Beaver fever, iodine tablets, “Cathole” digging, bear-proof containers—these are just a few aspects of backcountry adventuring, where you can enjoy exceptional landscape beauty and natural serenity with your children. To better understand how to start planning, here are some ideas and recommendations. Begin with a “backcountry lite” experience, or seeking out enough primitive wilderness without […]
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Summer days waver between languid and whirlwind activities, work, and weekends. Is there ever enough time for all you want to do? Slow it down. Or maybe you need to energize your schedule this year. Make summer “epic” on your own terms by using some of these ideas to create your ideal summertime calendar.
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A National Park Service report recently highlighted the significant contributions these parks play in the Northwest economy. In Washington last year, 8.5 million National Park and National Monument visits contributed $508 million to gateway areas, supported more than 6,500 jobs, and cumulatively benefited local economies by $677 million. While Washington’s three biggest National Parks, Mount Rainier, Olympic
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Want your kid to enjoy dirty hands and knees as they experience challenges and excitement in the great outdoors? Here’s our annual list of regional summer camps that provide unique opportunities for adventure and hands-on learning about nature, science, and outdoor skills – with something for every child, any age, and every family. Art of
Outdoorsy Summer Camps – 2018 Read More »
The Liberty Bell Group, a cluster of five granite spires at Washington Pass outside Mazama, is home to some of the most popular and iconic alpine climbing in Washington State. Classic Cascade climbs like the Beckey Route on Liberty Bell and the West Face of North Early Winter Spire are here. Over the last decade,
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Washington climber Fred Beckey was a legend among Northwest Mountaineers as a climber, historian, and environmentalist. He passed away on October 30, 2017 at 94 years old. Beckey’s climbing career started at a young age, long before he became a member of Seattle’s Mountaineers Club in 1939 at age 16. Beckey climbed nearly to his
Fred Beckey’s Legacy Lives On Read More »
There is a worn, scratched, and cobweb-covered SMC ice axe that’s been hanging in one of my gear caves or another for over a decade. And I’ve never used it. This old blue ice axe is a bit too short for me, but the main reason it perpetually hangs on a wall collecting dust is
Janine Benyus wanted to capture how processes in the natural world had inspired sustainable solutions to complicated design challenges, so she authored the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature in 1997. Twenty years later, biomimicry is a key strategy in disrupting the status quo and inspiring innovation across disciplines. Benyus’ website Ask Nature documents hundreds
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I kick steps into the early summer snow, aiming for the saddle before sunrise. Our fluorescent yellow tent grows smaller on the col, and steep ridges hem in the skyline. In a few hours the sun will fry the bites and scratches from yesterday’s 12-hour standoff with mosquitos and devil’s club. I try to maintain
As the school year came to a close, my family and I were sitting around the dinner table discussing plans for the summer. Hanging out at the lake, a trip to Seattle, and our annual pilgrimage to Silverwood were all planned out. Out of the blue, my better half said, “You boys should go do
