Every May, we make videos on the mental side of climbing and adventure in recognition of National Mental Health Awareness Month. The full 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, the video gets into the importance of differentiating between risks, dangers, probabilities, and consequences and then applies 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. In the full video, 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.

As part of our Mental Health Awareness Month Series, every May we put out videos about some of climbing's mental aspects. When we unthinkingly defer to the most experienced, or expert, in our group, we increase our risks by not using multiple people's differing views to identify risks, by not gaining multiple perspectives on risk mitigation, or both.

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

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.

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.

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.

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. The full video goes into all six.

A video can introduce concepts and even provide tutorials, but it cannot cover all of the variable situations and context of outdoor environments. Learn about something here, but then seek qualified instruction to master it.

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, the full video provides a step-by-step tutorial to build 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. The full video shows how I made one and some options on how to use one.

The La Sportiva G Summit Boots are designed to be worn as either a single boot or a double boot with a removable liner. So, is it one boot that can serve all your needs? Warm enough for cold, high-altitude climbing? Light and maneuverable enough for technical climbing? How's the durability? What about the fit? The video goes into these questions and more.

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. The full video borrows 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. The full short video 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. The full video goes step by step building a Pulk Sled that is light and efficient enough for those local trips but also robust enough for expedition rigors.

The idea of taking off our boots and dipping our feet in water during a winter climb, hike, or camp may feel unpleasant, but it might actually be more important that we take care of our feet in winter than any other time of year.

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. The full video provides more on why, and a lot more on how, I build them.

As a reminder, I do not have any product sponsors. If I talk about a product, it’s because I have spent my own money on it. Here’s a little item I now keep in my winter first aid kit because super glue in an open wound stings and this does not.