Backpacking, picnicking, rock climbing, running, bicycling, skiing, snowshoeing and caving in Sequoia National Forest, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and Mountain Home State Forest. This book is a wonderful guide for the areas of the Sierra closest to Los Angeles and often bypassed on route to the more northern High Sierra.

This rocky, dry forest exemplifies all the stages of life for these trees. The mature living trees provided us much needed shade and shelter from the wind. Scattered in were the standing dead.  Leafless trunks each with a personality, much like the Joshua tree always seems to be waving at you, these characters were darker, almost scary, with twisted branches often blackened by lightning strike or scars from past fires. These trees will soon meet their fallen brothers who lay across the boulder strewn ground with roots exposed, knotted and polished by the pressure of the yearly snowfall. Pieces broken off, painted by fire sun and wind, could sit in a gallery or in a modern home as furniture.

I took these photos after a warm meal just as the last pale light to the west slowly disappeared behind Mt. Langley. This is why I go to the mountains. To spend two hours obsessing on wood grain. To notice the little details. To feel small myself. To find new perspective.

My first knife was given to me as a birthday present at a very young age. It was the standard tiny red Swiss army knife that now comes in pink. I cherished that thing. It mad me feel grown up and responsible. I owned a sharp object that could carve wood or inflict pain. Mostly I whittled sticks into points and then had to take out splinters with the tweezers. If I was lucky after bagel eating, a poppy seed would need removing and the toothpick would get some playtime. I still have this knife 20+ years later.

My second Swiss Army was black, and bigger and more rugged and sent to me from my high school girlfriend while on a summer trip to Oregon. She was kind enough to get it engraved with my name but somehow she managed to spell it wrong. I have never been able to figure that one out. I still have this knife too, but mainly because it cracks me up every time I see it.

There have been a slew of others but the knife I have been carrying with me for the last 5 or so years is a Smith and Wesson Extreme Ops serrated drop point. It was very sturdy and often felt like a fixed blade. It is a very economic knife at under $20 yet has a ton of features from S&W more expensive lines. I liked that it had a lanyard hole so I would have another shot at catching it before dropping it in a river.

While not fully retiring the S&W I did find a substitute in the CRKT Kommer 30-30. This was an impulse purchase on steepandcheap, which is basically crack for climbers with day jobs, kinda like what late night infomercials are to insomniacs with credit cards. I was essentially watching the knife show on basic cable.

I was in the market for a fixed blade knife, but this one came up and received great reviews. The Krommer is a classic drop point knife with a beautiful ebony wood handle. The blade action is super smooth and there is almost zero lateral movement in the simple machine. I have yet to get it really dirty, but the design lack any nooks and crannies where mud and debris may hide.

To sum this sucker up, this is a knife that I will pass on to some kid someday, it’s that pretty. This will happen a few years after his or her first Swiss Army (not in pink), after a few good trips into the woods together and after the understanding that this sharp object had been with me for years and was special.

If you can’t take the heat, well, your not alone. It is summer after all. And as much as I love to cook and spend time in the kitchen, this is no time to be turning on the oven or slaving over a stove.

Here in Portland, the weather has not been feeling so summery. Up until a few days ago, it’s been feeling more like May not Aug. I almost had to double check what month it was. Mornings have been a wee bit chilly. 52 degrees chilly. Sleep with the blanket and put on a hoodie as I make a cup of hot coffee chilly.  Afternoons, though, that is another story. As the day moves along, the cloudy skies burn off and by 4pm, it’s hot.  It’s too hot to go for a run. It’s too hot to be biking around town, and it’s definitely too hot to be cooking anything in the kitchen.

But what do you do when it’s too hot to cook? Eat cold foods, load up on all those seasonal fruits and veggies with a high water content such as cucumbers, berries and watermelon, and grill, baby, grill. You are probably thinking to yourself, but Courtney, grills are hot coals of fire, that’s hot! True, but when you are outside, drinking an ice cold beer, grilling is the thing to do. Even better, it’s an excuse to invite friends over and make an afternoon of it.

One of my favorites is yogurt marinated chicken. Yogurt is naturally cooling. Mint, which is found in the marinade is also cooling. And summer is the best time to make it as fresh herbs are in season and easily obtained.

