The Shorts — The Amazement Meter
The Amazement Meter Chronic depression and the deaths of a few close friends launched Tyler Dunning on a mission to visit all of the National Parks–to get his head and his heart straight. He figured out how to support himself by writing for outdoor publications and coordinated logistics to make his way to 53 […]
The Shorts — Unlearning Adventure Sports
Unlearning Adventure Sports “I’m learning how to listen to that subconscious voice of caution,” says Carmen Kuntz. “Where I used to feed on the feeling of adrenaline and risk, I now have to avoid risk completely. After a mild traumatic brain injury it’s simple: I’m not allowed to hit my head ever again.” When an […]
The Shorts — Aloha Life
Aloha Life “Here I was, a professional wilderness instructor with no food or water, a sopping wet tent and wetter sleeping bag, no way to banish the chills or signal that I needed help,” says Emma Walker. “For the first time in my career, I began to think I might need a rescue.” Emma’s husband […]
The Shorts — Zarsian Adventures
Zarsian Adventures “My dad started whistling. That was the first bad sign,” Cordelia Zars remembers. “Then walking around the cabin and straightening things. The second. When he tromped up the ladder, rummaged around in the loft, and hollered down at me, ‘Oh say, Cord…’? I knew it was over. Some ridiculous idea had […]
The Shorts — T-Day
T-Day There’s a light-hearted joy in friend holidays. Thanksgiving in Indian Creek or slaying powder for Christmas may sound like more fun than going ‘home’ for holidays fraught with family dynamics. At least it felt that way for Katie Wallace. “Thanksgiving had always been a tough holiday for me,” says Katie. “It meant days of […]
The Shorts — Yard Sale
Yard Sale “On a typical day, I taught farmers how to snowplow and chased foreign exchange students through the parking lot as they careened toward diesel pickup trucks,” Tyler Neese remembers from his winters in college at an Iowa ski hill. “While skiing is never a bad way to earn a buck, at the end […]
The Shorts — Thirst
Thirst “If you’re thirsty, you’re probably already dehydrated. That’s what they say. Those perfect people who always have a clean, happily-colored, reusable adult sippy bottle on hand,” says Anya Miller. “Most often, I only realize that I’m thirsty when someone offers me a drink. My friend Jesse Bushey brought up climbing El Cap. I didn’t […]
The Shorts — Double Vision
Double Vision “I looked like some mountain man’s girlfriend, and sometimes, that’s all I felt like,” remembers Andrea Ross. “It was easy to hide in Darren’s shadow–to let the world knock on his door first.” But after an accident on Mt. Humphreys forced Andrea to draw on her EMT training and courage to coordinate a […]
The Shorts — Exit Strategy
Exit Strategy “Three days from the end of the trip, I started to panic,” writes Emma Walker. “I still didn’t know what to do with my summer, let alone the rest of my life. Inspiration, as I’d imagined it, hadn’t struck. Now, I had to face the realization that I didn’t have an exit strategy. […]
