in backpacks I can carry on route, especially since I've destroyed three of them in the last year.