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.

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• PSA, What’s Available in Polartec Neoshell?
  from: – The Backcountry Skiing Blog on September 9 2011
• Commitment To Your Work = Taking An Entire Year To Make a Single Image
  from: Chase Jarvis Blog on September 7 2011
• What we SHOULD have been taught in our senior year of high school
  from: The Oatmeal – Comics, Quizzes, & Stories on September 7 2011
• Jeb Corliss Flies Through Chinese Cave in Wingsuit
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on September 27 2011
• Z vejk desko in vitlom proti tonam drveče vode
  from: FAJN.SI on September 27 2011
• Trije logiki pridejo v bar …
  from: Kvarkadabra blog on September 27 2011
• Štiriletnik vpenja smeri do 6a! (Video)
  from: Friko.si – slovenski plezalni portal on September 23 2011
• information aesthetics: Submarine Cable Map: All Cable Systems and Landing Stations
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on September 23 2011
• “Mac n’ Cheese”: Painterly animation, nothing to do with food
  from: John Nack on Adobe on September 22 2011
• The world's rudest hand gestures
  from: kottke.org on September 22 2011
• Always Full
  from: Math Fail on September 22 2011
• Long Exposure Photos of Yurikamome High Speed Rail Transit | Colossal
  from: thisiscolossal.com on September 22 2011
• ProRes Codecs now a free download
  from: The Video Road on September 21 2011
• He Who Giveth
  from: Not Always Right | Funny & Stupid Customer Quotes on September 20 2011
• My favourite work on Vimeo
  from: Philip Bloom on September 19 2011
• The amazing lyrebird can mimic anything
  from: kottke.org on September 19 2011
• Coyotes Move Into California Home
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on September 19 2011
• Extreme schooling
  from: kottke.org on September 16 2011
• Photographing Monster Storms
  from: lens culture photography weblog on September 16 2011
• The world's funniest analogies
  from: kottke.org on September 15 2011
• Popular Science -: The Mystery of Wrinkly-When-Wet Fingers, Solved
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on September 14 2011
• In the Surf
  from: In Focus on September 14 2011
• Golf mi lomi srce
  from: Kvarkadabra blog on September 10 2011
• DVICE: Super accurate Russian GPS coming to a cell phone near you
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on September 9 2011
• Job misunderstandings
  from: kottke.org on September 9 2011
• Koliko energije za eno iskanje na Googlu?
  from: Kvarkadabra blog on September 9 2011

• DVICE: BMW adds steam engine to car, improves fuel efficiency by 10%
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on September 6 2011
• The Physics of Math (comic)
  from: Math Fail on September 5 2011
• Wild Beauty Of The Almaty Region
  from: English Russia on September 5 2011
• Akademske publikacije in divji kapitalizem
  from: Kvarkadabra blog on September 3 2011
• Dan Jenkins’ 10 Stages of Drunkenness
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on September 2 2011
• 9 Reasons to Go Wild This Weekend
  from: Chase Jarvis Blog on September 2 2011
• How to brew your own beer in college and impress all your friends
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on September 2 2011
• What is 2 x 2?
  from: Math Fail on September 2 2011
• A Master Class in Messi Lighting
  from: Strobist on September 1 2011
• Believing Is Seeing: Errol Morris Unravels the Greatest Mysteries of Photojournalism
  from: Brain Pickings on September 1 2011
• Kiteboarding Hurricane Irene
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on August 31 2011
• Teahupoo Surfing
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on August 31 2011
• New Land Rover Defender for 2015, DC100 Concept to be shown in Frankfurt
  from: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine on August 31 2011
• Think Better, not Think Different – (by @baekdal)
  from: Baekdal.com on August 30 2011

• Hunter Thompson’s Rum Diary trailer, starring Johnny Depp
  from: Boing Boing on August 29 2011
• Bozeman Building Massive Ice Climbing Facility
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on August 29 2011
• Will Hunting had it right 14 years ago – YouTube
  from: Math Fail on August 29 2011
• Trad Guy Sporto Tips
  from: The Cleanest Line on August 26 2011
• The Horror That Is FiveFingers Shoes
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on August 26 2011
• GREY MATTERS: The art of Chaos Cinema
  from: Press Play on August 26 2011
• How the first image of the whole Earth was taken
  from: Boing Boing on August 25 2011
• MATT ZOLLER SEITZ: Why are so many modern action movies terrible?
  from: Press Play on August 25 2011
• Photo assistant breaks down lighting from several famous photographers
  from: Rob Galbraith DPI on August 25 2011
• Fashion Photog Sued By Models Parents
  from: A Photo Editor on August 25 2011
• Your math homework is…
  from: Math Fail on August 25 2011
• Financial Conspiracy Theories
  from: Dilbert.com Blog on August 25 2011
• Handcuffed for Skiing Uphill — Political Action Required
  from: – The Backcountry Skiing Blog on August 24 2011
• Photographer gets $9K worth of stolen camera gear back with GadgetTrak
  from: Boing Boing on August 24 2011
• 'What Idiot Wrote The Patent That Might Invalidate Software Patents? Oh, Wait, That Was Me' | Techdirt
  from: www.techdirt.com on August 24 2011
• Belgrade Is Pro-Butts, Anti-Poop
  from: AdWeek: AdFreak on August 24 2011
• ‘An Apostrophe Is The Difference Between…’
  from: Lifehacker Australia on August 24 2011

