Alpine Tips
Innovative Gear - Aideer Climbing
Aideer Climbing is a one-man show, crafted by Olle Hjort in Stockholm Sweden. Olle makes soft good for aid climbing, big walls and some industrial use.
This section of my website highlights small companies, inventors, artists and other superb humans who make exceptional climbing-related gear.
If you know a company that wants to be on these pages, please let me know.
I don't get any sort of advertising fees / benefits / kickbacks from these pages. I simply want to showcase cool companies to a wider audience.
Occasionally these companies may give me a product to review. If that happens, I’ll tell you.
Listings are alphabetical.
Aideer Climbing - Olle Hjort
Aideer Climbing is a one-man show, crafted by Olle Hjort in Stockholm Sweden. Olle makes soft good for aid climbing, big walls and some industrial use.
Aider Climbing website.
Preferred way to connect and order is through Instagram, @aideerclimbing
Olle was kind enough to send me a pair of his aid ladders for review, and they are beautiful! Sturdy in all the right places, lightweight in the other places, and literally half the weight of my older workhorse ones.
(If you’re lucky, or ask nicely, he might even sew a cool Swedish flag on for you.)
Currently, Aideer offers the following products:
aid ladders (let’s not call them “etriers” - French for “stirrup” - anymore, okay?)
Russian aiders (VERY cool and hard to find!)
big wall gear sling
“Collector of Dropped Objects” (CODI), a sort of large hanging basket designed to be strung below people who work at heights so they don't drop stuff
A few of his schweeeeeet aid ladders, ready for shipping.
If you're ready for battle on your next steep, scary big wall, you might want a pair of Russian aiders. They are very different than the standard ladders shown above, and Olle is one of the few people who makes them.
More for industrial use, here is the CODI (Collector Of Dropped Objects). If you're doing industrial type work where you don't want to drop anything, hanging this below your job site could be a fine idea.
Innovative Gear: Avant Climbing Innovations
Avant Climbing Innovations, based in Flagstaff Arizona, and founded by Brent Barghahn, focuses on specialty gear for top rope and lead rope solo climbing.
This section of Alpinesavvy highlights small companies, inventors, artists and other superb humans who make exceptional climbing-related gear.
If you know a company that belongs on these pages, please let me know.
I don't get any sort of advertising fees / benefits / kickbacks from these pages. I simply want to showcase cool companies to a wider audience.
Occasionally these companies may give me a product to review. If that happens, I’ll tell you.
Listings are alphabetical.
Avant Climbing Innovations founder Brent Barghahn free climbing El Corazon (5.13), El Capitan.
Avant Climbing Innovations, based in Flagstaff Arizona, makes specialized gear focused on top rope solo and lead rope solo climbing.
Avant Climbing Innovations website
Avant Climbing Innovations Instagram, @avant_climbing_innovations
Brent’s website and blog, with nice articles and photos of his adventures
Avant Climbing Innovations was founded by Brent Barghahn. Brent, a product designer, professional climber and humble bad-ass, knows a thing or two about hard climbing on big walls. He has some very impressive free ascents on El Capitan, such as El Corazon, El Nino, and Golden Gate. He is also an leader in spreading the gospel of proper technique and gear for lead and top rope solo technique. Oh yeah, and he has a few patents as well!
Top rope solo neck lanyard - If you ever done top rope soloing, you might've tried the DIY method of some sort of DIY bungee cord thing around your neck. This adjustable neck lanyard works a lot better.
Snack Pack multi pitch storage pouch - If you want to leave your backpack on the ground, but still have some room for a few essentials like snacks, phone, windbreaker, and headlamp, check this out. It's basically a smartly designed chalk bag with a nice closure and zipper to store a few extra goodies; plus it has a phone tether.
Flex-Link Anti-Crossload Protector - Cross loading your carabiner is not a good thing, especially when you’re rope soloing. This clever device keeps this from happening, and it looks like it could be helpful in lots of cases other than rope soloing.
Top Rope Solo Neck Lanyard
image: https://avantclimbing.com/
Snack Pack multi pitch storage pouch
image: https://avantclimbing.com/
Flex-Link - Anti-Crossload Protector
image: https://avantclimbing.com/
Learn more about Brent from these videos.
