General Q&A about the great outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
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This weekend, on a 3-night hiking trip, we decided to head for the Pieggaluoppal wind shelter for the final night. When we arrived (at 23:15 and after 13½ hours of hiking) we were a bit disappoint...
I want to go backpacking with a couple friends, but I'm the only one of us with any experience, and I mostly day hike. I've only done a couple of backpacking trips. They've never backpacked, and on...
I've seen ads touting tactical flashlights, and at least one such flashlight was claimed to be capable of "blind[ing] a bear". I wanted a reality check, and not specifically whether a sufficiently...
I was just looking at a product my friend was bragging about, a headlamp with 2000 lumen intensity. When and why would I be needing such a powerful headlamp? I usually trek in jungles and forests ...
I am a whitewater kayaker and I often show people down rivers I'm familiar with on their first time down. I take special joy in doing so and consider it community service. The only compensation is ...
I've caught a fish and want to gut it (remove it's insides ready to eat/keep). How do I do this? Where do I cut? What needs to be removed, etc?
There are several manufacturers selling folding/collapsible poles, usually for hiking or splitboarding. Are they also suitable for cross-country skiing?
I saw this a few times, years ago I met some guys who were top roping next to us in Jackson Falls, IL 25 years ago who showed us a method of retrieving your top carabiner(s) when you were done top...
Currently I own what I would call the most basic flashlight. It's a small cylinder with a single bulb within a reflective cone. It seems to do a very poor job at helping me follow the dirt path fro...
If I am trying to find out which way is north at night, and I can see stars, but not the North Star or the Southern cross or other recognizable constellations, because the terrain is limiting my vi...
My family, including my 7 yo, are thinking about taking a week trip down the Alabama Scenic River Trail next year. What type of kayaking experience is needed for a trip like this? How can we benchm...
Using a sextant to get accurate angle measurements is tough on moving vessel. It's even harder when the waters are rough. Is there a technique that is most useful in stabilizing the device and/or...
While Dyneema is in use for cordelettes for quite some time manufacturers started bringing long ropes made of dyneema on the market. The benefits are obvious: Less weight, less volume and no water ...
I have just watched the docudrama "Touching the void" for the umpteenth time. I am a climber and mountaineer and have a great deal of respect for Simon Yates and his efforts to save Joe Simpson and...
My wife and I would like to take my 7 year old son kayaking this summer. Was thinking about a circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe. It looks like there are plenty of put ins and take outs. I am curious h...
I'm planning a backpacking trip with a well-established partner. I would like to invite a third person along, but he has not met the second, and I do not want to extend an invitation to the third u...
Every year or so I'll end up with plantar fasciitis after periods of time where I've walked a lot. In general my walking shoes are fine and have arch support but occasionally I'll need to use sturd...
This question asks how to set up a top rope anchor. It states that No angle of tension shall exceed 60 degrees. Why?
After a few ski trips in slightly painful hire boots, I decided to buy a pair that would fit properly. After trying quite a lot of pairs, I eventually found some that fitted well all over my foot, ...
I'm unsure where to go this summer/autumn. Among my options would be to join an organised trek somewhere I wouldn't (currently) want to go independently (such as for experience, language, cultural...
I'm planning to go downhill skiing next week and I notice the forecast for the day in question is for winds of 50 to 60 km/h. That seemed high to me. A few years ago, at the same hill, we were turn...
Not long ago, my husband and I were at a restaurant in Massachusetts. At a nearby table, a man and woman were discussing a large yacht they had seen moored in Boston Harbor, which intrigued them. T...
Watching this youtube-video I asked myself if Ueli Steck is using some kind of regeneration creme. Most likely nobody will know for sure from the footage but I would be really interested what tric...
I was surprised by this Visit Greenland statement on Qassiarsuk: Due to the sheep in the settlement the surrounding area has no mosquitoes. Does that make sense? Is there any reason why the ...
I occasionally try hiking or cycling, and I notoriously have to deal with the silly issue of dogs roaming freely through villages, even on public trails. Until now, never have I been threatened by ...
