Short clips

Trailers to full length videos and stand-alone quick tips; everything we make that is under 60 seconds

Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Our Climbing, Backpacking, or Trekking Expedition Retrospective

No climbing, backpacking, or trekking expedition goes perfectly. We get some things in planning and executing the expedition just right, but we also don’t do enough of some things (like, maybe, communication) or too much of others (like, maybe, overtraining). So, this previews a facilitated retrospective on a completed expedition. What we learn from everyone's unique perspectives helps leverage strengths and avoid pitfalls when we head out on the next big trip.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

A Better Clean for a Better Hike, Climb, or Backpack: Why I Like the CuloClean Bidet

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

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to Climbing, Backpacking, or Trekking Expedition Team Dynamics Starts with Prep

Trust is key to any team endeavor, and belief in our teammates is just as key to an expedition's success. It doesn't matter if we are climbing, backpacking, or trekking. Multi-day adventures in the outdoors can hinge on our ability to lean on one another. Our family's trek of the Tour de Mont Blanc proved to be one example. The full video describes how the training we put into fitness and shared systems, which we have to do anyway, can be multiplied in the value they bring to expedition teams.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

Rule of Thumb for Finding Calorie-Dense Food for the Next Climbing or Backpacking Expedition

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.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Getting Your Gear Where It Needs to Go! Logistics Planning for Expeditions

For any expedition, whether to climb, trek, or do anything else, we’ve got to get ourselves and our gear to the right places at the right time. What we need for the travel segments will be different than what we need during the adventure portions of the trip, and we need to make sure that - as silly as it sounds - the people and the gear meet up when needed. That’s logistics. And there is a lot that goes into logistics planning for an expedition. The full video offers a mental model to help get us started.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

Dropped Your Belay Device? The Auto-Locking Münter Hitch May Save Your Climb!

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.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Extending a Belay Away from the Anchor in an Exposed Position

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.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Turn Your Climbing Rope into a Rescue Stretcher in Minutes

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.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

Should We Place Our Pulley Near the Load or Near the Haul of our Climbing Haul System?

While there are many considerations we climbers must address when we are making a haul system, limiting the loss of mechanical advantage due to friction is often part of that list. The materials, like carabiner types and pulleys, will play a big role in that regard, but also where we position our most efficient materials can also have a big impact.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Ascending a Vertical Fixed Line Using Nothing But that Climbing Rope

I was asked if I could think of a way to ascend a single-strand, fixed climbing rope, using nothing but that rope. Well, I thought of one. The full video goes into the mental approach I took to solving the problem, along with a step-by-step guide. It serves no practical purpose, but it might be an interesting look at how we can take knowledge of system components and build a whole new system.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Skinny, Light Tag Line on Your Rappel from a Climb? Consider These Risks, First

The proliferation of new light-but-strong materials has led to some questions about just how skinny and light a tag line (a static rope used just to retrieve your main rope) can be when used for a rappel (abseil). Well, there are some considerations that we need to keep in mind if we decide to save weight by going super light with a tag line. The full video goes into the risks we add as well as how to mitigate them.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

The Five-Three Blake's Hitch for Ropes with a Wider Bend Radius

When making a friction hitch using a rope with the same diameter as the main line, we can add a fifth wrap to the bottom of a standard four-wrap Blake’s Hitch, running the finishing end through the bottom three wraps, as opposed to two. This creates more wraps bending around a two-strand section so that ropes with a wider bend radius, like most climbing ropes, can have that wider, two-strand section to grab.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: the "Double Fix" Knot Pass Technique on Rappel (Abseil)

If we have a single point of damage on our climbing rope and need to rappel (abseil), two climbers can work as a team and use two different instances of fixing the rope to perform two different single-strand rappels. We then avoid having to use time-consuming knot passing techniques by avoiding, rather than passing, that knot. The full video goes deeper into how we do this and shares some risks to watch out for.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

Quickdraw Carabiner Gates for New Climbers

When we are making a clip on lead, we are at one of our most risky points of the climb. So, we want to clip as cleanly and quickly as possible. If you are new to climbing and researching what quickdraws to purchase, one consideration that can impact that speed-to-clip are the gate styles on those carabiners. Here are some common gate types and some pros and cons of each.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: It's More Than You Think! Why Modern Tools Help Ascending the Climbing Rope

It used to be the case that ascending the climbing rope was done using two soft goods wrapped around the rope with two friction hitches. That method requires that we put the waist prusik further up the rope than the leg loop. But modern tools have inverted that configuration. The major benefit of that setup is more than efficiency of ascent; it's much simpler to overcome a lip of rock or ice, now, and the full video more deeply explores why.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (07) Jason Kolaczkowski

Considering Quickdraw Carabiner Sizes for New Climbers

Lead climbers can be pretty vulnerable when clipping into their protection, as they remove one hand from the wall and introduce slack into the rope. So, clipping efficiently is important for safety. As such, the interaction between carabiner sizes and our clipping preferences should be a consideration when making quickdraw purchases.

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