General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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Went on a snow trip this weekend at Fall Creeks(VIC), it was my first time in snow and first time skiing (cross-country) , the only problem I had was my feet started getting cold occasionally and f...
If the cooler is packed full of frozen food, does it need ice to stay frozen for 3 weeks or does ice somehow stay colder longer than frozen steak, sausage, hamburger etc.? I'm going on a 18 day Gra...
When learning to sport climb, I was taught not to pass any of my fingers through the gate of the carabiner when clipping into a quickdraw. Lest any of my fingers get stuck and degloved in the case ...
This past weekend, there was a fatal attack on the Appalachian Trail My girlfriend and I are planning a section hike of the AT through the White Mountains of NH and partly through the Maine secti...
I am going hiking for 2-3 weeks with no possibility of charging the battery again. Assuming I only turn the InReach on only once a day to send a "I'm ok"-message and then turn it off again, would t...
I am planning a trip to Berlin together with my wife for a week. Initially we wanted to do Berlin-Hamburg on the bicycle, but the plane connections are awful and we decided to do a loopback from an...
I've been thinking for some time to buy a multifuel stove for use in cold and high-altitude camping as compressed gas might be unreliable, and, most importantly, difficult to obtain in remote locat...
Trail cameras are motioned achieved cameras that are used to capture pictures of wild animals in the outdoors. The idea is that you can set it up in a place where animals are like to be such as a t...
I'm working on a survival story and want to make it authentic. If you were stranded on a mountain trying to get down as fast as possible, what would you do? EDIT: What if this was after a plane cr...
There's a dispute in my climbing group whether a "large" eye of the tie-in knot can be considered dangerous. While I don't see a problem with a loop that is about 10 cm across, others argue that th...
I recently purchased a new western mountaineering sleeping bag (Puma MF) from Moosejaw. Long story short, I found that the bag was manufactured more than 4 years ago, in 2014, the price tags have f...
If one were to get started fly fishing what gear would one need just to start with? Of course, there is all sorts of gear and better gear, but what would the minimum gear to start with be?
I'm currently thinking about switching to three under (3 fingers under the arrow knock when releasing). I ordered a new bow and wanted to take this as a chance to change or try out a few things. H...
I did not use to think of geotagging photos as a leave-no-trace issue. In fact, one slogan says leave only footprints, take only photos. Yet the Leave No Trace Social Media Guidance states: T...
In Colorado outdoor stores its not uncommon to see these small canisters of 95% percent oxygen that's sold to help people cope with high altitude. Is there any evidence that these actually help wi...
Some skis nowadays have a different sidecut radius at the front, center and back of the ski. With the different radius they claim to be suitable for both long and short turns. (So far the theory) ...
There is a video of a cub trying to follow the mother bear up a steep snowbank and then rolling back down at first. People are saying that it's a cute video but that the drone that filmed it got t...
I recently came across the what3words coordinate system in an outdoor magazine. The system divides the world into squares of 3 m x 3 m. Each square is then named with a combination of three (as far...
When you're sailing upwind (in close reach) and there comes a stronger blast of wind, how should skipper behave? Should they turn away from the wind (because modern yachts are constructed so that w...
I've seen small radar reflectors for sale. Should I carry one when kayaking? What else can I do such that boats can use their radar to be aware of my location when they can't see me due to poor v...
For an older guy (say 65+) who likes to hike alone - are a mule or two a help or a hindrance? Maybe a mule for the pack, and a second mule to ride when I get really old? Historically people prefer...
Because of illness in my family, I cannot travel far from home for awhile, and have to be able to return quickly if necessary. However, I will be in Boston at the end of February visiting MIT and ...
Looking at buying additional accessories or making some for my car's roof rack, which uses Whispbar brand crossbars. I'm wondering if other brands use the same size t-track slots and whether they'd...
I'm tall but rather small-boned, and my XL drysuit has always been marginal on the wrist and neck seals, which are neoprene with a smooth lining, rather than the more common latex. This is much mo...
If a climber completes a route without using their protection that is called sending. What is the term if one completes the route but had to depend on the rope either for a rest or for a fall? Le...
