Super-Crappy Gear!
 

Rating Description: = waste of money = annoying = extra crappy = possible loss of fingers, toes, or life...
 
     
 
I can’t tell you how many pair of MSR snowshoes – the ones with the duel pin binding attachment – I have seen or heard about that have screwed up and left the wearer post-holing in deep snow. MSR uses this type of attachment on almost all of its snowshoes and they are complete shite!! The picture to the left is of a buddy whose binding broke twice on a single day winter peak ascent. If it had happened in poor weather or miles and miles off trail, he would have been in serious trouble. Think twice and then twice again before buying this type of snowshoe.
Oh, Lonely Planet… How many people have I talked out of buying your books in various booksellers? How many souls have I led to other guides? I have made informing the general public of your crappiness a part-time job. I HATE Lonely Planet Guide books! I have a shelf full of guides to various cities, countries, mountains and crags and the one brand that has let me down time and again is LP. In 2001-2002 I flew 280,000 air miles and for the last 5 years have flown an average of 80,000 a year. During all of those days and weeks and months away I have tried almost every book out there and have tried to give LP a second, third and forth chance - only to be further disappointed. Museums that haven’t been there for years have the opening times listed. Restaurants closed by health authorities are listed on LP pages as yummy. Local markets are pointed out in neighbourhoods that upon arrival have been turned into office blocks. Wrong phone numbers, closed book shops, bedbugs in recommended hostels, seasonal hours not listed, cancelled ferry service… I have experienced all of this with the help of Lonely Planet and much more. For Western Europe Rick Steves’ Guides are the most accurate and are updated every year. For Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, Insight and Rough Guides are terrific.
REI and a ton of high-end retailers that sell collapsible Titanium chopsticks for $25 to $50. A fool and his money soon part… Look, go to your local Chinese food store and snag 5 or 6 pairs of their bamboo sticks. They are free, just as light, and bamboo is renewable unlike Titanium. Do you have any idea how much earth has to be moved for each pound of Titanium? How much energy goes into refining it? All so we can have collapsible chopsticks. Stupid.