Last winter Justin ‘Trauma’ Lichter and his partner Shawn ‘Pepper’ Forry completed the first winter thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.  For those unfamiliar with the “PCT” it is a 2650 mile trail from Canada to Mexico that cuts through 3 US states including Washington, Oregon and California.  This diverse trail crosses deserts, mountain ranges, deep forests, glaciers and volcanic peaks, and is considered one of the most difficult hikes in the world….in the summer!

For the western US states the winter of 2014-15 was very mild compared to normal winters.  Many areas reported record low snowpack, which might lead one to believe that this would be a great year to attempt a winter thru hike on the PCT.  However, it turns out the lack of snowfall and unpredictable weather patterns were a major challenge that almost forced Trauma and Pepper to abandon their expedition.  Not too long after starting in Washington, Trauma and Pepper found themselves caught in an unexpected storm that left them debilitated with frostbite.  Later on the trail they had to ditch their ski touring setup (due to lack of snowpack) and rely on snowshoe travel, which takes more time and burns more calories.  Thru hiking in the winter is filled with challenges, especially when it comes to food.

For many long stretches, the PCT is a desolate trail that cuts through uninhabited wilderness.  Trauma and Pepper often went weeks without seeing another person.  Many small towns with re-supply stations along the PCT close for the winter, which meant Trauma and Pepper had to be meticulous with their meal planning.  Cold weather and minimal pack space greatly limited the types of food Trauma and Pepper could eat.  According to Trauma, “our breaks were centered around eating. Any time we stopped we would spend that time ingesting calories. And if we took a break we couldn’t sit still very long because of the cold, so we had to keep moving.”  The most efficient calories came from conveniently stored nutrition bars.  The guys rotated between Lara Bar, Pro Bar and Kind Bar and ate 10 bars each per day, receiving 1/3 of their daily calories from bars.

Cooking at night proved to be another serious challenge.  Often times Trauma and Pepper had to melt snow for the next days water supply, since they frequently did not have a running water supply available.  Due to the terrible snowpack there was often “sugary” snow, which does not hold much water content and takes up to 2 hours to boil down for the next days needed water supply.  After a long day of hard work, the guys were often hungry, tired and ready to sleep, but had to commit an extra two hours of work to melt water.  This left little time for cooking dinner.  Trauma and Pepper relied on quick one-pot calorie dense-meals such as, Top Ramen, Knorr Sides, angel hair pasta, cheese, beef jerky, instant mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, or any combination of these.  Trauma was especially a fan of the instant mashed potatoes because they can be made without bringing the water to a boil, which saved time and fuel.

Snacks were another essential in their backcountry pantry.  While dinner was cooking or snow was melting, Trauma would often snack on chocolate chips, Justin’s Hazelnut Butter, and Justin’s single serving almond butters.  The single serving packets were especially handy because they were easy to ingest and provided quick calories to his tired body.

In addition to making food, getting supplies was often another daunting task.  Trauma and Pepper had to hike miles off the trail to find open grocery stores or to access post offices with re-supply boxes that they had mailed to themselves before they embarked on their journey.  One much appreciated surprise came from a ‘trail angel’ who hiked miles to leave an anonymous supply box at a remote location.  Even though they were often isolated, the support from the PCT trail community was received throughout Trauma and Pepper’s trip.

After an astonishingly fast 132 days Trauma and Pepper reached the US/Mexico boarder to complete the first successful winter thru hike of the PCT.  As they signed the book at the end they were greeted by friends, family, and a champagne celebration to end their historic journey.

Check out the Adventure Dining Guide episode to learn more about Trauma’s PCT cooking challenges.

When traveling, hiking, or camping your ‘luggage’ should be the least of your worries. I do admit, I have found myself scurrying through airports wanting to collapse from an over-packed and awkwardly shaped bag more times than I care to admit. If you have made this mistake before, you know that having the wrong size pack can be exhausting and frustrating. Finding a backpack that molds to you as if it were another body part is vital for the vagabond. The Cotopaxi 65L Backpack is that other body part.

