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CAMP USA

Review: CAMP Alp Mountain Harness for Ski Mountaineering and Alpinism

October 7, 2019 By Stano Faban Leave a Comment

Overview:

Suitability: ski mountaineering and glacier travel, mountaineering and alpinism, rappels and easy climbing
Usual full price: around $70 USD (at Skimo.co)
Weight: 260g in Medium size (Small, Medium, Large)
Pros: durability, functionality, fit and comfort, low weight
Cons: ease of use could be improved

Bottom Line:

This harness is best for ski mountaineering and glacier travel mainly thanks to its low weight and functionality that allows for putting it on without the need to remove your skis or crampons.

It also performs well for general mountaineering, alpinism and even easy climbing where long vertical falls are not expected. Obviously, this depends on your skill level and judgement.

In the Tantalus Range, British Columbia, Canada.

Review:

We have been using the CAMP Alp Mountain harness for a couple of months now. From glacier travel and ski mountaineering, to alpine mountaineering and even some sports climbing of grades up to 5.10c (6a).

On the beautiful long ridge of Piz Palu in Switzerland.

The single most important feature of this harness is that you can put it on and take it off without removing your skis or crampons but let’s discuss beyond this main characteristic.

In general, thanks to its wide webbing and thin padding on the waist, the harness fits well over any type of clothing as it’s easy to adjust the leg loops and waist belt. It is also very comfortable to wear all day long whether in the winter or summer.

The harness comes in 3 sizes so make sure to choose an optimal fit – not too loose, not too tight – and you can use it for a variety of activities too.

While fairly minimalist, the CAMP Alp Mountain harness offers enough gear loops to carry all your necessary crevasse rescue gear, or your climbing gear when you go mountaineering.

Ski mountaineering and glacier travel are the main activities why you might be looking at this harness. It’s light, it packs small, and when you occasionally need it you can quickly put it on without the hassle of removing your skis. We have definitely enjoyed it for this type of use.

While the harness also works well for general mountaineering and easy climbing you need to remember that it’s not well padded – taking a big fall won’t be very comfortable.

For mountaineering, just like for ski mountaineering, you will appreciate its low weight and overall comfort.

We have been also actively using it for sports climbing but the harness didn’t inspire us to push our limit as its lack of padding makes it not very pleasant to take a fall with.

Another great way to test the comfort of the harness was rappelling. Once loaded, it felt as comfortable as fully padded climbing harnesses. Of course, this might be different if we were to rappel a long vertical route but one could still do it.

What We Think Could Be Improved:

There is not much to complain about when you use this harness for its intended purposes. Perhaps, weight could be shaved further with newer materials and a little bit of colour could add some “liveliness” to the somewhat boring grey.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Camp, CAMP USA

CAMP Ski Raptor: Lightweight, Full-featured Ski Mountaineering Pack

September 7, 2019 By Stano Faban 2 Comments


Are you looking for a new ski pack?

Then CAMP Ski Raptor is truly an attractive ski touring and ski mountaineering day pack to consider.

CAMP is famous for their super light skimo racing packs and their designing experience shows with the Ski Raptor too.

Weighing just under 1kg, or around 2 pounds, it has many features of heavier freeriding packs without the bulk. The weight savings mainly come from using a lightweight yet strong Nylon TriRipstop fabric.

The pack’s 30L volume is divided between a couple of dedicated and smartly designed compartments to hold your avalanche safety gear, crampons, and all your clothes and food. The zippered crampons pouch is at the bottom of the pack and accessed from the side, a feature borrowed from skimo racing packs.

Skis can be attached to the pack without removing it from your back… but if you choose to you can also attach them laterally using straps on the sides.

The Ski Raptor also features ice axe attachments and a helmet carry system. The two zippered pockets on the hip belt give you a quick access to small items such as lip balm, snack, or ski wax.

The pack even features fleece lined pocket for goggles and glasses, a clever addition many heavier packs don’t have.

Where to Buy

You can get this pack from experts at Skimo.co or directly from CAMP USA and some specialized European stores.

Filed Under: Gear, Tech & Food Tagged With: CAMP USA

Where Innovation Meets History: Visiting CAMP Headquarters and Factory in Premana, Italy

May 6, 2019 By Stano Faban Leave a Comment

As if from a mythical story book, there is a very specific charm to visiting traditional European outdoor gear manufacturers. They are often hidden high up in mountain valleys as if they were kept a secret.

C.A.M.P started in 1889 as a one-man metal shop. We maintain this heritage in the raw world of manufacturing where have passed the value of getting our hands dirty down through four generations of family owners. This is our heritage and it will always be our future.

Last year, we visited La Sportiva in a beautiful valley of Val di Fiemme in Italy and now it was time to pay tribute to another historically significant player in the climbing and ski mountaineering world.

With so many brands offering outdoor gear these days there are only a few with such strong roots and vision such as the family-owned CAMP. This 125 years old manufacturer has a lightweight gear manifesto that drives its decisions with every existing product and when designing anything new.

While lightweight is fundamental in CAMP’s product research and development they integrate it with other drivers such as product functionality, passion for work well done, the alpine heritage of the brand, and they see each product as an enabler for climbers and ski mountaineers that use it realize their goals.

