Like the rest of the country, we have not seen much of any snow in the Pacific Northwest this season. I went skiing at Snoqualmie last weekend and there were large patches of mud showing through many runs. This is certainly not the year to be a skier.

Normally I wouldn’t bother skiing in these conditions, but I had to stop by ski patrol as Snoqualmie wouldn’t return my calls after the accident. I had to refuse to leave before they’d let me talk to someone. Come to find out, the guy that ran Sarah over wasn’t just some random snowboarder. The guy was a Summit at Snoqualmie snowboard instructor.

I was eating lunch in the lodge at Summit East and happened to glance down at the pass the guy behind the counter was wearing. It was the exact same red pass the guy that ran into Sarah had been wearing. So, this guy was an employee.

All of a sudden it made sense why I hadn’t been able to get in contact with anyone at Snoqualmie after leaving 5+ messages. So, I headed over to the ski patrol office at central and asked to talk to one of the supervisors. They said they’d take my number and give me a call but I had enough. I wasn’t leaving until I got to speak to someone. After a 5-10 minute wait, a supervisor came out and spoke to me. He hadn’t read the reports but said someone would be calling me within 24 hours to talk. So, I went home.

It only took me roughly 10 more unreturned calls and a couple unreturned emails to Snoqualmie before I finally got a call back. I had called everyone I had a number for and had been hung up on by guest services. When the head of ski patrol finally called back, he dropped the bomb. The guy that hit Sarah was a snowboard instructor at Summit. However, he said the guy had said something along the lines of Sarah being on the “blind side” of his snowboard. So – as always – it wasn’t his fault.

If anyone should know the code of conduct the entire industry subscribes to, an instructor should. In fact, they’re tested on it as part of the level 1 AASI certification that they have to take before they can teach. Snoqualmie’s take on the matter is that he wasn’t officially working. So, it’s not their problem.

Apparently I’ve been a big enough pain in their side and I finally have a meeting with the head of the ski/snowboard school on Saturday. Unfortunately this means I have to make the hour drive out to Snoqualmie to do this.

We’ll see where this goes, but frankly I’m beyond pissed at this point. When it happened, the only words the guy said to me were that it was Sarah’s fault for the accident because she turned in front of him. At no point did he bother to check if she was alright while she was screaming in pain on the snow. At no point has he said he was sorry. At no point did he bother to call ski patrol. At no point has he shown the slightest amount of remorse like any decent human being would. Did he even bother to stick his snowboard in the snow so someone else wouldn’t run over Sarah if they didn’t see her laying in the snow? Nope. I had to put my own skis in an X above her for that.

All he did was sit in the snow and cry because he was going to get in trouble. Once an onlooker and I had flagged down ski patrol, the snowboard instructor took ski patrol’s attention away from Sarah to point out another snowboarder saying he had ‘only been going that fast’ and that it wasn’t his fault because she had turned in front of him.

As I told the head of ski patrol on the phone this week. It doesn’t matter if Sarah had been drunk, high, and doing jumping jacks on the slope. She had the right of way and it was the snowboarder’s responsibility to avoid her. It scares me that this guy is teaching another generation of snowboarders.

What happens now? God knows. Sarah’s season is almost certainly over at this point after a whopping 3 days on the snow. Last year she got in around 30 and I got in 35. That’s certainly not happening for either of us at this point. Hopefully something good will come out of the meeting on Saturday, but after my discussions with Snoqualmie so far, I’m not holding my breath.

All I am certain of at this point is that I’m never buying a season pass at Snoqualmie again.

When going through pictures a couple days after the crash, I came across the following photo:

This was taken the morning of 12/31/11 (the day of the crash) of the exact part of the run Sarah got hit at. The unfurled slow sign can be seen on the right side of the picture. I had stopped behind it. Sarah was roughly where the skier is on the right side of this photo when she got hit. This is the end of a blue run (Golden Nugget) where it opens up in to a green.

We’ve been trying to track down how people can help the family since this has happened and have yet to get a response from the Park Service. However, Ranger Anderson’s father is a Pastor at the Redeemer Lutheran Church in NJ and they are collecting an offering for her family.

According to the church, all cards will be forwarded to the family. If you’d like to send a note expressing your condolences, the mailing address is:

Redeemer Lutheran Church
229 Cowperthwaite Place
Westfield, NJ 07090

If you wish to contact the church about making a donation to the family, the contact information for the church is available here.

