by Thomas O’Harra So, we’ve been in Kazakhstan for about a week now, and I have to say, this place is crazy (also a note on the title, I figured that it was only a matter of time before someone said it). Not in a bad crazy, either. It is just… different here. Personally I have no background in Russian or Kazakh (which are very similar) or any other Cyrillic languages, so walking down the street I feel very lost. Also, the drivers are worse than L.A. and Chicago combined, and it seems like using your horn is expected rather than frowned upon. That said, everyone that I’ve talked to…

First published in the Anchorage Press. [divider] On Sunday, January 18th, Alaska Pacific University student, Dasan Marshall fell to his death on the North Face of Mount Yukla. Marshall was scouting a section of a route in a couloir when he slipped and fell 1,000 feet down the face. An avid climber and explorer from Portland, Oregon, Dasan Marshall had been living in Alaska since 2012. Marshall had been attending his last semester at Alaska Pacific University (APU) to complete his Bachelor’s degree in Outdoor Studies and working on his senior project that involved starting an alpine club for the student community at APU. The following tribute to Dasan was…

by Thomas O’Harra So, on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week (the 3rd and 4th, respectively), I had my first two races of the championships. Tuesday’s race was a classic sprint, and Wednesday’s race was a 10K skate individual start. For those who don’t know, a sprint race is rather confusing to someone who hasn’t seen it in action before. The day starts out with an individual start time trial around the course, with racers going every 15 seconds. Then, the people who post the top 30 times advance on to heats. This starts out with the quarterfinals, which are five heats of six people. The two fastest skiers from…

by Thomas O’Harra So, it seems that I’ve found myself in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I’m writing this from more than halfway across the globe, sitting in a hotel room that is literally held together with packing tape. I first heard about this place when I attended the Junior World Ski Championships last winter in Italy. After some disappointing results there, I turned my attention to Almaty. Knowing that it was there—and that I definitely had a good chance at making the team—motivated me during training over the summer and fall. In retrospect, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Almaty is a city of 1.6 million people (I…

by Nick Jenkins Abstract: As another winter approaches with growing uncertainty, outdoor professionals across the globe are scrambling to prepare for what is sure to be another surprising season. As climate change intensifies our winters will become more extreme and unpredictable which will lead to many negative social and environmental impacts. As our snow disappears and our winters become shorter there is irreversible damage that is being done to local economies and environments. This paper attempts to examine those impacts and explore what specifically is happening to our winter environment.   Experts studying our changing winters have observed that it is caused by climate change (Green & Monger, 2012; Calanca…

by Garrett Okonek Think of Schrödinger’s cat, a thought experiment in which a cat is left inside a box with a vial of poison. The vial may break and kill the cat. Or it might not. While the lid is closed, there is no way of knowing whether the vial broke. The cat can be thought both alive and dead. Either option is possible. Unless you open the box, you can’t really tell. This is Mexico today. Everything could be happening. Or nothing. The country is in the midst of a crisis that, up until a few months ago, seemed unlikely. The government was passing structural and constitutional reforms in…

by Bridget Galvin There are few things in this world that I truly hate, as hate is a very strong word. I remember, growing up, whenever I would get frustrated with one of my three very loud, very annoying brothers it would inevitably end in a screaming match. Each screaming match would follow the same basic script and conclude with the three words that were commonly tossed around in the early days of the Galvin household: “I hate you!” This term, to my mother, was the most awful expression in the English language. Of course, she would never get angry with her little angels; so, instead of yelling, she would…