Month: November 2012
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All the hats again
It is that time again, when clothing choices are not mere subjects of fancy and fashion but tangible margins of safety. While the exact percentage is up for debate, thermoregulation on and of the head remains the easiest way to get a leg up here. Last winter I wrote about hats, and this summer wrote…
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Gratitude is no accident
Last week, going through the drive-through of my usual coffee shop, I noticed that they were opening at midnight for black Friday. I was dismayed. Thanksgiving might be the best American holiday on a conceptual basis, but in execution it is riven through with that which makes our culture sick. Commercialism, meat-head athletics, and hurry:…
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Fat bike summit
The 2nd (1st open to the public) Fat Bike Summit is happening this coming January down near Yellowstone. You can look at the schedule, and all the other beta, here. I’m on the fence about attending, mainly because I have mixed feelings about riding on snowmachine trails around here. Without fail the sled guys were…
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TrailGroove Magazine
TrailGroove is a new (beginning of this year) magazine devoted to backpacking and wilderness travel. They do high quality writing and photography on a variety of subjects, available for free viewing in an e-mag format. I wrote a piece on off trail hiking, both in Glacier and generally, for their latest issue. You can read…
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Forests of my Youth
Living where I do know, it is all too easy to become a terrain snob; contemptuous of the world’s more subtle forests and forgetful of how when walking outside wonder and interest is defined internally. In my youth it was very much the opposite. Growing up in Ohio I had to be the manufacturer of…
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Quantifying skis, and repairing the Trak Bushwacker
Counting ounces is an easy place to loose perspective, and comparing ski weights are a great example of this. All the common areas of ambiguity loom especially large here, namely that claimed dimensions are often wrong, and that relevant performance rubrics like flex cannot be quantified. For a recent article I wrote for BackpackingLight (on…
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One year later (backpacks for the woods, part 5)
One year ago I wrote a series of posts on packs for wilderness adventure. I discussed how packs work, why we owned the packs we did at the time, and details of several of my own packs. True to form, none of those larger packs are still in our possession. This post will discuss why.…
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Banff 2012: the death of the spectacular
I have in my possession an unpublished essay by Arne Naess entitled “The Spectacular- An Enemy?” According to Bill Devall, he wrote it in the mid-80s after visiting Canyonlands National Park for the first time. At the moment that binder is buried in a box under boxes down in the garage, so I cannot quote…
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Wood stove acalculia
Some numbers to consider: -fully tricked Megalight (linelocs, center guy points each with 12′ of line, stove boot): 29 oz -homemade wood stove (Walmart can): 16 oz -5 foot long, 3 inch diameter stainless stove pipe, with spark screen, end ring, and three cable rings: 15 oz Installing the stove boot is easy. I bought…
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Skis by numbers
Chart by Measured Mass. If you’re a backcountry skier, gear dork, or just like looking at numbers aggregated well, you must go read the above post. As in, now. And the rest of the blog is quite interesting, too.
Bedrock & Paradox 
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