Posts by Ben Crowell
Alice and Betty are climbing in a team of two. Let's start the cycle with both climbers together at a belay, both tied in to the anchor with clove hitches. Betty is going to lead the next pitch. Th...
When climbing multipitch, what is the cycle of things you do when climbing each pitch, and what are the associated voice signals?
The idea that knots vary along a continuum of strength is a misconception. There is a class of knots that, in the correct application, simply do not spontaneously come undone. It then doesn't make ...
There are some good answers here from some people with solid experience in mountains in the winter. However, these answers seem to slant extremely heavy on gear. Sometimes it's reasonable to do a d...
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...
The question is pretty broad, but if the terrain is steep enough so that it's likely to be difficult or impassable in spots, then basically the standard technique would be to look at a topo map and...
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...
If I do a certain hike or run, it's going to cost a certain amount of effort, which could be measured by how many calories I burn. How does this effort depend on the amount of climbing? Is there a ...
Statistically, most of the dogs in the world are dogs that are not pets, but live around humans and scavenge food or get food from humans who give it to them. These dogs are in my experience never ...
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 haven't seen any evidence that animals are kept away by a fire. This answer discusses that briefly. In general, wild animals in pristine backcountry areas tend to be wary of humans, simply becaus...
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...
Mountaineers doing technical alpine routes certainly use rock pro under wet or icy conditions. However, the kind of routes they're climbing are typically not the kind of high-angle stuff that you h...
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 ...
Also, overall strengthening of the body to build stamina, strength, and endurance since you're technically relying on something to make things easier. You have this backwards. As described in ...
I located some more information online about these techniques. SSS was the standard technique in the days when a hip belay was the standard for a lead belay. It also works well for belaying with a ...
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 ...
This is basically a hike but with some very steep sections protected by chains. If I'm interpreting the photo correctly, this is a sort of horizontal via ferrata, and the protection is the ste...
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...
If you're identifying a totally unfamiliar plant in the field, then typically you consult a field guide or botany textbook that has a key. These books can be broad or specific. For instance, I h...
