Head into the backcountry without bothering to tell anyone where you’re going or when you’ll be back–Survival Straps has your back with the Paracord Survival Belt. Second only to a personal locator beacon in survival situations, these $75 belts unwind to turn into between 125 and 200ft of paracord. Perfect for hanging laundry, making an uncomfortable hammock, and similar survival situations. The only hard part is weaving it back together after your self-rescue and return to civilization.

A young Minnesota couple sailing their vessel the “Velvet Glove Cast in Iron” disembarked on a Huck-Fin style Mississippi trip only to be foiled by engine troubles and Johnny Law about 10 miles downstream. Veruschka and Zelda Xox (made-up names, but then again, what names aren’t made up?) built a barge on their friend’s property in rural Minnesota, loaded it with 20 pounds of potatoes and some live chickens before setting off from North Minneapolis. Immediate and catastrophic engine trouble stopped their boat shortly offshore, and they pulled into a city park to fix the boat before continuing, or more specifically, starting. Local police gave them a week to fix the boat even though the city park where they’d landed forbid overnight camping. After a week they shoved off with a dead engine, and floated downstream, narrowly missing a dam, before tying up on another island. Police impounded the Velvet Glove Cast in Iron and sent their chickens to live on a farm upstate later that day.

Say what you want about the ineptitude and idealism of these 21 and 23 year olds, but I find their romantic and misguided downriver trip a bit exciting. We know they would have had a better chance making it to New Orleans in a couple kayaks or a canoe, but they wanted to take their boat so they could live in it when they arrived in The South.

There’s something oddly mesmerizing about this UIAA Mountain Equipments Testing video. Everything’s played in real time speed, but watching a carabiner leisurely yawn open and then explode like a frog stuffed with M-80s seems like it’s happening at half speed. Maybe it’s because you figure that if a piece of equipment ever broke it wouldn’t go slowly like Sly Stallone’s lead harness buckle in Cliffhanger, but so quickly you’d never know what went wrong. Either way, I’m sure it’ll never happen.

via The Snaz

Beginning July 1^st Utah will do away with those stupid memberships required to get into bars. They were only about $12 per year, but you’d be surprised how limiting they were. Walking around downtown Salt Lake, where they only have one bar allowed per block, we’d almost never try new bars since one of us poor bastards would have to pony up the cash to buy a membership. Park City was slightly better because usually they’d just ask, “Do you have a membership?” and not bother actually checking. Last year Utah also approved allowing 1.5 ounces of liquor in a drink instead of the old 1 ounce, so it’s still the weakest drinking place in the world. I guess if it weren’t for the crazy laws Utah would be just as over developed as Vail, so we ought to be a bit thankful. Welcome to the rest of the country, Utah.

You know how people say you’re more likely to get struck by lightening than bitten by a shark? Well, people actually get struck by lightening fairly regularly. In fact, it’s the leading cause of weather related deaths. So it makes sense that there would be a growing number of limbless surfers who get back in the water with one fewer body part after getting attacked my a shark. This guy had has hand bitten off by a Great White while paddling into a wave at Bondi Beach in February, and he just returned to the water this week.

via Deadspin