Hiking, Backpacking, and Mountaineering trips can cover a lot of ground, and the longer the trip the more likely that contingencies will arise that force us to adjust. In those circumstances, having gone through the process of making my own topographic route map helps me better know options and recognize landmarks once I am out in the field. Here's the why and how of making your own maps.

Staying hydrated is important when you are on the move in the backcountry, whether hiking, backpacking, or mountaineering; it impacts your ability to exercise for the duration and also affects your acclimatization to higher altitudes. But your body can't absorb the water you drink if you drink too much to fast. So, how often and how much should you be drinking water in the ideal?

I carry a camp pillow when mountaineering, backpacking, or alpine climbing at altitude. One reason is that at high altitudes I can get Cheyne-Stokes breathing, an apnea impacting my sleep. Watch the full video to find out why plenty of people get Cheyne-Stokes at altitude, how a simple item like a camp pillow can alleviate this condition, and how that same pillow may contribute to a warmer and lighter sleep system.

Being at altitude suppresses your appetite. But your body needs more calories when you are up high. So, adding a caloric mix to your water is a good way to over come calorie depravation when you find it is difficult to eat enough.

Winter hiking, backpacking, camping, and alpine climbing can create challenging conditions for keeping your hands and feet warm. And for your feet, you also need to not get blisters. I've used the Lorpen T3+ Inferno Expedition and the T3+ Trekking Expedition socks for several winter seasons, now, and the full video offers my long term review of what are the best winter socks I have ever put on.

The water you need to bring on an outdoors adventure is a product of the activity - like a backpacking trip, a hike, or a mountain climb - how hard you are working, and the climate. But climate is also determined by altitude and higher altitudes demand more water. Find out how much more in this video.

Going on a backpacking, multi-day climbing, mountaineering, hiking, or a camping trip during the dry, winter months can lead to split fingertips. The dry air and other conditions of winter just make it more likely. Those wounds can make using your hands painful. The full video shows how I help prevent those splits from happening as well as how I deal with the injury if I don't follow my own advice well enough!

There is a lot that goes into your consumption rate of fuel for your camping stove: altitude, air temperature, temperature of your water, moisture content of the surrounding snow, the stove efficiency, itself, burner size, wind speed, the list goes on and on. So, here is a rule of thumb for taking the right amount of fuel with you when you will be melting snow for water on your expedition.

The boys wanted to go on a "mini" expedition, complete with backpacking, camping, moving camps, and a mildly technical climb to a summit. But as the trip started, I received notice that one of my climbing friends and mentors was succumbing to cancer. As My trip ended, I received notice that she was gone. It struck me as fitting that, while all of this was happening, the lessons she taught me were being passed on to my boys. I dedicate the full version of this short film to Deb as a testament to a life well lived, full of impact which will carry on.

I enjoy camping, hiking, backpacking, and alpine climbing, and I enjoy doing all of these things in all seasons. It is always a challenge to find clothing layers that can handle the different activities and conditions I face. The full video is a review of the Outdoor Vitals Ventus Active Hoodie. Can it handle all of the variables I throw at it?

The consequences of a lead climber fall when ice climbing are simply too high to let ego get in the way of safety. When you need to take a rest, and you can find good ice, go ahead and take that rest. Here's how.

If you are going to get into alpine climbing, you need to be able to handle the variable conditions which mountains present to us. So, beyond snow and rock, one may need to contend with ice. You may love ice climbing, like my kids and I do, or you may grudgingly pursue it, but it is a necessary set of skills to have for mountaineering. Last video, we talked about good footwork. The full version of this video demonstrates how to make efficient swings and combine all the individual techniques into a full movement sequence.

If you have big, double boots for cold mountaineering as well as shoulder-season alpine climbing boots that are considerably smaller, you will have extra strap material from your crampon attachments whenever you put those crampons on your smaller boots. Here's what I do with that extra tail to keep it securely out of my way.

If you are going to get into alpine climbing, you need to be able to handle the variable conditions which mountains present to us. So, beyond snow and rock, one may need to contend with ice. You may love ice climbing, like my kids and I do, or you may grudgingly pursue it, but it is a necessary set of skills to have for mountaineering. Because all technical climbing starts with good footwork, in the full video we go over the basics of proper footwork for ice climbing. Next week's video will cover using ice tools and the complete sequence of movement.

The biomechanics of winter climbing are different and strain different muscles due to the equipment we have to wear. If you are into ice climbing, alpinism, or mountaineering, don't let your calves be the muscle endurance shortcoming that keeps you from the top.

Sitting in the snow and adjusting your crampons to your boots is hard to do with winter gloves and is a good way to make yourself cold. That's why I pre-fit my crampons to my boots before I ever leave the house for every ice climbing, alpine climbing, or mountaineering trip. This opens up all of the options to move heel and toe bails and fine-tune the crampon fit to maximize the likelihood that the crampon will stay on as well as the performance of the crampon for my climb. The full video shows how I go about pre-fitting crampons for each of the three crampon types: full strap, step-in, and hybrid.

When I'm done with a winter trip, maybe a little wet and a little cold, I want to get out of the wet gear and into some dry things. That's where this very cheap piece of equipment comes in, making it easy to store my wet things. It's big enough and tough enough to handle climbing equipment, axes and crampons, snowshoes, and boots for the whole family.

One half of our seven-year-old twins, Connor, and I went on a winter training hike as he progresses towards his first winter ascent of a Colorado 14er and starts to ready himself for true mountaineering. Hiking and scrambling on snow makes everything just a little bit harder, so it was nice to see his determination and sense of accomplishment. Unlike most of our videos, this one isn't instructional; the full version is just a short film to celebrate the joy my family and I find in the outdoors.

Cold weather brings condensation inside your tent, and condensation brings frozen water to your sleeping bag. The more days you are out, the more of a problem this becomes. Airing your bag out in the sun can evaporate the moisture and keep your bag lofted and insulating well.

My twin seven-year-olds love mountaineering, climbing, hiking, and camping. But making sure we have all the right gear for winter trips comes with larger consequences for getting it wrong. The full video is a load out of what we take for a winter day-trip in snowy, cold conditions