Month: May 2015
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Bob Open gear talk
For the most part, the gear I used to cross the Bob this year worked well. This is the sixth trip in as many years I’ve done through similar terrain around this time of year, so if I haven’t yet found a good system yet I’m just not paying attention. The same basic complement of…
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My 2015 Bob Open
Preparation comes before success, and a few weeks before the Bob Open I knew that I wouldn’t have the legs to really push things. I’ve had other priorities this spring, and like everywhere else there are no honest shortcuts in the wilderness. Last year complications put me behind schedule and strongly suggested an early exit,…
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Packing for the 2015 Bob Open
The weather forecast is good, even a little excessively warm. The rivers aren’t high. The snow will be minimal. Attendance at the start promises to be the highest ever, possibly by a lot. The Bob Open should be a good time. I’m taking a more relaxed approach this year, with a bit of extra time…
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My rifle, the Kimber Montana
Back on my first real elk hunt in Montana Dick and I got to talking about a lighter rifle for the backcountry. Many ideas were thrown around, but after some consideration it was decided that a new Kimber Montana in .308 would be the best, most versatile option. Shortly after he headed back to Ohio…
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Dean Potter
It is probable that you know about Dean Potter’s death this past weekend; flying into a cliff while wingsuit flying in Yosemite. Like most attentive climbers in the 90s, I first heard the name Dean Potter in a tiny Wild Things ad in either Climbing or Rock and Ice, showing the above photo (or one…
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Trophy Country: the Thesis
“For all the grace and delight of hunting are rooted in this fact: that man, projected by his inevitable progress away from his ancestral proximity to animals, vegetable, and minerals -in sum, to nature- takes pleasure in the artificial return to it, the only occupation that permits him something like a vacation from the his…
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Those inscrutable bears
Griz postholing, Bob Marshall complex. A few weeks ago on Philip’s blog a comment-er admonished Mr. Werner for leaving food in his car while it was parked in the mountains of New England, contending that by doing so he was tempting the area black bears into becoming habituated to breaking into cars for food. I…
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7 months
The kid is due in just a little over two months, which means that life is already unalterably different, and that the rules of engagement have already changed. As a matter of course M is now carrying around the equivalent of the heavist pack she’s ever had on a trip (which is not necessarily saying…
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Interval training for hiking and backpacking
When preparing for something like the Bob Open, I know for experience that two things will slow me down: my aerobic limits and sore feet. This is in contrast to most folks, for whom muscular fatigue or connective tissue issues almost always form their distance and duration ceiling while backpacking. I have enough base fitness…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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