John Branch was working as a manager at Costco when his wife suggested that he go to journalism school. He liked Costco, and says he’d work there again if he needed a job, but knew he that was not how he wanted to grow old. As a kid, Branch “gobbled up the sports section” so … Read more
If you’re not well-versed in the wetsuit game, buying a new one can be incredibly intimidating. Daunting even. Each of the big three wetsuit brands (Rip Curl, Quiksilver, O’Neill) make about a dozen different suits, based on warmth, stretch, and fancy rubber-lining gizmos and gimmicks that mostly just drive up the price. Then there are … Read more
This pair of Rainbow sandals below is 11 years old. I know that because I bought them at a surf shop in Pacifica, California, shortly after I moved to San Francisco. I wore them at least 3-5 times per week for more than a decade. On three continents, in, sheesh, ten different countries. They’ve been … Read more
A healthy forest hums with aboveground stimuli: deer shuffling through dead leaves, breezes ruffling conifer needles, squirrels dropping seeds. The trees, while they appear to stand still, play an important role in this synergy, which can feel almost sentient. Below the surface, fungi connect with tree roots and with each other, facilitating a flow of … Read more
Earlier today, we featured a nice short film about a woman aspiring to guide wooden dories down the Colorado in the Grand Canyon and one of the people in the film claimed that being a river guide is the best job in the world. Well, whether it’s the best job on the planet is, of … Read more
Awhile back, we posted the above photo on Instagram and out of the legions of people who liked or commented, one citizen saw past the giant pincers belonging to the sheep crab to the footwear on the human. “What sandals are those? They look rad.” Indeed, they are rad. They are the Bedrock Cairn Pro … Read more
Duct-taped holes in down jackets, busted-out toes in hiking boots, crampon-slashed pant cuffs—wear and tear can feel like a badge of honor in its own small way, a testament to the good times had and hard work done. It’s a sign that the gear was the perfect companion for all kinds of adventures, good enough to use over and over and … Read more
Journalist and Mountain Journal founder Todd Wilkinson is also a longtime fly angler. In the conversation below, he joins the magazine’s national Washington DC correspondent Tom Sadler. The two dove into the “hero pose” common to fishing, in which the successful angler holds his catch up to the camera, before putting it back in the … Read more
Sometimes you hear a crack or a roar. More often the first sign is snow shifting around your feet. The snow starts in a slab and then breaks into blocks that knock you off your skis, careening down in a slide moving as fast as 60-80 mph. If you’re lucky, you live through it, plastered … Read more
For many Americans, the more than 1 million acres of rugged land in southeastern Utah known as the Bears Ears National Monument registers as a political flashpoint. Former President Barack Obama protected the land as a monument in 2016, recognizing the land’s spiritual and natural importance to American Indian tribes. Less than a year later, … Read more