Rick
I am a bit confused by your glacier analogy because the last few glaciers I looked at have been going steadily backwards.
In the meantime Pana have announced the FX35, an ultracompact camera with a 25-100 mm lens. They have changed their approach to noise reduction, so (in theory) this time the noise level will be lower and the detail will be retained. I may be playing with one of them in a couple of weeks time.
About 5 oz inc battery.
Franco
A serious comment for a change.
Some time ago we tested the Sigma SD 10. One of the guys at the shop is a real wizard in post processing so the A3 prints we ended up with were just sensational. In particular, to me, the portrait and nature shots looked more "natural" than from other DSLR and certainly as sharp and detailed as shots from 10 mp equipped models.
I think that Sigma and Foveon realize that the SD1 could be the make or break camera, so they are making sure that they get it right. So, potentially this is "the" camera particularly for climbers.