I am a long time gym climber, and I climbed outdoors for a couple of times. I fail to understand why climbing outdoors is more appealing than climbing indoors. If the goal is to climb harder, whi...
For trip planning and navigation during my outdoors trip, I would like to load a track into my GPS (or GNSS) receiver. Where can I find websites that gather user-contributed GPS tracks?
I have been trying to find a list of water sources that should be avoided. I have checked online and looked at several water companies, e.g. Scottish Water. I haven't found any information on which...
Can anyone tell me what type of bug this is? I found two of them in my bed in Tennessee, United States. It's not a tick. The shell is hard. It was alive and you could see it moving. It's .016", ...
There is a video where a couple of people are walking on extremely clear lake ice. Usually, lake ice is far less clear, what conditions on this lake would lead to the unusual clarity?
I am about to start a long backpacking trip through South America, and I would like to take as little weight as possible. I have the rest of my stuff more or less sorted out, but I am a bit at a lo...
Recently, I heard of three tourists from Germany drowning in a lake in Alaska. Their boat overturned and they ended up in the water. All three of them were wearing life jackets. This is what I don'...
For some reason, once in a while I get confused if you add magnetic declination to magnetic bearings to get true bearings, or if you add magnetic declination to true bearings to get magnetic bearin...
I'm currently trying to remark a trail that seems to be forgotten or had very little use in the past few years. The markers that remain (different types of ribbon) are fraying or crumbling dependin...
A few years ago I was on a cycling holiday - on my own - in remote mountainous countryside in the north of Greece. One day, I came across a dog lying by the side of the road. I had passed quite a f...
I purchased a sock filled with thistle and a large bag of bulk thistle from the same store. The sock is hung and the bulk thistle is in a feeder, but the birds don't eat from either. Is there any...
Inspired by a space blanket being included in emergency winter kits, I wonder if there's any rigorous study about whether these things actually work and in what ways to best use them. In my own ex...
I've only just started bouldering, and we have been using the easiest to grades VB-V1. I find V1 are moderately challenging but the next step up, V2, I just entirely struggle with. What can I do to...
Is there a well-known free webpage in Europe where you can find hiking partners to go on > 4000 m mountains? For bouldering and climbing it is usually not a problem to find "new friends", since...
I have started looking at sit on top kayaks. Several have looked promising. Though I just realized, in most of them the lowest point in the boat is where your butt goes. I normally travel in a cano...
It has become a bit of a fad in the last few days at my current workplace to open a browser tab to either http://www.lbwl.com/falcon.htm or http://www.lbwl.com/falcon2.htm , take a quick look now a...
I've been looking into learning how to mountaineer and noticed that the local mountaineering society still requires a training in navigation as part of the prerequisites for most of their basic cou...
Is a coyote or pack of coyotes likely to attack my small dog if she is with me on a trail on a leash? I heard of someone's dog being eaten while the woman was walking her pet on a leash. She was a...
It's possible to buy tea that is loose leaf instead on in the tea bags and use it while in the outdoors such as cold brewing in a Nalgene. Coffee grounds need to be packed out but what about tea le...
My 6 year old daughter was playing with ropes today and tied a knot of her own creation. I tried to demonstrate to her the importance of learning to tie good knots that don't slip, but when I went ...
I've been walking the Kungsleden in the Sweden Lapland recently and I enjoyed it very much. I'd like to try again a similar trek but this time I'd love to go to either Kamchatka or South Siberia (n...
On my hike through the Uinta mountains, I came across this greyish bird and her 3-4 chicks. The timelapse I took of the birds can be seen here. It looks like some sort of grouse, does anybody kn...
Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I was snowboarding. I liked it very much, and I got used to it very quickly, as I was skateboarding before. The only thing I did not understand was how to ...
Would it be possible to use canoe paddles - and eventually some cords and beach stakes - to hang a bug net such as this? Our paddles will be about 2 meters (6.5 feet) long and can be split in ha...
As some of you who are also active on bicycles.se may know, I broke my collarbone in a bike crash last year, and it's now got a titanium plate in there. I'm not sure whether it's the plate or not,...
