Posts by Ben Crowell
This is called rolling, inverting, or capsizing. What happens is that the knot turns inside out, and part of the tail is consumed. If this happens repeatedly, or the tail is short, you can use up t...
I would say I'm a fairly experienced hiker, and would love to begin climbing some more challenging mountains i.e. mountains that require actual climbing, rather than just hiking. [...] are there...
Most important reason to pee before you go to bed: you'll be uncomfortable lying there all night feeling like you have to pee. Second most important reason: if you try to delay it, you'll just hav...
The previous question motivated me to study this question more deeply, and to write some open-source software to do the relevant calculations. Along the way, I learned that a lot of what people bel...
what are you recommendations for protein or fat rich foods using traditional camping methods Focusing on the fat part, the following are all practical sources: olive oil, or any other vegeta...
There is a paper here by Minetti et al. describing systematic measurements of this kind of thing: To get an estimate, I assumed that you climbed up and down 1000 m twice, so that the gradient was...
I use a personal locator beacon (PLB), which just allows me to send a signal in an emergency showing my location. If it can get a GPS signal, it broadcasts my location, but if it can't, it still ac...
There are quite a few plants like this. It's coded into their DNA. Some vines spiral in the right-handed sense, others left, e.g., morning glory and honeysuckle go the opposite way. There can also ...
This blog has a discussion of the slip-slap-slide and PBUS techniques for taking in rope when belaying. Here is a video demonstrating PBUS. Slip-slap-slide is illustrated on p. 161 of Freedom of th...
It seems like you're assuming there will be group meals, but that's totally unnecessary. In fact, group meals tend to lead to health problems, because people get diseases like giardiasis from each ...
You don't need a permit for car camping, but parking in many areas in So Cal requires a National Forest Adventure Pass. You are not going to get car camping with a toilet and shower for free. If y...
I've taught some classes for a mountaineering club, and the following sequence is based loosely on what we do. (1) Learn traditional map-reading and navigational skills. Move beyond attempting to ...
People can say anything they want about running shoes, and manufacturers too. It's 99% nonsense, not based on any evidence (example). There are basically only two conclusions I know of that are sup...
I was recently in Mexico and bought some unleaded gas at a gas station as stove fuel. I gave the unused fuel away to a taxi driver to put in his car. I suspect the same thing would work fine with ...
This answer assumes that you're trying to attach something to a loop (the black and green band in your photo) that you can't open up. If you can open up the loop, then see ShemSeger's answer. It d...
For a day hike, yes, it could make sense, if it's the type of day hike where you need to carry water rather than drinking from sources along the way. It's really just a matter of what you enjoy. If...
People traveling in the wilderness can acquire infectious diseases. These can be caused by organisms such bacteria, viruses, protozoans, or fungi. They can be transmitted through drinking contamina...
This is not a complete answer to my own question, but the following may be relevant. The book by Long and Gaines on climbing anchors says this: For toprope setups, most professional guides use...
For technical face climbing, there are some really good online instructional videos (on youtube) by Neil Gresham. Can anyone recommend similar instructional videos for crack technique?
I'm signed up for an AMGA single-pitch instructor course (to learn how to teach other people single-pitch climbing). One of the pieces of gear we're supposed to bring is a 30 meter static rope "for...
However, your frightening and my frightening are completely different. IMO this is less subjective than you're thinking, and the WP definition is not very good. The issue is not the spacing o...
The question asks: What are the three to five most important do's and dont's -- in simple bullet form -- for a guest in black bear country? But there is really only one item on the list: St...
The other night I went to the climbing gym, intending to look for a climbing partner once I got there. (My usual gym climbing partner isn't available to climb as often as I want to.) The gym provid...
The blog post shows an anchor in which some kind of hitch is tied around a tree, and a single strand of webbing leads away from the tree horizontally to, presumably, the top of the climb, which is ...
The question doesn't state what geographical area it's about, and it really isn't possible to give an answer that covers everything. In this answer, I'm only going to deal with pristine backcountry...