UPDATE: We got a response back from the park service with information about donating money to the family:

We had spent the day skiing and were on our way back to the car to head home when the incident occurred. I had stopped below a slow sign and was waiting for Sarah to catch up to me. Sarah was coming down the slope and was about to stack up beneath me. At this point, the guy you see in the photo above came down the run straight lining it the entire way. Sarah started to turn right and the guy ran in to her at full speed.

Sarah was lifted in to the air off her skis. Her skis came off and she was thrown roughly 15 ft down the hill. It was not a light landing. By the time she came to a stop she had at least done a 180 as her feet were facing down hill.

Thankfully the guy that hit her didn’t run and a guy named Ron that saw the entire incident stopped and called 911. We managed to flag down someone from ski patrol a minute or two later and the troops were summoned.

Sarah was eventually backboarded down to ski patrol and had what will most certainly be the most expensive ride home from the slopes she’ll ever have courtesy of a 37 minute ambulance ride to Swedish Medical in Issaquah.  Thankfully after some x-rays, nothing was found to be broken. Since we always wear helmets while skiing, there thankfully weren’t any head or neck problems either. There’s just a ton of pain at this point and she’s probably going to be out of commission for at least a couple weeks.

Ski Patrol at Snoqualmie was fantastic the entire way. There are about 20 people to thank, but I didn’t get everyone’s name as it was a bit hectic to say the least. The people in the ER at Swedish Medical were also better than anyone could ever expect.

As for the guy that ran in to her, I have no idea what’s going to happen to him. I’m pushing for Snoqualmie to pull his season pass at a minimum, but we’ll see what happens.

In any case, I’d like to at least make something positive out of this experience. First, to remind everyone of the Skier/Rider code of conduct:

1. Always stay in control and be able to stop or avoid other people or objects.
2. People ahead of you have the right of way. It is your responsibility to avoid them.
3. You must not stop where you obstruct a trail,or are not visible from above.
4. Whenever starting downhill or merging into a trail, look uphill and yield to others.
5. Always use devices to help prevent runaway equipment.
6. Observe all posted signs and warnings. Keep off closed trails and out of closed areas.
7. Prior to using any lift, you must have the knowledge and ability to load, ride and unload safely.

Obviously, the first two codes are what went wrong in this case. These rules are posted on nearly every lift I’ve ever ridden for this very reason.

I was stopped on the very edge of the trail below a bright orange slow sign. Sarah was also skiing on the edge of the trail (skiers right). We both had the appropriate safety gear on, we both observed the rules. Yet, one of us still got hurt. Even if you’re the best skier or rider in the world, it doesn’t protect you from the stupidity of others.

We were literally on our way to the car, on a fairly easy blue trail and still one of us got hurt. Wear a helmet, slow down around others, and hopefully something like this doesn’t have to happen again. While ski patrol was helping to secure Sarah, an 11 year old got run in to somewhere else at the resort. While I was waiting in the ski patrol office, there were 3 other ambulances pulling up outside. This does not have to happen.

Watch where you’re going, don’t be an idiot, and then you won’t end up looking like the idiot in the picture above.

I’d also like to point out that while this guy happened to be on a snowboard, he could have been skiing too. Ignorance of the rules is not limited to snowboarders and I’ve seen quite a few skiers do stupid things too.

Edit: I added a larger picture of the accident for a bit more clarity. Ski patrol had shown up at this point and were working on Sarah, but this is pretty much what it looked like when she landed.

Above is a picture of the spot she got hit from earlier in the day. Right around where the skier is on the right side of the photo.

CNL Lifestyle Properties says that they intend to operate the mountain the same way that it is currently being operated. Stevens is currently operated by Kapuscinski. CNL’s other ski resort, Snoqualmie, is operated by Boyne Mountain Resorts. Boyne also operates the third Seattle area ski resort, Crystal Mountain.

Personally, I hope CNL keeps Boyne away from Stevens. Skiing in Washington is already expensive. Less competition won’t do anything to decrease prices. For example, Boyne decided to keep Crystal Mountain open until July 4th last year. However, they also invalidated all season passes in mid April and made pass holders pay $99 for a ‘spring skiing pass’ if they wanted to continue to ski. Not exactly a move that makes me happy.

