“I'd built it up in my head a lot--being a professional climber. This felt like the consummation of those dreams. I found the valley, I envisioned the trip, I got the funding, made it happen, stood at the base, picked the line, climbed it, sent, we were at the top and it wasn’t feeling the way I wanted it to feel,” says Chris Kalman.  

Chris, Austin Siadak and Miranda Oakley got to go on what should have been a climber’s dream trip--fully funded first ascents of granite big walls in the Coast Range of British Columbia, helicopter transport in and out, minimal struggles and good team dynamics. But, by the end, Chris realized that this dream trip left him feeling a little hollow and he needed to redefine how he pursues meaningful adventures.

Want to hear more from Chris? Listen to his Shorts, “Vanlife” and “The Journey Within,” check out his website, ChrisKalman.com or order a copy of his book “As Above, So Below: A Climbing Story

Direct download: Mountain_Hollow_Dreams.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00am PDT
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"To work in tourism is to witness the human comedy," says Joe Aultman-Moore. "Every guide has stories that start with, "You'll never believe this...'. Nowhere, it seems, do people go further from the familiar that on cruises to Alaska."

Working as a seasonal guide at a remote camp in rural Alaska with ten other men, Joe also discovered that nowhere would be harder to find a girlfriend. He figured it would take nothing less than Santa and his team of flying reindeer to meet a girl. Can Christmas wishes still come true?

Direct download: Saving_Santa_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:00am PDT
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Drew Hamilton makes a living by taking tourists out into the remote Alaskan wilderness to hang out with brown bears. No fences, no guns--just Drew, and the eight hundred pound, six and a half foot tall, Ursus arctos horribilis of southern Alaska. Most people call them grizzlies. These days, he does it, in large part, as a unique way to protect this magnificent landscape from the proposed Pebble Mine.

For the fifth installment of our Endangered Spaces series, our producer Jen Altschul takes us to the mainland of southern Alaska to to better understand the threats to this landscape and community, to better understand the economic drivers that keep the threat of the Pebble Mine alive and to meet the extraordinary people doing everything in their power to protect this special place.

 

To stay up to date on the latest from Pebble mine, visit SaveBristolBay.org and PebbleWatch.com

To stay up to date on Pebble particularly as it relates to McNeil River and the bears, visit: HelpMcNeilRiver.org

To see more of Drew’s photos, visit: DrewHH.com

Want to go see bears with Drew?! Check out: GoSeeBears.com

Check out a map of Cook Inlet here.

Direct download: Cook_Inlet.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:37am PDT
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What if you could hit pause on life? This last year, Fitz turned 40. Instead of buying a sports car, he took a sabbatical. Today, he presents a story about mountain biking the Oregon Timber Trail, a 670-mile-long, mostly singletrack trails across the state's deserts and forests. What's the difference between a groove and a rut? Sometimes it's hard to tell, but being perched in the saddle might provide a new  perspective.

Direct download: Hit_Pause.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:23pm PDT
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Our ninth annual Tales of Terror brings you three stories that will send shivers down your spine. From ghost-like figures walking silently through the snow, to shadows lurking in a backcountry hut and canyon, these stories will keep you peering over your shoulder. 

First, we'll follow Amy England down a snowy forest road in the middle of winter. Then, we'll cozy up in a deserted New Zealand Alpine hut with Audrey Howarth and Alex Clingman. And finally, we'll travel deep into a desert canyon in southern Utah with Trevor McEntire. 

Happy Halloween!

Direct download: Tales_of_Terror_Vol_9.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:00am PDT
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“I'm in this weird reality where I'm using my voice and my status as a woman traveling alone on a motorcycle as a way to talk about conservation to people who otherwise might not care or listen,” says Janell Kaz. “So it's kind of a weird realm but at the same time it's one of my favorite bridges that I've ever built is between this thriving motorcycle community worldwide and wildlife conservation.”

 

For the past five years, Janelle has traveled on her motorcycle fighting against the worldwide problem of wildlife trafficking. This journey has brought her from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the mountains of Colombia. Although this massive problem can be overwhelming at times, Janelle has found ways to stay positive.

 

This past summer, Duct Tape Then Beer filmmaker, Isaiah Branch-Boyle was looking for hope and was inspired by Janelle’s positivity. So he traveled to Colombia and spent a week with Janelle in the northeastern mountains of Colombia to learn more about wildlife trafficking and to find ways we can all find hope in the darkness.

Direct download: MotoGypsy.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:00pm PDT
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“I have really good reason to believe that if I hadn’t have been walking down the strip and found that 72-foot tower to climb, that I would be dead or in prison. I have no doubts about that,” says Juan Rodriguez.

Juan is an American citizen, an immigrant and a climber. Today, we follow Juan’s journey from Mexico to climbing shop owner, through illegal border crossings and to the first rock wall he ever climbed on the Las Vegas strip--a chance encounter that altered the trajectory of his life.

Check out Juan’s climbing shop, AntiGravity Equipment.

Direct download: Anti-Gravity.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:31am PDT
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“I was certain I was paralyzed. My legs were totally limp, I was hanging upside down and the only thing stopping me from falling 160-feet headfirst into the talus below, was this rope that was wrapped around my foot,” remembers Craig Gorder.

In November, 2016, Craig took a fall in Indian Creek that injured him badly, and dramatically altered the course of his life.

“But I don’t really identify with the story of the accident. As intense as it was, it’s just this thing that happened. What does matter is: what happens after you get hurt? What happens after you lose your identity and your sense of self?”

In this episode, we follow Craig through the first year of his recovery through a series of updates and reflections that document the day to day questions and decisions, setbacks and victories, mini-crises and mini-epiphanies that really make up the recovery process.

