General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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This video for Portable Soup (aka Pocket Soup) from James Townsend popped up in my feed. If you don't know (like I hadn't until I saw the video) Pocket Soup is basically a shelf-stable ultra-reduc...
This question is prompted by reading The Dive by Pipin Ferreras. It is a story of a world-class competitive free diver, in the subclass of free diving called No Limits. According to the second li...
Can I view OS maps for the UK online for free? I want to see both the Landranger and Explorer maps if possible.
I have a climbing rope (Maxim, 11mm) that I bought back around 2008-2009 (so it's about 10 years old now). It has never been used, it's been stored properly, and the sheath and core appear to be i...
I know that eating bananas is one way to turn yourself in to a mosquito magnet. The potassium in the bananas apparently attracts them to whomever eats them. Whenever I meet someone who says they al...
Which is the best knot to use as a stopper in the upper & lower part of a beads T - Holes? Also which knot is preferable for the horizontal line?
Alpine slings are usually 60cm long and while they can be slung over one shoulder, it's much easier to carry them on your harness at 1/3 of the size in an alpine quickdraw. How would one shorten t...
I want to know if it is better to use super glue to stable beads as stopper on the main line instead of rubber stoppers. Main line could be monofilament or fluorocarbon. Any help will be appreciate.
I have been piling up carabiners, cordelette loops, webbing, ATC devices, Gri-Gri, etc., and it is all now hanging from my harness. This adds a considerable amount of weight and becomes a bit unwie...
I am wondering how to estimate the needed motor power for boating upstream on big rivers like, for example, Danube. (mean the bottom to middle part, i.e. where the Danube is wide and "slow"?). To ...
Having just bought my first pair of skis, I am unsure how to best stack them in the default side-by-side position in which they are alligned at the tip and at the tail ends. I thought the bindings'...
While researching a driving trip to Alaska, I came across an Alaskan motor law, 13 AAC 04.265. Antispray device (a) No person may drive a motor vehicle unless it has a device which effect...
According to the Garmin website, the Garmin GPSmap 66 includes an SOS beacon: These devices include an LED flashlight and SOS beacon that can be used to signal for help. They are thin on deta...
Traditional marine advice says that, if one falls into cold water, it is better to stay still rather than try to swim (unless the shore is so close that you are absolutely able to make it) to exten...
I'm an international hitchhiker and I've never been sure what kind of shoes to buy. I do the vast majority of walking on roads, carrying 15kg or so. Sometimes I'll be off-road in the same shoes. I...
What are best methods for non-medically-trained personnel to remove a small cockroach from their own or someone else’s ear?
I have a few items: FireSteel, Hatchet, etc. that have a small paracord size hole at the base. I was looking to add a length of paracord so I can easily loop it over branches, tentpoles, etc. Do an...
Although I'm primarily asking about caving, this is a problem that exists in any activity that moves through the landscape: walking, cycling, kayak touring, etc. A natural tendency when on the mov...
My bindings are already adjusted to my shoes, what is not adjusted yet is the release setting. From what I can tell, the optimal release setting is fairly simple and depends on height, weight, age...
Conditions: I live near a wide (~1000ft or 300m) and fairly deep river across from the area where I work. This area is slightly earthquake prone -- near a fault line that has had multiple magnitu...
Does anyone know if the forearm grab/hold (both people holding each other's forearms) provides more grip/strength then the normal wrist to wrist grab (similar to traditional handshake) if you are t...
Do Robins like the mixed seed bird food I can buy from the garden centre? What bird feeder should I use for Robins and Tits?
Under a windproof shell mitten, is an insulating liner mitten significantly warmer than an insulating liner glove made of the same material and thickness? This is a different question from "Are mi...
On the Genshtab (Генштаб) Soviet military maps, I can read that this ford through the stream Вертный has a stony bottom, a depth of at most 4 dm, and a width of 29 m (under typical circumstances)¹....
I am wondering about the "cross country like" aspects of Alpine Touring gear. I am in Ontario Canada, where hills as small as 75 meters can be referred to as "mountains". I'm a relatively experie...
Last weekend I spent a night in an igloo. The event was organised by professionals (it was a company retreat) and during the night there was always one of the guides awake making rounds and checkin...
On Amundsen's polar expedition they had, Of instruments and apparatus for the sledge journeys we carried two sextants, three artificial horizons, of which two were glass horizons with dark glas...
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 ...
I am a novice sailor (at best) and natively German-speaking, so the question might contain incorrect use of sailing terms and further misconceptions - thanks for any pointers in comments. In high ...
Having read about the recent foot traverse of Antarctica by Colin O'Brady I was wondering which means the polar explorers of former, pre-GPS times used to determine that they had reached the North ...
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...
We were out on a night hike. A helicopter showed up, by behavior it was search and rescue, looking not too far away from our group. It might have simply been doing training, but if it was a real ...
On a hike a while back, I was going up the less favored side of a large hill. Due to recent geological activity, the hill side had sort of cracked/split creating a 5-10 foot wide pathway along the ...
I've found these tracks just a couple of days ago on the Ursa beach near Cabo da Roca, Portugal. I'm not familiar with the fauna of this place and the only possible candidate I've found for now is ...
We're planning to walk / run the entire 275 miles (443 km) of the A5, from London to Holyhead. On Page 5 of the Official Highway Code, it states that: Pedestrians MUST NOT be on motorways or sl...
My mother gave me an old rod that I think she just found and I need help identifying it. There are some pictures below. The whole group of pictures is here. Its only identifying marks is a sticke...
I'm working on a novel. The main character recently (six months ago) lost her arm above the elbow. She's attending a summer camp, and I'm wondering if, with proper planning (and probably a mountain...
I heard two terms 'back country camping' and 'front country camping' but I don't know what the difference between the two is. How are they different.
Is it safe to girth-hitch nylon webbing through my harness tie-in points and then shorten the webbing via an overhand loop (assume it is too long) and clipping the non-bight part to the bolt in the...
I have a 120cm nylon runner that I want to use to tether me to an anchor bolt while cleaning the anchor. The runner has a small fray (pictures below). Is it safe to use?
Last spring, we went to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, United States. We don't like places with captive animals, unless they're work is essential for the survival of life on the planet. We m...
I cross-country ski in the winter, usually not more than 2-3 hours, but it can get quite cold, -15, -20°C, and I'm often on a frozen lake exposed to wind that rapidly rips the heat out of anything....
As I look for a new hunting rifle, I see that some have fluted barrels, such as the Mossberg Patriot for example and some do not. What would the advantage of a fluted barrel be?
The original Timberland classic 6-inch boots were made 40 years ago for the cold, wet and mountainous terrain of New England. They were innovative footwear for their time, but now have become mostl...
I'm collecting ideas on this topic. I'm using a DIY alcohol stove made of a soda can. I have seen a guy refilling the same stove using this, but he doesn't explain where he found it, or how he bui...
Climbing anchors usually have 2-3 redundant protection points, which distribute weight. So if one point breaks, this will not be a catastrophic failure. However, what should I do in practice if th...
I have hives that are close to a field that gets sprayed each year, any help to protect my bees would be nice.
One summer evening we drove to Race Point, the farthest tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. We were told there was a lighthouse at that spot, and wanted to see the light shine through the darkness...
I know that cold weather can be dangerous, especially if one is not in proper winter wear. But I came across a video whereby a person is seen digging ice for water and bathing in an icy, mountainou...
I just recently fletched new arrows and I decided to put them a little more downward than usual. I thought (with my particular fletching rig) I would get more helical twist into it. However, I end...
