RBC I Everyone is jammed into a yellow school bus, chattering in anticipation of a planned snowshoe outing at Snoqualmie Pass, some 40 minutes outside Seattle. Joe Camacho, an educator and one of the trip leaders, begins an orientation, holding up a pair of gaiters. The coverings are zipped together[Read More…]
Tag: Wilderness
A Look at the West: There is a wide role for military veterans in conservation
RBC I Stacy Bare came home from Iraq in 2007 with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress, unsure of where he fit into the world, and unmoored without the military. Liquor and cocaine seemed the best means of coping, and he often thought of suicide, until a fellow Army[Read More…]
Women help fund public land; sexism repels them
RBC I Women often wonder whether it is safe for them to hike solo. For me, the answer clearly is yes. I’ve hiked 8,000 miles by myself, pioneered routes in Utah and the Columbia River Gorge, and set an Appalachian Trail speed record. But others argue that in the eyes[Read More…]
Looking at the West: What about Utah’s Wasatch ski resorts?
RBC I On a ski tour of the backcountry in Utah’s Wasatch Range in the early 1970s, a small group of skiers were at Gad Valley, near the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, contemplating the drop onto an untouched slope, when a man at the bottom of the run waved[Read More…]
What’s Up Out West: Someday, bikes and strollers in the wilderness
RBC I It hasn’t happened yet, but one day, bicycles and baby strollers will be welcome in wilderness areas. That’s the goal of the non-profit Sustainable Trails Coalition, which seeks to permit other forms of human-powered trail travel in wilderness areas, besides just walking.
Pack it in? Pack it back out, too
RBC I Westerners take great pride in their independent and self-sufficient nature, but that spirit is not always evident in the backcountry when people leave their trash for “someone else” to remove. Earlier this month, a Colorado man was sentenced to federal prison as punishment for massive littering, including leaving[Read More…]
Sen. Udall on 50 years of Wilderness Act
EDITOR’S NOTE: U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, who chairs the U.S. Senate National Parks Subcommittee and serves on the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wrote an op-ed column for the Chaffee County Times, marking the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act and reflecting on wilderness’s importance to Colorado’s special[Read More…]
Letter to the Editor: Giving away our great outdoors
Dear Editor: U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has proposed legislation that opens tens of millions of acres of pristine lands to corporate polluters.
