Snow and ice climbing season is fast approaching! Time to get that gear ready for use. This quick tip shows you how to file the pick of your ice axe (or ice tool) to get a quality edge and point. Plus, a quick reminder on how not to sharpen your axe.

If you don't like trekking poles while hiking, that's fine. But if you don't like trekking poles because gripping them tires out your hands, then learn how to relax those hands when on mild terrain without ever losing control of your trekking poles.

Want to shorten your breaks while on the hike, climb, or a 14er summit attempt? Or do you just want to make sure that you eat several times a day so that you keep your energy from flagging? Well, keep your trail food at the ready, and you can do both more easily.

Ice and snow traction for your feet, like the kind you can get with Kahtoola MICROspikes and High Stream Gear Ice Cleats for Kids, don't need to be a one season help. These can help you on steeper ground of compacted dirt and gravel. Try them out on your next Colorado 14er or 13er, or any hike with steeper slopes.

Hiking or climbing at altitude, like you find on 14ers or even taller mountains, is bad on your throat. The air has less moisture, you are breathing harder, and it isn't unusual to develop a cough. To keep my throat from getting too sore, I like to pop a Jolly Rancher Hard Candy in my mouth every hour or so. This keeps me from getting to raw and raspy, and really any hard candy will do.

The Surgeon's Shoelace Bow Knot adds an extra wrap to the starting hitch as well as an extra wrap to the bow hitch. The result is more friction, keeping the knot tied throughout your hike while remaining easy to untie at the end of a long day.

If you are pushing your current boundaries on summit hikes or mountaineering - or maybe you are getting into Colorado 14ers or will be attempting your first 14er - you are going to get tired legs. One way to mitigate that muscle fatigue is to change the orientation of your steps every so often, to stress different muscles. Your toes don't always need to point where you are headed, and the crossover step can be very helpful for changing things up.

Any piece of gear that you can make multipurpose will save you weight. Any rock climbing - sport climbing, trad climbing, top roping, and multi-pitch - is an opportunity to cut weight by replacing the belt of your chalk bag with some tech cord. Now you've got a working piece of rock climbing gear that can be used for anchors, prussiks, autoblocks, or myriad other needs should those needs arise.

The Bowline Knot works exceptionally well for attaching an anchor to a fixed point like a tree or a boulder. Here is how to tie this knot that is useful in rock climbing, trad climbing, and alpine climbing situations. In fact, it is even useful for making a back anchor when sport climbing or on top rope.

A Double Figure 8 Loop - AKA a Bunny Ears knot - is excellent when fixing a rope on two anchor points. Learn how to tie and adjust this climbing knot to ensure that you equalize your climbing anchor on the direction of pull.

An Autoblock hitch is often used to back up a rappel so that you are safe if you should accidently let go of the rope due to an injury, rock fall, or the like. Learn how to tie this climbing hitch so that your rappel system remains redundant whether trad climbing, sport climbing, ice climbing, or mountaineering.

This quick tip goes over how to build a "quad" climbing anchor. Using a "quad runner" - or a 240cm sling - you can build a self-equalizing anchor that is great for meandering routes or meandering climbers. (Kids often get off route due to difficulty reaching all of the standard holds.) This is also an anchor you can tie on the ground and rack on your harness, making for easy install when you know you'll have double bolts at the top of a route.

Here's three different ways to tie a clove hitch depending upon what you are tying your rope or cord to: a fixed object with an open end (like a tent stake), a fixed object with no open end (like a tree), or the one-handed version to a carabiner as used in lead climbing.

As the weather warms and camping season approaches, keep in mind this simple tip that can keep your kids or any shorter campers warm by adjusting a sleeping bag to be right-sized for them - without spending money.

The same mental checklist you use to make a "Magic X" anchor with a double runner doesn't guarantee safety when using a quad runner. Know how a Magic X with a quad runner can fail, and know how to replace it with a "Quad Anchor" that still has a sliding master point but is bomber!

Take care of your gear that takes care of you. It isn't the flashy part of alpine climbing and mountaineering, but it's necessary and important. Keeping rust off of your gear can extend the life of your ice axe, ice tools, and crampons as well as give you more confidence in your climbing equipment so that you can focus on climbing your best.

Ice Axes serve two main functions: to keep you from falling, using "self belay" techniques, and to stop your fall from shooting you down the slope by using "self arrest" techniques. In this clip, we cover the basic of self arrest that you can then learn to apply to four different sliding positions.

Don't waste time taking your backpack on and off every time you need your ice axe or need to put it away. Here are four methods for stowing your axe that can be interchanged based on how long you will need to stow your axe versus how often you will need o use it.

Ice Axes serve two main functions: to keep you from falling, using "self belay" techniques, and to stop your fall from shooting you down the slope by using "self arrest" techniques. In this clip, we talk about the foundation of uphill travel on snow: walking "in balance." In the full video, we cover the basics of self belay for winter travel, talking about the different ways to use an ice axe in combination with our feet, depending upon our footwear and snow conditions.

I took one of my twin boys on a snow-filled, winter day hike. I helped him take the next step in his progression by showing him how to use some new winter hiking gear. We went over the basics of using an ice axe, which he has been itching to do!