HardGoods

I've always figured that making do with less meant hardship. Less money meant less fun. Less time off meant more work.

On paper, the PMI Arete is a perfect rope for me: thin, light (62.6 grams/meter), strong (8 falls) and a few bucks less than ropes of similar size.

This new kick from Five Ten is one of the best all-day all-around all-performance climbing shoes I've worn recently and by a mile (ho ho). The VMile is built to go the distance on cracks, slabs, steeps -- and whatever else America's great multi-pitch areas toss your way.

Boulder Based Designs has introduced The Mark, foolproof gear-marking paint/epoxy—one that would not flake or wear away.

Light is symbolic of everything good in our world, not to mention that it's useful. We pragmatic, weight-conscious, nit picky, gear-snobby climbers now have two new pocket lights to help us get through the darkest moments of our pointless existences: the Black Diamond Apollo Lantern. and the Coleman Exponent Lithium Pack-Away Lantern.

It's hard to put a price on your head, but mine is apparently worth $60, or exactly what the new AustriAlpin helmet costs. Here's a Field Test review.

The Black Diamond Viper, a high-tech all-terrain tool. Available with either hammer or adze, this fully modular unit is as functional and reliable as your longtime partner, perhaps more so.

Cholatse is an awesome 21,000-foot mountain in the Khumbu region of the Himalaya. Cholatse is also an awesome ice and alpine boot.

NEW FROM SCARPA THIS SPRING are the Instinct and Instinct S, two edging shoes that make slabs out of gently overhanging terrain.

IF THE OSPREY Stratos 40 were a person, you’d probably hate him—this pack does it all really well.

I've worn various climbing shoes and wished that they were better at this or that -- heel hooks, dime edges, smearing and so on. But I've never donned a shoe and thought, I wish these shoes would outside edge better.

Field Test of the lightweight Camp Armour helmet. It's affordable, functional and impeccably stylish weighing in at only 11 ounces.