Category: Cultural critique
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2013 big game season in review
Big game season is over for 2013. The final tally: 1 deer, 1 turkey, a bunch of smaller stuff, and many good days in the field. For Thanksgiving, and a last attempt on elk, M and I headed east for the plains along the foot of the Bob Marshall. Well into the first day out…
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Valhalla: the continued immolation of the spectacular
Ski movies are killing ski movies. Ski movies are killing skiing, and perhaps outdoor recreation writ large. Valhalla, from Sweetgrass Productions, is a leading example. We saw it last night. I wrote last year about the spectacular being commodified and its impact lessened by cliched use in outdoor films. Nowhere is that more true than…
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There is something about the desert
Examining my photos brings contempt. Clear dawn air shining through snow-dusted larches has been this past week filtered through a shadow of indifference. I keep looking back, in books, old things I wrote long ago, most of all in memory. I want to find it. Whatever it is. Abbey was right. There is something about…
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Hiking with Ropes
M photo. First: hiking with ropes in Colorado Plateau canyons is probably the most satisfying thing you can do outside. The best parts of hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, and aid climbing are combined in an activity that’s hard enough to not just be fun, varied enough to not be monotonous, and technical enough to be…
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10 years ago
..we went to Vegas and got married. It hasn’t always been easy, but in the last week down here in Utah we’ve had lots of enjoyable hours to think about how good every year has been. When I think about having become an adult over that same time period, coming to terms with constrained choices…
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Deciding the future
Later today M and I leave south. We’ll be spending two full weeks in southern Utah. While there we want to pick where we’ll spend the next three or so decades. Some, or many, of you may not know that we got married and lived in the Colorado Plateau. Before she started hanging out with…
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Quit being comfortable
It has been noteworthy, and not just I think because I’ve been paying attention, how often comfort has been mentioned recently as a selling point for “ultralight” backpacking. For example, from the recent revival of Sierra Designs as a (hopefully) relevant brand; “…the Flashlight is the ultimate backpacking tent for those who believe that comfort…
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Shut Down
I had to see for myself. Sadly, they were not joking around. I understand that with poaching and other shenanigans this is probably necessary, but it is nonetheless sad that one of the “essential functions” is keeping LE rangers on the job to keep people out. It’s easy for most Americans to go about their…
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Perfection is a shotgun
Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher. I would submit that few of us have a coherent idea of what de Saint Exupery meant when he wrote that. The rear foot of a squirrel, for example, performs…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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