howNOTtoHighline

Water vs Beer: Which one is stronger?

4th Post of 8 for June:  Yesterday I finished filming the remainder of the Intro to Sport Climbing which was my 3rd attempt to filming the action of it.  We had 4 audio sources, consistent light from the clouds, no wind, no crowds, my buddy was available since it takes 3 to film.  ...

Shorts, AI, Dummy, Deletions

3rd of 8 Posts for June: Here's some shorts and updates on the non-sexy stuff behind the scenes.  I like posting 8 full videos a month if possible but I think it's worth the investment of energy to make the more full value, in depth videos.  They take 20-40 hours to edit instead of 4, b...

I mean it's not THAT bad...

2nd of 8 Post for June: I go through phases and in my workflow it seems like personal anchors are a focus.  Today I'll be working on finishing a Purcell Prusik video that's been in my queue a very long time, I already did cow tails, and I might make the next tests I do the Petzl Evolv Adust ...

Shorts, Machines, and Website

1st of 8 Posts in June.  As much as I like long-form, some tests just don't need to be 12 minutes long.  Making the short form has helped me make the long form better.  My main videos are at least 10-20% shorter without cutting out any information.  Shorts are a great way for ...

BEWARE: This makes carabiners break A LOT lower

8th of 8 Posts for May: Other than bolting videos, I only have 4 videos from the old lab left to edit!  I'm hoping to have everything edited within 2-3 weeks from filming it once I'm caught up. This is a bad example.  I shot this about a week ago and it's pretty good so I'm excited to r...

How did they splice this together?

7th of 8 Post for May - I am getting a fancy machine built by some engineering seniors for their graduating project.  This pull tester will be very similar to many Instron machines that most manufacturers have.  I will be able to control rate of pull and program it to do cycles.  R...

The difference is INSANE

6th of 8 Posts for May - Back from Tenerife and climbed my first 11D ever... on lead.  That helps the stoke all around.  I'm working on the hardest stage of this channel, hiring.   I'm not looking for the unicorn that can just do everything for me, but practicing with hiring s...

Aren't knots free?

5th of 8 Posts in May.  When this goes live, we'll be mid-filming with Hard is Easy for an Intro to Sport Climbing which will incorporate of course the basics but also how strong the gear is and the forces you can generate.  I think that would be great for brand-new people to get a holi...

Can you prusik double ropes?

4th of 8 Posts for May.  I broke this into 2 videos, the other being on the CLIPS channel.  I'm headed to Spain today for my gf bday and I found out Hard is Easy lives 30 minutes where we'll be staying so we'll be able to film some videos with him.  That's going to be fun!

Th...

Are girth hitches dangerous?!

3rd of 8 Posts for May.  I've got all 4 episodes edited I filmed with Alpine Savvy and I'll be slow releasing them over the next few weeks.  I spent ALL week working on our zipline film and got the teams approval and am having an audio engineer level everything out.  I'm very excit...

99.7% chance it won't break below 5,000lbs

2nd of 8 Posts for May: I'm working on the zipline film, planning specialty rope deep dives and almost ready to use the abrasion tester.  

Today's Post: Gear is sigma 3 tested.  That means there it is very unlikely it will break lower than its rated strength in its best case scena...

Home-made Climbing Gear?

1st of 8 Posts: Today's video hopefully gets more used cams sent our way then after fully proof testing the cam crusher, I'll invest in buying 1-2 of every brand and comparing them "head to head," get it?

This last week we did the first tandem zip line base jump on a mile long zip line on 5...

This trick changes everything

Patrons: This is the 8th of 8 posts for April.  Usually, videos sit in the queue for months, sometimes years.  I've expedited this.  If all goes well, I'll expedite this weekend's project for wednesday.  It's fun releasing stuff while it's fresh.

Thank you Mat...

My Haul Bag Exploded

Patrons: 7th Post of 8 in April.  G7 break test video did way better than I was expecting.  Always a risk doing a deep dive on super niche gear.  I thought I'd follow this Wednesday up with another big wall related video.  

TODAY'S VIDEO - Sometimes you swing bags while ...

We are worried about the wrong things

Patrons: 6th of 8 posts for April.  I've been experimenting with short form content, as a tool for one off break tests and growth of the channel.  It's hard to figure out what makes one go viral but I read the comments and try to alter how I communicate in a short.  Long form lets ...