Perhaps in the long run this might be what finally gets me motivated enough to take an avalanche class and start doing backcountry skiing. No more lift lines, lots of fresh powder, and no more people wearing jeans trying to run in to me on the slopes. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing after all…

More information on the sale is available at the Seattle Times website here.

Well, it looks like Kelty is trying to change a couple of those. The Cosmic Down 20 degree sleeping bag is a 2.5lb (1.12kg) down filled sleeping bag that comes in at the extremely low price of $100. Typically this price point is reserved for light weight summer bags or 6lb monstrosities that take up half your pack.

How did they do it? Well, it’s a down bag, but don’t expect everything you get in one of the $350 down bags. The down used in the Cosmic Down is 550 fill duck down. This means it’s not as high loft as an 800 fill bag and thus weighs more for the same amount of insulation. That said, this is a 2.5lb bag. It’s not going to be breaking anyone’s back. It’s also about half the weight of comparable synthetic bags at this price. The lining is a simple polyester, not the breathable/waterproof fabrics you occasionally see on much more expensive bags.

Additionally, the sack it comes with is pretty basic without any real way to compress the bag down in your pack. I’d highly recommend you spend the $15-20 on a nice compression sack for your outings. No storage sack is included either. So, you might want to invest in one of those too.

In testing, our impressions were over all positive. The fill is a bit lumpy looking compared to the $350 20 degree Mountain Hardwear bag we brought along for comparison. It’s also quite apparent that Kelty saved a lot of weight by cutting back on the thickness of the fabric. The Cosmic Down uses a 50 denier polyester that doesn’t look like it would last for an AT or PCT through hike. That said, for the average camper, it should be more than adequate.

The baffles aren’t high tech like many of the newer bags coming on the market, but they work well to keep the down in place. There were one or two spots I could see that were a bit light on the down, but over all this sleeping bag should keep you pretty warm.

Kelty used a 3/4 length zipper in the Cosmic Down 20. This saves some weight, but may come at the cost of accessibility. In use, we never had a problem though. They brought the zipper down far enough that it was never an issue getting in and out of the bag.

How about the big question, does the bag keep you warm at night? We haven’t had anything near 20 degree nights yet here in the PNW, but we were testing on a 40 degree night. The bag was warm enough to require venting.

So in the end, the Kelty Cosmic Down 20 degree sleeping bag works well at a spectacularly low price point. It certainly doesn’t have the features of the $350 sleeping bags, but you’ll have an additional $250 in your pocket. It’s about a pound heavier than the $350 bag. So, if you’re looking to go ultralight, this may not be the bag for you. You’ll also need to get yourself a storage sack and a decent stuff sack. So, be sure to budget for those.

When it comes down to it though, this bag is a steal at $100. If you’re the average camper, you could do far worse than the Cosmic Down. It works well, will keep you warm, and does the job well.

Product provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.

The Fulcrum boots are a bit of a hybrid between retro and current styles. They have the classic brown leather look to them, but with many of the recent niceties of modern gear. A full Vibram sole with the latest compound rubber is included, Gore-Tex to keep you dry, and even Wolverine’s individual comfort system (ICS) to keep your heels happy on long hikes.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about these boots is how soft the leather is. I was expecting the typical hard leather that you find in boots today, but these are made out of a rather supple leather. This obviously isn’t a huge feature, but it was a nice touch. This hasn’t resulted in any difference in durability as far as I can tell either.

Thankfully, the Fulcrum runs true to size. I didn’t have any fit issues with these boots aside from a bit of heel lift until I got the lacing set correctly.  Also, the arch support is what I would call middle of the road. If you have high arches, you might need insoles, but I didn’t have any problems.

This boot’s claim to fame is Wolverine’s individual comfort system. ICS consists of a gel filled disc that can be adjusted to whatever firmness you want at the heel. Need more cushion in your step? Turn the disc to the low setting and off you go. In practice it’s slightly different than that though. The disc is under the insole and can be a bit cumbersome to change. So, it’s not something you’ll want to do on the trail. That said, chances are you have a setting you like and it will stay at that setting for the life of the boot.

In practice, ICS worked pretty well. There’s a definite difference in cushioning between the firm and soft setting, with a good number of intermediate choices. The only downside is that you can feel a slight ridge where the ICS system ends. This never became a problem when I tried the boots, but you can feel it.

On the trail, the Fulcrums performed admirably. As expected, the Vibram soles kept me on solid footing. Gore-Tex made sure my feet stayed nice and dry in the typical drizzling Pacific Northwest fall this year. I also have yet to get a single blister in these boots, which is a very good thing considering I hadn’t broken them in before I hit the trail.

