General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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My wife and I are going to the north rim in April and May. We would like to do several hikes, hopefully ones that let us experience the best of the Grand Canyon's north rim. We are interested in hi...
In this answer about mountaineering on a glacier, @StrongBad mentioned 4th and 5th class belays. I have never heard of belays being classified into such classes. In what context are these classes u...
Here in California, a lot of trails have signs with a triangular diagram, showing that cyclists should yield to hikers, and both cyclists and hikers should yield to people on horses. I don't have a...
When in coastal areas, where can I get times of high tide / low tide? I know that Garmin GPS can do it, but without it? What is the simplest way to determine in the wilderness? Which factors does i...
I recently bought a new tent, is it worth the extra $40 to purchase a footprint for it as well? Or are there alternatives that can be found on the trail or even made at home?
I was in Nepal two years ago and got the stomach flu. Last time I was only in Kathmandu and Pokhara and didn't do any trekking, so it was not critical, although it was very unpleasant. Two years l...
I am planning a trek around Mt Everest. I intend to cut the cost as much as I can, because I'll be planning a more exhaustive expedition in the same region in a short while after this trek, so I ju...
I recently got a Marmot Aeros 3P tent for Christmas, but haven't been able to find anyone currently selling the footprint that goes with it. So how could I go about making one?
Numerous customers who bought the manufacturer-made tent footprint for the 'Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2' tent reported on Amazon that the tent footprint is poorly made and NOT AT ALL a good purchase....
I have a knife and a whetstone. One side of the whetstone is rough and the other is finely grained. I occasionally sharpen my knife but I'm not 100% clear if I'm using it correctly. I normally mov...
I occasionally design or lead hikes in areas with multiple trail junctions. I attempt to be thorough in the planning by having several different ways for hikers to follow the trail. (Maps and GPS ...
I live in the northeast US and have a depression in my backyard: after weeks of freezing weather we had a warm, rainy weekend. Then it all froze =) So now I have a backyard rink, about 100' x 50' ...
I was walking my dog through high grass, in England. We came across a big spider. The web was almost like a bowl/tube. The spider was black but the back part was big and a white colour. We avoided ...
Watching wildlife shows you frequently see omnivores (i.e. bears) eating ants and termites. We have the existing Q&A Eating ants/termites on outdoor expeditions explaining that some ants and t...
It happens quite often by geocaching: the cache is situated somewhere near the rail track, but it seems that you are on the wrong site... The legal passage is quite far, and you have still a lot of...
If I see a deer munching on a particular plant, is that enough to indicate that it's safe to eat? How about other animals?
At the end of this month, I will be spending some days in Kraków, Poland. I might have a half or a full day available and apart from exploring the city, I'd like to do some hiking in the close surr...
So I'm quite into foraging, and seaweed (the real thing not chinese take away stuff...) is supposedly very nutritious for you and very easy to forage up, but are there any seaweeds which are not ed...
I am not exactly sure where I am in the world. It could be that I am in a boat on the ocean, been in a plane crash, or suffered some other calamity. In any case I either have a compass with me or...
What can I do to survive multiple (2-4) days in a cold environment (like in mountains in winter)? As resources I've normal Skitouring gear with me for a single day, no sleeping bag or bivy bag. W...
Barberries are so common around here that there would be enough for a fruit serving a day for quite a while. But there is a problem: I do not know whether or not they are edible. Are they edible in...
How to grade a route when cumulating grades for multiple sections? Is it based on the overall feeling of difficulty or is there some cumulative formula to apply which yields a more or less accurate...
I have been throwing around the idea of purchasing a Burton Channel System snowboard and everything sounds good except for the lack of information on maintenance. I have been unable to find much on...
It seems that the majority of professional arborists favor friction hitches that are tied with a free cord rather than a loop: Blake's Hitch Schwabisch Distel Valdotain Tresse This is often tie...
In rock climbing a carabiner can get nose-hooked and it is a very dangerous situation. What exactly is a nose-hooked carabiner and why is it dangerous?
