howNOTtoHighline posts
NO CHARGE - Behind the scenes of Dan Osman Leaning Tower Rope Jump
I’ve been busy doing a rope jump off Leaning Tower in Yosemite to honor Dan Osman for the inspiration I got from him. I talk about behind the scenes a little bit, show the lab getting decorated and more organized and the plan for the next few weeks. Dan Osman's final jump in Yosemite gets repeated 23 years later https://youtu.be/VIQQGp8SaI8 ►10% off at https://rockytalkie.com/products/rock... using the code "HowNOTtoHighline" ►5...
Dan Osman's final jump in Yosemite gets repeated 23 years later
Dan Osman is a legend in the climbing community. He passed away doing the most epic rope jump in Yosemite National Park 23 years ago and we wanted to honor him by repeating it. We climbed an A4 route called Roulette on Leaning tower, hiked up Fifi 3x to tag a line across by hand (no drones) and to rig an all natural anchor for a highline that Alonso Rodriguez sent, naming it "Flossing the Sky" just as Dano called the noise ropes made duri...
How strong are sail boat soft loops & snap shackles?
We tested a sail boat...or at least how you can connect to a sail boat. David Lienbenberg (https://www.instagram.com/jumbosailing/) and I tested 2mm, 3mm and 4mm soft pad eyes or soft loops installed in a small piece of fiberglass. Sk99 Max dyneema is 40% stronger than common sk75 which is better than the cheap sk60 dyneema: Get 5% off with discount code HOWNOT2 at https://www.caveexploration.org/gear?... 00:00 What is a soft loop 05:04 2mm Loop ...
NO CHARGE - Monday update
I've been quiet, that is a sign I'm extra busy. Secret project coming out this weekend! Drop tower drainage, rubber base and guy wires are finished. Just got to add lots of triangles for strength and boom, we start dropping things. Donations greatly appreciated. Bills are still coming in. https://www.hownot2.com/donate If you have a business, want to support us AND write off some advertising, I can send an invoice and W9 from our Californ...
Canyoning Guided Rappel - How much force does it create?
Is it safe to have 2 people on a guided rappel? How much force does it create? Brent Roth (https://www.facebook.com/WhitewaterPirate/) and Joe Cruikshank demonstrate a guided rappel and I read off the force from the LineScale 2. We now have the LineScale 3 and it records the data internally and is water proof. Check that out at https://linegrip.com/LS3At the top anchor, the peak force was 4.8kn when they were both on it and when repeated, the bot...
Bobby climbs at Cerro Gordo with Ghost Town Living
Brent from @Ghost Town Livinginvited Bobby out to help him establish some climbs on the Cerro Gordo ghost town that he bought. This video shows them scouting and establishing the first climbs on this giant limestone cliff on private property. See Ghost Town Living's video of this project at https://youtu.be/xYGXQbtrXBY?t=1
3 Ways to Build a Top Rope Climbing Anchor
Bobby shows his favorite ways to build a top rope anchor on 2 bolts. 4 things to consider: Is your anchor - Strong, Solid, Secure and Redundant. Also, try to make your anchor efficient and equalized, with an angle of less than 90 degrees. Here is a list of quality gear that you can trust that would work great, if used properly, for top roping: using these affiliate links helps support this channel.D shaped Carabiner for the bolt: https://backcoun...
4mm Soft Shackle Connections for Highlines?!?!?! Full Highline Tutorial
➜➜This was the first time I used DOUBLE WRAPPED 4mm soft shackles double wrapped as connections for my segmented highlines. We show you how to make them, how we install them and the entire rigging process start to finish. A must watch for anyone rigging highlines at any lengths. Thank you Steve and Cheryll Glotfelty (https://www.instagram.com/nvslacker/) for a great trip and Henry Adams (https://www.instagram.com/henrytheone1/) and Jewels (ht...
NO CHARGE! How much FORCE does bounce testing AID CLIMBING gear generate? Monday Update Episode!
➜➜Drainage is done for the drop tower, I just have to put down the rubber mulch when things dry out. Update as of the next morning after filming... its draining quickly! So that's great!➜➜My cell phone caused the noise on the LoadStar load cell that I have. In airplane mode it works great! These are the load cells you want if you want to break things. https://www.loadstarsensors.com/➜➜Investor units are coming out very very soon o...