If there is one thing we can do with any piece of equipment to improve its performance, it is to make it lighter. THIS IS A UNIVERSAL TRUTH and it is a driving force at CAMP where we start with purpose-built designs and then trim the fat for a result that has become the world’s lightest line of equipment for climbers, mountaineers, alpinists and ski mountaineers. In the mountains, we are obliged to be prepared for whatever may come our way. This means we cannot skimp on our selections when we choose the right tools for the adventure… – from CAMP’s Lightweight Manifesto

As with La Sportiva in Val di Fiemme, CAMP chooses to stay in a small charming mountain village of Premana not because it makes for a better story but because a handful of local families are part of its manufacturing process since the very beginning.

In fact, CAMP is short for “Concezione Articoli Montagna Premana”, and in English it means “Conceptions of Products for Mountains in Premana”.

Product Lines and Research & Development

For a small company, compared to La Sportiva or Scarpa, CAMP has an amazingly big selection of products, most of them in the hard goods segment (climbing gear) instead of relying only on clothing like most brands.

CAMP basically manufactures every imaginable gear of climbing, alpine climbing and ski mountaineering equipment, except ropes, while they clothing line is limited to a couple of highly functional pieces that are mostly available only in Italy for now.

True to its values, the company constantly pushes for improvements and innovation in a dynamic way.

At 246g in 50cm length, the Corsa Nanotech ice axe uses Nanoflex – special steel developed with nanotechnology – and is one of many examples how CAMP blends superb functionality with lightweight and minimalism.

With only about 10-15 designers and consultants, and a much smaller R&D budget than most outdoor brands, it is fascinating that CAMP is one of industry leaders.

CAMP Outdoor vs CAMP Safety

CAMP does not only develop and manufactures gear for outdoors but it also has tremendous amounts of know-how in the industrial safety gear design.

Druid Descender – a lightweight, compact auto-braking descender for rope access and rescue.

Determined by the differences in priorities, focus in outdoor products is a blend of light weight and function to enable absolute best athletic performance. With industrial products, the focus is primarily on safety, function, durability and compliance to various ever more stringent safety standards, often different by region or even country.

CAMP Headquarters and Factory Tour

After navigating narrow roads above a steep gorge we arrived to CAMP offices and factory in Premana to meet Isacco Codega – one of the fourth generation of the Codega family, that founded this highly specialized company back in 1889, and still leading it today.

Stylish handles on the front door to CAMP’s headquarters.

Designers and administration staff was busy at work while we went through a long hallway that displayed some of CAMPs gear and mountain photos.

Isacco brought us to their internal testing facility that allows them to collect lots of valuable data about their existing gear as well as to test new ideas. While light weight is very important for the company they also test durability by simulating the use of their gear thousands of times, for example opening and closing a carabiner gate many thousand times to learn how this might affect the its function over long periods of use.

One of the tests we witnessed was with the ski mountaineering Speed Comp helmet that has been significantly upgraded over the last two years to meet the double certification standard – for skiing and climbing – that is now required by ISMF, the International Ski Mountaineering Federation.

New CAMP Speed Comp helmet (in blue) has been considerably improved over the old model (white) to comply with EN 12492 and EN 1077/B certification standards in accordance with ISMF rules.

CAMP’s R&D engineer prepared for us a “Test of resistance to penetration EN 1077 class B of Speed Comp helmet” during which a 3 kg sharply pointed spike is dropped at the velocity of 2.71 m/s from the height of 375mm, and it should not contact with the head form.

After talking to one of the main designers and engineers, Isacco lead us to the bottom floor of the building to CAMP’s main manufacturing shop for crampons, ice axes and other various equipment.

Here you can watch one of many steps that are needed to manufacture a pair of mountaineering crampons:

These pipes will be reborn as ice axes soon.
CAMP’s manufacturing shop just after the workers left for the day.
Front parts of crampons waiting for polishing.

Relationship with Athletes and Other Companies

Robert Antonioli

CAMP deeply cares about its athletes and ambassadors, and many of them are very loyal in return.

Likewise, deeper relationships exist in Italy even among companies as CAMP occasionally cooperates with other brands such as La Sportiva.

CAMP will also play an integral part in the 2019 Arc’Teryx Alpine Academy in Chamonix in July by providing gear as well as running two climbing specific clinics. CAMP has also partnered with Arc’Teryx for their Jackson Hole Backcountry Academy.

Into The Future

There is no doubt that CAMP will keep pushing the limits of innovation for all of us to enjoy the benefits to let us move through the mountains safely and efficiently so we can focus on the beautiful experiences rather than equipment.

In the coming weeks, we will be testing some of CAMP’s finest ski mountaineering gear to weight its pros and cons so you can make more informed choices before your next adventure.

Filed Under: Gear, Tech & Food Tagged With: Camp, CAMP USA

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Travelling through snowy mountains on skis is like flying… and experiencing life at its core.

Gear reviews, interviews, adventures, contests, skills, skimo training, race reports – we connect you to all things related to self-propelled skiing.

SkinTrack.com, created by Stano Faban, was born out of passion for ski mountaineering and ski touring. Over the years, it has become one of the most popular ski mountaineering blogs in North America.

Recent Articles

  • Kilian Jornet Interview: About His New Foundation, His Own Environmental Impact, and How He Wants To Help Athletes and The Outdoor Industry To Protect Nature
  • How Fast Are Glaciers Really Melting? How Will This Affect Your Mountain Adventures? Interview with Pascal Egli
  • Book Review – Art of Freedom: The Life and Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka
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