Arcteryx has come to Facewest this spring. Today we had the climbing harnesses delivered but tomorrow we should have most of the shell and softshell with a few stragglers after that. For this spring we have concentrated on their lightweight shells for our ski touring, weight concious and summer alpine customers. Arcteryx still make a good range of shells in Gore Tex Paclite which ME and Marmot don’t use much any more. We have both membraned and non membrane jackets from their softshell range and a selection of non membraned pants in different fabric weights.

All Arcteryx Spring/Summer 10 Products.

Arcteryx Climbing Harnesses

The stock will go onto the site tomorrow but I know it’s in the warehouse now, so you can order it now if you wish.

I know it’s blowing our own trumpet a bit but we are proud of our customer service. There are a new reviews, including some international ones, almost everyday on TrustPilot and so far not one complaint.

Our latest review:

Fantastic service, very fast delivery and great advice!

Stuart, provided myself and my team with great advice for our alpine race in April 2010, www.pdg.ch. The kit arrived the next day and worked fantastically on our training week in Switzerland. If you want straight talking advice from someone who knows what they are talking about then Stuart at Facewest is your man!

Although I am mentioned by name for the advice, I didn’t receive it into stock, pack it or send it so it really is a team effort to make these things happen.

Thanks and keep them coming.

We regularly get requests from people for products from our brands but which we don’t hold in stock and we’ve always been happy to try our best to source items from our suppliers where possible. We’ve decided to take this one step further and appoint Tim to handle all of our special orders. Alongside this we have published a set of Special Ordering Terms And Conditions for anyone wanting to take advantage of the service.

So if you’re looking for a specific product and we’re not stocking it then have a read and drop Tim an email, he should be able to help you out.

The ‘Big Freeze’ this winter was brilliant for one section of the public – Winter Climbers. I’ve done 5 winter climbing trips year, starting in the Lakes, heading to Glen Coe for new year, North Wales for a weekend and recently two weekends in Scotland.

The winter started with a winter ascent of Bowfell Buttress (V) which was third time lucky for me (having been thwarted by conditions and crowds in the past) and it turned out to be an excellent sustained, but no-where too difficult climb which I would recommend to all. The new years trip started with Beinn Udlaidh a lower level crag in the Southern Highlands that holds loads of ice in a good cold snap, which we did three climbs on. New years day saw an abortive attempt at the Blue Riband then changing plans for the traverse of the Aonach Eagach. Following that I did a solo day on Stob Coire nam Beith and finally a day on Creag Coire an Dotaidh.

On Beinn Udlaidh

The next weekend we headed over to Snowdonia; Saturday climbing on Clogwyn Du’r Arddu making a winter ascent of Jubilee Climb (V) which was great fun. Sunday I was feeling ill, yet we headed to Ogwen to try the Devil’s Appendix however with other teams on it, so we climbed 3 nice IV & V’s instead. After couple of weekends where other things got in the way I headed up to Scotland again where day one we climb on Beinn an Dothaidh, where we climbed Pas De Deux (V), The Skraeling (IV) and Taxus (III) which was a really fun day. The Sunday was spent on Creag Meagaidh where we had a good day climbing Missed the Post (V) and Diadem (V), although we had forgotten what a slog the walk out feels!

On the top pitch of Eagle Ridge

Finally last weekend was spent in the Cairngorms, climbing on Lochnagar on Saturday and Creag an Dubh Loch on Sunday. On Lochnagar we started with Polyphemus Gully (V) that had wonderful ice on the first hard pitch, however the top pitch was mainly incredible thick hoarfrost meaning I had a very run out scary lead. For the second route of the day we headed for Eagle Ridge (VI) as it had footprints on, it turned out to be an excellent route with spaced gear and lots of neve on. Feeling please with ourselves after our first day we went into Creag an Dubh Loch on Sunday because our friends had climbed Labyrinth Direct on the Saturday; however all the ice was melting fast, so we ran up Hanging Garden Route (V), then returned to the car early. The conditions this winter have been awesome and they look set to stay that way for a while yet still! This really is the best winter (for winter climbing) I have known.

X Socks Winter Sock Sale

Skiing Discovery 40% Off

Skiing Light 30% Off

Snowboarding 30% Off

In a few weeks time we’ll be massively expanding our range of rock shoes to include La Sportiva, 5.10, Red Chili & Mad Rock. We know our experience of these new shoes but we want to know how you’ve found them and to encourage you to help us out we’ll be giving away a pair of rockshoes of your choice to one person who completes our survey.

So if you’ve used any of these:

• La Sportiva Miura Velcro
• La Sportiva Miura Lace Up
• La Sportiva Katana
• 5.10 Anasazi Verde
• 5.10 Anasazi Velcro
• 5.10 Anasazi Lace-Up v2
• 5.10 Siren
• Red Chili Spirit
• Red Chili Spirit Velcro
• Red Chili Spirit Lady Velcro
• Mad Rock Frenzy EZ
• Mad Rock Flash
• Mad Rock Phoenix

Then complete our survey for your chance to win.

Cheers,
Sam

I have been thinking and reading about customer communication lately, especially with regard to social networking.  As an online store we do not have the ability to talk face to face with our customers so we use every other channel of communication open to us.

• Telephone – 01943 870550 Normal BT number beginning 01 answered by knowlegable staff 9 to 5 Mon – fri
• Email – answered within 24 hours usually much less, bearing in mind we don’t work weekends
• trustpilot – independant customer service reviews by 3rd party. Tell us and everyone what you think
• Blog – You are free to comment on our blog posts
• Facebook – if you like facebook then talk to us there
• Twitter – if you wish to comment or can be helped in 140 or less then it’s @facewest
• Product Reviews – Earn £3 store credit by telling us what you think of something you got from us. Appears on the product page for others to read
• Forums – We try to read and be active in forums relevant to the sports we service, notably UKClimbing, Snowheads and Sleepmonsters

We are proud of our customer service and believe we put more resources into it that most online reatilers. Because people are more likely to comment when they are unhappy rather than happy, it’s not something that gets mentioned too much, so

WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK

Whatever your chosen method of communication we would like to hear from you,  good or bad, so we can be sure we are doing the right thing. We like to think we know a lot about kit but we would like to know more about you, our customers.

Just received our second lot of  BCA Tracker 2. They won’t last long……

Tracker 2

Last Sunday was the 3rd round of the Open 5 series. As always a combination of foot and bike score orienteering with a total time limit of 5 hours This round was just about on home turf in Haworth. Weather was mainly dry but plenty of mud and the odd bit of old snow. The transition was in the old quarry on the moor top and the course took in Ogden Water and stairs lane plus plenty of generally featureless Bronte moor. Tim & I had a great day and took the win in the male pairs and the series lead thanks to the absence of the Powell brothers. The Open 5 series is your best 3 scores out of 5 events. The 4th event is March 7th in Sedbergh where we will try to better our lowest score to date and consolidate our series position.

Event scores here

Series table here