Alpine Tips
Snow picket - vertical or buried deadman?
A vertical picket is fast to place, but the strength depends on the firmness of the snow. Here’s a quick rule of thumb to determine if the snow will hold a vertical picket, or if you need to take more time and make a T slot (deadman) anchor.
When placing a snow picket, a key decision is whether you can place it vertically (preferably leaning back about 25° from the direction of pull for optimum strength) or if you need to bury it as a deadman, a.k.a. T-slot.
If you're using it for crevasse rescue, where the anchor has to be unquestionably strong, a single T-slot or possibly a T-slot equalized with a vertical picket is usually the best choice.
In firm summer snow in ideal conditions, you might get away with a vertical placement, which is good because it's faster.
If you make a vertical placement, you get a much stronger anchor if you clip the picket in the middle instead of the top. From IFMGA certified guide Mark Smiley, on his Instagram, he writes:
“ . . . if the snow is soft enough to push one gloved finger into it, a top clipped picket will likely fail under 500 pounds (~2 kN) Yikes! A deadman style picket placed 60cm down = strength of midclip vertical pickets = ~1500 pounds (6.7 kN)”
(Side note: One of the best studies on snow anchors is from the 2010 International Snow Science Workshop, from a paper called “Snow anchors for Belaying and Rescue”, by Don Bogie (New Zealand) and Art Fortini, (USA). You can see it here.)
But if you're unsure of the firmness of the snow, here’s a good rule of thumb, also courtesy of Mark Smiley:
“Typically if it takes 10+ solid hammer strikes to drive the picket to the deepest hole (top of the picket), then I have confidence the snow is firm enough. If less than 10 strikes, I will switch to building a T-slot anchor...which takes longer to build but it’s stronger.”
Mark’s tip is in the comment section of this excellent Youtube video from Outdoor Research, “How to Build a Snow Anchor.”
Look at stream flow patterns to see elevation change
From a quick glance at stream patterns on a map, can you get a sense of where the high and the low elevations are? It's a helpful skill you can quickly learn.
Stream flow patterns on a topographic map can show you at a glance the higher elevations and lower elevations.
This map section below (from the US Geological Survey 7.5 minute map series) is in the Oregon coast range. Just by looking at the stream flow patterns (and without looking at the printed elevations (which are pretty darn hard to see anyway) can you tell where is the high ground and the low ground? And, for extra credit, what’s the lowest point on the map?
Here are a few ways to tell general map elevation from stream flow patterns.
A good starting assumption: water flows downhill. =^)
Smaller streams flow together to become larger ones.
When streams come together, they usually form a “V” shape. The two arms of the “V” point upstream, to higher ground. The tip of the “V” points downstream, to lower elevation terrain.
The origin of a stream on a map is called the “headwaters”. The stream always flows downhill from that point.
Contour lines always bend to point uphill when they cross a gully or drainage.
Let's look at a few examples.
When streams come together, they usually form a “V” shape. The two arms of the “V” point upstream, to higher ground. The tip of the “V” points downstream, to lower elevation terrain.
The origin of a stream on a map is called the headwaters. The stream always flows downhill from that point.
Contour lines always bend to point uphill when they cross a gully or drainage. (Look at the index contours, printed in bold every 5th contour line, they’re easier to see. Shown in red line below.)
So, when we put all that together, we see that Jordan Creek in the center is flowing from right to left (or east to west, if you prefer), being fed by various other creeks flowing from higher elevations.
Try this yourself. Go to Caltopo.com, zoom into a familiar area that has some streams, and see how all of these factors come into play.
And finally, because we know Jordan Creek is flowing from right to left (and because water flows downhill) the lowest point on the map is the one indicated below.
And as always, stream flow patterns, gullies, ridges and other landscape features are much easier to see when you use a map that has shaded relief. This is easily done in Caltopo for free. The map below has about 30% relief shading. Here’s a whole article on shaded relief, check it out!
If you are new to using Caltopo, it’s a wonderful mapping tool. I made a tutorial video on how to get started using it, you can watch that here.
CalTopo pro tip - split tracks, add colors and direction
On loop routes, it’s handy to use different line colors and/or styles to easily see the ascent and descent. This can be especially helpful when sharing your route with others who may not be familiar with it. CalTopo can do this easily with the “Split Here” feature.
(If you want to learn the basics of using CalTopo, start with this tutorial video.)
A more advanced tip in CalTopo (the best backcountry mapping software) is to “split” a track and give different legs a unique color and/or line style. Doing this shows at a glance the way up and the way down, and is especially helpful if you have a loop route on a climb or hike.
If the map is just for you, and you know the route, you probably don't need to do this. But if you want to share your route with others, doing this takes just a minute or two and makes the map much more usable for those who are not familiar with the route.
Here’s an example of the Mountaineers Route on Mt. Whitney in the California Sierra. What you’re seeing is a GPX track of the route (traced over to remove squiggles) downloaded from Peakbagger.com, which is a great source for finding GPX track files for climbing routes. We cover how to do that in this article.
Here's the entire route. The ascent route breaks off from the main climber’s trail a mile or so after the parking area, and proceeds counterclockwise. But, If you’re not familiar with the route, you wouldn’t know what’s the ascent and what’s the descent just by looking at this map.
So, let’s split the GPX track into two parts, the “up” part and the “down” part.
Zoom in close to the summit area, mouse over the line until it turns bold, select “Modify” > “Split Here”.
This splits the one line into two. The line still looks the same on the map, but if you look on the left side of your screen, now you should see two lines with the same name.
Now, let’s change the color. Click the “pencil” (aka Edit) icon next to the name under “Lines & Polygons” on the left side of your screen. Click the small red square in the edit box to choose a color. For this example, we’ll choose green for the ascent.
And, to clearly show the direction of travel, let’s change the line style to one with some directional arrows. To do this, click the “Pencil” edit icon again, and click the horizontal line that comes after “Style” in the edit dialog box.
Repeat this with the second line, choosing a blue line color and the same directional arrow.
Now, that’s an improvement! Someone seeing this map for the first time can immediately determine the ascent and descent. If you’re making a map for any kind of public sharing, even if it’s with some other teammates on your trip, taking an extra minute or so to do this makes your map more legible for everyone.
And finally, below is a screen grab of the PDF file of the map made from CalTopo, which prints nicely on 8.5” by 11” paper at 1:25,000 scale. Print this to use on your climb, and save it as a PDF on your phone as a backup. (The base map is USFS 2013, with about 20% shaded relief.)
Redirect the Grigri brake strand for extra friction
If you're using a Grigri or similar device on a top rope belay, and you have a heavy partner, small diameter, and/or wet/icy rope, sometimes you need additional friction. Here’s an easy way to do that - redirect the brake strand through a second carabiner.
When top rope belaying with a Grigri or similar auto locking belay device, you may find you need extra friction when lowering. This could be due to lowering a heavy partner, skinny rope, slippery rope sheath, wet/icy rope, cold hands, gloves, or some combination of the above.
One crafty way to do this is to redirect the brake strand through a second locking carabiner clipped to your belay loop.
You can use a normal locking carabiner to do this, or the more specialized (and expensive, and strange looking) Petzl Freino carabiner, which has a secondary “braking spur” designed specifically for rope redirect and extra friction when belaying or rappelling a single rope strand.
IMAGE: HTTPS://WWW.REI.COM/MEDIA/PRODUCT/716219
Like with all lowering techniques, the effectiveness of this depends greatly on the variables mentioned above: rope diameter, how slippery the sheath is, if the rope is wet / icy, weight of your partner, etc. Practice in a controlled environment before you try it in the real world.
