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You Need a Down Skirt
My butt gets cold. Dare I say, I have one of the coldest bottoms in the history of womankind. I struggled for years with debilitating "cold-butt syndrome", but I'm happy to be here today and tell you: it gets better. You need just one key piece of gear to transform...
Climbing Mount St. Helens for Moms: A PNW Tradition
I love that my job and my personal life have so many opportunities to overlap. For our spring edition of Mountaineer magazine (designed and edited by my lovely and talented colleague Suzanne Gerber), I got to write about the storied Mt. St. Helens tradition of...
Turns All Year: Month 64
If I thought skiing in January was great, then skiing in February was absolutely phenomenal! Hands down one of my best months ever on snow. With 11 days in 2 states and 2 countries - none of which were my home state of Washington - I covered 77,000 vert, more than 100...
Where to Buy Backcountry Ski Gear
Like most outdoor pursuits, you need a lot of stuff for backcounty skiing. Between hard goods and soft goods (and tutus) you can expect to spend anywhere from $2,000 to $12,000 to get outside. Yikes! Since you really do need all of this stuff, here's a handy guide for...
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Backcountry Skiing
Alpine Touring (aka randonee skiing or splitboarding) is surging in popularity. An estimated 6 million skiers and snowboarders in the U.S. are now exploring the backcountry, according to Snowsports Industries America (SIA). By many estimates Alpine Touring is the...
Couloir Hunting in the Kokanee Mountains
In May 2016, I was lucky to be whisked away in my first helicopter to the Kokanee Glacier Cabin deep in the heart of the Kokanee Mountains. There, I spent 7-days with my new best friends exploring the beauty of British Columbia. The weather was HOT but the beers were...
Turns All Year: Month 63
January was a good month to chase turns all year. Deep, light, fluffy pow was abundant early, then cold temps assured our snow would stay light before the rain came mid-January and squashed our powder dreams. The rain slab made for scary conditions in the backcountry...
The Transformative Power of Words
Earlier this week, The Mountaineers hosted a speaking event with the iconic father-son duo: Jim and Leif Whittaker. I was honored to introduce the Whittakers to our audience, and even more grateful to experience their presentation full of brand new, never-before-seen...
Owning My White Privilege to Support a More Diverse Outdoors
This week Backpacker Magazine posted an article about diversity in the outdoors. In "How Do We Make The National Parks More Diverse?", author Ted Alvarez presented four perspectives from experts discussing ways in which we can help break down barriers and increase...
