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.

Every piece of climbing equipment has its strengths and weaknesses. The tube-style plaquette devices I use a lot, because I am often climbing with both of my boys, are no exception. The full video goes into three ways these devices can fail to break assist when in the wrong circumstances along with what we can do to mitigate those risks.

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.

Every piece of climbing equipment has its strengths and weaknesses. The tube-style plaquette devices I use a lot, because I am often climbing with both of my boys, are no exception. The full video goes into three ways these devices can fail to break assist when in the wrong circumstances along with what we can do to mitigate those risks.

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.

We make sure our new climbing system (belay, rappel, anchor, etc.) can take your weight before we start taking apart your previous system as we move through a climbing transition. Kind of common sense, huh? Not very enlightening. But what if we take that same concept and apply it in less obvious ways. Can keeping a mental model of "weight the new system, first" keep us safer more generally? The full video gets into more details.

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.

Four years into our channel, the boys and I made a full-circle trip to the location where we filmed our very first video. Like any full-circle event, it prompted some reflection on how far we’ve come as a family, how much the boys have grown and matured, and how I’ve come to live with some personal struggles. The full short video celebrates this trip that was four years in the making.

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.

I’m not a big man. I’m 5’ 6” or a little less than 1.5 meters tall. I weigh about 140 pounds or less than 65 kilograms. While that is good for not having to take a lot of bulk up alpine objectives, it does mean that fitting into equipment can be hard. The most troubling, for me, was getting my small boots to lock in at the toe of my crampons without having room to slide around from side to side. The full video is a deeper dive into crampon toe attachment options for people with smaller boots.

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.

Each new climbing season brings with it a group of climbers who are new to climbing in that season. And now it is winter. It's always someone's first time peak bagging through the snow drifts after years of dry-weather hiking. It's always someone's first time on ice. It's always someone's climb up that choss-filled gully that is now covered in an inviting blanket of consolidated snow. These new winter climbers probably have equipment questions, and the one I get the most is about why the different front-point styles for crampons? The full video goes into the details.

We are learning more about the potential health downsides stemming from the ubiquitous plastic water bottles that so many hikers, backpackers, and climbers use. New technology is allowing new, and more complete, measurements of how much plastic is degrading into the water we drink from them. The science is evolving and scientific studies are starting to triangulate around the potential health impacts. So, I’m watching this evolve and reconsidering my use of these normally standard pieces of adventure equipment.

If we only eat when we are hungry and drink when we are thirsty, we might not be taking in enough food or water to keep our energy up and to fend off dehydration. Here's why we try to eat and drink frequently and on a regular schedule.

I have no affiliation with the company, but I have been very happy with my purchase of the Culo Clean portable bidet. It’s a low cost, low weight item I have added to my adventures, and you can see the video to find out why. You can find the item, should you want it, here: https://sovrn.co/ph0rir7

Modern expeditions and lengthy backpacking trips often demand high effort and, therefore, massive calorie burning. In order to even come close to putting back the calories I burn on a big outdoor adventure, I make sure to bring some very calorie-dense snacks with me on my trips. As a rule of thumb, I look for some foods that have over 150 Kcal per 30g when considering a food to be particularly calorie-dense.

Most modern belay devices now offer the ability to brake assist, either through camming mechanisms like a GriGri or by pinching the load strand onto the brake strand like an ATC Guide. Should we need a brake assist and do not have a suitable belay device, one option would be to make an auto locking Münter hitch. Here’s how we construct one.

In Marc Chauvin and Rob Coppolillo’s book “The Mountain Guide Manual,” they discuss various systems designed to speed parties along technical terrain, including options for improving communication. When in blocky terrain, where a lead climber at a belay stance may not normally be able to see or clearly communicate with a following climber, they provide an option the full video goes through step-by-step for safely moving the belay back from the anchor when in an exposed position, keeping both the leader and the follower secure and with better line of sight and communication.

Should we find ourselves belaying or lowering our climbing partner on a Münter hitch, we may also need to lock that partner off as they either come up to the new belay stance or stop their lower, below. One option is to convert our Münter to a clove hitch by following this procedure.

In Ian Nicholson’s excellent book “Climbing Self-Rescue,” he provides a description of this stretcher you can make even if you have no additional materials other than the climbing rope that you already have with you. When we are climbing fast and light and aren’t taking trekking poles, skis, or other solid objects with us, this is a handy technique to have available should an accident occur.