Posts by Ben Crowell
I'm a beginning trad leader, having done about five easy fifth class leads. I've had some formal instruction, but don't currently have access to a teacher or mentor. I'm finding that I'm extremely ...
The question is pretty broad, but if the terrain is steep enough so that it's likely to be difficult or impassable in spots, then basically the standard technique would be to look at a topo map and...
If I do a certain hike or run, it's going to cost a certain amount of effort, which could be measured by how many calories I burn. How does this effort depend on the amount of climbing? Is there a ...
Statistically, most of the dogs in the world are dogs that are not pets, but live around humans and scavenge food or get food from humans who give it to them. These dogs are in my experience never ...
I haven't seen any evidence that animals are kept away by a fire. This answer discusses that briefly. In general, wild animals in pristine backcountry areas tend to be wary of humans, simply becaus...
Mountaineers doing technical alpine routes certainly use rock pro under wet or icy conditions. However, the kind of routes they're climbing are typically not the kind of high-angle stuff that you h...
Also, overall strengthening of the body to build stamina, strength, and endurance since you're technically relying on something to make things easier. You have this backwards. As described in ...
I located some more information online about these techniques. SSS was the standard technique in the days when a hip belay was the standard for a lead belay. It also works well for belaying with a ...
This is basically a hike but with some very steep sections protected by chains. If I'm interpreting the photo correctly, this is a sort of horizontal via ferrata, and the protection is the ste...
If you're identifying a totally unfamiliar plant in the field, then typically you consult a field guide or botany textbook that has a key. These books can be broad or specific. For instance, I h...
should I be untying the fisherman's knot between uses? Typically it's simply not possible to untie a fisherman's knot, especially after it's been loaded, so that wouldn't even be an option. Th...
I sometimes bring a tarp and sometimes a tent. Most of my backpacking is in the summer in the Sierra Nevada, which means most of the time there's no threat of rain and I don't take my tarp or tent ...
Welcome to outdoors.SE! It occurred to me that the entire weight of a climber is resting on the strength of the ATC clip and not on any carabiner. This is not quite right. My first quibble is...
The options you're proposing are VFFs or hiking boots. There are lots of other options. What I use most of the time here in California is running shoes. They work great when conditions aren't snow...
John Muir is said to have traveled for weeks in the back country, but he never took any food with him, [...] Not true. There is a nice article here by John Huber about what Muir ate while on t...
Freedom of the Hills has a chapter on rappelling that includes a detailed discussion of this topic. Tie it "uphill" from the belay device or "downhill"? Downhill. If the Prusik is downhill f...
Roland Muser wrote a book, Long-Distance Hiking: Lessons from the Appalachian Trail, based on surveys of 136 long-distance hikers, each of whom spent 3-6 months on the trail. Some relevant quotes (...
I'd like to point out something not addressed in AlanL and DavidR's answers. There doesn't seem to be any allowance made in STW's friend's procedure for a safety backup for the rappel, e.g., in cas...
A SPOT will only work if you can see the sky. If you're in a deep canyon where there's not simultaneous line of sight to enough GPS satellites, it won't work. PLB's these days all include GPS, but ...
Some rappels are simply awkward to start. The awkwardness isn't the most important issue in and of itself, but you want to avoid a situation in which the start is so messy that you get banged aroun...
I haven't seen any evidence that one brand or model of handheld GPS unit differs from any other model in its random or systematic errors. As far as I understand, the errors are determined by (1) th...
Freezer bag cooking eliminates the hassle and environmental impact of washing your pot and dishes. You simply boil the water in the pot, then pour it into the ziplock freezer bag where the ingredie...
"Unlikely" is not the same as "won't happen." You're going to the White Mountains in California, so call the ranger station in Bishop and ask them. They will probably tell you that bears do exist t...
No, you can't rent that kind of equipment at a Park Service ranger station. They only rent out bear canisters, and even that is only at certain locations (e.g., Yosemite Valley). If you want a Spot...
Bears in California are a huge problem in certain highly impacted areas such as Yosemite Valley. They are almost not a problem at all in less traveled areas such as the White Mountains. Rattlesnak...
