Do we need to add a stopper knot when we tie into the climbing rope with a figure eight retrace knot? Does it help? Could it be harmful in any way? Let's find out.

The short answer is, "no, you cannot make the perfect crevasse rescue anchor." The inherent tradeoffs between speed and anchor strength and adaptability mean that we have a series of risk-mitigating decisions we need to make before we ever start hauling our climbing partner out of the crevasse. The full video gets into those tradeoffs so that we can make the best choices we can should we ever really need to make them.

When we are trying to move fast over moderate terrain, rope management can often be the difference in speed. So, when we need to bring two end roped climbers closer together to avoid rope dragging over loose ground or around corners of winding terrain, this technique is about the fastest way possible to shorten that rope.

When we want to change lead climbers on a glacier, we have to do so in a way that still protects the team from crevasse falls. The full video provides three methods for getting a trailing climber into the lead position.

A 6-to-1 crevasse rescue system, or a "z-haul" on the back of a "drop loop," is a flexible system that can mitigate many of the problems that arrive in various crevasse rescue scenarios. In the full video, we demonstrate setting up and using the base system given a team of three climbers.

A non-rated webbing is what comes with most chalk bags. But we can replace that flimsy webbing with a more robust cord that still functions for its main purpose, keeping our chalk bag attached to us, while also providing material we can use to facilitate an escape from a route, should we ever need it.

We have fallen into a crevasse that is overhanging. We are free hanging, unable to touch the wall. We are tight against our knot, so have little rope slack to work with. The full video gets into we do first, to stabilize our situation, and then how we ascend the rope to self-extract.

How can you tell when your climbing rope is core shot? And if it is core shot, what can we do about it? Let's look at a core shot rope, study its properties compared to a healthy rope, and talk about how to manage the rope both in the field and once we get it back home.

If we have a climbing partner injured on rappel (abseil) who is weighting the rope, how can we get quickly down to them to render aid? The full video demonstrates this method and describes how it has evolved over time.

When we head out into the backcountry for a climb, hike, or backpacking trip, having a sense of the surrounding topography can prove essential. Beyond having devices and apps, taking the time to plot out routes and familiarize ourselves with area maps creates the mental images we need to make decisions on the fly when things get complicated.

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. The full video gets into an experiment I ran to see if smaller or larger pots would be more efficient given different stove types.

Long cord can tangle, be difficult to deploy, or even trip us if racked poorly on our climbing harness. Here's how the weave wrap can keep long cord stored compactly, stay tangle free, and remain deployable with one hand.

New climbers, and even some experienced climbers, can improve both efficiency and safety by learning how to tie a high-quality figure eight retrace knot regardless of changing rope diameters. The full video provides a step-by-step process to get a knot that meets all the best-practice criteria, a breakdown of those criteria so we understand why they are important, and a walkthrough of a final knot check we should perform every time we tie in.

When we are out climbing, hiking, or backpacking in the backcountry, there can come times when we want to estimate how much time we have before the sun dips behind the horizon. Here's a quick way to make that estimate without any equipment.

When I am out climbing, there are times when I might choose to lower a first climber down a pitch rather than have the climber rappel. The full video gets into five circumstances that I have faced, personally, and discusses the tradeoffs of choosing to lower in those circumstances.

Avalanches are more likely to occur on slopes between 30 and 45 degrees. We can quickly check the angle of a slope in the field by employing some geometry and two matching pieces of equipment like trekking poles or snow pickets. Here's how.

Context is key. The systems we choose to employ on our climbs will be more or less effective depending upon the specific circumstances we face. So, I am hesitant to use the words "always" and "never" when it comes to climbing techniques. The full video, as an example, gives four exceptions to the notion that we always belay a leader from the harness and a follower from the anchor.

There are times where the terrain looks easily passable but one new variable, like loose rock or exposure, may make a rope and harness the sensible choice. Well, we need to have our harness on, already, because it may be too difficult to put it on once you really need it.

One of the strong women in my climbing community, Jane, passed along this tip about using chemical hand warmers on our wrists to help avoid the cold hands that ice climbing can so easily cause.

We have a lot of climbers in our family, and therefore a lot of ice axes and ice tools. We want to be able to keep our sharpened picks in good condition and also want to keep those picks from damaging other gear while in transit. So, we make our own pick guards. We find this solution to be more cost effective and provide better protection than the commercially available solutions.