Your Packing Persona

As I write this, I’m in the car about to begin a 10-day ski trip into the Canadian backcountry. It’ll be my first time in a helicopter, my first time backcountry skiing in Canada, and the first time without cell phone coverage for more than a day in...

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

PorterPants as I call him. Lovingly captured hiking by Lisa Bowers.You wouldn’t know it from looking at this photo of my favorite little buddy, but a few years ago I didn’t like dogs. Or red wine. Or riding a bicycle, carrying things up hills, or sleeping...

Reasons to Buy an Adult Onesie

Photo by Greg Sheehan. Buy your own today!BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME!-end of list**see also: keeps you warm at night, adds flair to any packing photo, allows you to make friends easily, keeps people you shouldn’t be friends with away from you, has ample belly...
How To Layer in the Backcountry

How To Layer in the Backcountry

Mastering your personal layering comfort is one of the most difficult aspects of backcountry travel. Too many clothes and you’re soaking yourself from the inside out. Too few and you’re freezing your little tootsie off. No bueno either way. Half of...

Why I Created a Wikipedia Page

When I accepted the gig running membership and marketing at The Mountaineers, I had no idea it would unlock my secret, kinda-nerdy passion for mountaineering history. Sure I’d read pretty much all of the books on mountaineering when I was in college...

Set Up Your Emergency Contact Information

Two years ago my friend Loren died in a skiing accident. A huge February storm had rolled through the Pacific Northwest, and a bunch of us took extra days off to go skiing. He and a friend were skiing Crystal in-bounds on a Wednesday when Loren fell into a tree-well....

Things We Don’t Talk About

We all have things we don’t talk about. Fiascos. Flounders and missteps. Broken promises and wrong turns and failures of the heart. We hold close the things that make us feel most alone – the things that make us most human.Everywhere, every day, people are...