How well-equipped are you to face the White Death?
Bruce Tremper, author of the detailed "Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain," believed he had sufficient skills when, at age 24, he made a miscalculation that nearly cost him his life.
Tremper, then working at a Montana ski resort, describes himself as "a cocky, ex-national-circuit ski racer" who exhibited a snow-god swagger commonplace among young skiers: "In the vigor and ignorance of youth, I naturally enough considered myself to be an avalanche expert."
By Terry Wood | December 13, 2001
Even in the height of summer, camp can be a cold place at night. I've been snowed on every month of the year while camping, and I've had to knock ice off my tent door more than once in a high-elevation camp in August.
Therefore, when Mr. Heater Co. unveiled its new Portable Buddy propane heater, I was interested.
By Dan A. Nelson | December 13, 2001
STEVENS PASS -- Perched on the crest of the Cascades at the head of a valley that funnels in the Pacific Ocean's bluster, Stevens Pass ski area is not the biggest, grandest mountain resort around.
There isn't any village at its base. There isn't even a place to stay.
Its lift-served terrain encompasses 1,125 acres, by far not the most in Washington and a fraction of, say, a Whistler-Blackcomb.
It offers a vertical descent of a modest 1,800 feet.
By Greg Johnston | December 13, 2001
Water is what makes the Boulder River Trail special -- that and its big, old mossy trees -- so a drizzly December day is a perfectly appropriate occasion to go see its rumbling, tumbling rapids and lacey waterfalls.
Besides, the falls are fullest during the rainy months and this moody trail offers no alpine views anyway.
By Greg Johnston | December 13, 2001
Whether it means sipping a latte made from Japanese green tea, slurping a bowl of Cambodian noodle soup or shopping for a book on the history of Vietnam, a trip to Seattle's Chinatown International District is a little like hopscotching around Asia on foot.
Other cities have their Japantowns, Chinatowns and Koreatowns. In Seattle, however, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, African Americans, Vietnamese and other ethnic groups settled together and built one neighborhood.
By Carol Pucci | December 13, 2001
