Activity for Ben Crowellâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: Is the keeper wire loop on a tubular belay device necessary? When I'm setting up for a belay, I first clip the belay device to my belay loop using the keeper wire, then feed the rope through, then open the carabiner and put it through the rope. This is a pretty dependable way of doing the process without dropping the belay device, which could be a bad thing. I... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Repairing down stuff? I got a rip in my down jacket. I assume the fabric is nylon. What is the best way to repair a rip in a down sleeping bag or jacket? (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: Should I get trekking poles for snowshoeing, or stick with ski poles? In my experience, you really don't need either trekking poles or ski poles when snowshoeing. On flat ground or at low angles, I don't find them necessary or useful at all. On very steep stuff, I find that an ice ax is more helpful (along with those mini-crampon things built into some snowshoes). Th... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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What is a "sling belay?" Rock climbing topos have various standardized symbols, such as xx for a bolt anchor, or a dashed line for face climbing. In keys of symbols, I've sometimes seen SB defined as a "sling belay." What does this mean? Does it mean that there is a natural feature that you can throw a cordelette around and ... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: How do you diagnose severe altitude illness? Many people at moderate altitudes (about 10,000-13,000', 3000-4000 m) experience mild AMS (acute mountain sickness). The most common symptom is a headache. Mild AMS is not life-threatening, and people may experience similar symptoms due to other factors that are common in a mountain environment, such... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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How do you diagnose severe altitude illness? If someone is feeling bad at high altitude, how do you tell if their condition is so severe that it threatens their life unless they descend immediately? (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: Proper food storage against black bears on a LONG (e.g., 14 days) trip, partly in black bear country? (enough bear canisters not practical) An online poll showed that almost everyone on a backpacking trip eats about 15-20 kcal (63-84 kJ) per day per pound of body weight: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/threaddisplay.html?forumthreadid=35516 . So let's take 17.5 cal/day/lb (161 kJ/kg) as a typical value. Th... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: How to avoid snakes when hiking in heavily leaved areas? Snakes are usually harmless. This is their habitat, and you shouldn't be intentionally trying to scare them off. Just don't worry about it. (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: What to do if the second seems stuck and absolutely no communication is possible? Of course you want to try simple things first, and waiting is a really simple thing to do. She solved the problem in 15 minutes, which doesn't even seem like an especially long time to me to wait for a second to do a pitch. It could take that long to clean a stuck piece of gear. Another simple soluti... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: Is clipping directly onto a dyneema sling safe? In the specific example of the video of your girlfriend, what you did seems to me like a perfectly reasonable way of dealing with that spot in the climb. When we talk about the bad consequences of taking a short fall on a static line (wrecking pro, snapping slings, injuries to the climber's pelvis), ... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: What to do when you run out of rope on a sports climb? The first thing I would do is yell down to my belayer to put a knot in the end of the rope. You could also try to evaluate the situation and try to figure out what happened. Is it a route that requires a 70 meter rope, and you just didn't realize that? Is it possible that you passed by a belay and di... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: How do you get into a prone position without catching your crampons? So I'm thinking, on my back, head up hill, crampons in the air (to prevent them snagging). I brace my ice axe into against my collar bone. I now need to roll onto my front to push the head of the axe into the snow. But how do I do that without catching my crampons (as I roll). Does that make sense... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: One-sided overhand bend For certain purposes, the offset overhand bend is not just safe but safer than any known alternative. The alternative name "European death knot" is a joke referring to the fact that to the uninitiated, the knot looks like it wouldn't be secure. It's like the phrase "politically incorrect," which nobo... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: How long of cord do I need to make a three-point cordelette? I use a loop of 6 mm cord 5.5 m (18 ft) in circumference. Buy some larger amount of 6 mm cord, because the price for the pre-cut cord is a rip-off, and you'll end up going through this stuff for Prusiks and various other uses. You will of course need a little extra length in order to tie the bend. T... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Is rope-soloing inherently dangerous, and if so, why? I've never tried rope-soloing and don't have a very detailed idea of how it's done. But reading the 2015 edition of Accidents in North American Mountaineering, I was struck by how many accidents happened to people who were rope-soloing. My impression is that only a very small percentage of climbing i... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: Recommended ascents for the improving mountaineer I'll give this a shot, but I'm from the US, and although I've done a little bit of mountaineering in the Alps, I've never done Mont Blanc. Others may be able to give better answers. First, you need to buy an ice ax, crampons, and crampon-compatible boots. This is going to be expensive, and it is pos... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Can rock climbers easily transition to canyoning? I'm American, so I can only address canyoneering, not canyoning. Easy canyoneering is just lots of rappelling. If you're a trad climber, that means it should be mostly skills you already know. You can use a fireman's belay or a Prusik backup the same way as on rock, except that as pointed out by She... