General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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As a foreigner from the EU, what prerequisites do I have to fulfill to hunt with a bow in Hungary? Edit: I'm asking for general rules like "You need an accepted hunting licence. Most of the EU h...
What re the differences between these 4 styles of rock climbing? Bouldering Aid Climbing Free Climbing Free solo climbing
I usually do sport-climbing so I've never owned a static rope. However, most rope-related Q&As in TGO.SE don't bother specifying dynamic vs static ropes. I've been told that for rappelling (o...
I have recently planned to go for a long trail that passes through a territory that is known for elephants. While speaking of camping overall, I know what basics should I be following, but are the...
In my younger/cheaper days, I used to scavenge firewood after the crowds would leave the camping area at the end of the weekend. Generally, this meant grabbing piles of unused firewood from near th...
Can a compass have its polarity reversed so that the end marked "north" points south and vice versa? If so, what could one do to prevent and fix this problem?
This has been bugging me for a while. A party is traveling on a glacier and adds braking knots evenly to the length of the rope as seen in this answer. The person leading the rope falls into a crev...
I'm engaged in orienteering marches, which differ from sport orienteering: there is the time limit, where finishing before time gives no advantage to the participant, and the center is put on the d...
It seems that you can't use an Iridium handset to place an emergency call without a SIM card (which seems to be more a commercial than a technical issue). What I'm wondering is whether an "expired...
Is there any difference in navigational equipment between the northern and southern hemisphere? We live in the northern hemisphere but will be emigrating to the southern in the next few weeks. We'l...
I live in Denver, Colorado. Going above 10,000 ft. (3,000 metre) always results in an air bubble large enough for me to want to tilt the compass to prevent the bubble from interfering with the nee...
My understanding (possibly wrong) is that the use of semiautomatic hunting rifles is fairly recent. I recently encountered someone online who claimed that in the United States even in the 1970s it...
I'm looking at getting my first set of crampons, for winter Wales/Scotland trekking, with a view of working my way up into the Alps (during summer) eventually. I've been reading that a 10 point C2...
This blog has a discussion of the slip-slap-slide and PBUS techniques for taking in rope when belaying. Here is a video demonstrating PBUS. Slip-slap-slide is illustrated on p. 161 of Freedom of th...
In many European countries like Germany, it's prohibited to sleep in the great outdoors with a tent. While I understand that downright camps are a problem due to littering, fire etc., I don't get ...
What species is the following cockroach? Is it dangerous, that means is it likely to transport diseases? I live in South Germany.
What species is the following? I assume it is a cockroach, but I am not sure. What is it exactly? I live in South Germany.
Are there any schoolings/trainings for orienteering skills in Germany? I hike during weekends, but mostly using GPS (geocaching) or using trails, so there's not much opportunity to fully train ori...
Some features in orienteering or navigation are called attack points. What exactly does this refer to?
I am planning to do a 16 day "standard" Everest base camp trek in Nepal coming September. Can I expect to visit Camp 1 (or even beyond?) as well or is this completely off limits for casual tourist...
Suppose I get one of those text messages, like the Icelandic authorities send to travellers: ...Wind gusts could reach speeds that are known for blowing cars off the road and even pulling up th...
I'm interested in how Viking era1) hikers carried their gear and provisions while out and about on foot. My focus here would be longer walks in civilian life, e.g. to get from farm A to farm B. I.e...
Freezer bag cooking refers to cooking by boiling water in a pot, add the boiling water to a zip-lock type freezer bag filled with the meal, placing the filled bag in an insulating cozy, and letting...
I saw mention of a 'dish' hold, and cannot figure out what this means exactly from Google searches. There are many sites selling dish holds like this one, but I don't understand what 'dish' means f...
I like to carry a daypack that doubles up as a travel bag for a 2-3 day trip, so I don't have to repack my work gear into a travel bag. Last year I found an excellent candidate in the Osprey Radial...