Karsten posted two nice photos on his Instagram, which pretty much sums it up.
Method 1 - SOME extra friction - brake strand redirected through the gold locking carabiner.
photo: instagram.com/karstendelap/
Method 2 - a LOT of extra friction, with the brake strand redirected through the locking carabiner AND passed back over the Grigri.
photo: instagram.com/karstendelap/
New from CalTopo - high resolution slope angle shading
CalTopo, the best backcountry mapping software, just got even better. The slope angle shading is now at an even higher resolution, improving wilderness trip planning for much of the United States. See some examples here.
If you’re new to CalTopo and want to learn the basics, start with this tutorial video.
Note: this type of slope shading is made with an elevation model that may not show all relevant features and potentially hazardous avalanche slopes. It can be a useful tool for macro level trip planning, but is not accurate enough to completely assess potential avalanche hazard across all types of terrain.
Slope angle shading is a very cool feature of CalTopo, the best backcountry mapping software. It’s handy for lots of different reasons, and we cover them in detail in this article.
Canyoneers or photographers, looking for seldom-seen waterfalls?
Backcountry skiers, looking for a low angle ascent and a slightly steeper downhill?
Winter travellers looking to (hopefully) avoid avalanche slopes?
Cross country hikers or mountaineers, looking for the path of least resistance?
Slope angle shading can help in all of these situations. Now, the digital mapping data that underlie the slope model is improved, and the resulting shading is much higher resolution.
Here’s a comparison of the old and new slope angle shading, with the Disappointment Cleaver route (red line) on Mount Rainier. The top image is the older style shading, the bottom image is the newer one, using the higher resolution LIDAR data.
Pretty cool to see how the route picks it’s way up through the path of least resistance. You can use this feature to plan a cross country travel route in CalTopo for a place you've never visited! (Of course, glaciers can change on a daily basis and you should never fully rely on a model like this, but it’s a great start.)
Caveat: This new data set does not cover all of the United States, and is sadly lacking in many parts of the western US, but hopefully that will be improved in the next few years as additional LIDAR data are collected. See the data coverage map below. (Sorry Wyoming, Montana, and Sierra Nevada.) Good news, you are highly unlikely to be caught by an avalanche in Louisiana. =^)
Below is a copy/paste from the CalTopo website, Dec 20 2019.
http://caltopo.com/about/2019/12/20/high-resolution-elevation-data/
“CalTopo first launched the slope angle shading layer 7 years ago, and since then it has become a mainstay tool for backcountry trip planning. Today we're updating the layer to incorporate high-resolution LIDAR data from the USGS's 3DEP program. Where available (see coverage map), this provides significantly higher resolution, even allowing you to identify trails from relief shading. As additional coverage becomes available we will add it to this layer.
While the LIDAR data is very high resolution, it should still not be relied on as a definitive source of truth. Beyond possible errors or accuracy issues with the dataset or our processing of it, the surface angle on top of a snowpack may not match the bare-ground angle underneath. Carefully assess and evaluate any terrain that you are traveling in, and confirm your observations instead of relying solely on maps.
This update is now live on the web! It will be released soon on iOS and Android. Offering online access for free, and offline downloads with a CalTopo subscription. The significant increase in resolution means the offline downloads are larger in size than previous elevation data. Be cautious downloading using mobile data and storing on your phone, storage may go quickly.
As with previous expansions of the slope angle shading layer to Canada and Alaska, the high resolution dataset is not available to third party apps that license CalTopo's pre-rendered layers like Gaia GPS and Backcountry Navigator. You can only access the layer via CalTopo's website and app; we encourage you to download the new app to use this layer in the field.”
“Rock shoe rejuvenator” - rubbing alcohol
There's a quick and easy way to revive your rock shoe rubber - Give it a quick scrub with some rubbing alcohol (and maybe sandpaper.)
Rock climbers love that incredible stickiness from a brand new pair of rock shoes. But when dust, chalk, grime etc. get slowly ground into the rubber, it seems like you never quite get back the “grip-tion” of new shoes.
Well, you can, or at least get pretty close. Wipe down your shoe rubber some rubbing alcohol. Do this outside, as the fumes can be strong. A rag works better than paper towels.
Some gentle buffing with 80 grit sandpaper or a wire brush can help rough up the surface and make your shoes a bit stickier as well. Give it a try before your next hard boulder problem or red point attempt; every little bit of grip helps!
Safety for leader #2 on sport routes
If you’re leading a sport route at your limit, having the first bolt clipped increases your safety by eliminating a ground fall. With this simple rope trick, the first leader can pre-clip the first bolt for the second leader.
Heidi and Hans are out for a day of sport climbing, and they both want to lead all the pitches. They don’t have a stick clip. Heidi, being the stronger climber, feels fine with leading without the first bolt being clipped.
But Hans is leading at his limit. He wants to reduce his risk by having the first bolt clipped, eliminating any chance of a ground fall.
Here’s a simple way to do that, with the one caution that you need to have a bit of extra rope.
Say Heidi leads the route first. She climbs the route, clipping all the bolts, clips the anchor, and calls for a take and lower.
On her way down, she clips a quickdraw to her belay loop and to the rope running through the bolts; this is known in some circles as “tramming”. Doing this keeps her close to the rope and gear, which is especially helpful on traversing and/or overhanging routes.
Note the quickdraw clipped to the climber’s harness and the rope in this nice diagram from Petzl. Perfect tramming technique!
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Recovering-quickdraws-in-an-overhang-while-descending
She calls for a brief take at each bolt and removes all the quickdraws, except the one on the lowest bolt.
When Heidi gets to the lowest quickdraw, she does not clean it, but instead keeps lowering to the ground. Doing this keeps the rope through the lowest quickdraw.
image: https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Sport/Recovering-quickdraws-in-an-overhang-while-descending
Heidi unties, but keeps the rope clipped through her quickdraw. Hans pulls the rope. The rope zings through the top anchor and falls to the ground, but now it’s clipped to the first bolt. This gives a “toprope” to the lowest bolt for Hans on his lead, with no chance of a ground fall.
Using this technique can be more helpful in climbing areas that often have hard moves right off the ground, or have first bolts that are especially high, or both. (Smith Rock, I'm looking at you!)
Using this “tramming” method guarantees that the rope end will fall to the ground, every time. If the route is fairly steep, without any ledges, shrubs, or anything else the rope may get hung up on, you can probably skip doing the tramming. Just leave the rope clipped to the first quick draw, have the belayer pull the rope, and the end should fall to the ground and stay clipped to the lowest bolt.
But keep in mind, if you do this, and the end of the rope does not cleanly fall to the ground, you're probably going to have to pull it through that lowest draw, and it won't be clipped anymore, which defeats the whole purpose.
Safety notes:
Caution #1: Doing this requires you have enough extra rope that is twice the distance from the ground to the first bolt. If your route is a real rope stretcher, or the first bolt is really high, this technique might not work.
Caution #2: The belayer should always be tied into the end of the rope, or at the very least have a knot in the end to have a “closed rope system”. This technique takes a bit of extra rope, and you definitely do not want to drop your leader. One more reason to get a 70 meter rope . . .
Remove rope twists with an ATC
Got some serious twists in your rope? Ugh, you need to get ‘em out. Here’s a fast way to do it with an ATC style belay device.
This tip and video come from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Cody Bradford.
While sadly Cody is no longer with us, his Instagram continues to stay up and is a great source of tips like this, check it out.
Did you unwrap a new rope in a hurry? Lowered off an anchor with quicklinks lying flat against the rock? Munter hitch rappel? Or just have some random rope weirdness? Twists (aka pigtails) in your rope can come from a lot of different sources, but no matter how they got there, they’re a hassle and you need to get them out.
