Posts by Ben Crowell
With the exceptions of grizzly bears and polar bears, bears are nuisance animals that are after your food. They have no interest in you except as a source of food or as an obstacle to obtaining you...
When climbing multipitch, what is the cycle of things you do when climbing each pitch, and what are the associated voice signals?
I use 1 mm dacron cordage from Oware. I use a tarp with loops (not grommets), and have never had a problem with the cordage cutting through anything. The knots I usually use are square knots, figur...
I have a pair with the big-toe strap, and they're very comfortable when I wear them with toe socks. When I first got them, I tried wearing them barefoot, and found that I could only walk a few mile...
His opinion was that I could tie an overhand for the master point and be just as safe–the only downside being that it would be more difficult to untie after being loaded. Yes, this is corr...
The main issue you're going to encounter in this situation is rockfall. You don't want a situation where the person in front inadvertently kicks a rock loose, and the rock then hits the person behi...
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 pre...
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 peo...
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 requ...
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 nee...
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...
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 ba...
What wild animals are there in California that can be dangerous or create hassles, and how do I avoid problems with them?
Welcome to outdoors.SE! Most of us have probably flown in airplanes on altitudes greater than that in pressurized passenger airplanes and didn't feel any fatigue at all. I think you gave a pa...
Freedom of the Hills is a book about mountaineering, not rock climbing. They overlap somewhat, but they're basically different things. Rock climbing can mean a lot of very different things: climbin...
This question has some information about when to retire a rope. The core of a rope doesn't become weak from top-roping or from sustaining lead falls with a small fall factor. It becomes weak from s...
The idea that caffeinated drinks dehydrate you or "don't count" toward your body's water requirement is a myth. Laboratory studies have shown that caffeinated soda is just as hydrating as water, i....
The guy who taught me to lead sport in the gym suggested that when I'm going for a clip, I position my body so that the clip is somewhere between my hips and my chest. He claimed it was a bad thing...
Interesting question! Here is an article describing the techniques used by arborists. The article describes a number of different techniques and different pieces of gear. I'll describe one specific...
Tents, tarps, and bivvy sacks are three different specialized tools for three different jobs. Tarp I typically prefer a tarp to either a tent or a bivvy sack, but that's because I do most of my c...
In my experience, it generally works fine if I simply use cheap, lightweight water bottles (e.g., a 2-liter soda bottle), and put them inside my pack while I'm hiking. The surrounding material in t...
Any advice is greatly appreciated; I can't really afford new boots, especially since this experience has taught me I probably shouldn't buy cheap ones, but I really do need some as I keep missin...
Factors you can't easily control Some factors that you can't easily control play a clear role. These include genetics, being overweight,[Theisen] or having a previous injury. For example, people w...
The answer to this question depends completely on the weather and on how plentiful water is on your route. In the Sierra, the answer is typically zero, i.e., there is almost never any need to carry...
To me, hiking is totally different from the rest of the activities on the list. A hike is just walking. The other possibilities require a lot more technical skill, gear, trust, and experience. In t...
