In reply to 7lbs overweight:
> You are being generous. I'd have thought a reviewer might have included a little background. A seach for "CCH alien" brings up the infamous rockclimbing.com thread on the first page, so not hard to find.
I take your point but as part of the "UKC testing team" I can see the other side of the argument as well. I think the main idea is to have active climbers really using stuff and then saying what they think about it. I'm writing a review of a crag-pack rucsac thingy at the moment I bought, and actually finding an hour to sit down and write the thing, take some photos of it "in use", edit the photos etc. is already a little job in itself (I'm not saying I don't enjoy it because otherwise I wouldn't be using my free time to do it for nothing), and I hadn't actually thought of googling the product to see if anyone else had had one and broken it! I will now though.
But the reviews are our experience of having tried the product, not a literature review.
I'm sure if Chris had fallen off and the alien had snapped he would definitely have mentioned that!!!