Category: Cultural critique
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A Question of Scale
Paige emailed me today asking about the progress of the Alaska move. The real and only answer is that I’ve been thinking about it, a lot. She did attach her and Luc’s argument in the affirmative. (I heart Ronald Jenkees.) That argument, in more prosaic terms, is that Alaska has big wilderness of a kind…
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Go get it
Tom catching Bill on film, last September. We’re entering the golden period of the year, when days still stretch long enough for leisure and contemplation but the light in low and close enough to winter to provide good contrast. Food for both photography and recollection. I had cause to search through the autumnal blog archives…
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Give me back my park
September was welcomed in our part of the world, as it should be, by a high dusting of snow overnight and scudding and variable clouds in the mountains. M and I ignored our messier than usual house and other urgent things (packing for a packraft down the Middle Fork this weekend, with out of town…
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The Future of Youtube
Not Youtube generally, but the corner of it in which I am most interested: first-person-made outdoor adventure videos. They’ve revolutionized the outdoor industry. Before, video of any quality at all required big gear, and this big teams and big money. Now the best adventure video is increasingly on the leading edge of credibility (see the…
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Quiet secrets
Pre-park artifact in Glacier NP. I was all set to go down the South Fork of the Flathead this (for me 3-day) weekend. Hiking, boating, fly fishing, and in sharp contrast to last year, warm weather. Work got done last week, we bought a second car Thursday, and Friday afternoon I ran around, bought food,…
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2011 Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic race report
“The will to power would rather will nothingness than not will.” -Nietzsche Paige Brady, and Luc Mehl the zombie. The difficulty I’m having beginning this report well reflects the race itself; the stakes I set myself for both are very high. While in Alaska a few people asked me, both before and after, where I…
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Problems of Authenticity
“Write drunk; edit sober.” -Hemingway Problems of authenticity have been much on my mind lately. Part of what I assume Hendrik was writing about when he discussed some folks’ “limited mental freedom” is the lack of contextualizing research providing knowledge of the larger context. Silly word though it has become, epic must be defined two…
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Backing down
Otherwise known as bailing. A very important thing that doesn’t get spoken about nearly enough, especially in the outdoor adventure world. Two interesting examples on my radar lately: With the later it’s nice to see the slick, increasingly influential Camp4 boys speaking honestly in a way that goes a fair bit beyond media relations.…
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Revisiting the shadow
Lake McDonald. Apologies for the dramatic title; and while shadows (for once present, as this weekend is not overcast and rainy) played a prominent role in this latest trip, I am primarily speaking about that concept of the shadow found in one of my favorite poems. It took far too long, and far too much…
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A few little things
Rare orchids in GNP this past Sunday. Photo, and plant sleuthing, by M. I just finished another really good hill interval workout, and am drinking a Mighty Arrow while waiting for chicken to cook (seared, then baked in BBQ sauce, hot sauce, and root beer). My resting pulse right now, and the way my legs…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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