Articles » Climbing Gear And Equipment
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Choosing Your Mountaineering Boots
If you’ve worn that hiking trail by walking over it a thousand times and you’ve been through all the other challenging paths, then you might just want to consider moving on to mountaineering. Not to be confused with hiking, mountaineering offers more rigorous exertions but is not yet as death defying as rock and ice climbing. Your trusty old hiking shoes therefore may just not suffice for the more arduous challenge of conquering a mountain.
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Basic Tips in Choosing Your Skateboarding Shoes
There was a point in time when our dads owned skateboards just for amusement and recreation, serious or otherwise. Today however, skateboarding has truly evolved into a major extreme sport. A skateboard is not something you use to just whiz by the neighborhood on a sunny day. A skateboard is something others use to go over a frighteningly steep ramp or a horizontal or diagonal bar or pole. Now, more than ever, skateboarding has gained respect as a challenging sport.
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Know Your Essential Ice Climbing Gear
With a little over a million already having tried ice climbing, it seems Americans have probably grown a little tired of the regular challenge of a normal rock face. Mountain and rock climbing are already somewhat challenging sports to get into. If you don’t fare well in either of the first two, you probably would do better keeping away from that sheet of ice.
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Getting Your Foot Fitted into the Right Climbing Rock Shoes
Sports shoes have gotten more complicated through the years. Depending on your sport, your shoe choices have just gotten a little more varied. Probably the most complex options belong to the rock climber. If you are intent on picking the proper climbing rock shoes you need more than just fashion sense. You even need more than just safety sense. As a rock climber, you should have some knowledge of the sport itself before getting your pair of climbing rock shoes.
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Correct Climbing Gear Can Be a Life Saver
Free climbing is an up and coming sport in the United States. In fact, the number of people who participate in this extreme sport number in the hundreds of thousands in this country alone, and that number gets even larger world wide. Much of what has helped the sport grow is due in no small part to advances in the climbing technology. Equipment now makes free climbing safer than it ever has been before, which makes it more accessible to more people than ever before.
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Climbing - The Pinnacle of Adventure
Mountain climbing is one of the most thrilling activities in the world. Just the image of that snow-capped colossus in the distance is enough to set the heart racing. While it takes years to become expert, anyone who is fit can get started with only some basic training - provided they have expert guides on the trip.
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Every climber needs foot covering. Only the simplest, shortest kind of climb could be done barefooted, and then only for a short time. But that isn't mountain climbing, it's just hiking without shoes or boots.
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Safety Guidelines for Novice Climbers
They may sound like daredevils when seen on TV or interviewed in an article, but experienced climbers are heavily focused on safety at all times. They understand the risks and the consequences of ignoring them.
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Ice Climbing, The Peak Pursuit
A great deal of mountain climbing takes place in higher altitudes and colder temperatures. These are hardly unrelated, after all. But the peak of that activity, pun intended, is ice climbing.
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Anyone who has seen the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind is familiar with Devil's Tower in Wyoming. And, of course Mount Everest is known to people all over the world who have never been anywhere near Nepal. But expert climbers are aware of hundreds of (sometimes lesser known) locations that also offer great climbing opportunities.
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Taking a class on climbing is the surest, quickest way to ramp up for the real thing. Experienced teachers can help novices learn the basics of protection, safety, technique and assessment. They'll provide useful information about first aid, health risks (such as AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) and Frostbite), what clothing to wear and many more topics.
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Fitness Tips for Novice Climbers
Climbing, whatever your preferred style, is a strenuous activity. That is, after all, why so many pursue and enjoy it. Pushing yourself to the limit is a big part of the thrill. But doing that is only rational when you've prepared your body properly. Otherwise, it's just self-inflicted punishment.
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First Aid Guidelines for Novice Climbers
When you're out on the mountain, health problems happen. Injuries, illnesses and other issues occur. Often, professional help is a long way and a long time away. It's important to be able to treat minor conditions to keep them from becoming major. It's important to deal correctly with serious issues to minimize the odds of them being fatal.
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The popular image of the risk involved in something as dangerous as mountain or rock climbing is that of falling. But, in fact, because of superb gear and long experience, falling is actually among the least likely events. They do happen, but many other injuries involved with rising are much more common.
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Images of climbing bring to mind ropes, pitons and other gear. But what the climber wears is also of vital importance - in the Latin sense of the word 'vital', meaning 'life'. In climbing, clothes aren't just a matter of style or comfort, they're protective gear as well.
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Climbing Styles and Categories
Climbing actually covers a wide range of different activities. Everything from bouldering, to free soloing, to sport, trad (traditional), aid and even alpine or ice climbing is enjoyed by those who all call themselves climbers.
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Basic Rope Techniques For Climbing
Ropes are essential to most styles of climbing and learning to select and use them is part of the basic education of any beginning climber.
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Basic Knots for Beginning Climbers
One of the earliest lessons to absorb in a beginning climbing class is how to tie some basic knots. But far from a Boy Scout merit badge exercise, these lessons can save your life.
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One of the most important pieces of gear you'll need for mountain climbing isn't actually a single device, but a family: the so-called 'pros' or protective gear.
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Basic Climbing Gear - Carabiners and Rope Harnesses
Almost all climbs will require some kind of rope harness, ropes and a number of carabiners. These constitute the basic equipment for anyone doing anything other than a free climb.
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Even in the 21st century, with over a hundred years of climbing experience and modern gear, avalanches still kill many each year. One of the reasons lies in something called, appropriately enough, catastrophe theory. The physics is complex, but the basic ideas are simple: avalanches occur abruptly and are extremely hard to predict.
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If you want to learn to climb, there's no substitute for taking a class from a knowledgeable instructor, one with deep experience in climbing. That class will be a combination of lecture and hands-on training. You'll be guided in acquiring a wide variety of skills that are essential for safe and effective climbing.
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AMS, Frostbite and many other environment related issues are inherent features of certain climbs. Knowing what produces them can help you avoid their harmful consequences.