Making It Better - Gear mods for the obsessed

Disassembling the Petzl QuarkDane Burns is a machinist with an unquenchable thirst for cold and scary alpine and ice climbing. He writes about it frequently on his blog, www.coldthistle.blogspot.com. Bloggers in the climbing world seem to find each other with some regularity. I read Dane and he reads me. Not too long ago, he commented about my Petzl Quark ice tools which he noticed in some pictures of me climbing the Black Ice Couloir. He implied that my set-up was less than ideal and he could offer me an upgrade of his own creation. Cool.

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Black Ice Couloir Trip Report

Nate Brown cruising the iconic Black Ice Couloir, GTNPIn June, 2001, after making a solo ascent of the Black Ice Couloir, the iconic alpine ice climb on the north side of the Enclosure in Grand Teton National Park, I told myself that I probably didn't need to go back there. It was my second solo of the route, my third ascent ever, and I figured I had seen and experienced what I needed. But two Saturdays ago saw me, Nate Brown and Andy Dorais front-pointing our way up perfect, if not brittle, alpine ice choking the Black Ice.

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