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.  Those 1+ hour long course type videos are way more involved than testing 6 things.  Worth it!

Algorithm Games: I'm stockpiling up videos I know will be very popular and have been in demand ...

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, but are way better for the viewer.  

Short 1: Sun-damaged Anchor https://youtube.com/shorts/Dm6AZJ6b4...

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 that has been requested so many times.  I'm wondering if I put a skinnier cord in it, if it will slip at a force that wouldn't hurt your body and help take the biggest risk out of tethers... fall...

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 me to say yes to more people for random break tests without feeling like I have to make a full story around that piece of gear.

Totem Cam Test: 2023-06-03 14:42:54 +0000 UTC View Post

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 release it.  This is why so many older videos get delayed.  Eventually, all the episodes will have this kind of turnaround.

Today's Post: Tom emailed me a niche question about cross loa...

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.  Relevent to today's video, it would be awesome to pull it to 8kn 10x then pull to failure at 100mm per minute for example.  It will be exciting to see how or if HOW something is pulled affects the...

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 small tasks to see how to balance between leaving the help shooting blindfolded and micromanaging them.  If I can figure this out, I'd be able to scale and accomplish the dream of answering every ...

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 holistic view of their gear and not just the cliche myths.

TODAY'S POST: Termination plates retain more strength out of your rope they say.  How much you ask?  Well, we couldn't find that ...

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!

Thank you Matt O'Donnell for visiting the lab and doing this with us.  Having a prusik around 2 ropes can be for a handful on contexts, but this was looking through the view point of a SAR (Search ...

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 excited for that to do well.  Finalizing the abrasion tester before a rope manufacturer comes over to do a deep dive WITH THEM today.  More on that later.

TODAY'S POST: I tested over 27 gir...

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 scenario, helpful! Right?  We talk about this sling you may not even know existed and how strong it is in all its configurations.  

Shorty: While I was editing a girth hitch video with Alpi...

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 5mm dyneema.  Other than having to tension for 2 days, it went down without a hitch and no one got hurt.  I'll be doing a full feature film on that one, but I couldn't expedite it because jus...

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 Matthew Otto https://www.instagram.com/matthew_a_otto/ for the sailing trick.  It's amazing that a 2-3 meter piece o...

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 big walling.  Sometimes you drop them as rope swing dummys.  When and how do they break?  The straps were stronger than I thought and the bottom blew out after 4 attempts of shockloadin...

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 me do troll patrol better but I think I might accomplish that with short form.  I edit them to be shared to youtube shorts and instagram reels for whatever your preferred platform is.  Links...

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 talkie was also an example.  I don't stop testing it until the manufacturer says wow.  If you alcohol wipe clean, then patch it to quickly, your patch is ruined and you are tacoed all night.....

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 Godino.  He has been consistently creating content for several years now.  We have a few episodes coming out where we test gear together and I wanted to make this available for those curious ab...

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 entirely different task.  

The abrasion tester gets built in the next few days, all the parts are in :).  Planning the deep dive details on specialty ropes and trad gear.  Creating the ...

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 enough fresh data to make it attractive to more people.  It's free but it only works with people using it.  It was nice to hear from those who developed this 2.0 version what went into it and ho...

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 building and haul lines.  A Tension Backtie is used in a rescue rigging system to stabilize a monopod/bipod/tripod, backup a tree anchor, or shore up any other anchor. The number of strands betwe...

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 catching bed and filling it with a lot of mulch some arborist friends gifted me, I was able to get this thing super done enough and done cheap enough to afford the abrasion tester now.  The functio...

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 episode.  Drop tests, human testing, Larry saying funny stuff, slow pulls and breaking something I didn't plan on :).  

What's Next: Working on lab stuff.  Might have a special vi...

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 established is fast and strong enough for 99% of drop tests we do.  I have a napkin blue print of the abrasion tester we are making to mimic what we saw in Hard is Easy's episode at Mammut's lab.  ...

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 fyi).  It sparks the question of what is strong enough if you are aiming to have a S.E.R.E.N.E anchor.  

Extra Content: 

2023-03-22 13:55:27 +0000 UTC View Post

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 Bible https://www.hownot2.com/post/boltingbible   The new main section is way easier to navigate as it has ...

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 hope to give you a sneak peak to that on Saturday.  It will take weeks to finish the latest version as I spend my first 4 hours every day writing it until my brain turns to mush.  It's way wa...

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 standards better and supplement the channel costs.

TODAY'S POST

I want to test all the trad gear so I'm designing a better adapter for the slow puller and drop tower.  What do you think?...

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 over which added a lot of story and engagement value in that we explored random stuff together with a pile of gear that needed to be retired.  

TODAY'S POST

Derrick Weiss brought his ...

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 make this really helpful and not just "read the manual" type of how to video.  

TODAY'S POST: 

We dive deep into the Rocky Talkie because when I take them on a project, I need t...

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 here https://biff1.com/archives/2023/biff2023_program_viewer.html#42 

PHOTOS ABOVE:

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