On a recent climbing trip, I forgot my harness, used up gear making an improvised harness, and was confronted with a cascading series of risk assessments and mitigations as a result. Here is a case study of a climbing day when things went fine but imperfectly, as many days climbing end up being.

On a fairly recent climbing trip, I forgot my harness. That left me needing to improvise a harness or make the long trip back without getting on the rock. Here’s how I used a quad runner, a double runner, and three carabiners to make a harness that was redundant throughout and comfortable enough to go up and down a multi-pitch climb without noticeable discomfort.

Every piece of climbing equipment has its strengths and weaknesses. The tube-style plaquette devices I use a lot, because I am often climbing with both of my boys, are no exception. Here are three ways these devices can fail to break assist when in the wrong circumstances along with what we can do to mitigate those risks.

We make sure our new climbing system (belay, rappel, anchor, etc.) can take your weight before we start taking apart your previous system as we move through a climbing transition. Kind of common sense, huh? Not very enlightening. But what if we take that same concept and apply it in less obvious ways. Can keeping a mental model of "weight the new system, first" keep us safer more generally?

Four years into our channel, the boys and I made a full-circle trip to the location where we filmed our very first video. Like any full-circle event, it prompted some reflection on how far we’ve come as a family, how much the boys have grown and matured, and how I’ve come to live with some personal struggles. We’ve made a short video that celebrates this trip that was four years in the making.

Winter climbing trips are often extended from one to two day affairs, or even longer. Trailhead access can be further away as only main roads remain open. And then approach hikes take longer due to difficult conditions, as well. If we need more time out in the backcountry, and now need to set camps, we may want to haul, rather than carry in all that bulky, winter gear. Here is how to build a Pulk Sled that is light and efficient enough for those local trips but also robust enough to stand up to expedition rigors.

If I'm going to be winter camping, on snow, in the same place for a while - think an expedition basecamp or a long-weekend outing - I will often make a dedicated kitchen in camp. With appropriate snow depth, a pyramid tent kitchen is my preferred version to make because it grants shelter, mobility, and better ergonomics. Here is more on why, and a lot more on how, I build them.

I’m not a big man. I’m 5’ 6” or a little less than 1.5 meters tall. I weigh about 140 pounds or less than 65 kilograms. While that is good for not having to take a lot of bulk up alpine objectives, it does mean that fitting into equipment can be hard. The most troubling, for me, was getting my small boots to lock in at the toe of my crampons without having room to slide around from side to side. Here is a deeper dive into crampon toe attachment options for people with smaller boots.