 

Inspired by Craig? Consider donating to his GoFund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/craig-gorders-helicopter-ride

Direct download: Hootin__Hollerin.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00am PDT
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“I have a pretty young grandfather, but he was starting to get old and knew he had one or two more big expeditions in him,” says Ethan Roebuck. “He wanted to put together a big trip, because he’s getting older, but also because I’m getting older, these are skills that he thinks are important, and he wants to make sure I have them too--a handing off of the baton, I suppose.”

So when Ethan’s grandfather proposed that they go on a two-month, five-hundred mile, tandem kayaking expedition along the Canadian coast the summer before Ethan’s senior year of high school, Ethan was onboard.

Producer Cordelia Zars brings you the story of a wild adventure, a passing of the torch, and the special bond that emerges and evades the constraints of words.

Direct download: Ethan_and_G-Pop.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:52pm PDT
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“Any time I ski a steep line, I’ve done it hundreds of times, and still every time for me there is that moment of fear on top, where I am like, ‘Do I really want to do this?’,” says Jason Hummel. “But, also, anytime you do anything scary, it really ties you down to the moment, the instant, to that second, and all that matters is the next turn.”

That feeling of complete presence when you drop into a committing line for the first time has driven Jason’s life. It’s guided decisions about his career, about the structure of his life, and, for the past three decades, it has pulled him up all of the major peaks of the Pacific Northwest, and many of the more obscure, remote and committing mountains of the Cascades and Olympics.

But, just as Jason had started to feel like he knew what his home mountains had to offer, he stumbled into this idea that made him reconsider how much he still had to explore.

Today, producer Matt Martin brings you, “The Glacier Project,” the story of Jason’s journey to ski all of the glaciers in Washington, and how placing a constraint on adventure can deepen the relationship with the places we consider most familiar.



Read more about Jason’s Glacier glacier project and check out his photographs at myadventurecrusade.com

Direct download: The_Glacier_Project.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00am PDT
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For most of his adult life, Cam Fenton has fought against climate change--and particularly to protect the Arctic.

“The funny thing was, for most of that time, I couldn’t tell you why,” says Cam. “Sure, I could recite, and often wrote, the talking points: to stop sea level rise, stand with small island nations and Indigenous peoples, keep fossil fuels in the ground and save the Arctic. But anytime I heard someone tell a deeply personal story, I felt embarrassed that I didn’t have a story of my own.”

So, this past summer Cam jumped at the chance to join a friend on a trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He hoped to return changed--with his own story, with revelations about climate change and with renewed purpose. And Cam did walk away from the Arctic with an adventure and a revelation--just a very different one than he expected.



You can find more of Cam’s writing at overstoker.com

Direct download: A_Story_of_My_Own.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00am PDT
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“The definition of kidnapping is moving someone from one point to another point against their will, and that’s exactly what had happened to us,” says Ben Stookesberry. “But, to me, the most noteworthy part of the day was that, for the first time in the entire trip, we were actually all working together as a team and we were all spending an entire day together.”

Ben and Chris are the expedition kayakers. The two of them have what is perhaps the longest running, most successful partnership not just in kayaking, but in the world of outdoor adventure. They’ve been at this together for over a decade now.

And, yet, in April of 2017, the two boaters wound up on an expedition on which the interpersonal dynamics grew so strained that being held hostage by an armed rebel group in the remote Amazon didn’t necessarily seem like the worst thing that could have happened.

We’ve broken today’s episode into two parts. In Part I, we followed Ben and Chris down a stretch of Colombia’s remote Apaporis River. Today, for Part II, we’ll get into the history of this epic partnership, what went so wrong, and what happens moving forward.

Direct download: The_Elephant_in_the_Boat_-_Part_II.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:25pm PDT
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"It was a life that was narrow in its margins and seemingly under my control," remembers John Gray. "It wasn't exactly exciting or fulfilling, but I decided it was good enough for me."

After a breakup and a drinking habit sent him in a downward spiral, John decided that he needed something radical to shake him out of his "life avoidance stupor." He signed up for a semester-long Outward Bound course that would take him from the Appalachians to the Everglades to Costa Rica-- and change his outlook in a lasting way. 

"I knew that good enough would never again be good enough."

Direct download: Better_Than_Good_Enough.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:00am PDT
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“The definition of kidnapping is moving someone from one point to another point against their will, and that’s exactly what had happened to us,” says Ben Stookesberry. “But, to me, the most noteworthy part of the day was that, for the first time in the entire trip, we were actually all working together as a team and we were all spending an entire day together.”

Ben and Chris are the expedition kayakers. The two of them have what is perhaps the longest running, most successful partnership not just in kayaking, but in the world of outdoor adventure. They’ve been at this together for over a decade now.

And, yet, in April of 2017, the two boaters wound up on an expedition on which the interpersonal dynamics grew so strained that being held hostage by an armed rebel group in the remote Amazon didn’t necessarily seem like the worst thing that could have happened.

We’ve broken today’s episode into two parts. Today, for Part I, we’ll follow Ben and Chris down a stretch of Colombia’s remote Apaporis River. In Part II, we’ll get into the history of this epic partnership, what went so wrong, and what happens moving forward.

Direct download: The_Elephant_in_the_Boat_-_Part_I.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:20am PDT
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Today, we bring you the first episode of Duct Tape Then Beer's new show, "Safety Third." Big wall climber and former wingsuit flyer Chris McNamara believes risky outdoor pursuits are essential. But, what happens when something vital has the potential to kill you? You find different ways to take risks. 

Direct download: SafetyThird_Channel_Risk_Into_Reward.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 6:00pm PDT
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