Making and Breaking Amsteel / Dyneema Loops
David Lienbenberg (@jumbosailing) does professional #sailing and shows us how to make an Amsteel loop with a chafe cover. He does three wraps with 1/8" Amsteel and we break it afterwards with surprising results. Eye to eye, 1/8" Amsteel breaks at 12.4kN or 2,787LBF so a triple wrapped loop should be 6x stronger in theory or 74.4kN or 16,725LBF minus some for "nothing works perfect". Because we pulled it "fast", then it bro...
How NOT 2 Rig a California Record Highline - 861 meters / Half Mile
This is the story of how the 861m (1/2 mile) long highline rigged earlier this year at Taft point in Yosemite. This gap was eyeballed by many over the years. It was thought to be impossible to tag a line across the chasms and around the large trees between side A and side B. After 5 days of hand tagging (no drones) by 14 people, we rigged the new California record highline in an absolutely beautiful location. ➜➜➜PUBLICITY ►Outdoor Retaile...
Breaking Flaky Carabiners that have been in a cave only 10 years!
Hunter Campbell (https://www.instagram.com/camp_316/) sent me a bunch of corroded carabiners, quickdraws and hangers from a cave that he and Kyle (thumbnail), Aaron Moses, Amy Skrowronski, and Dave Smallwood projected. After only 10 years in a cave, the carabiners look like croissants, the hangers are groovy and the dogbones look ok but broke way lower from the liquid sandpaper (silica in mud). ⭆⭆⭆5% off at https://www.caveexploration.org/g...
Canyon Gear for Wet Canyons
Brent Roth shows us what gear you need to go down (WET) canyons. ►https://www.canyoneeringusa.com/►https://www.canyonzone.com/ (Netherlands, not New Zealand) ►https://www.onropecanyoneering.com/►https://www.bg-gear.com/store/►https://www.glacierblackgear.com/No affiliate links or sponsors for this video, donations is what keeps us floating and 100% of DONATIONS goes back into the channel. All of our stuff is free. https://www.HowNOT2.co...
How NOT 2 Multipitch Climb with Doug Robinson
I got to climb with Doug Robinson! Super fun! Bobby and Mike climb next to us and we all give tips about multipitch climbing as we go up. This is not comprehensive and we will use microphones in the future, but it was fun and we wanted to share it. ➜➜➜Episodes we referred to: ►How NOT to Trad video: https://youtu.be/Eligyiyb17g►Doug Robinson Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45OXWG3kzQ➜➜➜Our Stuff! It’s free! ►Bolting...
How Not 2 Canyon
Brent Roth (https://www.facebook.com/WhitewaterPirate/), Joe Cruikshank, Logan DeGrand, and Dave Hawkins introduced me to canyons. We did a 20 minute hike down hill in 4 hours, it felt like climbing but only went down, and it was similar to caving but I didn't have a headlamp. Put in the comments what you want to see tested in this sport! I spent hours adjusting the audio... I'm all ears for water proof mics if you have suggestions. 00:00...
It's almost done! Updates... NO CHARGE
I'm getting two of these! https://www.perfectdescent.com/My work flow https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UwtlaEBm75XU_xJzMuMJqSPhHNkNsX71-13yf1d7kMs/edit?usp=sharing https://www.loadstarsensors.com/ Thank you Larry Kost for helping us make this amazing drop tower! Thank you Steve Glotfelty from Scorpion Acres for makings so much cool stuff for us!Get 5% off almost everything found at https://www.caveexploration.org/gear https://www.hownot2.c...
Special live video for HowNOT2 patrons
The 4 of us are going live tomorrow (sunday Oct 3) at 21:30 CET / 12:30 PST and only our supporters are invited to join us live. Come chat while we talk as we want to interact with you during our zoom chat, and yes, the audio will be way way better than last time!No charge for this of course. I appreciate you guys!
Sailing Soft Shackles - Diamond Knot vs Button Knot
David Lienbenberg does professional #sailing and brought his #diamondknot #softshackles for us to break test. Then we compared them to the #buttonknot that has more strength because it makes the diameter bigger for the noose. The button knot was getting 25% to 30% more strength than the diamond knot. 2mm and 1/8" (3.2mm) were tested in this video. Soft shackle playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3L-S4Bd4KCZFCc-fuCgCRRs_f1HzJ2AOur B...
How NOT 2 Skydive - Soft link break tests!
Eric Johnson brought SQRL soft links to the lab to break test. They are a small piece of spectra that connects the skydiver to the parachute or more specifically the container to the canopy. There are 4 of them, but they are the only thing attaching you and they are tiny. Thank you Eric for not only doing this test with me but coming up with our new slogan "Breaking Gear Fear". Our Results: Used correct: 10.9kn or 2,450lbf Installed wrong...