I'm very new to/inexperienced at hiking, and I got invited to an impromptu, 7-mile hike tomorrow at Alamere Falls (places online say it's "intermediate difficulty"). I've only gone on what I think ...
When backpacking we often carry raw beef which we have salted and frozen, usually cut into strips that can be easily cooked through. I'm confident that this is good for 24 hours, and I know that m...
Currently I waterproof my tents at minimum once a year and often times 2 or 3 times a year. Other than condensation I don't usually have too much of a problem. On the other hand I live and often ca...
Some revolvers are single action and some are double action, what exactly is the difference between the two types?
The motivation for this question is the impalement question. The impalement question asked what to do in a particular catastrophic accident if Phones are dead, you don't have a PLB, and if yo...
Context: I'm planning to take my self-inflating sleeping pad on a bike trip this year. The bike doesn't have any mounting points for a rack, so space is somewhat limited. Currently, my plan is to s...
I'm sorry if this question has been asked before or if it's a very vague question, but I'm just in the process of buying a new backpack for myself and I'm confused about how it's supposed to fit on...
This summer. I will be camping on my own at a coastal caravan park located between 2 towns. In terms of safety (theft) and other things, what do you advise?
I just got this backpack but noticed that the waistband can't be concealed when not being used. It is the one with a large buckle in the bottom of the picture below. Since I plan to use it snowb...
I'm planning to buy this GPS Tracking device, to place it on my boat. I don't need to track my boat coordinates while sailing. I need to be alerted when my boat is stolen. Therefore, I need this de...
This is an almost similar question to this one: Trekking solo in Western Ghats, India I have read a few blogs about people and their solo trekking experiences. At the first glance at it, 'whether ...
I was looking at GPS Trackers such as Spark Nano 4.0. I wanted to apply one of these devices inside my boat to exclusively use it for motion detection in case of theft. The battery life of this de...
Somewhat like revolvers, semi-automatic pistols also come in single action, double action/single action and double action only. Also while there are similarities to how this terminology is used wi...
I have worn these twice and the second time I noticed the stitching in the left inside was ripping. It has been a hassle trying to take them back to the store because I live 2 hours away. So I am h...
I rent out a lot of alpine touring (AT) skis. We advise people not to use these skis for downhill resort skiing. Part of that is because we don't want people renting out the skis (which we rent at ...
My wife and I are beginner kayakers. We are planning to buy a tandem kayak and go to a nearby reservoir and take our 2 year old along. I've just started looking at car racks and realized that it ...
So I am moving to Colorado in a little more than three weeks and super-pumped to elevate my experiences with the endless outdoor adventures! At this point in my life, I have six pair of shoes; thre...
I found these structures while hiking in Wayne Township, Clermont County, Ohio, USA, on June 7, 2016, at approximately N 39° 12.5 W 084° 04.0. I only had my phone, and not a real camera, so sorry ...
I own the REI Half Dome 2 Plus. The top section of the aluminum tent pole tore at the end (see blue area of picture), and in order to get it to fit in the plastic piece it was supposed to (the insi...
I went ice climbing the other day at an exposed climb in gale force winds. This place is notorious for wind, and the gusts we were getting that day felt like they were up to the 80-90km gusts range...
I am looking for a book or digital database of rock climbing pictures from before 1950. I tried to search online, but, except for a few pictures, I didn't have much luck. Also, the name of the ph...
I am testing my new Suunto Ambit2. Great watch! I like the way it can be configured and the analysis of the data! However, I am a little bit surprised to see that the software solution from Suunto ...
There are questions on this site tagged geocaching. This appears to be some kind of GPS game. How is it played?
Are there any good winter sleeping bags geared towards women who like the color PINK? One that is good for backpacking and for cold (0 degree) temps.
I am searching for a limestone multi-pitch sport route in France, in the Briançon area, that is nicely bolted, up to 5c (French grade) difficult and that has at least 7 pitches. I am searching onl...
