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The answer is in your bowing action - the travel comes from your arm movement not being in a straight line each direction: there is a bias one way or the other. Usually the bias is in the direction...
I use "Wet Ones" instead of soap (if there's no convenient place to bathe). There's not a lot of weight advantage, but they're good for washing yourself in the tent. Since they are antibiotic, they...
Climbfind.com is a great place to find a local partner.
How cold are you talking about? When you woke up, was there ice on your tent? Or was it 50F outside? Anyways, to sum it up, sleeping bags generally boil down to this tradeoff: Pick Two: Warmth, S...
I'm going to assume and interpret a little, and forgive me please if I put words in your mouth. What you really seem to be asking is: "Do I have to spend mad cash to stay warm?" I would say, in 5...
The only time I lit a fire in a cave we had to evacuate due to smoke and a billion spiders dropping from the ceiling. This isn't a 'danger' for me in the UK - we do not have deadly spiders. Elsewh...
An alternative to building a fire inside your shelter is to heat some rocks in a fire outside, and bring them inside (don't burn yourself!). A fire can sometimes be the best thing, but the heat fro...
I find that a pair of poles are very handy for climbing over stiles. We have a lot of stiles in the UK, I'm not sure if they are a feature in US trekking. They are also good for controlling the s...
To avoid starting fire inside your shelter, you can do it outside and use a screen (sorry for my drawing): This is view from aside. On the upper picture there is a widely used method for sleepi...
The list you've provided as the answer to your question is very good, so I write only about additional items: gloves - very usefull to get caches out of the dirty locations and holes you don't kn...
You're talking about 2 extremes: very cheap sleeping-bag from supermarket and very expensive down sleeping bag for freezing temperatures. I've bought myself the synthetic sleeping bag, which was a...
I've always used Compeed blister plasters to treat a blister. It's like covering the blister with a second, more durable skin. You are supposed to leave the plaster on until it falls off naturall...
To wash any pack, you are pretty safe using a large commercial front-loading washer (found at many laundr-o-mats in the US) and regular detergent, then letting it drip-dry. Remove any removable buc...
Take a bath. Fill the bath tub with water and the pad with air, and put the pad underwater (if it's too big to all go under at once, check section by section). You should see bubbles coming out of...
There are reported deaths from eating snow during WWII (Eastern Front). I presume due to hypothermia and/or the general poor health of the soldiers concerned. Another site points out that snow is ...
Moss grows best in the shade (and damp, but most relevant here is shade). Because of the curvature of the Earth, in the northern hemisphere the north side of trees is shadier than the south side, s...
There's some truth to it in that moss prefers shady areas rather than directly sunny ones, so (in the northern hemisphere) since the north is the generally more shady part, you'd assume moss will b...
My understanding that the only time inflating a pad by breath is bad is when it will be used in sub-zero conditions, as the moisture can freeze inside the mattress.
I agree with the above and recommend Therm-a-rest for anytime of camping provide its within your budget, there a little expensive but well worth the long-term investment if you intend to use them a...
It seams, that there is another site for statistics, which is not linked (or the linking is not obvious. The statistics for Germany can be obtained under http://cms.geocaching.de/index.php?id=9 So...
One place you can look is in an appropriate online hiking/mountain forums. For example, in CouchSurfing there's a group called mountain hiking. It has a subgroup called alpine enthusiasts. It looks...
From the link @Amine posted, the following areas are key: For the keel area check the joints between planks and frames visually, looking for gaps or any sign that the plank is not tight against t...
I have heard that RMI (one of the places you listed) is great as well as Alpine Assents, but neither are very formal in the guide education area. Try taking a look at National Outdoor Leadership Sc...
There are relatively well known steps to dealing with this out in the wilds. One online resource with pictures is at Backpacker Magazine. The basic steps (that are detailed there) are: Rest, Ice...
I think a list of dangers is potentially useful, but not a "single answer" question so I'm going to make this a CW -- Add your stuff here: Hypothermia Dehydration Hyperthermia/heat stress/heat ...
