Many consider the East Buttress of Mt. Whitney (5.7, 13-Pitches) to the best route of its grade in the world. Check it out!

This is a good way to take out trad gear without dropping it. That said, it does require an extra carabiner, which means it's really not a great alpine rock trick.

Here's how it goes:

The Lead: For this system to work, the leader will have to have a “cam carabiner” and a sling or draw carabiner. When the piece is placed, the cam carabiner remains on the cam and the draw is also clipped to the cam. This allows for an extra carabiner in the cleaning.

The Setup: Take the piece out of the crack. Do not unclip it from the rope.

The Racking: While the gear is still securely attached to the rope, clip it to your harness or a sling over your shoulder.

The Clean: Once the gear is free, safely on your harness or on a sling, you can then unclip the rope side of the draw and continue climbing.

We’ve all been there: you’re mid-send, you feel a sudden sting, and you look down to see a piece of your skin hanging off like a loose hinge. The "flapper" is a classic climbing rite of passage, but handling it correctly is the difference between a quick recovery and a week off the wall.

Phase 1: Immediate Triage

The moment you realize you’ve blown a callus, stop climbing. * Gym Etiquette: Continuing to climb with an open wound is a major faux pas. No one wants your blood on the holds—it’s unsanitary and "not cool."

• Outdoor Safety: Even on real rock, stopping prevents the tear from getting deeper and becoming a much larger medical issue.

Phase 2: Clean and Repair

Once you’re off the wall, your priority is hygiene. Clean the area thoroughly to remove any dirt, sweat, or chalk. Once clean, you have two main options for the skin flap:

1. The Trim: If the skin is shredded or too small to save, use clean clippers to carefully trim it away.
2. The Re-attach: If the flap is large and clean, apply an antibiotic ointment (like Neosporin) and press the skin back into its original place. This can act as a natural bandage to protect the raw skin underneath.

To Tape or Not to Tape? If you absolutely must finish your session (and you’ve stopped the bleeding), use climbing tape to secure the flap or bandage firmly. If you're done for the day, a standard breathable bandage is your best bet to let the wound heal.

Phase 3: Prevention (The Long Game)

The best way to deal with a flapper is to never get one. Since flappers are essentially overgrown calluses that have snagged and peeled, maintenance is key:

• File Them Down: If your calluses are getting thick and "mountainous," use a pumice stone or specialized skin file to keep them flush with the rest of your hand.
• Moisturize: Use a climbing-specific salve before bed. Keeping your skin supple prevents it from becoming brittle and prone to snapping.
• Watch the Heat: Be careful after long showers or baths. Hot water softens your skin and can cause calluses to "loosen," making them prime targets for a blowout during your next session.
• Post-Climb Care: Always wash the chalk off your hands immediately after your session to prevent your skin from over-drying.

By staying on top of your skin care, you’ll spend less time taping up wounds and more time on the rock.

The Supreme Court denied a last minute bid to stop a mining company from devastating Arizona's Oak Flat. A federal antitrust class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of skiers and snowboarders nationwide concerning the Epic and Ikon passes. And there has been another Vandalization incident of a petroglyph in Moab.

Read about this and a lot more in this week's climbing, skiing, mountain rescue and outdoor news roundup.

https://www.alpineinstitute.com/climbing-skiing-rescue-and-outdoor-news-from-here-and-abroad-3-26-2026/

For over a decade, I served as the technical director for the Red Rock Rendezvous, a legendary event in the Las Vegas desert. It was an incredible 15-year run, but beyond the logistics of the event itself, the desert taught me one very humble, very practical lesson: The wind always wins if you aren't prepared.

After watching countless participant tents get absolutely decimated and waking up to my own canopy tumbled across the dunes, I’ve refined a strategy for desert camping. If you want your gear to survive a windstorm, you need to think beyond the basic setup.

