Monthly Archives: July 2009

Mystery Ranch at Outdoor Retailer

By Andrew Crow | Published July 24, 2009

Check out the article:

http://www.examiner.com/x-2028-Salt-Lake-City-Outdoor-Recreation-Examiner~y2009m7d24-Mystery-Ranch-Backpacks-flies-under-the-radar-at-Outdoor-Retailer… READ MORE >

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Prescribed Fire

By Pat Gladics | Published July 14, 2009
Featuring: Hot TopHot3

It’s early may in region 3 (Arizona and New Mexico for all you non-forest service folks) – this is the time of year you usually see big wildfires around here.   It’s hot and dry.  The season has been unusually slow though, which is strange since region 3 had an extremely dry winter.  I was expecting to get the call to go somewhere – like the Coronado in southern Arizona (where temp’s are usually above 90 and erratic winds usually make for some big fires)  or the Gila.

So when we found out we were going to go do a prescribed burn up near Hatch I was more than a little surprised.  I was shocked when I heard we were only going to be there for 1 shift. Usually when a hotshot crew does a prescribed burn we are there from start to finish not just for a little piece of it.  I was told we would be there for black-line operations and they would bring a heli-torch in to light the rest.  Black-lining is a process by which a crew will light fire around the edge of a prescribed burn, making a buffer of burned fuels around the perimeter so … READ MORE >

Posted in Mystery Ranch Employees, Playing with Fire, Uncategorized, What's Hot | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Perfect Granite

By Patrick Odenbeck | Published July 14, 2009
Featuring: SnapdragonTrance XXX

About 40 miles North of Vancouver, where the ocean touches the land, the second largest granite monolith in North America jets virtually straight up from sea to sky.  The perfect granite of Squamish, British Columbia is littered with so many beautiful features and climbing history, and neither of Loni or I had been there before. We intended to climb and experience this mystical place for ourselves.  After leaving Montana late Wednesday night we made it to Squamish around 3 PM Thursday afternoon.  We set up camp below the Chief.  The Chief one of the cleanest pieces of granite I have ever seen and gazed upon it with jaws agape.

Once we had settled down we made the casual approach over to the area called the Bulletheads.  We ventured up some fixed lines and jumped on the rock.

Starting with some cruiser stuff to get used to the rock and get our bodies loose after the 13+ hours of driving.     That night it became apparent that the atmosphere in the campground was quite relaxed.  It was a climbing tailgate party!  People could be found cooking behind their vehicles, sharing food and beers and stories of the vertical world filled the … READ MORE >

Posted in Mystery Ranch Employees, Trip Reports | Tagged , | 5 Comments