Activity for Manziel‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: What are the differences between expensive, mid-priced and cheap skis? Generally, the more expensive a ski is, the more expensive material and manufacturing processes can be used. For example, cheap ski typically has a foam core which is quite soft and is equally soft everywhere. This has the advantage that the ski is more forgiving than a harder ski. However, when you ... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	Why are American ski resorts so expensive? While doing some research for my answer in are ski areas shutting down? I was a bit shocked by the American prices for lift tickets. Vail is at $220 and while this may be an exceptionally expensive resort, the average price in season 16/17 was at almost a hundred dollars and for sure has not decrease... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Trail marking material that will last a few years Source: Wikimedia Commons Probably the easiest and most durable version is the use of cairns. Provided there is enough rocks around, they are easy to build, unaffected by bleaching of the sun and weather. If they are built big enough, they can even be seen at a certain level of snow. (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Are ski areas in the United States shutting down? I have been digging a bit for numbers and it turned out to be surprisingly hard. Although I have been hearing every now and then about a ski resort that has been closing, I have not found much of data to put this into context. What I found In the late 70’s there were roughly 735 resorts... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do multi radius skis work in practice I just stumbled over an explanation of this in a ski review. According to this, the radius in use depends on where you put your pressure. If there is more pressure to the front it will use the longer tip radius. If the pressure is applied more central, the shorter center radius is used. (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can you Rappel with an Old Climbing Rope? You probably should not use it any more. Old ropes seem to be surprisingly strong. A German mountaineering magazine made tests with old ropes. Of 14 tested ropes, 10 would still have been strong enough to lead on them without risk. However, these were unused or only little used ropes. The results may... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Question	—	How do multi radius skis work in practice Some skis nowadays have a different sidecut radius at the front, center and back of the ski. With the different radius they claim to be suitable for both long and short turns. (So far the theory) But how does a skier control which radius is actually used? Is this dependent on the edge angle or the l... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Question about climbing in "A Line Across the Sky" In his book "The Push" he describes this a bit. Most of the time they were using a running belay which means they were climbing at the same time with some pieces of protection in between them to avoid a deadly fall. This technique allows to climb very long "pitches" with a normal length rope. Once th... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Are "fall-arrester" devices used in climbing/mountaineering? Professional use These devices are intended for professional rope work. When doing rope access work, there are typically two ropes involved. One is the working line which is loaded with the worker's weight. The second rope is a backup line which is only loaded in case the working line fails. An arre... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can a regular backpack be worn on top of an avalanche airbag vest? The correct answer for sure is "it depends on the exact model" but that is quite useless ;) As far as I can see all the airbag vests deploy over your whole shoulder area. This is definitely not suited for backpacks. For some avalanche backpacks it is possible to have one airbag unit and multiple ... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why do snowshoes have a hole in the front deck? Some explanations come to my mind Freedom of movement Especially if you use the climbing aid, your toes will go through the plane of the snow shoe. The hole allows your toe box to get "through" the snow shoe. This can be seen quite nicely in this picture (source) I suspect one reason for the hole... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to split 3-5 people into rope teams for glacier travel? A bit later it states that during glacier travel, there should be a minimum of two rope teams. Is there any explanation why there should be 2 teams? The only case where this makes really sense is that a whole team falls into a crevasse. This must not happen under any circumstances. If the idea... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Camping in Yosemite in March I have never been to yosemite so I cannot answer about this part based on experience. There is however a question about backpacking in april which suggests that there will be still a lot of snow in March. If you consider this enjoyable is a matter of personal opinion. I personally probably would only... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Comparison of dangers on the glacier in summer and winter I think you just excluded the main difference which are avalanches (on steeper sections). Another difference is the higher risk of freezing to death in winter but this is not glacier specific and even in the mid of summer extreme cold can happen at high altitude. On a glacier there are three risks s... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why isn't carrying a satellite phone considered best practice for hiking/mountaineering in remote regions? There is one thing to bear in mind about making safety equipment mandatory and that is the effect of risk compensation. Basically it means whenever you make something safer, a certain group of people tends to use the perceived gain in safety to take additional risk. Often the additional risk may be ... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: As of 2019, why do mountaineering courses still teach how to use a paper map? There have already been quite some answers but I have the feeling that these answers are a bit one-sided towards paper maps and definitely do not reflect the reality outdoors. First, navigation on paper gives you the basic skills. Basic skills start with reading land formation from contour lines, ta... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: What’s the main appeal for climbing outdoors? This touches quite a lot of different dimensions so it will be hard to answer everything in a single post. One of the appeals of climbing outdoors is that it is outdoors. Consider a nice sunny day in spring. Would you rather climb in a crowded, loud and dusty gym without much daylight or outside in ... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Hiking during winter in Alps There are multiple types of winter hiking that you may refer to. First there is the winter hiking trails. These are often found in or near ski resorts. They are often groomed and can therefore be used with normal boots, no snow shoes required. There trails are typically leading from one cable car sta... