You and Your Partner
Having someone to climb with does not mean you are out of the woods. Relationship drama is far from over once you leave the dating scene and move to more committed relationships. The problems become much more subtle beyond your first climb.
Find a new mate
You’ve been up for an hour when the phone rings. “Dude. Gotta bail blah blah blah.” Shit. The weather is perfect and it’s your only day off this week. Time to look through your list of contacts and start making some last minute calls. Climbing is a relationship sport and unless you plan a career exclusively as a soloist or an anti-social boulderer, you need a partner every time you go out. Herein lies the rub. This two-part guide will help you navigate the quagmire of relationship pitfalls to keep you, and your partner happy and sending. Read More …
Scene of the crime. Our route is in red; the yellow dot marks the bivy site at a bit over 12,000ft.
We had been on the move since 3:00 a.m. and were on the route before the sun came up, but after about 4,000 feet of climbing and nearly a mile of traversing, we still had 500 vertical feet to go. Complicated terrain slowed our progress greatly after the sun set. All we knew was that the black stuff was rock and the area with stars was not rock. By midnight I was starting to move so sloppily that simul-climbing was out of the question, and my partner was beginning to nod off at belays. At midnight, at just over 12,000 feet and without bivy gear, we made the decision to stop for the night. For the first time in my 11 years of climbing I committed myself to an open bivy. I couldn’t help but laugh wildly at the absurdity of our situation while we tried to figure out how the two of us were going to sleep on a ledge that resembled a broken park bench with a ridge running down the middle. I cannot remember a colder night, but a few tricks and just enough of the right gear helped take the edge off and let us finish the climb the next morning.
Origin Nutrition just published a great article titled Water vs Electrolyte Drink. In the article nutritionist Michelle Larson goes into detail about electrolyte loss, dehydration and their effects on athletic performance. She offers some compelling facts that begin to separate fact from marketing hype. Read More …
De-Funk Your Tent
Is there something funky growing on your tent fly? Does your old tent smell like barf? Well, don’t break down and buy a new tent just yet (although with the Backcountry.com Semi-Annual Sale going on, it’s quite tempting). There are a few things you can do to rejuvenate your home away from home. Read More …
Backcountry.com employee Ben Sukow using a properly clipped daisy chain at an exposed belay on Hell Raiser (III 5.11)
Daisy chain safety isn’t exactly a new issue, but I still see people do it wrong often enough that I feel it’s worth the digital print space to revisit the concern. A lot of people use daisy chains on their harness for clipping into belays on the way up a multi-pitch route or at rappel anchors on the way down. There’s nothing wrong with it. You do it, I do it, Tommy Caldwell does it. The key is to do it right so you’re connected in a manner that maintains the sling’s strength.
A week after this picture was taken, Ben's tent was still holding strong despite seven straight days of torrential rain in the Northwest Territories.
The storm won’t stop, the water’s rising in your tent’s aptly named “bathtub floor,” and it’s only a matter of time before a pole snaps or a stake rips out of the ground, and you find yourself in serous trouble. If you would have taken the time to rig your tent properly, you would be enjoying your 178th card game in a row. Instead, you slacked. And now you’re scrambling to hold things together.
The world’s strongest tent is just an expensive kite if it’s pitched poorly. I’ve seen tents full of gear flung into crevasses, tossed into trees, and blown out of sight across desert plateaus. I’ve also seen a tent ripped to shreds in a mountain storm while the one next to it was unharmed. How you pitch your tent determines whether you sleep peacefully or spend all night hoping your shelter doesn’t disintegrate.
Routefinding errors contributed to 20% of climbing accidents in 2009. Jesse Mattner staying on route on The Scenic Cruise (V 5.10+) in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
Each year, the American Alpine Club publishes the one book that no one wants to be in—Accidents in North American Mountaineering. Inside its pages is everything from the most mellow of injuries to horrible accidents that ended in death. The reason that the American Alpine Club publishes such a depressing book every year is so climbers have the opportunity to learn from others’ mistakes. In the 2010 edition, which covers the 2009 season, there were a total of 126 accidents that made the book. Of these accidents, there were 10 things that stuck out as contributing factors.
The news about the recent lightning storm and resulting rescue efforts on the Grand Teton has been both extremely sad and very uplifting. One climber tragically died, and 83 rescuers and emergency professionals put in an impressive effort to get 16 other victims off the mountain alive. Of course, it didn’t take long for people who weren’t there to begin reporting on the cost of the rescue, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before others begin to question the cost (as if 16 lives isn’t worth $50,000).
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a large rescue has taken place on a classic moderate alpine route. Every range has its classic routes, and these routes tend to attract more climbers than all the other routes put together. The real danger comes on moderate classics that are easy enough to attract relatively inexperienced climbers in large numbers. On everything from the Tetons to Mt. Hood to Everest, these classics have been the site of the climbing community’s greatest tragedies. No one is responsible for you up there except you. So take some responsibility, and learn how to keep yourself safe on the classics. Here are a few tips that can help you avoid making the news.
Backcountry.com copywriter Andy Anderson stoked to have a good tape job on the 155-foot-long Lite Not Solid (5.10d)
The difference between a good tape glove for crack climbing and a bad one can be fairly minor … or it can cost you a send. Good tape gloves save your hands and let you get away with a bit of thrutching when things get desperate. Bad tape gloves can be worse than wearing nothing at all. I’ve had tape gloves ball up and keep me from putting my hands in a crack, I’ve had them come off on the fifth pitch of an 18-pitch route, and I’ve even seen a friend who went with the old-school full-wrap method accidentally clip his tape glove (with his hand in it) to a piece of gear. Needless to say, that one took some doing to get out of.
A good tape glove should be thin enough that it doesn’t really change your hand size, it should be durable enough to last 20+ pitches, and it should leave your palm completely clear of any tape. There are several “perfect” tape gloves out there, but this one is my favorite.
Put some thought and effort into your bike trail features
Good bike trails don’t build themselves. They take a lot of planning, time, and effort to create. Too many bikers are satisfied to simply ride existing trails, never thinking of how they got there in the first place. All too often I hear a rider complain about a jump or a berm or a section of trail that kills the flow, but that rider never thinks of picking up a shovel and fixing the problem. If a section of trail needs some love, get out there with tools, and fix it up. If some friends are building a new bike trail, go help them out for a few days. If there isn’t a trail around your home that has the type or riding you like to do, then step up, and build it yourself. Just make sure you do it right. You don’t want to put in weeks of effort only to find that your trail isn’t that good, or worse, creates access issues for everyone. Read More …