Here's a simple and fast way to decluster your spaghetti pile.
Clip a carabiner and a tube style belay device (here the DMM Pivot, my fave) to a bolt, some rock pro, tree branch, whatever, about head high.
Flake the rope onto the ground.
When you get to the tangled part, feed the rope through the belay device and carabiner, and pull the rope through. Give the twisted side of the rope a few shakes and shimmies as needed.
As the rope is forced through the small diameter of the belay device, the twists move to the end of the rope and should work themselves out. If your rope is REALLY messed up, you might need to repeat this.
Pigtails in your robe can be more than a minor annoyance. It’s especially important to remove them when you're pulling a rappel rope. If you don't, the strands can twist together or other weirdness, making your rope very difficult to pull, or maybe even impossible. Check out this description and photo from @aledallo91.
“. . . a crunch created during the recovery of a rope on a broken descent on two anchors that forced me to abandon it, as it was impossible to recover from the intermediate stop. Then I went back up to save my baby. ❤️
This ball was formed by itself in recovering the rope, due to the twisting of the last meters of the same.
Experience that teaches the importance of checking that the rope is always well stretched and free of slots and twists before attempting the retrieve.”
Like most climbing techniques, it’s a better show than a tell. Here’s a short video from Cody showing how it’s done.
See the correct declination in CalTopo
When using a compass, it's important to know the magnetic declination for your area. Websites like magnetic-declination.com make this easy. You can also see it in CalTopo, right at the bottom of the screen.
(If you want to learn the basics of using CalTopo, start with this tutorial video.)
Magnetic declination is the angular difference between true north (North Pole) , and magnetic north, which is where the red end of the compass needle points. This changes depending on where you are in the world, and it also changes over time. If you’re using an older map, the declination printed in the margin might well be incorrect.
(If you want the full scoop on declination, watch my video here.)
So, whenever you're using a compass, it's important to know the correct declination for your local area. One good way to do this is to check the website magnetic-declination.com, as we cover in this article.
Here's another way. A helpful little feature I just discovered in the best backcountry mapping software, CalTopo, is hiding in plain sight at the bottom of the CalTopo screen - the correct magnetic declination for (I think) the center of your screen.
(I've been a fanatic CalTopo user for many years and never noticed this before today. Who knows how long it's been there and I just never saw it? =^)
Here are a few examples. (Depending on your web browser, it might look slightly different than this; I’m using Chrome on an iMac.)
Declination for Seattle, about 15° east.
Boston? About 15° west declination. (Don't worry, that won't help you in Boston, you're still going to get lost driving there. =^)
How about New Zealand, a country with some pretty extreme compass declination because it's fairly close to the south magnetic pole? 24 degrees east.
Finally: If you print a map in CalTopo, the correct declination is shown in a diagram on the bottom right of the PDF file.
How to transfer GPX files from Google Drive to the GaiaGPS app
Storing your GPX track collection in Google Drive is handy for a lot of reasons, but moving a file from there into Gaia GPS is not very intuitive. Here are two ways to do it. (OK, not a climbing trip directly, but still can be helpful.)
Upfront disclaimer: this is really not much of a climbing tip. It's more of a computer geek tip, but if you have a collection of GPX track files in Google Drive, you might find it helpful. We’ll get back to our regular climbing tips after this one, I promise.
It's handy to keep a collection of good GPX track files in Google Drive, because you can access them from pretty much anywhere to either use on your phone or share them with your hiking or climbing partners. GPX files are just small text files and hardly take up any room, so when you find one that you think you might have a use for in the future, download it and save it! (Even if it's unlikely that you will go on the trip, you might be able to share it with someone else and help them.) Personally, I have hundreds of GPX tracks on my Google Drive, organized in folders for climbs, hikes, mountain bike rides, road bike rides, ski tours, etc.
However, most people do not find it very intuitive to move the files from Google Drive into a backcountry GPS phone app such as Gaia GPS.
But, like most computer related things, it’s easy once you know how. Here are two ways to do it, one method via a desktop computer, and one method all on your phone. (These instructions are for the iPhone, which is what I have, Android folks probably can do something similar.)
To do this, you’ll need:
a Google account with Google Drive
a folder on Google Drive with some GPX files in it
an account at GaiaGPS.com
the Gaia GPS app loaded to your smartphone.
Method 1 - Desktop / laptop computer
Step 1 - From a desktop / laptop computer, go to Google Drive, navigate to the GPX file you want, right click, download to your computer.
Step 2 - Go to GaiaGPS.com account, click your username or photo in the top right corner, and choose “Upload” from the drop-down menu, screen grab below. Navigate to the GPX file you just downloaded, and select it. (Personally, I do not find this website very intuitive to use, so I thought I’d spell out how to upload a file.)
Step 3 - Open the Gaia GPS phone app. Go to Settings > Account, and toggle the “Sync/Backup” off and back on. Doing this should synchronize all the geo-data in your GaiaGPS.com account, including the track file you just uploaded, with your phone. (The GPX track you just uploaded will probably appear in Saved > Folders on your app.)
Method 2 - Google Drive on your phone to Gaia GPS on your phone
Step 1 - Open the Google Drive app on your phone, navigate to the GPX file you want to use, and tap the “three dots” icon after the file name.
Tap “Open In”. This downloads the file to your phone and gives you an option of several apps in which to open it.
Scroll sideways if needed and select “Copy to Gaia GPS”. This should launch the app and import the file. To see your file, tap Saved > Folders.
Warning, computer nerd stuff only, but it could be useful…
Occasionally, Gaia GPS has a hard time importing / uploading a GPX file direct from Google Drive. This is often because of an “XML “ tag in the first line of the file. Sometimes when Google sees this XML code, the file is not recognized as being a GPX and you are not given the option of the Gaia app to open it.
There are two workarounds for this that I’ve found.
Workaround #1 is to use method one above,: download the GPX file to your desktop, and then upload it to your account at GaiaGPS.com.
Workaround #2 is a little more involved. Open the GPX file in a text editor, and it should look something like the file below (which is a small one of about 10 waypoints.)
Notice the highlighted text in the very first line? Delete all the text between the <brackets> plus the brackets. Save as a new file name, move it back to Google Drive, and it should work fine Google Drive to your Gaia app using the “Open In” method above.
Google maps to GPX file with MapsToGPX.com
If you find yourself driving a lot to remote trailheads without good cell coverage, you may find that Google maps and driving directions don't always work so well. Here’s a cool way to make a GPX track from Google driving directions, which you can follow on your phone or GPS device without cell coverage.
Thanks to my friend and expert boondock backroad navigator Daniel Mick for this tip.
Navigation on a hike or climb is more than what you do with your feet. Driving to an obscure trailhead can sometimes be the navigational crux of the whole trip. Mapping apps work great in town when your destination has an address, but what if you're looking for a trailhead or campground?
If you have the latitude longitude coordinates of a trailhead (or anything else) you can copy/paste the coordinates into Google maps and get driving directions and a map to the trailhead. (Learn how to find lat long coordinates for anywhere at this article.)
If you have decent cell coverage, this should be all you need. But in more remote areas, Google maps sometimes falls short, and you may want to take this extra step of following a GPX track instead.
Below, learn how to create a GPX track file from a Google map. (Like most things in life, it's easy once you know how.)
Why is a GPX track an improvement over the normal driving directions in Google maps?
Outside of cell phone coverage, Google maps can do some strange things. The map detail can be significantly reduced, even if you download the map. Google maps has no terrain or contours shown, so it can be trickier to see your precise location.