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Would top-roping in this limestone quarry be reasonable? From the technical side I do not see any major issues. Assuming you made a proper, redundant top-rope anchor, your main concern should be a possible sharp edge at the top which can be countered with a rope protector if necessary. If there are more sharp edges and you are worried, using double ropes i... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: What counts as on- or off-route while outdoor climbing? This is a well-known problem, escpecially on sport routes that have been bolted on rappel and have a bolt placed every like 2m in a straight line. The only real solution is to ask someone involved in bolting the route or doing the first ascent. Even then, as sports climbing involves free choice of ho... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Transferable skills between rock and ice climbing There are some helpful basics like tieing into a rope and belaying that directly transfer from rock to ice climbing as they are the same regardless of the conditions. Further transferable skills mainly depend on what kind of rock climbing you do. Sports climbing is a lot less helpful than trad climb... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Jelly Knees while climbing Most likely this is not a problem of physical power or endurance. A moderately active person should have sufficiently trained legs for climbing. This is especially true for the beginner end of the difficulty range where footholds can be stood on passively (as opposed to actively pulling oneself towar... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Guide mode ATC with locker to belay loop I would definitely discourage this. Accidentially releasing the device is dangerous and can lead to fatal incidents. Moreover, releasing the device is rarely needed to my experience. Therefore this does not make the risk any more acceptable. An engaged ATC in guidemode can easily be released by hook... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Are snow shoes useful in mountaineering? There are certainly use cases for snow shoes. However, I believe this is rather a niche when talking about proper alpinism and not just snow shoe hiking as it is always an addition to the normal equipment, never a replacement for crampons. If there is a lot of snow (to expect) and the terrain is sui... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to descend a few exposed scrambling moves with minimal equipment? Basically all answers boil down to the availability of anchors. If there is any fixed anchors like bolts, rapelling would be your best choice. You would have the weight of a harness and a carabiner for a munter hitch (probably 200-250 grams plus the rope). It is possible to rappel from accessory cord... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Overnight hiking in Italian Alps in late autumn? In the Alps there is a dense network of huts mostly maintained by the local alpine clubs. There are also some private huts mostly owned by mountain guide associations. Most of the huts are closing down towards the end of September but many have winter rooms or small bivy huts that are accessible for ... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I know when it's time to replace my climbing shoes? Whether a rounded edge is a problem strongly depends on your climbing level. In my experience, for normal people this is not much of an issue as footholds are big enough to step even with a rounded edge, especially on plastic. Adam Ondra on the other side stated in this weeks video that he used 7 pai... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Google Map Hiking Trail You are looking at a ski resort. The blue and red lines are the slopes. The straight lines are the lifts. https://dachstein-salzkammergut.com/de/winter/winterregion/panoramakarte-winter/ (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Alpinism without short roping? Short roping is a technique that is mainly used by mountain guides to get people up a mountain without the need for a time consuming proper belay. The whole concept of short roping is not to catch a fall but to avoid a stumble escalating into a fall. As such short roping is a dangerous technique beca... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: What is wrong with this belay setup? Your belay is freaking complex. I spent some minutes looking at it and I have a hard time to grasp it in its entirety. A complex belay in itself violates 2 important rules: A belay needs to be fast to set up. It needs to be obviously error-free to allow any trust in it. The aspect of not being ab... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: What is the snow level going to be in the Atlassian mountains(Toubkal) in the end of April? Do you have any sources for past snow levels? A good educated guess is always to take the average snow level at this time slightly corrected if the current snow level differs strongly from the long term average (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Should I take my weight into account when buying and retiring climbing equipment? The standard fall test for single ropes is performed with 80 kilo and all the other equipment is designed around the loads appearing at the fall test (typically with a 100% reserve). So generally speaking there is no reason to take your body weight into a account when buying climbing equipment. Ther... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I slow down while snowboarding? The basic concept is to dig your edge into the snow. This has already been described by other answers. What is missing in these answers is the concept of weight distribution. The more weight you put in your front foot during a carving turn, the more the board will go downhill in proper carving line. ... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Keeping water from freezing while cross country skiing You can hardly avoid drinking water freezing in this temperatures when in a backpack. So this leaves you with basically two solutions: Keep it in an inside pocket, which is probably not very comfortable Use a small thermos bottle. It is not exactly ultra light but every time out mountaineering in c... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Train climbing with additional weight? It really depends what you are training for. If it is for a limit read point in sports climbing we are typically taking about pre placed gear anyways, so you only carry your harness. If we are taking about alpine climbing there is a lot more weight involved but this will be typically compensated by s... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Summitting Breithorn in the winter? Don't try it. The (walking) mountaineering season is over, there is now too much snow in the high mountains and it definitely will not get easier till January. You have to wait until the Summer when the snow starts to get more compact. An early date for a 4000s ascent is June. For mountaineering now... (more)	—	over 5 years ago