Fusion 2: The Definitive Review

Winter climbing comprises four elements; 1)Waterfall, 2)Mixed/Dry-tool, 3)Competition, 4)Solo. In the interest of modernity I have refrained from speaking yea or nay of the 2 until I have had a chance to put this instrument through the paces. Usually this proving assumes the form of scaring the shit out of myself a form of mental catharsis I at times crave. We all have our little nuances...

I had seen an early prototype of what was to be Fusion 2 in November 2007 spent some time top-roping with this set at the Hyalite then heard little more until a rather well-worn pair of advanced prototypes arrived in February 2009. These lacked the molded over-grip and rocked precariously on small holds, hmmm...

My own pair of production 2s appeared at the laboratory one day among the cases of plastic tissue culture flasks and other lab paraphernalia. I produced their jagged medieval forms from within the brown cardboard then ran about the bays howling-ranting about foreign-sounding place-names a story still being told two months later.

Living has never been the same since, those life-altering instances happen every so often, I am ass-over-teakettle in love with this tool. I get asked a lot of questions about whether 2 fills the shoes of Fusion 1 which is a bit like asking Cleopatra who was a more rewarding fuck Julius Caesar or Marc Anthony, 2 has erased all memory of Fusion 1 and so it ends there.

Whereas Fusion 1 was cruelly efficient 2 is pure fun totally reinvigorating the winter climbing experience which brings me back to the four pillars of winter climbing. I should mention that as an older athlete with some mileage under my rig I anxiously scan the horizon for an trick or gimmick to hold my interest. Not that Fusion 1 was a bad tool I still have two pairs in my inventory I simply no longer hold them in such esteem. In the quest for less in the bag I prefer a one-tool solution much as I no longer climb with a heel-plate if light is right then not having to think about what to take is divine.

An early test was to be Secret Probation solo but solo with no sussing just walk up and do the thing. Now I have seen ratings ascribed to this route raging from M4+ to M7 the lower grades reflecting perhaps extensive ice buildup or more likely fanciful thinking on the part of lap-top alpinists. That frigid morning the ice was steep near bullet-proof and smokin' cold. Once you perform the dry-tooling down-climbing is really not an option I never carry a rope on such outings so it's do or die.

Next came Bulldog World another M7-M9 affair in Hyalite. In all fairness I deployed my best Squid jiggery and pokery on this little number sent on my second try and returned the following day to add the elegant Yaniro at the crux for the perfect moment.

Finally comes Ouray the adventure-demo under the Lower bridge where I climbed up having a pretty good idea where there might be some bolts to add quick-draws to another cold, cold morning where it was ill-advised to hit the squeakin' dagger too hard lest the scattered fans get more of a show than I had ever bargained for.

The Invitational on Saturday was all it could be with weird chimney climbing and a sit-start I had unknowingly practiced daily in the confines of my home gym, I wasn't even pumped when I timed out and lowered off.

So, what does it all mean? That I trust my life to this 2. There is no greater endorsement, my gloved hands ever at ease cradled with-on the black rubber-stuff or whatever it is. The Fusion Pick is an obvious choice for mixed where any degree of dry-tooling is anticipated but Laser works too very sticky on waterfall ice. I have added a layer of rubber tape to the grip as the overall profile is fairly slim then again I have always preferred diminutive women as well.

In a rare moment of humility I will concede that 2 climbs better than I do my penchant for on-sight climbing as opposed to planning and working a riute has cost me several sends already. My failures (if that's what they are) barely off-set by my successes, it's hard to always be "on" particularly in front of a crowd and a severely hung-over crowd at that.

What you will need for 2 is a good wrench the flat BD number that comes with the tool being utterly inadequate. I have a 14mm Bost that I got in a hardware store in Chamonix only then can I put enough fire on the lone head bolt to feel secure. A good mill file is a second necessity and truth be told I replace the chome-moly bolts that hold the butt-hook (get yer' mind out of the gutter!) on preferring stainless replacements from the Downtown Ace Hardware.

Bill Belcourt of Black Diamond equal parts Merlin and Leonardo conceived of this tool his stated goal at the time being a tool that climbed ice superbly while still conserving (most) of the dry-tool prowess of the Fusion 1 seems to have beaned the prez' on this one (SON OF A DOG!) proving that Arabs can't throw worth a shit. I believe he threw out the figure of 80% although 2 is more like 90%+ plus that extra sexiness that will get me up every time.

And if you aren't inspired to climb, what's the point of new kit anyway?

Postscript: I should mention that the longish 2nd prototype underwent substantial re-working the toll now being rather-shorter a good thing too as this returned stability to the tool including virtually no pick-shift when transitioning to the upper grip. 2 clears ice features very well owing to enhanced hydro-formed sculpting, I don't know anything about this so I won't be boring but this technology enables the curve of the thing to exceed anything you can create by merely bending aluminum tubes. One high-end climbing athlete seemed to think the plastic tail hook (there, happy?) was slippery, it kind of is but after purchasing my first sports-car this year I can appreciate the need for speed AND for fun, sometimes the safest place to be when in the company of a thoroughbred is squarely astride that mount legs wrapped fingers locked in the mane.

