Alison at Silverton, CO – credit Sherri Harkin Photography

As a World Freeskiing Champion, the founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation, and award-winning global cooling consultant, I’m often asked about my viewpoints on climate change in regard to snow droughts, like we are experiencing this year.

I found that people couldn’t relate to “climate change” and that the term “global warming” left people confused, so I switched to “global weirding.” That term more accurately describes what is happening — while the planet is warming, the actual result is extreme weather. Global temperature increases result in really strange local weather — record low temperatures, record heat waves, more windy weather, record droughts, and yes, even record snowstorms. As the air warms, it can hold more moisture, so in the short-term we can have larger snowfalls. In the long term, more of those storms will fall as rain.

Today in Colorado, we are seeing record dust storms that are assisting in extremely early snowmelt — up to 40 days earlier than historic records. I don’t think anyone has to be a rocket scientist to see that the weather is a bit weirder than usual. The extremes are just so much more pronounced. It’s January, and I’m going for a bike ride. How strange is that? In Pakistan, I saw glaciers advancing in 2005 due to increased snowfall, and then watched them retreat up to 50 percent by 2007. On one ski expedition it was raining at 17,500 feet — something I have never seen in my lifetime. In Bolivia, I skied the highest ski area in the world at 18,000-plus feet, but that glacier disappeared forever in 2009.

Folks ask me about a critical tipping point.  In my opinion, we have already passed a critical point in the concentrations of carbon dioxide on our planet. But I’m an optimist and I believe we have the ability to change.

I started the Save Our Snow Foundation in 2006, when I realized there was a need to spread the word nationally that solutions to save our snow could be cost-effective and improve quality of life. I had started a local non-profit The Office For Resource Efficiency in 2004, working to calculate and reduce the community’s carbon footprint and energy use, with much success, and wanted to take the message worldwide.

Alison Gannett with her Osprey Pack – credit Sherri Harkin Photography

In the end, I don’t care if you believe in climate change. What my personal experience has shown is that it is quite easy to make simple changes in my life that have saved me money and reduced my energy use in half — getting LED lightbulbs, carpooling, riding my bike or taking public transit, combining work and vacation trips, buying greener products that have lifetime guarantees and generally consuming less crap. Every day we eat, drink, travel or live we are presented with some choices to make, and I just try to do the very best I can.

My most recent effort is to grow and raise all my own food, which has been an intensely rewarding experience, plus I can ski right off the farm. This Christmas was not kind to us, as the BLM announced over 30,000 acres for oil and gas drilling bordering and surrounding our farm, and containing all of our water. All those years fighting to save our snow by using less energy and clean energy now hit home more than ever, and I’m stoked that I got off dirty natural gas over 2 years ago. If anyone wants to help, you can help us Save Our Farm by WRITING THE BLM, or even easier, please sign our PETITION to protect our farm from potential drilling. Learn more on MY BLOG.

Wild & Scenic Headquarters

Driving into Nevada City, California, I was fascinated by the historic Broad Street buildings and visions of the surrounding hills during the 1849 gold rush.  I was there to represent Osprey Packs as a National Partner of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is put on by the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) and celebrated its 10^th anniversary this year.  In a nutshell, the festival is a combination of films, activist workshops, speakers, art, music, food, drink and human energy, although it is hard to capture the essence of the experience in a sentence of words. One really must attend the festival and participate in all of its offerings to truly comprehend what is going on.

SYRCL’s stated mission for the Wild & Scenic Film Festival is “to inspire people and unite communities to heal the earth”.  Admittedly, this sounded a little “hippy-dippy” at first appearance and I wasn’t sure what to expect. After spending a jam-packed weekend partaking in all that is the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, I walked away with a renewed sense of what an awesome planet we live on and the tremendous adventure opportunities that exist in our own backyards as well as across the oceans in faraway lands. I also have more knowledge of the threats and challenges that our planet is facing and increased resolve to make a difference in maintaining and improving these adventurous opportunities forever. Film topics varied, ranging from the story of conflict resolved between the US Forest Service and mountain bikers building illegal trails in Washington as documented in Pedal-Driven: a bikeumentary to Animal Beatbox, a 2-minute animated film with music that you can’t get out of your head.