However, once you have a GPX track of your driving route, and a quality GPS app on your phone like Gaia GPS, you can choose whatever map base layer desired (topo, satellite, Forest Service, Open Street Map) you like. You can annotate maps with additional navigation notes, such as good car camping spots, locked gates, private property, etc.
You can also record a track of your route when you’re driving. This can confirm your exact location, which fork you took on that last intersection, and keep a record of any change in your route (locked gates, washouts, logging road change, etc.)
If you find yourself driving to a lot of remote trailheads far away from cell phone coverage, this might be a good navigation trick to have in your toolbox. This might look a bit complicated when you first read about it, but after you get the hang of it it really takes just a few minutes.
For the example below, we’ll use driving to El Dorado Peak, a popular climb in the North Cascades in Washington.
Here’s how to do it.
Step 1 - Find the latitude / longitude coordinates of your trailhead.
Probably the easiest way to find the coordinates of a trailhead is to have a GPX file of the entire hiking or climbing route. Import this GPX file in CalTopo, notice where one end of the track reaches a road, right click at that point, choose New > Marker, and copy the coordinates that appear in the box in the lower right corner.
(Note: There are three different formats of latitude longitude coordinates. By far the easiest one to deal with is called decimal degree coordinates, which look something like this: 45,1234, -122,1234.)
For example, the El Dorado Peak trailhead has lat/long coordinates of: 48.4927, -121.1234
Step 2 - Copy and paste these coordinates into the Google Maps search box. Click Enter.
Step 3 - Click “Directions”. This should give you driving directions from your current location to the trail head.
(Tip - If you don't need directions right from your front door, you can click and drag the little dot at one end of the direction line to a new location. Below, I moved it from Portland to Seattle to simplify things.)
Step 4 - Click the “3 horizontal bar / More” icon in the top left corner.
Step 5 - Click “Share or Embed map”
Step 6 - Copy the "Link to share” URL
Open a new browser tab. Go to “mapstogpx.com”.
Paste the Google directions “Link to share” URL into the box.
Click “Let’s Go”. This should download a GPX file of the Google driving directions.
Open caltopo.com and import the GPX file. It should draw correctly, as seen below.
Make any edits or additions to the driving route, such as locked gates, camping or meeting spots, sections of rough road, any known closures or detours, etc.
When you're all done, export the GPX file from CalTopo and save it to your computer.
Now, you can put the GPX file onto your phone or GPS device for confident navigation outside cell coverage. If you use Gaia GPS, which is my favorite backcountry GPS app, the easiest way to get the file to your phone is to go to Gaia GPS.com, click your username in the top right corner, and choose “Upload” from the drop-down menu. This will sync the file from GaiaGPS.com to your phone app.
Finally, here's what the track looks like after importing it to my Gaia GPS phone app. It’s a perfect track to follow to the trailhead, even without cell coverage.
View snow levels and your route in Google Earth
Wondering how much snow is on your intended hike or climb? Learn how to view your route and an overlay of current snow levels in Google Earth.
Thanks to Alpinesavvy reader Lucas Norris for introducing me to this great tip.
Upfront disclaimer, this article is generally for people who are pretty geeky about maps. Hopefully you’re one of them. =^)
In a previous article, we covered how to download a map with real time snow depths in the US and part of Canada. This is a pretty handy tool for trip planning, but there's potential to make it even better.
What if you could see this snow depth data overlaid onto your actual drawn route, AND in the 3-D splendor of Google Earth? Turns out you can. Here's how to do it.
Tip - I have not tried this in the web browser version of Google Earth, only on Google Earth Pro, which is free software you can download onto your desktop computer. I recommend doing this in Google Earth Pro.
For this example, we’ll be using the Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier.
Step 1 - Get a GPX track file of your intended route. We cover how to get track files for climbing at this article, and for hiking at this article. You can find a track for the Wonderland trail at the “Pacific NW Long Hiking Routes” section right here at Alpinesavvy.
Step 2 - Convert the GPX track file to a KML file, a type of file that plays well with Google Earth. One easy way to do this is to go to caltopo.com, import your GPX file, and then export it as a KML file. Use the Import and Export menu bars at the top of the screen.
Step 3 - Import your KML file to Google Earth. Launch Google Earth. Double click or drag and drop the KML file into Google Earth. It should draw up as a red line and look something like this. (Yes, pretty damn cool!)
Step 4 - Get the snow data. Go to this website.
https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/earth/
You probably want the most recent data, which will be the top of the left column, under “Snow Analysis Overlays.” In the image above, that would be the link for November 18. (You can also see historical data under the “Archive” link at the very bottom.)
This will download a KMZ (another filetype that plays well with Google Earth) file of the snow data to your hard drive. Double click on this or drag and drop to open in Google Earth.
Very cool! This is the real time snow cover over the entire United States and most of southern Canada. (As I write this in mid November 2018, you can see it's been a very light snow year so far in the western United States.)
Step 5 - Zoom into Mt Rainier. With the snow depth level data loaded and a KML file of your route also loaded, your screen should look something like this.
It appears it if you wanted to get in a late November hike in 2019 of the Wonderland Trail, you should be able to do it with hardly any snow, kind of a rarity here in the Northwest.
Thoughts on redundancy in climbing anchors
Redundancy is one of the tenets of anchor building, for good reason. It's a great rule for most climbers in most situations. But, it’s actually more of a situational and subjective guideline than a black and white rule. Learn some of the factors that may influence this choice, and see some examples of non-redundant anchors in action.
This article was written with editorial assistance from Richard Goldstone, thanks Richard!
Redundancy in anchors, while a good maxim for most climbers in most cases, is a situational and not an absolute rule.
One of many single piece, non redundant anchors on the Matterhorn. Photo by Dale Remsberg.
Single point, non redundant anchor on the matterhorn. photo: Dale Remsberg
“Good judgment comes from experience. Experience often comes from surviving bad judgment.”
Will Rogers
One of the core concepts of anchor building is redundancy - if any single component were to fail, the entire anchor wouldn’t fail. This mandate has been around for a long time for a good reason, because it's arguably the single best thing relatively newer climbers can do as a buffer against the mistakes of inexperience. The sketchier the situation, the more redundancy counts. When in doubt, double up isn’t a bad rule to live by. If you have the gear and the time, do it.
Sliding X anchor? Not redundant. If that sling gets cut, adios.
Statically equalized cordelette style anchor? Perfectly redundant, if any part of the sling fails, the rest of the anchor still works.
However, outside of anchor construction, climbing has many mission critical components that are not redundant.
Most of us climb on one rope
Pretty much every harness has one belay loop (Yes, it's doubled over and sewn, but it's still one piece of webbing)
We belay and rappel with one carabiner, with one belay device
We clip the one bolt/hanger with one carabiner/draw as the first clip on a sport route, and would deck if it fails
You get the idea. Why do we accept so many potential “single points of failure” in many parts of the system, yet demand it always be a component of our anchors?
The answer is, it doesn’t always have to be. Rather than being a mandate for every anchor, all the time, think of redundancy as a concept that applies in varying degrees to varying situations. It’s overall a good idea, and you should never be faulted for doing it, but it’s a situational, and not absolute, rule.
IFMGA Guide Dale Remsburg writes: “The idea of redundancy comes from pieces in the rock, not the links or tools we use to connect them.”
Keep in mind, creating redundancy comes at a cost of time, or gear, or both. Mostly, that’s a good tradeoff to make. Other times, perhaps not.
