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Mountains
There are myriad reasons to head into the mountains: fresh air, beautiful views, challenging trails, the chance to see wildlife, and the perspective you gain from going to a place that reminds you how small you are in the grand scheme of things. Mountains are awe-inspiring and seemingly endless, they look great in your vacation photos, and they are a lot more accessible than most people think. Sure, you might think a day in the mountains means hanging off a cliff by one hand, skiing down a slope while barely outrunning an avalanche, or spending days hunkered down in a snow cave at 18,000 feet, but the mountains are much friendlier and more accessible than lots of the images we often see of them in the media.
If you have a basic level of fitness—meaning you can walk or jog 3 to 5 miles without stopping (or feeling like you’re going to cough up a lung)—exploring mountain terrain may be right for you. This chapter will introduce you to where to go, how to stay safe and mostly comfortable, what to wear, what equipment to take with you, and how to avoid getting lost in the mountains.
How do I read a topographic map?
Map reading is a skill that’s often lamented as being a thing of the past. But even with all the new technology we have, you should still have a basic knowledge of how to read topographic maps. A GPS only tells you where you are on a topo map, and sadly, unlike your smartphone, it can’t give you directions to the summit or the next alpine lake. Topographic maps use contour lines to show where terrain goes uphill and downhill, and navigating in the outdoors requires the ability to look at a map and match the formation of contour lines to a geographic feature—for example, mountains don’t often display signs telling you which one is which, but with a topographic map you should be able to tell them apart.
Here are a few basic features of topographic maps.
• The path of a contour line shows land of equal elevation—if you were to walk the exact path of a contour line, you would never gain or lose elevation.
• Contour lines that are closer together represent steep grades (if contour lines are very close together, that’s a cliff), and contour lines that are farther apart represent flat areas.
• When contour lines form Vs or Us signifying a gully, creek, or couloir, the tip of the V (or U) is pointing uphill, and the V or U opens downhill. When contour lines form Vs or Us signifying a mountain ridge, the V or U points downhill and opens uphill.
• When contour lines form a circle, oval, or ring, this signifies a summit of a mountain. An hourglass-shaped formation of contour lines is a pass or a col, which is a low point between two peaks.
Do I need to carry a map, or can I use a smartphone app?
There are plenty of great apps that will enable you to download topographic maps to your smartphone, as well as navigational apps that use the GPS in your phone. While you may not need a map of a short day-hiking trail just outside the city, a longer trip in unfamiliar terrain is a different story, and it’s good to have a paper map along, or a paper map plus your smartphone-based map or navigation program. If you’re on a five-day backpacking trip and your phone battery dies, or your phone gets too cold and shuts itself down, or it gets soaked in a rainstorm, or you drop it and crack the screen . . . you get the picture. A paper map is good to have, at the very least to serve as a backup. It can also be nice to look at a map that shows your entire trip in one place, as opposed to scrolling around the digital map on your 2-inch screen.
Can I bring my dog on a hike?
There is no national law or rule that covers dogs on all public lands—there are different rules for different types of land. National parks allow dogs in campgrounds and in parking lots but not on trails. National forests generally allow dogs, state parks usually allow dogs on leashes, and dogs are allowed on most Bureau of Land Management lands. To find out if your dog is welcome on your hike, call the agency that oversees the area you’re visiting before you leave home. When you’re there, keep in mind that if you do bring your dog and let him or her roam off leash, there are a lot of other animals in the wilderness, and their interactions with Fido might be bad for one or both of them (think: porcupines). And make sure to pick up your dog’s poop—it’s as unpleasant for people to step in it in the backcountry as it is on a city street.
Why should I try hiking?
Hiking has the lowest barrier to entry of all outdoor sports—all you need to start are a pair of decent walking shoes and a water bottle. Hiking includes trails in length from a few hundred feet to thousands of miles, depending what your objective is. If your objective is to see amazing natural features—mountains, waterfalls, desert towers, deep canyons, alpine lakes—then you should try it. If you can walk a few miles without stopping, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator doesn’t make you gasp, you have a good baseline fitness level for hiking. Hikes are generally rated easy, moderate, or difficult, and if you’re not sure what level is right for you, start with an easy hike and work your way up—there’s no sense in having your first experience feel like an endless death march.
Should I go hiking by myself?
As long as you let someone know your plans (see here) and have some common sense, there’s no reason you can’t go hiking by yourself. Know where you’re headed and how to navigate there, be prepared to take care of yourself during inclement weather or in case of a minor injury, take a cell phone and/or emergency locator beacon along with you in case of emergency (depending on how remote your hike is) and bear spray (if applicable), and be aware of the environment—some urban parks are not as safe as others, and if your destination has had recent incidents in which lone hikers have been targeted, take a friend with you. For the most part, there’s no reason to be nervous or hesitant to head out by yourself, as long as you give it some thought and planning beforehand.
How do I drive in the mountains?
If you’ve ever driven up or down a steep mountain road, you might have asked your passenger, “What’s that smell?” It’s brakes—yours or someone else’s. The best thing you can do for your car when driving in mountainous terrain is to know how to use its transmission: on long, steep downhill grades, shift down to a lower gear until you feel the transmission slowing the car down. Then use your brakes appropriately until the grade lessens, and as you come out of the downhill onto flatter terrain, shift back into drive (or the appropriate gear if you have a manual transmission). When you’re going uphill, if your engine is losing power while climbing, shift down into a lower gear and make sure your air conditioning is turned off because the A/C sucks power from the engine. When driving on curvy two-lane mountain roads, be mindful if other cars start to line up behind you, and pull off onto the shoulder to let them pass. At high altitudes, keep your eyes out for moisture, black ice, and snow, which will stay on high-altitude roads much longer into the spring and summer and will form much earlier in the fall than at lower elevations. Give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination—25 miles of curvy, switchbacking mountainous roads will take much longer to drive than 25 miles on a wide, straight freeway.
Ten Mountain Terms Defined
1. Couloir: A steep gully on a mountain; the term is French in origin but used internationally and is pronounced “cool-whar.”
2. Crag: An outcrop of rock; commonly used to refer to a rock-climbing area with several climbing routes.
3. Crevasse: A fissure splitting a glacier; it can be a few feet deep or hundreds of feet deep and can be hidden by snowfall.
4. Cornice: A formation of snow overhanging a ridge or cliff and built up by wind.
5. Glacier: A slow-moving but permanent field of ice and snow on a mountain.
6. Pass: A low point between two peaks that allows passage.
7. Saddle: A flat, broad area between two high points.
8. Scree: A loose surface of small rocks on the side of a mountain.
9. Talus: An area of large boulders on the side of a mountain or at the base of a cliff.
10. Treeline: The elevation above which trees do not grow; it varies widely according to local climate, soil, and latitude.
Should I take my phone when I go hiking?
Opinions on phones in the outdoors vary widely, but there’s a big difference between incessantly talking and texting on your phone when you’re in a beautiful place and turning that phone to airplane mode and still using it as a camera, navigational device, or music source (preferably with headphones). The point of hiking to many people is to get away from daily connected life, so if your phone gets in the way of your getting away, leave it in the car or just turn it off and throw it in your backpack, because it’s still good to have the ability to contact someone in case of emergency. If your hike takes way longer than anticipated, you can potentially call a spouse or friend and prevent him or her from worrying and/or calling the local search-and-rescue outfit to come out and look for you. And of course, in the unfortunate event that you have an accident out on the trail, you can call for help—if you have cell phone reception.
How do I orient myself with a compass?
Finding north with a compass seems fairly straightforward: hold the compass flat in the palm of your hand, parallel to the ground, and turn until the compass needle points north. Navigating, or getting somewhere, is a little more complicated.
• To take a compass bearing with a topographic map, place the compass on the map surface with the compass’s orienting arrow (not the needle) lined up with the north-south lines on the map, and turn the baseplate of the compass so the index line is aimed at your objective (for example, a lake or peak). The number on the rotating housing is your compass bearing.
• Navigating with a topographic map is complicated slightly by something called magnetic declination, or the difference between magnetic north and true north—which, believe it or not, are not the same thing in many places. Your compass finds magnetic north, and true north is often a few degrees to the east or west of that. In the western United States, for example, magnetic declination is several degrees: in Denver, Colorado, a compass needle pointing at magnetic north is actually 8 degrees east of true north, so you would adjust your compass bearing accordingly. Don’t worry about memorizing or researching magnetic declination—if you’re using a paper map, it will be printed on the map, and if you’re using a GPS or GPS app, it will have an option to use true north instead of magnetic north. Be aware, though, that the compass app in most smartphones does not adjust for declination.
What are the rules of hiking etiquette?
Hiking trails, unlike many cities’ freeways, lines outside nightclubs, and your last flight when it was time to deplane, tend to draw a fairly courteous crowd. Except on the few extremely crowded trails, hiking traffic generally flows in a civilized manner with two rules.
1. Always yield the trail to hikers moving uphill—they’re working harder, and momentum is more important to their morale than to the morale of downhill hikers. Of course, if you are the uphill hiker and you’d like to step off for a rest and let some downhill hikers pass, just let them know.
2. Always let faster hikers pass you. Just step off to the side for a second and they’ll walk by. If you happen to come up on a slower hiker from behind who doesn’t hear you and step aside, a simple “excuse me” will alert him or her to your need to pass.
Who has the right of way, hikers, mountain bikers, or horses?
Right-of-way between hikers is pretty simple (see above), but the addition of non-foot-propelled traffic makes it a little confusing: you might see signs that say mountain bikers have to yield to everyone else (hikers and horseback riders), but local practices often differ. Many times hikers will yield the trail to mountain bikers because it’s easier for hikers to stop and step to the side than it is for a mountain biker to pull off. It’s your call—if a group of five hikers encounters only one mountain biker, for instance, then it makes sense for the single biker to yield the trail. In the case of horseback riders, always step off the trail and give the horse a wide berth to pass—horses generally spook much more easily than mountain bikers. In all cases, use common sense and be nice—there seems to be no hard-and-fast rule about mountain bikers and hikers, so courtesy is the best policy.
Should I say hi to other hikers on the trail?
Most people are in a pretty good mood when they’re hiking—even the most strenuous day in the mountains is better than a great day in the office, and people’s attitudes generally seem to reflect that. If hiking isn’t making you happy, you usually stop doing it. But by and large, people feel good when they’re hiking. So it never hurts to be friendly to the other hikers you see on the trail, within reason. Some trails are so busy that saying hi to every single person can feel like trying to say hello to everyone coming in or out of the men’s restroom during the seventh-inning stretch at a Major League baseball game—way too many people. If it’s not that busy, though, greet people coming the other way with a friendly hello, and if it’s a group of two or three people, something like “How are you guys doing today?” works. Smiling and being friendly to other people forces you to adopt a sort of positivity and keeps your own mood light—even if you’re suffering on a long, steep trail.
If I’m hiking up a mountain, should I bother asking people coming down how far it is to the top?
If you spend any time hiking on popular mountains, you’ll notice no shortage of people asking you, “How much farther is it?” as you’re descending and they’re climbing up. Most people descending from a summit can’t really give a good answer to that question. You can make a somewhat educated guess, but keep in mind you have no idea how fit the uphill hiker is—what takes you twenty minutes might take them forty. In addition, you’re descending, which is much faster than going uphill in most situations. So the 300 vertical feet you just skipped down in four minutes might take someone twenty minutes to climb. Any answer you get will be very inexact—it’s better to just keep hiking.
How fast should I hike?
The great thing about hiking is that unless you’re being chased by a bear or a thunderstorm (which is hopefully never), you can choose your own pace. It’s easy to blaze out of the parking lot at a fast pace (and you probably will do just that whether you’re consciously trying to or not), but once you realize you’ll be hiking for several hours, you’ll want to set a more sustainable pace. It’s okay to walk at a clip where you’re breathing a little harder, but you don’t want to be so out of breath that you can’t have a conversation with someone. Plus, if you can’t sustain that fast pace, you’ll have to stop a lot to catch your breath. Imagine you’re driving on a street and can choose either to drive 35 mph and come to a complete stop every block or to drive 25 mph and not stop every block. The latter strategy will be much less frustrating and less strenuous in the long run—and of course if you’re not rushing you have more time to enjoy the views too.
How often should I take breaks?
Hikes can sometimes feel like taking a long car trip with the family—every five minutes someone has to pee, or someone else is hungry, or another person needs to stop the car for some other reason, and then it takes eight hours to get to Grandma’s house instead of five. Obviously hiking is not a race, and you’re free to take your time as much or as little as you want to, but ten- or fifteen-minute breaks start to add up if you take enough of them (and you start to run out of snacks, which is a bigger emergency). A good goal is to stop once every hour to take a break, get off your feet, use the bathroom, take in a few calories, and rehydrate before moving on. If you’re climbing a peak, you might need to take more frequent breaks as you get into higher elevations, or even just a few minibreaks every fifteen minutes or so.
How do I cross a creek?
Unless you’re tackling an off-trail route worthy of a National Geographic Society grant, or a flood has washed out a trail bridge somewhere, you won’t actually be “fording” too many rivers on your hikes and backpacking trips (see here). You will, however, likely have to cross a few creeks, and of course you’d prefer to not fall in them on your way to the other side, and maybe even to keep your shoes dry. Both of these goals are attainable. The best piece of gear you can have with you during a creek crossing is a trekking pole (better yet, two) or a hiking stick to aid your balance as you step across the creek on rocks. If you don’t have one, take a second before you cross to look around the trail for a stick that might help. Trails with any significant traffic have usually been built to cross creeks at sensible points: where the creek narrows, and/or where a handful of rocks forms a decent path across. When you’re crossing the creek, try to suss out your path before committing—look for rocks that are close together so you’re not taking big, lunging steps between them, and try to step on dry rocks if at all possible. Go slowly, testing each rock just a little bit before committing all your weight, and if you have poles or a walking stick, plunge them into the water next to your path and use them to ease your way across. If you do slip and your foot goes in the water, it’s not the end of the world—get to the other side, take off your shoe or boot, empty out the water, wring out your sock, and move on with your day. The shoes will dry eventually, and unless it’s really cold outside you should be fine, albeit with one wet foot.
How do I know where the trail goes?
Quotes about the road less traveled are great for motivational purposes but are not much help for wilderness navigation. You are generally looking for the trail most traveled, at least until you have a few hundred hiking miles under your belt. Trails in national parks and state parks are well marked and well signed, but in other areas like national forests they can be less clear, especially if you’re on a less popular trail. Above treeline, trails can disappear when going through talus fields. In some areas of the country, blazes painted on trees or rocks are used to show the way, and in others, cairns, or piles of rocks, signify a route where there isn’t a trail. If you see a cairn but aren’t sure where the next one might be, stand next to the cairn—from that vantage point, you can often just see the next one. Sometimes trails in the woods fork, with no indication of which trail is the correct one. Usually one is more worn than the other one, and the more popular one is the one you want. Sometimes a false trail can be “blocked” with a row of rocks or a few tree branches, signifying that it’s not the correct path. This technique can be very subtle and can look like nothing at all until you realize what it is. As you hike more, you’ll learn to spot signs of use, faint trails, broken rocks, worn tree roots, and other indications of where a trail goes.
Can I go off trail?
In general, if there’s a trail, you should stay on it. Cutting switchbacks to save a little distance isn’t good for the scenery (it kills vegetation and makes new unnecessary “social” trails), the plants (in high-altitude areas, five footfalls in a day can kill fragile plants), the trail (it causes erosion, which can wash out existing trails), other hikers (on steep terrain you can dislodge rocks and boulders and accidentally send them crashing down onto people hiking on the trail), or you, in that it typically wastes your energy. That said, you can obviously step off the trail to use the restroom (most people would probably prefer it if you did) or to sit on a log for lunch. Also, above treeline in the mountains and across slickrock in the desert, trails sometimes disappear completely because it’s hard to build a trail across a boulder field or cut one into a slab of sandstone. The trail is generally going to be the easiest path to your desired hiking destination, and usually the safest, but use your judgment in your particular situation. If you see a puddle in the middle of the trail, walk through it, not around it—the more people step off to the side, the wider the trail becomes and the puddle will grow.
Do my hiking shoes need to be waterproof?
Waterproof shoes are a wonderful thing for rainy climates, creek crossings, and trails with puddles from rain or snowmelt. Even if it’s not actually raining, a trail that’s a bit overgrown with brush or grass that has morning dew on it can soak your shoes (and your feet) in a matter of minutes. Shoes that have a breathable waterproof layer can keep your feet dry through almost anything—unless you step in water or snow that goes higher than the shoe goes on your foot or ankle, at which point it will pour into the top of the shoe. For general hiking, waterproof shoes are helpful but not mandatory. For snow climbs or treks that cross a significant amount of snowy terrain, you’ll definitely want waterproof shoes: even if you stay mostly on top of the snow when you walk, enough of it will hit the sides and tops of your shoes that it will eventually start to seep in, leaving you with wet feet.
How do I keep hiking boots waterproof?
Your boots are waterproof because of two things: a breathable waterproof membrane inside the boot and a durable water-resistant (DWR) finish on the outside of the upper. Through use the DWR finish may start to wear off, but you can apply a waterproofing product, such as Nikwax, to refresh or reinforce it. To do so, clean the boot’s upper as much as you can (if you apply Nikwax to dirt, you’ll have waterproof dirt, not waterproof leather), and then get the boot’s upper damp with a wet towel—the moisture inside the leather will actually draw the waterproofing product into the material. Use the wet towel and do your best to “push” water into the upper, and then, while the boot upper is still wet, apply the product per the manufacturer’s directions. If you decide to do a second application, you should get the boot upper wet again for that application. Let the boots dry naturally (i.e., don’t use a hair dryer on them) before you wear your boots hiking again.
What should I take in my backpack?
You can take whatever you want on a hike: portable coffee grinder, paperback books, beer, a hammock, your entire collection of stuffed animals. . . . Your pack might get heavy, but that’s up to you. But there’s a difference between what you can take and what you should take, and this widely accepted list of the ten essentials is a good base of items to take on most hiking and backpacking trips.
1. Navigation: Map, compass, and/or GPS. You don’t necessarily need a paper map—a photo of a good map on your phone can work as long as you don’t drop or lose your phone or run out of batteries—but obviously a paper map is more fail-safe. Many smartphones also have a compass, but just as with maps, a real compass is a safer bet.
2. Sun protection: Sunglasses and sunscreen.
3. Extra clothing: Rain jacket plus appropriate insulating layers.
4. Headlamp: A flashlight works too. Remember to check the batteries before you leave. This might seem like overkill, but carrying a 6-ounce headlamp on every outing is way better than spending an unplanned night outside because you underestimated your time and ran out of daylight.
5. First aid supplies: A few basic items can save the day. You don’t need to pack a huge first aid kit; after all, you can only use the things you know how to use, so keep that in mind.
6. Fire: A lighter or matches.
7. Repair kit: A multitool, a small amount of duct tape, baling wire, and a few zip ties.
8. Food: Bring enough food for one day, and a little extra in case you end up accidentally spending more time on the trail than you planned.
9. Water: Carry enough water for your hike. Consider bringing a small vial of iodine tablets to purify water, just in case you need more.
10. Emergency shelter: A space blanket, a sheet of thin plastic designed to reflect heat, can be a lifesaver for unplanned nights out, and it weighs as little as 3 ounces.
How much extra clothing do I need for an overnight backpacking trip?
When you’re carrying everything you need in a backpack, the weight adds up—so don’t overpack with extra clothes. The fewer redundancies you pack (e.g., try toughing it out with one T-shirt on a three-day trip instead of three T-shirts), the lighter your pack will be. A basic wardrobe for a spring, summer, or fall trip might include this list.
• Pants
• T-shirt or short-sleeved shirt
• Socks (wear one pair and pack one extra pair)
• Underwear
• Light soft-shell jacket
• Rain jacket
• Beanie (for evenings in camp)
• Puffy jacket (for cool evenings and mornings in camp; also acts as a pillow)
• Light gloves
• Camp shoes (optional; consider lightweight flip-flops, Crocs, or Sanuks)
Do I really need to wear sunscreen?
Sunburns on spring break are understandable. Sunburns in the mountains are for amateurs and can ruin a trip. If you’re hiking, backpacking, or climbing, you’re often in locations that can be light on shade (above the treeline or in the desert), exposed to the sun, and at higher altitudes than where you live. Moab, Utah, for instance, isn’t known as “the Mile High City,” but it’s a little under a mile high in elevation, and most of the popular terrain surrounding the town is a mile high. At higher elevations, your risk of sunburn increases 4 percent for every thousand feet, so if you live near sea level and you’re visiting Yellowstone (roughly eight thousand feet), your risk of sunburn is 32 percent higher—or in Moab, 16 to 20 percent higher. No one’s going to make you wear sunscreen (except your mother), but there are plenty of reasons to, including increased risk of skin cancer, wrinkles, and other sun damage to your skin.
Should I try mountaineering?
If you think you might like hard work, incredible views, and clear, easily defined goals (i.e., getting to the top of a mountain), mountaineering might be the perfect activity for you. It starts with the basic knowledge of hiking and adds in other skills and elements like snow climbing, backpacking, roped rock climbing, and potentially travel across crevassed glaciers. Mountaineering tends to be high on suffering, with long ascents up mountainsides that can feel like endless stadium stairs, cold temperatures, and camping in uncomfortable places. But it’s also high on great photos set against unforgettable backdrops, summit euphoria, and bonding with other team members/partners. Mountaineering is also fairly easy to try. With a good base level of fitness, a guided snow climb of a peak like Mount Hood or Mount Shasta is within reach for many people; it costs less than $700 and takes one to three days. If you like hiking, you can ease your way into nontechnical mountaineering. One way is to try the summer climbs of most of Colorado’s “fourteeners” (14,000-foot peaks).
How do I climb a mountain?
The biggest obstacle in climbing a nontechnical mountain—one that doesn’t require specialized equipment or skills other than knowing how to hike—is often getting out of bed early enough to do it safely. After that, if you’ve done some hiking and have a good level of fitness, it’s fairly straightforward. Research the route (and carry a map of it), carry food, water, and extra layers, and stick with the hike until you get to the top. There are three important things to remember.
1. Pick a pace you can sustain all day. It’s easy to start out strong, but it’s tough to keep up that pace when you get to a higher elevation, or once the terrain starts to get steeper. Remember that it’s better to walk at a medium pace for an hour straight than it is to walk fast and have to stop and catch your breath every five or ten minutes.
2. Summit early. Give yourself more time than you think you need to get to the top of the mountain by noon. Thunderstorms often arrive in the afternoon, especially in the high elevations of the western United States, and mountaintops are usually exposed and leave you no shelter from lightning strikes.
3. Know when to turn around. Don’t be afraid to admit that the weather doesn’t look good, or that you don’t have the fitness to summit—that mountain will be there next week or next year, and you can try again.
How do I acclimate to high altitude?
The best way to acclimate to high altitude is to give yourself time to do so. If, for example, you fly from Chicago to Denver in the morning, then drive to Breckenridge and take the Imperial Express chairlift to 12,840 feet on the same day, there’s a good chance you won’t feel too good when you start exerting yourself (several people have had heart attacks doing similar things). If you’re climbing a mountain, your body will acclimate as you slowly ascend, but altitude sickness can still zap you if you try to do it too fast—and everyone’s “too fast” is different. The best strategy to getting acclimated is to stay hydrated and well fed, to move up in elevation at a slow pace, and to be conservative with big chunks of altitude. For example, if you live at sea level and want to climb a Colorado fourteener (that’s a peak of 14,000 feet or higher), a good progression to 14,000 feet might include spending a night in Denver (5,280 feet), then camping near the trailhead of a fourteener (around 10,000 feet), and then climbing to 14,000 feet the next day. That way you’re giving your body a chance to deal with the lower pressure gradually (not to mention the drier air if you’re coming from a humid place like New York), instead of shocking it all at once.
How do I know if I have altitude sickness?
If you’re climbing a mountain, you’re not exactly going “into thin air”—more like “into lower atmospheric pressure,” which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue (and is a little harder to understand). At higher altitudes, the pressure is lower, so there are fewer oxygen molecules in the air—for example, there’s only 40 percent as much oxygen at 12,000 feet as there is at sea level, so essentially you have to take two and a half breaths to get the same amount of oxygen in your lungs. Altitude sickness, or acute mountain sickness (AMS), afflicts plenty of people who venture into the mountains. Symptoms are actually quite similar to a hangover—headache, lack of appetite, nausea, vomiting, dizziness—and if you don’t deal with it, AMS can get worse and turn into something very serious. To avoid altitude sickness, eat plenty of food (even when you don’t feel hungry, your body needs 250 to 400 calories per hour to keep climbing), drink plenty of water, and remember that your body acclimates to altitude if you give it the chance. If you can “sleep high” the night before you head out on the trail (for example, camping near the trailhead), do it—it gives your body a head start on acclimating for the next day.
What are crampons?
It’s difficult to get traction when walking on ice (maybe you’ve noticed), so on climbs that involve a significant amount of travel on snow and ice, mountaineers wear crampons, essentially plates with long, sharp metal teeth that are strapped to the bottom of boots. They’re like football cleats, but way more dangerous and way more functional on snow and ice—the teeth literally sink into hard snow or ice patches and give the wearer traction on almost any angle. Crampons made for vertical ice climbing have sharp, serrated front points near the toes, so when the climber kicks the toe of the boot into the ice, the crampon points grip and don’t come out.
What kind of shoes should I wear mountain climbing?
If you’re just starting to climb nontechnical mountains (ones that require just hiking and scrambling), you don’t need $500 mountaineering boots—unless you really want to go out and buy $500 mountaineering boots, of course, because you’re obviously free to do that. Above all else, your shoes should be comfortable and not give you blisters. After that consideration, think about ankle support—do you roll your ankles easily? If so, a pair of sturdy boots might be best. If not, you might be able to get away with a pair of solid trail-running shoes. Are you going to spend a lot of time scrambling on rock slabs and boulder fields? A hiking boot or approach shoe with a sticky rubber outsole will help that. Do you plan to go on overnight trips (backpacking) in those shoes? A stiffer, more supportive midsole will help your feet carry that extra 25 to 40 pounds in your backpack. When you’re just getting started, a pair of general hiking shoes or boots will be just fine for most things—but if/when you graduate to multiday ascents, technical rock climbing, and/or snow travel, you’ll need to upgrade to more specialized footwear.
Traditional mountaineering gaiters, the durable water-resistant fabric coverings that go from the tops of your boots all the way up to your midcalf, do three things: make you feel a little bit like a superhero, protect your pants from rips and tears caused by wearing crampons, and keep snow and water out of your boots and pants by covering the places where snow can sneak in. You should wear them if you expect a significant amount of snow travel on your hike or climb—if your feet punch through the snow and your leg sinks in up to your knee, snow can go right into the top of your boot, and gaiters will prevent that.
Trail gaiters, a newer type of gaiter, are lightweight short gaiters that cover hiking boots or trail-running shoes and are popular with long-distance hikers and trail runners who want to keep trail debris and small rocks out of their shoes while they are hiking quickly or running.
What kind of socks should I wear?
Cotton takes a long time to dry, doesn’t wick away moisture, doesn’t help you retain heat after it gets wet, and can cause blisters—so don’t wear cotton socks. When blended with other materials, cotton can be okay, but a sock made of 100 percent cotton is not usually an experienced hiker’s first choice. Wool is the most popular type of sock for most contemporary outdoorspeople, for good reason: it does everything cotton doesn’t (wicks sweat away, keeps you warm when wet or damp, and generally works better at preventing blisters). If you remember wool only as something itchy sweaters are made out of, merino wool (or merino wool blend) hiking socks will impress you. They can be expensive, but you’re not often buying half a dozen pairs of hiking socks for everyday use. One or two pairs are enough, and a worthwhile investment, as they’re padded in the right places to complement your hiking boots. Thinner socks are good for most hiking applications, unless you plan on doing a trip during the cooler “shoulder season” between winter and spring or between fall and winter, or you have naturally colder feet or circulation issues.
How do I treat blisters?
The best way to treat blisters is to prevent them. Blisters are caused by friction between your shoes, your socks, and the skin on your feet. Friction builds up with the presence of moisture from sweat or other water that gets into your boots or shoes. If you don’t absolutely have to have leather hiking boots, think about something more breathable and flexible, like trail-running shoes. If you do wear boots, make sure you break them in before you hike in them—wear them around your house or on a few walks around town before you test them on the trail. When hiking, make sure your boots or shoes are tied snugly so your feet aren’t sliding around in them.
If you start to feel rubbing or friction anywhere on your feet when you’re on a hike, you might have a “hot spot,” which could be the start of a blister if you don’t deal with it. You can use any variety of medical products to cover a hot spot, but standard duct tape usually does the job best because it stays in place while you hike better than anything else.
If you do develop a blister, there are several methods of treatment. If it is a small blister and it hasn’t popped, cover it with a bandage and/or duct tape. If it’s a large, painful blister, you can pop it with a sterile needle and then cover it with a bandage and duct tape. If by the time you see the blister it’s popped already, clean it with treated drinking water from your water bottle and/or apply some hand sanitizer to it, and bandage it. In all cases, if you carry moleskin, you can use it to take some of the pressure off the blister by cutting a piece just larger than the blister, with a hole in the middle of the moleskin to accommodate the blister itself, and apply it to the skin under the bandage. When you’re finished hiking for the day, remove the bandages and let the blister dry as much as you can.
How much water should I take with me?
Your water consumption on a hike will depend on a few factors: how hot it is where you are hiking, altitude, how hydrated you were when you started hiking, how much you’re sweating, how long and steep the hike is, how many beers you had at happy hour the night before, and how many beers you had after happy hour the night before, among others. A general rule for a full day of hiking is 2 to 3 liters of water per person. Keep track of how much water you drink while hiking and try to gauge your own personal needs. Carrying more than 3 liters is bulky and heavy (3 liters of water equals 6 pounds of weight in your backpack), and if you need more than that, you might consider refilling your bottles at a water source along your route (check maps to find out if your trail will cross creeks or pass by lakes, and obviously purify the water before drinking; see here). Of course it’s always better to have too much than not enough when it comes to water, but if you’re carrying three 1-liter water bottles every time you go out on a 10-mile day hike and you notice you still have a full one every time you return to the trailhead, you can probably get away with taking just 2 liters next time.
What kind of first aid kit is right for me?
You can buy the most tricked-out and expensive first aid kit you can find at your nearest outdoor gear store, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to know what to do with any of the supplies inside it when the time comes. Check out the contents of all the available kit options and ask yourself what you really, truly need to take with you. For example, do you need to take tablets for upset stomach and heartburn, or would a few antidiarrheal pills cover you in case of emergency? Do you need both aspirin and ibuprofen, or just one of the two? Do you really need eight 4-by-4-inch sterile pads for a day hike? You can build your own basic first aid kit, but an advantage of buying one from an outdoor gear store is that the items are already in single-use sizes—you get one pair of latex gloves instead of having to buy an entire box, and the pills are already in two-pill envelopes, for example.
Here are a few basic items you should have in a first aid kit for single-day adventures as well as for longer backpacking trips.
• Four to six ibuprofen or aspirin pills
• Four to six antidiarrheal pills
• One pair of latex gloves
• A small assortment of bandages
• A couple of ¼-inch-by-4-inch Steri-Strip skin closures
• A few wound dressing pads
• A small roll of gauze
• A small roll of adhesive tape
• Tweezers
• Five or six Q-tips
• An ACE bandage
• Sanitary wipes
• Antibiotic ointment or gel
• Moleskin for blisters or hot spots
Should I carry water bottles or a hydration reservoir?
When it comes to carrying water, lots of hikers and mountain bikers prefer hydration reservoirs, flexible water bladders carried in a backpack with a drinking hose running over the shoulder. The best system is actually to carry neither bottles nor a reservoir and to make your hiking partner carry all your water instead. But if that doesn’t work, you have to make a choice. Both bottles and reservoirs have pros and cons: it’s best to sip water often throughout the day when exercising, and it’s difficult to do that if you’re carrying water bottles that are stowed away in your pack. Reservoirs are made to sip from all day and don’t always develop leaks, but they do leak more often than water bottles. Reservoirs can also freeze in low temperatures, cutting off your access to your water, and a frozen drinking hose or mouthpiece can be very difficult to thaw—although if you’re mountain biking or skiing, a reservoir is much safer to crash on because it’s not a hard-sided object in your pack that can break bones.
Both bottles and reservoirs have their pros and cons, and if you don’t want to buy both right away, just get two decent-quality water bottles and use them. One system that somewhat splits the difference is to carry a 40-ounce hard-sided bottle in your pack and a 20-ounce bicycle-style squeeze bottle in your hand to sip from as you hike. Obviously you’ll be carrying a bottle in your hand the whole time, which is a compromise.
What kind of water bottles should I buy?
There’s no perfect water bottle for everyone—although for a long time you might have assumed that the hard-sided plastic Nalgene 1-liter bottles were the only thing true hikers carried. These bottles are popular for good reasons: they’re virtually unbreakable, can hold scalding hot liquids without melting, and have wide mouths that are easy to fill from any source, and for quite a while Nalgene was the only company that made anything like them. Of course, now there are plenty of options on the rack at your local gear shop, including bottles made of stainless steel, soft plastic, and even glass. Stainless steel bottles are wonderful but can dent easily if you’re not careful, and if you pour boiling water into them they’re impossible to hold with a bare hand. Soft plastic bottles with bite valves (like bicycle water bottles) are great for trail running, mountain biking, and fast hiking, but not as good for sealing and then tossing in the bottom of your pack (even the tightest-sealing ones seem to leak a tiny bit of water in certain situations, like changes in altitude). And bottled-water bottles or recycled sports drink bottles work just fine (and are actually ultralight) but don’t have the long-term durability of other bottles designed for the outdoors. Whatever bottle you choose, be sure to get enough capacity for your activity—2 to 3 liters is a good average.
Where should I pee when I’m on the trail?
Your first instinct when you have to pee during a hike is to find a place to obscure yourself, which is great for your privacy (and probably for the emotional well-being of other hikers). In an alpine environment, you should always try to pee directly on rocks—animals are attracted to the salt in your urine, and if you pee on plants they’ll eat the plants (as gross as that sounds). On popular trails and mountain routes that means plants can start to disappear. So pee on rocks, because no mountain critters will eat a rock. They’ll just lick it and move on. In fragile environments like the desert, it’s more important to find a spot where you won’t damage plants and cryptobiotic soil (or step on a cactus), so look for a wash or a slab of slickrock, or, if you haven’t seen too many other hikers that day, pee right in the middle of the trail—it’ll dry quickly in the desert environment.
How do I keep my hands clean on a hike?
Let’s just be honest: the word clean is a very relative term in the outdoors. There are no restrooms with soap and running water—when you get away from the rest of society, you get away from the restrooms too. There are a few ways to keep your hands “clean” while hiking. If you’re just on a day hike, keep a travel-size bottle of hand sanitizer in your backpack and use it before eating. And offer some to your hiking partner before he digs his hand into your bag of trail mix.
If you’re crossing a stream or hiking past a lake, you can also dip your hands in for a quick rinse—obviously this won’t be hospital-grade sanitary, but you’ll get a little more of a clean feeling than you would from using hand sanitizer alone.
If you’re on a multiday trip, carry a small bottle of biodegradable soap (such as Dr. Bronner’s). Fill your cooking pot with some creek or lake water, carry the pot at least 100 feet from the water source (to avoid contaminating it), and wash up using the pot and your soap. When you’re done, scatter the wash water as far across as broad an area as you can. Rinse away any soap residue with water from your water bottle.
What should I eat on a hike?
Eating can be one of the best things about hiking. As the saying goes, “Hunger is the best sauce,” and nothing drums up hunger like some calorie-burning time on the trail. Learning the best method of replacing those calories takes some trial and error, and each person packs different foods for different reasons: some people prefer “real food” like sandwiches, crackers, and candy bars because they’re foods that always taste good. Other people prefer energy bars and gels because they’re easy to carry and designed not to spoil in almost any temperature.
There are no hard-and-fast rules for what you should eat when you’re hiking, but keep in mind your body will burn a lot of calories on a hike—especially longer hikes that cover a lot of miles and/or take all day. When you’re looking at the type of calories you’re eating on your hike, aim for a ratio of approximately 60 percent carbohydrates, 15 percent protein, and 25 percent fat. Simple carbohydrates, such as those found in energy gels and blocks, are easy for your body to digest (as opposed to high-fiber carbs). Always try to start with a “full tank,” or several hundred calories for breakfast—this gives your body a good base of calories to work with and will prevent crashing later in the day. Stop and eat every hour or so throughout your hike so you can take in a couple hundred calories. Don’t think you have to buy energy bars just because you’re hiking—foods like burritos, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and leftover pizza have been fueling outdoor pursuits for a long time. Obviously the convenience of a prepackaged energy bar is great, but if you don’t like the flavor, you’re not going to eat it—especially when your appetite wanes at higher altitudes. Nuts, dried fruit, crackers, and candy bars all make for great hiking foods.
Sample Food Packing List for a Multiday Trip
Breakfast:
• Oatmeal, cooked and mixed with peanut butter, dried fruit, and walnuts
• Instant coffee
Lunch and snacks:
• Energy bar
• Salami
• Cheese
• Flour tortilla
• Candy bar
Dinner:
• Pasta or dehydrated backpacking meal (see here)
• Powdered soup mix
• Dark chocolate bar
• Herbal tea or hot chocolate
Do I need to hike with trekking poles?
It’s a fact that five out of five trekking pole manufacturers recommend trekking poles. Can you live without them? Yes. Are they nice to have? Yes. Trekking poles help your hiking posture and take a small amount of compressive force (up to 25 percent) off your knees as you walk, as well as help you balance through sections of tricky terrain. Twenty-five percent might not sound like much, but over three days of hiking 8 miles a day with a 35-pound pack on your back, 25 percent off every step adds up. If you buy a pair of poles, you don’t necessarily have to use them every time you go hiking. But they’re nice to have when you’re carrying a heavy pack on a multiday trip, and even nicer on trails that have a few creek crossings—having three points of contact (pole, pole, foot) instead of one as you step from rock to rock across a moving stream of water helps balance, boosts confidence, and significantly reduces the chance that you’ll fall into the water, soaking your clothes and your pack—and possibly getting injured. Newer, more expensive poles are made of lightweight carbon fiber and collapse down to a little over 12 inches (which is great for air travel), but if you don’t want to spend a ton of money, an old pair of ski poles is a fine substitute.
What should I do if I get lost?
Get comfortable with the idea that if you spend any significant amount of time in the outdoors, you’re going to get lost a couple times. You probably won’t stay lost long enough to resort to killing and eating your hiking partners to survive, but you’ll take a wrong turn here or there and waste an hour or even a few hours finding your way. If you do lose the trail, or suddenly realize you’re not where you’re supposed to be, the first thing you should do is to remain calm. You’re not going to die (well, actually, we all are, someday, but that’s another, more existential conversation). Try to remember how long ago it was that you were confident you were on the trail or in the right place (i.e., you were confident you weren’t lost), and if you can, retrace your steps and go back to that spot—but only if you’re sure you can get back there without getting more lost. If you can’t remember where you were, get out your map and compass and/or GPS and try to figure out your position, thinking of the last trail intersection you passed or other landmarks: where your path or trail crossed a stream or a nearby mountain you can see and also identify on your map. Use those points to navigate back. If it’s getting dark, stay put, get comfortable, and wait for morning (hopefully you’ve brought a space blanket or emergency bivy sack; see here). If you’re hopelessly lost, stay put. Blow your safety whistle or yell if you think other hikers might hear you. If no one’s around, your best bet will be staying put and waiting for a rescue. You can survive weeks without food but only a few days without water, so find water to drink while you wait. If you’ve left detailed information with someone about your plans, a rescue group shouldn’t have a hard time finding you, unless you wander far from where you’d intended. So stay in one place and stay safe until help arrives.
Do I need zip-off pants?
Plenty of people would say the phrase “hiking fashion” is an oxymoron, and they would be correct. Zip-off pants—pants with zippers at the knees so they can be turned into shorts—have been popular in the outdoor world with a certain crowd for many years. If you like the idea of pants that turn into shorts with a simple zip, or if you have sweaty knees, you should by all means go for it. But you should also know that zip-off pants are not mandatory for hiking. Many apparel companies have now started to make “roll-up” pants to serve the needs of hikers who would like to bare their lower legs midday without having to pack an extra pair of shorts. Wear what you like out on the trail—again, as long as it’s not cotton (see below).
What should I wear when I go hiking?
What you wear will depend on the season you’re hiking, the weather in your particular area, and your personal style. A good general list of apparel for spring/summer/fall day hiking includes a synthetic-fabric T-shirt or button-down shirt, a soft shell jacket or light fleece jacket, a rain jacket, synthetic-fabric shorts or pants, wool or wool-blend socks, and sturdy hiking shoes or boots. Depending on the local climate or altitude, it might be a good idea to bring along a light beanie and light gloves. And one thing is for certain: no one’s ever died from packing too many clothes, so as you start out in the outdoors it’s good to err on the side of overpacking. You’ll gradually learn what works for you in each situation and dial in your layering system. Another thing that’s for certain: you shouldn’t wear cotton (except in really hot desert environments).
Why all the plaid?
Here’s the deal with plaid: when you walk into the men’s apparel section of an outdoor gear store, you see a lot of it. There are many theories as to why this is, but one functional reason is that plaid hides stains. So if you’re out on the trail kicking up dirt, sweating, spilling bits of food or using your clothes as a napkin, your plaid shirt will look less ruined at the end of your hike or backpacking trip. Button-down shirts are also functional for venting when you’re walking uphill, or turning up the collar for long days of walking in the sun with your head bent slightly downward at the trail. All that said, you should wear what you want, whether it’s a tank top or a tech shirt you got for free from a 5K race you ran—as long as it’s a shirt made of synthetic material that will dry quickly.
What do I do if I get a hole in my puffy jacket?
Down jackets keep you warm on the trail and when the temperature drops in the evening, but they are notoriously fragile. The fabric that keeps them lightweight and able to best utilize their fill material to keep you warm is thin and can tear easily if you’re not careful. Catching a sharp tree branch or a piece of a rock wall on the sleeve will often pop a hole in the jacket. Another common source of tears is errant embers from a campfire landing on a jacket, melting a small hole in the fabric. The best way to fix a hole in a puffy jacket is to send it to a repair shop and have a professional fix it—but of course if you’re a fix-it-yourself kind of person you’ll want to know a DIY approach. Sewing the thin fabric isn’t a good option for people who aren’t expert sewers or don’t have ultrafine thread, so the two tried-and-true fixes for holes are duct tape (not surprisingly) and Seam Grip (or Krazy Glue). Both approaches leave somewhat unsightly spots on the jacket—nothing like a 2-by-2-inch square of gray duct tape, or a permanently dark splotch of glue, to accent your brightly colored puffy—but both are effective and widely used by the outdoor community. Hang around enough campfires, and you might assume that a puffy jacket without a hole or duct tape patch hasn’t been properly broken in.
Do I need a rain jacket even if it’s not supposed to rain?
In the mountains, if you don’t pack a rain jacket—no matter what the weather forecast is—you will almost certainly get rained on at some point. If there is literally a 0 percent chance of precipitation on the day you’re hiking, you can very likely get away with leaving your rain jacket at home. But it’s never a bad insurance policy just to take one, especially if you’re going to be hiking in a high or exposed area that might be windy (something that may or may not be mentioned in the weather forecast for your area). Your rain jacket is probably as good at blocking wind as it is moisture, so it makes sense to pack it as a wind layer or emergency layer. If you’re mountain biking on a trail with a long descent (or long, downhill-trending section where you’re not doing a lot of pedaling), a rain jacket can keep you warm through all the wind chill that your bike’s speed generates.
Should I buy a jacket with or without a hood?
There’s a saying that many experienced outdoorspeople have abided by for years: “No hood, no good.” And this is more than a fashion choice in most situations—the right piece of gear can be the difference between comfort and extreme discomfort (or even survival) in certain situations. A hood on a rain jacket will keep water from getting into the neck of your clothes and soaking your inner layers and your torso, and unless you’re never going farther than 2 miles from the trailhead, there’s no reason to buy a rain jacket without a hood. On all other upper-body pieces—soft-shells and rain jackets, ski shells and puffy jackets—the hood can be integral to keeping you warm, or just warm enough to stay comfortable. You’ve probably heard the saying that you lose 90 percent of your body heat through your head. It’s only somewhat true. The study that led to that statistic found that when the head was uncovered but all other body parts were covered, subjects lost significant amounts of body heat. When the head was covered just like other parts of the body (i.e., with a hood on a hooded jacket), the body stayed much warmer. This is also essentially the science on how mummy-style sleeping bags work. So even though you might feel a little strange wearing three jackets with hoods all at the same time, you’ll be a lot warmer. If you have no hood, that’s no good.
What is Gore-Tex?
Gore-Tex is the first invented and most famous of the lightweight, waterproof, breathable fabrics, created in 1969 by W. L. Gore and Associates. It has become, now somewhat inaccurately, a synonym for any waterproof breathable fabric used in the outdoors—similar to our use of the word Kleenex to mean any type of facial tissue, not just the Kleenex brand. Waterproof breathable fabrics are important in the outdoors because users need a layer that shields them from precipitation but breathes well enough that they can perform strenuous activities (hiking, skiing). In the almost half century since Gore-Tex was pioneered, other companies have built similarly performing fabrics, such as eVent and NeoShell. Saying they’re all pretty much the same is a disservice to all the science and hard work that went into creating these fabrics, but understanding the differences is also fairly complicated. If you don’t want to dig deep into the nuances, just remember that when you buy rain gear, get a jacket made with a waterproof breathable fabric—not a heavy one like the burly, nonbreathable stuff that Alaskan commercial fishermen wear.
How do I wash a Gore-Tex jacket?
Your Gore-Tex jacket (or other waterproof breathable jacket made with eVent or NeoShell) is expensive, if you hadn’t noticed—so don’t just toss it in the washing machine with your jeans (even if your jeans were expensive too). Use a specialized product like a liquid “tech wash” (available at most outdoor retail stores) instead of a detergent soap. Wash the jacket on a permanent press or gentle cycle, and dry it on a low setting or line-dry it.
Waterproof breathable materials are highly specialized and need special treatment to retain their abilities to repel water. Over time, elements like dirt, sweat, oils from your skin, and sunscreen can get into the fabric and necessitate a recharge of the fabric. After your jacket gets enough usage, you’ll eventually need to reactivate its waterproof treatment, which you can do by placing it in a clothes dryer on a low setting for a few minutes. If that doesn’t work, you may have to re-treat the jacket with another kind of wash-in treatment (also available at most outdoor retail stores).
What if it rains—should I keep going?
It depends on where you are. In the Rocky Mountains, rain is often a sign of more unstable weather coming—meaning that either more rain, snow, or thunderstorms are on their way. In wet regions, such as the Pacific Northwest, rain is often just rain, which is the reality of the local climate. Learn a bit about the regional weather patterns where you’re hiking, plan accordingly, and always err on the side of caution. Continuing up into more exposed terrain is always a tough choice when rain begins falling, because no one can accurately predict hyperlocal weather. If you’re fixated on getting to a summit and a light rain shower moves in, it’s fine to continue on as long as you keep your eye on the weather. Just be prudent: as long as you are able to escape to protected ground if the weather intensifies, you should be fine (but don’t overestimate your ability to hike fast downhill on wet rock). If you hear thunder or see lightning, it’s time to go down. Even if it sounds far away, lightning can strike 10 to 15 miles from the rainy portion of a storm (see here).
What’s the difference between third-class, fourth-class, and fifth-class mountains?
The standard accepted climbing grading scale system in the United States, the Yosemite Decimal System, breaks down mountain terrain according to the following scale.
• Class 1: Hiking on trails.
• Class 2: Scrambling in which hands might be used occasionally for balance.
• Class 3: Scrambling in which a rope might be used to protect against falls.
• Class 4: Simple rock climbing in which exposure to falls may be a factor and a fall could be fatal. Ropes are often used.
• Class 5: Rock climbing in which ropes, belaying, and protective equipment like cams and chocks are used to protect the leading climber from falling. Where technical, climbing ratings from 5.1 to 5.15 are used (see here).
Class 3 and class 4 ratings are somewhat subjective, and the difference between the two is often hazy. Some people may find certain terrain rated class 3 to feel much more like class 4, and vice versa. So the ratings of class 3 and class 4 should be observed with discretion.
How do I know if I can climb up something?
It’s easy to climb up a slab of granite or a rock gully in the mountains—the important thing is knowing whether you can climb down it. Dozens of tourists have been rescued from technical climbing areas at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming and Garden of the Gods in Colorado after scrambling up an easy climb, then turning around and realizing that reversing their steps might be a little scary, or even terrifying. If you have to do a short scramble on your hike that you’ll have to climb down later, study the terrain on your way up. Remember where the key footholds and handholds are, and look down while you’re climbing up so you’ll remember what the terrain looks like from above. And if you get a little nervous when climbing down, try turning and facing into the rock—although it might seem counterintuitive because you feel like you can’t see where you’re going, it’s safer (albeit maybe a little slower). At the very least, your hands are facing the correct way to catch you if you slip, and your toes are way more effective at standing on small holds than your heels are. Take your time, keep your weight on your feet (not your hands), don’t take big risks, and make small moves downward.
How do I rappel?
Rappelling is a complicated, high-consequence skill with many variables and should be learned from an expert, but in case of an emergency a carefully rigged and executed Dulfersitz rappel will work. If you absolutely have to descend a cliff that’s too steep to climb down, follow these steps:
• Find an anchor: Good choices are a tree near the edge of the cliff or a solid boulder (the size of a refrigerator or bigger). This object absolutely must be solid. Although you probably weigh 250 pounds or less, a rappel can place a force on the anchor much larger than your body weight. If your anchor moves or becomes dislodged, you will free-fall to the bottom of the cliff. For this reason, and for easier and safer retrieval of your rope, trees are preferred.
• Attach your rope to the anchor: Either tie your rope around the anchor (you won’t be able to retrieve the rope if you do this), or wrap your rope around the anchor so that both ends are equal and will touch the ground at the bottom of your rappel (you will rappel on both strands of rope). Clear the area around the anchor of loose debris that might fall down the cliff if disturbed by your rope—anything that falls down, like rocks, can fall on you.
