Petzl RAD System

Contents Think of it as a winter rescue in a sack: three carabiners, 30 meters of 6mm cordage, an ascender, a pulley-ascender, and a sling all wrapped up in a Nalgene-size pouch. “It eliminates one of the most stressful aspects of trip planning,” a tester says. “Instead of rounding up a bunch of random gear, wondering, ‘Is this enough?’ I just keep this pouch in the bottom of my winter pack.” While we never had to use the RAD System to stage a crevasse rescue, we used it to rappel into couloirs in Rocky Mountain National Park instead of downclimbing icy rocks in ski boots. “Carrying an 8-pound climbing rope ‘just in case’ is hard to justify on a lot of tours, but I’ll always throw this 2-pound kit in my pack,” one editor says.

Price You save a slick $50 by buying the Petzl RAD System versus buying the individual components.