Posts by Ben Crowell
There's a discussion of this in Freedom of the Hills. The question refers to snow, but usually this is done on ice (or very hard snow). One reason would be if not everybody in the group has crampon...
This is a question whose answer depends a lot on personal style and preferences. I prefer an ultralight style of backpacking. For a week without resupply, I would use my Gossamer gear G4, which is ...
Wind chill factors verge on being junk science, especially when interpreted uncritically. However, your physical intuition does make sense, and published formulas and tables do have a property very...
If you want waterproofing available to put under you, I would just bring along a 2 mil thickness of plastic for use as a ground sheet. This will be much lighter and cheaper than the same square-foo...
The whole concept of wind chill is not very meaningful. This can be obscured by all the fancy-looking formulas, which lend it an air of precision. It's little better than junk science, especially i...
In a gym, the toprope will be wrapped over a cylindrical bar. Some gyms have it just over the top of the bar (180 degrees of contact), while others give it an additional full wrap around (540 degre...
The whole topic of sports equipment, sports health, and sports injuries is one in which the scientific quality of most of the information tends to be extremely poor. However, there is a group at Ha...
Can people recommend books or online resources on self-rescue for roped climbing? As a beginning trad leader, I think I should have a basic understanding of topics like how to escape a belay and ho...
There's one good way to make sure that your crampons last forever and are completely safe against failure in the field, which is to leave them in a closet and never use them. Assuming that you are...
What should I do to increase the lifetime of my crampons, maintain them properly, and check whether they can still be used safely?
This is a bad plan for several reasons. YakTrax are not well suited for this situation. YakTrax are more specialized for people who want to go running on city streets in places with cold winters. ...
Although black clothing absorbs radiation from the sun more than white clothing, this is somewhat offset by the fact that it also emits it more efficiently. Good absorbers are also good emitters. I...
Backpackers all end up evolving their own styles. Personally, I prefer an ultralight style for summer. Some things that differ in this style from the heavier style most people practice: a framele...
Say I'm leading on a single-pitch climb, or the first pitch of a multi-pitch. The maximum fall factor I could theoretically have without hitting the deck is 1, but that's with a static rope, which ...
You can't tell by looking, and it's an issue that occurs naturally, not just because of industrial contamination. Even if you're hiking in a pristine environment like a national park, where this k...
It's good for a question on SE to be focused. However, there is a broader context here, which is that you want your activities to be (a) safe and (b) comfortable and enjoyable, so that you'll want ...
The answer to your question is no. North America is a huge region. Even California is vast and varied, e.g., we have miner's lettuce at low elevations, but not higher up. For a given subregion, e.g...
An unhurdled slip-and-drop would be fatal without a doubt. If this is the case, then maybe you need a belay. However, if the snow is sufficiently deep and soft that you're sinking up to your k...
10,000 feet is not very high. Most likely the headache you were experiencing was due to some combination of sleep deprivation, caffeine withdrawal, and unaccustomed exertion and aerobic challenge....
As pointed out by Russell Steen in a comment, the answer to this question really depends completely on what area you're in, which determines what kind of bears are around. It's too bad that the OP ...
You don't need a trad rack of your own in order to follow. If you're climbing with experienced trad leaders who have their own racks, then you also don't need to bring your own rack. If you're goin...
Is there a general rule to this for backpacking? No, there isn't any general rule. It depends on a lot of facts, perceptions, and preferences. I guess the water where you hike is unsafe to dr...
There are various popular beliefs that alcoholic and caffeinated drinks "don't count" for hydration because alcohol and caffeine dehydrate you. In fact, beer consumed in moderation has a hydrating,...
It's not complicated. Let's say you're using a long piece of webbing to build the anchor. Before you tie the ends of the webbing to make a loop, you put the webbing through the rap ring. Then when ...
You have a couple of perfectly good answers here from DJBunk and Mr.Wizard. However, it appears from your question that you need a better understanding of why or how you would buy a rope with certa...