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: What climbs at Tahquitz were the original definitions of YDS class 5 grades? Below is the list that I found by googling on "chuck wilts" 1956 tahquitz yds. After the name of each route is the consensus rating on mountainproject.com. Each climb is hyperlinked to a description on mountainproject. 5.0 - The trough, FA 1936 (.4) 5.1 - Fingertip traverse, FA 1936 (.4) 5.2 - Fri... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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What climbs at Tahquitz were the original definitions of YDS class 5 grades? From what I understand of the history, Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) grades came about when class 5 in the preexisting system was subdivided into 5.0 through 5.9. This was done by Chuck Wilts, Royal Robbins, and Don Wilson, who were members of the Rock Climbing Section of the Angeles Chapter of the S... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: When I do and when I don't need shoes with ankle supports? The question has the tag "mountaineering," but most of the time when I hear people say that you need boots with ankle support, they're actually talking about trail-walking. The cases of hiking and mountaineering are qualitatively different. For mountaineering, one big reason people usually don't use... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Hiking: How to start? The only gear you need is a good, comfortable pair of running shoes and any cheap backpack (extra points for Hello Kitty). There is a popular belief, probably based on pop-culture images dating back to the 1960s, that people need big, heavy hiking boots, or that ankle support is necessary if you're ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Most common avoidable reasons for climbing accidents? Combing through the 2015 issue of Accidents in North American Mountaineering, here were the four mistakes that I saw over and over: no helmet not placing any pro, or climbing unroped starting too late in the day rappelling off the end of the rope, no knots in the ends This is just my subjective, ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Most common avoidable reasons for climbing accidents? What are some of the common things people do that are avoidable and contribute to accidents and injuries when climbing? (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: US vs central European bear advice Some of the things you've listed as precautions used in the US are not real or not reasonable. worry about the tent or shirt you sleep in smelling after food from 6 months ago This is silly. bear bells This is a joke. Using a bear canister, on the other hand, is reasonable and in fact le... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: What are wildlife hazards/precautions near the treeline at 8200ft on Hearst Lake in Montana? Elk do go to high elevations in the summer, and apparently they're pretty dangerous in spring and fall: http://www.canadianparks.com/resources/letters/let-dangerouselk.html . The thing to do to avoid being hurt by one seems to be simply to keep your distance. Black bears are rarely aggressive, but t... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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What is the difference between back-stepping versus a layback in rock climbing? At the gym today, a climber referred to "back-stepping" for a move that I would have referred to as a layback. I said, "I would have called that a layback," and he said, "Yeah, the difference is kind of subtle." (Clearly nobody is talking about back-stepping the rope, which is simply a mistake.) This... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Should you occasionally use locking biners on pieces of protection when using alpine draws? I usually carry 10 single-length slings and 2 doubles, which means I have 24 carabiners just for the draws. That's a lot of biners, which is of course why most people will use all wiregates for this. That's not to say that it's impossible to do otherwise. I imagine that people climbing in the 1970s w... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Avoiding a "ding-dong" when lead belaying in the gym? I sometimes climb in the gym with a partner who outweighs me by about 50%. When he's leading and falls from above his protection, I can get pulled up to the first clip. If he's not very far up, this could lead to the dreaded "ding-dong" effect, where I get pulled up and collide with him as he falls. ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: When can a glacier be crossed without special gear (axes, crampons, rope, etc.)? The first thing you need to find out is how heavily crevassed the glacier is, and whether any crevasses are likely to be big enough to fall into. Crevasses can be hidden by snow, so people can fall into them unexpectedly. If you have reliable information that there are no crevasses big enough to fal... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: How to prevent sweat washing off insect repellent? In the book Lightweight Backpacking and Camping, by Ryan Jordan, p. 307, Jordan says that a supply of DEET (presumably 100% concentration) for two weeks should weigh about 0.2 oz, including the bottle. That's about 0.001 ounces per hour of hiking. You used about 1 ounce per hour. Now Jordan is writin... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Why should I take a pocket knife for wild camping / hiking? I bring a very small pocket knife with me when I'm backpacking (or whatever they call the activity in Europe...?) As you say, it's convenient because it combines several tools in one. You don't really need three big, heavy pieces of silverware. What works for me is a spoon as my main thing to cook an... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Rope between legs while leading on rock, ice When you're lead climbing, the most common way for the rope to hang naturally, if you don't do anything special, is usually between your legs. Is this OK on rock? On ice? Why or why not? On rock, the impression I get is that it's fine, as long as you don't back-step the rope. I have heard people in ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: When should you remove old pitons? If it "easily came out of the rock," then it was at best useless and at worst a safety hazard, because of the possibility that someone might naively trust it. Removing it was a public service. Is it even wise to use pitons that you find in the rock? I use old fixed pins as pro all the time. If ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Opening a beer bottle using a mountaineering ice ax Yes, this is perhaps the most important question ever to be asked in this forum, touching as it does not merely upon matters of life and death but on questions of ... beer ... itself! I have heard that it's possible to use an ice ax to open a bottle of beer, but when I tried it with my Black Diamo... