In her monthly column, The Survivalist, Jessie Krebs writes about self-care and safely getting out of the occasional rough backcountry scenario. Krebs is a former Air Force S.E.R.E (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) instructor and owner of O.W.L.S. Skills. I have a confession: I don’t particularly like backpacking despite having done it as part of my career and for most of my life. What I do like is getting into areas that others balk at due to time, effort, and lack of experience. I like getting to where backpacking takes me, but I’m not a fan of the act itself. Carrying an extra 20 ..read more

The sky flashed white, and in a single instant, the whole herd dropped dead. So did their caretaker. Mike Morgan, a longtime Colorado rancher, was feeding his cattle at the time of the strike on Saturday, May 25, and did not survive. While these kinds of lightning-induced mass-casualty incidents are fairly common, the tragedy was the first of its kind in Colorado. Morgan was standing in the back of a trailer, and the cattle had bunched around him to feed. The close proximity of the animals likely made them particularly vulnerable. Morgan’s wife was leading horses to the trailer at the time, w ..read more

It’s bear month—which means our resident bruin is back in the hot seat. Throughout this month, we’ll be serving him our readers’ most burning questions about bear behavior, quirks, and preferences. Here’s the latest. Q: I live in bear country, and I keep hearing about break-ins. What’s the best way to bear-proof my house?  — JG, Estes Park, CO. A: I have to say, I’m a little hurt. I personally am a very tidy houseguest. Yes, I will let myself in unannounced. Yes, I may sometimes get overcome by hunger and devour all of your marshmallows. And yes, I will shed on your carpet ..read more

It’s bear month—which means our resident bruin is back in the hot seat. Throughout this month, we’ll be serving him our readers’ most burning questions about bear behavior, quirks, and preferences. Here’s the latest. Q: Are male or female black bears the dominant ones? In a bear relationship, who wears the pants?  — CLH, Atlanta, GA.  A: Oh, don’t get me started. This is an easy one: when it comes to black bears, the ladies are in charge. And they’re not shy about it either. We males have our own pecking order, but it’s nothing compared to what the girls have going on. The only ..read more

In her monthly column, The Survivalist, Jessie Krebs writes about self-care and safely getting out of the occasional rough backcountry scenario. Krebs is a former Air Force S.E.R.E (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) instructor and owner of O.W.L.S. Skills. A knife is very useful for survival, but it’s easy to go down the rabbit hole when it comes to style, blade length, metal type, brand, and so on. There are hundreds of knife variations on the market, and, like a lot of equipment, once in a rare while some new innovation really does make a knife better. Most of the time, though, the ..read more

You’ve heard it before: food smells attract bears. But what about artificial food smells—like the kind you might find in an e-cigarette or vape pen? And what about marijuana vapes? (Asking for a friend.) If there’s anywhere in the U.S. where weed and bears are most likely to mix, it’s Colorado. So, for this question, we went straight to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). Among other duties—like managing high-stakes conservation initiatives—CPW shoulders the somewhat onerous burden of educating the weed-smoking public on wildlife safety. That includes sharing guidelines about when to use marij ..read more

Bear month is back—which means our resident bruin is back in the hot seat. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be serving him our readers’ most burning questions about bear behavior, quirks, and preferences. Starting with this one. Q: So, Bear…I don’t know how much time you spend on TikTok, but I’d like to ask you the question that went viral last month: Would you rather be stuck in the middle of the forest with a man or with a bear?  — EV, San Diego, CA.  A: I confess, I don’t spend a ton of time on the socials—still waiting for Apple to make a touch screen that’s claw-sensitive—bu ..read more

In her monthly column, The Survivalist, Jessie Krebs writes about staying alive in dangerous backcountry scenarios. Krebs is a former Air Force S.E.R.E (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) instructor and owner of O.W.L.S. Skills. Many aspiring campers have romantic visions of meals cooked over a wood-fueled open fire. Then, they try it. The result is often bread with a gooey middle, crunchy rice, charcoal in the pancakes, ash in the cocoa, burnt eggs—heck, burnt everything. Open-fire cooking isn’t advanced mathematics, but it is certainly different from cooking at home, especially if y ..read more

About a decade ago, when I first learned about risk management in my college outdoors club, I was taught that assuming the “lightning position” was the best way to protect yourself in a thunderstorm (spoiler alert: it does bugger-all). If you managed to avoid this particular tidbit of backcountry lore, allow me to provide a refresher: the lightning position involves crouching down on a sleeping pad with your heels touching, your chest pressed against your knees, and your hands clamped over your ears. It’s supposed to limit your likelihood of getting electrocuted. Over the last few years, many ..read more

I’ve been guilty of staying out longer than was prudent and finding myself racing to get back to a parking lot or base camp as the sun sets. On the other hand, sometimes it’s a deliberate choice to hike at night: For example, snow that was deep and wet during the day has frozen enough to walk on top of, and the moon and starlight illuminates the snowy landscape almost like day. In hot desert environments, it’s miserable to hike in the heat of the day, so I’ll plan on twilight or night hikes if I need to travel. Hunters planning to get in position early can often be seen heading to the hills w ..read more