Posts by Ben Crowell
I dabble a little at leading trad, but have never led a sport route. If I do a sport lead, I want to make sure I don't make some stupid mistake when I get to the top. For example, I don't want to...
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...
One method is to build a brake out of carabiners. The minimum equipment for this is three oval biners plus a locking biner, and the diagrams below show how to construct the system with only this ma...
The diagram shows three situations that are easy to understand without knowing a lot of math or physics. In the first example, the angle between the anchor strands is zero. Both anchors pull str...
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...
Google maps is free as in beer but doesn't usually show hiking trails. Open Street Maps is a free and open source site that works sort of like Wikipedia, and it often has good coverage of hiking tr...
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 ...
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...
Running injuries are very common, and runners have many different opinions about what causes them and how to prevent them. What is the actual scientific evidence?
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...
Here in California, our mountains influence our weather in a particular way. We have a Mediterranean climate and big mountain ranges inland. Storms build up out on the Pacific, and they blow in tow...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
