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.

It's hard to find kids' outdoor gear and clothing that can perform, hold up to their hard use, and allow your kids to grow. After one year of climbing, hiking, backpacking, and camping with our twin boys, in our full video we are providing a review of the Reima Broby Softshell Pant. It has proven to be one that we won't hesitate to buy, again.

Our twin 6 year old boys are growing past hard moves on jugs for their indoor bouldering, so we've started them on edges. This was their first edge problem: a series of deadpoints, and learning to use intermediate holds, on a 30 degree overhanging wall. The holds very from positive to neutral to negative, and are all 19mm (0.75in). This one only took them two sessions.

So you've been raining for your big objective: a big route to climb, a trail to thru-hike, or a peak to summit. But then life gets in the way with injury, work, or other obligations.

How do we get back on track and back into our fitness routine safely and effectively?

The full video covers four strategies our family employs to get us back into the swing of things when we run into common barriers to our training.

The full video is the third video in our fitness series. We've covered eight principles for establishing a fitness mentality, and we've talked about establishing a base fitness that provides the foundation for working hard and making gains.

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.

Do you have an outdoor goal? A peak to summit, a big route to climb, a trail to hike? Or maybe you just have a particular fitness goal: a one-armed pullup or a three hundred pound squat.

Before you get into the specific mountaineering training, or alpine climbing training, or hiking training routines, you need to start with "base fitness," a total-body level of fitness that prepares you to put in the heavier work you may need to get you to your goals.

This teaser previews the full video, which covers the different aspects of total-body fitness that you need to understand and train before you get into your more advanced routines.

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.

Fitness is necessary for us to safely pursue our outdoor adventures, but it also a necessary part of of day-to-day health and lives. And there is never a bad time to start a lifetime relationship with fitness. But how do you start yourself or your kids down that path? This clip previews full video, where we share eight principles that help us make fitness and exercise something we want to do rather than have to do. And once you enjoy training your body (and mind), then from there the sky can be the limit!

You may have seen our Short where Kade worked an indoor boulder problem for four months before finally getting it. Well, this time, in two days he figured out how to get past a side cling that was out of his static reach by making a deadpoint move. I guess confidence will carry you a long way!

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!

Ice Axes can be setup to meet the disparate needs of thru-hiking, peak bagging, and technical climbing in the alpine, and the right modifications can make a big difference in the safety margin you can add to your trip. The full video covers some of the simplest ways climbers and hikers customize maybe the most used piece of their mountaineering gear, their ice axes, and we talk about the tradeoffs of those setups so that you can make the right changes to your ice axe so that it works best for you.

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.

The kids have climbed inside and outside, and done routes and problems. But they've never really had to "project" anything (work a route over multiple days). This was their first real climbing "project," an indoor bouldering problem, and it created some frustration... but also the comradery and joy that can only come through struggling with something. It was a joy to see!

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!

The kids and I headed into the high country to practice winter climbing and self arrest techniques with an ice axe. It ended up being a lesson in layering your clothing and mountaineering perseverance... and they did great at both!

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!

A Colorado right of passage when it comes to hiking and fitness is the Manitou Incline in Manitou Springs Colorado. It is 2768 steps and 2000 vertical feet of gain at an average angle of 25 degrees and with a steepest angle of 35 degrees.