Recent posts

7Aug 20258 Aug 2025

Western Brooks Range to Point Lay, Alaska

Another passenger on the flight to Kotzebue stopped at my row and introduced himself as Colin Arisman. Colin is an…

13Jan 202517 Jan 2025

Bad Date Ideas in Boston

I met Amy on the subway from Boston’s Logan Airport. I struck up a conversation with her son (6 years…

27Dec 202427 Dec 2024

American Whitewater Safety Code

It was an honor to be part of the team that revised American Whitewater’s Safety Code—and a very welcome opportunity…

Western Brooks Range to Point Lay, Alaska

7 Aug 20258 Aug 2025

Another passenger on the flight to Kotzebue stopped at my row and introduced himself as Colin Arisman. Colin is an award-winning filmmaker. We had exchanged emails but had not met…

Bad Date Ideas in Boston

13 Jan 202517 Jan 2025

I met Amy on the subway from Boston’s Logan Airport. I struck up a conversation with her son (6 years old?) and asked him to guess what was in my…

American Whitewater Safety Code

27 Dec 202427 Dec 2024

It was an honor to be part of the team that revised American Whitewater's Safety Code—and a very welcome opportunity to get paid to write! Sarah Glaser won the contract…

Alaska Legislature Citation of Honor

I was very surprised to receive a citation of honor from the Alaska Legislature for The Packraft Handbook and my efforts in promoting a packrafting culture of safety. The backstory…

Rocked and Iced: A Chitina River Cookie Heist

30 Oct 202430 Oct 2024

I joined six other storytellers on the Bear Tooth stage last week as part of a fundraiser for Healthy Futures. I told this story from our 2012 trip from Yakutat…

An Empty Freezer: McGrath, 2024

4 Oct 202412 Mar 2025

Here's how it goes. The sky clears as you fly north, but not in time to reveal more than the tops of Foraker and Denali—sharp white teeth above a blanket…

Basecamp-ish in the Wulik Peaks, Western Brooks Range

29 Aug 202418 Sep 2024

https://youtu.be/60iM-D0quQA I got a glimpse of the Wulik Peaks five years ago when Sarah and Josh Mumm and I hiked and packrafted from the Ambler River to the coast. We…

risk management…

Evacuation Insurance

26 Aug 20247 Dec 2024

Hello Luc: Thought you might have an answer to a quick question about who pays for a helicopter evacuation. This is a common point of concern and confusion for backcountry…

Nome and the Seward Peninsula—first Impressions

21 Aug 202423 Aug 2024

It's a puffy-jacket-in-the-summer kind of place.-Burr I've been waiting a long time to visit the Seward Peninsula. The nose-shaped peninsula stretches to within 50 miles of Russia, making ancient migration…