The backpack has some seriously versatile and technical qualities, making it good for both a 6-month pilgrimage through Patagonia or 3 day trek in Southern Utah’s deserts. If you’re looking for a great day pack, I suggest the Luzon, but for much larger treks that require more gear, this is the way to go! I recently got to test Cotopaxi’s Nepal Backpack in Southern Utah and it certainly made the trek better! The main body of the backpack has a butterfly zipper which allows you to access the entire pack without having to dig from the top. I found this to be quite useful at first, being able to find exactly what I wanted. The only issue I had was that I needed to be careful not to zip it all the way so that the pack would stay in it’s proper shape. Far from a deal breaker.

The Nepal Backpack has two large front zippered pockets, which is great for organization, and quick access to those clean underwear! In addition to all the outside pockets, there is also a removable top lid and multiple attachments for technical gear like trekking poles. The pack has quite a few internal stashes as well. Seriously, there is no chance to run out of pockets on this guy.

In addition, there is a removable internal hydration sleeve, as well as even more smaller pockets in the lid. There is a top compression rope strap and two configurable side compression straps. Although the straps made for an easy adjustment and good fit to my body, I found it to be slightly awkward and a tad heavy on my small frame. It would be awesome to have the option to remove the padded back panel! That said, it is very adjustable and fits well after some fine tuning.

The Cotopaxi Nepal Backpack: Size S/M

After the multi-day trek across the desert, I was way stoked on the Nepal Backpack. I would say the best parts of this pack are the organizational components, multiple pockets and the durable construction. It’s obvious that the pack is high quality and is going to last much longer than my knees will.  And while I have previously opted for a smaller pack, (50L) when doing long expeditions, I did find that the 65L size on the Nepal to be a much better option for adventures that require lots of gear! The quality of design and material are evident when trekking in high winds and rugged terrain. If you’re looking for a large pack that will fit everything you need, this is a really great option!

Aside from the Nepal being a great piece of technical gear, there is a that “feel good” factor when supporting the Cotopaxi brand. Each purchase of a Cotopaxi product directly contributes to their incredible health, education, and livelihood initiatives in developing countries. It’s nice to know your supporting a company that is an advocate for quality material and quality of life, for all. Read more about Cotopaxi’s “Gear for Good” philosophy.

*Disclaimer: Cotopaxi provided the author with the Nepal Backpack as a sample product (at no cost) for testing purposes.

Buy the Cotopaxi Nepal Backpack from Cotopaxi.com.

What do you do when you want to go camping or backpacking and there is a fire ban in effect? On this episode you will learn how to prepare “Fire Ban Tacos”, a no-cook alternative to camping without a fire.

This trip was a sobering one for both me and my climbing partner, Jason. Both of us have rather gung-ho attitudes about most of the things we do, and this was not the correct approach for Mount Larrabee. Described as a Class 3 Scramble, it’s supposed to be a moderate to low danger trek up a small vein of quartz in a ravine to the top. Unfortunately for us, we began our approach on a much different route. We began clambering up the South East Ridge, seeings as there was a fairly worn trail headed that way from our camp.

After about a half hour of climbing, we realized that we may have made a bad decision on our choice of route. Around an hour and a half in, we found ourselves on a very near-vertical face, with about a 200 meter traverse to our left to where we could see the correct route up the ravine and a rather sizable (200-300 foot) drop beneath us. Slowly but surely, we edged across the face and finally were able to drop into our correct route.

The iron-rich rock of Larrabee has a very pretty red color, but makes for incredibly brittle and treacherous chunks of rock that pull loose without warning; many such chunks fell towards us from above without even being touched. Throughout the entire climb, all it would have taken for one of us to fall (and probably die) would have been a foot hold popping loose. Luckily no such incident happened, and Jason and I had a very rewarding view at the top with a more surefire route to get down. The North Cascades have never looked so beautiful as they did from 7,868 feet with a pretty lucrative ascent in our back pockets; nothing makes you realize how small you are like a mountain.

Some pictures from a 3 day backpacking trip to Desolation Wilderness in the Sierras.  Echo Lake, Upper Echo, Lake of the Woods, Lake Aloha.

In late May, a friend of mine, Kyton, sent me an email. He told me that I was good to go if I wanted to stay at his hotel in London for a couple nights. So I packed a few changes of clothes, a tent, some other essentials, and my longboard and I hopped on a flight across the pond. Somehow, in all my travels, I’d never ventured to Europe. I figured what could be a better than exploring Europe via a longboard-backpacking trip through cities and sleeping in a tent in the European countryside for a few weeks by myself?

