Photo by Werdna

While taking a run on break an employee at Snowmass hit a blind roller and then hit a 7-year-old. The child was treated for bruises and released from the hospital, and the 22-year-old liftie was held at the scene by the father until ski patrol arrived. He would eventually be charged with reckless endangerment and third-degree assault, both of which would return not-guilty verdicts by a jury in Aspen.

The liftie didn’t testify on his own behalf, though the ski patrol supervisor said the roller with a blind landing is widely known at the hill. The liftie’s lawyer said it was an unfortunate accident, which is of course true, but it’s also true that if his client had slowed down it wouldn’t have been a problem. The father wasn’t helped by the video he had of the incident that had him screaming, “F— you, motherf—er! I’m gonna kill you!” Though I think we can cut him some slack as his kid was just run over by a resort employee. Was it an accident? Yes. Was it mostly the liftie’s fault? Sure, who else are you going to blame, the kid for learning how to ski on a blue run at Snowmass?

Photo by Jeremie Hollman

Jake Bramante of Kalispell, Montana hiked all 734 miles of Glacier National Park trails in one season. In fact, he actually hiked closer to 1000 miles of trails since many of them are designed as out-and-back trails. Don’t believe him? Check out Hike734. He meticulously detailed every of his hikes in real time, carrying 15 bounds of technology equipment on every hike. He averaged about 15 miles per day, and his longest single day was 25.5 miles. The Glacier National Park Fund (which funded some of the trip) is already booking him for speaking engagements. I sure hope all that time alone in the woods made him a great public speaker.

via Adventure Journal

Scott Dunlap, writer of A Trail Runner’s Blog had a memorable find on his Sunday morning run in the woods. A body. He was the second on the scene and waited with a cyclist who made the grisly discovery. You hear about these things happening all the time, but it’s somehow unsettling to hear a first person account. The death turned out to be a suicide. Though in the end, I thought Scott offered some fantastic advice:

I selfishly thought “that’s too bad…he missed one of the best sunrises all year long”. But I suspect he was in the shadow of bigger demons.

So in case this doesn’t go without saying, if you’re thinking about ending it all in one of the parks near my neighborhood, at least wait long enough for us to have one more sunrise run and a breakfast beer. It just might be enough to live for.

In this country, it is effectively legal to kill a cyclist with your car. It is baffling that this is the case. Every week I read about at least one guy or girl who was run over by a truck making a right turn or a person speeding around a blind corner. When reporters follow up on the story it always ends the same: no charges filed. In fact, it would be easy to argue that you’re better off killing the cyclist than maiming them, as if you kill the person, then you can give the police whatever version of events is most fitting. Take, for example this truck that ran over a New York cyclist about a week ago. Police found his truck parked a few blocks away, and he told them he never noticed running someone over. Case closed. And since he was never charged, the guy’s name will never be released to the public. Though, to be fair, drivers who run over cyclists and flee the scene can do okay, too. Remember the “road rage doctor” in California who slammed his brakes in front of two bikers and then fled? He just got a book deal.

And to top it all off, we must be the worst lobbyists in the world. The Gov of California just vetoed a bill that would have required motorists to safely pass cyclists. He vetoed it because it would require drivers to slow to 15mph if that had to pass a cyclist closer than 3 feet, and he thought it may cause car accidents. Since the veto at least two bikers have been hit and killed by cars in California alone.

Scott Williamson, a tree climber from California set a new speed record on his thirteenth hike along the Pacific Crest Trail: 64 days, 11 hours, 19 minutes. He did it with only 12 drops for food and gear, and collecting them added 20 miles of hiking to the trail that runs from Canada to Mexico. The guy’s been on the trail for 20 years, running it like some long haul truckers run across the heartland. And he has good news: In 20 years he’s seen the conditions of the trial improve, and he thinks there’s more an infrastructure in place to ward off development along the trail. Congrats, Scott.

via Wend