The Dirtbag Diaries

Every July, nearly 20,000 cyclists from around the world swarm the roads of Iowa for one week to ride across the state. It’s hot. It’s humid. And it’s not as flat as one may think. Iowa resident Caleb Smith shares his personal journey of RAGBRAI, complete with a buffet of midwestern charm: homemade pies, barn parties, sunsets over fields of corn. But he doesn’t ride a bike, he inline skates.

Today, we bring you two Shorts about love on the trail. Lauren DeLaunay Miller reflects on the bond she forged with her Chevy Astro van. Chuck Radis wades into a hiking trip with his wife of 40 years. For both Lauren and Chuck, the outdoors helped them find, and renew, their loving relationships.

The first time Ken Jarvela picked up a sketchpad in the backcountry in the 1980’s, he decided he wanted to become a landscape painter. In his early 20’s, he packed three months of food, a tarp, and a set of watercolors into the Trinity Wilderness and, over the next 54 days, taught himself how to paint. This trip would mark the first in many that would define his career as a landscape painter.

After Patrick McGunagle graduated from college, he told himself he’d get a “real job” after a summer on a fire crew in Montana. But the adventure, camaraderie, and purpose that came with fighting fire made it hard to trade the woods in for a cubicle. Seven years later, Pat now has a job more "real" than anything he could have imagined: a smokejumper. That’s someone who jumps out of planes to fight wildfires.

Have questions? So did we.

After Euan Fraser lost his dad in a mysterious accident, he spent decades of his life wondering what had happened. When he finally learned the truth, Euan began searching for new ways to get to know his father through adventures in the outdoors.

We just hit our 300th episode! Whether you’ve been a listener from the mic-in-a-closet days, or you just joined us, it’s you-- our community-- that keeps us going. In honor of our listeners, we have a story about four women taking an idea introduced in one of our stories, adding their own creative spin and running with it. Happy summer!

Oak Flat, Arizona: a site sacred to the San Carlos Apache, a beloved climbing area, a rare riparian zone in the desert. The catch? It’s slated to become the largest copper mine in the history of North America. Days before the land was set to transfer to the mining company, a group of Native high school students ran 188 miles to Oak Flat-- joining a cry of protest loud enough to reach the ears of the White House. We dive into the fight to possess and protect a place with incredible spiritual and economic power.

Cycling intervals, homework assignments, planner items: Emily Schaldach raced through her life checking off her list. When Emily’s grandmother invited her to a silent meditation retreat in the woods of Colorado, she reluctantly accepted. Compelled to sit still for a few days, Emily saw herself in a way she hadn’t yet envisioned.

Michelle Baker and her husband John both fell in love with mountains before they fell in love with each other. As they started a family of their own, they hoped to pass down their passion for outdoor adventure and a respect for the dangers that go with it. While climbing the Grand Teton with their 12 year old son, a lightning storm soon had Michelle questioning whether she’d pushed too far.

Two mountains, one in California and one in Nevada, named after the president of the Confederate States decades ago. How can a name be changed? Producer Fil Corbitt takes us through the wonky and lengthy process involved in renaming a place.

A version of this episode first appeared on The Wind Podcast.

“The dread was there, strong and palpable. I just hoped my will was stronger,” writes Luke Hinz. After losing both his father and his brother in the month of May, Luke always had a feeling that something bad would befall him as well. When he set out to ski an ambitious line in Utah’s Wasatch Range on May 2nd, 2019, he had to face that fear in the mountains.

 “I felt as though the Monarch Butterfly contained some special sort of wisdom that I could connect with,” says Benjamin Jordan. Inspired by the Monarch, he set out to do what no one had ever done before: recreate the migration of the Monarch Butterfly--by paraglider. Through this 5-month journey, Benjamin gained a deep respect for this fragile creature and a humble awareness of his own place in nature.

“I did the skiing thing, I did the Navajo thing, and those worlds didn’t cross,” says Len Necefer. After learning how to ski-mountaineer in the winter of 2017, Len set out on an ambitious goal: to connect the Navajo cultural traditions of the mountains he comes from with his new love-- skiing.

