Softshell pants are, in my opinion, one of the single greatest clothing innovations to come along in quite a while, especially for climbing. I have tried the traditional 3 layer approach on my legs and it fails every time. Hard shell pants simply cannot breathe as fast as I need. The other problem with the [...]
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A repair kit is incredibly valuable on longer trips in remote areas. Breaking a crucial piece of equipment can not only end a trip prematurely, but put you in a very difficult position. If your means of transporting your food breaks, if your means of obtaining fresh water doesn’t work, if your means of staying [...]
I enjoy trail running quite a bit. The surface is softer than concrete and asphalt, the terrain is less predictable, and the scenery is more beautiful. I really only run on trails I know very well, but I still take a small kit with me that contains some essentials.
Leukotape As I’ve mentioned, this is my [...]
I’m always surprised when I see people using alkaline batteries in their devices in very cold weather. These batteries need to be kept warm constantly to avoid draining them.
Lithium batteries don’t seem to suffer the same problems as alkaline. They are lighter too. This is especially handy when you have a variety of devices requiring [...]
Belay jackets are an essential piece of mountaineering gear. I picked up the idea from Mark Twight’s excellent book Extreme Alpinism: Climbing Light, Fast, and High. It works so well that I use it anytime I’m traveling in cold conditions.
Climbing involves one of two states; climbing or belaying, or to put it another way, motion [...]
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