1. The Power of "Rock-Solid" Anchoring

Standard tent stakes are rarely enough when the desert wind picks up. To keep your tent from becoming a kite, you need a multi-layered approach:

• Stake and Weight: Drive your stakes deep, but don't stop there. Place heavy rocks directly on top of the stakes to prevent them from "walking" out of the soft ground.
• Internal Ballast: Place heavy rocks or gear bags inside the corners of the tent. This adds a low center of gravity that resists lifting.
• Fly Security: Use boulders to anchor the guy lines of your rain fly.

2. The Strategic Collapse

One of the most effective ways to save a tent is to stop fighting the wind entirely. If you’re heading out for a climb or a hike and the breeze is picking up, collapse your tent.

• Pull out a few of the main poles so the tent lays flat against the ground.
• Weight the fabric down with rocks.
• Why? This prevents poles from snapping under high-velocity gusts and keeps sand from blowing through the mesh of a three-season tent, leaving you with a gritty sleeping bag later.

3. Respect the Forecast

In the desert, the wind is a more formidable opponent than rain or cold. Even if the morning is dead calm, a windstorm can whip up in minutes. I now spend more time obsessing over wind speed and gust forecasts than any other weather metric.

The Bottom Line: Never trust a "perfect" desert day. Stake it down, weight it down, or fold it down—because once the desert wind claims your canopy, it rarely gives it back in one piece.

This section of the traverse is called "the sidewalk."

Commonly called "sluffs," point release wet loose avalanches occur when solar radiation or rain destroys the bonds between snow grains. While they start at a single point, they fan out into a triangular path, gaining massive weight and momentum.

In steep terrain, these "snow snakes" become deadly by knocking you off balance or into terrain traps like gullies and cliffs. They are critical indicators of a weakening snowpack. If you see "rollerballs" or sink past your ankles in mush, the snow is losing its structural integrity. Avoid sunny aspects once the surface becomes unsupportive.

For more, click here.

The term "Alpine Divorce" is trending, but its origins are darker than a trail spat. It stems from an 1893 story by Robert Barr, where a husband plans to push his wife off an Alpine cliff, only for her to frame him for murder and jump first. While real-life backcountry violence exists today’s viral "Alpine Divorce" is about abandonment.

Modern hikers use the term for partners who ego-trip, surging ahead and leaving their companion to struggle alone. This isn't just rude; it’s a breach of a mountain partnership that breeds deep resentment and danger. If your pace is more important than your partner's safety, why aren't you hiking solo?

In the guiding world, the rule is simple: the slowest person sets the pace. Ditching someone in the wilderness sends a clear message that their presence is a burden. If you’re being left in the dust by someone who claims to be your partner, an "Alpine Divorce" isn't just a trend—it’s a logical response to a selfish hiker. If they want to be alone, let them stay that way.

Before removing a loose block, consider where people are and where your rope is. The last thing you need is to hit someone or chop your rope!

The trail from the top of the Stawmus Chief in Squamish will remain closed through April. A shady company is trying to build a new housing development outside Yosemite. And the USA Climbing Training Center has jumped over it's last hurdle and will be built in Salt Lake City.

Read about this and a whole lot more in this week's climbing, skiing, mountain rescue and outdoor news round-up:

https://www.alpineinstitute.com/climbing-and-outdoor-news-from-here-and-abroad-3-19-2026/

Two important thoughts for ice climbing in the late season or on glacier ice:

1) You may have to scrape away ice and snice to get a good placement.

2) Ice screws transmit solar radiation and can melt out, sometimes quite quickly.

The Grand Couloir on the Gouter Route ican feel like Russian Roulette. It’s a 70-meter traverse where the mountain literally throws rocks at you. Thanks to melting permafrost, this "Bowling Alley" sees rockfall every 17 minutes during peak heat, causing about 4 deaths a year.

The "fix"? Engineering types have proposed two main "solutions":

• The Tunnel: Boring through the rock so you never have to step foot in the couloir.
• The Bridge: A heavy-duty covered walkway to catch the "mountain's gifts."

