Posts by Ben Crowell
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 uninitia...
Here's a scenario I was faced with recently. We do a climb that involves going up to a mountain hut and sleeping there the night before summit day. There is no snow at the hut to melt for drinking ...
This is a very complicated topic, and you can take an entire course where you learn and practice the techniques. Reading an answer on SE is not going to be enough. You need to practice. The followi...
How many percentage does the bacteria in the water die if it is boiled? 100%. More info here: How long does water need to be boiled for to kill all bacteria / viruses? How clean is it afte...
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?
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 f...
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 ...
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?
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/t...
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.
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 f...
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 ...
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 th...
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, thi...
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 Pr...
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 ha...
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 descriptio...
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, Roya...
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 ...
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...
What are some of the common things people do that are avoidable and contribute to accidents and injuries when climbing?
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. ...
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 avo...
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 ki...
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 thi...