A fundamental principle of economics (and many other aspects of life, including anchors) is the law of diminishing returns, which, in econ-speak, means that adding additional factors of production eventually results in smaller increases in output. Say that it takes one builder one year to build a house. So, if you have 365 builders, can you build a house in one day? Of course not, because after a certain point, the extra production (builders) result in lower output (less work getting done because they are tripping over each other).
And yes, this can apply to building anchors. Continuing to add “production” (additional slings, backups, double locking carabiners, etc.) at some point do not significantly increase your “output” (safety margin), so it's probably not so smart to keep doing it. Of course, the question becomes, where do you cross that point? There's no firm answer, but here's one way to think about it mathematically.
Say that the odds of failure of an anchor sling are one in 1,000. If you backup that sling with another, the theoretical odds of anchor failure become 1,000 x 1,000, or one in 1 million. Add a third sling? The theoretical odds of failure are 1,000 x 1,000 x 1,000, or one in 1 billion.
What's your acceptable level of risk? If you're feeling good with one in 1,000, then going to one in 1 million (let alone 1 billion) is probably not worth doing.
Another broad component of anchors is having proper context in anchor photos/examples. This gets more into the situational judgment of when redundancy is more important. It's tricky to simply show a photo of an anchor and ask if it's acceptable or not. The slightly snarky yet truthful answer is, “It depends! Some broader context questions might be:
Is the anchor for a multi pitch lead belay, top rope anchor or a rappel anchor? Loads vary a LOT between these. Peak force on a rappel anchor, 2-3 kN; theoretical max force on a lead anchor, about 9kN. (Source)
How difficult is the pitch below or above, and what’s the skill level of the climbers?
Is it a part of multi pitch climb or the top of a climb?
Is there a chance of rock or ice fall that might hit the anchor?
Is it a casual day at your local crag, or are you trying to do a remote 15 pitch alpine route?
And so on.
Let’s examine that last point - that of speed/efficiency. When people cut corners on anchor building, the usual rationale is that it saves time and/or uses less equipment. Let's be honest though, the requirements for “speed” on a relaxed three pitch climb on a sunny day at your local crag (where time, weather, and daylight are not major issues) is minimal. On a casual route with no real need to hurry, eliminating redundancy from an anchor because it saves you a few minutes is not a very compelling argument.
How about a long, committing, 15 pitch alpine mountaineering route? There, shaving off a few seconds wherever you can might become more important, because the time savings multiply over the course of a big day.
Some people always seem to be in speed mode, striving to do everything the quickest way possible. If that works for you, great. But, for most of the rest of us, and especially for newer climbers, safety should always be a priority over speed.
Let's have a look at a few anchors that question the concept of redundancy. How do you feel about them? Consider the trade-offs in time, gear or both to make the anchor “textbook” redundant.
Rappel anchor
One tree, one sling, one carabiner. Every part of this anchor is non-redundant.
However, each of these three components is vastly stronger than any possible rappel load, which at most, even with terrible rappel technique, is never going to exceed 3 kN.
The tree is well rooted and stout enough. (Some folks use “5 & alive” for tree anchors - at least 5 inches in diameter, and alive.)
Some brand new 1 inch webbing (rated about 18 kN) tied in a well-dressed water knot with good long tails. The webbing is rubbing on tree bark, not the sharp edge of a rock.
Snapgate carabiner (rated 22 kN) left behind for the rope connection, gate taped shut for extra security (aka cheapskate locker). Extra points for using pirate hockey tape.
So, whaddya think? Would you rap on it? Why or why not? If not, what would you change / add so you’d feel comfortable?
How about this anchor? It’s a Fixe PLX/Duplex anchor, standard in many parts of Europe and Canada, but not so common in many parts of the USA. Everything is stainless steel, the rings are 10 mm thick, and the whole thing is rated at 30 kN.
How about that bottom ring? The gear testing wizards at HowNot2.com tested a couple of these. One broke at around 90 kN, the other broke around 60 kN! That is miles stronger than your rope, your belay device, your belay carabiner, and all those other single points listed above. If you're happy with those single points, why not be happy with this?
This is an anchor that can leave redundancy advocates scratching their noggin. Hmm, what do I do with this mishmash of hardware? Am I supposed to clip just that ONE ring at the bottom?! That’s not redundant, if it fails, YGD! (You’re Gonna Die).
Redundancy advocates might just ignore the chains and ring, and rig this with a long runner clipped to the bolt hangers. Remember, it's probably totally fine if you choose to do this, but it’s not the intended nor most efficient way to use this style of anchor.
Here’s an Instagram video posted by AMGA Certified Rock Guide Cody Bradford using this exact style of anchor. Cody clips a single large locking carabiner to the ring making a master point, then clips two carabiners onto that, one for his clove hitch and one to belay his partner. Yep, everything off the one ring. (And then everything off of one yellow carabiner.)
Not textbook redundant, right? What do you think about this anchor set up? What would you do with anchor hardware like this if you had to belay up your partner?
Here’s another example. I first saw this anchor on the Facebook feed of Dale Remsberg, an IFMGA Certified Guide and technical director of the American Mountain Guide Association. (So yeah, Dale knows his stuff.) It's a photo he took of an anchor he built while guiding a client, and put it on Facebook to start a discussion about, guess what, redundancy. (For context, it’s on a large ledge, the pitch below is an easy 5.7ish, and there is no risk of rock fall from above.)
image: Dale Remsberg - https://www.instagram.com/p/BxH139Tj1M5/
What do you think of this?
At first glance, redundancy advocates would dismiss this immediately. A basket hitched sling has zero redundancy; if it gets cut or fails, immediate anchor failure and YGD!
Technically true, but how would this sling possibly fail? It's running around tree bark, not any sort of sharp rock. There is zero risk of rockfall from above impacting the sling. The only way it could fail for is for it to physically break, something that has pretty much never happened in the history of rock climbing outside of the ever awesome Sly Stallone movie, Cliffhanger. (Readers, please correct me on this last sentence if I’m mistaken.)
One approach to make this anchor redundant is to tie a knot in the sling. Maybe so, but what's the trade-off? You might barely have enough sling material to make the knot . . . or perhaps you wouldn't. You also weaken the sling by tying a knot. You also take the time to tie the knot, and probably a longer time to untie it, which if it gets weighted, could be a hassle. (Side note: could be a great place for a girth hitch at the master point.)
Which is more important, having the full strength of the runner, or weakening it by tying a knot which creates redundancy? Oh, and there’s just one tree branch there, that's certainly not redundant. What about that?
Now, I saved that's the best for last. Here's one that’ll give redundancy advocates nightmares. (And to be honest, I’ve never seen one of these in real life and I'm not super excited about it either . . . )
How about ONE SINGLE BOLT?!
Here’s a screen grab from a video, link below. From the video: “( . . the anchor can) . . . in some instances be a single large glue in bolt, which is the only anchor at the anchor point.”
How are you going to make this redundant? Answer is, you probably can't.
image : screen grab from: https://youtu.be/1r7hIZREJoQ?t=
Now, before you start thinking this is a 20 year old photo from East Boondockistan, this video comes courtesy of the excellent (if awkwardly titled) “Safety Academy Lab Rock” video tutorial series, produced by the well-regarded German company Ortovox, and backed by Petzl and the German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (in German, “VDBS”). So, while if Americanos like me may not have any personal experience with it, the fact that it’s featured in an instructional video made by VDBS I’d say give it a fair bit of cred.
And no, you don't truly know the quality of the steel, the length of the bolt, the type of adhesive used to glue it into the rock, etc. But, a properly placed long glue in bolt like this has a UIAA minimum standard downward pull of 25kN, and have actually tested up to 50(!) kN, which makes it about the strongest component you'll pretty much ever encounter in climbing (right up there with the huge master point ring in the Fixe anchor above.) So, the short answer is yes, you can probably rely on this single point of connection. (But, in all honesty, as an American climber raised with the mantra of redundancy, I would not be overjoyed to discover this as my only connection to the rock.)