I landed in London without any plans other than to meet Kyton since I had a place to stay for a few nights while I figured things out. I walked to baggage claim to find out that my bag which contained all my necessities for the next couple weeks had not made the connection in New York City and would be arriving the next morning. I left the airport on a busy train with nothing but my board, passport, and a copy of The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell that I had been reading on the plane. I skated through Picadilly Circus, into Hyde Park, and down the River Thames on a sunny day. I’d spend the next two nights in luxury, staying in a Marriott Hotel overlooking Parliament and Big Ben.

I went to retrieve my bag from Heathrow the next morning. It was sitting on the carousel unharmed. I opened it up to find a note from TSA explaining that they had inspected it for security reasons. My tent poles were gone, probably sitting in a dumpster outside JFK airport in New York. Suddenly my sleeping arrangements for the rest of the trip were gone. I left the airport for the second time in disgust, trying to make the best of my rough start.

I explored London via my longboard- cruising past tourists and businessmen in fancy suits, while I carried my life on my back exploring underground tea shops, pubs, and exquisite architecture in the modern metropolis. I bid farewell to Kyton a couple days later and set off by night coach (bus) for Manchester. I passed through rolling, green meadows and fields while the sun rose en route to the grungy city.

I arrived early in the morning and headed into a coffee shop as soon as I left the bus station. I checked my emails on my iPhone for the first time since landing in England. The first thing I read was a message from my mom. It made my heart drop and eyes swell like I had never experienced before. “Daniel, I’m not sure how much longer Mae is going to make it. If you are near wifi, please Facetime me so you can see her.” I immediately Facetimed home; my mother panned the camera onto my furry best friend whose eyes shifted toward the camera at the sound of my voice. She was having trouble breathing and looked empty for the first time in her life.

I knew that I would regret living in the world if I did not pet her soft ears and run my fingers through her fur one last time, but I was 5,000 miles away and had already booked a ticket to France for the following day. I made the decision to continue a little further with my journey. I arrived in Paris the next day with my belongings, but with the inability to speak even three words of French. I took the metro downtown for a couple of Euros and wandered my way through the streets to a small hostel that had been recommended to me by another traveler. After the sun went down on the city of lights, I ate dinner at a small café with a few fellow backpackers from Chicago. I’ve never been as overwhelmed with compassion and empathy from other human beings as I felt from them after I told them of my situation. They paid for my dinner and wine and took me to the steps of the Sacré-Cœur at midnight to overlook the city of lights.

The next day I rode through Paris’s historical streets and looked upon all of the clichéd icons. I skated around the Louvre, walked through Notre Dame during Mass, walked around the Arc De Triomphe, ate a lunch of wine and a baguette, and drunkenly climbed the steps of the Eiffel Tower. That night, I repacked all my belongings, grabbed my longboard, and found my way to Charles De Gaulle Airport to cut my adventure short. I slept on the ground in the terminal and woke the next morning to board my non-stop flight back to Salt Lake City.

My dad picked me up from the airport in the afternoon heat and we drove back to my parents’ house. I hadn’t showered in a few days and was exhausted from my unfortunate change in itinerary and flight home. As I walked through the door, Mae’s ears perked up and she labored over to me. I hugged my best friend like I never had before. I pressed my face into her fur and felt the same connection I had with her when I was ten years old. A day later she passed away. My childhood best friend and hero was gone. I’ve never felt comparable emptiness in my life as I did then. I knew that I’d made the right decision to cut my adventure short to come home see my dog for the last time.

A few days later, as I stood atop Mt. Olympus overlooking Salt Lake as I had many times before, I reminisced on all the smiles she put on my face whether I was coming home from high school to study with her, taking her for walks around lakes, or on rides in my 4-Runner. I think it is important to take sacrifices to be with the ones you love. Whether it is your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, father, mother, kids, siblings, best friend, or your dog, it is equally important. As much as I live life for my own adventure and exploration, my loved ones will always be the most important aspect of my life. Every face-shot this winter will be in loving memory of my dog and best friend, pray for snow. Rest in peace Mae, I love you.