Month: January 2018
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Packraft the Bob, this year
If you don’t live around here doing a packrafting trip in the Bob Marshall is a pain. Western isn’t close to very much, the regional airports tend to be expensive, there isn’t an easy way to get to the trailheads without a rental car, and even then the number of truly good loop routes is…
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Pack materials for 2018
This post and the follow-up a year later have remained among my most popular works, and with 2018 coming into focus they are at last worth updating. Not too much has changed in the world of backpack fabrics, but time has allowed for enough clarification that a few things are worth saying again. There are…
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Concerning pack weight
There remains some confusion about how to make a backpack lightweight, and yet still functional. The simplest and best way remains to raise your own bar; get better at packing, need fewer things, need lighter things, and so forth. But this can be a hard end to maintain, as I have recently been reminded, and…
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Renewing incompetence
Five or six years ago it really became clear that this whole backcountry thing was going to be my thing, one of those very few things in my life that I would be truly good at. Acute limits to my risk taking propensity and physiology had already limited how far I’d been able to progress…
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Black Diamond Mont Blanc gloves long term review
Much though I hate to admit it, you need gloves. I have good circulation and am well acquainted with just how cold I can get without it really being a problem, so I try to do without gloves as often as possible, but too often it is just too cold. Handwear comes with inherent dexterity…
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New old places
On the face it seemed like we struck out coming and going. When we flew out of Helena it was clear as only a bitterly cold night can be, and the clear view of lights snaking south and east through Townsend and White Sulphur Springs to peter out halfway to North Dakota left me thinking…
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What makes a hardshell
To begin; I like the term hardshell far more than rain jacket, as it more fully encompasses the utility and meaning in question. Outdoor clothing is, or should be, part of a system, one that provides just enough protection from ambient conditions to keep you as warm as you want to be. Some clothing items…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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