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Not exactly, if your sleeping pad gets wet and you lay your sleeping bag on top of it then your sleeping bag will get wet and that's not a good thing. Otherwise, your sleeping pad is preventing ai...
The total number of incidents, even over a defined period of time, is meaningless by itself. There is no absolute scale for danger. What we really want to know is how dangerous one thing is relat...
Statistics is sometimes referred to as the study of decision making in the face of uncertainty. The XKCD comic is funny because the character is relying on a hopelessly broad statistic when there i...
There are already loads of good tips here as I add this, but I'm missing one in particular: if you have to leave electronics behind (for some reason you can't leave them at home, like maybe you're ...
Short roping is dangerous, but it is also a critical part of guiding. This presentation touches on a lot of the reasons for short roping and risks associated with it. Short roping is claimed to pr...
Yes. It's a known fact that warm air can hold more moisture than cool air. Put a wet garment in a warm dry room and it will dry faster than in a cool dry room. It's called relative humidity, the ...
HDHM polyethelene. The acronymm is High Density, High Molecular weight. Sheets of it are used to line the chutes for ore dumping facilities, and to protect the edge of highway snowplows. I used ...
Seed fluff: wild clematis, milkweed, dandelion, thistle, salsify... Birch bark: Shred into narrow pieces (1/16 wide Cedar bark: shred. Nettle fibers. In general google anything that could mak...
I run barefoot, and I hike in neoprene water booties. You're over thinking it. A: For your stepping, my preference is to keep my feet parallel to my direction of travel. If you want to practi...
I backpack with my D7100 and an 18-200 mm zoom. It rides in a nylon camera bag -- just a cheap $20 buck one, that I spray with 2-3 coats of scotch guard water repellant. The strap that came with ...
No. There's nothing wrong with asking other adventurers where they have adventured. I've asked random people that question, other people have asked me, it never has put me or them on edge or anyt...
There may be "formal" ways to go about this, potentially online, but I know nothing about this, so I hope others can shed light on that aspect. However there is a "traditional" way about this: Phon...
There is nothing wrong with asking people you meet on the trail where there are coming from or going to. This is very normal trail-encounter talk. I've asked people this many times and rarely got...
I am newer to hiking so on longer trails near rest points I will ask where else people have been. Normally it is well received and I leave with a laundry list of additional trails to track down whe...
Context matters. There is nothing wrong with "where have you been" when you meet a fellow backpacker on a trail. But that is not the context of the linked question. Here, the other person is in a p...
I am pretty certain that I have already answered why this is dangerous here. As for when it would be a valid technique, If the terrain is such that there is a slight risk of falling, but not en...
Since you mentioned the Sierra's I'd recommend you investigate the Trinity Alps. I grew up backpacking in this area and it fits all of your requirements perfectly. It has tons of exposed granite, r...
No. In my experience it's a default intro question for multi-day hikers, and can make sense (if stopped to rest/eat) for short hikes too. Someone worried that you may follow them can respond to t...
It depends on the circumstances. When hiking alone, I am always a little suspicious of strangers. I don't think this is that unusual, especially in some of the busier places I visit in the US, as c...
One technique I found that worked was to get low and lead with my feet. When a gust came along, instead of pushing into the wind, I'd try to duck under the gust and reach forward with me feet. All ...
It's perfectly possible for both to be true: it moistened your mouth but doesn't help with hydration The act of chewing stimulates saliva production, so your mouth is less dry. But that wastes a li...
There is no right answer to this question, but let me give you a perspective from an older generation -- a generation which was raised to respect privacy, perhaps too much. As such, I consider it ...
A logical, no emotional, (simplified) mathematical way consider it- it turns a potential fall with X percent of death or injury into a fall with X percent possibility of two deaths or injuries. It ...
Sort of off-topic but some of the biggest searches here in New Zealand are for people who didn't let anyone know where they were going. Add on to this the number of side-trips that crop up while y...
Comments from Aaron and StrongBad suggest this may be a country-specific thing, in particular due to being further from civilisation, and perhaps with greater public access to guns. In the UK, eve...
