For a quick getaway last weekend, my friends and I planned a three-night stay in nature. Nature is not listed…
Tag hiking
4:35 a.m. The wind blows across the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, 20 mph constant. Mitsu and I hurriedly…
Ten years ago last weekend, my old friend Jarrett didn’t have cancer anymore, so I thought it would be a…
Earlier this year, my book The Great Outdoors: A User’s Guide came out, representing about 12 years’ worth of poking…
Because we all deserve a little recognition for doing things well out there. —Brendan
Are you an expert? Well, thankfully, it’s 2017, and everyone can be one. Here are a few tips to help…
One Friday this past March, I hiked a few miles down a trail and set up a tent in one…
Dear New Guy At The Climbing Gym, or lady running around the track at the park for the first time,…
Today, I get to share something that some wonderful people and I have been working on for almost two years:…
I plodded my way up the Hayden Trail, headed up toward my fifth “summit” of the day as the sun…
About a year ago, I spent a few days with Ace Kvale and his 10-year-old blue heeler, Genghis Khan, in…
We all know the classic John Muir quotes like “The mountains are calling and I must go,” and “The clearest…
Hey girl. Or guy. I want you to know something about that hobby of yours that you partake in two…
I padded down the talus in the moonlight, my headlamp switched off, in front of my girlfriend. I was just…
Normally I use this space to talk about not buying a bunch of shiny new gear, to sarcastically review entire…
A heavy backpack can make a backpacking trip no fun at all. Here are a few tips to lighten your…
I am sitting at the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers at the bottom of the Grand Canyon,…
My friends and I drove down a dirt road out of the Sangre de Cristo Range after a two-night backpacking…
If you walk any distance over one mile in the out-of-doors, you should think about getting a backpack. Sure, cargo…
I was talking to my friend Mark about mountain biking a while back when he mentioned linking together a bunch…
Do you ever think hiking doesn’t get much respect anymore? Wait, better question: Remember that hiking film that showed at…
Do you ever say “yes” to a bike ride, day of climbing, run, ski day, or other outdoor activity, and…
I hopped over a stream crossing the Bright Angel Trail, taking a big step from one rock to the next,…
When you’re buying a rain jacket, you probably have lots of questions, none of which really matter besides “Which rain…
I sat under Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park, 60 minutes from Moab and 20 miles as the crow flies,…
Have you ever shit your pants at a national park? A few years ago, I was hiking down from the…
Hey Are you sick and tired of diets that JUST DON’T WORK? Do you feel like a sucker after losing…
I rolled down the packed trail, standing in the pedals, watching the 30 or so feet ahead of me illuminated…
My dad mentioned to me the other day that this was the first year he’d ever used up his entire…
I sat down exhausted last Tuesday night next to my friends Chris and Forest in front of a granite shelter…
My dad told me the other day he’d won a three-day Harley rental at a raffle. I said Dad, I…
Are you going hiking this weekend? Planning a climb of Mount Hood, Shasta, Rainier? There are two things you should…
Everyone poops. What to do with it in the out-of-doors can sometimes be confusing. Thanks to this hastily-scrawled, handy flow…
“Bushwhacking is like my third favorite thing to do in the outdoors, behind crotch-deep postholing and getting hit in the…
I haven’t had a “proper” Thanksgiving dinner since 2002, somehow managing to be anywhere but watching football and eating an…
Maybe you’ve heard this one: Ski resort patron approaches lift ticket kiosk on Powder Day of the Century and demands…
I walked onto the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder last Friday and a Denver Voice vendor looked down at my…
As the USA Pro Cycling Challenge was working its way around Colorado and into the Front Range in August, I…
My friend Jesse was about five miles east of Dighton, Kansas, a little over 200 miles from the start of…
In a conversation a few weeks ago, a climber friend of mine described herself as “not super-girly.” Her expanded definition…
I showed up to meet my friend Becca at the bouldering gym in Seattle on a Monday afternoon. When we…
Here’s a little tip to curb the spread of disease, illness and other microbial things when you’re in the backcountry…
Christmas Eve, 2011, I am going to throw up on a spin class bicycle. Sweat is raining off my…
For years, I have known to pee on rocks at high altitudes because mountain goats crave salt, and if…
I have learned many things from my friend Lee: How to place gear on trad routes, how to suffer with…
I was renting this guy a backpack and 3-person backpacking tent when I worked at an REI store several years…
There’s a single paragraph in Yvon Chouinard’s Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of A Reluctant Businessman in…
I think the first time I heard anything about Chesler Park, I was being a non-productive REI employee and…
The average human poop event weighs between 7.3 and 9.3 ounces, according to an Iranian study of 100 male and…
I rode my bike across the country last year, carrying three free water bottles from my pal Scott’s bike shop,…