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Is drinking water containing dirt harmful? The terms to google on seem to be "turbidity," "total suspended solids," and "total dissolved solids." TSS refers to solids that can be eliminated by a filter, and TDS to solids that are in particles so small that they get through a filter. High TSS seems to be harmful to fish because it indirectly r... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: How dangerous is a band of coyotes to a lone, unarmed human? Here are some statistics on coyote attacks versus dog attacks in the US, on a per-year basis. (See notes at the end on how I got the numbers.) dog bites: 4.6 million fatal attacks by dogs on humans: 25 coyote bites: 8 fatal attacks by coyotes on humans: 0.06 These figures show that your chances o... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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How to efficiently fill a bladder with water? I normally use cheap, lightweight water bottles to carry my water when I'm hiking. However, sometimes I'm with people who use bladders such as a CamelBak, and I offer to go and fill water bottles, so I have to fill theirs. Maybe I just need to ask them to explain or demonstrate the technique for me, ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Where is the optimal place to do dishes in the backcountry? Consider using freezer-bag cooking. You boil your water in a pot, then pour it into a freezer bag with your food to cook. Advantages: No dishes to wash. Zero environmental impact. Makes it easier to avoid backpackers' diarrhea, which the evidence shows comes not from contaminated water but from han... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Fixed line: Prusik vs mechanical ascender The standard mountaineering textbook Freedom of the Hills has a long discussion of fixed lines, and they state simply that you use a mechanical ascender on them. This seems odd to me, since for most mountaineering I would be carrying a pretty light rack, and it probably wouldn't include a heavy mecha... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Is there any difference between a harness used for rock climbing vs for mountaineering? There are many types of specialized harnesses, including harnesses for sport, trad, and mountaineering. Personally I use the same harness for trad and mountaineering, and it works fine. For trad climbing, you want four gear loops. Since people don't carry such heavy racks for sport and mountaineerin... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Guidelines for safe use of ATC Nano? The photo below shows my new ATC Nano. Sweet! This is an innovative new belay device that is definitely going to be in my ultralight mountaineering setup from now on. After all, when you're bagging multiple 7000-meter peaks in a day, you don't want to be held back by a bunch of heavy technical gear t... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: What's the best way to dispose of a body in the backcountry? Throwing a dead body down a ravine in a rugged mountain area is a morally blameless act, much like throwing your biodegradable orange peel into a bush. Crows and coyotes will rapidly take care of it, leaving only disassembled bones, which they'll scatter. Just make sure to remove all the nonbiodegrad... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Lowering a climber from above using a belay device in autolocking mode This is not a complete answer but is just my attempt to analyze, after discussion with ShemSeger, the issue of what the Munter does for you as opposed to a Prusik. It seems that there are several different possible modes of failure: A. The belay device gets inadvertently put in release mode or stuc... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Lowering a climber from above using a belay device in autolocking mode I recently gave a belay from above to a group of five people who were all doing the same single-pitch climb and then being lowered off. (In this case the reason for belaying from above was that the climb was too long for top-roping from the ground with a single rope.) I was using an ATC Guide in guid... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Avoiding leaks from stove and fuel bottles? I used to use a liquid hydrocarbon-fuel stove for backpacking, but I hated it, one of the main reasons being that the stove and/or fuel bottle were always leaking and stinking up my car and pack. Mainly for that reason, I switched to using an alcohol stove for summer backpacking, and I'm very happy w... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: How to decide which tarp size to take? One of the fun things about tarping is that every tarp setup is different. For that reason it's hard to make generalizations. Also, it may make a difference what environment you're in. In some places, you're virtually guaranteed a rainstorm every evening. In others (the Sierra in summer), you basical... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: How to calculate the force (kN) generated by a falling climber onto their protection? Wikipedia has a simple treatment of this problem, as well as some notes on at least one of the reasons why the simple treatment is only a very rough approximation. Let be the impact force quoted by the manufacturer, which is normally 12 kN for a single rope. Let be the 80 kg mass used for... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Do polarized sunglasses protect against snow blindness? One of the classic applications of polarized sunglasses is to skiing. Light from the sun is unpolarized, but when it is reflected from a surface at a glancing angle, it becomes highly polarized. When you're on a snow field, a lot of the bright light getting into your eyes is light reflected from the ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Do polarized sunglasses protect against UV? The basic idea of polarizing glasses is not to block all light, it's to block light that undergoes a glancing reflection, such as sunlight coming to your eye off of water or snow from near the horizon. The initially unpolarized light becomes highly polarized by this type of reflection, so by eliminat... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How can I prevent plantar fasciitis? Plantar fasciitis is a degenerative (not inflammatory) repetitive stress injury (RSI). Studies using radioactive tracers have shown that the rate of tissue replacement in connective tissues is often extremely slow, maybe even zero. Therefore these injuries can be extremely slow to heal, and in some c... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |