Climbing Tips: Do THIS, not THAT (Part 8)
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In this article:
Remove twists before pulling your rappel rope
Warm up your cold phone before you try charging it
Keep Dyneema slings and velcro shoes separated
Tying your tagline to your rappel rope
Use decimal degree coordinates to describe any backcountry location
1 - Remove twists before pulling your rappel rope
If your rope has some evil pigtails in it, it's really important to get those out as best you can before you pull your rappel rope!
If you don't, those twists can start to spiral around each other as you pull your rope, which can cause it to get absolutely stuck.
Here's a photo of a rappel rope getting stuck because of twists in the rope; don't let this happen to you!
image: @aledallo91, shared with permission
2 -Warm up your cold phone before you try charging it
Phones are kind of like people - they don't much like below 30 and above 90 degrees fahrenheit, and do best around 65,. Cold weather not only decreases battery life and messes with phone sensors, it can cause your phone to completely shut down; the phone is programmed to do this as a sort of “survival instinct.” This situation is temporary. Once the battery warms back up, it returns to normal performance.
Important: Don't charge a cold “dead” phone. Doing this can permanently damage your phone battery. Rewarm the phone before you try to charge it. This might be under your armpit of an inside pocket. Once the battery warms up, it should show the proper charge and you might be happily surprised.
Or, as I heard it once described, “a phone battery isn't dead until it's warm and dead.” =^)
Keep your phone (and auxiliary battery) warm. Best choice is usually an inside pocket close to your skin. If your base layers don't have a large secure pocket, considering having one custom sewn.
You DO have a powerbank / portable charger and an appropriate charging cable, right? That's pretty much mandatory gear these days.
The “battery percentage” may be wrong. Ever had your phone battery say 50% left on a cold day, and then a few minutes later it’s seemingly dead? It's probably not completely dead; the cold is confusing the phone hardware. Rewarm it in an inside pocket (or armpit), and it’ll probably come back to life.
More AI image fakery, intended to deceive the public, steal from artists, and probably take over the world at some point.
3 - Keep Dyneema slings and velcro shoes separated
The Velcro on rock shoes loves to grab onto Dyneema slings, making the slings fuzzy. (This is not a safety issue, more of a minor annoyance.)
Try to store slings and shoes away from each other. Or at least, fasten the velcro on your shoes when you put ‘em in your pack.
There are several incorrect ways to tie your tagline to your rappel rope. Do you know which ones to avoid, and why they can be a problem?
Latitude longitude coordinates are a great way to describe a precise point in the backcountry. There are three different formats of lat-long coordinates; which is the best? How can you use free mapping software to find ‘em? (Bonus: secret superb Oregon campsite location shared as an example. =^)