We have a new puppy and can't wait to take him to TGO. Since he's still growing he'll grow out of any harness that fits at the moment. I'm considering tying a harness out of webbing, but all inst...
I read some articles that suggested that even moderately high altitudes can lead to some irreversible brain damage. Thus, I was wondering whether that is actually possible and what is its likelihoo...
I like the convenience of having a backpack when I ski. Last winter one of the lifties at the local ski hill gave me guff about my backpack, claiming that it was unsafe. I wore the same backpac...
I'm a beginner climber. There are many climbers all over my area (doing cliffs). Would it be polite, impolite, or neutral, to approach groups and ask them if I could join them? Maybe this is 'ob...
What would be the easiest type of shelter for a young kid to build, alone and with minimal tools, in a deep winter survival situation? For a kid 10-12 years old, carrying only a Swiss army-knife, ...
At the moment I have a sport harness which is not ideal for trad climbing. I might buy a trad harness for outdoor climbing only, however I for the moment, I've been focused on Grivel Lynx and have ...
At the crag this weekend I noticed that my climbing partner's carabiner had a great feature: a red line painted such that you know the carabiner isn't locked until the red is hidden. I love this...
I believe the 3 main options for portable GPS currently are: Dedicated GPS unit Smart Phone GPS Watch They all have somethings in common, and each have other considerations also. For this que...
There are a few camping mugs with a carabiner handle. I wonder how it makes sense? I mean wouldn't it be more flexible to just take a separate carabiner with you? You would be able to use it for...
Today's Washington Post reported that the state of Massachusetts plans to establish a sanctuary for timber rattlesnakes on an off-limits 1,400 acre island in the Quabbin Resevoir, 65 miles west of ...
I'll be doing a guided tour which includes going up a steep slope on a glacier, therefore I need an ice axe. I could rent one for a couple of bucks from the tour organizers, but I was wondering if...
I have a workhorse of a tent, an Alpine Meadows, (described in this answer) that I really like. We bought it 30 years ago, and at first we just had way more stuff than we should, and eventually we ...
I want to build a simple DIY foot pump based camping sink. I can't seem to understand what kind of foot pump should I be buying. I don't know what is the exact term for this kind of foot pump: ht...
As far as I know canoeing is the generic term which contains e.g. canadians and kayaks. What do I have to look for as an absolute water sports beginner in terms of: costs knowledge (eskimo roll a...
Most of the locks on rivers in the United States are built for commercial traffic. like barges to navigate the river system. I know they exist and I have seen them on television, but that is all I ...
I am trying to make my own wrecking ball since buying one is expensive and making one is also more fun. My idea was to use 2 cricket balls that I have and tie monkey fist knots around them and fin...
I am trying to decipher a text from this page on rope solo leading: The other way you can tie in is to create a higher tie in point between your harness and chest harness, meaning you have less...
Let's say you are camping with a large group, and someone starts a camp fire. You're away for a bit and come back to find everyone panicking and the fire to be much larger than actually planned (i...
What gear did John Muir actually take on long trips? I live in California these days, and around here we revere John Muir as a legend of the outdoors. But the legend seems larger than is possible....
I'm looking for a camping spot that has the qualities: Very secluded from other people. Ideally, well out of earshot. A relatively short drive (ideally <3 hours) from the California bay area....
I'm aware there is a huge generalization which will have a lot of exceptions both in species as in microclimates, I'm looking for a general answer, yet specific for the region and time of year. I'...
Is it legal to camp in unmarked areas in United States national forests? I'm specifically thinking of Utah/Idaho if state makes any difference.
Last weekend I went to the range with a youngster. Naturally he was very curious and asked me a lot of question. One of them was, why there even was a cock feather which needs to be pointed away fr...
I am regularly using the Click-Up belay device from Climbing Technologies together with a 40-meters rope from Edelrid I bought recently. Now, after using the two only about 10 times together (alwa...
Is there any special effective technique (parkour or something similar) for crossing very high and dense mountain pine? Those ones can be really dense, and sometimes the only possibility to cross t...
