News
I’ll be hosting an Ask Me Anything event on Reddit — December 3rd at 6pm. Questions about gear, skills, trails & locations, lifestyle, and future plans will probably be the most common, but ultimately it’s driven by those who tune in, so please do! The thread will be located here: http://www.reddit.com/r/WildernessBackpacking/ You’ll need a Reddit account to participate,…
Cody Roman Dial, the 27-year-old son of legendary Alaskan wilderness adventurer Roman Dial, has been missing for several weeks in Costa Rica. Roman is down there now to help with the search, while Peggy, Roman’s wife and Cody’s mother, helps to coordinate things from Anchorage. Details about the progress of the search are limited, as you might…
July 26 Update. This spot has been filled. If you are interested in a 2015 trip, make sure to submit your information so that you receive email updates about the trip and registration schedule. Also, don’t hesitate to register when it goes live — my trips fill very fast, if not immediately. I am looking…
When Buzz Burrell became the Brand Manager at Ultimate Direction in early-2012, the brand was dead. No longer, much thanks to a brilliant product and marketing story: the Signature Series running vests. They’re now de facto mandatory equipment in the ultrarunning scene, and I see them regularly on Boulder’s foothills trails, too. Nice work, Buzz!…
I’ve grown up a lot since a female hiking partner charged in 2006 that, “With your lifestyle you can’t even take care of a houseplant.” I was proud to be guilty as charged: I was 25 years-old and since college graduation 2.5 years earlier I had slept more nights on the ground than in a…
Update, 9:30 am MDT. The spot has been filled. Additional registrations will be placed on the waitlist; it would not surprise me to have another cancellation over the next two months. I thought I’d sold out my remaining 2014 trips on Friday, when there were three registrations for the remaining two spots, but on Saturday…
Earlier this winter I was awestruck by the enormous avalanche near Valdez, Alaska, that covered the highway with 40 feet of debris and blocked up the Lowe River, creating a lake upstream. I saw another similar story yesterday, courtesy of the Yale’s environment360 blog. Recent images from a NASA Landsat satellite showed a landslide in…
January 20 Update Registrations have been coming through all weekend, and several trips actually already have more registrations than there are spots. Please proceed with registering for you first-choice trip, as all registrations received through the end of the day will be considered equally to those received earlier. (First-come, first-serve starts tomorrow.) However, if you…
Earlier this morning I opened registration for three select guides trips: Backpacking Fundamentals — Feb 14-16 — West Texas Backpacking Fundamentals — Feb 17-19 — West Texas Winter Backpacking — Feb 28 – Mar 1 — Colorado The West Texas trips are conveniently scheduled over Presidents Day weekend, which should ease the long drive from…
On the flight home from my last guided trip of 2013 three weeks ago, I began outlining my schedule for next year. Finalizing it takes time: it requires input from a number of people (e.g. Amanda, assistant guides, partners), hinges on the availability of commercial permits for land use, and — most important — demands…