• Throw your rope: Gather your rope in one hand and heave it over the edge of the cliff, being careful to not fall over the edge yourself. Throwing it outward from the cliff is the most important thing here, so it can clear any trees or bushes on its way down. If the ends of the rope do not touch the ground at the bottom of the cliff because they’ve caught up on something on the cliff or the rope has tangled on its way down, haul the rope up and throw it again. If the rope doesn’t reach the ground, do not rappel. It will do you no good to rappel halfway down a cliff.
• Get in position: Facing your anchor (with your back facing the cliff edge), place the rappel rope between your legs (both strands if you’ve wrapped it around the anchor). With your right hand, pull the rope under your right butt cheek to the front of your body, then across your chest to your left shoulder. Wrap the rope around your shoulder, and across your back to your right hip, and hold the rope with your right hand.
• Rappel: As slowly as possible, walk backward until the rope in front of you is taut. Keep your right hand holding the rope next to your right hip and slowly pay rope out as you rappel down the cliff. Go as slowly as possible, because a quickly moving rope will create high friction, which can burn your clothes or your skin. Remember, your grip on the rope is not keeping it from sliding—the friction created from the angles in the system (through your legs, around your butt, across your chest, around your shoulder, around your hip) is keeping the rope from sliding. So keep the angles in the system by keeping your right hand out in front of your body and you’ll be fine.
Never take your right hand off the rope, under any circumstances, until you are safely on the ground at the bottom of the cliff.
Should I hire a guide for a mountain climb?
There are two ways to climb a big mountain: buy all the gear and learn all the skills, techniques, weather forecasting, and conditions assessment yourself over a period of several years and use it to get yourself to the top, or hire a guide and let the guide worry about all that. Guides are trained professionals who have knowledge of the route, systems, and skills needed for the climb and have usually done the climb several times before they guide someone else on it. Guides are inexpensive in the grand scheme of things when you consider all the things they take care of for you. Their job is to keep you alive and to make sure you have success if it’s at all possible (and fun)—all you have to do is show up in good physical shape to climb a mountain behind them. With zero mountaineering experience, your chances of successfully summiting Mount Rainier (and, more important, making it down alive) are quite small. With a guide, as long as you show up in dynamite shape and you have decent weather on the date of your climb, your chances of summiting are much higher than your chances of not summiting. Note: You still have to carry all your stuff. Guides will usually carry important shared gear like first aid kits (and sometimes ropes), but you’ll be responsible for packing and carrying all your personal gear, clothing, food, and water on the climb.
Should I tip my guide?
If you think that someone taking you to one of the most dangerous places in the world for the experience of a lifetime and ensuring that you arrive safe and sound is a noble pursuit, then yes, you should absolutely tip your guide. Guides, especially in the United States, aren’t making piles of money considering the risk involved (although the view from a guide’s office is usually about a hundred times better than the view from most of ours), and they rely on tips to make their living. So although it’s cool to take your guide out for a beer and a burger after your trip, it’s not courteous (or good karma) to consider that a good enough tip—but 5 to 20 percent of the retail cost of your trip is. If you’re part of a group, it’s common for one person to collect tips from all the group members and then give the money to the guide sometime at the end of the trip and present it as one big group tip (this is also a good way to make sure everyone tips some amount, if they weren’t aware of the protocol beforehand).
What should I do in my summit photo?
It’s good to have a couple options, depending on your mood, the number of summit photos someone is willing to take of you, and the fact that you may only ever get one photo of yourself on top of Mount Whatever. It’s fun to do something unique like jumping in the air or gesturing obscenely with/at your hiking/climbing partner, but it’s also good to have one standard “say cheese” snapshot for that time in a couple of decades when you want to reminisce about that time you reached that particular summit. There’s no wrong way to take a summit photo just as there’s no “wrong” way to cut your hair—you’re on vacation, really, so have fun. Just remember to take a few photos of the view from the summit as well, because in ten years you’ll probably remember what you looked like back then, but you may not remember what the view from the summit looked like.
Should I buy two-way radios?
Two-way radios are great for lots of applications in the mountains—mountain guides who work with one or more other guides in managing large groups who may become separated, ski patrollers, and search-and-rescue personnel. Most recreational hikers, climbers, and skiers, however, don’t have a huge reason to carry them—unless they want to carry them for a bit of insurance or just like the idea of being able to communicate from far away. If you’re hiking with a friend or two, you generally shouldn’t be getting separated to the point that you need a radio to communicate, and if you’re climbing, you and your partner should have a communication strategy that works in high winds or other situations where you can’t hear each other (e.g., rope signals). Obviously you’re free to use radios, and they might come in handy if you take a ski vacation and members of your family don’t necessarily ski at the same skill level, but you’ll need to wear the radio in a way that you can access it and hear it when someone tries to contact you.
Ice axes, besides being really badass-looking walking sticks, are somewhat like a safety belt on snow climbs: used correctly, an ice ax will hopefully save you if you fall on steep snow or ice. Here are the basics of how to use one:
• Walking stick: When using your ice ax as a walking stick, always hold it with the pick facing backward.
• Self-belay: Always carry the ax in your uphill hand, jamming the spike down into the snow (like you mean it), parallel to the direction of your torso, as far as you can in between steps. It has to hold a fall if you somehow stumble and lose your footing, so daintily punching the spike a couple of inches into the surface snow won’t cut it.
• Self-arrest: If you do fall, get the pick into the snow as quickly as possible and dig it into the snow as far as you can. Ideally, when you fall, you’ll be sliding on your chest and legs with your feet going downhill—bring the head of the ice ax up to chest height, grab the bottom of the ax with your other hand so that the handle of the ax runs diagonal across your body, and press all your weight into the pick. Dig into the snow with your toes (kick if you have to)—unless you’re wearing crampons, in which case you’ll dig in with your knees, because catching a crampon point on ice when you’re sliding can instantly break your leg or tear ligaments.
The Eight Best Rock-Climbing Destinations in North America
1. Red River Gorge, Kentucky: It has hundreds of steep sport-climbing routes on sandstone cliffs.
2. Red Rock Natural Conservation Area, Nevada: One of the most diverse rock-climbing areas in North America, with thousands of high-quality multipitch traditional routes, sport-climbing routes, and boulder problems.
3. Yosemite National Park, California: Arguably the most famous rock-climbing destination in the country; thousands of climbing routes on granite faces and monoliths, including 3,000-foot El Capitan and 2,000-foot Half Dome.
4. Smith Rock, Oregon: Visit Smith Rock for hundreds of sport and traditional climbing routes on steep golden welded volcanic tuff.
5. Shawangunks, New York: Here you’ll find historic and unique traditional climbing on quartz conglomerate rock with horizontal cracks and roofs.
6. Indian Creek, Utah: It’s a world-famous crack-climbing destination; hundreds of dead-vertical routes up parallel-sided sandstone cracks.
7. Joshua Tree, California: This desert locale has more than eight thousand climbing routes and boulder problems on granite.
8. Squamish, British Columbia: It’s North America’s premier granite climbing destination with classic routes of all grades and lengths.
How do I navigate in a whiteout?
When visibility is reduced to a few feet in a snowstorm or blizzard, navigation can be a nightmare—without landmarks it’s difficult to ascertain your position and know how far you have walked/are walking, and blowing snow can even make it impossible to see changes in slope of the terrain you’re walking on. Obviously your best course of action is to not go hiking or riding in blizzards or blowing snow, but if you find yourself in a limited-visibility situation in a bad spot, you can navigate your way out of it.
Knowing where you are on a map is key—if you don’t know your position, it’s impossible to be confident in where you’re going. Try to navigate to a treed area to gain some cover from the storm, or make a plan to get to a lower elevation (it may not be snowing a few hundred feet below you). Be careful of hazards that you might not be able to see because of the blowing snow, such as cliffs, iced-over creeks, or ponds. If you have a GPS, create waypoints and use them to navigate to a safer area. If not, aim a compass (see here) toward your objective, and send a friend ahead as far as you can along that bearing without losing sight of him, keeping him as straight on the course as possible with verbal commands (“one step left,” “two steps right,” etc.) or with hand signals. When he reaches the point where you can almost not see each other, have him stop walking and wait for you until you catch up, then send him walking along the bearing again. Repeat this until you reach a safe spot.
If you are unable to navigate by any means, stay put. Humans have a tendency to walk in circles when we can’t see landmarks, so your movement is likely to get you more lost in a whiteout. If you need shelter, dig a hole in the snow, put on all your extra layers, or get in your emergency shelter and under your space blanket, and wait for the weather to subside.
Should I throw a rock off the summit?
You should never throw rocks off the summit of a mountain—remember that the way you came up isn’t the only way to the top of the mountain, and rocks sometimes don’t stop for a long time once they start going down a mountainside. You don’t want to start a rockslide that obliterates an entire family of mountain goats, for example, or worse, hit another human being. In 2007, a hiker on a peak in Wyoming’s Wind River Range tossed a rock off a summit, unknowingly hitting and killing a rock climber 300 feet below—a seemingly innocent gesture gone horribly wrong.
EXPERT WITNESS
Three Tips for Moving Safely on Off-Trail Mountain Terrain
Adam George, mountain guide, International Federation of Mountain Guides Association
Switzerland-based Adam George has been an internationally certified mountain guide since 2009. He has guided all types of mountaineering, climbing, and skiing adventures, including the North Face of the Eiger, many ascents of Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn, and multiple ski trips of the famous Haute Route.
1. In loose rocky terrain, like talus fields, stay close together, travel at diagonals, and make switchbacks. This keeps people out of the fall line if you dislodge a rock, and any dislodged projectile doesn’t accelerate too much between higher and lower climbers.
2. If the going gets steep and you are forced to scramble, remember: don’t climb up anything you can’t climb down, and it is always more difficult to climb down. Move through these sections one at a time, and try to position yourself where you can offer assistance but won’t get taken out in the event someone falls.
3. Descents are where things are most likely to go wrong. Leave plenty of time and daylight for the descent; it almost always takes longer than anticipated. When you’re moving down steep terrain, facing into the hillside will be more secure, but facing out will allow you a better view of potential holds. On steep smooth ground, keep your knees bent and your center of gravity over the balls of your feet; resist the temptation to lean too far back.
EXPERT WITNESS
What to Eat on a Hike
Graham Zimmerman, alpinist, Piolet d’Or finalist, ice climber, and rock climber
For a single day in the mountains, I bring food that doesn’t require any cooking and foods that I can snack on easily. Items such as simple bars and trail mixes are my go-to. I need to eat a little bit often and drink plenty of water. Often I will eat energy bars a quarter at a time so that I spread my fuel out throughout the activity and keep myself powered up all day long.
For a night out when the weight in my pack is not a huge concern, I will often bring tortillas with simple fixings. I can cook one-minute rice alongside beans in a pot and combine this with cheese and some fresh veggies on a tortilla to make for a pretty excellent meal. This can be complemented with a chocolate bar for dessert to get a little more sugar into the mix. And as always, remember to hydrate!
When we stop to bivy on a big mountain route is when the real fun starts. I have a drink mix that’s most of what I consume in the evening. Here are the components that I mix up before I set off.
5 parts vegetarian protein powder
5 parts Carbo Gain maltodextrin
1 part cacao powder
1 part wheatgrass powder
1 part maca powder
Mix a liter of water with a couple of scoops of this stuff and your body will go into full recovery mode. I’ll also eat some solid food, but about half as much as I normally would. This is mostly to make me feel happy and give me something solid that’s tougher to metabolize, therefore keeping me warm when I sleep.
This solid food will be half dried mashed spuds and half rolled quinoa mixed with salami, cheese, sea salt, and turmeric. Basically a comfort meal with the added benefit of helping you hydrate (salt), working as an anti-inflammatory (turmeric), and giving you lots of protein (quinoa).
The superdrink gets mixed up in a water bottle, and the solid food gets mixed up in an old freeze-dried-meal bag, meaning that the cook pot stays clean and can be melting water the whole time that consumption is going on. Also, all this can be cooked with tepid water simply poured over it. Meaning, no mess and super fuel efficiency—which in the mountains is the kind of world you want to live in.
Ten Mountains to Climb That Don’t Require Ropes or Crampons
1. Longs Peak, Colorado (14,259 feet)
2. Mount Whitney, California (14,505 feet)
3. Half Dome, California (8,839 feet)
4. Katahdin, Maine (5,270 feet)
5. Humphreys Peak, Arizona (12,637 feet)
6. Old Rag Mountain, Virginia (3,291 feet)
7. Mount Si, Washington (4,167 feet)
8. Mount Marcy, New York (5,343 feet)
9. Ben Nevis, Scotland (4,409 feet)
10. Mount Temple, Alberta, Canada (11,627 feet)
Should I feed animals in the wild?
