Gear announcement: a stick clip that doesn't suck

Skyhook feature on GearJunkie: gearjunkie.com/climbing/sky…

My Skyhook arrived this week. Haven't had a chance to use it at the crag yet, but did have a chance to play around with it indoors and take a few photos comparing it to my old stick clip pole. For reference, the old pole collapses down to ~5 ft and extends to 16 ft.

The skyhook is definitely shorter and will fit into the pack much better. When fully extended it is pretty sturdy. Definitely more wobbly than the other pole, but it's not too bad. I can hold the Skyhook horizontal when it is fully extended with minimal bending/dip. I imagine if you want more stability at the Skyhook's size you'd need the poles to be made with thicker metal or to go carbon fiber. Both of which are probably too expensive to be worth it.

Overall, I'm excited to be able to use a Superclip on a very collapsible pole. It will be nice to be able to put the pole in the pack and have it fit far enough in the pack that I don't have to worry about hitting tree branches on the trail. Jury is still out on how well the pole performs when actually using it to stick clip bolts, as I have not done that yet.

how about an ultra light compact version for  squemish aid climbers ;) 

Pro tip - you can GREATLY reduce the amount of wobble by leaving 2-3” of pole inside each joint instead of fully extending each section the whole way. I do this on every clip where I don’t need the maximum length of the pole, and it really does make a difference. 

Also, our website is now up and running and I’m shipping orders out as they come in. https://mountaindrifter.com/ if anyone’s interested!

I made one of these by epoxying a wooden piece of painters pole to the end of my beta stick. I need a new one. Is this for sale yet?

Quinn Rohlf wrote:

Pro tip - you can GREATLY reduce the amount of wobble by leaving 2-3” of pole inside each joint instead of fully extending each section the whole way. I do this on every clip where I don’t need the maximum length of the pole, and it really does make a difference. 

^^ yeah, I realized this my first time trying it out. Thought I've never felt a need to do it with my previous stick clips. I think I might use some nail polish and pain the last 2-3 inches of each extension red or something so I (or friends) remember when it's being extended.

Anyway, made a 6 min unboxing video of mine at this link:
https://youtu.be/s0AFGc-O3Ac

Awesome, missed the kickstarter and was waiting for retail availability! Just bought one.

I'm happy for you, but I feel bad for the suckers that bought a sky hook. You can buy a super clip for < $25 and then get a heavy duty pole from the hardware store or walmart for $8. All in, less than half the cost of the sky hook. 

Funny, on the product page it even says "too expensive". HAHA, much ironic. 

Stick clips aren't rocket science. So why are all of the options out there for climbers today too bulky, too expensive, too wobbly, too complicated - or all of the above!?!

Maybe I'm missing some hidden benefit? I doubt it. 

PS. Unclipping with the super clip sounds good, but in practice its a PITA. 

Ian C wrote:

I'm happy for you, but I feel bad for the suckers that bought a sky hook. You can buy a super clip for < $25 and then get a heavy duty pole from the hardware store or walmart for $8. All in, less than half the cost of the sky hook. 

Funny, on the product page it even says "too expensive". HAHA, much ironic. 

Maybe I'm missing some hidden benefit? I doubt it. 

The not-hidden benefits when compared to a hardware store painters pole are substantially lighter weight and increased packability for travel, and approaches. I have a painters-pole stick clip and kind of can't stand it - if my partner has a Beta Stick or similar we always take that instead. 

The Skyhook is 2.5 ft collapsed and weighs 1.2 lbs. Telescoping painters pole from Lowe's is $18, collapses to 3.7 ft and extends to 9.1, and weighs 2 lbs. If you pick a Lowe's pole that extends farther, the weight and collapsed size comparisons get even more unfavorable.

A better comparison is the Trango Beta Stick. The Skyhook is comparable in packed size and weight and extends slightly less, but is (apparently) stiffer, and $10 cheaper.

I am not making a judgement on whether the Skyhook is worth the value. I am saying that it appears you didn't think very hard before typing up that post.

Ian C wrote:

PS. Unclipping with the super clip sounds good, but in practice its a PITA. 

Your technique sucks? It’s a simple twist. 

