Posts by imsodin
This question was prompted by PaulD's question about hypothermia prevention after a falling into icy water. A subsequent answer by Roddy stated that the immediate danger of cold water immersion is ...
Regarding Grading That's a very common question for people new to competition climbing. Route setting for competition is in general quite different than for "regular" gym routes. Route setters at ...
Read the accepted answer by Rory Alsop for a comprehensive answer. This is just an addendum addressing the point that caused my original confusion and according to a discussion between DJClaywort a...
That depends a lot on the specific type of skin: Traditional "glue" type skins can be stuck together generally without damage, but as you discovered, it is not ideal. They are quite hard to pry apa...
I can totally see your point of view as your coming from forestry or generally working outdoors, but this is fairly straight forward from a hiking point of view: Hiking is walking, meaning work fo...
I think it isn't fair to simu-abseiling to pull out horrific accident reports and use them to say it isn't safe, because there are just as horrific accidents with "traditional" abseiling. The only ...
As already stated, these are very similar knots regarding their use. So there is not much that differentiates them from each other, or to other friction hitches. The advantage of the prusik is the ...
Physically there are two ways for you to heat up the snow: by heat conduction and by heat radiation. Conduction means you place it somewhere close to your body. It does not matter whether this is d...
The tent just makes your intent obvious: You planned to sleep there from the beginning. And this is what the authorities want to prevent: Camping in the wild. On the other hand many legislations al...
You (arguably) are right. I would even approach it the other way around: Should there be another description for outdoor lead climbing on bolted routes. "Proof": Climbing on artificial holds has b...
As there's ample anecdotal evidence, bad things can happen when doing this. There's also ample anecdotal evidence, that bad things will likely not happen. When bad things happen, scratches and even...
I have been told that climbing cracks is very much a methodical procedure. Especially in places like Yosemite and Indian creek, where the cracks can be the only feature of the rock that can be used...
Just because there are grasses (Poaceae) with edible and nutritious parts does not mean that this applies to all grasses. That is pretty common-place. A quick Google search give you all the info y...
In this answer about mountaineering on a glacier, @StrongBad mentioned 4th and 5th class belays. I have never heard of belays being classified into such classes. In what context are these classes u...
Should overweight people climb? If they want to, then yes of course they should. I don't have any hard fact to back it up, but I do know a few climbers that are slightly overweight and have partic...
I have not yet seen any GPS capable watch that has such a long battery live. GPS watches like Suunto Ambit and Garmin Fenix do advertise longer battery live, but these durations are only reached wh...
Personally I would go with poles and one ice-axe as long as possible. As soon as there are have prolonged steep slopes (defined by having to ascend with front points of crampons) I would take two a...
Just to make sure it doesn't completely contradict my experience, I have made a quick google search and came up with exactly one incident between a human and an ibex - a dog was involved. In my ex...
As mentioned by others: It is impossible to definitely judge the situation from just the photo, and that's all we have. As far as I see, there is no protection between the roped climbers here. So m...
In general there is nothing better than what you said: Go select a hill and start running. If you have (possibly experienced) company all the better. There is one point that you should keep in mind...
I am sure that's not what you want, but from the exact situation you describe, there is another pretty simple (though still more involved than @ShemSegers variant) solution based on this: [...]...
Canyoneering has one major danger that is not (normally) one in mountaineering: water. If you get stuck abseiling along/in a waterfall and end up hanging in the waterfall, you can drown. An "engage...
This is also needed when having more than two people on a rope on a glacier. If you attach a climber in the middle of the rope, you should also add an "extension" when tying in, but that doesn't se...
If you neglect the influence of the terrain/buildings, the atmosphere and the height above sea level, both the time with and without sunlight is very close to 12 hours on the equator (other minor d...
No you cannot - as long as you fit it correctly. One test you have to do when adjusting the width of the hip strap, is to pull down on the harness to make sure it is impossible to pull it over you...