Here is what you need:
1 cup plain yogurt – Fat, no fat, it really doesn’t matter
1 lemon – for zest and juice
1 tbspn olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped mint
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 shallot minced
a generous pinch of salt
Pepper
4 breast of chicken

When cooking with lemon juice and zest, it’s always a good idea to zest first them squeeze. Over a large bowl,  zest the whole lemon with a fine toothed grater. Then, what I like to do, is roll the lemon on the work surface before slicing it in half and juicing it. This helps you get the most out of every lemon. If you have a handy wooden citrus reamer, now is the time to use it. If you don’t, for $6 bucks, it’s well worth the investment. Otherwise, squeeze the heck out of the lemons with your bare hands, they work just as well.  Add the mined shallot, finely chopped mint and cilantro, oil, yogurt, salt and a couple of cracks of pepper and stir until well blended. I recommend tasting it to see if you want to add more salt or pepper before you add the chicken. Toss in the chicken, coat well with the marinade, cover and pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Fire up that grill, crack open a beer and get ready to get cooking. I recommend slightly oiling the grill before you throw the chicken on so it doesn’t stick. Discard the marinade and grill the chicken until cooked through. Roughly 10-12 minutes, flipping half way through.

Serve it up with some grilled veggies, salad or whatever else you fancy.

A good snowboard movie is defined by the riding. A great snowboard movie complements the riding with a perfectly curated soundtrack that consumes the viewer, sending them on a full mind vacation to the mountains (crap its still August). Gone are the days when you could just pump some metal and sync up some bangers. Now filmmakers are musicologists in a race to find the new bands, obscure classics and grimmey electro to heighten the “feeling” factor in the vids. Sometimes it works, Flavor Country had one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard and I downloaded every song off it, others just suck and warrant the mute button in order to focus on the ripping.

Volcom has been at the forefront of experimental board films for a few years. Escramble was an amazing flick that utilized sci-fi stop motion, ethereal synths and some odd ball location shots to give you a complete entertaining package.

Their latest flick 9191 is the first snowboard movie to include a completely original score. Piers Baron scored the Gigi Ruf feature with some high profile musical guests including Dave Lombardo (SLAYER drummer), Oliver Ackermann (A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS), Mike Conte (EARLY MAN), Hesta Prynn, and Jaime Lynn (KANDI CODED).

“9191″ was filmed around the globe in New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, Jackson Hole, Chile and Alaska. Throughout the film, Gigi was joined by friends and teammates: Wille Yli-Luoma, Bryan Iguchi, Luke Mitrani, Curtis Ciszek, Blair Habenicht, Nicolas Muller, Jake Blauvelt, Wolle Nyvelt and others.

Another flick I can not wait to check out.

I have been nerding out on the clips from this movie for a while now. Teton Gravity Research and Jeremy Jones have teamed up for one epic big mountain film! Jeremy was kind enough to lend his words here a while back so I wanted to spread the word for the Deeper movie tour dates. I will 100% be attending the LA screening at Cinespace on 10/8/10, see you there!  http://www.tetongravity.com/tour/deeper/

From the award winning producers at Teton Gravity Research (TGR), in partnership with Jeremy Jones, comes the most progressive big mountain snowboarding film to date, “DEEPER.” Follow Jeremy and other top freeriders as they travel to the world’s snowboarding meccas and venture past the boundaries of helicopters, snowmobiles, and lifts to explore an untouched realm. Hang on tight as Jeremy Jones faces the biggest challenges he has ever encountered in snowboarding. All night hikes, sleeping on peaks, camping 65 miles from civilization, 20 below temperatures, 10 day storms, and 20 mile days bring the adventure back into riding. Deeper puts the viewer in the athletes’ boots; from the trials to the tribulations, to mind-boggling breakthroughs in the sport of snowboarding.

“The Deeper crew put cameras in places and in conditions you could never imagine. It is the ultimate first-hand experience and the most insane riding I have ever seen.” – TGR co-founder Steve Jones.

A federal judge ruled last week to list gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act, saying that the Northern Rockies wolves must all be treated as a single population. In other words, if the animals are considered endangered in one state, they must be listed as endangered throughout the region. This of course excludes the population of Gray Wolf novelty items, who’s population is evidently thriving. Cattlemen and Ranchers are furious with the potential loss of livestock while Tourist Shop Owners are delighted with the ruling. Also affected are the many fantasy illustrators, metal heads and dungeon masters who are enamored with the animal.