When you need a secure climbing knot in the middle of a rope that is also easy to untie after weighting, an alpine butterfly knot makes a good choice. Take a look at this quick climbing tip to see under what circumstances you might use this knot as well as see one way to tie it (even in mittens).

The South African Rappel or South African Abseil is a technique that can get you down a single-pitch cliff using nothing but a rope when out climbing, scrambling, or even hiking. When and why would you use this rappel technique? How do you perform the rappel, safely? We provide answers to these questions in the full video.

Climbing helmets need to fit properly to keep you safe, but they also lack sun protection for your face. You can add different garments under your helmet, but you also need to avoid the pain that can come with bunched fabric pressed down on your head. So, here's what I use to add some shade to my face without creating safety or pain issues when I climb with a helmet in the hot months.

My Dad was one of my original partners for summiting peaks. Now at 74 years old, we had him out on a new summit experience, doing some technical climbing with his son and grandsons on Horsetooth Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. Follow the links to the full thing.

Climbing in the alpine sometimes means putting on your harness in strange or even less secure stances. So, I always look for this feature in every alpine harness I am going to use. It makes the act of putting my harness on safer despite any awkward position I might be in.

Blue Ice produces some excellent minimalist and ultralight gear for alpine climbing and ski mountaineering. The full video reviews the Choucas Pro harness and discusses the pros and cons as well as some climbing genres where the harness may excel.

Alpine routes can be transient, changing with conditions or even breaking off features with rock fall. So, when I am out on an alpine scramble, and on terrain that I don't anticipate having full pitches of climbing, I still bring a 30 meter rope. Here's why.

Inov8 is a company with a tradition in fell running: moving over the wet mountains of the LaKe District in the UK. I've been wearing the Inov8 Roclite G 315 GTX shoes for several years, and have put them to the test on fastmoving hiking trips, fully laden backpacking trips, and even alpine climbs that demand rock scrambling. The full video provides my review of this versatile shoe.

We get up very early before we go hiking, backpacking, or climbing on the peaks. We call getting up and moving before the sun an "alpine start." Here's why we do it.

La Sportiva created three versions of the Aequilibrium boot to help alpinists lose the weight of needing multiple shoes for trips that contained dry approaches with backpacking, snow filled mountaineering, and technical climbing. Can the boot accommodate all of those disparate needs? Check out the full video for the complete review.

I once had a student sheepishly ask me about underwear management on extended trips into the mountains or the backcountry on backpacking, climbing, or camping trips. If you have resources to rotate and wash them, the number you need is simple. How often to rotate them is more complicated, dependent upon the weather and your activity levels. But here are some rules of thumb.

A cottage brand out of Japan, Locus Gear, has made a free standing, ultralight, dome tent with four-season toughness by producing a fabric combination of Dyneema and eVent. It's called the Djedi. After using it for a year on camping trips, backpacking trips, and alpine climbing trips, in the full video, I provide a complete review.

Finding purified water is easy on winter and alpine climbs and hikes when you are boiling snow melt, but larger particles like pine nettles can still infest your water despite boiling. Your kitchen cabinets already hold an affordable solution.

A climbing partner from Denali (seven years ago) put together a trip for the Skillet Glacier route on Mount Moran (12,605') in Grand Teton National Park. In the full film, she and I embraced hiking the long approach, bushwhack off trail, and 6000 feet of elevation gain to get our fill of summer snow climbing on a direct and impressive line.

My family gets outdoors a lot for climbing, backpacking, and hiking and we use hydration pack systems when the weather is right. The convenience of having water accessible helps us drink more. But hydration packs are hard to keep from molding. That's where the Bōn Dry hydration pack dryer comes in to play. I've never had to replace any of my families' hydration systems since I started using it.

I use trekking poles to help reduce the impact on my surgically repaired knee from my hiking, backpacking, climbing, and camping... anything that requires a pack and an approach. But I now only use the style of trekking poles that fold up just like tent poles. For me, it's a safety issue. The full video describes the safety problem as well as discusses some of the trade-offs I must accept by using this style of pole.

Being outdoors with my kids for climbing, backpacking, and hiking is a blast, but getting them to do some of "the small things" on a consistent basis can be a challenge. Staying hydrated is one of those things. Having water always accessible with a water bladder system can help, but I need to make sure I have the right water bladder for their little bodies and little equipment.

When the manufacturer of our favorite kids' sun hoody stopped making them, we needed to find a new option. Eventually, we lucked into the hoody made by PIQIDIG, and we are happy it happened. Here, we review the PIQIDIG Kids' Sun Hoody, after a year of use, so you can learn if it's a good option for your little ones.

When we head outdoors for climbing, hiking, or backpacking, we always try to dress for conditions. But one part of our kit that maybe we haven't thought about is any rings we might usually have on. A metal ring can be a hazard when there are opportunities to either catch it on something or if the environment is cold. It's a lesson I've had to relate to many the adult climbing student.

Spring time in the Rocky Mountains means snow couloir season for climbers, and this year, we figured out how to get technical crampons to work on the boys' small feet. In the full film, the boys and I took a short camping trip that culminated in their first real alpine snow climb, including a few small snow fields before a 500 vertical foot gully. They learned the mental and physical persistence that direct snow lines can demand, and I was admittedly in awe at their incredible capabilities while being so young.