What all this means is that I'm not sure 2 is the easiest tool to use might take some time to learn to "drive" it. I say this as a lot of people hated Fusion 1 which enabled the mediocre Nomic to thrive with its erector-set appeal all the while Fusion 1 was putting up the hardest routes in the world. "it's not the arrow it's the Indian" my local shaman and medicine-man Ryan would say, true enough...

OURAY BOUND

I have trained very, very, hard this year I anticipation of the Ouray Invitational an odd proposition as being an invitational with no qualifier I never know if the invitation is to be forthcoming or not. As of late it has become fashionable to carp ceaselessly about 2009 a year of great personal transition for me not to mention indirect tragedy. I took the Guy Lacelle killed during the Hyalite IceBreaker tourney particularly hard Guy having been my hyperactive partner in two Festiglace du Quebec events in 2006 and '07. Guy was not a man to shun risk in the name of adventure nor competition during one turn at the rope in 2006 he bouldered up after a distant bolt even as I offered to stick-clip the anchor for him no sooner had he scraped his way up the suspect wall of tottering shale when BOOM down came Guy cradle and all flat on his back atop an ice boss. He swarmed back up but no doubt a man already in his fifties would have been feeling a tad stiff later that night.

But it was not Guy's own drive that slew this Geant du Cascade rather the combined hubris of individuals athletes and organizer alike at the aforementioned IceBreaker an event billed as "this ain't Ouray..." by event author Joe Josephson. Indeed, Guy withstood many spirited runs at Ouray largely unscathed only to perish in his second turn in the now infamous IceBreaker, senselessly consumed by an avalanche triggered by a party in the gulley above. That high winds, snowfall and bitter cold had drastically altered avalanche conbditions in Hyalite in the preceding 24 hours advancing a "moderate" risk to patently suicidal seems to have escaped the attention of both Joe and the participating athletes. From the 5th floor of RC2 NOAA forecasts for Hyalite and the surrounding mountains were quite express, I watched the impending grinder take shape relieved to have been snubbed for 2008.

Accidents certainly happen and while there may be no "blame" per se there is culpability galore to go around. The following week I hit town mostly to retrieve my daughter Simone a freshman at MSU but also to climb. In conversations with some of the competitors one of whom actually was involved in triggering the slide that swept Guy to his destruction it became apparent that neither in the athlete meeting nor in the pre-dawn start was any discussion of the avalanche potential undertaken an omission of near-criminal proportions. Even still the party of Josh Wharton and Sam Magro who set off the fatal slide had in fact endured one near-death experience moments earlier when JW was swept down the gulley leaving an ice tool in the ice above.

Now many persons (including me) would have promptly and correctly asserted THIS IS FUCKED and retreated but no the lure of one's name engraved on the golden piolet on display at Barrel Mountaineering was so great these blokes opted to continue and they weren't the only ones as Guy despite decades of experience in the Candian Rockies that included a harrowing near-miss under Gimme Shelter in the '90s pressed on right into the cross-hairs of what Sam described as being struck by "18 sheets of dry-wall". That this wasn't a double or even triple fatality seems to have escaped everyone's attention in the subsequent rush to memorialize the late Quebequois before returning promptly to the leisure-based lifestyle of non-stop climbing. After all, the show must go on, oui?

Perhaps, but only just. Having ice-climbed my entire adult life I really know no different as even my son Cormac succintly stated "what else are you going to do all winter!?', indeed. But the world just got a little bleaker the Ouray event a shade gloomier without the fierce Lacelle to compete against. We were after all both of an earlier era one of sodden wool and ice-glazed primitive implements where the consequences of error could be immediate and exceptionally violent. In glancing about the ranks of such veterans has thinned considerably to the point where I feel conspicuous there are old climbers, bold climbers, but no old, bold climbers, correct?

Yet Guy was the exception proof that the old saw was just another load of crap his perceived risk enormous as he completed breath-taking solo ascents of creaking frozen Leviathans across three continents. After a 1993 ascent of Curtain Call with Susanne I noted that some cat named Guy Lacelle had sent the line solo an effort that no amount of training or leashless wizardry would prompt me to undertake to this day.

So what went wrong? In a word, competition... As one particpant of this fateful event pointed out to me en route back to Bozeman from Hyalite, in competition the athletes involved are blind to the hazards roiling about them they see only the prize and no one exposed to a new partner as the draw ensured wishes to be the chicken the one to pull the plug. I know this because this is precisely what I had done in the same event in 2007 when paired with an individual I quickly ascertained to be not only incompetent but plainly a danger to my well-being. For a year I wore the "no-score" I opted for an albatros about my thick hairy neck only now feeling poorly vindicated for my cantankerousness.

So who missed the flags? Certainly anyone hosting such an event must have the safety of the athletes firmly in mind above any lingering gripe against oragnized "sport" events represented by the likes of Ouray or the Ice World Cup. Simply put no half-assed adventure comp' is worth the life of a man like Guy nor any other soul. In short a little humility shown by all might have gone a long way that black day even saved a man's life...

Then Ouray 2010 would have been like old times Gut and me toe to toe in the comp' friends yet rivals old bulls off in some meadow snorting and pawing antlers locked in some farsical contest then the obligatory arm around the shoulder self-portrait of us both one more for the scrap-book.

Not this year though, nor any other for all time.