Watching the stories of how bicycles changed the lives of five individuals in different parts of the world in With My Own Two Wheels made me feel a touch of guilt as I reflected upon a conversation I had with my wife the previous evening regarding which new road bike I wanted to purchase. The problem is I already have a shed with 14 bikes hanging in it. Seeing the difference that one bike could make to someone that really needed it but could not afford it, changed the way that I think. From now on, each new bike for me will be complemented by a new bike for someone else through a program like 88Bikes or World Bicycle Relief.

This is exactly the type of difference that most of the film makers were hoping to achieve when embarking on the sometimes monumental task of creating a documentary film. There were films about cycling, paddling, climbing, world travels, environmental issues, human interest stories, wildlife and just about every other topic. No matter what your interests, there was a film at the festival for you. Wild & Scenic now embarks on a nationwide traveling tour. It is definitely worthwhile to check the schedule and set aside some time to see when it comes to an area near you. For dates and more information check the Wild & Scenic Film Festival website.

Alison at Gears and Beers Bike Parade

It was a love/hate relationship with my former hydration pack for biking. The hose hit my leg and got water everywhere except my parched mouth, the bladder was hard to fill, hard to clean, tasted like plasti, and became a bloated sausage that wouldn’t squeeze into my overfilled pack.

Then one day Osprey founder and head designer extraordinaire Mike Pfotenhauer had an idea: to design the world’s best hydration pack. A few years ago, he laid out the conceptual plan to a focus group of active Osprey dealers from around the world, U.S. champion athlete ambassadors and the ever-exploring, outdoor-loving Osprey staff. What did we think? Would it be worth spending four years designing, testing and then forging into a new market?

We all eagerly agreed, and excitedly talked for days about what we didn’t like with existing hydration systems. Mike went to work with his design team and now, many years later, we are all reaping the benefits.

As an avid cyclist, the Raptor was a dream come true for me. Jeff Fox, Osprey’s bike marketing whiz (pictured below), laughed at me during my green trivia contest, while I explained water reservior technology, how our “sausages had now become rigid”. But besides the endless laughs, we have a product that everyone is so proud of — and really stands up to real-world hard-core riding in the mountains.

But beyond the technical wizardry of the Osprey Hydraulics™ series, there is an important environmental component often overlooked.

Jeff Fox – Osprey's Bike Guru and Marketing Director

As a known eco-alarmist, I’m always looking at potential plastics that may mimic estrogen — causing everything from increased breast cancer to decreased sperm counts. Lumped together they are called phytoestrogens, and many plastics have them, even when labeled as BPA-free. Osprey has partnered with Nalgene to create the Hydaform™ reservoir for the pack series. Here is some info: http://www.ospreypacks.com/PackTech/OspreyHydraulics

I had an endocrine disruptor chemist look at the BPA-free plastics in this bladder and see how this liner compared. Her response “They are really trying!”, which was great to hear. I also found out that as part of Osprey’s testing and re-testing of their reservoirs, the company reached out to the Breast Cancer Fund to have them check out the product — estrogenic activity is one of the things they look for. No BPA, PVC/phthalates or triclosan are used in the reservoirs (or any) of Osprey’s products.

So enough of my enviro rantings. We all do the best we can with the information we have. Until we have a glass or stainless hydration bladder, I’m thrilled with the progress that Osprey and Nalgene have put forth.

Side Note: if you want to test your company’s plastic to see if it has phytoestrogens, PlastiPure is a technology company that works with clients to design plastic formulations so products can be certified to be free of estrogenic activity.

Switzerland: Photo via Rüdiger Flothmann

We love it when people send us photos of their packs in action, and it turns out, Ospreys can be found round the globe.

Yorkshire:

Photo via Gareth Wilson

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania:

Photo via Jason Ronnie Barker

Camino de Santiago, Spain:

Photo via Emídio Almeida

Thailand:

Photo via Shallan Knowles

Where has your Osprey taken you? Post up your photos over on our Facebook page our in our Flickr pool!