Ian C wrote:

I'm happy for you, but I feel bad for the suckers that bought a sky hook. You can buy a super clip for < $25 and then get a heavy duty pole from the hardware store or walmart for $8. All in, less than half the cost of the sky hook. 

Funny, on the product page it even says "too expensive". HAHA, much ironic. 

Maybe I'm missing some hidden benefit? I doubt it. 

PS. Unclipping with the super clip sounds good, but in practice its a PITA. 

I’ve had such a stick clip for over a decade and it stays behind the door, never to see the light of day. Sure it’s cheap, but it’s also bulky.  Try strapping it to your pack.  Most climbers I know don’t want to be walking around like a wizard with a big yellow staff. Especially if your crag has any kind of approach  

The skyhook is the first real stick clip I have owned and it’s brilliant. Straps to my pack so I bring it along.  Light weight, and multi-purposed if you buy a brush.

I ordered and received it in a few days. I was expecting to wait for a couple weeks. It just needs a keeper added to clip to the harness. I give it 5 stars. 

Ian C wrote:

...

PS. Unclipping with the super clip sounds good, but in practice its a PITA.

^^ lol. It's actually not very hard with a little practice, just watch some youtube videos on the subject. For anyone who climbs regularly at places with steep routes that aren't perma'd (or at least the first bolt isn't) it becomes pretty commonplace. I use to do it with my trango beta all the time, I knew like 2 ways to do it. With the super clip I know three different ways, none of them are very hard with a little practice, and it's a little bit easier than the beta clip.

Ian C wrote:

I'm happy for you, but I feel bad for the suckers that bought a sky hook. You can buy a super clip for < $25 and then get a heavy duty pole from the hardware store or walmart for $8. All in, less than half the cost of the sky hook. 

Funny, on the product page it even says "too expensive". HAHA, much ironic. 

Maybe I'm missing some hidden benefit? I doubt it. 

PS. Unclipping with the super clip sounds good, but in practice its a PITA. 

The benefit is packability. I have super clip with the 16ft painters pole, and I love it, except when I need to fly somewhere. My super clip has had many years of hard use (yes, even happily removing draws, no problem!), had lost it’s plastic shrink wrap some number of years ago, and is held together with duck tape.

I do need to replace the super clip soon, and thought, this would be a perfect option. But…after the initial excitement about this new super clip, I clicked on the link, looked at the price (I missed the initial offering), and I opted not to buy. It’s one of those “sure I could afford it, but I just can’t get over the price shock”.

Lena chita wrote:

The benefit is packability. I have super clip with the 16ft painters pole, and I love it, except when I need to fly somewhere. My super clip has had many years of hard use (yes, even happily removing draws, no problem!), had lost it’s plastic shrink wrap some number of years ago, and is held together with duck tape.

I do need to replace the super clip soon, and thought, this would be a perfect option. But…after the initial excitement about this new super clip, I clicked on the link, looked at the price (I missed the initial offering), and I opted not to buy. It’s one of those “sure I could afford it, but I just can’t get over the price shock”.

$20 less than the 12' Beta Stick though...

Every time we have to fly, we bring a superclip (without the pole) with the rest of our gear. We buy a pole at the hardware store, use it for the duration of our trip, and then gift it. (Either to a local climber at the crag, or to a climbing gym or gear shop.) We've done this multiple times now, and consider it a relatively inexpensive way to "rent" a stick clip. That being said, we've spent way more than $70 cumulatively over the years using this method... so a Skyhook is on our shopping list for the next time we fly.

Andrew Krajnik wrote:

Every time we have to fly, we bring a superclip (without the pole) with the rest of our gear. We buy a pole at the hardware store, use it for the duration of our trip, and then gift it. (Either to a local climber at the crag, or to a climbing gym or gear shop.) We've done this multiple times now, and consider it a relatively inexpensive way to "rent" a stick clip. That being said, we've spent way more than $70 cumulatively over the years using this method... so a Skyhook is on our shopping list for the next time we fly.

I've done that. IF flying domestically. But internationally, the rest of the world is on metric scale, and the thread on the poles is just slightly off. 