But hey, if you find this at the top of the first pitch and you don't like it, you can always rappel off and go climb somewhere else, right? :-)
Below is the whole video; see the single point anchor part starting at 0:40.
(And the fixed point belay? We’ll cover that soon in another Alpinesavvy article.)
And, for a little historical perspective, here’s one of many single piece anchors on the iconic Matterhorn, photo by Dale Remsberg.
Stout? Looks like it.
Used by probably tens of thousands of climbers over decades, most of them professional guides? Yes.
Redundant? Nope.
anchor on the matterhorn. photo: Dale Remsberg
CalTopo - Use the “Bearing Line” tool as a peakfinder
Climbers love to politely argue, from a sunny summit, the question of ”What’s that peak?” Here's a way to answer that question with the great mapping software CalTopo, but you'll have to wait till you get home.
(If you want to learn the basics of using CalTopo, start with this tutorial video.)
One of the eternal things climbers love to argue about sitting on a sunny mountain top is the game of “What's that peak?”
Now, you could use a clever smart phone tool such as the app “PeakFinder”, but here’s another method.
Take a compass bearing from where you are to the mountain top (or other landscape feature, like a lake.) If you just have your smartphone, there should be a compass app on that. Take a screen grab to remember the bearing.
When you come home, open up CalTopo.com on your desktop, Right click the location where you took the bearing, and choose New > Bearing Line.
Enter the bearing and distance in the dialog box. Usually you don’t know how far away the peak is, so enter a huge distance, like 100 miles.
CalTopo will draw a line from the start location on the bearing and distance you specified. If it runs through (or close to) a major mountain, you have your answer.
Here's a recent real life example. A friend of mine who lives in Bend Oregon took a walk to the top of Pilot Butte one evening, a local high point in town. Far off in a general SW direction, he saw the tip of a mountain pointing up that he had never noticed before. What could that be? He took a compass bearing to it, and the resulting CalTopo bearing line map looked like the top of this page.
Answer: Mt Thielsen.
Use 2 carabiners to fix a broken backpack waist belt
A broken waist belt buckle can be a substantial problem on a remote trip with a heavy pack. However, with this clever tip, you can probably fix it with just two carabiners.
Breaking the buckle on your backpack hip belt is pretty common, and can be a rather serious problem.
Here’s a very crafty way to fix this, courtesy of Alpinesavvy reader Andy Sorenson. (Andy happens to be a mechanical engineer and product designer, which sound like the perfect skills to have when you break something in the woods. Connect with Andy at mindsparkdesign.com.)
Arrange two carabiners as shown below, thread the webbing through them, and cinch down. The friction from the carabiners holds the webbing snug. (Depending on the width and slickness of your webbing, your mileage may vary; it worked fine for me. )
While this works as a temporary repair, having an inexpensive and lightweight spare buckle in the repair kit is a fine idea if you’re on a longer trip/expedition.
Make a sling anchor with just one carabiner
If you get to an anchor with chains and are low on carabiners, this crafty rope trick lets you build an anchor with just one runner and a single carabiner. (Note, this is not standard practice.)
This tip comes from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Cody Bradford.
While sadly Cody is no longer with us, his Instagram continues to stay up and is a great source of tips like this, check it out.
Note - The following tip is intended for more advanced climbers to add to the toolbox, and not meant as standard practice. Use carabiners when possible to attach a runner to bolts/chains/gear.
Someday in your climbing career, you’ll need to build an anchor after you’ve pretty much run out of carabiners.
If you have just one sling (either a double length/120 cm or a single length/60 cm) and one carabiner for the master point, you (might be) in business.
Note / disclaimer:
This example is on a bolted anchor with rap rings. The rings give a nice rounded metal edge and is bomber strong. While you could get away with it, it's not best practice to girth hitch a runner directly into a bolt hanger or to a stopper cable. If you do this and catch any sort of significant fall on the runner, inspect it carefully and possibly retire it. On the other hand, testing has shown that hitching a sling to a stopper cable can hold between about 8 kN and 12 kN, which is probably more than you think. Can a bolt hanger be much worse than that? So, like I said, something for the advanced climber’s toolbox, and not for standard practice. See the last photo at the bottom of the page for what you generally do NOT want to do.
Girth hitch a double length runner through one of the bottom rings, here the left. Try to get the runner’s stitching close to the girth hitch.
Pass the other end of the runner through the other ring, here the right.
Bring the loops together and clip your master point carabiner like so.
and tie it off with an overhand knot, done.
and here’s a video from AMGA Guide Cody Bradford showing how it’s done. (Note that Cody is using Metolius rappel hangers, which have a larger, rounded, sling/rope friendly edge than a regular bolt hanger.)
How strong is this?
I posted a similar set up to this on Instagram, and got a fair amount of disparaging comments about girth hitch weakening the sling, never put a knot in Dyneema, Yer Gonna Die (YGD), this is stupid, blah blah blah.
So, I visited my gear breaking buddy Ryan at How NOT2, and we tested it.
Well, it did break . . . the steel carabiner, at 31 kN!
That's pretty crazy so I'm gonna say it again. The steel carabiner broke before the sling! Case closed, #MoreThanSuperGoodEnough.
Here's the video from HowNOT2 to showing the testing.
This can also work if you have two pieces that are vertically offset, or if one is a piton. Note the girth hitch at the master point. This example comes from a nice PDF file showing some European style anchor techniques, made by the German Mountain and Ski Guides Association (“Verband Deutscher Berg und Skiführer” or “VDBS”).
Supposedly, this style of anchor is more common in the south Tirol / Dolomites. In this area, the rock is often fractured or heavily featured and there's often fixed fixed gear. Using slings like this to connect directly to pitons and rings means there’s less chance of a carabiner being loaded sideways over an edge.
image: Standplatzlogik VDBS 2019 - Ausbildungsstandard VDBS & Alternativen
Other rigging options - chains and a single length / 60 cm runner
You can also do this with a single length/60 cm runner. But you won’t be able to tie it off with an overhand knot as shown above, because it's too short.
One option is to make a girth hitch at the master point, which uses less sling material than an overhand knot. (Don't freak out about this, a girth hitch is fine to use at the master point. We cover it extensively at this tip.)
Or, even easier, if the chains are long enough, you might be able to clip both of them with the single big locker and have that be your Masterpoint. Yes, it's cool to do this and don't worry about three-way loading, we cover that in this article.
Oh, and on your next lead, bring a couple extra carabiners for the anchor, will you? When your partner arrives with some extra gear and freaks out about the anchor you built, feel free to add a some carabiners from their rack if it makes them happy. =^)
If you happen to face this situation with only hangers and no chains/rings, it's still doable, but WAY Less Than Ideal. Please don't rig an anchor like this unless you really have to. Going straight through the bolt hangers is not the greatest. You may want to: 1) Check the sling after you’re done and retire if needed; 2) Brace the belay if you can with your body and belay from your belay loop; 3) Rebuild this with proper carabiners once your partner gets to the belay.
and sheesh, bring more gear with you next time, will ’ya?!
mtcams.net - Time lapse webcams of iconic mountains
This clever website, created by Ben Stabley, shows you time lapse and historical webcam images of both major northwest peaks and iconic mountains around the world.
Mountain webcams can provide real time images of recent storm activity, snow cover, and sun/shade on different features at different times of the day. This info might help you make a decision of your preferred route and equipment, and give you another tool beyond an avalanche and weather forecast.
