Category: Techniques & Tips
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Batons d’Skibum: DIY Baton Poles for Ski Touring
November 9, 2025 The rather polarizing french baton style ski poles have taken ski touring industry by storm and have many advantages. As a cheap* option, you can easily make your own. All you need is a set of basic aluminum resort poles and few bike parts. *These parts sourced from a bike shop could…
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Essential Free Mapping Tools for Ski and Climbing Trips
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August 7, 2025 It seems every business seems to want at least a few bucks a month off your credit card. This can really start to add up if you’re a frugal ski/climbing bum. Here’s how I map and plan outdoor trips without paying for any specific mapping subscriptions. Caltopo.com My ‘meat and potatoes’ application.…
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The Flat Tarp: A Very Verstatile Alpine Shelter
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A simple flat tarp is an amazingly versatile shelter above and below the treeline. A decent silnylon or silpoly tarp is very lightweight and can provide a solid shelter. Setting up a tarp shelter takes creativity and a bit of practice. The standard a-frame using trekking poles or trees is fairly straight forward, but these…
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Ski Patroller/Avalanche Technician Gear Loadout
Items included are from my pack/pockets. From top left: For context I work in a very wet/coastal snowpack hence the clear lenses and waterproof gloves. This is not a perfect list, but it is what I actually carry. February 17, 2025
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Revive Your Climbing Skins: Glue Ironing
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January 10, 2024 Climbing skins are some of the most fickle pieces in a ski touring kit. More specifically the glue. It often ends up leaving sticky globs on bases as the skin’s age, or failing and losing it’s tackiness when you need it most. Doing a full re-glue is a messy and involved process,…
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Friction Hitches For Self Rescue
Almost all climbers and mountaineers carry a prusik cord with them in the mountains primarily as a rappel backup and for self rescue situations. By changing a few key things and learning a few new hitches, this cord can become a far more versatile tool. Hitch Cord I prefer to use technora core accessory cord…
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DIY Wrist Warmers
June 2, 2024 Cold hands are often a challenge in the alpine. One solution to get more warmth without sacrificing any dexterity is wrist warmers One can make these in about 30 seconds with a pair or scissors and some worn out wool socks. These keep the exposed veins/arteries on the underside of your wrist…
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Approach Shoes with Crampons
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May 29, 2024 How to use approach shoes beyond their intended design and get traditional mountaineers to shape their alpenstocks at you in dismay. Limitations Right off the bat I want to highlight that combining crampons with approach should not be used as a replacement for mountain boots, you will hit limitations on steep snow…
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A Better Progress Capture Hitch
April 8, 2024 Progress capture hitches seem to be a bit of a lost skill with modern gear, few climbers seem to be familiar with them. Although these hitches don’t really have a place in your everyday rope systems, they can be incredibly useful in self rescue systems or in place of dropped gear. The…
Sandro Summits 