This year has marked some of my greatest strides in moving towards a more sustainable life, as Jason and I bought a 75-acre farm in June, and have since grown and raised everything we needed for this year. Well, actually there are a few exceptions – coffee and chocolate for sure!

Read more about our quest in this wonderful Christmas feature article in the Denver Post…

The great part about farming is that we don’t have to grow much in the winter – just lettuces, kales, herbs, chickens and pigs, which leaves plenty of time to SKI.

The backcountry skiing at and around the farm is excellent and I’m centered between Aspen, Telluride and Crested Butte for those dangerous avalanche days. I’ll also be traveling the country with my Global Cooling Tour, showing folks how to reduce their energy use/carbon footprint while also saving money. Or join me for one of my Rippin Chix camps, where you can demo one of Osprey’s stylish and organizing Kode snowsports packs or the game-changing Raptor mountain bike hydration packs.

Don’t forget your new year’s resolution – DOT – “do one thing” to help make a difference!

Via Chris Kassar at Rios Libres:

Please take action to Keep Patagonia Wild!

Express your opposition to HidroAysen’s proposal to dam the Baker and Pascua – two pristine rivers deep in the heart of Patagonia, Chile by signing our petition HERE.

Help us get at least 1,000 signatures to let Presidente Pinera know that the international community wants Patagonia to remain pristine and without dams.

The rivers, wildlands and people of Patagonia need your voice!

How can you support Rios Libres and be entered to win an awesome Raptor 6? It’s easy.

 Sign the petition.

Share the petition on Facebook so all your friends can help, too.

Email your contact info to Chris.Kassar@gmail.com, and put “PETITION” in the subject line.

It’s that simple. Now cross your fingers, and learn more at RiosLibres.com and on Facebook.

“The drums are the primary musical instruments of the Garifuna and these are used for ritual as well as secular purposes.”- from UNESCO’s Declaration of Garifuna culture as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.

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Though I travel at least a week out of every month, I rarely bring home souvenirs.

I like practical things, things that won’t clutter, things that won’t require dusting.

I also like things that fit easily into my backpack. I travel light.

The Garifuna drum didn’t exactly fit into that category.

When I heard Phil and his group (in the photo above) drumming at Pelican Beach, though, I knew I had to buy a drum for Francisco. A hobbyist musician, Francisco has talked about buying a drum for years. Somehow, we’d never gotten around to it. But as I let the drum beats of the punta enter into me, I knew I needed to figure out a way to get one of those drums home.

I asked Mr. Austin Rodriguez, master drum-maker with 35 years of experience, if I could buy one of his drums. “Don’t have one ready,” he told me. Though his workshop was littered with sawdust and strewn with drums in various stages of craftsmanship, he didn’t have a single one he could sell me.

I mentioned this to Phil, who told me he’d sell me his drum. Made of mayflower wood and stretched taut with deerskin, the drum was on the smallish side, but it was still going to be a challenge to get home, especially since I had to hop a couple prop flights on my way.

“How are you going to get that in your pack?” a friend asked me. “Not sure,” I said, “but I’ll find a way.”

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The feature I love best about all of my Osprey packs is that no matter how full I stuff them, there always seems to be an inch more space that can be squeezed out of them. The drum, however, was a serious challenge. I needed a lot more than an inch to get the drum home safely.

I emptied my pack of its contents and started evaluating. I pulled all the straps as slack as they’d go. I unzipped the bottom of the pack (a critical, much-appreciated feature) and scooched the drum in that way, bottom up. I stuffed the open end of the drum with clothes and packed more clothes around it. Somehow the pack—which had been pretty full already—had just enough room for the drum.

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Francisco’s in charge of the laundry, so he found the drum when he unpacked my bag. I’d mentioned a surprise, but he hadn’t expected the drum. He took it out, clothes strewn around the floor, and tucked it between his legs. When his palm met the deer skin, his eyes closed and he smiled.

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To see more photos from Belize, click here.

If you’re headed to Belize with your Osprey, see what you can stuff into your sack! The Gulisi Garifuna School will gratefully accept your donation of small school supplies. More information can be found on the Stuff Your Rucksack site.

For more travel tips about Belize, visit MatadorNetwork’s Central America focus page.