Short clips

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

Short Clips, Quick Tips (06) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (06) Jason Kolaczkowski

Long Crampon Straps on Mountaineering Boots: A Solution Without Cutting

Maybe you want to keep crampon straps longer, either because - like my kids - your feet are still growing, or you have both small and large boots that need different strap lengths, or you want to be able to lend out the crampons to anyone with feet bigger than yours. Regardless of reason, here is a solution to keep those straps out of the way if you do decide to keep a little extra length.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview To: Matching Climbing Systems to Glacier Travel Specifics to Reduce Risk

As we get deeper into a glacier travel series, we want to note that there are many effective ways to develop our climbing systems for safe passage on glaciated mountains. The full video gets into my perspective that, maybe, the single biggest thing we can do wrong, however, is get dogmatic about those systems and assume that, while risks change from glacier to glacier, our systems don't have to change as well.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (06) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (06) Jason Kolaczkowski

Why I Add Double-Gate Carabiners to My Winter Alpine Climbing Rack

As the seasons change in the alpine, so do our climbing equipment needs. Maybe an overlooked item that works slightly less well in extreme cold are standard locking carabiners. By swapping out a few standard lockers for double-gate carabiners, I can have a few carabiners that will prove more resistant to freezing.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Choosing the Best Carabiner for Connecting to a Rope on a Glacier Climb

We will frequently choose to connect ourselves to the climbing rope with a carabiner, rather than a knot, when on a glacier in order to facilitate things like crevasse rescue systems. We need to be considerate of the strengths and weaknesses of carabiner types in order to select the best carabiner for our climb of a glaciated peak. The full video offers some of the criteria I use to help me choose.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: How to Pass the Knot While on Rappel (Abseil)

We isolate damaged sections of a climbing rope by tying a knot with the damaged section in the knot bight. That keeps any load - you - off of the damaged section. But if we need to rappel past a damaged section, we need to be able to get our rappel setup from above that knot to below it while staying firmly and safely connected to the rope. The full video provides a procedure to do that.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Three Rappel (Abseil) Extensions for Different Climbing Situations

Extending your rappel (abseil) device away from your harness after a climb comes with a number of benefits. But how we choose to make our rappel extension can make navigating certain kinds of anchors or rappels easier or harder. The full video provides three different extension configurations and some of the reasons why one might be a better choice for a given circumstance compared to others.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (06) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (06) Jason Kolaczkowski

Micro Adjusting Climbing Anchors to Better Equalize Forces

Note: It does weaken the sling, but not to the point that it cannot take the loads we produce in climbing scenarios. We can never perfectly equalize our anchor points when making a climbing anchor, but sometimes we will want to make an adjustment to the length of one leg of an anchor to fix an obvious lack of equalization. Here's a quick way to do it that requires no more material than you've already put into the anchor.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (05) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (05) Jason Kolaczkowski

Adding Security Efficiently with a Bucket Seat Belay for Moderate Snow Climbs

Not every climbing scenario demands robust anchors. Moderate snow slopes are a classic example. We won’t suffer the same fall forces as a vertical fall, but we can encounter tricky conditions, such as overly hard or overly soft snow, that make falls a legitimate risk. Maybe the fastest way to add security in these circumstances is to make a simple “bucket seat belay.”

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (05) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (05) Jason Kolaczkowski

Optimizing Modern Leashes for Ice Tools on Alpine Climbs

When the risks associated with dropping an ice tool goes up, we often will add a leashes on our alpine climbs. But alpine leashes can result in tangled and twisted leashes that may make our climbs more dangerous. Here's how I try to more rigidly attach spinner leashes to my harness so that the risk of twisted leashes is reduced.

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Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips Jason Kolaczkowski

Preview to: Climbing Over Ice Bulges: How to Make These Risky Ice Climbing Moves Safely

Climbing over ice bulges can be the most risky part of an ice climb. More suspect ice and more challenging physics with our ice tools and crampons make these transitions from vertical to low-angle ice moments where we need increased understanding and concentration. The full video shares why these moves are risky and how we can mitigate those risks.

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Short Clips, Quick Tips (05) Jason Kolaczkowski Short Clips, Quick Tips (05) Jason Kolaczkowski

Ice Screws: How the Wider Diameter of Blue Ice Screws Can Help Ice Climbers

They are thinner, so they are both lighter and easier to drill into the ice. They have three teeth instead of four, which helps with starting an ice screw placement. But they are also wider, which has a number of advantages when placing ice screws or making v-threads or a-threads on our ice climbs and rappels. Here are some of those advantages.

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