Whether you are a climber on the approach to the climb or a hiker who is putting in miles on the trail, we want to be conscious about conserving energy and avoiding stumbles and falls. The full video provides a basic understanding of a few rock climbing footwork fundamentals that can help keep us efficient and safe, which will matter a great deal after 10 thousand, 100 thousand, or even 1 million steps.

Rock climbing in the cold temperatures of winter usually means better friction, but it also means struggling to keep your body, hands, and feet warm enough. Here are a few tips that may help with that struggle.

I don't feel like my family and I should be pushing our limits with hard climbing all of the time. We had previously done a video about learning to find satisfaction with some of the less demanding forms of adventure so that our risk profiles aren't always high. Well, exposing the boys to backpacking was one of those experiences we wanted them to try and see if they enjoy. This is a preview to a short film we made about it.

For whatever reason, I had a mental block when remembering how to orient the load strand of the climbing rope through the Petzl Micro Traxion until I made explicit the position of the cam relative to the rope. But, that's not the first time I've had a problem like this.

Early in my climbing career, a mentor told me "...now we need you to start thinking about the 'working end' of your carabiners." He was talking about orienting my carabiners to maximize efficiency and safety. The full video takes two case studies, attaching our carabiners to our anchor points and attaching ourselves to the anchor, to go into some of the subtleties of carabiner orientation.

Once we've arrived at our good belay stance, if we choose to build an anchor with sewn slings or runners, we need to manage the stiff section where the material is sewn together (called the "bar tack"). If we don't it can get in the way of any knot tying we might want to do. Here is the simple solution I go to, most.

Downclimbing is an important skill for anyone who climbs outdoors. It is downright necessary for those who "scramble" on ridges or other terrain that typically doesn't use ropes. There are times where it feels self-evident to face in towards the rock, and there are times where is feels very comfortable to face away from the rock. But what about those times when it isn't obvious? The full video goes into how I think about deciding to face in or away.

The Half Gibbs Offset Bend can join two ropes of unequal diameter, and is easy to untie after loading. It is also less prone to rolling than a Flat Overhand Bend. All of this makes it a good solution for joining two climbing ropes (or a climbing rope and a skinnier tagline) for rappels (abseils). But, can you tie it on the tenth rappel, in the dark, and hypoxic? Here is how we tie this knot.

I think it's a false choice that we can either "climb quickly but with high risk by soloing" or "climb slowly but with low risk by using a rope" when we are on terrain that is well within our abilities. This is part of a short series on some techniques that allow us to use a rope to mitigate risk on moderate terrain without burning through time the way fully-pitched climbing sometimes demands. The full version of this fourth video covers short-pitching.

Like top rope belaying has the pull-brake-under-slide method of managing your hands and the climbing rope to maximize safety, so is there a preferred technique when using a terrain feature as the friction add on a belay. Here's how to do it.

I think it's a false choice that we can either "climb quickly but with high risk by soloing" or "climb slowly but with low risk by using a rope" when we are on terrain that is well within our abilities. This is part of a short series on some techniques that allow us to use a rope to mitigate risk on moderate terrain without burning through time the way fully-pitched climbing sometimes demands. The full version of this third video covers simul-climbing.

Another method of climbing with a shortened rope is to carry the excess line in your pack. If you are going to do that, it is important that you stack the rope carefully to avoid having it tangle as you pull out extra as it's needed. Here's how I ensure that rope stacks neatly inside my pack.

I think it's a false choice that we can either "climb quickly but with high risk by soloing" or "climb slowly but with low risk by using a rope" when we are on terrain that is well within our abilities. This is part of a short series on some techniques that allow us to use a rope to mitigate risk on moderate terrain without burning through time the way fully-pitched climbing sometimes demands. In the full version of our second video in the series, we cover terrain and body belays.

It isn't really practical to coil your climbing rope this way out in the field, but you certainly could start your day with the Bird's Nest Coil, which lets you feed out rope free of any tangles or snags. Here's how to make the coil.

I think it's a false choice that we can either "climb quickly but with high risk by soloing" or "climb slowly but with low risk by using a rope" when we are on terrain that is well within our abilities. This is a start of a short series on some techniques that allow us to use a rope to mitigate risk on moderate terrain without burning through time the way fully-pitched climbing sometimes demands. Our first decision is if we should bring a rope along at all or if we should just "scramble" a route. The full video shares how I think about that decision.

On multi-pitch climbs, being able to manage the rope when block leading (having the same leader lead multiple pitches in a row) requires a little rope management. Here's how we perform the "pancake flip," to facilitate better pitch transitions while on the ascent.

We've done a few series on techniques I think are important for any climber taking on multi-pitch routes but especially for a climber out with children. Well, it was time to put those skills to practice as we broke from climbing with two adults per kid and tried out two kids with one adult. The full, three minute short film shares our beautiful afternoon out on the rock.

I am often climbing in a team of three, so we needed a way to rappel (abseil) that was safe and efficient. Here is how we pre-rig our rappel setup so that we increase speed while also increasing safety.

There are a few reasons why a climbing team may choose to lower the first climber down rather than have them rappel. There are times you might need to perform a short lower during the climb up but also might use lowers for entire sections of the descent. For different needs, different lowering techniques might be appropriate. The full video demonstrates three different ways.

On a multi-pitch climb, if you drop a piece of gear you simply have to do without it for - what could be - quite a bit more climbing. Climbing gear that we call upon as we do lots of different important tasks, like our belay device, becomes even more crucial to keep hold of. Here is how we remove our belay devices from the rope to reduce the likelihood of dropping it.