Today, Carly Rushford and Paddy O’Connell find their edge on the snowy mountain slopes. In our first double-short episode, we hear how downhill skiing has helped Carly and Paddy shape their place and purpose in the world.

What connects the past, present and future of rock climbing? 

In season one of Climbing Gold, the sport’s biggest star Alex Honnold and co-host Fitz Cahall take you on a tour through climbing, from the early days of the lunatic fringe where dirtbag climbers gambled with their lives to chase the edge of human imagination, to today’s new generation of athletes who have risen to the top of their sport without ever having touched the world’s most famous summits. Pushing the boundaries of climbing has always meant challenging the assumptions and status quo of the previous generation. 

Athletes. Risk takers. Dirtbags. Pioneers. Community builders. Outsiders. Leaders. Please join us to hear the voices and stories of climbing’s past and future.

“From here, it’s going to be easy.” Ryan Wichelns and Gabe Messercola repeated this phrase throughout their 21 day expedition in Denali National Park in 2015. From crossing scree-covered glaciers, to traversing ridgelines and downclimbing icy cliffs, to fording waist-deep rivers, Alaska taught these young mountaineers a lesson in making and letting go of plans.

See an overview of their route. 

“I think being on foot just allows you to walk past a person's front door. I think that's really important," says Rickey Gates.

Rickey learned a lot about his country when ran across the United States. But when he finished, he realized his trip was incomplete and he set out to run every single street in San Francisco. His efforts to get to know the place he calls home ignited a movement of people getting to know their local communities all over the world.

Find maps, photos, and more at Rickey's website http://www.rickeygates.com/

“Thru-hiking started to feel like a compulsion: I had to hike the same way I had to breathe,” writes Eloise Robbins. After she fell in love with another thru-hiker on the PCT, she uprooted her life to be with him in Canada. Deprived of a job, a community, and most of all--mountains, Eloise wondered if the sacrifice for love was worth it.

“There should be no friction in the system. If someone wants to come and climb, they should be able to come and climb,” says Abby Dione, owner of Coral Cliffs in Florida. When Abby had to close her doors in March 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions, she wasn’t sure how long she could keep the business afloat. Faced with losing its only climbing gym, and fueled by a spark of ingenuity, the community had to consider how much they valued the gym beyond the climbing holds.

When Doug Barclift decided to start a business, he headed to an untraditional spot to buy his real estate-- a junkyard. There he found the school bus, wedged between a trailer and a stack of cars, that he would transform into his own paddleboard company. And when a pandemic, civil unrest, and forest fires all threatened to thwart him, Doug kept paddling out to stay positive in a difficult year. 

And friends and previous contributors share their goals to keep you dreaming and scheming, even when it feels like we’re just trying to get through another year. 

“No one is going to talk me out of doing this because this is a great idea,” says Becca Skinner. “I just gave the best Christmas gift and everyone is going to thank me later.” When Becca surprised her family with an overnight stay in a fire lookout cabin, she expected their holiday vacation to be a little more cozy than it turned out to be. In this episode, we follow the Skinner family through a frozen holiday and are reminded sometimes misadventures bring us closer together. 

In 2019, Will Dunlap began having existential questions about his place in the world. So he bought a plane ticket to Alaska, rented a kayak, and set out for the Taku Inlet. Through bitter rains and long days of paddling, Will experienced an inner journey he would never forget.

Growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico, Fernanda Rodriguez had never heard of “climbing” until she stumbled across a group of boulderers in the forest. That day, she remembers feeling “like a flame was lit inside my heart.” At 15, despite the tide of economic and cultural challenge that faced her, Fernanda made up her mind to become one of the best climbers in her country. 

When Carmen Kuntz thinks “adventure,” it doesn’t always mean a mega-trip many miles from home. Instead, she challenged herself and her friends to invent an adventure just out the backdoor. With skis, skins and paddles, they rediscover a familiar landscape in the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia.

Bloody tracks on a dark road. Hooded figures juggling lights. Eerie handprints appearing. We hope you’re ready to get spooky with our annual Tales of Terror! We have three stories from the backcountry that will send chills down your spine. Turn down the lights and grab your teddy bear. Happy Halloween!