Great documentary video produced by Arc'teryx with Brent free climbing one of the hardest routes on El Capitan with Amity Warme.
An interview with Ryan Jenks of hotNOT2.com, with a deep dive into top rope solo technique.
Innovative Gear - Gear Perspectives
Gear Perspective, from Kingsburg California, specializes in gear for canyoneering. Several of their products cross over well to alpine climbing and ski mountaineering.
This section of Alpinesavvy highlights small companies, inventors, artists and other superb humans who make exceptional climbing-related gear.
If you know a company that belongs on these pages, please let me know.
I don't get any sort of advertising fees / benefits / kickbacks from these pages. I simply want to showcase cool companies to a wider audience.
Occasionally these companies may give me a product to review. If that happens, I’ll tell you.
Listings are alphabetical.
Good canyoneering gear can take you to some amazing places like this . . .
Gear Perspective, based in Kingsburg California near the beautiful central Sierra Nevada, has a focus on gear for canyoneering.
Gear Perspective website
Gear Perspective Instagram, @gearperspective
Here are some of their more popular offerings.
Micro 30 RADlineRope bag - This bag is the perfect size for 30 meters of 6 mm cord, such as the Petzl RADline. This makes it very helpful for Alpine climbers as well as canyoneering. It has double grommets in the bottom so you can tie a fixed loop, very handy for crevasse rescue. It was designed with collaboration from IFMGA guide Dave Searle, so you know it's solid. Gear Perspective gave me this bag for review, and I love it. They also make a larger version for a 60 meter 6 mm rope, if you have a longer tagline. (On their website it's under the “Search and Rescue” category.)
Shoulder / belt pouch - This is another one of their products that crosses over to climbing and backpacking. Keep your phone, energy bar, folded map and other essentials at the ready on your shoulder strap. Comes in lots of fun colors!
Double end rope bag V2 - Canyoneering folks have long realize the benefits of rope bags to keep your life tangle free. Some techniques benefit from having access to both ends of the rope in the bag, and this is designed for that.
60 meter and 30 meter rope bags (here, with 6mm rope)
Shoulder / belt pouch
Double end rope bag
image: https://gearperspective.com/
Innovative Gear - High Mountain Gear
High Mountain Gear is from Tacoma Washington. Founder Kyle Willis designs and sews small batch made-in-USA products for alpine and big wall climbing, much of it from re-purposed fabrics.
This section of Alpinesavvy highlights small companies, inventors, artists and other superb humans who make exceptional climbing-related gear.
If you know a company that belongs on these pages, please let me know.
I don't get any sort of advertising fees / benefits / kickbacks from these pages. I simply want to showcase cool companies to a wider audience.
Occasionally these companies may give me a product to review. If that happens, I’ll tell you.
Listings are alphabetical.
High Mountain Gear founder, Kyle Willis
High Mountain Gear is a small-scale gear manufacturer in Tacoma Washington. Founded by Kyle Willis, HMG makes some very cool products for big wall and alpine climbing.
High Mountain Gear website
High Mountain Gear Instagram, @highmountaingear
Kyle is a master at sewing and designing. He strives to use as much recycled and repurposed material as possible, such as extra sturdy sailboat sails.
HMG’s most innovative gear is the Taco portaledge system, the lightest portaledge (and fly!) currently available. Kyle was nice enough to send me one for review, and it's quite amazing. It's a sort of envelope into which you insert a Thermarest-style inflatable sleeping pad, and it's surprisingly comfortable.
High Mountain Gear also makes rope bags, which is pretty much mandatory to keep 6 mm tagline tangle-free. What I really like about his rope bags is the stiffness of the fabric, which keeps the mouth of the bag wide open when you're stuffing the rope, a big timesaver.
Related to the rope bag is the HMG ice screw cannon, a great way to store all of your screws and without them gouging anything else in your pack.
The Ski Guide Sled Tarp is an emergency shelter, and a way that you can hopefully drag out your injured partner if needed. Hopefully you don't need it for either one but if you do, you'll be glad you have it.
Check out some of their products below.
The Taco portaledge system
The High Mountain Gear rope bag - a perfect fit for 60 meters of 6 mm skinny rope
The HMG ice screw cannon
The ski guide rescue tarp
Innovative Gear - Hyalite Designs
Hyalite Designs is artist Katie McKinstry Stylos. Based in Montana, Katie creates amazing mountain landscape art from repurposed climbing rope.