Although it’s tempting to think about giving little squirrels, pikas, and marmots a bit of your trail snacks, you shouldn’t feed the animals. Your generosity causes animals to abandon their natural food sources and become dependent on handouts from hikers; when the hiking season ends, the animals lose their food source. On popular trails and summits, hikers who sit down for a snack experience the effects of years of hikers feeding animals, as they’re pestered nonstop by persistent squirrels. Squirrels in the Grand Canyon have been found to carry plague, and animals carry other diseases like hantavirus and rabies, so it’s best to keep your distance and keep your peanut butter and jelly sandwich to yourself.
What should I do if I find an arrowhead or ancient pot?
As good as that arrowhead or potsherd might look on your fireplace mantel at home, you should leave it where it is. If you’re on public lands, it’s actually a crime to remove archaeological artifacts in the United States, under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. If you’re caught, the offense will be prosecuted as a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the severity of your offense. If you find an artifact, it’s best to take a photo, marvel for a minute about how old it is, and leave it where you found it.
What’s the difference between trail running and regular running?
Depending on the trail, trail running can be far more strenuous than running on streets/sidewalks or on city park trails. Steep trails can gain upwards of 500 feet in a lateral mile, and running up them can require far more energy than taking most jogging/multiuse trails or sidewalks in cities. The trail surface can also keep you literally and figuratively on your toes—stepping on and over rocks and roots, making sure you don’t land on loose debris, and not tripping over obstacles in the trail all require more vigilance than most urban running routes. That’s the challenging part. The good news is, time often flies during trail runs because of the varying surfaces and twists and turns in the trail, compared to running laps around a city park or on the street. And, obviously, your chances of getting hit by a car are almost zero—although you’ll probably want to keep an eye out for deer and other wildlife, depending on where you run. Another thing that’s important to remember is that you might not have cell phone service on a trail run, which can make a huge difference if you sprain an ankle 3 miles from the trailhead.
Should I try trail running?
If you enjoy running, there aren’t too many reasons you’d dislike trail running. It takes you to beautiful places, gets you outside in a place with fresh air, is probably more interesting than pounding the pavement in your neighborhood, and might be a better workout (depending on the trail you pick). If you’re terribly klutzy with your feet (i.e., you trip on nonexistent cracks in the sidewalk while running), you might have a little trouble with all the rocks and roots you’ll encounter during a trail run. But taking that risk is a personal judgment call. Some trail runners say the constant attention to footwork keeps them alert and even seems to leave them less sore than running on pavement or asphalt because running on a dirt trail means you’re not landing as hard on your feet.
What kind of shoes should I wear for trail running?
On well-packed trails without many loose sections, roots, or rocks, road-running shoes can work just fine on trail runs. But if you’re getting into regular trail running, you might want to invest in trail-running shoes for a few reasons. The outsoles are more aggressively featured and better at gripping varied terrain—some models have stickier rubber that enables them to grip angled rock slabs. The soles of trail-running shoes are generally wider than those of road-running shoes, to help you balance as you run over uneven terrain. Trail-running shoe uppers are usually built with features to protect your feet from rocks, sticks, and other debris, such as tougher materials, toe bumpers, and sometimes waterproof lining.
Should I try rock climbing?
Rock climbing is one of the fastest-growing outdoor sports (if you count people who do it in climbing gyms at least part of the time), for good reason: it is exciting, builds strength and flexibility, gives you fitness goals other than looking good with your shirt off, and, with the explosion of climbing gyms, is something you can learn in a safe (albeit indoor) environment. If you climbed trees as a child, you might love rock climbing as an adult. Even if you didn’t climb trees as a child, and you’re just curious about the thrill of hanging a few dozen (or a few hundred) feet off the ground, you might like rock climbing. Surprisingly, entry-level rock climbing doesn’t require as much upper-body strength as you might think—even if you can’t do a single pull-up in the gym, you can learn the right techniques to climb intermediate to difficult routes. With the advent of indoor climbing gyms where you can rent gear and go to learn the ropes, you don’t need a climbing cliff nearby to try it out.
How do I get started rock climbing?
Despite what you might have seen in movies, using a rope to keep yourself (and your friends) from falling off a cliff isn’t something you can just wing without knowing a few things first. It might seem antithetical to learn to do something like rock climbing indoors, but climbing gyms are the best places to learn its safety concepts and techniques and to try it out before buying all the necessary gear. Plenty of climbing gyms offer an introductory lesson or class for fifty dollars or less per person (including all the gear you need to learn to climb). An introductory course will give you a chance to see if you like the movement and, more important, the exposure to heights, with no pressure or commitment. If you like it, you can usually buy all the gear you need right at the gym, keep going back, and eventually take the climbing outside. Many gyms also offer classes to help you safely transfer what you’ve learned on artificial climbing walls to real cliffs outside.
What’s the difference between rock climbing and mountaineering?
It’s easy to confuse the two. After all, no one says, “I’m going to ‘mountaineer’ Mount Everest”—but that’s exactly what you do. Tackling Mount Everest is mountaineering; you’ll encounter rock, snow, and ice while traveling up the mountain. Rock climbing is performed only on rock surfaces (or indoor climbing gyms). Mountaineering objectives can involve a section of rock climbing, so most mountaineers learn and practice rock-climbing skills. However, plenty of the world’s famous mountains don’t involve significant rock climbing—one can climb Mount Rainier, Denali, Aconcagua, and Mount Everest without having any prior technical rock-climbing experience, for instance. Mountaineering usually involves wearing insulated mountaineering boots (often with crampons as well), and rock climbing usually involves wearing slipper-like climbing shoes.
What’s the difference between bouldering and rock climbing?
Bouldering is a subcategory of rock climbing, and it’s essentially different in four ways.
1. The routes in bouldering, called “boulder problems,” are shorter in height. Most boulder problems (indoors and outdoors) are shorter than 15 feet tall, whereas most rock-climbing routes are around 30 feet (indoors) and 30 to 115 feet (outdoors).
2. Ropes are not used in bouldering. The routes are shorter, so if you fall, you land on the ground. Indoors, cushy mats protect you from injury. Outdoors, you bring your own pads, called crash pads, to land on.
3. Bouldering is generally more difficult, gymnastic climbing. The easiest boulder problems are as difficult as intermediate climbing routes (but shorter).
4. You can do it by yourself. Since you don’t need a rope, you don’t need a partner to hold the rope for you. You can go bouldering, indoors or outdoors, by yourself (although it’s good to have a partner outdoors to spot you, or make sure you land on your crash pad). Bouldering in a climbing gym is a good way to learn the movement of rock climbing without having a partner.
How do I climb rock faces?
A common misunderstanding of rock climbers, possibly because of the film Cliffhanger, in which Sylvester Stallone spends significant periods hanging thousands of feet up with only one hand, is that they have tremendous upper-body strength. Expert climbers often do develop incredible strength in their fingers, forearms, and back muscles, but climbing is more of a total-body effort. Any experienced climber will tell you that rock climbing is all about footwork and learning to stand on tiny footholds—not doing thousands of pull-ups. To move up basic rock-climbing terrain, you’ll step up, using your hands for balance, but not death-gripping handholds. Your weight should be on your feet, because your legs can sustain holding your body weight for hours longer than your hands and arms can.
To climb, find a foothold and step onto it, gradually applying all your body weight to that foot. Locate another hold for your other foot, step on it, and distribute your weight as evenly as possible between the two. Find a good handhold for each of your hands, make sure you’re comfortable, and then start to look for a new foothold for one of your feet. Move in small steps, not big lunges—small movements are less dynamic and make it easier to stay in control of your balance. Always make sure you have three good points of contact with the rock (two hands and a foot, two feet and one hand, etc.) before you move. On less-than-vertical rock, don’t hug the rock face—keeping your butt out away from the rock will deliver more weight to your shoes and help them stick instead of sliding off holds.
Climbing has the most confusing system of classifying difficulty. Skiing has the green-blue-black system, which even a four-year-old can understand. Climbing’s grading system, called the Yosemite Decimal System, has to be explained historically to make any sense. When the system was first created, fifth-class climbing, which is roped climbing, was assigned a decimal system: 5.1 was the easiest roped climbing, and 5.9 was the most difficult. This system worked until one day someone climbed a route so difficult it couldn’t be classified as 5.9, so it was decided to be 5.10 (which mathematically makes no sense—but think of 10 being more difficult than 9). So then the toughest climbs in the United States were classified as 5.10—until someone climbed something more difficult, and it was decided to add letters to the system. If a route was harder than 5.10, it was rated 5.10a. Then, of course, came 5.10b, 5.10c, and 5.10d. After 5.10d came 5.11, then 5.11a, and so on. Now the most challenging climb in the world is rated a 5.15c. Only the upper end of the grading scale (5.10-5.15) uses letters.
If you’re confused, just remember to stay at the lower end of the scale when you’re learning to climb. Routes at climbing gyms are clearly labeled, and as you’re starting out, try a few 5.6s, 5.7s, and 5.8s. Pretty soon you’ll be up in the 5.10s, and someday you’ll be able to feel the difference between a 5.11b and a 5.11c.
How do climbing ropes work?
Climbing ropes are dynamic ropes, meaning they’re built to stretch when force is applied. They don’t stretch as much as a bungee cord, but enough so that the force of a climbing fall is distributed along the length of the rope, stretching slightly, so that at the end of the fall there is little or no impact on a climber’s body—as opposed to with a nonstretching, or static, rope, which would give a climber a huge jolt at the end of even a short fall (enough to break the climber’s back). If you’re first learning to climb, indoors or outdoors, you’ll very likely be climbing on what’s called a toprope system: the rope runs from your harness up to an anchor and then back down to your belayer. Your belayer will pull in slack as you climb up, keeping the rope tight, so that when you fall you’ll only fall a few inches or feet (as the rope stretches). The route ends when you reach the anchor, and your belayer will lower you back to the ground.
Can I climb if I’m afraid of heights?
If you’re scared of heights, climbing will do one of two things: help you to learn to deal with your fear of heights, or emphatically establish that you should never get higher off the ground than the top of a 6-foot ladder. Fear of heights is a normal, safe, rational thing, and without it climbing wouldn’t be thrilling (for those people who find it thrilling) or empowering (for those people who find it empowering). If you’re scared of heights but want to try climbing, you should absolutely try it, and don’t be afraid to ease yourself into heights—there are no rules anywhere that say you have to climb to the top of a route. Try getting a few feet off the ground your first time, maybe a few feet higher the next time, and maybe by the end of your first day, you’ll get to the top. If being fifteen feet up absolutely terrifies you, lower back to the ground and congratulate yourself for at least trying it out. If you’re not sure, it might be better to try climbing indoors for your first time—the trained staff and controlled environment can lend an air of safety to something that feels inherently risky.
When should I wear a helmet?
Helmets are a touchy subject in rock climbing and mountaineering (or really in any pursuit besides professional sports). People wear them when they feel they’re necessary, and everyone has their own reasons for choosing to (or choosing not to) wear a helmet. Here are a few things to consider when deciding whether you want to put your noggin under a helmet.
• Mountaineering: Any route that’s third class, fourth class, or fifth class may have potential for rockfall, whether it’s accidentally kicked down a gully by your partner or just standard geologic shifting.
• Rock climbing: Helmets are generally uncommon at sport-climbing areas where all the routes are bolted, mostly because of the assumption that crags don’t have loose rock. This is sometimes true, but not always. Helmets will protect you from anything falling from above, whether it’s a broken handhold, a rock that just came off the top of the cliff for seemingly no particular reason, or a carabiner accidentally dropped from above—as well as if you catch a rope behind your leg when you’re leading and flip upside down when you fall, or if you’re squeezing underneath a roof (an overhanging section of rock) and underestimate the size of your own head and bang it on the rock (it happens to the best of us).
• Ice climbing: At ice-climbing areas, chunks of ice will most likely be falling from above, as climbers swing tools and kick crampons.
• Terminal velocity: Even a tiny, tiny rock that drops 50 or 100 feet before it hits your head will hurt.
Eight Important Climbing Terms
1. Belay: To provide safety for a climber by essentially holding on to the opposite end of the rope the climber is tied to. Historically, belayers ran the rope around their bodies to provide enough friction to stop a fall—thankfully, belay devices have enabled that same stopping power by redirecting the rope through a piece of metal clipped to the belaying climber’s harness.
2. Crimp: A small hold that only one pad of your fingers fits on.
3. Jam: A crack-climbing technique, in which hands, fingers, or feet are wedged into a crack in the rock, providing enough friction for enough of a downward pull to move the climber upward.
4. Jug: A large handhold that you can wrap your fingers around—shortened from “jug handle.”
5. Route: The specific line of a climb, indoors or outdoors. Routes can be one pitch (30 to 115 feet), or many pitches (routes on El Capitan are as long as 3,000 feet). Each route is graded for difficulty, and each has a unique name if it’s an outdoor route (some climbing gyms name their routes, but not all).
