Category: Backpacking
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A decade in steps
Each goal achieved is equally a dream destroyed. -Reinhold Messner What have I learned in ten years? To better confine the question I watched this for the first time in a while. I’ve been back to almost every foot of road and trail since, most many times. I’ve been back to the more enduring places…
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OR Ascendant Hoody; at last
Since the original Rab Strata I’ve been looking for an active insulation mid/outer layer that can do both with minimal compromises. That is: provide substantive static weight/warmth, as well as balance breathability and weather protection coherently. The Strata was more on the outer layer side of things, while somehow not providing as much static warmth…
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A decade in the outdoors
7 things that happened in the past decade; equipment, trends, and the ways the two intersect to create human experience. The Alpacka booty The technological advancement of the decade is, for outdoor adventure, without question the packraft. 10 years ago the state of the art was the above. Today, boat shapes make that level of…
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Top 5 backpacks of the past 10 years
The close of a decade approaches which, if you’re not stocking it with thinly context’d affiliate links, isn’t so bad an arbitrary cause to re-examine what has happened in the past 10 years. Lists focus the mind, and the fingers. The best of these use material goods as a vehicle to examine culture, and since…
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Forward the consumer
I have profoundly mixed memories of my first Outdoor Retailer. The barely 1 year old Little Bear had an ear infection come on while we were hiking in Glacier just before, was cranky on the drive down to SLC through the night, and the next night required a hasty visit to first urgent care and…
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Black Diamond Hilight snap judgment
15 years ago I bought the first generation of the Black Diamond Firstlight. It was a remarkable thing for the time, a silnylon floor and ripstop Epic fly which, with the simple design, added up to an almost unprecendentedly low total weight and small packed size. We used it a bunch for 7 years until…
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Evolution of the Tamarisk; prolegomena
It all started with this video, shot on location 9 years and 2 months ago up on Blue Mountain above Missoula, down on the middle Bitterroot, and most significantly, along the North Fork of the Flathead upstream of Kintla Creek. That trip, planned off the back of a job interview which changed my life, was…
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North Fork updates
The initial run of packraft straps has sold out! All orders yet to be shipped will be fulfilled and sent out today. I’ll be making more in early December; until then they’ll appear as out of stock in the store. The second run might even be a different color. Taking suggestions now. Not just for…
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The vexatious Airshed
Windshirts are complicated, because their job is a difficult one, and an important one. Patagonia’s Airshed, a pullover shirt made from the outer fabric of the Nano Air series, has been around for a few years. The lack of a hood, concerns over durability, and the expense put me off for a while, but Max’s…
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That time again
Yep. A few things worth noting for 2020: The Point Pleasant Campground is well named, but small and hard to find (closer to milepost 64 than 63). There is very little parking; I’m strongly encouraging folks to not plan on leaving cars there. There are also a handful of islands of private land in the…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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