An AlpBase for French Sport Ice Climbing
Expedition climber and Alpkit drinking partner Jerry Gore has got in touch with some seasonal ice climbing information for anyone heading out to the Southern Alps. Jerry moved to the Ecrins Massif in 2003. In between expeditions he runs his company AlpBase.com offering bespoke mountaineering courses on ice climbing, and providing apartments and chalet accommodation for climbers, walkers, skiers and snowboarders.
Tout a Blocs
Every year in late July / early August a normally sleepy village at the foot of the big Ecrin mountains attracts more than 300 bronzed dudes looking for the little blocs. They shuffle around some of these blocs in the midday sun, cursing their tight shoes and dipping their hands in the little sacks around their waist. If you find yourself there and wondering what is going down, don’t worry, the chances are it is TAB time.
Buachaille Gear Reviews
When you are spending your hard earned savings on expensive kit you want to know it is up to the job, you want information. Catalogues, magazines, shops and best of all your close network of friends have always been on hand but now technology is providing a broader user base of independent gear reviews. We take a look at one site that is leading this revolution.
SummitPost Mountain Community
If mountains are your bag then this site should feature highly in your list of favourites. We don’t know how many of you mountain people temporarily traversing cyberland do not already know about SummitPost.org, it is hard to believe there is anyone, but even if we manage to bring just one more person to this site we can say that we have done our bit.
Freakclimbing
Climbing attracts a lot of nutcases, it is one of the things that makes the world of climbing so interesting. Just hit your crag on the weekend or stare at people in your local climbing wall and wonder what is making them tick (whilst they wonder what the hell you are all about).
Buachaille Gear Reviews
When you are spending your hard earned savings on expensive kit you want to know it is up to the job, you want information. Catalogues, magazines, shops and best of all your close network of friends have always been on hand but now technology is providing a broader user base of independent gear reviews. We take a look at one site that is leading this revolution.
We came across Buachaille, as we do with so many other things by searching for our name with Google. So there we were, our Airic self-inflating sleeping mats flying the Alpkit flag. We are always chuffed when our kit turns up unexpectedly so we dug a little bit deeper and found that Buachaille is run by Innes and Jaye, a brother and sister team based in Scotland.
People like to get their hands on goodies before they buy, they like to pull things apart, try them on, compare them to what there friends have; that is difficult online. Difficult but not impossible. The great thing about the internet, if you can attract enough people to your site is that you can canvas diverse and numerous opinions. Of course you do risk courting a lot of trash as well but thanks to the sites clean, simple and professional design Buachaille manages to source considered and therefore useful reviews.
Innes: “The US sites, such as Trailspace, are ok but often the reviews don’t go into enough detail. If i’m just about to spend £200-300 on a new tent, “Hey, I’ve got this tent - It’s great!” doesn’t really help me! Also, as more people choose to shop online rather than visit their local outdoor retailer, it will become increasingly useful to read the opinions of others before buying.”
The site is programmed ‘in house’ by Innes, a software developer by trade and his priority are on a functional, easy to use site. The site allows users to read product reviews as well as compare the latest prices from up to 20 outdoor shops. The real gear enthusiasts can submit their own reviews/photos and since launching 6 months ago the site has received almost 2000 reviews.
Submitting a review is easy; find the product in question, click ‘review this product’, fill out the form and submit. The clever part is that the site can automatically track product prices if store owners have included the reviewed products. Buachaille doesn’t rely on being fed information. They actually extract the prices and availability from each website so, in theory, the accuracy of the data should be much better. Innes says that they still have issues from time to time but the technology is definitely improving.
What can we expect to see in the future? Obviously more products, photos, prices and reviews but there are also plans to start showing prices from US stores. Even taking international delivery charges and import taxes into consideration, it’s often cheaper to have gear shipped from the US. But as we all know there is more to life than gear right? so it is good news that Innes is developing an accommodation directory where people will be able to review the hostels, bunkhouses, campsites and B&B’s they use when climbing/walking in the UK.
http://www.buachaille.com
Posted on 06 June, 2006