Gear & Kit
Buying used gear: what is fine second-hand and what never is
Outdoor equipment is expensive and much of it lasts far longer than one owner. But some items carry invisible damage, and those you buy new, without exception.
Topic
safety
Every Extreme Sports Adventures article tagged safety — 8 pieces across 4 sections.
Surf & Ocean
Sharks: the actual risk picture, and the behaviours that matter
Shark encounters occupy far more mental space than their frequency justifies, which is a problem in both directions — it produces needless fear and it obscures the few behaviours that genuinely reduce risk.
Climbing
Crag etiquette, rockfall and not dropping things on people
The most common way to injure someone at a cliff is not to fall on them. It is to send something down at them, and almost all of it is preventable.
Whitewater
Rope on a river: the most misunderstood rescue tool there is
Rope saves lives on rivers and it also kills people. The difference lies in a handful of principles that are not obvious to anyone whose rope experience comes from land.
Climbing
Via ferrata is not safe climbing, and the difference matters
Steel cable and rungs make exposed terrain accessible to people without climbing skills. They also introduce failure modes that ordinary climbing does not have.
Whitewater
Cold water and the gasp reflex: the first minute is the dangerous one
Most cold water deaths are not hypothermia. They happen in the first minute, from an involuntary response that competent swimmers cannot override by willpower.
Climbing
Rappel accidents: the most avoidable deaths in climbing
Rappelling is entirely under your control, takes place on a system you built yourself, and kills experienced climbers with grim regularity. The failure modes are few and every one of them is preventable.
Climbing
The belay mistakes that keep showing up, decade after decade
Almost nobody drops a partner because they did something exotic. They drop a partner because of four or five errors that repeat across gyms, crags and countries with depressing consistency.