General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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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...
Spotting scopes are used for all sorts of things in the outdoors, from watching climbers on big walls to observing wildlife. Usually, the reason for using one instead of a pair of binoculars is the...
Related to this question where the difference in size might possibly be due to one of the 3 peregrine falcon chicks being male, how do they tell whether a peregrine chick is male or female? Eventu...
In the case of a roped up team marching along a glacier with some hidden crevasses, the greatest risk is of a team member falling in and then dragging everyone else along before they can self-arres...
I am planning to spend about a week in Italian/Swiss border Alps in late October. The base plan is to hire a 4WD and drive along the border slowly, stopping a lot for less-than-a-day hikes (staying...
All of the butane gas cartridges I have seen have a screwable top for attaching your stove, however, there are apparently also pierceable cartridges without a screwable top. Source What would t...
I live in the southern part of Zealand, in Denmark. I assembled a chicken coop yesterday, and found this feather on top of the egg-collection box lid this morning. I have been unable to find out wh...
I have an issue with excessive sweat in my feet, and separately I have noticed my shoes no matter the quality, function or use-profile do not last more than a year, often less. It's been suggested...
I have a propane/120 volt refrigerator/freezer in my camper. For safety reasons I turn off the propane when moving. I keep the freezer section mostly full of the blue ice containers, which keeps t...
Back in the old days, it was recommended that for a snake bite you cut an X and suck the venom out. That is no longer recommended, however, they still sell suction devices such as the Sawyer Extrac...
I have been climbing for a short while and loving it. Now that I've gotten a fair bit of practice with indoor climbing I'm thinking about where this new love of mine can take me. The obvious answer...
I found these plants while hiking in Colorado, they are pretty small and have red berries slightly larger than peas. The area was old growth that had been burned in a fire at least a few years ago.
I recently visited a local outfitter upon whose walls hang various pieces of vintage outdoor equipment. I was unable to identify these, or even guess which outdoor activity they might have been rel...
In all of my Wilderness First Responder classes and books, they have said that people who have been struck by lightning and need CPR have the best chance of it working (in general save rates with C...
I've enjoyed climbing and cutting trees for many years. I now want to go to higher levels, but safety is a primary concern, because I am afraid of heights. I'm about to order gear for recreation...
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 have a pair of nubuck leather mittens that are nice and warm but do not last very long when cycling in the rain in autumn/winter or when building snowmen and throwing snowballs. So now i'm looki...
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 doing a lot of cave climbing recently. So I am not talking about your average tourist cave, I talk about real miles deep labyrinth like caves, where nature never thought of humans getti...
If you are buying new hiking boots before a trip there is a break in period before the boots get comfortable and you don't want to go on a long backpacking trip with brand new boots. Time will depe...
I got some 1/2" steel-thimbles for my climbing-rope but sadly I'm not sure how to safely use them, I'd thought "I can just tie a knot at just the right spot so that the thimble is securely nested i...
I live in Berlin, Germany and in the last couple of years it's been know as 'wild boar capital' since there are lots of wild boars in the surroundings. I wanted to start camping and bushcrafting an...
When hiking in Israel I've seen some trails that had information on them to contact IDF first for permission before going on them. How I'm supposed to get the permission? How much in advance you h...
I have a SOTO Triple Mix canister (Power Gas 250, SOD-725T) which is a mixture of Butane, Isobutane and Propane gas. I use it with my SOTO WindMaster but I have not used it in over 10 months. It ha...
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?
Sure it is nice to carry around huge packs of fresh vegetables and some beef in order to prepare a proper dish. However, it takes up space and moreover lots of mass in your backpack. Also, a pound...
I live in northern British Columbia where the relevant declination values are currently Magnetic declination: 17° 45.30' East Grid declination (for Natural Resource Canada's NTS maps): 16° 17.04'...
I spotted something in a rock pool. It was swimming but appeared to surface to breath, or maybe eat. The location is Madeira, Portugal, just above sea level. I would expect the water to be saline...
Here is a whole bunch of ants gathered on a sidewalk around dusk, I have seen this before so its not totally uncommon. What would lead to ants doing this?
If animals eat each other daily and defecate, why don't rainforests and the natural world smell like rotten corpses and feces? Wild animals don't have recycling people.
I'm a bit curious about this since the day I read an infographic tip from a veterinarian. The reason stated by her is that it helps to not enlarge the site of the snake bite. Is this correct? Bec...
My daughter and I were going to hike the AT through Maryland. She goes to school there and really wanted to do a muli-day hike. We recently gave up on the idea b/c the logistics of the end to end...
Smaller streams are easy to tell where to cast when fly fishing given fish's tendency to hang out in pools or hole or undercut banks. It easy to decide where you need to cast and approximately wher...
I've asked all of my trail running friends and the general consensus is to simply hose them off in the sink (some even just wear them in the shower...). I'm concerned that leaving soaking wet shoes...
Most fly fishing with wet flies is done with just single wet fly and a strike indicator but it's also possible to do it with a dry fly instead of a strike indicator (this lets you do both at the sa...
Magnet fishing is when you take go fishing with a magnet trying to find metal objects that people have lost into bodies of water such as cellphones, knives, bikes, etc. What would make a location ...
This woodchuck has been in and out of our yard in Massachusetts, United States, for a few weeks, since early May. It comes out from under our large rhododendrons which have a small area of woods be...
I'm wondering how long before one needs to clean their personal water bladder/reservoir while on a thru-hike, extended backpacking trip, or survival scenario. I know it's advised to clean after ev...
For some time, I have been following both European and American long distance hikers and a few things stood out to me, gear wise, and I was curious if someone could shed some light on it. For examp...
We are heading for a trek in the Fann mountains and I've heard a lot of the water there is cloudy with very fine silt particles in it. I noticed most water filter manuals explicitly tell you not to...
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...
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...
I have seen two articles about bloodsucking lampreys in UK rivers, which warn swimmers about the risks of lamprey attacks when swimming in rivers and lakes. Our river lamprey spend their adult live...
String walking is, Having a 3-under allows for string walking. What this is, is basically the ability to pull the string at a different position hence changing the distance of your shot. Sou...
Does anyone know of an area in california where I could hunt nutria? I've looked on the CDFW articles but there is not much.
Around my work I walk in local parks for a couple of hours a day, and I've noticed we have Green Woodpeckers, and I've seen them quite a few times and can now recognise them rather easily. Recentl...
My Daughter and I are considering hiking through Maryland on the AT in early October. Most of the trail I have done up to this point was in New England a Pennsylvania. Trail guides are indicating...
We have often used the large snow free circles that form in the spring around the trunks of large trees as camping spots. Even in an area blanketed with deep snow, there will be such bare, dry gro...
I'm exploring primitive shelter building in northern cool temperate climates. I mean primitive as a compliment: the prime, first, original, indigenous, low-tech/base-tech. Things like the Haudenosa...
