Category: Cultural critique
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Packrafting’s zeroth law
We didn’t make it to the Packrafting Roundup this year, something I’ve regretted ever since, but babies get sick a lot. Thankfully Moe Witschard took a video of Luc Mehl’s presentation of packrafting safety, so all of us who were not there can hear it. I could not agree with Luc more. Canyoneering is comparable…
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Concerning broification
Broification: a trend in outdoor adventure sports/activities, which results in an increase in the perceived average level of mastery within a given pursuit, thus dissuading novices from pursuing any nascent interest. If you don’t already read Hansi Johnson’s Universal Klister I’d suggest you start, as it’s one of the most authentic outdoor blogs around. Mr.…
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Glacier is deep
I’ve got an important history with this place, going back into my childhood, so it was a particular pleasure to see the most remote corner with someone who had only been around a time or two. The secret is that on the western edges Glacier starts at 3500′, and while the corridor of sub-alpine possibility…
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The worst best trail
No question, the Highline is the worst of the very best trails in Glacier. On the one hand it’s extraordinary scenic, cutting a bold traverse right along treeline through one of the steeper walls in the park. You almost always have complex, 5th class crags above you, and steep green slopes (and the road) below…
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Bear aware, maybe
Last week a Forest Service law enforcement officer, Flathead native, and longtime recreator in bear country was killed by a bear near West Glacier. According to rumor, and the local paper, the bear was probably a Grizzly, and the gentleman collided with the bear while going quite fast down a gentle, tightly forested descent on…
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wilderness in Wilderness
The Bob is awesome. Video by Michael Reavis. Anyone who’s been out in the woods a lot and has been paying attention should be aware of this problem; that even the quietest, most fleeting and “natural” of human travel in the wild has a significant impact on the plants and animals who live there full…
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4th class
The east exit chimney in Rock Canyon in not 4th class. I’m fairly Steve Allen first called it that, in Canyoneering 2, but Allen’s notorious, egregious overgrading can be justified as he was usually the first person publicizing these things. What is less easy to justify is the use of that rating in the Hayduke…
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The universal trophy mentality
Doug Peacock, inspiration for Hayduke and author of the excellent Grizzly Years, has continued to solidify his place as one of the most divisive and intellectually cheap writers on wilderness issues in the 21st century. First it was this article two years ago, conspicuously lacking in detail and conspicuously abundant in name-calling and deliberate mis-characterizations.…
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Thrice busted
It is a poorly understood aspect of Wilderness management that any commercial filming requires a permit, and that these permits are almost never granted. Therefore films like this one, and perhaps this one, however modest they may be in scope and limited in commercial ambition, are almost always illegally made. It’s a particular conflict between…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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