Posts by StrongBad
I am a big fan of City of Rocks and the Albion Mountains in Idaho. While some of the peaks are over 8500 feet, there is a lot of hiking at lower elevations. There is a lot of exposed granite and mu...
I am looking for an article that was published in either Rock and Ice or Climbing Magazine around 1999. I know the area and route of the article topic as well as the author's name. I may even have ...
My approach would depend on if I was confident that the rappel was straight forward with an obvious bottom with a solid secure place to become unsecured from the rope. If everything is straight for...
One issue with Method 1 is that after C3 finishes jugging on R2, C2 needs to be able to pull R2 back to the anchor and attach the pig. If the lower end of R2 is attached to the anchor, then it may ...
Basically this is almost the textbook worst case scenario lacking only on not being hurt, completely alone in the dark and bad weather. To summarize the situation you have a piece of rated webbing...
The stopper knot is purely a backup to prevent disastrous slippage (i.e., the end pulling through the knot). For most cases, the stopper knot will not be loaded. Even in the case of slippage, the s...
The Mohs hardness scale is a common scale used to describe the hardness (resistance to scratching) of different materials. The hardness of ice is between 1.5 and 6 Mohs. The hardness of granite is ...
From a technical standpoint, it depends. For example, for the Petzl Falcon line of rescue harness, only the Mountain is rated fo operations involving technical climbing. The Ascent is not suitable ...
My goal when climbing is to keep the system as simple/clean as possible. If something funky has to be done, I like to transfer that to the second (or in the case of multiple followers the non-leade...
This is a really difficult question to answer in the abstract. The UIAA claims that Ageing caused only by storage can almost be neglected compared with ageing during use. This als...
I think Mauna Kea in Hawaii may meet your requirements. The average highs at the summit are between 40.3 and 50.9 F with most months having less than an inch of rain. The average lows at the summit...
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...
One thing that has not been mentioned is to consider which trail head you park at. Some trails/areas have multiple trail heads. If you have a choice in trail head, it is worth talking to locals to ...
It is hard to tell from the photo exactly how the carabiner would be loaded if clipped directly to the bolts. I think of cross loading as when the carabiner is weighted along the minor (short) axis...
What do you do in this situation? Just keep moving, trying to basically swim through the ice, while breaking it hoping to reach thicker ice or the shore? More or less, yes with two caveats. I...
I look a fall while clipping the 3rd clip (in the danger zone). There is no reason that a climber should be at risk of a ground fall while making the 3rd clip. Even the second clip should be s...
There are a handful of manufacturers that make climbing holds from granite. My recollection is that Petrogrips used to make 30 cm x 30 cm panels of granite with various features cut into them. I ca...
There are a lot of different types of bears. Protecting a llama from a giant panda should be quite easy as you are unlikely to see one in the wild and their diet is almost entirely bamboo. If you a...
It is a lot of trial and error. Setting bouldering problems tends to be easier since they are shorter. The biggest thing to consider is height. Assuming you are reasonably tall individual, solicit...
The Jet Boil Minimo is supposed to be an efficient cooking system that uses FluxRing technology: FluxRing® technology makes it possible to heat a conveniently shaped vessel with extremely high ...
I think it is easiest to see the difference here: Specification Chart The heavier one is a semi rectangular bag while the lighter one is a mummy bag. Both bags have the same amount of loft, which...
From my understanding, the EN 13537 temperature rating is for sleeping bags and not quilts making comparisons difficult. A regular (6', 183 cm) 30°F (-1°C) top quilt (e.g., the katabatic Flex 30) h...
Andrew Skurka has a lot of advice on his blog about a backpacking diet. He is a world class hiker and does serious mileage over serious terrain. For an Alaska backpacking trip, he packed 4,750-5,00...
In a survival situation without water you will die in days and without food you will die in weeks. So in general, there is no need to eat in a survival situation. That said, the quick burst of ener...
Depending on the type of wood, 50 kg of wood will take up about 0.1 m^3 when stacked. Depending on local rules, I would simply bury it in a cheap plastic tarp. Just make sure you remember the locat...