G7 Review, Misc Rope Tests, 3 Shorts

Patrons: 5th of 8 posts for April.  I think deep dives on gear is going to be a big value add on the channel.  If you are going to spend a lot of money on gear, it's nice to fully understand if it is right for you.  This G7 review is the start of this type of content.  Rocky t...

Alpine Savvy, Hangers, Cave Harnesses

Patrons: 4th of 8 Posts for April.  My days have been a few hours in the morning for written material then lab stuff mid-day and editing later.  So that's produced a variety pack for the last few days. 

TODAY'S EPISODE: Meet The Man Behind Alpine Savvy - Podcast with John God...

Climbers Break Down Vertical Limit

Aprils 3rd of 8 posts.  This was a fun one.  It's not only fun for us but breaks up the break tests and reaches more people that might not find our material.  Creating helpful information is half the work, getting that information to everyone who would benefit from it is an entirel...

SlackMaps, Private Cam video, and Bolting for Climbing

Patrons: April's 2nd post of 8.

SLACKMAPS: I know slackline content, especially a podcast isn't going to get a million views but I've been building the slack community longer than doing break tests.  If we even got 100 active users on this thing because of this video, it could add enou...

How strong is this skinny cord?

Patrons: 1st of 8 posts for April.  

Today's Video: PowerCord is a 5.9 mm accessory cord with a unique braided Technora core which doubles the strength of a standard 5.9 mm accessory cord. Technora is a high-strength, yet lightweight material making PowerCord a great option for anchor ...

Drop Tower Sneak Peak

Patrons: This is the 8th of 8 posts for March.

PRIVATE Video of the drop tower.  Bobby is visiting and we decided to go free fall instead of a track system.  I have ideas to mitigate damage to the tree from weights bouncing back at it.  Using firewood I already had for the ca...

Betcha don't have this climbing gear

Patrons: This is the 7th of 8 posts in March.  

This Episode: This was a year ago when we tried to get our hands on some UFOs.  It was September when we did and it sat in the queue for a while because I was mid big wall series at that point.  This has all the good stuff in 1 ...

4 Shorts and Lab Stuff

Patrons: This is the 6th of 8 posts for March.  Bobby is here visiting and we are going to be doing our first drop test this next week.  The photo is our connection to the tree and keeping it simple now that we know drop testing better, we are using the Linescale 3 which we have establi...

I thought this climbing anchor was going to be twice as strong

Patrons: This is the 5th of 8 posts for March.  I've been wanting to test 3-point climbing anchors for a long time and our new custom steel rigging plate lets us do that... all to find out this particular anchor broke lower than a 12kn amazon carabiner 😂  (which is consistently 18kn ...

Bolting for Caving

Patrons: This is the 4th of 8 posts for March.  John Godino from Alpine Savvy just took off and we filmed about 5 episodes worth of nerdy anchors and girth hitches and cordelette strength differences.

Today's Post: For the last week I've spent all of my edit time working on the Bolting...

Why The Overkill?

Patrons:  This is the 3rd of 8 posts in March.  I've wanted to test whoopies for a really long time so today's video is exciting to at least me! I'm setting up to write a Bolting Bible for knots and splices this fits in nicely for that long game.  Speaking of the Bolting Bible, I h...

Cams, Silos, and Slings

PATRONS: This is the 2nd post of 8 in March.  I've been working A LOT on the bolting bible and am excited to go live on that hopefully on April 1st.  I keep working on lab equipment.  I'm exploring what it will take to certify gear starting with ISA certs as a way to understand sta...

What can you get away with?

PATRONS: This is the 1st post of 8 in March.  It's been great being able to break people's stuff as they send it in which allows us to explore things that might not be obviously interesting but then find a hat full of rabbits to chase.  Derrick lived nearby so he just brought his stuff ...

The ULTIMATE Drop Test

PATRONS: This is the 8th of 8 posts for February.  I've been working on this video for 4 months and I'd hit a roadblock in a test and then wait until I had an opportunity to do the next test.  I also wanted to make sure I understood the nuances of its frequencies and privacy settings to...

Linear Actuators, 3D Printing, Super 8s, and Smashing Carabiners

PATRONS: This is the 7th of 8 posts for February.  I got some clips published and lots of progress on the 3 lab projects.  I'll be at Boulder's International Film Festival this week.  Leave a comment if you are able to come.  Our showing is Sunday at 3pm and the details are he...