6. Send: The term for lead-climbing a route, without falling or stopping, to let your body weight rest on the rope.
7. Smear: Not as gross as it sounds, a smear is a technique where the friction of your climbing shoe on minimally featured rock provides the foothold.
8. Toprope: A climb that has a rope redirected from the belayer to the top of the route to the climber, minimizing the distance the climber will fall should he or she come off the route.
What kind of climbing knots should I know?
Surprisingly, you don’t have to know that many knots for basic roped rock climbing. These seven knots will get you through most situations.
1. Rewoven Figure Eight: Used to attach a climbing rope to the climber’s harness
2. Clove Hitch: Used to tie a rope to a carabiner
3. Girth Hitch: Used to tie climbing slings to things, including the climber’s harness
4. Prusik: Used to ascend ropes and as rappel backup
5. Double Fisherman’s: Used to tie two ends of a rope or cord together
6. Overhand: Used to tie two ropes together
7. Munter hitch: Used to belay or lower someone if the climber drops or loses his or her belay device
How should climbing shoes fit?
Climbing shoes have traditionally been designed to be everything but comfortable—something that’s been changing for the better over recent years, thankfully. Also traditionally, shoes were worn small enough that they were painful to walk in, sometimes two or three full sizes too small. Climbers figured less loose material meant more sensitivity to small holds. Today, expert climbers tackling technical, overhanging routes still wear tight-fitting shoes, for good reasons. But your first pair of climbing shoes shouldn’t be uncomfortably tight or really that expensive. Shoes at the lower end of the price spectrum (one hundred dollars or less) are great shoes to learn to climb in—they’re comfortable, all-purpose, and great for learning basic footwork and movement. Pick a pair that isn’t breaking the bank, and try them on if at all possible. They should fit snugly, with no extra shoe rubber sticking out at the ends of your toes or the sides of your feet, but not so tight that they’re painful or your toes are curled up when you put them on. Leather shoes will stretch a little bit as they break in, and shoes made of synthetic material will not. If you’re renting shoes at a climbing gym, you might want to wear socks, but most climbers don’t wear socks with the climbing shoes they own.
How can I climb Everest?
Climbing Mount Everest is a commitment in many ways—you have to commit to the physical training, the amount of time required to climb it (typically a total of two and a half months of travel, acclimatization, and waiting for a weather window for a summit attempt), and the expense (usually around $70,000, not including travel to and from Nepal). Most guide companies require clients to have both mountaineering experience and experience at high altitude, so a typical progression to an Everest climb might be a guided climb of Mount Rainier (14,410 feet) in Washington your first year, a climb of Aconcagua (22,837 feet) in Argentina or Denali (20,310 feet) in Alaska your second year, and then Everest your third year. It’s not impossible to conquer Everest, it’s just expensive in a lot of ways—time and money—so if you want to climb it you definitely have to be serious about the endeavor.
How can I climb Kilimanjaro?
Tanzania’s 19,341-foot Mount Kilimanjaro, one of the Seven Summits—the highest mountains on each continent—is an iconic mountain climb, but much more within reach for most people than mountains of similar height like Aconcagua and Denali. Although it’s a challenging, high-altitude climb, Kilimanjaro is not technical (there’s no snow or ice on the route, and ropes aren’t used). All ascents of the peak are guided and employ local guides (usually working with international mountain guide companies). Guided climbs usually take about two weeks (not including travel to and from Tanzania), include a safari, and cost around $6,000. The climb itself is a hike, on a route similar in difficulty to those on nontechnical peaks in Colorado or California. The difference is the elevation—the thin air at 19,341 feet is the great equalizer. Thankfully, the first days of the climb are spent acclimating, and you gradually move higher and higher up the mountain, so your body can learn to function with less oxygen as you get closer to the top. If you train properly (even though there’s no snow or ice, the climb still requires some serious leg muscles, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness) and if you have the money, you can do it.
Is there a challenging but doable mountain to climb closer to home?
Climbing the tallest peak in the lower forty-eight states, California’s 14,505-foot Mount Whitney, has become a much bigger logistical challenge in recent years. Permits to climb the peak via the Mount Whitney Trail are capped at 160 people per day (100 day hikers and 60 overnight hikers) during the high season and are awarded in a lottery. If you plan ahead and are flexible on dates, getting a permit is less stressful. Once you get the permit, the climb is tough but doable: if you get a single-day permit, you’ll have to hike 11 miles of trail to the summit, covering 6,100 vertical feet—and then turn around and descend all that steep mileage back to the trailhead. It’s a long day. You can make the challenge a bit less strenuous if you split it up into two days (one day to hike up partway and camp, the next day to summit and hike back out). The good news is, the climb is nontechnical. It’s all class 2 (see here), which means it’s a good trail all the way to the top—even if it’s rocky for most of it and in the thin air at high elevation.
Why should I try mountain biking?
Mountain biking can appeal to a variety of people: those who loved riding BMX bikes on dirt as kids, those who like tearing downhill at high speeds, and those who love the cardiovascular workout of pedaling a bike up steep uphill grades. It also appeals to those who just want to ride a bicycle somewhere where there aren’t cars, or those who love hiking but would also like the ability to coast over long sections of trails—or would like to move faster in the backcountry than they can while hiking. Mountain biking can be challenging from a skills standpoint: for example, trying to pedal uphill around a tight corner while steering your front tire between rocks, or descending a steep downhill section without flipping yourself over your handlebars by squeezing the brakes too hard. But there are also hundreds of mellow trails out there for beginners or anyone wanting to go for a scenic ride in a beautiful place.
Should I use clip-in pedals or platform pedals?
You have a choice when it comes to pedals: platform pedals—the basic, flat pedals that work with any shoe—or pedals that attach to special cycling shoes—which, confusingly enough, are actually called “clipless.” Both have advantages and disadvantages for the rider.
Platform pedals are simple to use: you just step onto them and go, and anytime you want to take your foot off the pedal (e.g., when you don’t quite correctly navigate through a tricky section of trail and want to put your foot down on the ground for balance, or when you stop to get off your bike), you just do it. The disadvantage of platform pedals is efficiency of motion: a pedal stroke is a full circle, and without your foot attached to the pedal in some way, you’re only truly using half of that circle (or less)—the “pushing” part. Still, for a lot of mountain bikers, platform pedals make sense—they mostly go on rides where being able to quickly disengage from their pedals trumps everything else, they have anxiety about being able to clip in and clip out when they need to, or they’re strictly riding downhill at a place where they use a ski lift or other means to get to the top of a trail. If you’re just starting out mountain biking, platform pedals are a good choice.
Clipless pedals got their name because cyclists used to use “toe clips,” a strap-and-cage contraption that attached to pedals. When a system was devised that attached a cleat on the bottom of a cycling shoe to a pedal, toe clips took a backseat, and riders went clipless. It seems strange to call the pedals clipless, since your shoe literally clips into the pedal, but that’s the way it is. Clipless pedals are a mechanical advantage for a couple reasons: you can pedal in a full circle, using your foot to pull the pedal backward and upward through the five o’clock to twelve o’clock positions of the pedal stroke, and you can wear stiff shoes with them, which helps transfer more of your pedaling energy into the pedal stroke than a soft shoe. To unclip from your clipless pedals, turn your ankle outward and the clip disengages. Lots of people have trouble with clipless pedals at first, forgetting when they stop that their foot is attached to the pedal until their bike starts to lean over to one side and they crash. You have to train your brain to remember the motion of unclipping so that it becomes automatic (or deal with a few bruises and scrapes from falling over before you learn). Or you can set the pedals to be very loose, so that it only takes a very small motion to unclip—but that can leave you in a position where your shoe might unclip in situations where you don’t want it to, like intense uphill pedaling.
What kind of mountain bike do I need?
Thanks to capitalism and engineering, we have dozens of choices when it comes to mountain bikes. We also have the ability to spend anywhere between $400 and $15,000 on a mountain bike—but don’t worry, you don’t need a five-figure bike to have a good time on the bike.
• 27.5: Now the dominant wheel size in biking, wheels with a 27.5-inch diameter are a compromise between the traditional 26-inch size and the 29-inch size.
• 29er: A mountain bike with 29-inch diameter wheels. The good things about 29-inch wheels: They roll over obstacles more easily, and they retain momentum once you’re going on a trail. The bad things: They weigh a little bit more, they make it (slightly) tougher to start pedaling once you’ve stopped, and larger wheels make the bicycles more difficult to maneuver at low speeds (e.g., pedaling uphill around a tight corner).
• Front suspension: A mountain bike with a front suspension, or shock, only on the front fork, to absorb the impact of rolling over obstacles.
• Full suspension: A mountain bike with a front suspension as well as a rear suspension, combining to absorb the shock of rolling over obstacles and riding bumpy terrain. This bike is more expensive and heavy than bikes with only a front suspension.
• Fully rigid: A mountain bike with no suspension; this is the choice of more advanced riders, as the lack of shock absorption requires a much higher skill level to ride rough trails.
• Single-speed: Just like it sounds, a single-speed bike has only one gear.
What tools should I take with me on a mountain bike ride?
Unless you’re a trained bike mechanic, you’re probably not going to be able to fix everything that could potentially go wrong on a mountain bike ride—nor do you want to carry all the tools you’d need in your backpack. But lots of small problems can be fixed with a few tools and a little MacGyver ingenuity. Here’s a basic list of what you should have in your toolkit.
• Baling wire: Malleable but strong, baling wire can fix plenty of bicycle problems. Clip off a section 6 to 8 feet long and put it in your toolkit.
• Duct tape: You always need duct tape. Don’t take the whole roll—make yourself a smaller roll 6 to 8 feet long (about the size of a golf ball) that you can pack more easily.
• Chain lube: A small bottle of chain lube is great to have in your toolkit for long rides, or when you start pedaling from the trailhead and you hear a squeaking coming from your chain and realize it’s been a while since you lubricated it.
• Multitool: A compact bike multitool (different from a pliers-style multitool) can solve a hundred problems. Make sure it has plenty of hex wrenches, both Phillips and regular screwdriver heads, and a chain tool.
• Pump: A small tire pump should either attach to the frame of your bike or fit in your backpack easily.
• Rag: You’ll need it for wiping off excess chain lube.
• Spare inner tube: It’s easier (and faster) in most flat-tire situations to put in a new inner tube than it is to look for the hole that caused the flat.
• Tire patch kit: But, of course, you might get two flats on a single ride, so carry a patch kit just in case, because finding the hole and patching it is probably faster than walking your bike all the way back to the trailhead. A patch kit will include patches, adhesive sealant, small squares of sandpaper or other abrasive to rough up the rubber to enable the patches to stick better, and possibly (but not always) tire levers to remove your tire from the wheel. If your patch kit doesn’t come with tire levers, make sure you buy a pair.
• Zip ties: Zip ties are the duct tape of the cycling world. Throw a half dozen in your toolkit and you won’t regret it. A shifter cable hanging loose off your frame or a bottle cage bolt rattled loose and lost along the trail can be fixed in a few seconds with a zip tie.
What do I do if I break a spoke?
You might not notice a broken spoke at first. If you hear it, it will be a loud popping noise coming from your front or rear wheel, which is the sound of the spoke breaking or separating from the wheel. You can carry an extra spoke, but most mountain bikers don’t because replacing spokes is pretty labor intensive (you have to remove the tire and tube); plus, a spoke is difficult to pack since it’s long and bends easily when not attached to the wheel, and putting it on correctly is an advanced science requiring tightening the spoke to a specific tension correlated with the tightness of other spokes holding the wheel’s rim straight. So basically, don’t worry about it. If you break a spoke, your wheel will probably be fine for the rest of your ride (unless the wheel was extremely out of true alignment when you started). Stop riding, get off your bike, and stow the broken spoke away as best as possible—bend it around a neighboring healthy spoke, wrapping it so it won’t get caught in anything as you continue to ride. Monitor the wheel for significant wobbling, and be vigilant and pay attention to your other spokes. If the wheel is wobbling, walk the bike in. If you break a second spoke on the same wheel, the wheel will become very unstable and it’s probably best to walk the bike back to the trailhead instead of risking completely ruining the wheel. Replacing a spoke is inexpensive, but replacing the wheel will cost around one hundred dollars at the very least.
How do I fix a flat tire?
Flats happen, and learning to quickly fix them will give you independence, prevent a lot of walking, and perhaps make you a hero to someone else out on the trail. Here’s how to do it.
• Remove the wheel from the bike. Be careful to not touch your brake rotors—they’ll be hot if you’ve been riding and braking a lot. Your front wheel is easier to remove than your back wheel. If it’s your front wheel, open the quick-release lever and unscrew it until the wheel is loose enough to remove. If it’s your rear wheel, shift gears until the chain is around the smallest cog, and then move the derailleur out of the way as you pull the wheel out of the frame (this can take some practice and even after dozens of times will probably never feel as though you’re doing it right).
