When we are out climbing, hiking, or backpacking in the backcountry, there can come times when we want to estimate how much time we have before the sun dips behind the horizon. Here's a quick way to make that estimate without any equipment.

Avalanches are more likely to occur on slopes between 30 and 45 degrees. We can quickly check the angle of a slope in the field by employing some geometry and two matching pieces of equipment like trekking poles or snow pickets. Here's how.

There are times where the terrain looks easily passable but one new variable, like loose rock or exposure, may make a rope and harness the sensible choice. Well, we need to have our harness on, already, because it may be too difficult to put it on once you really need it.

A video can introduce concepts and even provide tutorials, but it cannot cover all of the variable situations and context of outdoor environments. Learn about something here, but then seek qualified instruction to master it.

One of the strong women in my climbing community, Jane, passed along this tip about using chemical hand warmers on our wrists to help avoid the cold hands that ice climbing can so easily cause.

We have a lot of climbers in our family, and therefore a lot of ice axes and ice tools. We want to be able to keep our sharpened picks in good condition and also want to keep those picks from damaging other gear while in transit. So, we make our own pick guards. We find this solution to be more cost effective and provide better protection than the commercially available solutions.

When we get to higher altitudes, the thinner air means less diffusion of UV rays, and the bright snow below us means those UV rays bounce back at us from below. It is as if we are walking in a radiating dish. So, we need to be careful about sun protection and exposed skin. Here are a few pieces of equipment I use to help guard what my other clothing cannot: my face.

Speed is safety in the mountains. We want to maintain current security, but not at the price of future security. So, if we have opportunities to have our climbing team work and make progress simultaneously we will make that happen if the risks aren’t too high. Efficiently getting through a rappel transition is one example, and it can be the little things that make the difference - like giving slack to the following climber on rappel as soon as safely possible.

Climbers will sometimes use a tether, or a Personal Anchor System (PAS), to clip into an anchor and will sometimes use the rope. Let's briefly go through some pros and cons.

While a climbing lanyard is not my first choice for connecting to an anchor, there are times I use one. How I choose to rack the lanyard on my harness depends upon the type of lanyard I am using.

@HowNOT2 makes outstanding gear testing videos and have opened a highly responsive and well stocked gear shop. You should check it out. One of their major video themes is testing soft goods when configured in anchor configurations. While knowing how a specific configuration will rate in strength is important, understanding why can help you make dynamic choices in the field.

When we can anticipate the fixed hardware at the anchor stations of a climb, or if we have flexibility in placing good ice screws as we see fit, it is possible to pre-rig our anchor material and use it at the anchors as we move up the route. For vertically staggered anchors, the banshee belay is a good option. Here is how we can make and employ one.

Using the shelf, that area of anchor leg strands above a master point knot, has benefits and tradeoffs. One of the risks we need to be aware of is that an unclipped master point can pull back through the knot if we do not clip something into that master point.

Using the shelf, that area of anchor leg strands above a master point knot, has benefits and tradeoffs. But if we are going to use it, we want to make sure we are clipping it in the right way for the type of anchor we’ve made, or we could end up adding in risks that we could easily avoid.

More isn’t always better. When it comes to tail lengths for certain kinds of climbing knots, we know that too short of a tail can allow the knots to unravel. But too long of a tail can lead to problems, too. Here’s a brief overview.

The Petzl GriGri belay device is now seen almost everywhere climbing happens. But, like any piece of equipment, it has ways that it can be used more or less safely. One key to using the GriGri as safely as possible is to make sure we choose the right carabiner to use with it, as certain carabiners can create risks that can be easily avoided.

Over a climbing career, we will climb with multiple partners, and every time we go up, we are likely sharing gear and frequently changing hands with that gear. This is why we climbers mark our gears with a color combination of either tape or nail polish. Each method has its pros and cons.

The idea of taking off our boots and dipping our feet in water during a winter climb, hike, or camp may feel unpleasant, but it might actually be more important that we take care of our feet in winter than any other time of year.

As a reminder, I do not have any product sponsors. If I talk about a product, it’s because I have spent my own money on it. Here’s a little item I now keep in my winter first aid kit because super glue in an open wound stings and this does not.

Some of our winter climbs will have an approach hike in before we ever want to have our crampons on our feet. Here is a way to bundle our crampons together so that the spikes are less exposed and therefore less likely to damage our other gear.