Backpacker Blogs

Blog Search

The town of Telluride Colorado has taken an interesting approach to the conundrum of public transportation to connect the town of Telluride with Telluride Mountain Village, the base of the resort, and home to many restaurants and shops. It built a public gondola connecting the two villages (actually there are three gondolas, including one that stops at a free public parking garage) that run from 7AM to midnight, and that anyone can take for free. The gondola is open 275 days each year during peak seasons. When the Gondola is not in operation, public buses transport people between the town and the village. They provide noise and air pollution-free travel with a view. Gondola towers are low profile, which keep them operational on windy days, and which keeps them out of sight and doesn't interfere with mountain views.

On the Gondola it takes about 12 minutes (with one no-wait transfer) to get from Telluride Mountain Village to the town of Telluride and visa versa--significantly faster than taking the bus. The gondola s funded by the Town of Mountain Village tax payers, and the Town of Mountain Village manages its daily operations. Check it out next time you are in Telluride. The skiing is worth the drive from Denver, or take a direct flight to Montrose, CO.

The long term plan: to connect Telluride with neighboring Silverton Mountain via gondola, though right now it seems more a dream than an imminent possibility

-Berne Broudy

Telluride. CO free public transportation is a gondola

Read Full Story...

Monday, February 08, 2010 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

Permalink

View Comments (0)

Green Gear: Recycled Dog Leashes and Collars

old bike tubes and climbing ropes go to the dogs

Backpackers, climbers, cyclists. As much as many of us try to minimize our impact on the environment, our outdoor fun can create trash. While there is no use for discarded Gu wrappers that I am aware of, two creative companies are making dog leashes and collars out of busted bicycle tubes and tired climbing ropes.

Colorado-based Green Guru collects old climbing ropes through its partner Sterling Rope in Maine, and makes dog collars ($15) and leashes ($18). Green Guru pulls and recycles the rope cores, then sews quick release buckles into the sheath. To make its leashes, Green Guru hacks off a section of old climbing rope with core intact. It bonds one end of the section of rope into a handle and the other into a small loop that it finishes with an accessory carabiner. Clip it to Fido's new recycled rope collar or any other dog collar, and it's ready for a run through Boulder, Boise or Burlington. Read Full Story...

Monday, February 01, 2010 in: Environment and Green Living, Gear

Permalink

View Comments (0)

Green Scene Gear: Patagonia Nano Puff Jacket

my new favorite winter layer

You know when you find a piece that changes the way you dress? That's the effect Patagonia's Nano Puff Pullover had on me this winter. This super light wind and water resistant 8 ounce insulation layer replaced my fleece midlayers and has subbed in for my puffy on numerous occasions. Because of its weather resistant exterior, I also find myself wearing it as an outer layer on winter hikes and even some ski days. It's way warmer than it looks, but the deep chest zip provides ample venting even for high output activities like backcountry skiing and skate skiing when it's really cold.
Read Full Story...

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 in: Environment and Green Living, Gear

Permalink

View Comments (1)

Think the BPA Scare is Bogus?

scientists link BPA to heart disease

While the FDA isn't willing to fully commit on the safety of endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA)--its promised report is months overdue--researchers from Peninsula College of Medicine in Britain took on the task. They looked at data from the 2003-2004 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) which included urinary BPA levels for the first time, and found that 25% of the population with the highest levels of BPA were more than twice as likely to report having heart disease or diabetes compared to the 25% with the lowest levels of BPA.They thought that maybe it was a statistical fluke. When the 2005-2006 NHANES came out, the same team did the same analysis on a different population sample, and they got the same results.

According to an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail, the new research shows that 60-year-old American males with the highest amounts of bisphenol A in their urine had about a 45 per cent greater risk of cardiovascular disease than men the same age with lower exposures.The researchers performed rigorous calculations to ensure that they isolated the effect of bisphenol A and weren’t getting correlations with other factors. Dr. Melzer, who led the study, believes the study underestimates the effect of BPA due to the relatively small sample size.

Following the release of the report, the FDA announced it has "some concern" about the effects of BPA on fetuses and infants.

-Berne Broudy
Read Full Story...

