“Perfect,” I said out loud as I clipped the cam placed, well, perfectly in the inch-wide crack. I relaxed a bit and shook out one arm at a time, trying vainly to coax some warm blood back into my fingers. It was obvious a storm was coming, the temperature was dropping and occasional rain drops hit the face. I wasn’t getting any stronger hanging there, I needed to go up. I jammed my hand deep into the crack...

I should’ve called it something else. “The Bohrer Multi-Sport Weekend,” or maybe “The Ultimate Fun Weekend.” Instead, I started calling it “The Bohrer Epic Weekend,” which turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. My kids look forward to a winter camping trip each year. But as this meager winter turned to spring and our weekends filled with other things, we resigned ourselves to moving on to...

The final installment of Erin Kittrick’s story of the the first year with her son, Katmai. Winter Again Snow has opened up our backyard again. Nearly every day, Katmai and I wander the hills behind the yurt, sometimes on snowshoes sinking into loose powder, other times in shoes slipping on an icy crust. At nearly 20 pounds, Katmai rides on my back now, his head poking through a hole sliced in my raincoat....

We present part 2 of Erin McKittrick’s 1st Year in the Woods Summer Luckily for Kamai, his father is a master bushwhacker. With Katmai protruding from his chest like a strange second head, Hig ducked beneath the alder boughs, turning his body to delicately brush by the devils club. He pulled salmonberry canes out of the way of Katmai’s face. One small scratch on the nose was all Katmai had to show for...

We have a special contributor this week.  Erin McKittrick and her husband, Hig, have been hiking and adventuring for years. Now they’ve added a third to their trips, Katmai. Based out of Seldovia, AK, they committed to taking Katmai with them on their treks. Erin writes about their first year together. Please stay tuned for the next two parts later this week. Speculations We knew how to plan routes through...

If it wasn’t hard enough to wait for snow before, it’s gotten even harder since Abby caught the skiing bug. Now every forecast without snow causes a fit of depression and exasperation. For both of us. To make things even worse, she recently won a major award – a package of technical outdoor clothing from First Ascent. She’s decided that the most worthy use of her new gear would be backcountry ski touring....

As we’ve passed Levi’s first birthday and moved into fall, the milestones are coming fast and furious.  Crawling, which didn’t happen until 11 months, and walking is already coming on fast.  Words are beginning to pop out of him with a rush of semi-intelligible grunts, shrieks and adorable ooo’s and aahhh’s.  He knows a duck says quack, and Rasta (our dog) says Ow Ow Oowwwooooooooo! ...

…continued from Friday’s post. Ty and Andi’s responses to the first question typify the challenge of parenting, outdoor or otherwise. Their discussion also made me chuckle because Jennie and I have had nearly the same discussion many times. We love our spouses and our children. But we also have other goals and interests that are important to us. Our spouses often share those goals, but as parents...

Ultrarunner Ty Draney has had a pretty good year. In September, 2008, he won the 50 mile distance at the Grand Teton Races in record time. He followed that up with a win at the Bear 100 a few weeks later. This September he won the 100 mile distance at this year’s Grand Teton Races, setting a course record in the process. He’s also a member of the Patagonia ultrarunning team. But he won’t tell you any of...

…the final installment of Jason’s Alberts essay. A discussion I began to have frequently with my wife in Madagascar revolved around the premise of students becoming teachers and teachers becoming students. My middle school teaching career was interrupted to facilitate the Madagascar adventure. We explored the paradox of teachers and students: the notion of learning as an accumulation of discrete...