A nifty little video on how to thread an Ablakov v-thread when you don’t have your stupidly expensive v-threader tool or if you’re like me, you forgot your piece of hanger wire. I like little tips like this that make my life easier. Thanks Mike Barter.
I am guilty of not paying attention to this detail that can dramatically reduce the force a biner can handle.
From the American Alpine Institute’s blog:
Surprisingly, there is one mistake that both beginners and advanced climbers alike tend to make. Many people will wrap a tree with a sling and then clip the sling. Often the [...]
I’m moving to Seattle in a month and am finally going to be able to ice climb on a semi-regular basis. I’m stoked but also a little anxious because ice climbing is my weakest area as far as experience goes. Perusing the ‘net I found this nifty video of Petzl doing field tests [...]
I never start the day saying “hey, wouldn’t it be gnarly to run out of slings half way up a climb” but sometimes it happens. Normally I climb with doubles so setting up a two piece anchor isn’t a problem because I just plug some gear and clove hitch each rope to a piece. Problem [...]
There are plenty of resources out there that can teach you the hard skills on how to belay. There are more forum posts on overhand vs underhand belaying technique than I care to mention and don’t get people started on gri-gri vs ATC style belay devices. While all those articles are well and good at [...]
Rappelling is by far my least favorite part of climbing. Not only is it dangerous but it seems to take forever, especially when you are rappelling with three people. A couple of years ago I took a glacier course with the American Alpine Institute and was lucky enough to have Kurt Hicks as my guide. [...]
Do you free solo? Most sane people would say no way, not ever. But wait a minute, what exactly is free soloing?
Free soloing is climbing with no safety net. It’s a place where your life literally is in your hands and accidents are verboten. While free soloing you only have one means of connection to [...]
Hypothermia sucks! End of story. It is even worse when you are stuck on the face of a mountain with absolutely no where to hide from the cold. American Alpine Institute had a hypothermia post which was drawn from a NOLS hypothermia post. (AAI) (NOLS)
Apparently the best way to treat backcountry hypothermia to try to [...]
Glissading is some dangerous shit but oh dear God it can be fun. So when I came across this article by the American Alpine Institute I thought I would share it. (link)
Training for mountaineering is tough and there is no way around it. It takes a lot of time and there is no half-ass-ing it, period, end of story. When speed is safety and one tired misstep can have catastrophic results, it pays to be in shape.
I like to mix it up between free weights, running, [...]