Friday, January 15, 2010 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

Permalink

View Comments (2)

Green Gear: Nemo's Ditto Wallet

an ultralight billfold made from tent scraps

Dealing with waste is a constant challenge for brands that make anything for the outdoors. Tent maker Nemo had a brainstorm, and came up with a great use for its tent leftovers: the Ditto Wallet. Made from old tents and factory floor fabric scraps, as well as manufacturing seconds from Nemo's tent fabric supplier, the Ditto has a billfold, three credit card pockets, a clear license window pocket, a storage pocket and a zip change pocket. A Velcro strap wraps the outside folds over to keep cards from falling out without adding bulk. Mine is translucent white/silver/gray with black diamonds of fabric reinforcement--subtle and techy looking. Here's a pic

--though it's even better in person.
Read Full Story...

Thursday, January 14, 2010 in: Environment and Green Living, Gear

Permalink

View Comments (0)

Choose Your Tortillas Wisely

Monsanto GMO corn linked to organ failure

It's already January 15th,and I have yet to write a depressing blog entry about how the environment is collapsing around us or how corporate America is screwing the public. Hope you enjoyed your vacation... here we go.

International Journal of Biological Sciences just released a study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, and found that three varieties of Monsanto GMO corn that had been approved for human consumption in the US and Europe in fact cause organ damage in rats, and could in humans too.

You'll be shocked to note (or maybe not) that the original study that proclaimed the corn safe for dinner was conducted by Monsanto after a full 90-days of evaluation. I'm neither a doctor nor am I a scientific researcher, but I spend more time 90-days testing boots before they get reviewed in Backpacker. It seems like an insufficient amount of time to test a possible human toxin. Read Full Story...

Thursday, January 14, 2010 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

Permalink

View Comments (0)

Green Gear: Mountainsmith Zoom Recycled

it holds your point and shoot and more

I am a professional photographer, and though I have several large, heavy, high resolution camera bodies, I often carry a my Canon G11 high res point and shoot with me in the car or in my daypack when I am not on assignment. The G11 is not one of those credit card-sized cameras that you can stick in your back pocket. It has some heft to it, and I've been frustrated trying to find a case that will hold the camera, extra cards in cases, an extra battery, and, when I am on the road, the charger. Thanks to Mountainsmith I now have a great option.

Mountainsmith's new Zoom SM camera case (due out in about three weeks) is spacious and well thought out. The main compartment is big enough to handle the camera, multiple mini card wallets and the aforementioned battery and charger in a single compartment that has a removable divider. The inside lid has a clear zip pouch that I use to store my lens cloth and business cards, and the outside zip front Read Full Story...

Friday, January 08, 2010 in: Environment and Green Living, Gear

Permalink

View Comments (0)

Two Weeks on the Mekong

December in Laos

This blog was quiet for the month of December-- I was in Laos, a small country in Southeast Asia sandwiched between China, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, where I had little or no internet access. Laos has the distinction of being the most bombed country ever in the history of the planet--US forces would drop their unused bombs there en route back to their base during the Vietnam war--likely figuring that it was an uninhabited patch of jungle. As a traveler I was poignantly aware of this fact. All over the city of Luang Prabang there are flowers planted in old missile casings.

And it's a tough place to go hiking without a guide unless you want to visit one of the many limestone caves were thousands of people lived during the Vietnam war. (The cave in these pictures housed 23,000 people for five years!)

In many locations, there are unexploded bombs that continue to rise to the surface with time, that claim the limbs of lives of both adults and children, whether they are working or playing. "It's not safe," I heard over and over as I asked about scrambling up dramatic peaks in the central part of the country where I was traveling. "You must go with a guide." Read Full Story...

Monday, January 04, 2010 in: Environment and Green Living

Permalink

View Comments (0)

SPECIAL REPORT: Live from Copenhagen, III

An update from our reporter on Al Gore's speech and more

In a series of special reports provided exclusively to BACKPACKER, Letitia Webster takes us inside the meetings currently underway at the global climate conference in Copenhagen. Letitia is the director of corporate sustainability and marketing for The North Face and one of the leading thinkers in the outdoor industry about reducing the carbon footprint of the products we play with outside. Our very own Berne Broudy, the usual author of this blog has worked extensively alongside Letitia on the industry's sustainability panel. (Berne is on assignment in Laos until next week.) Read Full Story...

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 in:

Permalink

View Comments (2)