Adventure

Tight Spots Loose Slots

It can take 10 hours to navigate the length of Englestead Hollow. Search and rescue teams routinely employ helicopters to pull injured canyoneers from its maw. Occasionally, trained dogs sniff out corpses hidden in its gloom. Read more...

The Mad Pursuit

Is it trite to knife words from Keats? Tasked with a narrative on Iceland, I would beg to defer. There's too much silent beauty. Too much howling savagery. Too much perfect contrast. The rocks house spirits. Read more...

Desert Regeneration

We're skiing blower pow in a storm at Alta and Snowbird. The sun comes out. As a photographer I've spent 20 years trying to capture days like this. But to describe it? It's beyond glorious. It's April and most people are thinking about golf. Read more...

Corn Niblets and Grass Clippings

The grass haunts me. I spread my backcountry ski gear in the bed of my pickup late on a Friday afternoon in early May. And it grows. Somewhere, a winter ski partner is thinking not about late season turns in New Hampshire's White Mountains... Read more...

Fish the Boat

It's barely one o'clock, but Slopeside at Steamboat is already mobbed with drinkers. Every resin chair on the bar's snowy beach holds a butt rendered immobile by the springtime sun. Read more...

Ride the Fruit

Once a dingy and nearly forgotten industrial town off Interstate 70, Fruita (named for the orchards that drove the economy before natural gas) exploded on the mountain bike scene 10 years ago. Read more...

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Swami won't take offense if you mount tele/touring skis with AT bindings, but the easy flex makes tele-turning most joyful.
Time for Swami to trade in his String Cheese Incident rucksack and acquire a modern pack with adjustable straps, back vents, and such.
When seeking frontside skis, look for damp skis with ungodly edge penetration.
For all-mountain skis you seeketh a balance of powder flotation and hard-snow guts.
Big Mountain ski buyers: Meditate on tip rocker if you crave the pow. Ex racers go traditional.
Using AT boots? Swami sees 90 to 100 millimeter crossover skis in your future Facebook postings.
Swami sayeth: Choose a mountain bike with a blend of climbing and descending performance for the exigencies of the mountain trail near you.
What's with all the skiers passing us in the powder, you snowboarders ask? Rocker lets you float without effort. It's pay-to-play Zen.