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.

Often the riskiest part of sport climbing is the transition at the top of the climb from leading to lowering. Different anchors require different steps in that transition in order to stay safe and backed-up in case something goes wrong. This video goes through the process of both cleaning an anchor and direct lowering when coming to a two-bolt anchor with rappel rings or links.

Putting different foam compounds into climbing helmets creates different pros and cons for those helmets. Here is a rundown of how two of the most common foam types, EPP and EPS, may impact your decision when selecting a climbing helmet.

Potentially, the transition from climbing to lowering can be the most dangerous part of sport climbing. Setting up a system without any additional eyes to check your work increases the danger, and facing different permanent hardware setups means we need to know how to manage those scenarios. The full video walks through how to safely transition from at the top of a climb when facing two mussy hooks, both when cleaning an anchor or when lowering directly.

There is actually more to putting on a climbing helmet than just putting it on your head. It needs to remains as stable as possible through your movement but also should you receive an impact. Here's how to ensure a proper fit.

Transitioning from climbing up to being lowered down can be simple or can be tricky, depending upon the hardware you find at the anchor bolts. It can get even more complicated if you are putting in a top rope anchor for climbers to use after you. The full video shows how to manage this transition safely.

For those of us with little crusher rock climbing kids, one of the things to think about as they challenge themselves on new routes and develop new skills is that our equipment was designed for our adult-sized bodies. But with careful consideration, we can put together the right combinations of equipment to have it work well for them. Here is an example with quickdraws.

Our kids just completed their first sport climbing leads and their first multi-pitch climbs. We are continuing to shed some light on how we got ourselves and our kids ready so that they could make those advances in their climbing journeys. In the full video, we are talking about the mental checklist we impart to any new sport climbing leaders to make sure they were staying as safe as possible when up on the sharp end of the rope.

Making upward progress when rock climbing on a hard sport route often means efficiency and conserving energy. One of the places you can lose energy needlessly is with sloppy technique as you clip your draws. Here is how to assess and apply which technique and hand positions to use for maximum efficiency.

Our kids hit a few rock climbing milestones, this year, putting up their first sport climbing leads and completing their first multi-pitch climbs as seconds. In the full video, we are sharing how the kids progressed in skills and how we gave them exposure to some of the different demands of climbing so that we all felt comfortable letting them head up on lead.

The sticky rubber on rock climbing shoes can get polished, which reduces its grip. When you get shiny, polished sections on your climbing shoes, you can briefly scuff them with sandpaper to restore their stickiness.