But, webcams are usually a static snapshot of the current time, you often can’t look at historical images, and finding reliable webcams can be hit or miss.
Here’s a solution to all that. Portland-based geographic data wiz Ben Stabley has a streamlined website for viewing time lapse images of major mountains - mtcams.net.
His website works great on a mobile device as well as a desktop computer. You can see webcam images of Hood, Three Sisters, Rainier, Baker, Shasta, Whitney, Grand Teton, Mont Blanc, Fuji, and the Eiger. (Other major but more remote peaks are not included because they generally lack good quality webcams.)
The website is pretty intuitive, you can click around for a minute or so and figure it out. Here's a step-by-step.
Choose the mountain you want to see.
Choose “From” and “To” dates.
Press “Load Photos”.
This brings up three tabs, the middle one is “Time Lapse.” Choose from one frame per second up to 30 frames per second. You’ll then see a time lapse image of webcam photos of that peak for your chosen date period.
Notice that the webcam interval is different depending on the mountain. For example, the Mt. Hood camera grabs an image every five minutes, while the Mt. Fuji camera grabs one image per hour. So experiment with the “frame per second” option until you find a time lapse that looks helpful.
It's also fun to go farther back in time rather than just the last few days. Wondering what the snowpack was like on Mt. Rainier in late July three years ago? You can do that. (Note: imagery starts in 2017, so nothing before that.)
Where can I find GPX tracks for hiking trails?
When you have a GPX track for a hiking trail, it can show you the trailhead location, give you an elevation profile with distance and vertical gain, and of course help you stay found on your hike. Here are some websites where you can download free tracks for hiking.
As we like to say at Alpinesavvy, having a map is great, but having a map with your route printed on it is even better. And, having that route on your phone with a quality GPS app like Gaia GPS is another plus.
Knowing your route usually starts with a GPX file, which is a standardized format for sharing geographic data. A GPX track file is a simply a text file with a long string of latitude and longitude coordinates (and sometimes time and elevation), and a line drawn between them. This shows a hiking or climbing route that someone has recorded in the field or (hopefully) carefully drawn in mapping software. (If you can't find what you want, you can draw in your own route in mapping software like our favorite, Caltopo.)
Why do you want a GPX file? If you have a GPX file, you can print a PDF map of your route in CalTopo, which looks something like this (Hamilton Mountain, Columbia River Gorge)
Or, you can download it to Gaia GPS or your preferred GPS app/device, so you can use it for navigation in the field, here's a screen grab of that (Hamilton Mountain, Columbia River Gorge):
Historically, it's been quite difficult to find a consistent, quality source of GPX tracks for hikes and climbs, but that’s changed for the better in the last few years.
Here are two good websites where you can download free GPX files for hiking trails - GaiaGPS and AllTrails.
Hiking - GaiaGPS.com
Gaia GPS is my favorite backcountry navigation phone app. In addition, the GaiaGPS.com website has steadily improved and it’s now is a solid place to locate hike track files, provided you know where to look. Plus, if you already use their app, a big timesaver is that you can save a hike description or hiking track directly onto your phone with one click.
Note: You need to have an account at GaiaGPS.com for this to work, and the below examples are shown on the desktop website, not on the app. (The app has some pretty good built-in hike finders as well, but we're not covering that today.)
Here's how to do it.
Click “Hikes” from the top menu bar.
Search for the name of the hike you want, or use the map finder to zoom into your area of interest. (The search function can be a little hit or miss; it can help to type in the state you're looking for so you don't get results from all over the world.)
Once you find the hike you want, give it a click. The easiest way to save both the track and a lot of info about that hike is to click the big green “Save Hike” button at the top right corner. This saves pretty much that entire webpage on your phone, with distance, elevation gain, recent trip reports, and of course a base map with the GPX file.
On your phone, this is saved under the “Saved > Hikes” icon along the bottom of your screen.
Also helpful: along the bottom are icons for “Copy Link” and “Share”, which lets you send that webpage easily to your other hiking buddies. (From what I can tell, it's pretty much the same as a copy paste of the web address.)
If you want to see other Gaia users’ uploaded tracks of the same area, which might show some detours or other areas of interest off of the main hike, you can do that too. Scroll down the page a bit, until you come to “Public Tracks”. This shows a link, and often a bit of a trip report. If you click on any one of these links, it will open that person’s track in a new window, and you can download it if you want.
And, a whole other way to look at these data is to use the Gaia “Public Tracks” overlay, which shows the recorded tracks of everyone who has shared a hike in that location. We cover how to do that at this tip.
Often it takes a few minutes before Gaia GPS can synchronize with your phone. If you download the hike or GPX file to your GaiaGPS.com account, and it's not showing up on your phone, You can force the synchronizing to happen like this: Go to the Gaia app, Settings, and toggle the “Sync/Backup” button, shown below.
Hiking - Alltrails
Alltrails is another good choice for day hikers to find quality GPX files. The website has a clean interface, and lots of functionality even on the free version.
To find a GPX track, zoom into your area of interest and choose the hike you want, here Hamilton Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge. Tap the “More” link on the left side. From this drop-down menu, select “Download Route” to save the GPX file onto your computer.
Once you have that GPX file on your hard drive, you can import it to Caltopo and print a map or save as a Google Earth friendly KML file, upload it to your guy GPS account to put onto your phone, or share it with your hiking partners.
Where can I find GPX tracks for climbing routes?
If you want your climbing route drawn on a map, or a track to follow on your GPS, it usually starts with a GPX file. Here’s how to take a dive into Peakbagger to get the file you need to stay found.
Thanks to my friend and Peakbagger.com expert Daniel Mick for assistance with this article.
Disclaimer 1: A GPX track file shows an approximate route, not necessarily the best one for you to take based on current conditions. Mountain landscapes, especially snowfields and glaciers, can change on a daily basis. A track recorded on a dry summer day might be not show the best route when wet or snow-covered. Carefully preview the route on a map before you leave home. Don’t blindly follow a GPS track In the field if it doesn't make sense. Any GPX file you download from the Internet can be suspect.
Disclaimer 2: Do not rely on a GPX track file to show you the way on technical climbing routes. If you're at the base of the third pitch and you're wondering if you should take the left crack or the right crack, your GPS is not going to help. Due to you moving slowly and that the GPS signal can bounce around on a vertical cliff, the accuracy is just not there. So, you can use it for the approach hike, but not on vertical terrain
As we like to say at Alpinesavvy, having a map is great, but having a map with your route printed on it is even better. And, having that route on your phone with a quality GPS app like Gaia GPS is another plus.
Knowing your route usually starts with a GPX file, which is a standardized format for sharing geographic data. A GPX track file is a simply a text file with a long string of latitude and longitude coordinates (and sometimes time and elevation), and a line drawn between them. This shows a hiking or climbing route that someone has recorded in the field or (hopefully) carefully drawn in mapping software. (If you can't find what you want, you can draw in your own route in mapping software like our favorite, Caltopo.)
Once you have a GPX track, you can print a PDF map of your route in Caltopo, which looks something like this (Mt. Rainier, Disappointment Cleaver route):
Or, you can download the track to Gaia GPS or your preferred GPS app/device, so you can use it for navigation in the field. Here's a screen grab of that (Mt. Rainier, Disappointment Cleaver route):
Historically, it's been quite difficult to find a consistent, quality source of GPX tracks for hikes and climbs, but that’s changed for the better in the last few years.
