And while I was burnt out chasing newsy type articles, I have a considerable backlog of article ideas that I’d still like to get out into the world.

The popularity of @climbing Twitter account where I curate climbing links, despite not publishing posts to All Climbing for a while, finally inspired me to update this site.

So all that said, I decided to do a reboot of All Climbing (still in-process of course) and wanted to discuss the various aspects covering the why, how, and what of this process. Much of what I’ve had to do to get it back in form, will be useful to others regardless of the site you may be building.

Fixing the site

Unfortunately, there were a bunch of issues to clean up on the site. From tons of comment spam to an old version of WordPress, there were issues everywhere.

During the time I was not actively working on the site (roughly 2014), over 30,000 comments and trackbacks were posted. Sadly it’s incredibly difficult to clean up these comments using the WordPress dashboard. So I had to do this manually using SQL queries on the database. It helps that I have a technical background or this would have been an even bigger problem!

This took many hours, but I eventually found a semi-reliable pattern I could use to remove thousands of comments at a time. Most of the spam came through during specific time windows, so sorting the comments by date and time, I was able to quickly remove them.

To prevent this from happening in the future, I’m going to turn off comments on a given post after sixty days. This is just my first choice to solve the problem as there are many posts on this site that have an incredible thread of comments. For example, these posts were highly discussed: Aron Ralston update, Partial Rupture to A2 Tendon Pulley, and Review: Vibram Five Fingers Shoes.

But this is the only trade-off I can make at this point to minimize future spam issues and the massive amount of work involved to clean them up. I’ve used Disqus on and off over the years, and I feel like it’s never really helped this issue. If anyone has any suggestions though, I’m open to better solutions than completely turning off comments after a specific time period.

Finally, I also took the opportunity to improve the permalink structure and added SSL to the site.

What’s planned

As for what’s coming and what I have tentatively planned, it breaks down into four areas:

1. Twitter — First, I’ll keep curating links on Twitter. This is the everything bucket, with a much higher dose of news than on the blog. Basically, if I find it interesting and it’s related to climbing or the outdoors, I’ll be sharing it. To date, the average is less than one Tweet per day.
2. Articles — I plan to have regular articles, though I’m not sure on the frequency. Likely no more than a post per week and way less news-focused that it used to be on the site.
3. Videos — I love watching climbing videos, and I know you do as well. I plan to highlight a video on a weekly basis, assuming there’s something I find super interesting. This is highly curated and the best of what I consume.
4. Email newsletter — Finally, I’m starting an email newsletter called the Climbing Digest. This email will essentially be curated from everything I post on the blog and Twitter, with some extras included. So if you follow on Twitter and read the site, you’ll still get value from the email newsletter.

The big picture here though is that I’m never going to post for the sake of posting on a regular basis, which is a trap I most definitely fell into back in the old days.

Over the years, my passion for climbing has never faded, but I’ve found my related interests have grown to include more mountaineering, skiing, trail running, and even mountain biking. Anything that involves playing in the mountains is fair game to write about at this point. Hence the new tagline: “Everything climbing, mountains, and the outdoors.”

I’m happy to be back and hope you’ll join me for the ride.

The post Site reboot for All Climbing first appeared on All Climbing.

Kids who are physically active tend to have better grades, school attendance, memory, concentration, and behavior. As an active family who likes to hike, rock climb, and ski, I want to instill in my kids the desire to stay fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Packing protein bars for our adventures ensures we have a nutritious snack to keep our energy levels up while enjoying outdoor activities together. Also, the more technologically advanced kids become nowadays, the higher the chance they’ll succeed in the future. There’s no better way to accomplish this than incorporating the use of technology into their daily lives.

To encourage this, I decided to get fitness trackers for our daughters who are six and nine years old. The primary functions in fitness trackers I was looking for were pretty basic: waterproof, displays the date and time, step tracking, and relatively long battery life.

I’ve found that these devices are useful even for young children. My 5-year-old can benefit from a fitness tracker by being aware of the current month, day, and time. She can answer many questions on her own now — How much longer until lunchtime? Is it almost time to go home? With the addition of timers, kids also get a better feel for time and actually how long is five, ten, fifteen, etc. minutes. Time is one of those concepts that is difficult to explain and needs personal experience on a repetitive basis to truly understand.

With the ability to set personal timers, children can also learn time management. Kids can tell what time of the day it is and choose when to start their thirty minutes of daily reading as an example.

Kids are also intrigued by tracking their physical activities, like hiking, walking, or running, and comparing step counts. It’s a fun way for the family to engage in friendly competition, encouraging each other to reach our individual fitness goals. If you’re looking for additional resources or tips on family fitness, websites like Americansportandfitness.com can provide valuable insights.

All that said, below are some of the best fitness trackers for kids that made my list.

Garmin Vivofit Jr

The popular Garmin Vivofit Jr is first on the list. With a battery life of 1+ year, it’s one less thing for kids (and me!) to worry about. After all, frequent battery charging is a hassle. Combined with the waterproof feature, the Garmin Vivofit Jr eliminates the need for kids to remove (and possibly lose) their fitness trackers.

The device capabilities are intuitive to use. There is only one button on the device that lets them cycle through the functions and make selections. They can easily see the month, date and time, the number of steps they have so far, and how close they are to their daily activity goal. As a side note, the United States Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day.

The stretchy band is pretty small though. It fit my 5-year-old, but not my 8-year-old. Fortunately, that’s not much of an issue since there are replacement bands for purchase.

The Garmin Vivofit Jr currently runs about $50 at Amazon.

