Category: Cultural critique
-
Slow is Fast: How I got fat in 2012
Back in June I discovered what the theme of 2012 would be, and wrote “The modern delusion, fostered by vehicular transport and synchronized schedules, that all hours and days are equal is easily done away with. That the particulars of our experience create experience itself, rather than daily routine being poured into minutes like water…
-
Ultralight is dead
“To me, whoever would go backpacking with a hundred pounds of lightweight equipment is missing some of these things and consequently a good deal of the primordial experience.” –Backpacker, 1974 There is a futility to contemporary ultralight backpacking which I’ve always found puzzling, as though I’m several steps off base during discussions and debates. I’ve…
-
Lance
This evening, while out for a stroll, two mountain bikers passed going the other way. Decked out in the obligatory Whitefish Hammer kits, they were of course talking about Lance. A cultural phenomenon which needs no last name. USADA’s Reasoned Decision (which is well written and rather interesting reading) has been met with awe and…
-
Money for something
Most readers will be familiar with the Andrew Badenoch/77Zero/Fatbikerafting the Arctic/Kickstarter debacle. For those who are not, the short version is as follows. In January Badenoch, with no endurance or wilderness palmares that I’ve been able to dig up, went live with a funding proposal for a scandalously ambitious loop trip from Seattle to the…
-
NRASW: the best 20 dollars I spent this year
Yesterday I attended the Northern Rockies Avalanche Safety Workshop; and was thoroughly impressed. Avalanches are unique in the world of objectives hazards. There are no books which use hundreds of pages to discuss rockfall. There are scientific conferences on Grizzly behavior, but none which are targeted for passionate lay hikers and focus on attack avoidance. …
-
Making television about television
The modern circus came to our new town yesterday evening, and we went to watch. There had been rumors for weeks, starting with a letter from the chamber of commerce asking downtown businesses to support closing main stream for the event, and culminating in confirmatory speculation on various gossip blogs earlier this week. The Bachelor…
-
Yellowstone NP winter use plan, Comment
Yellowstone National Park is in the final public comment period for their new(est) winter use plan. Given how long this process has taken, and the good chance of it being controversial, comment now. Whichever plan is settled upon is likely to be in effect for a while. You may comment (easily) and read the very…
-
The 6-year sock roundup
An inevitable part of moving, beyond surliness and interrupted internet access (and thus blog posts) is a reexamination of all your possessions. Or perhaps it is really a first examination, carrying something up the steps in a shopping bag does not rate for introspection compared to carrying everything in an endless train of boxes. The…
-
Third annual Kishenehn autumnal equinox
“I’m a sucker for knock-you-upside-the-head grandeur as much as the next guy, but over the years I’ve learned to prefer slightly less spectacular places with wilder character, where the animals don’t come for handouts, they come for prey. That’s Kishenehn.” –Aaron Teasdale “While every day in the teeming lands around Kishenehn carries the unpredictable, kinetic…
-
The Shallow Abyss
The progression of adventure films generally, and for today of climbing films in particular, has nothing to do with harder, faster, or higher. It has to do with saying things, with better bringing into focus the import such pursuits have on our lives, and by extension, the world at large. This being the case, Abyss…
Bedrock & Paradox 
You must be logged in to post a comment.