NO CHARGE - Another Collab
No charge for this podcast style collaboration. This is intentional as they are growing rapidly and I wanted to build a repport early on. So far it has been a very productive thing.... our next one will be live and be THE LIVE VERSION WILL BE FOR SUPPORTERS ONLY SO I'LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN WE SCHEDULE THAT SO YOU CAN JOIN IF YOU'D LIKE AND COMMENT ALONG AS WE GO.Your favorite 4 climbing youtube channels all talk shop for the first time. It ...
Doug Robinson - Father of clean climbing gives away the dirty secrets
See part 1 of this interview at https://youtu.be/b45OXWG3kzQDoug Robinson is one of the coolest guys we know. A contemporary of Yosemite climbing greats like Tom Frost and Yvon Chouinard, Doug has witnessed and been part of the growth and innovation in climbing over the last 60+ years and he was kind enough to share his stories with us. In this interview Doug talks about how clean climbing was born. Pitons smashed into the rocks leave scares, and...
Doug Robinson shows us How NOT 2 rappel
You join us as we rappel/abseil 400 ft. Doug Robinson joins Mike Rogers, Bobby Hutton and myself as we bring we show you some of the systems we regularly use descending cliffs. Rappelling is dangerous! Accidents while rappelling kill climbers regularly. Pay attention, Check your systems, communicate and always consider tying stopper knots. We recommend learning and practicing these techniques with a guide or experienced climber. Consequences are ...
NO CHARGE UPDATE - 5 Year anniversary
Today, the day I publish this, is 5 years from when I published my first video. I said I was only going to do this for 5 years and here we are. I'm done with How NOT to Highline as there are too many people in other sports where they depend their life on their gear, who want to understand their gear better. https://www.HowNOT2.com is officially our primary domain name now, the bolting bible is not going to be highline centric, the channel nam...
Doug Robinson - OG Yosemite Climber talks history
Doug Robinson is one of the coolest guys we know. A contemporary of Yosemite climbing greats like Tom Frost and Yvon Chouinard, Doug has witnessed and been part of the growth and innovation in climbing over the last 60+ years and he was kind enough to share his stories with us. In this interview Doug talks about climbing history, techniques and practices of the first half of the 20th century. Pitons, hemp ropes, hip belays, bowlines and "lead...
Would you Trust the Beal Escaper for Rappelling?
You asked, we finally did it. Bobby Hutton, Michael Rogers @wolf_in_the_weeds, and I unbox and do human testing by rappelling and seeing if it works (spoiler: it does) and how many times you have to pull it to get it to release. THEN we slow pull test it in our HowNOT2 Lab and it broke at 22.7kn which is impressive, not only for a rope product with a MBS of 18kn but the fact it didn’t slip. Thank you Doug Robinson for helping us with an enterta...
NO CHARGE - Hard is Easy, Beta Climbers, Bliss Climbing and HowNOT2 all hang out for the first time!
Hey Patrons,This one is 50/50 in my mind for a chargeable episode. I typically only like to click the "charge patrons for this post" button on break tests or episodes in which you learn things. This is like a monday episode which I DON'T charge for but on steroids. This video took approximately 20+ hours to make with the coordinating, meeting and editing and turned out way better than I was even hoping for. Future videos like this wil...
Are Sharpies on Climbing Ropes Safe? Break tests with Sharpie Permanent Markers vs Beal Rope Marker
I think... is the answer. After two break tests and surviving after doing it for 15 years, I think sharpie permanent markers are safe-ish. HOWEVER, after hanging out with Brent Roth who is helping us launch our HowNOT2 Canyon series, I'm a believer in the Beal rope marker found at https://amzn.to/3yUZUhy. He gives a firehose of useful information in rope care and marking your ropes. This is one of our best episodes! ➜➜➜Our Stuff! It’s...
Mansplaining Safety to Olympic Sport Climbing Barbie
We bought Olympic Sport Climbing Barbie, harnessed her up and put her to the test. And just to make sure she didn't know something I didn't, I tried her beta myself. The we broke test the ATC wire (which is all she is attached to) and it broke at 6.45kn and then the non-shutting carabiners broke at 8.4kn. Please don't die because you tried the stuff you saw in this video, we are only trying to make you laugh in case you can't tell...
Here is the link for our live video at 10AM PST today
https://youtu.be/ZkCxsL2wgfw
Ask us anything 10AM (PST) live today!
Bobby and I are going to chat with everyone live today on youtube. You'll find it at www.youtube.com/howNOTtoHighline



























