This one-of-a-kind kneepad features a wraparound design with quick-cinch buckles that makes the pad easy on, easy off. Instead of taking off your shoes or bunching up your pants, you can strap it around almost anything on your leg—no more duct tape, liquid adhesives, or weird shave jobs just to get your kneepad on.
When you find clothing that is comfortable, versatile, stretchy, and flattering, it’s a winner. The Urban Gym Capri has a wide waistband for a slimming effect, but, more important, it keeps the pants in place. “These never slipped down—with a harness or without,” one tester said.
Take the weather resistance of the best softshell and marry it to the breathability of an unlined fleece, and you have the Acto MX. “It’s great for high-output activities in the alpine,” said one tester after climbing the Breithorn outside of Zermatt, Switzerland, on a crisp, bluebird day.
“It’s like wearing armor,” said one tester after a two-week stint in perpetually weather-beaten south Patagonia, during which he rarely took the jacket off. “From climbing to sea kayaking to horseback riding, this jacket is perfect for the cold and wet, and it handles abrasion better than just about any other shell I’ve seen.”
Eliminate neck pain with the Belay Specs. They utilize glass prisms mounted to a durable, stainless steel frame that bend the light (like a mirror) so you can see the route above while looking straight ahead. They’re especially great for belaying a project or for multiplehour sessions at the gym.
“I went from the office to the gym and back, and then straight into a meeting with no one batting an eye; this is a great-looking pair of shorts that happens to have a really comfortable harness inside,” our tester said. You might feel like you forgot something the first time you tie in, or even a little skeptical about taking a big whipper, but the harness inside the stylish shorts will keep you safe.
With thick palm leather, Kevlar stitching in high-friction areas, and a breathable, wicking synthetic polyester-Spandex material on the back, “These gloves made me a convert to always using belay gloves, whether it’s gym, sport, or trad,” said one tester of her six months with the gloves in Yosemite, Red Rock, and Shelf Road.
Water-resistant, ultra-warm, easy on-off, and anti-microbial to prevent the stank: that’s our list of essential qualities for the perfect shoe to wear to the gym day after day during the slushy cold season. It’s also exactly what you’ll find with Sanuk’s Enduro (men’s) and Flurry (women’s) ($110 and $120, respectively; sanuk.com).
Any climber who runs lap after lap on that yellow route at the gym knows the other side of it— belaying your partner lap after lap on that yellow route. Belaying is a necessary evil that can lead to rope burn, more flappers, and general pain. Check out the Outdoor Research Air Brake Gloves ($49; outdoorresearch.com) for a skin-saving alternative.
It’s funny how much waiting happens at the crag: Belaying, spotting, gawking, sharing beta—these don’t require a ton of energy. What’s not funny is how far your core temperature can drop on cold days during inactivity. Solution? The Sierra Designs DriDown Gnar Lite jacket ($229; sierradesigns.com). While at first glance it looks like any other 800-fill down jacket (and indeed its weight and warmth are comparable to most in that category), it’s the invisible treatment to the down itself that makes the difference.
Bailing off the sixth pitch of Petit Grepon (5.8) in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, in the face of a rain and hail storm, our tester put this “emergency storm jacket for an alpine environment” to the test. The Arc’teryx Alpha SL Jacket ($319; arcteryx.com) was a godsend for the two-hour downpour while the tester and her partner rapped down almost 800 feet.
Would you rather drop a few hundred clams for an ultra-specialized glove that ends up relegated to ski-slope use or pay way less for a warm workhorse glove that handles your dirty work? That’s what we thought. The North Face Work Glove ($80; thenorthface.com), an all-around and full-leather paw-warmer, stood up to plenty of rappels and belays.
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