From the category archives:

safety

New Half Dome Permit System for 2010

January 29, 2010

In 2010 and 2011, if you want to hike up Half Dome on a weekend or holiday when the cables are up, you’re going to need to do some serious planning-ahead, because now you need a permit to do so.
According to the Yosemite National Park web site:
Beginning in 2010, all people using the Half Dome [...]

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First-Person eHiking

January 26, 2010

The web curators over at Urlesque have put together a small compilation of what they call “Virtual Reality Hiking” – first-person perspective videos of hikers on dangerous and harrowing treks around the world.
Some of the videos – like Spain’s El Camino Del Rey – have been around for a while, but that doesn’t make watching [...]

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How NOT to Descend

January 7, 2010

On a lot of the trails here in Southern California, the rocks are loose, dry, and sandy – slippery areas that resist even the grippiest of boot soles.
I’m sure many of you have seen some steep use-trails climbing up canyons off the established trail, and these paths seem like they’d cut off some [...]

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Hikers Trapped in Eaton Canyon

December 15, 2009

Eaton Canyon is a fairly non-intense, easily accessible trail in Pasadena, which can make it seem pretty innocuous to causal forest strollers – but four hikers found out the hard way that even these “easy” trails can be dangerous in the right conditions.
On Saturday afternoon, around 4:30 PM, four hikers -three men aged 18, 18, [...]

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Sign up for the Wilderness Travel Course

December 12, 2009

The Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club’s Wilderness Travel Course is offering an early-admissions discount to anyone who’s interested in taking the class next year, but it ends very soon.
If you sign up before December 15th, you’ll save $15 off the tuition for the class, which covers pretty much everything anyone would need [...]

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So Far, No Slides

December 9, 2009

One winter storm down, and none of the Station Fire burn areas have slid into the suburbs.
After an increased effort to clear out debris dams last week, only nine homes in Sunland were placed under mandatory evacuation during this recent winter storm, and no damage was reported. CalTrans has reopened all of the closed [...]

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iPhone Endangers, Saves Hiker

October 16, 2009

Fast Company dug up a story from Vermont about a hiker, her iPhone, and a bear.
Apparently, Kris Wagner, who also happens to be the Chief Information Security Officer for the state of Vermont, was on the trail using her iPhone while hiking. Because she wasn’t watching where she was going, she didn’t notice that [...]

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Ed Viesturs’ new K2 Book

October 13, 2009

Over the weekend, I spent some time in Florida, where the weather was definitely much more conducive to riding roller coasters and enjoying air conditioning than it was to hiking (100 degrees and humid as a sponge on most days) – but I did get to spend some time reading Ed Viesters’ and David Roberts’ [...]

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The Naturist

August 31, 2009

… ok, probably enough Station Fire doom and gloom for today. Time for some good, funny stuff, like Teva’s new ongoing viral promotion The Naturist.
Starring Gavin McInnes – one of the co-founders of Vice Magazine – The Naturist is a spot-on spoof of shows like Survivorman and Man vs. Wild. The first episode [...]

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Happy Birthday, Smokey

August 5, 2009

Thursday, August 13th, is Smokey Bear’s 65th birthday, but the US Forest Service has planned ahead and launched a birthday section of SmokeyBear.com, devoted to the mascot’s long history in our wilderness … thankfully replacing the pretty racist WWII forest safety posters that preceded him.
The site has a huge gallery of historic print, radio, and [...]

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