the paracord abides

Before I left for ELP I bought a highly rated shaving bag off Amazon. It seemed fine until I used it the first time showering at planet fitness. The hanging loop was on the wrong end. If it was hanging and you unzipped it to get something there was an avalanche onto the floor. Grrr..

I put up with that for three days then cut off the original tag. I found the thickest layers of canvas on the correct side and reamed holes with the awl on the SAK. Ran a loop of paracord through the holes; problem solved:

I also bought ski poles at a thrift store ($5 for the pair) to use as trekking (hiking) poles and also as awning support poles. The trails out here can be treacherously narrow, steep, and/or off camber.

A walking stick was important equipment on many I’ve been on and I found myself wishing for two. Sometimes the ability to put a few pounds pressure both here and there can reduce risk (and terror). Particularly valuable when soloing.

Another issue was my stick didn’t have a lanyard yet. This caused a problem in very steep sections where hands were required if one wanted to keep all body parts in their present configuration.

I was going to add a lanyard to make dragging the stick easier but diverted my attention to the poles. They came with terrible, stiff, ugly, undersized lanyards. I unscrewed the handgrips, removed the leather ones and replaced with paracord:

The poles have carbide tips on them but I’ll try to find rubber boots for them. I cut off the snow “baskets” at the tip end, deeming them both unnecessary and unwieldy.