My custom shirts for my upcoming hike were finished yesterday and they look great. Thanks to Darn Tough for hooking me up with the most badass socks ever, Enlightened Equipment for making the lightest, fluffiest, warmest quilt I’ve ever slept in, 3sports for supplying me with some awesome shoes, and Wild River Outfitters for the world’s lightest shirts! I’m very proud to represent such outstanding companies and products I can stand by. I wish I could put the names of all my friends and family on there because they’ve been the best supporters of all but I think I’d need an XL to fit all of them.
Cotton is consistently crapped on in the outdoor community for backpacking clothing and other outdoor activities. “Cotton kills” is a common saying among outdoor enthusiasts and anyone in the backcountry in jeans might as well have noob written on their forehead. But recently I’ve seen the death throes of cotton advocates citing that it is a perfectly acceptable and suggested fabric for desert environments. I am open to more arguments but after reading some of the articles justifying the reasoning, I have to say I’m very skeptical of this opinion. In this post, I want to explain why cotton gets such a bad rap, provide some explanation for why synthetic fabrics are preferable in any environment, and explain why cotton sucks even in the desert. Continue reading Desert or tundra, cotton still sucks for backpacking clothing→
Nearly every day I hear of some case of sexism in the world, why it should end, and how we are to combat it. The adult world shuns this sexism. But after being surrounded by kids the past few months, I realized that it is no wonder adults are often sexist. We raise our kids that way. We teach them differences between genders that are not innate. We encourage boys to play with construction toys and discourage them from princesses. In this light it seems no wonder that engineering schools are flooded with males. I hear a sexist comment nearly every hour in my life surrounded by children and their parents, and yet no one acknowledges it, or is even aware of it. Prepubescent children are nearly identical biologically and the behaviors that we tie to them and differentiate with them are almost completely trained. I wonder too how much of these ties later in life are due to this sexism ingrained in them from birth. Continue reading Sexism in kids→