Over all, I really liked the Fulcrum. The ICS took a bit to get used to, but it’s a well made boot with features that justify the $200 price tag. If you’re in the market for a boot that’s a bit of a throwback, but want all the latest features, the Fulcrum is a good place to start.

Product sample provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.

You’ve probably noticed a bit of a lack of activity on Daily Hiker in the past month or so. With hiking season coming to a close and a massive amount of work at both of our day jobs, we haven’t had a lot of time to do much on the website. Thankfully work seems to be dying down and we’re about to switch over to winter mode. So, here’s a few answers to questions we’ve gotten recently:

Stickers:

If you’ve requested a sticker in the last month or so, you’ve been waiting pretty patiently for it to arrive. Unfortunately we had run out of stickers and it took a while to get the order in for them. We recently got more in. So, if you have requested a sticker, it should be on its way now.

Giveaways:

We’ll be running more giveaways soon. We’re actually pretty far behind on the reviews and need to get those out before we can do a giveaway. Stay tuned, but we’ll be doing more of those soon.

Reviews:

We’ll be running more reviews than usual to catch up with where we should be. Normally we don’t like to do more than 1 a week, but there’s a stack of gear in our closet that needs to get reviewed before we can give it away.

T-shirts:

The big news of this post is what’s going on with the t-shirts. We had originally wanted to do shirts on wicking blanks. We went through a total of 18 blanks looking for one that worked great. We talked to the printer and they said it wouldn’t be a problem. However, by the time we got the design done the printer all of a sudden said it couldn’t be done.

Long story short, we ended up having to get the t-shirts printed on cotton blanks. They’ll be available this week as we add them to the online store.

The other big news is once the t-shirts are sold out, they’re gone for good. Ultimately, Daily Hiker isn’t here to make a profit. We just want people to get outside and do whatever human powered activity they like. From our side, running Daily Hiker is supposed to be fun. The t-shirts have taken up enough of our time that it started to take the fun out of running the website. So, we’re going to stop doing t-shirts.

The remainder of what we have on hand is going to go on sale and once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. We might do some limited edition shirts in the future, but this is it for now.

Hopefully this will allow us a lot more free time to spend actually hiking and skiing, which is why we write Daily Hiker in the first place. After spending a good half of the sunny weekends this summer working on t-shirts, we need to get back to what’s fun.

I hope everyone had a great summer filled with many outdoor memories. Hopefully this summer will be just as fun. Keep your eyes open for upcoming giveaways and we’ll see everyone on Facebook.

The marketing-speak on these shoes sounds like the standard low hiker. Performance rubber soles, pretty decent sized lugs, designed for traction on a variety of surfaces. The uppers are made from Yak leather, which the company says is significantly more durable than normal leather. The perfect material for shoes that get scraped on rocks and trees. That’s great and all, but how do these hold up in the real world?

Well, I’ve had these shoes for a little over a month now and they’ve been through 4 states, multiple airports, and a good amount of mud and rock. I’d like to think I have a pretty decent feel for how these shoes will perform.

At first I was a bit skeptical about the durability claims of yak leather. When you meet with the PR person for a shoe company, they’re always quick to point out how great their products are compared to the competition, no matter the quality of the product. So, I try to keep an open mind until I try something out. Much to my surprise, Ecco was right about the leather. I’ve put these shoes through some rather horrendous conditions, and they still look brand new.

The fit is quite comfortable out of the box. I had been using a pair of Masterfit inserts with my last pair of shoes, but found I don’t really need them with these. Arch support is good and they fit true to size. I wore them for a work week before I actually went hiking in them, but haven’t gotten a blister yet.

Perhaps the best praise I can give these shoes is that they’re now the usual pair I pick out of the closet. Given how much footwear we test, that’s pretty high praise.

Nothing is ever perfect though, right? With the Tahoe I can’t really find any faults with their construction or design. If I had to find something bad about these shoes, it’d be the price. At $150, these aren’t cheap shoes. At that price range I might like to see a Vibram sole to justify the cost a bit more, but there’s nothing wrong with the one Ecco uses. It grips just as well as the standard Vibram sole.

So, bottom line the Ecco Tahoe shoes are well designed but come at a fairly steep price. This may be somewhat justified by the fact that they’re quite durable, but the initial cost is pretty steep.