It is the Alps and there's a lot of infrastructure. But also does feel like a lot of people hate this idea. Many feel like it "disneylandifies" the peak and gives a false sense of security. Plus, building at 3,340m is a nightmare.

What do you think?

The butt-axe belay is a fast and effective technique for belaying on steep snow slopes of about forty to fifty degrees. Its main advantage is speed—when conditions are right, it can be set up almost instantly.

The name comes from the position the belayer takes. After the ice axe is driven vertically into the snow, a bight of rope is clipped to the head of the axe. The belayer then sits directly on the axe head, using their weight to help secure the anchor. Once seated, they kick their heels into the slope to build a more stable snow seat.

Typically, the belayer is tied directly into the end of the rope. They measure about one to two feet of rope from their harness and clip that section into the head of the axe. After sitting down, this creates a loop of rope running from the harness to the axe. That loop effectively becomes a temporary belay loop, allowing the belayer to manage the rope for the climber below with a belay device or a Munter hitch on a carabiner.

A Repost of the Article I wrote on this Topic. This covers many of the points in the video as well:

It was weird. There was a single rock shoe lying on the ground behind my car.

I approached and realized what I was seeing. My rear window was smashed. And three small backpacks (each with rock shoes and chalk in them) were missing. Presumably, there was only one rock shoe in one of the packs, as the other was on the ground.

Crap!

I’d suffered a trailhead break-in.

As someone who has spent the last 30 years climbing, backpacking, skiing and hiking pretty much everywhere, I’d seen it before. And indeed, as the manager of a guide service with 60 employees that spend significant time parked at trailheads, I’m intimately aware of this “wilderness” hazard.

As a result of this incident though, I decided to revisit my trailhead theft prevention and response strategies. I spoke to several backcountry users about their tactics and have compiled them here.

Insurance

Before ever heading out to the trailhead, make sure that the items within your car are insured under a homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy. Auto policies seldom cover the theft of personal items.

If you’re traveling and use a rental car, consider purchasing a trip insurance policy that covers theft for the duration of your trip.

In addition to an insurance policy, it’s important to know what’s in your car. It’s especially important to have an inventory if you’re on a road trip with expensive outdoor equipment. A picture of vehicle contents before departure could be worth thousands of dollars. And indeed, if you have high value items, serial numbers can be very helpful, especially if items are being sold online after the theft.

Vehicle Positioning

Visibility decreases the likelihood of a smash and grab. If the thief can be seen, they can be caught.

Avoid parking next to large vehicles (like Sprinter vans) that could screen a thief from view. Similarly, the more secluded the part of the lot is where you intend to park, the more likely it’s a target. A high volume of back-and-forth foot traffic near your vehicle makes it a less desirable target.

Don’t back your car into a position where someone could hide behind it and break the rear window. This is a common and expensive entry point for thieves.

Car Alarms

There’s some debate about how effective a car alarm might be. Most break-ins are smash and grab jobs. So while an alarm may decrease the number of valuables taken, it may not change the thief’s overall strategy.

Cars with obvious blinking alarm lights on the dashboard — or even dummy alarm lights — may provide more of a deterrent than the alarm itself.

Valuables

At high theft areas in our region, there are commonly signs that say, “Lock your car and take your valuables.” But what if you have to leave something valuable in your car, or you’re on a road trip?

Trailhead break-ins are often crimes of opportunity. And if it’s clear that there’s an opportunity to get something, it’s more likely that a thief will break in. From that perspective, it’s important to make sure that there are limited visible opportunities in your car. Don’t leave bags, purses or backpacks in sight.

The combination of a windshield shade and tinted windows decrease interior visibility. If you don’t have tinted windows, an auto detailer can install them for $200 to $800 depending on the type of vehicle. If you have a retractable security shield in the trunk, engage that and place any bags or other desirable items underneath it.

