Skydiving in Last Vegas | First Time Experience

For Courtney’s 30th Birthday, I wanted to make sure it was an unforgettable time. So this year, we headed down south to the desert metropolis of Las Vegas. We head down there for a few reasons, but mainly, because you can go skydiving year round! Being that Courtney’s birthday is in the winter, this was sort of a big deal! So we packed up Jeep and headed down I-15 for a wild adventure, both on the chaotic strip and being dropped out of a perfectly good airplane! And let me tell you, going skydiving was some of the most adrenaline …

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Video | Renting Cruise America RV to Sedona, Arizona

As far back as I can remember, the highways on every road trip were littered with the Cruise America Rental RVs. They were even more all over the place when we moved out west, every campground, every dirt road, every trailhead, these Cruise America RVs seemed to be everywhere. We always thought how fun it would be to finally rent one and drive it around on a trip of our own for once. For one trip, we trade in the truck and tent for the glamping experience inside a heated RV with a real bed, bathroom, and kitchen table! And …

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Backcountry Skiing Couloir off Lake Peak in Wasatch

This season has been wild so far, with regards to our snowfall and snowpack her in Utah. We got dumped on in October, which is never a great start for any snowpack to prevent a season-long persistent weak layer. November followed with not a single flake of snow, which lead to a rotting snowpack from the early season snow. Then came a record-setting December which gave us nearly 10 feet of snow in some areas. But then a freakishly dry January rolled in, where it hadn’t snowed past the 7th and combining with warm temperatures, we had incredibly safe avalanche …

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Backcountry Skiing Gear Recommendations | Gloves

As a heads Up, this is not an extensive list of newest backcountry skiing gear, but rather a recommendation on the type of gear to get and an explanation of other versions out on the market. This is basically a jumping off point for gear recommendations. My philosophy in the backcountry is that you need to prepare for the uphill, when your body is generating heat, and the downhill when you’re moving fast and not generating much heat. Beyond skis, I really do think gloves are the most critical piece of equipment that I bring into the backcountry. Simply put, …

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6 Tips for Beginners Learning How to Rock Climb

Rock climbing, as a means for exploration, has been around forever. It has always been a way to access new terrain to explore. As a sport, it gained its popularity in the late 60s with the explosion of activity coming out of California’s Yosemite National Park. And most recently with the booming popularity of Rock Climbing gyms, Rock Climbing is more accessible than ever. I’ve climbed very hard routes in gyms (5.12+) and absolutely fun and exposed climbs outside, but there are so many things I wish I was told when I was starting out climbing. Here are some of …

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Surfing 20 Years In… And Finally Trying to Improve

With nearly 300 posts on this blog, and can you believe it, I’ve barely ever talked about on of my first real passions in the outdoors. Long before I ever hiked a mountain, as a kid from New Jersey, I cut my teeth surfing on the inconsistent summer waves on the South Jersey beaches. Throughout my life, so far, I’ve never lived closer than 1.5hrs from the beach whether that was New Jersey or Connecticut. The two chances I now get to surf every year, I cherish, and realize it is something I will always love. In 2021, I’ve gone …

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SCUBA Diving in Maui, Hawaii | VIDEO

Our trip to Maui this summer was centered around the opportunity to go SCUBA Diving. I got my open water certification just a week before flying to Hawaii. For my first real open ocean diving experience, it exceeded all of my expectations, and I couldn’t have asked for a better dive. We booked two dives with Maui Dive Shop which has a few dive shops around the island. On the day of the dive, we drove down to Maalaea Harbor where we’d meet the crew and hop onboard their charter. We lucked out and only had 3 other divers join …

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DOG BEACH | Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA

Watching our dog Gregor play with a hundred dogs, all running amuck on the beach, splashing in and out of the ocean, is completely worth the 12+ hour drive from Utah. Which is why we’ve been to the Ocean Beach dog beach twice in the past three years. It has become a tradition, of sorts, for us to make the pilgrimage across the Western states over the Thanksgiving weekend to California. And for the last four years, where we’ve gone has pretty much been based on where our dog could go to a beach. And it has never disappointed. The …

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Washington & Oregon Road Trip 2021 | Bend, Yakima, Seattle, Olympic Peninsula

Every year, Courtney, Gregor, and I load up the truck (or a rented Van) to take a weeklong road trip around a state out west. So far, we’ve done a road trip around Montana, Oregon, and Colorado. This year, to knock off the last western state that neither of us had been to, we headed up to Washington State! Admittedly, it was going to be a far haul and lots of driving to get there and back, but with a week off, we knew it would be worth it. And after the countless opportunities to paddle all types of water …

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Cabin Life: Living in Tollgate and the First Impressions

We closed on the cabin in the first week of August. Temperatures were regularly in the upper 80s, trees were covered in green leaves, and the dirt road into the mountain community was drier than Death Valley. Yet, whenever we chatted with any of our neighbors or friends who knew the area, they only cared about one thing. “How prepared were we for winter?” I couldn’t believe it. It was summer, why was anyone caring about winter just yet, but it didn’t take long for me to understand why they always asked that. Three simple words: preparation takes time. We …

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