Posts by Ben Crowell
Different people have vastly different styles. Some people carry a lot more weight, some a lot less. If you're interested in cutting your pack weight or moving toward a more lightweight or ultralig...
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 (...
If the bear already has your food, I would give up. I've been in this situation once when hiking with my father. My father went up to the bear and yelled. The bear reared up and roared, my father r...
Somehow, I can't see a Corgi keeping up. I have a 20-pound terrier mutt. She does great with me trail running at distances of 6-7 miles. After we get home, she runs around the back yard in cir...
I'll be backpacking Europe in the winter (snow and rain) and parts of my trip will be outdoors, such as hiking in Dolomites, Italy. I won't be doing any mountaineering or ice climbing [...]...
Here are some scientific papers, with my brief summaries. Saunders MJ ; Hipp GR ; Wenos DL ; Deaton ML, "Trekking poles increase physiological responses to hiking without increased perceived ...
If I am using a water-pump filter. Is it necessary to combine this with a water purification tablet? As discussed in this answer and at greater length here, the need to treat backcountry water...
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...
How dangerous is it to fall 3 meters when lead climbing? This depends a lot on the fall factor. Counterintuitively, the fall factor is higher, indicating a more dangerous fall, when you are ne...
Lightweight nylon mesh running shoes are great for hiking in dry conditions. You will be more efficient hiking in them than in heavy boots. However, if there are places where you have to slog thro...
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...
There is typically no need to purify water collected from natural sources in the wilderness. For example, in a survey of 69 sites in the U.S Sierra Nevada, every site had concentrations of Giardia ...
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...
Everybody's method is going to be somewhat different, because they're using different footwear and other equipment (such as poles vs no poles). Plan ahead and get information on what water levels ...
There are a couple of reasons for this, as I understand it: Your wastes (soap, Giardia in your poop, DEET, ...) will contaminate the water. Lakeshores in high-altitude areas tend to be very delic...
"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...
Bear populations, bear problems, and aggressive bears are distributed extremely unevenly in California wilderness areas. There are dense populations of problem animals in a few small areas such as ...
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...
So-called "sports drinks" such as Gatorade are miracles of modern marketing, surpassed only by bottled water. They are expensive and contain large amounts of sugar. If you're hiking long distances...
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...
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...
Fill power doesn't measure crush resistance. It measures the inverse of density, in units of cubic centimeters per gram or cubic inches per ounce. Insulation doesn't depend on fill power. Insulati...
Lots of people have posted answers saying what they like to eat. However, the OP asked a very specific question, which was: "What is the most efficient food to take a for a 12-15 day hiking trip? [...
