theJollySin‭

I have never found a good answer to this one: How do you clean rock-climbing shoes, without ruining them? Let me be more specific. I have a pair of modern leather-and-fancy-rubber climbing sho...

11 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Your life will not be at risk from used shoes. No. But you will run a serious risk of getting athlete's foot. This happened to me and it took six months to get rid of. Beware.

posted 12y ago by theJollySin‭

In the past, I have gone backpacking with some fairly expensive, heavy water purification tools. But the more I read about water safety in California's Sierras (here and here), the less I think the...

1 answer  ·  posted 12y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 7y ago by System‭

THE official information can be found on the CDC webpage. The CDC defines the problem in terms of what you're trying to kill: Protozoa, Bacteria, or Viruses. They address each of those in terms of...

posted 12y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 7y ago by System‭

Winter is here and, like every year, I am still thrilled when the extended family rounds up all the little kids and we go sledding. This year we compared our sleds and found that some were signific...

9 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Warning! I am not a medical professional. However, I asked my favorite doctor and she seemed to think it would be okay. She said rust would just look like iron to your body and it would be consum...

posted 12y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

While searching online for an answer to my question, I came upon the this pseudo-scientific research. They did not test the old wood-and-metal sleds, so this may not be good science. Never-the-les...

posted 12y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 7y ago by System‭

Over the next 6 months I will be training for my first marathon. This means I will be running 4 times a week, with at least one long (10-20 mile) run each weekend. I have run several half-marathon...

2 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 11y ago by System‭

Please don't drink alcohol to stay warm. It may make you feel slightly warmer temporarily, but it isn't actually helping you. According to my favourite volume on Wilderness Medicine (page 156), a...

posted 11y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 11y ago by System‭

It all depends on how you want to mount your rock rings. I mounted mine like this from a door-jam pull-up bar: Though you could mount them like monkey bars, or any other way: The idea, from a...

posted 11y ago by theJollySin‭

The way I see it, you have two options: Buy some astronaut ice cream. Bring/find some ice and make ice cream in a plastic sandwich bag. I bet you could easily replace the ice in the standard 'i...

posted 11y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 7y ago by System‭

Last weekend, we had a nice hike up Price Peak in the Sierras. We went from sea level to above 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in about 6 hours. And I had a ROARING headache. I could hear my heart beat in m...

5 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 7y ago by System‭

Is sandpapering your finger tips an effective way to improve anything about your rock climbing? On occasion, I will see climbers in YouTube videos or people at the local crag using sandpaper on th...

4 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by System‭

I doubt a definitive list exists. But here is an algorithm to create your own list: What altitude-based things make climbing a peak require gear? At what altitude do problems in step 1 start occ...

posted 10y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 8y ago by System‭

What gear did John Muir actually take on long trips? I live in California these days, and around here we revere John Muir as a legend of the outdoors. But the legend seems larger than is possible....

2 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by theJollySin‭  ·  last activity 7y ago by System‭