Posts by Charlie Brumbaugh
It looks like for mil spec (military specification) 550 parachute cord, The paracord sheath is rated at about 300-pounds 14 inner strings, each of which has a rating of about 17.5 pounds ...
In an ideal situation where you are using a belay device in guide mode off of the anchor, I would use a z-pulley, mostly because it would be so fast to set up. Consider your position before settin...
Basically, to start a fire you need to complete the fire triangle, At the very beginning you will need some kind of starter that can create heat, like a lighter or magnifying glass or matches to...
One practical use is to get an idea of how stable/chossy the rocks in a particular area are. From experience the orange (volcanic) rock type is much more unstable and more broken up. That makes it...
I just found that I can get free geological map overlays for Google Earth for all of the individual states in the United States from here. For instance, this is what a good deal of Yosemite Nation...
550 Parachute cord is a very small kermantle rope (has a core and an external sheath) as you can see in this image. The minimum breaking strength of the cord is 550 pounds, hence the name. It i...
The Textbook/Bible of Mountaineering: The standard book is Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. That book covers all of the basics for rock climbing and a lot more topics. From the chapter ...
There is a story I have heard about climbers who confused "take" and "safe" and I am wondering if it has actually happened. The story goes like this, The climber is out of sight of the belayer an...
A dormant spring started up again due to the winter's snow and rain underneath the road and loosened up the underlying soil to the point that the road slid downhill. An underground seasonal spr...
Traffic Jams The way that game trails are created is by animals walking on them and therefore you can have a higher chance of seeing them. Small animals will get out of your way but moose or bears...
Basically, it is using compass headings and distance traveled to navigate to points without intermediate known locations. For instance if you were to start from camp and travel directly east for 4...
There is a technique for navigation known as dead reckoning, what is this technique exactly and when would it be useful?
There are a couple of differences. Visibility is reduced during the night which makes it harder to see landmarks or where you are in relation to them. This also makes it much harder to measure yo...
If one were to hike during the night and sleep during the day, what differences in navigation would one have to take into account? In my experience you are more on instruments (such as a compass o...
Here is what I would consider a regular Bic butane lighter. However I have noticed that you can buy High Altitude lighters such as this one. Is that just marketing or would a regular lighter n...
It looks like the answer is yes it is safe after it drys, Do not expose cats to wet permethrin as it affects their central nervous system. This is not true with dogs, horses, or cows. Cats can ...
Basically, there are happy turtles and there are dead turtles and helmets should always be placed in the happy position. Happy helmets stick around, while dead helmets have a tendency to slide d...
Imagine you are sitting around ready to begin; you have your gear spread out, and your helmets are off. How should you place your helmet so that it doesn't wander off?
This is something I have pondered on multiple occasions, when the light of the full moon and the altitude induced insomnia kept me awake long into the night. I realize that this would be an unusua...
Hearing someone above you yell ROCK when climbing is a scary experience because that means that an object (usually a rock) is plummeting down to the route towards you. Hopefully you are wearing yo...
In addition to sizes for different sizes of people, backpacks also have a volume size, usually given in liters or cubic inches, as a measure of how much stuff the backpack can hold. How can I dete...
There are a couple of long hikes that I am thinking of doing, both are 70 to 80 miles (110 to 130 km) long one way. I would like to do a yo-yo (140 to 160 miles, 230 to 260 km) without a resupply. ...
This happens because stallions will kill foals that are not their own. This is where things can take a dark turn. If the females in the harem have recently given birth, the new dominant male ma...
One alternative is to use animal calls. For instance, on a clear night an elk bugle call can be heard up to a mile away. There are also duck calls or push-to-call cow elk calls. These should not r...
Whistles can be used to signal to group members, however the downside is that other people may think you are having an emergency. Are there any other devices that would allow you to signal with no...
