Saturday mash-up: May 12, 2012
By separating these odd lots into discrete posts spread over several days, we might appear more professional. But alas, we are what we seem to be: The National Park Service is reminding folks that 33 national parks will offer premier seating for the solar eclipse on May 20, and six parks “are at the center...
Saturday mash-up: March 31, 2012
Whenever there’s a pile of items that accumulate over the week and we can’t get around to individual pieces on each one, we throw them into a bin like this, which we previously called a stew and then a hash. This time we’re call it a mash-up, which seems like another food metaphor but less...
Vargas of the trail map gets his due
We are occasionally confined to the great indoor wasteland of the desk, corner office, or garret. There we stare at a computer screen all day, with no opportunity to roam the precious spaces on earth. (Of course there is Google Earth, but the emptiness of that world wearies after a time. And, let’s face it,...
Vintage ski photos prompt nostalgia for a time we never knew
Some days skiing—especially resort skiing—seems to have no more connection to the raw mountain than a Carnival cruise ship has to the sea. If you snap into your bindings in hopes of engaging nature, you will be disappointed. The hills are mostly manicured and groomed, rendered comfortable and convenient and predictable. Most folks like...
Climate change is really starting to sting
Despite years of truly frightening predictions about the inevitability of climate change and its disastrous effects, the world seems to have lost traction on the issue . People are still writing stories, scientists are still debating models, activists are still acting. But previously concerned citizens now seem to be uttering a...
This week, media find old skiers fascinating
We have a new favorite line of the week, from a story in the Edmonton Journal on octogenarian skiers: during the photo shoot for the story, 87-year-old Hanna Andersen “thinks about doing a jump, something she hasn’t done since she was 85….”* Andersen is one of 20 over-80 skiers in Edmonton’s 400-member Rocky Mountain...
This is what ski videos used to look like
One nostalgic post (Runestone’s harkening back to his Jet Stix knock-offs) leads us to another. We came on this fascinating film that purports to show skiers in 1932 Poland’s Tatra Mountains (Geography lesson: The Tatra Mountains form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains. Thanks,...
Paraphernalia redux
We have become a nostalgic lot. This morning I was Googling, recollecting the back-of-the-calf supports that were slid into or otherwise added to old ski boots. All I came up with were Jet Stix, the lame supports that losers strapped to their Rosemount boots. (Who used Rosemount boots anyway?) I...
Saturday hash comes early: January 26, 2012
The idea behind these assemblages of random snippets is that they are supposed to accumulate over the week and then we chuck them out on the weekend, when we’re rather be doing something else. But sometimes the bucket gets filled early, and great news doesn’t necessary keep. So… These are...
Saturday hash: January 21, 2012
This is where we ball up all the loose ends of the week and shove them in a drawer, which we’ll open in six months looking for something else and say, “Oh. Remember this?” A guy was arrested this week for surfing off a beach…in Chicago. The perp isn’t quite...
Rainer Hertrich takes a break: The run of runs comes to an end
It’s over. Rainer Hertrich, the 50-year-old madman who had skied every day for 2,993 consecutive days, has stopped. The run of runs that started in 2003 is at an end, which means that Hertrich can finally claim his Guinness record for “Accumulated Vertical Descent in Consecutive Days on Telemark Gear.” ESPN...
Saturday stew: December 24, 2011
For those who don’t want more Christmas pudding, here’s another helping of Recreati stew. Digestible, delectable and full of good cheer: Don’t blame the holidays for your gut, Canadians. In a study conducted by Molson (yes, the brewer), most people say they’ll gain from one to nine pounds over...
