Category: Hiking with ropes
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How to aquaseal your trail shoes
Adding aquaseal to one’s trail shoes should be standard practice to maximize useful life, otherwise known as trying to keep the upper hole-free until the tread is worn down to nothing. If you walk in rough terrain, and especially if you get your shoes wet frequently, this is not always easy to accomplish. Depending on…
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Rab Novak
For several years now I’ve been looking for an ideal fleece insulating layer, with only modest success. This layer should be warm enough for stand-alone use in many three-season conditions, as light as possible, have minimal to no lycra in the fabric, fit over a baselayer but under a shell, and have a few pockets…
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LaSportiva Bushido review
Never have I bought a pair of shoes with such low expectations, that over a year later ended up being so close to perfect. I purchased the Bushidos, last minute and at full retail, way back in January of 2015, concerned that my Altra Lone Peaks wouldn’t last the trip to New Zealand. This was…
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wilderness in Wilderness
The Bob is awesome. Video by Michael Reavis. Anyone who’s been out in the woods a lot and has been paying attention should be aware of this problem; that even the quietest, most fleeting and “natural” of human travel in the wild has a significant impact on the plants and animals who live there full…
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4th class
The east exit chimney in Rock Canyon in not 4th class. I’m fairly Steve Allen first called it that, in Canyoneering 2, but Allen’s notorious, egregious overgrading can be justified as he was usually the first person publicizing these things. What is less easy to justify is the use of that rating in the Hayduke…
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BD Alpine Start hoody: the final word
Black Diamond’s Alpine Start hoody hasn’t changed much in the two years it’s been on the market (and since I first wrote about it). The material, a light and tough softshell with excellent breathability and darn good weatherproofing, is unchanged and remains the heart of what is (still) the most versatile and all-around best outdoor…
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Nine years of fear
I learned a while ago, and have re-learned many times since, that fear before a trip rarely has much to do with conditions or hazard, and has everything to do with the concern that you’ll soon have to do something difficult. To perform close to the known ends of your abilities. The sooner that fear…
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The most important backcountry skill
The above is a screen grab from the latest episode of Meat Eater. Whats significant here is not the episode itself, which is an excellent one, but what Steve Rinella is doing here. A few minutes prior he shot a large-antlered, mature mule deer, fulfilling a decades long quest with a perfectly placed 392 yard…
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The closest I’ve come
This post the other week got me thinking about the fact I’ve never called for or thought about calling for a rescue, on what occasions I’ve been closest to doing so, and what things prevented me from doing so. The following is a fairly hasty and not especially hierarchical overview of the incidences which came…
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Seek Outside Divide 4500 by the numbers
This is generation two of Seek Outside’s backpacking/all purpose pack, the Divide. Specs on this one are ~4500 cubic inches. 35 inches of unrolled height along the back panel, 32 inches of effective height (shown in first photo, below) with two rolls of the roll top. Top circumference is 40.5 inches, bottom is 36. The…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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