Garmin Vivofit Jr 2

Interestingly, I found the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 for only about $10 – $20 more! Version 2 has the same functions as version 1 (see above) but with some significant improvements. The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 is intended for ages 4+. Version 2 has a colorful screen sized at 11 x 11 mm. In my opinion, the screen makes a big difference to children especially since they are used to colorful screens elsewhere, such as TVs, iPads, etc.

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 also comes with a lot more designs to choose from both in stretchy bands and adjustable bands. Kids can also set up to two timers. Due to this, I purchased the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 for each of my daughters.

Setup was a breeze. I merely had to download the free Garmin Vivofit Jr app onto my phone, and then create an account to pair the fitness trackers to my phone. One account can have multiple profiles. So at a glance, I can view details for both of my daughters.

After three months of daily use, I did have to change the battery for one of the fitness trackers. Fortunately, it was an easy process. I did have an issue syncing the time though, which was two minutes behind. Garmin customer support was GREAT and immediately walked me through the steps on how to resolve the issue.

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 currently runs about $60 at Amazon.

A few months later, my oldest daughter lost her fitness tracker. I’m pretty sure it’s still at home, but we were unable to locate it after a week of searching. Which means I was in the market again to research and purchase another fitness tracker. This time I wanted a fitness tracker with the weather function. Living in Colorado, the weather changes constantly and she’s always asking for the weather forecast when picking out her school clothes.

In short, I wanted all the functions of the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 plus weather updates. With the additional weather feature, it felt like I was stepping into the realm of adult fitness trackers or smartwatches. However, before fully committing to a new device, I also considered watch service, just in case maintenance or repairs were needed down the line.

Here’s what I found.

Garmin Vivofit 4

The Garmin Vivofit 4 seems to be an adult version of the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2. It has the weather function plus all the benefits of the Vivofit Jr 2.

The Garmin Vivofit 4 currently runs about $60 at Amazon.

Garmin Vivosmart 3

The Garmin Vivosmart 3 has a larger screen compared to the Vivofit Jr and the Vivofit 4. The device is waterproof which is a requirement in my opinion. It also has the weather function, my key requirement. This fitness tracker does not have GPS though and is, therefore, a satellite device to a smartphone. To update the weather, the fitness tracker needs to be near the phone where the app is installed.

The Vivosmart 3 has some interesting, advanced functions. It can monitor heart rate 24/7, as well as the number of calories burned. This Garmin device also includes their Smart Notifications function where the user can view emails and text messages right from their wrist. As you can see, this fitness tracker is more intended for adults.

Battery life is only up to five days. On the plus side, it has a small and thin profile. The band is not changeable though, so if the band breaks, it’s a significant issue.

The Garmin Vivosmart 3 currently runs about $73 at Amazon.

Fitbit Ace

The Fitbit Ace is intended for kids ages 8+. It doesn’t have the weather function. A huge negative is it is “showerproof – survives splashes and spills”. Which means to me it is not swim friendly or waterproof. Taking long showers or baths might be an issue. I’m a proponent of wearing fitness trackers 24/7. Especially for kids, having to take their fitness trackers off increases the risk of losing it.

Since this fitness tracker doesn’t have the weather function and not waterproof, the Fitbit Ace was not an option for us.

The Fitbit Ace currently runs about $99 at Amazon.

Apple Watch Series 3 (38mm)

Both my husband and I owned Apple watches. Before that, I cannot remember the last time I wore a watch on my wrist. The design of the watch is compact and efficient. The functions are intuitive to use; I didn’t even need to read the manual that came with it. I quickly got used to wearing it 24/7. I was able to monitor my health better and getting hourly notices to breathe or stand up helps too.

The notion of getting an Apple Watch for my oldest daughter was especially enticing around the holidays when the prices dropped by $80. Why deal with all the possible issues that might occur with other fitness trackers when I know the Apple watch works so well? Aside from a fitness tracker, it’s also a smartwatch. In the end though, I couldn’t justify sending her off to school with such an expensive item.

The Apple Watch Series 3 currently runs about $280 at Amazon.

I ended up replacing the lost Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 with the Garmin Vivosmart 3 for my oldest daughter. The Garmin Vivosmart 3 fits our needs quite well. My daughter likes the weather function and finds the other advanced features interesting such as the ability to monitor her heart rate during different activities. The larger screen is also a bonus.

Parenting is a huge and complex responsibility. As parents, it’s our responsibility to do our best for them now and ensure they have a bright future. While this is a small action in the greater scheme of things, I’m glad we got fitness trackers for both our daughters. As a family, we like to see who has the most steps after a day trip, thereby encouraging each other to reach our daily fitness goals. And the ability for young kids to include technology into their daily lives is tremendous. Especially with this improved understanding of time, they can manage their daily activities better and plan for the days to come. If you have kids and haven’t considered getting them a fitness tracker, there’s never been a better time to start!

The post Best Fitness Trackers for Kids first appeared on All Climbing.

StatsMix took TechStars founders out for a day of climbing in Boulder Canyon recently. I spoke about the relationship between climbing and building a startup in the following video taken during the trip (starting at 3:27 in the video):

"Be Fearless. Today" The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 3 from Megan Sweeney on Vimeo.

If anyone is interested in trying out StatsMix, we’re currently in private beta so just leave your email on the StatsMix site and I’ll get you in as soon as possible.

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Kolin Powick from Black Diamond posted another excellent gear testing article, this time on the different methods of extending slings on cam placements. He illustrates the three common methods he uses (same as mine) and then examines a sling-on-sling approach he thought was dicey.

The sling-on-sling method of extending a cam sling does save the use of a biner but in my opinion is cumbersome for both the leader and the second. It also appears to reduce the ultimate strength of the system, however, in most cases not so much as to be the weakest link in a real-world climbing situation.

The post Extending Cam Slings first appeared on All Climbing.

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