Nuts are simple climbing tools that are placed in cracks to protect a leader as he heads up a cliff or are used for belay and rappel anchors. A nut is a piece of tapered metal of various shapes and sizes that are wedged, jammed, and slotted into contrictions in cracks. A piece of stout cord or wire cable is threaded through the nut, allowing a climber to clip a carabiner and rope into it as an anchor.
Nuts belong on every climber's rack. They're easy to use; create a bombproof anchor when properly placed; and are cheap compared to cams. A set of nuts, usually racked on a couple carabiners on your harness gear loops, cover a wide range of crack sizes, making them very versatile. I usually carry at least a full set of nuts on every trad route I do and sometimes a couple sets, including offset nuts and micro-nuts that fit in seams.
Read the new article All About Nuts, Chocks, Wired Nuts, and Micro Nuts and find out lots more about nuts, including exactly what a nut is; all the names for nuts; a brief history of nuts; shapes and sizes of nuts; different metals used for different nuts; and some links to buy a new set of nuts at a great price through PriceGrabber.
Photograph above: Carry lots of nuts to wedge in cracks and you'll be happy and safe when rock climbing. Photograph © Stewart M. Green
The Himalayan Mountains in central Asia and Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the range and in the world, is one of the front lines for global warming in the world. Most climate scientists agree that the Himalayas, sometimes called the Third Pole because the range boasts the world's largest mass of non-polar ice, is quickly changing.
The 1,500-mile-long range, straddling seven countries including China/Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Pakistan, has over 46,000 glaciers that fill huge glacial valleys, cirques, and perch on the faces of high peaks like Mount Everest. These glaciers, a huge repository of fresh water, are, like the ice caps in Antarctica, Greenland, and the North Pole region, melting. Right now it's estimated that about 95 percent of the Himalayan glaciers are shrinking--the result of soot from coal- and wood-burning stoves, highway emissions, and industrial pollution in nearby countries. And as the glaciers melt, bare rock, which absorbs sunlight and warmth, is exposed, leading to more melting.
Over the past few years, climbers on Mount Everest have noted that the mountain is changing as snow and glacial ices melts. More rock is exposed, making the climbing more difficult and dangerous. The mountain, after all, is mostly composed of loose metamorphic rock that is held together with ice.
Now climbers clutter over talus chip-rock in their crampons where a dozen years ago they trudged across snow, which made the climbing safer and less technical. Ice keeps loose rock anchored in place but without the ice bonding, rocks loosen and are easily dislodged, tumbling down the mountain and sometimes striking a climber below--a scenario that happened just a few weeks ago, killing a 30-year-old Sherpa climber. This year the section between Camp 2 at 21,300 feet and Camp 3 at 24,000 feet has been the fall zone, with rockfall occurring on Mount Everest's Southwest Face. It was so bad that several expeditions moved all their climbers back to Base Camp and found a safer way up the upper glacier to avoid being in the line of fire.
This spring Mount Everest appears to be more dangerous and unsafe than ever before, based from reports coming from climbers on the mountain. Part of it is the glacial melting from global warming, while another part is this year's unusual weather pattern which has generally been very dry with little new snowfall and some of the warmest temperatures ever recorded on the mountain.
Indicative of changing conditions is the Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous section of the South Col Route, the most commonly climbed route on Everest's south side. The Icefall is a crumpled section of the lower Khumbu Glacier as it steeply spills down from the Western Cwm to the valley below the mountain. It's always been a shifting and deadly section of climbing and has been the site of many Everest fatalities.
This year, however, the Khumbu Icefall has been especially bad and is very unstable. Every year a group of skilled Sherpa climbers establish a route through the Icefall, finding the safest passage and placing aluminum ladders across gaping crevasses. Above the route, however, are tottering seracs of ice ready to collapse onto anyone traversing below. It's been so unstable that, according to Dubai climber Atte Miettinen, who wrote on his blog about the Icefall: "... I'd never seen Sherpas react like this: they all hummed prayers the entire three hours we spent coming down, making the entire experience new."