Product provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.

Goleta, CA…September 21, 2011…Deckers Outdoor Corporation (NASDAQGS: DECK) is offering a
$10,000 reward to the individual(s) with direct information that can help to locate friend, family
member and long-time Cycle Oregon volunteer Mark Bosworth, missing from Riddle, Oregon since
September 16. As the employer of Mr. Bosworth’s wife, Julie, Deckers has offered to promote the search
with this reward.

“Our employees are like family, and so in a very real way, Mark is part of our family,” said Deckers CEO,
President and Chairman of the Board Angel Martinez. “We want to help find him and support Julie in
any way we can.”

On Friday, September 16th at around 11 pm, Mark Bosworth went missing at the Cycle Oregon camp in
Riddle, Oregon. He was last seen wearing black cycling shorts or pants, a grey Cycle Oregon sweatshirt
and a yellow Cycle Oregon hat.

Around 100 friends, family and Cycle Oregon colleagues have assisted with the search effort in the
Riddle area without result. It is possible that Mark could have journeyed further than the immediate
area. Friends from Cycle Oregon informed investigators that Mark had exhibited uncharacteristic
behavior prior to his disappearance, such as exhaustion and sleeping more than usual. It was also
reported that he had acted confused and that his speech was incoherent at times. Mark has been facing
an ongoing battle with lymphoma, and it is possible that he is disoriented. He is reported to be without a
wallet or any form of identification.

If anyone has contact with or has seen Mr. Bosworth, they are asked to please call the Douglas County
Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at (541) 957-2099 or Douglas County Communications at (541) 440-4471. Those
outside of the Douglas County area should first alert their local authorities and then the tip line.

Resources and information:

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/DouglasCoSO?ref=ts

Douglas County Blog on Mark Bosworth search here: http://www.findmarkbosworth.blogspot.com/

Bike Portland site: http://bikeportland.org/2011/09/21/day-five-in-the-search-for-mark-bosworth-
59365

# # #

Douglas County Communications
(541) 440-4471

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line
(541) 957-2099

Northwest:

WTA:

The WTA is running a massive number of work parties to help maintain the trails in Washington. As a plus, if you help maintain the trails you might get a free year long pass to park at trailheads. The full list of their work parties is available here.

Pacific Crest Trail Association:

The PCTA is running PCT days this weekend (9/2/11-9/4/11) at Cascade Locks, Oregon. It looks like it should be a fun time that includes “a work party (PCT maintenance), product demonstrations & displays, a huge product/gear raffle, a screening of a the documentary / film, “Six Million Steps”, and a “5th anniversary of PCT DAYS dance party”, DJ-ed by event coordinator “Nabor J”".

The PCTA is also running a trail skills college which is a free two day event that teaches you how to maintain trails. It’s being held at Hyatt Lake Recreation Area about 20 miles outside Ashford, OR on Saturday and Sunday 9/23-9/24/11.

Rockies:

Continental Divide Trail Alliance:

Most of the CDTA’s volunteer activities are during the summer. So, there’s only a few trail days left. If you want to volunteer though, check out the list of what they have available here. They just might need some help on their end of season trail crews.

Wisconsin:

Ice Age Trail Alliance:

The fine people over at the IATA can always use some help. Their season is starting to wind down, but there are still plenty of ways you can help out. Check out their volunteer page here. As a plus, the Alliance is run by some really nice people.

East Coast:

Appalachian Trail:

If you’re like me and grew up on the East Coast, the AT has always been the main trail for you. The trail goes through nearly every part of the East Coast. So, if you live on the East Coast, chances are there’s a section near you.

The trail doesn’t maintain itself though. So, the Appalachian Trail Conservatory is always looking for volunteers. This fail they’re running trail crews to help maintain it. Check out the full list of volunteer opportunities here. Since the trail is huge, you can search for opportunities by state. So, you should be able to  find something in your area.

New York New Jersey Trail Conference:

The NYNJTC maintains a massive number of trails in the New York City area. They also produce by far the best maps of the trails near New York. If you hike near the city, chances are that you’ve been on one of their trails. They don’t have any specific dates set up at the moment, but they can always use some help. Check out their volunteer page here.

These are the ones we know of at the moment. There are a multitude of opportunities in every state to help give back. So, check out the groups in your area. Happen to know something that we missed? Let us know in the comments.