“Everything that we love is affected by politics for better or worse, and we can't afford to not be engaged with it,” says Canyon Woodward. 

Today we hear stories from two people who’ve leaned in and worked directly with elected leaders to have a say in the future of the places we love. Canyon Woodward explains how trail running is a lot like running for office, and Kareemah Batts shares what it’s like to Climb The Hill on behalf of public lands and the outdoor community. We also hear from a broad set of voices across our country about why participation in the democratic process matters. We’re all in this together.

“I'm stubborn,” reflects Steve Baskis. “When my mind tells me not to do something because I'm afraid or nervous, I tend to tell myself to do it.” What happens when you lose something fundamental to how you function in the world in a single second? For ex-infantryman Steve Baskis wounded in Iraq, it meant staying on the bright side, looking forward, and never giving up.

Today, we are sharing one of our favorite podcasts-- Scene on Radio. Over the course of twelve episodes, host John Biewen and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika explore a theme both evergreen and immediately urgent: democracy in America. Fitz talks with John about the recent season and shares the trailer.

From Scene On Radio: “Our season-long series will touch on concerns like authoritarianism, voter suppression and gerrymandering, foreign intervention, and the role of money in politics, but we’ll go much deeper, effectively retelling the story of the United States from its beginnings up to the present. Through field recordings and interviews with leading thinkers, we’ll tell under-told stories and explore critical questions like—How democratic was the U.S. ever meant to be, anyway? American democracy is clearly in crisis today, but . . . when was it not? Along the way, there’s a good chance that we’ll complicate, maybe upend, our listeners’ understanding of American history.”

“I do not remember the ‘first time’ we played hide-n-seek in the barn,” recalls producer Cordelia Zars, “it just always happened.” How do you stay positive when you’re hiding from a pandemic and wildfire smoke with no end in sight? For Cordelia, reflecting on her favorite childhood game brought her some perspective.

Bailey, Colorado is a rural town in the Rocky Mountains. “Bailey is boating hell. There is no water around us at all,” says high school teacher Steve Hanford. Now, imagine 13 high school students building a triple-hulled canoe from scratch and racing it on the ocean. Despite the critics who said they couldn’t, the students and teachers believed in their own power to succeed. 

Sarah Lann and her twin sister, Becca, had their lives planned out together. They’d raise their kids hiking, berry-picking, and stargazing together. But after their plans went astray, they scheduled a backpacking trip together on the John Muir Trail to stay connected despite the different path their lives had taken.

When John Temple and Dean Goodman’s dream job fell into their laps in the summer of 1971, they quickly said yes. From June through August, they lived alone- without supervision or communication- in a lineman's cabin along Coastal BC surveying an area of old-growth rainforest for the Sierra Club. As they documented landmarks, wildlife, potential campsites, and treacherous portages, they also found their place and purpose in the world that would carry forth into the rest of their adult lives.

After a decades long battle on Washington State’s Elwha River, a coalition of environmentalists, scientists and locals succeeded in having two dams demolished. Six years later, scientists are monitoring the river and larger ecosystem as they recover from a century of abuse. And one of the best ways to do the research? Snorkeling Class III whitewater.

When life pedals ahead on the trail, how do you catch up? You can downshift and sweat harder, or accept that maybe you’ll always feel a little behind. Anya Miller has learned to embrace the struggle on the ups and savor the flow of the downs.

When Ladia Albertson-Junkans’ best friend and running teammate, Gabe Grunewald, was diagnosed with cancer, they resolved that it wouldn’t slow them down. But after Gabe’s death, grief finally caught up to Ladia. She was unmotivated and struggled to get out of the door some days. With the hope of honoring Gabe’s life, Ladia reluctantly said “yes” to a special and spontaneous FKT (Fastest Known Time) attempt around Mount Hood’s Timberline Trail. In running and in life, time matters - but maybe not always in the ways we imagine.

Get ready for big waves and two epic ocean rescues. Before becoming a photographer, Jeff Johnson was a young lifeguard, determined to prove himself. And Kohl Christensen, a North Shore veteran whose work to save other surfers’ lives...ended up saving him.

