Activity for Bristol‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: What are good designs for volunteer-buildable trail bridges? The Swiss have detailed documentation on this. You might not understand the German but the sketches are fairly clear. Two things you might want to know: the introduction says the type "A" ones should be designed by a competent engineer, but the type "B" ones are easy to build. Any sketch labelled w... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Are there any reliable plants to use for navigation? For a book-length answer, see Tristan Gooley, The Natural Navigator. The gist seems to be that plants are influenced by many factors: altitude, prevailing wind, soil type, shade etc. so any rule will at best apply under certain conditions, and even then have exceptions. One of Gooley's examples is ... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can the Swiss Alps be hiked in the winter? The normal hiking trail network is meant to be used, in a rough translation from the German specifications, "during the snow- and ice-free time". Trails are generally not cleared, it would be a huge effort considering how many there are. There are official winter hiking trails which are cleared, and... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Does inside vs outside make a difference in a bowline on a bight? The most common use of a bowline on the bight in climbing these days is to make a loop in the middle of the rope in a party of 3 or 4, as one of the comments above mentioned. In this case there's no inside or outside, and the knot is symmetrical with respect to the two ends. As a tie-in knot, while ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What is the fastest style of sled? You can have the fastest Rodel (see fgysin's answer), when you come to a bend you'll have to steer and that means braking with one foot, slowing you down overall. So I give you ... the ghosky: You can steer it by leaning to one side making it "carve" like a pair of skis. Youtube video of it in act... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: Books for the outdoors I'm from the UK and our Mountain Leader Training association has a series of 5 books Hillwalking Rock Climbing Winter Skills Navigation in the Mountains International Mountain Trekking I own #1 and #4 and can recommend them (you can leave out #3). They are quite a bit geared towards the UK (e.g. ... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: Would tied strips of webbing have similar strength to a climbing rope? A climbing rope, as in sport-climbing, is also known as a dynamic rope - it stretches when you fall. If you use polypropylene strips and fall 5 metres, even if they are strong enough not to break, the same force acts on your body as if you fell 5 metres onto solid ground. If this weren't a problem, c... (more)	—	almost 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: What are common rock-climbing footwork mistakes and how I can spot them? The mistakes I mention might be more common at lower grades than yours, here goes anyway: Too big steps. When I started climbing I tended to make massive steps, leaving out many good footholds in between. A more experienced friend taught me to avoid this by clipping a quickdraw between my climbing ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago