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Testing…
My mom, who got me into this whole outdoor adventure thing in the first place, worries about me. So, my holiday gifts this month consisted of a MEC Reflex down parka and Patagonia Micro Puff pants, the better to stay warm and safe out in the cold, and the better to extend our Western Mountaineering…
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The question of laziness
After getting my ass kicked the last 4-5 times out skiing (or at least not feeling like a powder slaying god), moral has been low. One result is that I’m going through a period of nostalgia for summer. Thinking about mountain biking on dry dirt, or catching trout in clear water. The other result is…
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Arts of learning
Fat ski skintrack on a wooded ridge at 6500′ today. Backcountry skiing is hard. It’s worth letting that simple statement rest by itself, because just as backcountry skiing is about using fancy sticks to go up and down hills, the meanings of hard have infinite variation. When the snow is good, like it has been…
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2010: in review
Running through all these Christmases is the sense of an emotional cadenza at the end of the year, a braiding of feelings like hope, renewal, nostalgia, love, joy and exhaustion. Yet in the stories about this holiday, it’s surprising how often we’re reminded of a darker life, full of isolation, penury, greed, despair and the…
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Christmas Eve
Lynx tracks. Lake McDonald. Mountains. Steak. Vegetable Wellington. The best Tiramisu I’ve ever eaten. Merry Christmas to all.
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In praise of the mundane
I started taking blogging seriously this summer. One conspicuous byproduct of this is that I began gathering/paying attention to statistics associated with my work here: who reads what, how often, when, and so forth. Some of it isn’t surprising: Monday and Tuesday are by far the biggest traffic days, Saturday and Sunday the least. Some…
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Sperry
I’ve been experimenting with ways to not be cold and damp on the drives home. Today’s method, stripping down to capilene outside and cranking the heat all the way home, worked better than layering a belay coat over damp layers. But as I drove along the shore of Lake McDonald, drying quickly, something was wrong. …
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Marquette Backcountry ski: out o’ the box
Enter the clown shoes. Those are 185 Guides. Inserts make mounting dead easy. I did need a longer screw for the front, to use the Voile wedge. Fine threaded, takes a 3mm allen. Big fishscales. They have a bit of camber. They’re also very stiff, by any standard. Not plastic noodles. Lots of tip rise.…
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Four simple holiday gifts
1: The Pasty Always delicious. Mix sauteed meat (ground bison is ideal) and onions, green peppers, cubed and blanched potatoes, parsnips, etc. Stuff into puff pastry squares. Bake and eat with brown gravy. 2: Bison Cookie Cutters Cute, whimsical, delicious (if your cookies don’t suck), and with an iconic American flavor. 3: The funnest T-shirt…
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Bedrock & Paradox 
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