This video is slow to start and has a rough soundtrack, but I think it encapsulates the spirit of Halloween pretty well. Stay out of trouble this holiday.
And this video, well, this video gives you an idea of why people live in Utah. This was shot four days ago by the Provo Bros.
If Ken Burns couldn’t convince you to go, maybe Oprah will. Oprah and her pal drove through Yosemite National Park in a massive gas-guzzling truck taking in the sites for a couple days. I missed both episodes but hey - that’s why I DVR every Oprah. I can’t wait to see the part where she dynamites a bunch of trout and blows off her own leg while fly fishing.
photo from Kit Up!
First off, if it weren’t for military contracts, a lot of outdoor companies would be hurting. All the way from Gore-Tex, straight through CamelBak, to several of the much smaller climbing gear manufacturers. There’s nothing wrong with helping out the military. What’s odd here is that a hydration pack company is making gloves - tactical gloves. This word ‘tactical’ had always kind of confused me. At one Outdoor Retailer Show I was talking to a Benchmade rep and asked him what a particular knife was for. He called it a ‘tactical’ knife. I asked what that meant and he shifted from one foot to the other while looking at me. Then I asked, “You mean it’s for stabbing people?” His answer, “Self defense.”
So CamelBak’s flame-resistant, tactical gloves were showcased at the US Army show in DC. My question: What special insights does a hydration company gain from their foray into backpacks that qualifies them to make gloves? Well, I guess it’s the same thing Oakley brought to the table with their bloated line of tactical gloves.
Trade your contact information for a chance to win big. You can give us the email address you use for spam, just be sure to check it to see if you won.
Enter To Win 3 nights at the Cliff Lodge and 3 days of Tram/Chair skiing, The North Face outerwear, Dynastar Skis, and The Cliff Spa treatments for 2 people. Enter by December 1st. Travel will be available mid-December - 04/30/11, blackout dates and some restrictions may apply.
You’ll get added to our email list (you’re probably already on it anyway) and added to the Snowbird list (here’s to hoping you live in Utah!). Register for the contest here.
A woman from Tacoma, Washington lost her way during a day hike over the weekend and spent three nights in the snow. She survived by wrapping herself in a plastic trash bag. I guess I could spend less of my time agonizing over whether my next sleeping bag should be synthetic or down (down, obviously). After staggering her way through the woods for a while, she found her way back to the trail and sat tight. Rescuers followed her tracks and retrieved her after a few days. She would have been living it up if she’d packed one of these guys.
San Diego can go ahead and layoff all their National Park firewatchers. Robots have taken all their jobs - it’s just like those DeVry Technical College commercials foretold back in the late 1980s. With a $36,000 grant San Diego County installed 16 high-res web cams that look over the mountains from 60 feet up on radio towers. The public can spend their spare time fire watching from home or work, and the county can hire someone to watch all 16 of them during fire season.
Better known now for his untethered highlining, BASE highlining, BASE solos, and climbing Delicate Arch, Dean Potter tops out on a boulder in Yosemite. The same focus and determination, just on a slightly less death-defying scale.
via Wend
Alpine Meadows Resort is partnering with a French company called Magnestick that offers a chairlift safety device for kids. The junior skiers wear a burly vest with a huge magnet on the back, and then each chair has an electromagnet that automatically activates when they get on the chair. It lets go at the top, allowing them to download. Sounds like kind of a fun idea. I can’t wait to see what those huge magnets do to the hard drive on my ancient iPod.
via Get Outdoors
A hunter’s trail cam in Minnesota caught a mountain lion on video. This tool’s not just for catching photos of home burglary suspects or UFOs anymore - this is the third time a mountain lion’s been seen in Minnesota since August and the 8th over 15 years. Since digital photos can be so easily manipulated, the MN DNR is still trying to verify that mountain lions have landed in their state by finding tracks in the snow or having a game warden get a sighting. Until that happens every hunter with a trail cam is just another conspiracy theorist.
