Category: Hiking with ropes
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Introducing the Gossamer Gear Tamarisk
I’m pleased to make the world premier of the new Gossamer Gear Tamarisk pack here on Bedrock & Paradox. I’d like to thank Gossamer Gear for allowing me to do so, and for integrating my feedback into the design, which is a very new direction for them. Named after the tenacious, ubiquitous invasive plant found…
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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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Ziene
Zion. Western edge and crown jewel of the Colorado Plateau. Like Yosemite, but not made of inferior rock. Home to true Dark Service-style crowds and regulations, as well as the most beautiful canyons on earth. First lesson: there is no S, the great refuge is neither plural nor possessive. Second lesson: it is one syllable,…
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Shenanigans
The manifold and subtle canyons of the Roost are one essential Colorado Plateau experience. The super tight slots are another. Knowing we were two days into a two week trip, and not in what one would call canyon shape, we headed south from Hanksville to North Wash, and Shenanigans. The story of how the canyon…
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The South Fork of the Roost
When we lived in Utah the Robber’s Roost was one of my favorite places, and two weeks ago I was reminded that it remains so today. Driving out the sage flats as the sun sank behind the Henry Mountains I concentrated on missing rocks and not flatting our little car. Views as you traverse the…
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My thoughts on base layers for active adventure
I hesitated to write the footwear article I published last week, for reasons I’ve written about on several occasions, namely that I don’t want to feed the gear obsession that for many perniciously supplants actual experience. Yet the response I got to that article, for quarters expected and not, has been positive and profuse. So…
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Going big
The laptop is back, so beware; this will not be short. Just for today, I did some training on the Spruce Mountain road. 1.5k of climbing, in places quite steep. I still can’t get it all in one go. 38 minutes of pain. We’ve had isolated storms moving through all afternoon, and towards the top…
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