It’s only natural that people forget skills they don’t use on a regular basis. I guess I’d even forget how to tie a figure 8 knot eventually, no matter how simple it might be. But when it comes to complex procedures like self rescue scenarios, that hopefully you never actually need, it’s nice to be reminded occasionally and do some practicing.

It’s also natural that people, who get their first taste of rock climbing, might develop a curiosity to learn more. If nothing else, to understand how things work and make their new hobby safer. That said…

No video, sketch or photo can replace a proper course conducted by professionals. In other words… don’t trust your life to something you read on the internet or at the very least try things on the ground first. I practice hanging off an apple tree about 2m above ground. Other than falling on my dog barking like mad below there’s no danger if I mess things up completely but absolutely realistic in every other way.

So more as a bookmark and a reminder to myself than anything else, the resources below could serve as a refresher course. I certainly found them very useful the first time around.

Animated knots – climbing knots
UK Climbing – climbing skills articles
Chockstone – tech tips
Petzl – rope techniques for multi-pitch climbing
Petzl – multi-pitch tech tips 2010 (pdf)
Petzl – sport climbing tech tips 2010 (pdf)
Libby Peter – articles from Climber magazine

And some nice videos:

How to tie off a belay plate from Steve Long on Vimeo.

Escaping the system from Steve Long on Vimeo.

Lowering a climber off the crag from Steve Long on Vimeo.

Abseiling past a knot from Steve Long on Vimeo.

Prusiking up a rope from Steve Long on Vimeo.

Assisted hoist from Steve Long on Vimeo.

As Google decided to “upgrade” the ageing Reader this week they made a move that enraged many people. Least of which some iranians…

I have absolutely no desire to move to G+ and as far as I can tell it doesn’t even offer the option of building a feed from the items I share. So for the time being, lacking a decent alternative or easy workaround, this is the last overview of interesting articles that came through my Google Reader subscriptions recently

• DIY satellite imagery
  from: kottke.org on October 31 2011
• Teacher logic
  from: Math Fail on October 31 2011
• Math class interpretation
  from: Math Fail on October 28 2011
• Type design game
  from: kottke.org on October 28 2011
• Have a popular Google Maps mashup? Prepare to pay » Nieman Journalism Lab
  from: www.niemanlab.org on October 28 2011
• Surprise Rocks
  from: Mountain Photographer on October 28 2011
• Viral Marketing Cheat Sheet – (by @baekdal)
  from: Baekdal.com on October 27 2011
• A Few Examples of Naturalism in Photography
  from: The Online Photographer on October 27 2011
• People are awesome 2011
  from: kottke.org on October 26 2011
• Axe Celebrates Halloween With ‘Hot Girl vs. Zombie’
  from: AdWeek: AdFreak on October 26 2011
• Ryan Gosling, Typographer
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on October 25 2011
• The World Is Surprisingly Angry About the End of Google Reader
  from: The Atlantic Wire on October 25 2011
• Napovedi – 50/50
  from: Filmski kotiček on October 25 2011
• M thru F: And How I View all of these People who Make Charts: Bored
  from: Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny Pictures on October 25 2011
• Buy The Right Tickets to Success – (by @baekdal)
  from: Baekdal.com on October 25 2011

An overview of interesting articles that came through my Google Reader subscriptions recently

• Men In Trees: A Look at the Annual Portuguese Cork Harvest
  from: Core77 on October 25 2011
• HOWTO take over your neighbor’s stereo
  from: Boing Boing on October 25 2011
• World Solar Challenge Results Are Disputed
  from: IEEE Spectrum Recent Content full text on October 25 2011
• Mouth agape… awesome promo video
  from: Vincent Laforet's Blog on October 25 2011
• Booths and Bodies: Short documentary shot on Sony NEX 5N
  from: Philip Bloom on October 25 2011
• Video: South African biker saves calf from drowning
  from: Gadling on October 24 2011
• Three common mistakes in medical journalism
  from: Boing Boing on October 24 2011
• Research: Auto-selecting good stills from a video
  from: John Nack on Adobe on October 24 2011
• CodeSOD: The Query of Despair
  from: The Daily WTF on October 24 2011
• That Top 1% Thing
  from: Dilbert.com Blog on October 24 2011
• Backsplash on a Budget: Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz’ Water Angel
  from: Strobist on October 24 2011
• Keeping it real
  from: Math Fail on October 23 2011
• How to: No tangle extension cord storage
  from: Boing Boing on October 22 2011
• Why the QR Code Is Failing
  from: Daring Fireball on October 21 2011
• Improv in Toronto: DARE TO FIGHT!?
  from: Boing Boing on October 21 2011
• Reality Series Coming to Everest
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on October 21 2011
• Updates & Followups: October 21st
  from: The Online Photographer on October 21 2011
• ‘I’m Going to Destroy Android, Because It’s a Stolen Product’
  from: Daring Fireball on October 21 2011
• People Don’t Care About Your Competitors – (by @baekdal)
  from: Baekdal.com on October 21 2011
• Periodic table of swearing
  from: Boing Boing on October 21 2011
• Schrödinger’s Cat on Yahoo Answers
  from: Math Fail on October 21 2011
• Intervju z vodjo razvoja pri Pipistrelu
  from: Kvarkadabra blog on October 21 2011
• The history of the typewriter recited by Michael Winslow
  from: kottke.org on October 20 2011
• Decades-Old ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ Strip Succinctly Explains Occupy Wall Street Movement
  from: Daring Fireball on October 20 2011
• ProVideo Coalition.com: CUT.N.COLOR by Steve Hullfish
  from: provideocoalition.com on October 20 2011
• ProVideo Coalition.com: News by PVC Staff
  from: provideocoalition.com on October 20 2011
• National Geographic features the Sami
  from: Rob Galbraith DPI on October 20 2011
• An American Tourist in North Korea
  from: Wired Top Stories on October 20 2011
• Gorniški filmi v Mariboru!
  from: Friko.si – slovenski plezalni portal on October 20 2011

