Category: Packrafting
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MTI Vibe v. Astral V-8: packrafting PFDs
The Astral V-8 and the MTI Vibe are PFDs you’d use for similar things, and have similar attributes with only a few distinct yet significant differences. They are both class III vests with 15 pounds of buoyancy, both weigh about the same (20 oz for the V-8, 24 oz for the Vibe), and both cost…
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The ugliness of family packrafting
One of the relatively few regrets I harbor when it comes to trips not done concerns the summer of 2014 and the Smith River. 2014 wasn’t the biggest snow year Montana has seen, not by a long shot, but the spring was cool and exceptionally wet and the water table kept getting pumped full all…
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The enchanting wind
One thing I only touched upon a few months ago, during our final search for a new and hopefully permanent home, was weather and climate. At the time the human components loomed larger, prioritization whose efficacy has been born out in the ease with which we’ve strollered around Helena’s convoluted streets over the last four…
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The 2017 Bob Open
One of the best, if not the best, thing about the Bob Open is that it isn’t about me or anyone else. It’s about everyone, going out and battling with their demons and desires on their own terms and hopefully learning what they wanted. The Bob itself is just a canvas, though not all canvas’s…
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Bob Open 2017; midterm analysis
Add: The stories are piling up over on the BPL forums. As ever some fantastic stuff, with maybe a bigger dose of happy suffering than usual. Massively inspired; thanks everyone. With 18 starters we did set a record for participants this year, and beyond that we certainly set a record for the number…
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Bob Open 2017, the final countdown
There’s not much anyone can do now, aside from show up tomorrow morning and walk across the Bob. Fretting about conditions only does so much good. A warm and sunny Tuesday sent melt across Montana into a temporary frenzy that is only just subsiding. It looks like rivers will be down to a manageable, but…
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You are all going to die
Nothing is certain and a lot can change in three weeks, but right now conditions for the Bob Open are shaping up to be as or more challenging than they’ve been, for any years of the formal event or for the two years prior when I did solo trips that weekend. Compared to three weeks…
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Settling for right
Floating the Narrows in Zion has been a goal trip for a decade and a half, and since before I had one a packraft was the obvious tool. Circumstance and skill have just not yet come together, something which will remain the case, as we were in town the past few days, with perfect water…
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The Guidebook is live
If you want the most recent version of my long running guidebook to packrafting in Glacier and Bob Marshall you can have it now, here in fact, for five dollars. This is a beta release, and a rather primitive one. You pay and register your email, and I will email you a 32 page PDF…
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Escalante countdown
0830, prelude I have an old acquaintance who for decades has specialized in 2-3 week technical outings which consist of little other than day trips. He only camps away from his truck when a route cannot be fit into a day, however long. The planning and discipline required to live out of a vehicle for…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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