Of course, right here on Alpine Savvy we have a curated collection of more than 70 GPS tracks of the most popular climbing routes in the Pacific Northwest. So, If you want to climb one of these more common routes, that’s a great place to look first. But, if you can't find it there, check out Peakbagger.
Peakbagger.com is a great place to find quality GPX tracks for climbing routes.
If you're after more technical mountaineering/scrambling routes, I have yet to find any better source for GPX tracks than Peakbagger. Yes, the website looks like it was designed in 1996, but don't let that stop you, there's some amazing functionality once you drill down.
Peakbagger is arguably the best one-stop-shop for mountaineering information, with trip reports and GPS tracks, heaps of links to weather, maps (CalTopo, Google, Bing, etc.), and other mountaineering websites (SummitPost, Peakfinder, books on Amazon). Plus, it’s a compendium of global bucket lists of every variety and flavor (elevation, prominence, state/country, county high point, etc.
But for our purposes, we're only interested in finding GPS tracks. Here's how to do it. (When you first look through these instructions, they might seem long and complicated. Trust me, they're not, once you get the hang of this you can work through it in a minute or two.)
For this example, let's say we want a GPX track of the North Ridge route on Mt. Baker. To start with, type in a keyword from your peak name in the “Quick Search” box in the top right corner.
Depending on your search term, you might get a lot of answers. Check that the location and elevation is for the peak you want. Click the “Name” link in the second column when you find the right one. Here, it happens to be the first choice.
Scroll down toward the bottom of the page. Under the section “Ascent Info”, click “Show all viewable ascents/attempts”. For more obscure mountains you might get just a handful; Baker has over 1,200!
This brings up a spreadsheet format of all of the recorded climbs. (For mountains with fewer reports, you might see a spreadsheet that shows all of the climbs without separate years. Here for Mt. Baker, with thousands of reports, they are broken down by specific years.) We want to see everything, so click “All”.
Just like a spreadsheet, if you click on the column names, it sorts them alphabetically. Click on “GPS”. This shows only the trip reports that have a GPS file. Excellent, out of more than 1,200 trip reports, we just narrowed it down to only a few dozen that have a GPS track. (You‘ll see many climbers do not name their route, not useful! Peakbagger users, please be helpful to everyone else by at least naming your route and better yet, contributing a GPS track.)
Under the “Route” column, look for your route, in this case, North Ridge. (If you can't find the route listed, but you do see a GPS link, you might need to click that link and look at a preview map to see if it's the one you need. In this case we have a half dozen examples of the North Ridge, so we don't need to do that.)
Right click on the “Ascent Date” in the first column that has a GPS link for your route, and choose “Open link in new browser tab” so you can have a look at the actual GPS tracks.
Another useful aspect of Peakbagger is the “Ascent Date” column. Some routes can change significantly whether it’s snow covered or not. If you have the choice, you probably want to look at a route that’s from about the same time of year that you intend to go.
Here we finally see something pretty useful: a GPX track of our route drawn on a map. Have a look at a few tracks drawn on the preview map, they should all look pretty much the same. (Of course, routes on glaciers and snow fields can change a lot from season to season.)
If the route looks good, click the link under the map, “Download this GPS track as a GPX file.”
Done!
Tip: there's no rule that says you only have to download one track. In some cases with tricky route finding, you might find that having several different tracks on your phone or map can be helpful. In Gaia GPS, you can toggle the visibility of different tracks on or off if you find they’re getting distracting.
Below is a screen grab from Caltopo, with three different tracks on it for the North Ridge route on Mt. Baker. You can see that there is quite a bit of variability in the approach, which you would expect on a glacier with changing conditions. Also, when you get up near the summit, there appears to be a couple of different options as well.
Also note that the recorded tracks on the ascent vary a lot from the “North Ridge Route” line drawn on the map! As cartographers like to say, “the map is not the territory”, meaning the real world is what you should follow, not necessarily a line on a map. Yet another reminder that routes on glaciers can change a lot!
A slick carabiner rappel brake
If you drop your rappel device or just forget to bring it, knowing this variation of the old-school carabiner brake can come in handy. (Try to avoid a Munter hitch unless you really have no other options, it can seriously twist your rope if you do it wrong.)
Note - This post discusses techniques and methods used in vertical rope work. If you do them wrong, you could die. Always practice vertical rope techniques under the supervision of a qualified instructor, and ideally in a progression: from flat ground, to staircase, to vertical close to the ground before you ever try them in a real climbing situation.
This tip and video come from AMGA Certified Rock Guide Cody Bradford.
While sadly Cody is no longer with us, his Instagram continues to stay up and is a great source of tips like this, check it out.
If you forget your rappel device, drop it (whoops), or maybe you’re on a really long alpine climb with just a short rappel and don't even want to bring one to save weight (Mt. Olympus, I'm looking at you) the somewhat old-school technique of a carabiner brake can offer a smooth rappel with gear you already have.
Now, before you roll your eyes about this being an old-timer technique from Freedom of the Hills version 2.0, (when harnesses were made from braided blackberry vines and Mt. St. Helens was a real mountain), stay with me. This method has a place in your tool kit, and uses just three lockers.
What are some other options if you or your partner drops your rappel device?
You can rap with a Munter hitch and a single carabiner. But, it’s probably going to twist the hell out of your rope unless you use the correct technique.
Your partner can lower you, probably directly off the anchor. Learn lots of ways to do this at this article.
Safety note 1: There is a remote chance that the rope might unscrew a carabiner gate, so please keep an eye on this. In the example below, I’m using two auto locking carabiners to lessen the chances of this happening. Like I said, this is not a common-practice set up, more of an emergency kind of a thing.
Safety note 2: The friction with this technique will probably be less than using a standard rappel device. Maybe a LOT less. It depends on variables like your weight, the diameter of your rope and whether it's old and crusty or new and slick. Always use a third hand autoblock backup, and gloves are a fine idea also. Because of this diminished friction, it's probably best to use this technique in less than vertical terrain. Practice it in a controlled environment like a staircase to get a sense of how fast your rap is before you try in the real world.
You can generate slightly more friction by rotating the carabiners so the small ends are together.
This can be a fine place to use a locker draw to slightly extend your rappel.
If you don't have three locking carabiners, you can use two regular ones, opposite and opposed, on the bottom, clipped to your belay loop.
As with other flavors of carabiner brake rappels, when you remove your rope, it's really easy to drop a carabiner, because at least one of them is not attached, in this case the top one with the orange sleeve. So watch this when you take it apart.
If you're really short on gear, you can do this with two carabiners instead of three. The third carabiner is mostly to prevent the rope from rubbing on your harness or rappel extension. If you decide to use only two carabiners, keep a close eye on your rope.
Here’s how to rig it.
A rappel extension is not required for this carabiner brake, but it's good practice to use one, so we're showing it. And, as mentioned above, using a third hand /autoblock backup is usually good practice, but it's not shown here for clarity.
For a rappel extension, here we’re using a double bowline tied through the belay loop. (This is a crafty yet unconventional way to make a rappel extension, which we're going to cover in another tip soon.) You don't have to do it this way, use whatever kind of extension you like Yes, this sling is tied through the belay loop. There is no problem attaching your tether to your belay loop, it’s plenty strong, but if you prefer to go through your tie in points, then go for it.
1 - Clip a locking carabiner to your rappel extension.
2 - Clip a second locking carabiner to the first one.
3 - Pass a bight of both rappel rope strands through the second carabiner.
4 - Clip a third locking carabiner to these two strands of rope, and then . . .
Clip that third carabiner onto the strands going to the anchor. Check that ALL carabiners are locked.
Under load, it looks like this:
And finally, here’s a short Instagram video from Guide Cody Bradford showing how it's done.