An overview of interesting articles that came through my Google Reader subscriptions recently

• Stockholm Archipelago – s kajakom
  from: www.mphoto.si on October 19 2011
• 10/17/11 PHD comic: ‘Dress Codes’
  from: PHD Comics on October 18 2011
• Skin writing
  from: kottke.org on October 18 2011
• Photoshop Image Deblurring
  from: The Online Photographer on October 18 2011
• The Austrian Way — Beacon Check or Jail
  from: – The Backcountry Skiing Blog on October 18 2011
• Why HTTPS in facebook is not what it claims to be | DroidSheep
  from: droidsheep.de on October 18 2011
• Reuters: Accusations of financial impropriety drive Olympus shares down
  from: Rob Galbraith DPI on October 17 2011
• 48-camera Matrix rig pushes GoPro’s tech limits
  from: FreshDV on October 15 2011
• Popular Science -: Throwable Camera-Ball Captures a 360° Panoramic Photo in Mid-Air
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on October 14 2011
• The GM College Anti-Bike Campaign
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on October 14 2011
• Film Fading to Black – Creative COW
  from: magazine.creativecow.net on October 14 2011
• The Cool Hunter – Amazing Places To Experience Around The Globe (Part 2)
  from: www.thecoolhunter.net on October 14 2011
• Gallery: Chris Burkard Surf Photography
  from: The Cleanest Line on October 13 2011
• Hacked! – Magazine – The Atlantic
  from: www.theatlantic.com on October 13 2011
• The Man Who Sailed His House
  from: Longform.org on October 13 2011
• New Google Maps WebGL
  from: Mapperz – The Mapping News Blog on October 13 2011
• Wild Britain with Ray Mears on ITV1 – Series 2
  from: Woodlore Blog on October 13 2011
• RAM vs. Energy Consumption
  from: Daring Fireball on October 12 2011
• Rangefinderforum.com: ARRI, Panavision and Aaton have ceased production of film cameras
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on October 12 2011
• LensRentals.com – Lens Genealogy – Part 2
  from: www.lensrentals.com on October 12 2011
• LensRentals.com – Lens Genealogy Part 1
  from: www.lensrentals.com on October 12 2011
• Lens Genealogy
  from: The Online Photographer on October 11 2011
• Globokomorska neumnost
  from: Kvarkadabra blog on October 6 2011
• Google Cloud SQL: Your database in the cloud
  from: Google App Engine Blog on October 6 2011
• Score This: Photog 1, Cheapskate 0
  from: groozi.com on October 6 2011
• Further by Teton Gravity Research and Jeremy Jones
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on October 5 2011
• A View of Aconcagua
  from: Mountain Photographer on October 5 2011
• We've All Been There
  from: The Online Photographer on October 5 2011
• Nano House
  from: Cool Hunting on October 5 2011
• 1000-piece stick bomb video
  from: Boing Boing on October 5 2011
• Blue Obsession, Climbing Receding Glaciers in Alaska
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on October 5 2011
• 11 Travel Books for Bums
  from: Alastair Humphreys on October 5 2011
• Kickstarter Hit With Patent Claim Over Crowd-Funding (Devin Coldewey/TechCrunch)
  from: Techmeme on October 5 2011

An overview of interesting articles that came through my Google Reader subscriptions recently

• Lunch with a Nobel laureate in Economics
  from: Philip Greenspun's Weblog on October 5 2011
• Hidden In The Woods
  from: English Russia on October 4 2011
• Maths Routine (video)
  from: Math Fail on October 2 2011
• Kdo plačuje novinarja?
  from: Kvarkadabra blog on October 1 2011
• Why is Sergey Brin so good at Angry Birds?
  from: kottke.org on September 30 2011
• Biology Inspires Better Wind Power
  from: IEEE Spectrum on September 30 2011
• Japanese Co-Pilot Hits Wrong Button, Plane Goes into Dive
  from: IEEE Spectrum on September 30 2011
• Comic Sans is not official
  from: 22 Words on September 30 2011
• “Guy On a Buffalo”, A Destined Classic
  from: TetonAT.com on September 30 2011
• Lifehacker: Keep Sponges from Getting Grimy with One Cut [MacGyver Tip]
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on September 29 2011
• Icebreaker Really Makes Some Strange Decisions
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on September 29 2011
• Q&A: Avoiding Cross Shadows When Rim-Lighting
  from: Strobist on September 29 2011
• Being Elmo trailer
  from: kottke.org on September 28 2011