Ski Helmet Legislation Arrives, While Freedom of Choice Slowly Evaporates

Last week, the California legislature advanced a bill that could make helmets mandatory for junior skiers and snowboarders. Not to be outdone, a New York Assemblyman introduced a bill requiring adults to wear helmets at ski resorts in the state. The idea of eliminating freedom of choice from recreational pursuits is clearly (and sadly) gaining traction in certain parts of the country.

What Does Your Stuff Really Say About You?

Should we spend more time thinking about the external costs of the material goods we fill our homes with? And is America’s addiction to consumerism a response to the diminishing role social interaction plays in our day-to-day lives? The Story of Stuff offers a compelling argument for people to re-examine their relationship with consumer goods.

Generation Recreation

The Olympic Dream Sure Beats Tiger Woods’ Nightmare

There’s something incredibly real that’s reflected in the efforts of Olympic athletes, who toil in anonymity for a shot at glory once every four years. When Tiger Woods’ apology statement interrupted my Olympic reverie on Friday, the contrast between the joy that accompanies Olympic success and the misery evinced by Tiger’s robot-like performance couldn’t have been greater. 

Generation Recreation

Wyoming School’s Anti-Hate Program Reveals Intolerance

Last week in Washington DC, the Senate Armed Services committee held hearings to consider rescinding the U.S. military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy regarding gay soldiers. At the same time, one Wyoming school district has decided to adopt an attitude most accurately described as “Let’s pretend gay people don’t even exist.”

The “No Place for Hate” program doesn’t require the school to raise a rainbow flag out front, or mandate the establishment of gay student groups or even endorse any curriculum. It’s merely an umbrella program to encourage and support tolerance.

Generation Recreation

Losing Ground: Energy Development on Public Lands

An Interior Department announcement of proposed changes to federal oil and gas leasing policies has brought predictable responses from the right and the left. But the federal government still has done nothing to address the exploitation of public lands by energy companies, or the absence of a forward-thinking domestic energy policy.

Generation Recreation

Ski Patroller Death Highlights the Real Price of Powder Turns

In Jackson Hole, the early-morning sound of explosives reverberating across the valley is a ski community signal that says powder day.  Few ski resorts in the continental United States are as challenging to control for avalanches. It’s exactly what makes the skiing in Jackson so fantastic, what draws the most dedicated ski bums, and why ski patrolling there is such a serious job.

Generation Recreation

A Guatemalan Vacation Offers a Different Kind of Education

To fulfill a need for exploration when I vacation, my preference is to find an international destination that might not be on most travelers’ radar. Our weeklong trip to Guatemala offered exactly the kind of rejuvinating cultural experience I was searching for. 

Generation Recreation

Bighorn National Forest Resorts to User Fees at Popular Trailhead

The West Tensleep Trailhead in the Bighorn National Forest ­-- the most popular access to the Cloud Peak Wilderness ­­-- will have a $10 parking fee next summer. I can’t fault forest managers for searching for an additional revenue stream after years of funding shortfalls, but this user fee unfairly targets certain user groups to pay the costs of a larger problem.

Generation Recreation

Struggling to Buy Local and Resist Factory Farming

The atrocious state of our industrialized food system, which is dominated by big agribusiness, is nothing new. But even for the well-educated consumer with the best of intentions, it’s much easier to shake our heads, rue the way things are and say to ourselves there’s no good alternative.  I’m doing my best not to bury my head in the sand, but there’s often a disconnect between what my stomach wants and what I know is good for my body and good for the earth.