• Let any remaining air out of the tire. If there’s still air in the tube, depress the tire valve until all the remaining air escapes.
• Check the outside of the tire for the hole. Look closely to see if you can spot a small thorn or something else that’s stuck in your tire. You may not see anything, but if you do, pull it out of the tire.
• Remove the tire from the wheel. Insert your tire lever where the tire meets the wheel, pry the tire bead away from the wheel, and pop it over to the outside of the rim. Once you’ve got a few inches of it out of the rim, the rest will come out easily.
• Remove the tube. Push the tube valve through its hole in the rim and pull the damaged tube out. Check the valve stem for damage—if there’s a hole in the valve stem, that’s probably what caused your flat.
• Find the cause of the flat. This is important, because if you simply replace the tube without finding the thorn or other object that caused the flat, you’ll ride a few feet down the trail with your fresh tube and have another flat tire to deal with. Finding the problem can be tougher than it sounds—often the object that caused your flat is almost invisible. Run your fingers around the inside of the tire, slowly, feeling for anything sharp or foreign. If you don’t find anything, try turning the tire inside out and looking closely. Remove the object or objects.
• Put the tire halfway back on the rim. Make sure the tire is facing the proper direction (there should be an arrow on the tire itself indicating the direction of rotation), and place one bead back on the rim, leaving the other bead on the outside so you can stuff the new tube in between the tire and rim.
• Put the tube in. Using your tire pump, inflate the tire a little bit to give it some shape. Find the hole for your valve stem and put that part of the tube in first, then push the rest of the tube into the tire.
• Put the tire back on. Make sure one bead is completely seated on the rim correctly, and then begin to seat the remaining bead. Holding the wheel in your lap with the valve at the top, or twelve o’clock position, begin pushing the bead into the rim, your right hand working the tire into the rim in a clockwise direction as your left hand simultaneously works the tire into the rim in a counterclockwise direction. As it becomes more difficult to push the bead into the rim, squeeze the entire tire toward the rim—grip near the valve and work both hands around the circle in opposite directions (right hand clockwise, left hand counterclockwise). This will help create just enough room for the bead to eventually squeeze all the way into the rim.
• Once you have the tire back on, check to make sure the tube isn’t sticking out between the tire and rim anywhere—this can cause a “pinch flat” and you’ll be right back where you started.
• Fully inflate the tire with your frame pump.
• Put the wheel back on your bike.
How do I do a basic bike tune-up at home?
To repair all the issues you’ll have with your mountain bike requires specialized tools and the knowledge to use them properly. You should be able to tackle maintenance of your tires and chain and to perform a basic check of everything on the bike to make sure it’s working correctly. If it isn’t, you should also know when to take it to a bike mechanic for repairs and a professional tune-up.
• Clean and lube your chain: To clean your chain, spray it down with a degreaser such as Simple Green and a chain brush. To lubricate it, place a drop of lubricant on the top of the chain at each link, holding a pedal in one hand and turning the crank to move the chain so you can apply lubricant along its entire length. Use a rag to dry off excess lubricant.
• Clean frame and wheels: Use soapy water and a rag to wipe off the bike frame. Pay attention to the underside of the bike, where you’ll likely find the most dirt and caked-on mud. Wipe off the rims.
• Check wheels and spokes: Flip your bike over and spin each wheel, checking that the rims don’t wobble as the wheel rotates. Check your spokes to make sure none of them are loose. If a wheel wobbles or you find a loose spoke, take the wheel into a bike shop to have it trued.
• Check tire pressure and tread: Use a pump with a tire gauge to ensure that your tires are within the recommended pressure (the numbers printed on the sidewall of the tire). Inspect the tread of the tire to make sure no lugs have ripped off and that lug depth is sufficient. Check the tires for holes or thorns in the sidewalls and tread.
• Check the brakes: Spin the front tire and pull the brake lever to ensure that the brakes start to grip and stop the wheel at about one-third of a complete pull of the lever. If you have to squeeze the lever farther than a third or halfway to stop the wheel from spinning, take your bike into a shop and have the brakes serviced. Look down into your disc brake and squeeze the brake lever, making sure both sides of the brake calipers are squeezing the pads equally onto the rotors. If not, take the bike into a bike shop for servicing.
Nine Mountain Biking Terms
1. Berm: An embankment on a trail; enables a cyclist to lean into a turn.
2. Chain suck: The phenomenon of a bike chain not rolling through the drivetrain properly; for one reason or another (mud, worn-out drivetrain, etc.), the chain bunches up and jams.
3. Clean: To ride a difficult section of trail without falling or stopping.
4. Doubletrack: Two trails that parallel each other; they’re often from an old fire road or ATV trail in which two tire tracks run next to each other.
5. Endo: A crash in which a cyclist falls (or flies) over the handlebars of the bicycle.
6. Granny gear: The easiest possible gear on a bicycle; used when pedaling steep uphill sections.
7. Rock garden: A section of trail composed of large rocks.
8. Singletrack: A trail wide enough for only one cyclist (or hiker).
9. Switchback: A zigzag in a trail, usually built because the trail climbs steeply uphill.
What do I do if I crash my bike?
With normal luck, you’ll probably crash your bike several times—hopefully none too serious. When a crash does happen, you may not see it coming, but hopefully you’ll be able to look back on the crash, see what you did wrong, and learn something for your next ride. When you crash, here’s what to do.
First, check yourself for injuries: Can you stand up on your own? Can you lean on each arm? Can you walk? Inhale a few times, take your time, and slowly get up and check your limbs. If something is seriously broken or smashed, you’ll likely be feeling it immediately, but a visual inspection will also help. Depending on which parts of your body took the majority of the impact force, you might have a broken collarbone (a common crash injury), a separated or sprained shoulder, or even a broken hip. In the best-case scenario, you’ll have only a few cuts and scrapes.
Next, get yourself and your bike off the trail. If you’re okay (or mostly okay), move to the side of the trail and get your bike off the trail as well—you don’t want to be in the way of other cyclists, especially if you crashed in a spot where they won’t see you lying on the ground until they’re right on top of you.
Check your helmet. Is your helmet cracked or punctured, or otherwise compromised? If so, it’s no longer useful in protecting your head, so consider that before you hop on your bike and ride the rest of the way back to the trailhead. Your safest option is to walk, but if you’re confident your trail is easy riding you can negotiate, ride out carefully.
Then check your bike. Look over your bike for damage that will make it unsafe to ride. Are your handlebars still straight? If not, get out a multitool and straighten them before riding away. Are your wheels straight, or did one or both of your rims get bent in the crash? Spin each wheel and watch it all the way around its rotation to see if it wobbles. If it has a sizable wobble, it may not hold you all the way out to the trailhead, and it’s better to walk out. Are your brakes working? As you spin and examine each wheel, pull the corresponding brake lever to make sure it’s still engaging and stopping the wheel. Are your shifters working? Ride a few feet down the trail and click through a few gears to make sure your drivetrain is still operating correctly. If your derailleur (the small piece attached to your frame—just below the hub of your rear wheel—that the chain runs through) is bent, don’t ride.
How do I avoid going over my handlebars?
Ride a mountain bike often enough, and you’ll eventually crash a few times. You may even find yourself flying over the handlebars once or twice. When you’re starting out, here are a few pointers to prevent it.
• Use no more than two fingers on your brake levers. Disc brakes are particularly responsive, and you shouldn’t need to pull hard to stop your bike—in fact, if you’re moving fast at all, it’s pretty easy to flip over the handlebars with a good hard squeeze of the front brake lever, so practice “feathering” your brakes, or gently applying pressure. And try to squeeze both at the same time in almost all situations. If you have all four of your fingers wrapped around your levers and you panic and squeeze your front brake lever hard, you’ll have a good chance of flying over your handlebars—so don’t ever place more than two fingers on the levers.
• Ride within your limits. If you’re not confident in your skills, going faster isn’t going to make you feel safer. There’s nothing wrong with riding at what you think is 70 to 80 percent of your capacity.
• When going downhill, put your body weight to the back of the bike as much as possible. Drop your heels as low as you can. On steep sections, take your butt off your seat and slide behind your seat so your butt is over your rear wheel.
• Keep your center of gravity over the bottom bracket of your bike. Or think, “Heavy feet, light hands” when you ride.
• Keep your elbows slightly bent. When you’re tired, you’ll probably find yourself riding with your arms straight, placing more weight on the handlebars. Keeping your arms slightly bent will help you absorb bumps with your arms and keep you more in control.
How do I ride over a log?
Riding over obstacles while mountain biking is a matter of “when,” not “if”—ride enough trails and you’ll eventually have to roll over something bigger than you think is possible. Of course, you can always stop your bike, step off, and walk it over the obstacle, but if you have to do that too many times in one ride, it can become maddening. For smaller or lower-profile objects in your path (roots, rocks, water bars, manmade steps, or anything 5 inches or shorter), it’s often enough to just keep rolling at a moderate speed, adjust your stance so your weight is more on the back wheel than the front wheel (i.e., you’re not leaning down on the handlebars), and give the handlebars a pull upward with both hands to help the wheel roll over the obstacle.
If you need to take on a bigger obstacle, say, something 5 to 18 inches tall, you’ll need to put in a little more effort. Keep your speed moderate, try to approach the object with your wheel at a 90-degree angle to it (i.e., across the log or step), and start to pull up your handlebars when you are approximately as far away from the object as it is tall (6 inches away for a 6-inch-high obstacle, 12 inches away for a 12-inch-high obstacle, etc.). At the same time you pull up on your bars, pedal forward a half stroke or more—remember, all you’re trying to do here is set your front wheel on top of the obstacle, not bunny hop over it. As your front wheel rolls over the top of the obstacle, transition forward on the bike so your weight is over the bars, slightly leaning forward so you’re helping the bike carry your momentum over the obstacle. Pedal firmly up and over the object and keep your rear wheel following your front wheel.
What if the chain falls off my bike?
If your bike chain comes off from a crash or other cause, stop and dismount your bike. Shift your front derailleur to the smallest chainring, and shift your rear derailleur to the smallest cog. Lean the bike up against something solid (like a tree) or have a friend hold it upright. Kneel next to the bike, facing the right side of the bike. Push your rear derailleur toward the front of the bike with your left hand, creating slack in the chain. Use your right hand to pull the chain up and set it on top of the smallest chainring, trying to get as many chainring teeth in the chain as possible. Ease the rear derailleur back into position, and the chain should reseat itself on the chainring. If necessary, lift the rear of the bike off the ground so the rear wheel can spin freely, and turn the crank with your hand so the chain moves forward and completely reseats on the crank.
Eight Mountain Bike Rides to Try
1. Porcupine Rim, Moab, Utah: This single 30-mile loop on one of the most famous desert mountain bike trails in America includes slickrock, sandstone step drops, and sandy corners.
2. Zippity Do Da, Fruita, Colorado: A one-way, 18-mile downhill loop trail with steep descents down ridge tops and long sections of huge rolling hills.
3. Hangover Trail, Sedona, Arizona: Less than 4 miles, but heart-pounding exposure to drop-offs and difficult sections make this a test of bike-handling skills—and composure.
4. Monarch Crest, Salida, Colorado: A 30-mile ride starting at 11,000 feet, with views for days. The route includes 10 miles of trail that roll along the top of the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rockies.
5. Big Loop, Gooseberry Mesa, Hurricane, Utah: The 14 miles of windy, twisty routes through slickrock bowls and tight-turning singletrack feel like a giant skate park in the desert.
6. Tsali Trails, Bryson City, North Carolina: Features more than 30 miles of tree-lined swoopy singletrack in the Appalachian Mountains.
7. Bull Mountain and Jake Mountain Trails, Georgia: A network of more than 50 miles of trails with steep climbs and a swoopy singletrack. You’ll have to carry your bike over the stream crossings.
8. Comfortably Numb, Whistler, British Columbia: A monument to human trail building, this test piece rolls up hand-built ladders, bridges, rock cliffs, and other features for almost 14 miles.
Can I mountain bike if it’s rainy?
Maybe. Your biggest concern with rain is not getting wet when you ride but potentially ruining the trail for everyone else. In dry climates like Colorado’s and Utah’s, and in other alpine and desert environments, riding on a wet trail can wreck it, leaving mountain bike tire ruts through sections of trail—which, once they dry, aren’t fun to navigate a bike through. In the Pacific Northwest, where the soil is more loamy and trails have absorbed moisture and human impact for years, biking in the rain is usually totally fine and won’t cause permanent damage. If you’re in doubt, ask a local: find a bike shop and ask an employee what trails are ridable in the rain (if any are). If locals don’t ride when it’s wet, don’t ride when it’s wet.