Sometimes compasses are less accurate than we would like them to be. They can be thrown off by their surroundings, have their polarity reversed, become demagnetized, develop air bubbles or be take...
My hiking poles have started making an odd, springy noise with every step. The noise sounds like the poles themselves are vibrating each time I plant them into the ground, and it starts about an mi...
During the second week of October, 2016, my husband and I went for a drive from our home in Massachusetts to the state of Maine. One of the things we wanted to see was the town of Bar Harbor. When...
Backpacking sleeping pads come in two basic types, foam and air, with some of the air pads being self-inflating. What are the pros and cons of each and how would one decide which type to get?
I'm looking to get a new pair of trekking poles for my next trek as I find them an invaluable tool on longer hikes with higher pack load. It seems others and science agree to some degree at least, ...
Assuming I have memorized the major Latitude and Longitudes as they relate to the world, as shown in the image below and that I know how to identify latitude & longitude with a compass. What e...
I've done a bit of cross-country skiing on trails at local mountains, but I'm more interested in getting off the trails and out into the woods. The terrain around here is pretty steep in general w...
I have some damaged-beyond-repair self inflating sleeping pads. On one the hard gel housing the valve has completely disintegrated so it cannot be inflated at all. Two others have dozens of tiny ...
After reading @Aravona's question on the best time to pick sloe berries, I was wondering where I should actually go to find sloe bushes. I think I can recognise them from pictures online, but are t...
Last night I watched a film about a crew that sailed from New Zealand to Patagonia, with a stop in Antarctica, taking over two months to do so. One of the things that caught my attention is when ...
There's a strange thing going on since a few days ago in the office. Suddenly we recognized a blue tit flying like crazy up and down on our window. It looks quite average, a beautiful bird, not lik...
On a backpacking trip with multiple people, it is all but guaranteed that disagreements will arise. Pace, food, wake-up times, route and chores are some of the common sources of friction. Backpack...
I need to convert the spine of my Goldtip and Easton shafts to the AMO static spine standardization. They've their static spine declared as for example "500" which translates into a deflection of "...
I have recently developed an interest in mountaineering. There seems to be so many skills to learn (and master) for mountaineering. Although I know it will take a few years to learn (although I'd...
In a world where we are surrounded by technology and information on our screens it's actually becoming more difficult/uncommon to acquire practical skills in the outdoors. What would be a good sta...
The other day I was so desperate to go climbing, but I couldn't find a partner, so I ended up self belaying after googling and watching this video. I did check Petzl's site to learn that modifying ...
I am hiking in the wilderness, a round trip to civilization and back is at least 24 hours. I know where I am and I can return to the same spot. If my hiking partner dies, how can/should I protec...
I'm planning on hiking from John O'Groats in Scotland to Land's End in Cornwall via the Three Peaks. I'm wondering if there are any good online hiking planners that let you set waypoints and minimi...
Hematite is one of the more common ores for smelting iron, but as illustrated in the comments from this question—the answers to which focus on the processing of iron—there are apparently other sour...
How do you smelt and forge iron sources from & in the wilderness? People must have started somewhere with this sort of thing! I once saw a video from a primitive technology practitioner on Yo...
How do you know how fast or slow to go while hiking at elevation (say above 3000 meters) on an instant per instant basis? Elevation, weight carried, steepness, surface underfoot (e.g., trails, cros...
What is the best technique for self-arrest on a sandy slope? I was canyoneering last week and the sand in the canyon was very soft and powdery--with a steep drop off at the bottom of the slope. Luc...
On either side of my backpack, I have a loop with some kind of locking mechanism on them. They look like this: They are placed on the upper center of my backpack: The plastic bit at the end c...
The obvious answer is find a proper fitting boot, but what about those of us that are unfortunate enough to have improper fitting feet? I feel like a mutant sometimes because I have wide feet, huge...
I've seen whippets while skiing and am thinking of taking one (or two?) on a 4 day tour in glacier terrain, but am confused as to their purpose. Do they replace ice axes or are used in conjunction ...
