I was asked if the very light weight Petzl Tibloc could be used as a rope capture for crevasse rescue systems? The answer is, 'yes,' but not without acknowledging that unweighting a Tibloc can be complicated. Here's a walkthrough of one procedure to transfer the load from a Tibloc and a discussion of how this may complicate crevasse rescue scenarios that need a lower.

The Münter hitch can be very useful. While I typically am using more modern climbing equipment for various rappelling, belaying, and rescue techniques, I still have used just the rope, a carabiner, and the Münter from time to time and in lots of different ways. This video goes deep into the Münter by getting into different ways to tie it, different pros and cons of the hitch, and a full walk through and how-to for five types of use cases where the Münter could help us out of a jam.

Should we happen to have lost our belay device while still needing to climb, we may want to employ an auto-locking hitch to help with belays from the top or pack hauls or the like. The Garda, Lorenzi, and Auto-Locking Münter hitches are all options. Here is how to create them, how we might use them, and some pros and cons that come with each.

If you go climbing in the alpine, and particularly in fully wild and maybe even unexplored areas, you are likely to be subjected to rockfall, and that rockfall can become fairly likely. So, how do we assess our terrain for rockfall risk, and then how do we mitigate that risk to keep our likelihood of getting hit by a rock low enough to feel acceptable?

I have been using the Edelrid Pinch break assisting belay device long enough now to have some perspective on the specifications and features that truly distinguish it from the Petzl Grigri. This video goes more deeply into a comparison. I have come to reach for the Pinch, first, in certain applications, but not for all of my climbing. Here's why.

I hear that canister stoves don't work in the cold a lot. But I've also used canister stoves in the cold a lot, and so have many other climbing teams who head to the coldest corners of the globe. However, it could be that there are times that canister stoves make more sense and times liquid-fuel stoves are a better option. This test of eight different stoves sheds some light on how the knocks on canister stoves are overstated as well as circumstances where liquid-fuel stoves might make a better choice.

Blue Ice took a really good harness and redesigned and rebuilt it, anyways. Is the new version of the Choucas Pro harness enough of an improvement over the older version to earn a place in your gear closet?

Two years ago, I did a video about the potential I saw in 3M Gripping Material as a wrap for ice tools. Two years later, now, I have found one version of the material to be not good enough and another version to be pretty good, but at a cost.