Posts by StrongBad
One should never let middle age men sit around drinking and reliving the glory days of their youth on a holiday weekend. I think I may have agreed to a mid January Presidential traverse in the Whit...
If I stop to take a break in cold dry windy weather, I am perfectly happy tossing a big puffy belay jacket on top of my shell if I can get out of the wind. If I cannot get out of the wind, I will u...
This is called horse packing. It is a totally different outdoor activity to hiking. There are places you cannot go with horses/mules and caring for an animal is a lot of work. Some people love it a...
As you are looking to rappel for fun, you should find a place better suited for it. As you mentioned, the anchors are not well situated for an easy rappel. If you want to rappel off that cliff, jus...
The answer is it depends. Highway noise is typically 70-80 dB at 15 m. To a first order approximation, sound waves obey the inverse square law where there is a 6 dB drop every doubling of the dista...
Assuming you are a somewhat healthy individual and not camping in an avalanche zone, you probably do not need to worry about suffocation. With enough accumulation, your tent will collapse, at which...
I don't think of myself as being a paranoid individual, but I am cautious about people I meet when hiking. For example, if I am eating lunch at a site less than a mile from an infrequently used tra...
If you start a route, fall, lower down a bit, and then climb to the top, most people would not say that you have sent the route. See What is the term for completing a climbing route uncleanly?. Mos...
If the bag is laid flat like it would be for two people, it will not be nearly as warm. Basically you are doubling the effective surface area in which to lose heat relative to a single person sleep...
There are a lot of factors that determine what R value you will need. While the low temperature might be 10°F (-12°C), the ground could be substantially warmer (or potentially colder). The temperat...
While caging animals is slightly different than keeping animals out, it probably provides the best evidence for specifications. Animal enclosures need to be secure, because animals frequently attem...
Taking a literal definition of US and not restricting the answer to the continental US, there is a mangrove swap on Heeia in HI and the list of reptiles in HI does not include crocodiles or alligat...
Sleeping bags come in a variety of sizes (e.g., https://www.outdoors.org/articles/amc-outdoors/how-to-fit-a-sleeping-bag). The most common being regular and long (sometimes there is a short and som...
Freezer bag cooking refers to cooking by boiling water in a pot, add the boiling water to a zip-lock type freezer bag filled with the meal, placing the filled bag in an insulating cozy, and letting...
Despite not being a knot, I think a bale sling meets your requirements. There is little resistance on the hitch meaning it will cinch tight pretty easily and it is difficult to release while loaded...
They sell small electric coolers (e.g., this one by Coleman) that run off of battery power (you can swap out your car battery with a marine battery or get a second battery/solar setup). As you are ...
I like this article on vapor barriers. Your trash bag will act as a very good vapor barrier on the parts of your body that it covers. You are going to need a really large garbage bag, or a hole cut...
While I am not brave enough to call John Dunne fat, Climbing Magazine did. So there is at least one objectively fat climber that could send 5.14. That man can float up some seriously hard stuff: h...
In terms of sleeping, a sleeping pad performs two purposes. The first is to provide warmth and down is a good insulator. The Exped XP 9 LW has an R value of 8.00, a weight of 41.3 oz, a length of 7...
It sounds like this would fall under the category of high angle rescue. This is not something that you want to get into. It sounds like you would be at most 2.5 miles from the an easy extraction po...
One issue with a long traverse is that if the second falls, they may be unable to easily get back on the route. This means that there is an increased likelihood that you will need to escape the bel...
I would argue that this is not as stupid as it sounds, although you will want to get someone with good experience to help you. In your situation, I would avoid the railing completely as you just do...
The Skytop area at the Gunks has a number of stellar climbs including Foops (5.11) and Super Crack (5.12+). From what I can piece together, climbing there requires a guide and buying a meal/pass at...
Finding quality 1/4" hangers has been problematic for a long time. There was a thread on the topic on Super Topo back in 2009. The best solution back then were the Moses hangers (Moses actually pos...
The general question is not really answerable, but the specific question in regards to Mt Tapulao is answerable. The link you provided says that guides have been required since 2013. While I am not...
