Category: Cultural critique
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Why I like the desert
Like most Americans, or indeed most contemporary humans, I spent a lot of time reading about the desert before I experienced it firsthand. I have some hazy memories of a family swing through the Colorado Plateau of Utah when I was eight, spotty visions I can now place as the chopped steps on the traverse…
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Opt Outside; #fuckyou
Just a friendly reminder this Thanksgiving day that while it’s great you spent yesterday in mass carbon mode to get somewhere nifty so you can do rad things today and #optoutside tomorrow, the world really isn’t so simple. It would be nice if hiking, camping, and even more complex things like backpacking and mountain biking…
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Luck doesn’t exist
M and I have lived in some damn nice places over the past 13 years, but in the six days since we and our massive accompaniment of boxes rolled into Colorado I’ve had many more than the usual number of pinch me, I can’t believe we’re here moments. There was walking the border of Colorado…
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Vote no on Montana ballot initiative 177
Four years ago, while volunteering for the park service, a friend and I had an encounter with the ugly side of trapping. We had forded a river in waders and were slogging up a dry side channel, to find a tree for stashing said waders and ideally enough snow to immediately click into skis. In…
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The worst things about Montana
Necessary companion to yesterday. Feel free to take offense. 1: The food I irritate friends and coworkers almost weekly on this subject, but the thing I lament most often about Montana is not being able to get a decent Avocado for less than $1.25 and being able to count the acceptable eating institutions in a…
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Cowboy Coffee redux
Two years ago I detailed my preferred method of making cowboy coffee in the field, and advocated for it as the all around best method. Plenty of articles about backcountry coffee have come out since, but there is still no new news here. Via is convenient (especially as it is quite palatable cold), but expensive…
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Ultralight backpacking for assholes
Four years ago I published one of my most read (non-gear) posts, equal parts misunderstood by others and a personal favorite. The most salient point, and one which readers found and still find hard to swallow, is that the content of small, banal activities has cultural import. My example back then was that backpacking dreams…
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Lifestyle bullshit: Yeti Rambler 18oz
Yeti, the reigning king of lifestyle, is a good place to begin. Like Starbucks and Red Bull, Yeti created a broad market where none existed before, for something almost no one knew they might want. Like Red Bull, but unlike Starbucks, Yeti has grown and sustained themselves with social media content that is both entertaining…
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Outdoors and Lifestyle
Apgar permit office, 10 minutes after opening, July. Visiting Outdoor Retailer a few weeks ago brought it home to me just how huge a percentage of the outdoor industry is given over to what I’d call lifestyle gear and pursuits. As a dedicated elitist asshole since my teenage years I find it hard to say…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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