Climbing at three miles (4800 meters) above sea level can be a challenge for out body's physiology. Having access to almost as high of peaks in Colorado, here is how I spent the final month before my trip to that three-mile altitude to ensure I showed up pre-acclimatized to the altitude along with a discussion about why intermittent trips up to altitude can still help acclimatization.

Flextail makes the Zero Pump and claims it to be the lightest self-contained pump for both inflating and vacuum deflating your backcountry sleeping mattress. I purchased my own and tested it out over multiple seasons. Here's a full review of the pump and my take on circumstances when carrying this into the wild makes sense for me.

A trip plan can keep you and your climbing partners on the same page but also can help your loved ones deal with any emergencies that might arise. So, what can we put in our trip plans to ensure we meet these needs?

Whether going from sea level to moderate altitude or from moderate altitude to high altitude, our bodies need time - and water - to adjust and adapt to the reduced oxygen we will take in. This video gives an overview of the physiology, the potential illnesses, and the preventative tactics that all come into play when we experience significant altitude changes.

Every May, we make videos on the mental side of climbing and adventure in recognition of National Mental Health Awareness Month. This video talks about close call assessments, discussing what they are, who uses them, how they can make our climbing safer, and walks through a low-effort way we can apply them to our own climbing.

Every May, we make videos on the mental side of climbing and adventure in recognition of National Mental Health Awareness Month. This week, we are getting into a question I was asked about how I view risks verses dangers in climbing. Drawing heavily from my upbringing, I get into the importance of differentiating between risks, dangers, probabilities, and consequences and then apply those concepts to help us better mitigate risks.

Every May, we make videos on the mental side of climbing and adventure in recognition of National Mental Health Awareness Month. This week, we are going deeper into a subscriber's question about how I balance climbing, video creation, work, family, all of it along with how the goal of balance affects what and when and how I climb.

Every May, we make videos on the mental side of climbing and adventure in recognition of National Mental Health Awareness Month. In this video, we discuss how shared decision making creates empowerment which, in turn, improves team performance and our enjoyment of the mountains.

In the older days of gas stoves, conventional wisdom was that a larger pot would make turning snow into boiling water more efficient when on a climbing expedition. But new equipment may have changed the calculus. Here's an experiment I ran to see if smaller or larger pots would be more efficient given different stove types.

Our boys, Connor and Kade, have been gathering up a pretty good amount of cold, winter, snowy camp experience. So, they wanted to each share three tips - so six tips total - that they find to be the biggest difference makers when it comes to staying warm in camp.

Remote canister stoves often improve stove performance in cold weather when compared to standard canister stoves. But remote canister stoves can be hard to use in the harshest environments when there is no means to safely hang the stove. Well, here's a DIY(ish) solution for that problem.

There are lots of ways to maintain a warmer temperature for your canister fuel, thus improving the performance of your camp stove when out climbing, backpacking, or camping in the snow. One way is using a bath for the canister, into which you can pour warm water. Here's how I made one and some options on how to use one.

Depending upon your part of the world, winter climbing can bring extreme cold that can make the seemingly simplest things complicated. I got asked a question about how we stop our drinking water from freezing when temperatures dip into the extreme. We can borrow lessons from many high altitude climbers who regularly face those types of extreme temperatures.

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.

Each new climbing season brings with it a group of climbers who are new to climbing in that season. And now it is winter. It's always someone's first time peak bagging through the snow drifts after years of dry-weather hiking. It's always someone's first time on ice. It's always someone's climb up that choss-filled gully that is now covered in an inviting blanket of consolidated snow. These new winter climbers probably have equipment questions, and the one I get the most is about why the different front-point styles for crampons? Well, let's get into it.

When the boys were nine years old, we took them to Trek the Tour de Mont Blanc. We’ve spent the last few weeks using that trip as a case study for some expedition planning videos. Well, we also made a very short movie about the trip, just a remembrance for us and maybe a preview for any viewers who are considering going.

No climbing, backpacking, or trekking expedition goes perfectly. We get some things in planning and executing the expedition just right, but we also don't do enough of some things (like, maybe, communication) or too much of others (like, maybe, overtraining). So, we like to enable continuous improvement by doing a facilitated retrospective on a completed expedition. What we learn from everyone's unique perspectives helps leverage strengths and avoid pitfalls when we head out on the next big trip.