When we go climbing, camping, or hiking in the backcountry during the winter, we tend to stay out longer and experience more extreme conditions. As advances in technology have improved battery-heated gloves, the full video explores if they are now able to perform well enough and long enough to make them worth having in your gear closet.

When we are out climbing, hiking, or camping in cold temperatures, we need to layer well. And our layers need space between them to insulate. That means our liner gloves need to strike a balance between cold protection and being thin enough to work with your outer gloves, too.

Winter peak climbing has its own unique challenges. Borrowing from my winter mountaineering experiences on Colorado 14ers, Colorado 13ers, and my climbs around the world, the full video shares what new winter climbers can expect so that they may better prepare themselves for the challenges of summiting in the coldest months.

Steep snow climbing up often means steep snow descents. When heading downhill, the snow conditions often dictate what types of steps will keep you upright and more secure. Here we talk about the Plunge Step for use on soft snow.

Ice climbing, and particularly mixed climbing, sometimes demands that the climber switch which tool is in which hand. There are lots of ways to switch hands on your ice tools, and all of them have pros and cons. The full video breaks down three different techniques and then lets you know which one I typically use and why.

Climbers new to climbing on snow or on mixed terrain are likely to experience calf fatigue. When we are in the alpine, the consequences of a calf muscle giving out can be very high. So, make sure you get off of your front points whenever you can to maximize the benefits of your resting position.

Ice climbing usually demands a lot of different gloves. Different portions of ice climbing need more dexterity and therefore less insulation. Some portions are the opposite. Some portions expose your hands to a lot of water. The full video shows how the approach ice climbers use to pick gloves to bring can help us think through how different gloves, in combination, can help us ensure our kids have warm hands on their climbing, hiking, and camping adventures in winter.

It seems like a little thing, but after you've taken 40,000 steps, the energy you save (or lose) by making efficient (or inefficient) kicks into snow can mean the difference between successfully climbing and reaching the summit or not. Here's how we approach kicking steps while mountaineering.

Ice climbing. Snow couloir climbing. Even mixed climbing. My kids want to do it all, but off-the-shelf crampons can't fit on their small feet. The full video shares how I took advantage of the new trend in modular crampon manufacturing to make some crampons that I'd be willing to wear but fit on my kids and work with their limited boot options.

If you are new to winter climbing, you might be wondering what type of crampon front points will work best for you. Here are the rules of thumb regarding which crampon front point types work best for which types of climbing.

I've had elbow pain: climber's elbow and golfer's elbow. After clinicians helped me get an exercise routine in place, I wanted to share - in the full video - how I got through the pain and how I've stopped the pain from coming back.

The Petzl Gully Ice Axe was designed for the steep couloirs and the demands for light weight gear required by ski mountaineering. But those same characteristics make it an excellent fit for kids.

We are teaching our kids about climbing, and they love it. They also enjoy snow and ice climbing. While these activities come with a high sense of accomplishment, they also come with higher risks. Sometimes, we like to get out and simply enjoy the views and the company. Hiking helps keep us sane.

Happy Thanksgiving! A little bit of Thanksgiving Day (US) humor. I love the climbing community, and I love being a part of it. But we also can be a bit funny. It's good to be skeptical of changes when lives are on the line, but the vitriol is sometimes a bit absurd. The video is just a few examples of things met with massive resistance that are now commonplace.

Before I took my kids rock climbing on their first multi-pitch route, I wanted to make sure they had the skills for getting up the route but also the skills for rappelling (abseiling) down if weather or other circumstances forced a retreat. Part of that education was learning to tie a figure eight retrace (follow through), clove hitch, girth hitch (larksfoot), figure eight on a bight, and an autoblock hitch, which are key to their climbing and rappelling systems. The full video shows how we tie and most frequently use these five knots.

Climbing skills come gradually and with repeated experience. Taking our kids out climbing emphasizes the incremental nature of taking on more and more responsibility in a vertical environment. But mental approaches, behaviors, and some habits don't require nuanced rope skills or body movement. As our kids started with the complexities of multi-pitch climbing, we found a way they could contribute to the team's efficiency while staying within their skill set.

There are lots of important safety practices that go into multi-pitch climbing: building good anchors, swapping or blocking leads, efficient rope management, safety practices like first and second pieces of protection off the anchor, etc. This stuff is well covered, nuanced, and - yes - important. They have to be understood and practiced. But after doing two 1500 foot climbs with two 7 year old kids, I noticed a few other things that these two new multi-pitch climbers also needed to spend some attention on. Maybe the full video will help those who are new to multi-pitch climbing.

Tying a one-handed clove hitch is a necessary climbing skill. But like any skill, it needs to be applied at the right times and in the right way. Here's one - very common - scenario in which climbers may consider ways to avoid laying the second climber's rope over the carabiner as a first move of tying this hitch.

Any time you change systems in a vertical environment, you are inviting risk and therefore potential consequences. Switching from climbing up a rock climb to lowering down is one of those circumstances. And then there is the added complexity of different anchor setups requiring different steps in that transition process. The full video goes through the process of both cleaning an anchor and direct lowering when coming to a two-bolt anchor with narrow fixed hardware such as tightly linked chains.

Different body types. Different lengths of reach. So, different sling lengths are needed to make extensions for rappelling (abseiling). Here are a few things I consider when ensuring I have the right length of sling available on my harness in case I need to rappel.