This section of Alpinesavvy highlights small companies, inventors, artists and other superb humans who make exceptional climbing-related gear.
If you know a company that belongs on these pages, please let me know.
I don't get any sort of advertising fees / benefits / kickbacks from these pages. I simply want to showcase cool companies to a wider audience.
Occasionally these companies may give me a product to review. If that happens, I’ll tell you.
Listings are alphabetical.
Hyalite Designs founder Katie McKinstry Stylos in the studio.
Hyalite Designs is Katie McKinstry Stylos. She’s a Montana-based artist who creates unique and beautiful landscape art from repurposed climbing ropes.
Hyalite Designs website, including gallery of previous work
Hyalite Designs Instagram, @hyalite_designs
Katie designs and creates one-of-a-kind mountain scenery art from retired climbing ropes.
She lives near the ice climbing mecca of Hyalite Montana, and when she's not in her studio, you can probably find her climbing up frozen water in the nearby canyons.
Instagram is a great place to see more of her art and find out how you can buy one yourself. (I don’t yet own her art, but I certainly hope to someday.)
Here are some photos of her art, from her website and Instagram.
Innovative Gear - RopeLite
RopeLite is Douglas Ray, a Seattle-based climber who makes spliced lightweight specialized cordage for climbers and rope rescue applications.
This section of Alpinesavvy highlights small companies, inventors, artists and other superb humans who make exceptional climbing-related gear.
If you know a company that belongs on these pages, please let me know.
I don't get any sort of advertising fees / benefits / kickbacks from these pages. I simply want to showcase cool companies to a wider audience.
Occasionally these companies may give me a product to review. If that happens, I’ll tell you.
Listings are alphabetical.
RopeLite founder Douglas Ray
Douglas makes specialized and extremely lightweight friction hitch cords, bridles for carrying a litter, and more. Because the ends often have a spliced eye and not sewn in a loop, his equipment offers a great strength to weight ratio.
He also does custom orders. If you need something cool that he doesn't sell, get in touch.
Doulas sent me a hitch cord to review, and it's pretty impressive. It makes a solid friction hitch on 6 mm Petzl PURline, which is notoriously difficult to use with most friction hitches.
Here are some photos of RopeLite gear, from Douglas’ Instagram and website.
RopeLite Technora hitch cord
Adjustable litter bridle
Custom project for crevasse rescue
5 meter piece of cord with a 25 cm spliced loop on each end. Each end loop can make a prusik on ropes as small as 6mm. Or you can make a friction hitch anywhere in the middle. Weight: only four ounces / 113 grams
Innovative Gear - Skot’s Wall Gear
Skot's Wall Gear is the one man show of Skot Richards, a big wall expert and California-based designer and producer of big wall climbing gear. His Alfifi is a near mandatory gear for aid climbers.
This section of Alpinesavvy highlights small companies, inventors, artists and other superb humans who make exceptional climbing-related gear.
If you know a company that belongs on these pages, please let me know.
I don't get any sort of advertising fees / benefits / kickbacks from these pages. I simply want to showcase cool companies to a wider audience.
Occasionally these companies may give me a product to review. If that happens, I’ll tell you.
Listings are alphabetical.
Skot Richards, in action on El Capitan
Skot Richards is a one person, California-based designer and producer of big wall climbing gear.
Skot’s Wall Gear website
Skot’s Wall Gear Instagram, @skotswallgear
Skot is a multi talented guy! A veteran of many El Capitan climbs, he designs, sews, and does metal and machine work to constantly improve his products.
His flagship gear is the Alfifi, which is a combination adjustable tether and stout steel hook. This makes many different aspects of aid climbing faster and more efficient, such as top stepping, cleaning traverses, and even leading without connections to your ladders.
Skot sells some key gear to dial in your 2:1 hauling system, such as the perfect length of low stretch Zed cord, and a zero-stretch wire quickdraw. (Side note: here's my detailed article about the 2:1 haul system.)
He also offers the service of custom sewn webbing loops onto your hooks, which is something you probably don't realize you need until you try his.
Skot also offer several flavors of aid ladders, with the nice design feature of a designated clipping point for your tether.
