I recently went on an expedition to Kyrgyzstan. In preparation for that trip, I needed to consult with my physician on the medications I might need for the travel and the rigors of climbing hard and climbing at altitude. Of course, my medications won't be right for you, so the full video's breakdown of what I brought might be a starting point for a similar conversation with your physician, allowing the both of you to choose what may be right for you.

The quad anchor is traditionally done with a doubled over sling and produces two different double-strand master points. But with a little creativity, we can create a raised shelf that sits higher than the lower master point.

On the way down from either an overhanging or traversing route, we can end up with a surprising danger right near the ground, when we typically feel safest. Let's talk about the hidden danger in tramming, or connecting ourselves to the belay's rope on descent so that we can stay close to the wall as we clean gear off of our route. The full video gets into what we can do about it.

The quad anchor is traditionally done with a doubled over sling. Well, if we have a 240cm sling, we have enough material to triple it over before tying our load limiting knots, raising our master points higher and adding three two-strand, load-limited master points to the setup. Here's how to do it.

Fibers with high-tensile-strength, resistance to cutting, and heat resistance are becoming more common in climbing cords and climbing ropes. Sterling PowerCord has a Technora core. The Mammut Core Protect has an aramid sheath between the outer sheath and the core. The Edelrid Swift Protect has aramid fibers woven into the sheath. Cutting these high tech cords and ropes aren't easily done using the old methods. The full video walks through two ways to cut these soft goods down that overcome the challenges of cut and heat resistance.

Ice climbers drill holes into the ice that connect at the back and then run cord or the rope through those holes to make "V-thread" anchors. While there are tricks to fish the cord, runner, or rope from the back of the tunnels, it is far easier to do with a "V-thread tool." Here's how to make a DIY version made from a wire hanger.

There is good reason to use a fixed point lead belay on ice climbs due to the traversing start of many routes. As a preview to our longer video of an ice climbing case study for fixed point lead belays, here's a discussion of why we used the Banshee anchor configuration on the climb.

Ice climbers will build several different kinds of "threaded" anchors, drilling holes into the ice that connect at the back and then running cord or the rope through those holes. It may feel like the names are used interchangeably, but they can have specific meanings and each of those different anchor types have their pros and cons.

New multi-pitch ice climbers, like new multi-pitch rock climbers, often follow many pitches before they ever lead. Those who are brand new to following an ice climb might find the nuances of cleaning ice gear to be time consuming or energy sapping. The full video gets into why it might feel that way and how we can be our most efficient to reduce those negative impacts.

As a community, we climb, we succeed, we fail, we learn, we climb some more. And the techniques evolve as we learn. Those changes to tools and techniques sometimes include modifying what was once foundational skills. Here’s an example of a change to what used to be standard rappelling technique that has evolved to a new best practice.

When and why might we want to choose a knot other than a flat overhand bend for joining two ropes in a climbing context? The full video explores alternative knots for joining climbing ropes. We demonstrate various climbing scenarios and knot-tying techniques, providing a practical how to guide for recognizing situations when a standard flat overhand may not meet your needs along with alternatives you may want to employ, improving your climbing safety.

While the flat overhand bend is typically considered the standard knot for joining two ropes and doing a double-strand rappel in a climbing context, there are times when it might not be the best choice. Here are a couple of situations when a different knot may be a better choice along with a how-to on tying two of those alternatives: the Half Gibbs and the Gibbs bends.

I was asked if the very light weight Petzl Tibloc could be used as a rope capture for crevasse rescue systems? The answer is, 'yes,' but not without acknowledging that unweighting a Tibloc can be complicated. The full video walks through one procedure to transfer the load from a Tibloc along with a discussion of how this may complicate crevasse rescue scenarios that need a lower.

When we are rappelling (abseiling) in high winds, yes we have to worry about getting the ropes down the route, but we also need to consider which strand to pull as we take our ropes down after the rappel. If we choose the wrong strand, we might end up with a tangle that can get our ropes stuck and unretrievable.

The Münter hitch can get climbers out of a jam. While I typically am using more modern climbing equipment for various rappelling, belaying, and rescue techniques, I still have used just the rope, a carabiner, and the Münter from time to time and in lots of different ways. The full video goes deep into the Münter by getting into different ways to tie it, different pros and cons of the hitch, and a full walk through and how-to for five types of use cases.

When we are belaying from a Münter, we may have to turn that hitch into a clove once our partner is up and at the anchor. We can do so cleverly with two clips or with one. It is safer to only open the gate once, but that is only if this maybe more complicated method of tying the hitch is done swiftly and correctly each time. Tradeoffs.

Should we happen to have lost our belay device while still needing to climb, we may want to employ an auto-locking hitch to help with belays from the top or pack hauls or the like. The Garda, Lorenzi, and Auto-Locking Münter hitches are all options. The full video goes deep on how to create them, how we might use them, and some pros and cons that come with each.

If we've had the waist strap buckle on our backpack break, we can fix this in a minute using two carabiners we likely already have on our harness. It's enough to get you through the climb, or even the expedition, if you are away from the shops you need to get a replacement buckle.

If you go climbing in the alpine, and particularly in fully wild and maybe even unexplored areas, you are likely to be subjected to rockfall, and that rockfall can become fairly likely. The full video goes deeper into how we assess our terrain for rockfall risk and goes into a number of ways to mitigate that risk and keep our likelihood of getting hit by a rock low enough to feel acceptable.

When we bail from a single protection point on a rock climbing route, we can eliminate unnecessary risk by adding a prusik knot into our lowering procedure. Here's why.