I had an old pole from beta stick from way-back-when. The top part of the beta stick had long since broken off (thanks, airlines!), but the pole still functional. So I bring a superclip with a short (just couple inches threaded pole. And then attach it to the beta stick with a hose clamp. It's not great, but it works in a pinch. Still, this is why I wanted to buy this new-fanged fancy superclip. Maybe the next international trip would tip the scale. Not sure that it' happening in the foreseeable future, so...

Lena chita wrote:

The benefit is packability. I have super clip with the 16ft painters pole, and I love it, except when I need to fly somewhere. My super clip has had many years of hard use (yes, even happily removing draws, no problem!), had lost it’s plastic shrink wrap some number of years ago, and is held together with duck tape.

I do need to replace the super clip soon, and thought, this would be a perfect option. But…after the initial excitement about this new super clip, I clicked on the link, looked at the price (I missed the initial offering), and I opted not to buy. It’s one of those “sure I could afford it, but I just can’t get over the price shock”.

I hear you, climbing gear is expensive these days. Our price is as low as we can get it right now given our small size.

A big part of our cost is that we're paying for real made-in-USA SuperClip parts to put on the end, rather than coming up with our own knockoff version. This is something that won't change, since I like supporting Russ over at SuperClip, and it's truly the best & most durable stick clip attachment sold today. 

Even selling Skyhooks at $70/unit, I estimate that our margins are actually about 10-20% less than companies like Trango, but we make up the difference by selling mostly direct-to-consumer rather than relying on a big retailer network like the larger brands. This is honestly something that I'm a little bit conflicted about, since I love local gear shops and really enjoy it whenever I get to visit one of the three small shops that currently stock the Skyhook (Redpoint Climber Supply in Terrebonne, Mountain Supply in Bend, and Wild Iris Mountain Mountain Sports in Lander). The unfortunate reality is that there's a conflict between wide in-store distribution, which means you have to price items higher to account for retail mark-up, and wanting to produce affordable gear for climbers who don't have that cushy remote job at $bigtechco. I think it's hard to find the right balance there.

One thing you might be interested in - at some point in the fall/winter, I'll be listing a bunch of cosmetic blems for sale on the website at a more dirtbag-friendly price point (probably about $55?). These are Skyhooks where the exterior of the pole was scratched or lightly dented during shipping from our factory, but are fully functional and come with full support & warranty.

This probably won't happen until sometime in November or later, as we're barely keeping up with demand for the normal stock right now, but if anyone is interested in the cosmetic blems, I recommend signing up for our email list ( mountaindrifter.com/ and scroll down to the "subscribe" button). This isn't a newsletter, I only send emails when we've got a new product to announce or we're going to be hosting a demo/event somewhere (roughly 1 email every 2 months).

Bought one last night, will update once I get to use it. Happy to support a climber owned small business and looking forward to not carrying a wizard staff down the steep Owens gorge approach this winter. 

Just got my Skyhook in the mail today, super fast. I've never used a superclip before, only the Trango beta stick and already I greatly prefer the superclip. Tried out the few different ways of hanging and removing draws and it's easy to learn. Pole is plenty rigid even all the way out, flick-lock adjustments are buttery smooth and I think the extended/collapsed length seems like a nice balance. Seems like with the sections extended if I lean my body weight on the pole like a trekking pole I can slowly collapse the segments, but probably not relevant to stick clipping unless you're doing something really bizarre. 

Hopefully going to Smith in the next couple months so I'll let you know if I find any first bolts that I can't reach (maybe BBQ the Pope??). Last time I was there I used 2 trekking poles velcro strapped together as a stick clip (probably had like 6-7ft reach ish) and I made it work, although I had to make a few moves to hang the first draw a couple times so this should be a huge improvement.

Notes so far:

• Wrote my name/contact info in Sharpie on the handle, wrapped over that with packing tape. 
• Found a semi-hard zippered case from an old broken pair of belay glasses that fits over the head perfectly. Seems like the failure mode of superclips is the plastic wrap getting shredded so hopefully this will keep it from taking a beating during travel.
• No loop for clipping to the rope if you want to haul it up a project, but tying some cord under one of the flick locks should be secure enough, or I guess you could clip a carabiner to the superclip (as long as it doesn't unscrew).
• I might look around the hardware store for a rubber foot that fits on the bottom end. The plastic cap seems pretty durable but rocks are hard and climbing gear takes a beating.