OUTDOOR ADVENTURER
  • Home
  • Climbing Courses
  • About
  • Contact

21/2/2017

Protein Banana Pancakes

Comments

Read Now
 
Makes approx. 10 small pancakes
Picture
Ingredients:
  • 1 Ripe Banana
  • 1 tsp of Nutmeg
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 tbs of Cocoa Powder
  • 1/2 tsp of Baking Powder
  • Pinch of Salt
Picture
  1. Separate the Eggs into two bowls, whisk the egg whites till they form soft peaks. In the Egg yolks add the remaining ingredients and whisk.
  2. Fold the mixture into the egg whites.
  3. Heat a frying pan to a medium/high heat, adding a little oil to the pan to stop sticking.
  4. Place tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the pan, leave a few mins and flip. Cook until done.
Picture

Share

Comments

15/6/2016

Forgot your Harness?

Comments

Read Now
 
Everyone will do it at some point in their life, get to the crag and realise that they forgot to pick up their harness when they were packing their climbing stuff in the morning. Most people would just give up at this point, go home to fetch it or change their plans for the day, but if you have 1, (ideally 2), 120cm slings to hand why not make a sling harness!

1 Sling Harness
Simple and easy to make, however can slip down if theres not a continuous pull upwards making it ineffective. If you have a small waist like mine a 120cm will work perfectly. To make pass the sling around your back and bring both ends to the front. While holding these reach between your legs and grab the lower loop, bring this between your legs and clip everything together with a screwgate 'biner.
If you have a slightly wider waist use a bigger sling, but when you pull the loop through your legs tie an isolating knot, (overhand will do), to make it tight and shove the excess away down the side of the waist loops. Because this has to be weighted upwards to work it only really works for abseiling or seconding.
2 Sling Harness
This one works much better than the other one and a friend has actually used this one when he's forgot his harness. To make take one 120 sling and find the centre, to do this double up and shuffle the two ends until the sown part is in the middle. Tie a overhand each side of the sown part and try on your legs. I find that tying another overhand on each side makes it fit my legs perfectly.
Next take the other 120 sling and pass it around your back above your hip bones, as you would with a normal harness. Tie both ends together with half a reef knot, passing one end through to other to finish it off. This allows you to pull it tighter and still easy to remove. Then tie another overhand to make a loop. Pass a 'biner through this loop and the leg loop and there you go a harness. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world and you wouldn't really want to fall on it!
Tie in to the screwgate for both these harness.
Both of these would be more comfortable with thicker slings, I just used what I had to hand. I would not suggest falling off wearing one of these but if you had nothing else to hand they'll work.
You'll never have to abandon a day's climbing again!

Share

Comments

8/6/2016

Caring for Gear: Metal Work

Comments

Read Now
 
After doing maintenance at indoor walls for 2 years on a Wednesday evening after all the clubs I thought i’d share with you how I care for climbing hardware, (e.g: Karabiners, Belay devices, ect). The centres I've worked at used to carry out weekly, monthly and yearly checks depending on usage and the specific item. I would recommend giving your gear a casual check every now and then and a thorough check every so often, depending on how often you climb! Everything below should help with a thorough check, remember your life depends on the gear, don’t skimp on the checks.
Screw gates/Wiregates:
You want to give them a visual inspection looking for anything that shouldn’t be there, (e.g.:brown rust marks, salt erosion). Then run them through two fingers feeling all the metal work for rough surfaces as these will damage ropes/slings. When you’ve done this do up the screw gates to make sure they do up and give them a click check, (press to make sure it won’t open), unscrew and do the same, this time hope it opens!
Wire gates same as above but make sure the gate is still springy and no bends or damage to it.
Any karabiners that have wear thinker than 1mm need to be considered for retirement.
Picture
​Belay devices:
Give all ATC type devices a visual check looking for anything that doesn’t seem right, (cracks, chips, erosion). Feel around the head of the device where the rope rubs to make sure that there are no sharp edges, and wear isn’t too great.
Grigri’s you want to give them a wipe inside with so tissue to get the built up fibres out. Then check for sharp edges where the rope runs and make sure the front opens and closes smoothly on its pivot. You also want to push the handle part forwards to make sure its still smooth and doesn't stick.
Figure of Eight:
Same checks as above for ATC.
Picture
​Wires/Nuts/Hexs:
Check for any abnormalities, the same visual checks as for every piece of gear. Then check the cable of each piece to make sure its not damaged. Hex’s you want to check the sling to make sure its not frayed or discoloured in anyway and that the stitching is still good.
​Cams:
Same visual check, then you want to check the cables, if they are visible as on the DMM dragons for any damage. Moving down the cam you want to make sure it has a smooth action and that all the lobes move as one. Checking the slings the same as for Hex’s.
Important if you climb on Sea cliffs that you wash everything that you used in fresh water and allow to dry in a shaded place, not in direct sun. This ought to really be done even if they get did not get wet as there is still salt in the air. I get lazy though and wash kit every so often when climbing on sea cliffs unless something got wet!.

