Believe In The Magic Of The Burrito
byDo you have a hard time eating at fancy restaurants where food is presented as a sort of sculpture? I do. It’s usually a…
Do you have a hard time eating at fancy restaurants where food is presented as a sort of sculpture? I do. It’s usually a…
In November, a video posted online showed an American climber visiting Sweden blowtorching holds on some boulders to dry them after a recent rain….
Fact: Shirts are for suckers. They’re heavy, hot, and if you wear one when you’re rock climbing, the ladies (or dudes, as it were)…
My friend Aaron is a pretty normal guy, by most standards: High school math teacher, homeowner, happily married, good hygiene, pays his bills, et…
“I’ve been thinking about things on a cost-per-use basis lately,” my friend Nick said to me a few weeks ago. Nick doesn’t make rash…
At a grocery store last week, the cover of Cosmopolitan‘s January issue caught my eye with the headline “EPIC SEX.” Immediately, in my head,…
In a scene in the spaghetti western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, the One-Armed Bounty Hunter finds Tuco Ramirez in a vulnerable…
My dad and I walked into Busch Stadium in St. Louis on September 4, the first time he had been in the Cardinals’ new…
“Send me a list of gift ideas for you.” Why do we do this around the holidays now? I mean, have you ever really…
When you dismount a mountain bike going uphill, you end up doing a sort of bow. As you step off and swing a leg…
A few years ago, I climbed Drift Peak near Leadville, Colorado, on Presidents Day with my friend Aaron and my friend Lee. Lee had…
My friend Mick’s heart stopped working last Sunday. He died at the age of 54, not knowing that the night before, I had sat…
I haven’t had a “proper” Thanksgiving dinner since 2002, somehow managing to be anywhere but watching football and eating an oven-cooked turkey. When people…
I was trying to start a campfire a couple weekends back and grabbed a fat piece of wood with a crack at one end,…
When he hit the ledge, I was sure he was dead. He was a young college guy, and we had exchanged maybe five sentences…
Maybe you’ve heard this one: Ski resort patron approaches lift ticket kiosk on Powder Day of the Century and demands a refund for his/her…
You, outdoor recreator, are quite probably quite educated: Bachelor’s degree, possibly a master’s degree or Ph.D. You wore a cap and gown and were…
Five summers ago, I met this guy named Lee Smith while climbing with a big group of people at Castlewood Canyon. At the end…
I walked onto the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder last Friday and a Denver Voice vendor looked down at my sandals, laughed and said,…
“You know, I was just thinking that three bumper stickers changed my life,” Dan said as we tromped down the trail a couple weeks…
I always get sandbagged by guys in gear shops. I will stop in somewhere to pick up a cordelette, or a stuff sack, or…
As the USA Pro Cycling Challenge was working its way around Colorado and into the Front Range in August, I saw this Facebook status…
2:39 a.m., August 11, 2012: Packs packed, Chris and I are about to shut the tailgate on my van and start walking the Garnet…
Sometimes I like to fantasize that I have some sort of backcountry suaveness and culinary instinct, and that I will someday take a special…
Ever fantasized about being a fire lookout, or living in a cabin high in the mountains, or deep in the wilderness somewhere? It’s romantic,…
When you tell the story later, you are a little less descriptive of the moment you experience pure dread and barely-controllable fear. You say…
I’ve been a fan of Chris Kalous’ still fairly-new and incredibly rad podcast, The Enormocast, ever since my friend Josh gushed about the interview…