Gaper? No way. This guy will probably ride you into the ground.
To gape or not to gape, that is the question. For some reason, the things that make a mountain biker look like a gaper aren’t as cut and dry as they are in other outdoor activities. Some things change with time, and some things you can get away with if you ride well enough. Then, there are some things that never change. In the end, it’s a lot more about what you do and how you treat other riders than how you look.
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Imagine a world in which the areas you love to hike or backpack are being consumed one by one by wildfire each summer, or the mountain you love to ski or ride has diminishing snow cover each winter. This mental exercise shouldn’t be a stretch for any of us—these scenarios are already happening. Additionally, picture the outdoor industry’s future profits disappearing as fast as Arctic sea ice.
Hence the step the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) recently took toward preserving outdoor recreation as we know it for those generations born into the not-so-distant future. Read More …
Remember our article about Alta’s recently hoped-for expansion plans?
Well, there have been some interesting ski-world developments here in the Mothership (an affectionate outsider’s term for our salty state, Utah).
Apparently local government wasn’t too keen on the idea of Alta (and Wasatch-neighbor Solitude Ski Resort) expanding into Salt Lake City’s watershed areas Read More …
This is the beginning of all hell breaking loose, but I missed all the gnar.
“I’m ready!” you tell your friend above, and a couple seconds later hear the distant response of “OK, dropping!” You fire off frames as your friend bursts from the lip of the jump, but he lets out an “Oh S#!T” as soon as he’s in the air, and you both know this is going to end badly. You have two choices. You can either lower your camera, and cringe as your buddy takes a massive digger, or you can hold down the shutter release and fire off frames like a machine gunner making his last stand. Either way, strange as it may seem, the first thing your friend will say when you get over to him is, “Tell me you got a picture of that.”
I’ve seen some pretty nasty stuff happen to friends while I was holding a camera, but I rarely got the defining photo because I didn’t want to be that jerk who stood there taking pictures while his friend got broken off. Read More …
Little Cottonwood Creek, Utah, overflowing its banks
Two weeks ago on the night of Thursday, June 10, a heavy rainstorm moved through southwestern Arkansas, dumping up to 9 inches of rain over a mostly remote section of wilderness. In this area lies Albert Pike Campground, located at the junction of the Little Missouri and Caddo Rivers.
Two to three hundred people were camping in tents, cabins, and RVs on Thursday night when light rain began to fall. The rain picked up around 11pm and didn’t let up until around dawn. The NOAA issued a flash flood warning for the area after 1:30am, but all the sleeping campers heard was the rain pelting the outside of their tents. Read More …
Climbers, skiers, backpackers, mountain bikers, and just about everyone else who spends time in the outdoors generally can’t stand it when some Hollywood flick puts our sport up on the big screen or a television show pipes some terrible version of our lifestyle into homes all over the world and makes us look like a bunch of idiots. The only saving grace is that we know sooner or later someone will make a parody of the entertainment piece in question. Here are a few of my favorite variations on the five minutes of revenge. Read More …
Climbers tend to cringe whenever they hear climbing mentioned on television. I’m not talking about Cliffhanger reruns either. It seems that every time a story involves climbing (or something the media decides is climbing), the news gets a hold of it and makes all climbers seem like idiots who are risking their lives for thrills. Yeah, they’re probably right. We should just sit on the couch and complain about the people who are still outside. Maybe news coverage wouldn’t be so bad if every hiker who falls off a trail or high-school kid who stole his mom’s clothesline gets labeled as a “very experienced climber.” That kind of stuff makes me want to break a television. Maybe I should buy a TV so I have one to break. These are just a few of my favorite “climbing” stories. Makes me wonder how bad the news screws up the stuff that I don’t know anything about. Read More …
Mt. Everest is the highest peak on earth. So what? It’s been a long time since climbing Everest was actually the pinnacle of mountaineering achievement. These days, it’s all about firsts, but not in the traditional climbing sense. Instead of putting up a new route or repeating an established line by a style that advances the standards of mountaineering, people tend to focus on more obscure firsts that don’t actually require the advancement of, well, anything.
Before I start into a rant about the peak, let me first point out that quite a few very influential and sometimes ground-breaking feats have taken place on Everest. Not surprisingly, most of them happened before web-linked video cameras were a constant presence on the mountain. Read More …
Photo By Adam Riser, Backcountry Employee
The use of electronics in the backcountry offers an enhanced experience for those who use them wisely and a presents a danger to those who choose to use them lightly. In order to stay alive and unharmed, wilderness veterans must remember and rookies must discover that total dependence on technology can be a hazard. Why? Either group is vulnerable to the hubris that these devices can encourage.
Whether you’re six miles and four hours of storm into a hike, or you’re just braving the maelstrom as your ski lift sways in the wind, cold and wet is not a good place to be. So you go looking for a waterproof breathable shell, and you’re left with two choices: GORE-TEX® outerwear or everything else. Read More …
Shoes to packs, hit the trails.
Backcountry house-hunting, simplified.
Stay dry out there.
Public Waterways In Utah
By: JGW | July 29th, 2010No Comments »
Would you like to know more about how that fact really affects kayakers, fishermen and fisherwomen, hunters, tubers, and other people who like to use and play in public waterways? Read More …
Tags: kayaking, laws, public waterways, utah
Posted in Commentary, Outdoor Articles |