• Slovenia Launches Supervizor, An Official Public Web App For Monitoring Public Spending (Devin Coldewey/TechCrunch)
  from: Techmeme on August 24 2011
• Vintage Automobiles at Pebble Beach 2011
  from: Cool Hunting on August 23 2011
• Hitting 52.5 mpg won’t require major tech advancement
  from: Boing Boing on August 23 2011
• Zoologists Capture Elephant’s ‘Eureka!’ Moment
  from: Wired Top Stories on August 23 2011
• The Semantic Grid System: Page Layout For Tomorrow
  from: Smashing Magazine Feed on August 23 2011
• Architects’ Sketchbooks: Behind the World’s Most Magnificent Buildings
  from: Brain Pickings on August 23 2011
• Hollywood Clichés Make for Sweet Infographics
  from: AdWeek: AdFreak on August 23 2011
• On Tumplines
  from: The Cleanest Line on August 22 2011
• The Art of Architectural Photography
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on August 22 2011
• Depth Perception
  from: xkcd.com on August 22 2011
• Nick Cave's letter to MTV
  from: kottke.org on August 21 2011
• Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?  |  Smithsonian  |  Aug. 18, 2011  |  14 Minutes (3,515 words)
  from: Longreads.com on August 20 2011
• Film editing tips – Round II
  from: digitalfilms on August 20 2011
• How prevalent is high-ISO photography?
  from: Fazal Majid's low intensity weblog on August 20 2011
• Sawtooths Trek
  from: Mountain Photographer on August 20 2011
• 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
  from: INHABITAT on August 19 2011
• How to Use UTF-8 Throughout Your Web Stack
  from: Daring Fireball on August 19 2011
• American Girl in Italy
  from: Iconic Photos on August 19 2011
• Craigslist Chorales: "Most Kick-Ass Fucking Roommate That Ever Lived" Seeks Home
  from: Curbed National on August 19 2011
• Why the Hell Do You People Still Drive?
  from: Wired Top Stories on August 19 2011
• Mike Arrington’s Taxes Are Too High
  from: Daring Fireball on August 19 2011
• Jon Stewart on Fox’s response to Warren Buffett’s “socialism”
  from: Boing Boing on August 19 2011
• fancy
  from: Abstruse Goose on August 19 2011
• Everyone Is Above Average These Days
  from: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan on August 19 2011
• A Mathematician’s Survival Guide
  from: Math Fail on August 19 2011
• 'I loved being in the SAS': Sir Ranulph Fiennes – Legion, the Royal British Legion magazine
  from: www.legion-magazine.co.uk on August 19 2011
• Paris Review – Harvard and Class, Misha Glouberman
  from: www.theparisreview.org on August 19 2011
• The questionable birth of Times New Roman
  from: Boing Boing on August 18 2011
• Baby Trashes Bar in Las Palmas
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on August 18 2011

• Mozilla To Remove User-Facing Firefox Version Numbers
  from: Slashdot on August 16 2011
• Allegations That Apple’s Evidence in European Samsung Case Includes Doctored Image
  from: Daring Fireball on August 15 2011
• All HTML
  from: kottke.org on August 15 2011
• Coming to America
  from: kottke.org on August 15 2011
• On Assignment
  from: Vertical Carnival Dispatches on August 15 2011
• The Brooks Review: Goodbye, Cruel Word
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on August 15 2011
• 15 August, 2011 – Five Camera Technologies We Want
  from: The Luminous Landscape – What's New on August 14 2011
• FCP X road blocks
  from: digitalfilms on August 14 2011
• World War II: Daring Raids and Brutal Reprisals
  from: In Focus on August 14 2011
• How Much Would You Spend?
  from: The Online Photographer on August 13 2011
• My Bias against Certainty
  from: Dilbert.com Blog on August 13 2011
• Line Producing 101 – The WHAT-HOW-WHO of Budgeting
  from: Hurlbut Visuals on August 12 2011
• Popular Science -: Anti-Wave Tech Tricks Ocean Water Into Standing Still, Making Ships Efficient and Invisible
  from: Temboz – interesting articles feed on August 12 2011
• Free Online Class Shakes Up Photo Education
  from: Wired Top Stories on August 11 2011
• 30 Harshest Filmmaker-on-Filmmaker Insults
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on August 11 2011
• The Onion predicts the future
  from: kottke.org on August 11 2011
• Nanotech Terrorists Apparently Don’t Know What Nanotechnology Is
  from: IEEE Spectrum on August 11 2011
• Remember That Stolen iPhone 4 Prototype Gizmodo Bought?
  from: Daring Fireball on August 11 2011
• The Youth Unemployment Bomb
  from: Give Me Something To Read on August 11 2011
• How to Throw a Punch Correctly
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on August 11 2011
• Plezalni center Ljubljana (Anketa in cene vstopnic)
  from: Friko.si – slovenski plezalni portal on August 11 2011
• In Consideration of the Icelandic Vegetable
  from: grapevine.is on August 11 2011
• Libya: Britain using Celt mercenaries to suppress riots
  from: Boing Boing on August 11 2011
• Engineer’s Stock Fund
  from: Dilbert.com Blog on August 11 2011
• Preserving human history in a National Park
  from: Boing Boing on August 10 2011
• The Best in Show from Outdoor Retailer
  from: Backcountry.com: The Goat on August 10 2011
• The Fire Lookouts of Montana
  from: Coudal Partners Blended Feed on August 10 2011
• Shark researcher: A great white landed in my boat
  from: New Scientist – Online News on August 10 2011
• Soldering is Easy: CC licensed HOWTO solder comic
  from: Boing Boing on August 10 2011