Posts by Chris Mendez
When tying my autoblock knot my cord keeps twisting, and it does not end up looking nearly this nice: I use a double-fisherman loop of cord that stays permanently tied, and it lays flat. How can...
I'm going skiing for the first time. From what I've read, most everyone uses hard shell jackets and pants for skiing. However, they usually mention something about skiing in bad weather, frigid col...
If climbing shoes are resoled, will they fit differently afterward? If so, in what way does it change (narrower, shorter, tighter, looser, etc..)?
The local climbing gym has several TRUBLUE auto belays but one can soon tire of the same routes. Will the auto belay work if one climbs a route next to it? At what angles does it still arrest a fal...
Testing by the QC Lab at Black Diamond suggests there is a lot more design and consideration going into cam/friend sling design than just knot vs bar tack. Because when the Camalot was loaded d...
I recently visited a new climbing gym and was instructed to belay directly off a ground anchor without any attachment to my harness. I've been to other gyms that belay with ground anchors but with ...
My wife and I are planning a camping and climbing trip and we would likely need to rappel with our medium-sized (45lbs/20kg) dog. Holding the dog is obviously unacceptable, and using the dog's back...
As the others have said, this appears to be a homemade assisted-braking belay device or homemade descender, similar to a GriGri. The moving lobe inside is meant to grab the rope under upward pressu...
Do spools of webbing still have splices? Yes. As Paul's answer pointed out, there was a well-known accident caused by a climber purchasing webbing with a tape splice in the middle. Furthermore, m...
Climb easy routes very slowly Try climbing the easy routes slowly to focus on technique. Climbers will often blow through a route by relying on strength and dynamic moves, but moving slowly and de...
Climbing route grades in Yosemite Decimal System can be suffixed with an "R" to notify a runout. The Wikipedia entry for a runout is A lengthy distance between two points of protection which in...
While browsing the DumbAnchors blog, I came across a post which points out the poor use of a single strand (not a loop) of webbing for building top rope anchors. The blogger doesn't say why these ...
Climbing.com has a video showing how to tie a barrel knot in the end of a rope. To me (and many of you, I suspect) this knot is the very commonly-used double overhand knot. Confused, I looked fo...
I'm shopping for a new tent and considering a model that comes in two different colors-- bright orange and dark green. Purely-aesthetic preferences aside (ie, like orange more than green), are the...
Cairns are small stacks of rocks used to mark trails. These can be especially useful above the tree line where other trail blazes would be inappropriate or unsightly. This answer discourages their...
I have noticed a slow but steady rise in the number of campers using roof-top tents like these and those, among many others. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these over conventional...
I've been out hiking in wilderness areas when I came across an unmarked trail. It wasn't on a map but it appeared to lead in the direction I wanted to go. I decided not to take it in case it was a ...
I'm shopping for some 1" tubular webbing. There is climb-spec webbing and military-spec webbing. The military-spec description says Meets industry-standard military specs for breaking strength ...
I was reading another post about properly lacing hiking boots, and while it talks about methods for tying the laces, it doesn't address how tight the laces should be on properly tied hiking boots. ...
In the US, National Scenic Trails span many different land types (state/federal parks, forests, etc). While these all have different rules on pets, I was wondering if the National Trail System desi...
When visiting areas with free-roaming wildlife such as American Bison and Texas Longhorns, there are numerous signs warning about keeping a safe distance. They don't, however, actually specify the ...
I'll be visiting Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma which is known, among other things, for having free-roaming American Bison. I've never seen any in the 'wild'. Is there a specific tim...
Theoretically, run. Practically, slowly jog or briskly walk so that you don't slip and fall. The TV series MythBusters initially tested this with artificial rain and found that walking was better ...
Sometimes when descending with a GriGri, I get the urge to pull hard and zip down the line. Safe reasoning returns and I continue descending with a safe, steady pace. However, I would like to know ...
It depends on the location and temperature of the water. Generally, speckled trout can be found in shallow bays and estuaries near grass flats and oyster beds. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department ...
