Category Archives: Gear Reviews

Every climber worth their chalk knows you can never have enough gear! Pros and cons of gear I’ve used, loved, and hated!

Bitybean: A Bit of Babywearing Heaven!

Sep 17 2014

It’s no secret that our family is into babywearing in a big way. While I’d like to picture us as a peaceful, attached family that wears our babies purely for the many physical and emotional benefits it brings to our young, the truth is that most of the time we do it for convenience sake. (That and because a sleeping baby on your chest is one of the best feelings in the entire world…) That may explain why we have 5 times as many babywearing apparatuses as we do children. Or it could be because the Cragdaddy and I are…Read the rest of this entry →

Gear Review: Powerfingers!

Sep 09 2014

If you’ve read this blog with any amount of regularity, you’re probably aware that our household is way into “pre-hab.” I firmly believe it’s important for climbers of all ages and skill levels, whether you are projecting 5.14’s or struggling your way up 5.8’s on toprope. A big part of prehab is training the muscles that do the OPPOSITE movement than the muscles you use while climbing. When you climb, you pull, pull, pull. So to keep your body in balance, it’s important to do some exercises that push – push-ups, presses, etc. (For a whole post dedicated to antagonist muscle training, click here.)…Read the rest of this entry →

Tips for Breastfeeding on Outdoor Adventures

Aug 04 2014

Anyone who has done it for any length of time knows that breastfeeding is NOT always the comfortable, natural, and peaceful activity that parenting magazines make it out to be. It can be awkward, exhausting, uncomfortable, even downright painful at times…and this is especially true when a nursing pair takes to the Great Outdoors! With my first son, figuring out the logistics for nursing on days where I camped/climbed/hiked/swam/etc was pretty tricky. There was definitely a learning curve. Thankfully I’ve been able to glean from those prior experiences these past 5 months with my daughter (and trust me, the second…Read the rest of this entry →

Gear Review: Yahoo for Weehoo!

Jul 10 2014

“Weeeeee-hooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” was the uninhibited chant I repeatedly heard from behind me on the 3 mile section of road between our house and Trader Joe’s. It was our first excursion on our brand new Weehoo, an innovative new bike trailer design from a small company out of Golden, CO. Let me back up. A couple of months ago, Women’s Adventure Magazine asked if our family would be interested in reviewing this product for them. To be honest, while I thought the idea was super cool, I was a little unsure of how my 4 year old son would react to the…Read the rest of this entry →

The Best Vehicles for Adventure!

Jul 01 2014

As much as I despise car shopping, I’ll be the first to admit that the right vehicle can make road trips a dream, whereas the wrong one can turn it into a nightmare. We learned this lesson firsthand a couple of months ago on a family camping/climbing adventure to Grayson Highlands State Park, VA. Our previous adventure-mobile (which I LOVED prior to Baby Z’s arrival) was suddenly glaringly inadequate with the addition of a newborn. Luckily, we were expecting this to happen, and we’d already done a bunch of research on what would be best for our newly expanded family (spoiler…Read the rest of this entry →

“Not all who wander are lost.” —JRR TOLKIEN