camping/hiking

Yellowstone’s Grizzlies are More Dangerous Than Glacier’s

by michael frank on May 14, 2012 · 5 comments

5 responses

Yellowstone has seen a nearly 50 percent increase in conflict between bears and humans in the past five years: A new report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service comparing Yellowstone with Glacier shows that in 2011 there were 17 people charged by grizzlies in Glacier, while in Yellowstone 62 were charged — nearly four [...]

Congress to Let Horses Back Into Sequoia National Park

by michael frank on April 27, 2012 · 3 comments

3 responses

Rare bipartisan agreement will let horse packers operate this summer.

Gear Review: Four Perfect Day Packs

by loren mooney on April 24, 2012 · 4 comments

4 responses

“Daypack” can mean anything from a zippered lunch sack to a summit-worthy technical masterpiece. This spring, I tried a whole mess of them for function, versatility, and how well they pass the ultimate test: Which do you reach for when you leave the house? These four pass muster and then some, each with strong features [...]

Fresh Goods: Safari Multitool

by michael frank on April 23, 2012 · 0 comments

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If you’ve ever found yourself idly opening and closing the various blades and saws and scissors of your Victorinox, this tool is for you. It’s really not a multitool at all, but a form of entertainment, where you can open a pair of legs here, a head there, a tail at the back and not [...]

Ruling Against Pack Animals in Wilderness Hurts Outfitters

by michael frank on April 13, 2012 · 6 comments

6 responses

Back in January a U.S. District Court Judge in San Francisco said that the National Park Service’s plan for allowing horses into Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks violated the 1964 Wilderness Act. The ruling by judge Richard Seeborg came in a three-year-old lawsuit brought by the High Sierra Hikers Association, which held that the [...]

Gear Revew: The North Face Polar Hooded Jacket

by michael frank on April 5, 2012 · 1 comment

one response

One of the stars of January’s Outdoor Retailer trade show was the The North Face Polar Hooded Jacket and a remarkably similar Outdoor Research jacket called the Lodestar, both of which were touted as replacements for puffy down jackets. Indeed, some breathlessly dubbed these “puffy killers.” And it’s true that the new Polartec Power Shield [...]

Links We Like, March 16, 2012

by michael frank on March 16, 2012 · 0 comments

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2008 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ADVENTURER OF THE YEAR Gregg Treinish had a novel idea a while back — why not take people who are already heading to the most extreme ends of the earth and train them as citizen scientists? Now he’s heading up just such a program, called Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. The program [...]

Is Waterproof Down Just Around the Corner?

Goose down is the perfect insulation except for one thing — it loses its ability to insulate when it’s wet. This, of course, you know. It’s why your down bag often becomes worthless on a river trip, why puffies are fine for skiing on cold, dry days but not for dumping conditions, and why synthetic [...]

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Colorado’s Berthoud Pass Gets Backcountry Hut — More on the Way

While Colorado’s Tenth Mountain Division huts are hugely popular, there’s been a movement of late to add more backcountry huts in the Rocky Mountain state. Now, in Grand County, in a line heading north of Winter Park, a new hut system is cropping up run by the Grand Huts Association. The new huts will both [...]

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Fresh Goods: Petzl Nao Headlight

It may be called the Nao (“now”), but Petzl’s newfangled head beacon isn’t available until July. That’s the bad news. The crazy-cool news is that this is the brainiest headlamp ever invented, with sensors that work somewhat the way autofocus does on a camera. Look into the distance and onboard “reactive lighting” microprocessors tighten the [...]

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A Mesmerizing, Laconic Canoe Trip Through Boundary Waters

If you’ve ever been in the woods alone, there’s something in this four-minute movie, “Missing Hatchet,” that will speak to you. It’s just a chronicle of a canoe trip in northern Minnesota, of fishing, paddling, waiting out the rain, laughing through the idle time, and the pure, simple happiness of building a fire and cooking [...]

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Opinion: How the Forest Service Discriminates Against Poor Kids

The summer before last I took a four-day hike through the backcountry of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Washington Cascades. I’m accustomed to rugged terrain and steep slopes, so I was impressed when, after miles of travel off the trail, I heard the voices of teenagers wafting toward me. I met the intrepid boys [...]

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Links We Like, December 26, 2011

THE WORLD’S FIRST CARBON NEUTRAL INDOOR SKI HILL IS COMING TO Barcelona, and the trick is how the Spaniards will manage to keep the facility cold without creating waste. The plan is sort of like the way a heat pump works; in this case, the heat pump already exists, too, since the port of Barcelona [...]

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The 12 Days of Chris-annu-kwanza: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite

This may be one to wait for until after the holidays. It will be worth it. Why the wait? Because Therm-a-Rest is only selling the NeoAir XLite as part of a sleep system right now. We’ll explain that part in a second; first though, the 12-ounce XLite is amazing. We tested it recently against the [...]

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Fall Peaks: The Best Autumn Escapes — Big Bend, Texas

At this time of year, fall and winter cross like two slow moving ships. Snow falls in the north, while down south the desert hits its high season. And as we look to squeeze the last bits of vitamin D from the year, one spot stands bigger than the rest…big is its name, of course, [...]

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