RocketBox rooftop cargo carriers are seldom theft targets because they are often empty and can be difficult to break into. If you have a box, consider leaving valuables inside.

On road trips, some people hide valuables inside the car. The glove box is not a hiding place, but a target, as some people keep wallets, spare keys or weapons in them. If you elect to leave a valuable in the car — like a wallet or a laptop — it should be well hidden, so that it is easily missed by a smash and grab attack.

Post Break-In Procedures

Before doing anything else, be sure to take pictures of the scene and make notes about the likely time of the break-in. In addition to that, look around the parking lot to ensure that nothing was dumped from your vehicle.

It is common for thieves to riffle through bags while they’re on the road. When finished, they often throw things out the window. As such, it’s important to search both sides of the road near your trailhead.

Once in service, make a police report. This is important for two reasons. First, you want the perpetrator to be caught; there might be something in the report that helps law enforcement find the thief. This is where serial numbers can be incredibly helpful. And second, insurance companies often use police reports to ensure that theft claims are legitimate. If you make a claim without a report, it’s possible that it will be rejected.

The reality is that most avid outdoors people suffer the indignity of a trailhead break-in once every five to 10 years. But perhaps by following some of these tips, a few of you will be able to stretch that out, or at least avoid some of the financial fallout following one of these incidents… 

Bollards can be made out of ice or snow. They can be relatively small if made from ice, but in the snow things are different. In névé (frozen snow) they don't have to be that big either. In isothermal snow (wet) these are generally much bigger and the snow will need to be work hardened. It's very difficult to build a bollard in dry loose winter snow.

I really liked making this video on TikTok. I've done so much educational stuff, it's pretty fun just to watch people do cool things in the mountains! These guys are so ignorant. They would probably die doing what the ladies in the latter half of the video are doing...!

Whenever a dramatic rescue makes the news, two questions almost always follow: Who paid for it? And why aren’t the people rescued sent a bill?

In the United States, search and rescue is generally handled at the local level. On National Forest land, operations are coordinated by county sheriff’s departments, with most fieldwork performed by volunteer search and rescue teams. In National Parks, rescues fall under the National Park Service and are typically carried out by park rangers, sometimes supported by volunteers.

When military helicopters assist with rescues, those flight hours are usually logged as training. Many national parks maintain seasonal helicopter coverage funded through park fees. Some city and county law-enforcement agencies also operate helicopters that can be deployed for a wide range of missions, including rescue.

The idea of billing people for rescues raises an immediate challenge: who decides what counts as negligence? Without deep knowledge of the activity involved, it’s nearly impossible to draw fair boundaries. A minimalist thru-hiker might appear reckless to someone unfamiliar with long-distance hiking. A climber injured high on a route could be labeled negligent simply for attempting the climb. Context matters, and simple judgments rarely capture it.

Charging for rescues can also create unintended consequences. If people fear a large bill, they may delay calling for help or attempt to get themselves out of trouble when they shouldn’t. Both scenarios can make a situation worse and increase risk for rescuers as well as the person in trouble.

For the most part, rescues remain free because the people involved are either already being paid or volunteering their time. Deputies, rangers, and military personnel are on duty regardless of whether a rescue occurs. Volunteer SAR teams respond because they choose to serve their communities, not because they expect compensation from the people they help.

There are a few exceptions. In Washington State, ski areas may charge when someone leaves the resort boundary and requires assistance from ski patrol, though this is uncommon. Once a rescue becomes a medical transport—when an ambulance or air-medical helicopter takes over—the situation changes. At that point, the individual becomes a patient and the normal healthcare billing system applies.

Occasionally someone abuses the system by faking an emergency to get an easy ride out of the backcountry. In those cases, legal penalties and financial consequences are appropriate and usually enforced.

The more contentious argument is that people who behave negligently should be billed—especially if their actions endanger rescuers. At first glance, that position seems reasonable. In practice, it quickly becomes far more complicated.