Happy Climbing!
Picture


​This is just a guide as to what I check. I do not accept responsibly for any damage or injury resulted from following it.

Share

Comments

27/5/2016

Prusiks, Which, When & How?

Comments

Read Now
 
After a conversation about Prusiks with a friend, thought i'd write this to save time explaining again & again!
The Prusik loop is a cord loop, usually made from 5mm thickness, typically cut to lengths of 150cm lengths. They where first used & invented by Dr Karl Prusik in 1930's. There is now 3 main variations of the knot; the French/Autoblock, original prusik and Kleimheist.
Picture
Author abseiling on double ropes, was tied off to take picture.
Double Fishermans - Used to attach two lengths of rope together to create either a longer piece of rope/ cord or a loop. This knot should be weighted by body weight to make sure its snug before use. See pictures opposite on how to tie.
Prusik Uses - 
* To Ascend a fixed rope
* As a backup while abseiling
* In rescue scenarios (not covered here)
* Help when dealing with heavy loads (not covered here)

French/Autoblock Prusik

Where the cord is wrapped going up or down the rope in which you are about to use. Best use is abseiling as requires a heavy load for it to engage. However as it slides really easily it's not good for ascending the rope.
Picture

Original Prusik

Used for ascending the rope or when you don't want the prusik to move often. Sometimes requires some fiddling to get it to move when it's had a heavy weight on it.
Picture

Kleimheist

Very similar to the French, but after you have curled the cord around the rope the end is passed through the loop at the start. Its brilliant for ascending the rope as bights when weighted less and does not slip as often. It is however no good for abseiling as it may not grab the rope at all.
Picture

Carrying Prusiks

When trad climbing I always carry one, (two if on sea cliffs), and a 60cm sling on a small d-shaped karabiner on the back of my harness. Its better being there and carrying the slight extra weight than not having it when it's really needed! On the left I have also included how I carry them wrapped up, there are different ways of doing this, but this is the method I prefer.
​First make a loop, then wrap the prusik up the loop a few times, when you get near the top pass the end through the two loops at the top and pull.

Abseiling With a Prusik​

To abseil with a standard belay plate and Prusik I thread the rope you're going to ab with into the belay plate as if you where going to belay with it. Then do a French prusik underneath, put a screw gate karabiner on the end of the loop and clip it to the inside of your leg loop. Weight and make sure prusik does not touch the belay plate as if it does it will not engage. If it does extend your belay plate from your harness using a short (60cm) sling, larks footed to your abseil/belay loop at one end, belay plate at the other.

Ascending The Rope

To ascend clip one kleimheist or ordinary prusik directly to your abseil/belay loop on your harness using a screwgate, then put another kleimheist above with another screwgate attached, but this time put a 120cm sling or 240cm halved into the screwgate. Use the sling to stand up on the top prusik to release the weight off the one connected directly to you, slide it up, re-weight and slide the foot one up. Repeat process until you get where you need to be!
As a backup if your ascending a long distance put knots in the rope below the prusik so that if the knot does not engage you won't slip all the way to the bottom.
Hopefully I have covered most things, feel free to comment below! :)

Share

Comments
Details

    Categories

    All
    Adventure
    Awesome Read
    Baking
    Books
    Bouldering
    Bushcraft
    Careforyourrack
    Climbing
    Coasteering
    Cold Water
    Cornwall
    Cracks
    Diving
    Dorset
    Drone
    Festival
    Food
    France
    Gear
    General
    Gower
    Grit
    Healthy
    Instructional
    Kouba Climbing
    Lake District
    Limestone
    Maintenance
    Makeyourself
    Mountains
    Must Read
    North Wales
    Peak District
    Photography
    Review
    Sandstone
    Scotland
    Sea
    Skills
    Soloing
    Somerset
    South Wales
    Spain
    Sport Climbing
    Sun
    Swanage
    Tips
    Trad
    Travel
    Verdon
    Wales
    Walking
    Winter
    Winter Climbing
    Woods

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Climbing Courses
  • About
  • Contact