Then just a few days ago, Himalayan Expeditions (Himex), the second largest expedition with over 100 people on Mount Everest this spring, abruptly cancelled their Everest, Lhotse, and Nuptse expeditions, citing unsafe climbing conditions for their guides, Sherpas, and clients. Russell Brice, the Himex team leader, has apparently felt uneasy about the dangerous conditions on Mount Everest this spring and apparently his Sherpas concern about the Khumbu Icefall led him to cancel the climbs rather than risk lives. Brice concluded that an Icefall collapse would strand climbers higher on the mountain as well as kill anyone in the Icefall itself.
The Walking with the Wounded expedition from Great Britain also abandoned their attempt to climb Mount Everest last week after a massive ice collapse in the Khumbu Icefall on a section they were due to cross. The group of wounded soldiers were to thread their way through the treacherous icefall starting at 2 a.m. Expedition leader Captain Martin Hewitt said, "Last night at exactly the time we were due to be traversing the icefall towards Camp One on Everest, a huge ice fall came crashing down onto the route, obliterating the ropes and ladders we were due to have stood on. Thank goodness nobody was hurt. But one thing is for certain, that we now are in no doubt that we have made the right decision to live to fight another day."
The blokes can, however, take consolation in that last Thursday night they had the "world's highest whisky tasting" at Base Camp, sipping Glenfiddich 12-, 15-, and 18-year-old single malts and a special 19-year-old Madeira cask finish whisky.
Himex made a prudent and probably wise choice, given some of the bad Everestdecisions in the past for the sake of a few dollars. Still, the cancelling of the expedition, the abandonment of dreams of standing atop the earth, as well as the lost costs of clients, as much as $50,000+ per person, is pretty rough and a disappointing turn of events. Other commercial services, however, are continuing on their Everest quests to guide paying customers to the summit, feeling that the dangers are over-stated.
Photograph above: (Top) Mount Everest is slowly warming. Will all the glaciers and snow melt? Probably not but changes are happening. (Bottom) Apa Sherpa, shown in 2010, climbed Everest for the 21st time this spring. Photographs © Getty Images and Apa Sherpa.
The mild winter and unseasonably warm spring weather across the United States is making a robust tick season, with the potential for an increase in tick-borne illnesses, including dreaded Lyme disease.
Ticks are now considered the number-one disease-carrying parasite in the country, with at least 11 diseases carried and transmitted by ticks. The good news, however, is that prevention is the best cure for tick bites.
Adult ticks as well as climbers, hikers, and other outdoor recreationists are more active now with the warmth. You need to guard against tick bites and the possibility of those diseases by keeping alert for ticks on your clothes and skin when you're outside and by following some common sense rules. If you're out climbing a mountain like Capitol Peak or Mount Greylock or rock climbing at New River Gorge or Joshua Tree, do regular tick checks of your clothing, skin,and hair and you'll avoid being a tasty meal ticket for a hitch-hiking tick.
Read my new article How to Avoid Ticks--7 Tips to Avoid Ticks When You're Climbing and get all the beta on ticks and preventing tick bites.
Photograph above: Do regular tick checks when you're outside climbing and hiking and you'll find most of the ticks that are crawling around on you. Photograph © Getty Images.
Grand Teton National Park is, along with Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, one of the premier areas for alpine rock climbing, mountaineering, and ice and snow climbing in the United States. Climbers come to test themselves on the Teton Range's soaring rocky ridges, steep icy couloirs, and big rock walls. While the Tetons offers thousands of climbing routes, most climbers come to ascend 13,775-foot (4,199-meter) Grand Teton, its highest peak and one of America's most beautiful mountains.
Right now is the ideal time to begin planning for your climbing trip to the Tetons this next summer. July and August are the best seasons for climbing at the Tetons, with warm weather punctuated by regular afternoon thunderstorms. The warm temperatures this year though are quickly melting snow on the range, which should allow for lots of great climbing on dry rock.
If you want to head to Grand Teton National Park this summer and have the climbing trip of a lifetime, then start making your summer trip plans right. Read my three new articles about the Tetons here at Climbing at About.com--Grand Teton National Park Climbing and Mountaineering; Grand Teton National Park Climbing Trip Planning Information; and Fast Facts about Grand Teton: Wyoming's Second Highest Mountain--and get psyched to get vertical in the Tetons.
Read three articles about climbing at Grand Teton National Park:
Photograph above: The Grand Teton dominates the central part of the Teton Range and is the objective of most visiting Teton climbers. Photograph © Harvey Lloyd/Getty Images.