This episode first appeared on Outside Podcast.

In her early 20’s, Rachel James would run 10,000 vertical feet every week and ski deep into the Alaskan backcountry in her free time. When her life took an unexpected turn, she drew on her experience in the outdoors to help her navigate the most difficult chapter of her life. When the world feels like it’s closing in on you, where do you find your strength? Happy Mother’s Day, everyone.

When Scott Guinn received a letter in the mail from his friend Mike Flanigan, he didn’t expect to find a page-long, typed challenge to climb 10 tricky boulder problems within an hour at the nearby bouldering area. Gauntlet thrown, Scott stepped up to the task, launching what’s become an epic series of challenges that keeps building their friendship through adventure.

When Ryan Smith set out to hike all sixty-seven 4,000 foot mountains in New England, he expected to be finished in a handful of years. But life threw him a curve ball. A shooting pain in his groin led him on a different kind of journey with his body, his partner, and his understanding of what is important.

In an unprecedented time, a lot of us are confined to our homes, yet looking for ways to connect, to create and to be of service. As our community tries to adapt to a quickly shifting reality, it seems like a good time to slow down and have a conversation. Here’s to doing our part, looking for the positive, and finding ways to support each other. We’re in this together.

Leadville, Colorado is a mecca for endurance racing in the United States and home to some of the country's hardest trails and toughest athletes. In the summer of 2019, ultra runners Marvin Sandoval and Buttercup became unlikely partners and show us what happens when you combine a love of sport, hard work, a 10 foot lead rope, and a dash of crazy. One thing Marvin learned, "hang on and see what happens."

“In the Frank Church—River of No Return Wilderness, getting “Franked” means waking up mid-summer to a foot of snow on your tent, or losing your sleeping bag to a rapid on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River,” writes Allison Fowle. And, when you’re in the middle of the largest wilderness area in the lower 48, navigating the joys and perils of romance can be just as challenging.

When a dirtbag romance starts with a burrito shop and a fire alarm, adventure is bound to follow. Climbers Allen Schaidle and Sara Al-Awadhi who, despite differences in cultures and faiths, fall in love by exploring and climbing together in the UAE. Happy Valentines Day, everyone.

Some of the most powerful learning can happen outside the classroom. In the summer of 1975, public school teacher Mr. Hodges took 22 of his students on an unforgettable bike trip that would impact the rest of their lives. Grab your cut-off shorts, a 10-speed bike, and a sense of humor, and you’ll be along for the ride. 

When the DC metro shut down the line that Dylan Lewis used daily, he had to refigure his commute. Borrow a car? Uber? Walk 11 miles? What started as an obstacle became an opportunity, with a little ‘out of the blue’ inspiration. Every January, we bring you big goals from our community for the New Year. Whether it’s your goal, a friend’s, or a stranger’s, you might just try something new. Dream big. Happy New Year, everybody. 

Great gear shops are like a toy stores filled with skis and bikes, ropes and chalk. Walking through the door can sow the seeds for the next adventure. Friendships begin. Knowledge gets dropped. When a beloved gear shop unexpectedly closed in Seattle, it shocked the local community and left them wondering whether it could be rekindled. In a day of online, convenience shopping, is there still room for the local gear shop?

How many feet of snow would you shovel each year to own a rad backcountry ski lodge? Well if you’re the Schaffer family, the answer is 60. Today, we bring you the story of an incredible family business high in the mountains of British Columbia where a love of skiing, hard work and entrepreneurship has been passed between generations.

“It’s like you’re scared to move forward– you just need something to give you a little nudge,” says Jonah Manning. “You can call it support, but really it’s just like a little bit of a shove forward. And I’ll never forget it, because Widge was certainly that for me.” Today, we bring you the story of Widge, the ultimate adventure partner. Sometimes when that metaphorical door of adventure opens, you need someone to walk through by your side.

This episode originally aired on June 26, 2014.

When Dan Kostrzewski had an accident with his daughter on the bunny hill, he gained a new perspective on a lifetime of skiing— both as a career and a personal passion.