Lily grew up in Northeast Portland and enjoyed cross country skiing and playing sports as a kid. In her adult life, she has continued to engage in those activities as much as possible by coaching girls lacrosse.
She completed our Basic Climbing Education Program last year and has summited Mount Hood, Unicorn Peak and South Sister. She assisted with a BCEP team in 2023, intends to assist again in 2024 and also is serving on the BCEP committee, which is gearing up for its info night on Jan. 11.
Name: Lily Cox-Skall
Pronouns: she/ her
Year Joined Mazamas: 2022
Present-day outdoor activities: Mountaineering, backpacking, hiking, running, cross country skiing
What’s your earliest outdoor memory? Going cross country skiing with my parents as a kid – I used to hate it! Lol
How did you first hear about the Mazamas, and what prompted you to engage with theorganization? A few of my friends had taken BCEP and posted about it on social media, prompting my interest!
As more people seek to recreate outdoors, what advice would you offerthem? Partaking in outdoor skill training can give you so much more confidence in the outdoors. Before I took BCEP, I felt like I had to rely on others to be knowledgeable about navigating outdoor scenarios. Since learning technical skills, I feel comfortable organizing and leading day trips and backpacking trips that I may not have in the past, and it’s given me the opportunity to get more of my friends and family outdoors with me!
What activities/situations/people most inspire you? Since joining the Mazamas and BCEP in particular, I have been so fortunate to meet so many amazing and inspiring people. In particular, one of my BCEP team leads, Ann Marie, inspired me so much throughout the course and beyond. On top of a million other commitments, Ann Marie volunteers to help students learn new outdoor skills, and she is so patient that it made it a lot easier to get through the intimidation of doing new and scary things. When it comes to badass mountaineering women who inspire me, I definitely hold her on the top of my list :).
What is your favorite book/movie/TV show/social media account that you follow andwhy? I recently finished the book Bravey by Alexi Pappas! It is a really inspiring memoir that inspires me when it comes to setting goals and accomplishing them.
What’s on your adventure bucket list? I want to go climb the Acatenango volcano in Guatemala!
A native South Carolinian, Duncan lived in Maryland, Virginia and Rhode Island before moving to Oregon. His face is a familiar one at the Mazamas, and we’re fortunate that he is a devoted instructor. He’s a professor at Linfield College and volunteers much of his time teaching and overseeing first aid courses for the Mazamas. He also leads Basic Climbing Education Program teams, leads and assists on many climbs throughout the season and steps in as needed for other programs, like Families Mountaineering 101.
Name: Duncan Hart
Pronouns: he/him
Year Joined Mazamas: 2009
Present-day outdoor activities: Alpine climbing, camping, cycling, gardening, hiking, kayaking, and sandbox play
What’s your earliest outdoor memory?: Riding on the handlebars of my brother’s bike before age 3 and yes, we did not wear helmets back in the day.
How did you first hear about the Mazamas, and what prompted you to engage with the organization? My manager would drag himself into Monday morning meetings with a big smile where he would spend a few minutes sharing Mazamas weekend adventures stories. At the time, doing the kinds of activities that Mazamas do seemed unimaginable to me. One day he asked where I wanted to be in life, and my response was that I wanted to be in a pair of snowshoes on Mt Hood. The response was priceless, “Well that sounds kind of risky. You really should have some BCEP training before going into the mountains.”
As more people seek to recreate outdoors, what advice would you offer them? Be responsible not only for yourself but for others. Thirty years ago, we moved to the Pacific Northwest for the natural beauty and outdoor access. Today, we might be loving our mountains and outdoors a little too much. The inner drive to get that next great selfie is taking some people beyond their physical limits and into risky situations. The policy response is to place access restrictions on public lands. I feel that more people should be educated on the 10 essentials and that a smartphone is never an adequate substitute for planning and preparation. Having more people in the outdoors with Wilderness First Aid skills would also be a very good thing.
What activities/situations/people most inspire you? Acts of human kindness. Each of us does simple things every day that can make life better for others. Sometimes it is reaching out to a teammate who was involved in a challenging situation with you. “Hey, how are you doing?” A casual check-in like this can make a big difference in the first 10 minutes, later in the day, or even the next day after a tragedy or a near miss. Traumatic events affect each of us differently. Pay attention to the subtle details and listen. When we come together as Mazamas for an outdoor or educational experience, we often become a close-knit team. What we do as Mazamas is a dangerous sport, and bad things can and do happen. It is those formal and informal leaders within the teams who have the right sense of timing of when and how to do a check-in that inspire me.
What is your favorite book/movie/TV show/social media account that you follow and why? The Society for Science & the Public is a nonprofit that publishes a monthly Science News magazine that seeks to promote the understanding and appreciation for science and the vital role it plays on people and the planet. The articles are synopses of peer-reviewed white papers published in the last two months. I am interested in following the environmental issues and where this scientific community is focusing. Everyone can make individual choices both big and small that can result in a positive impact on the environment.
What’s on your adventure bucket list? My wish is to take all of my grandchildren up a glaciated peak. I pick up summit rocks as gifts and tell them that someday they will need to take them back (hopefully with me). Climate change is a reality. If we inspire our youth, someday they will tell their grandchildren stories of the time when there were glaciers on the mountains.Maybe one of those children will grow up with the answers on how to save our planet.
Lisa has been climbing mountains since she was little kid. She has served our organization in many capacities, volunteer climb leader, BCEP leader, canyoneering leader/instructor, teaching: ICS, AR, MFA, Crevasse Rescue, Rock Rescue, Skill Builders, FM101, CPR & First Aid and an organizer for our Used Gear Sale.
What’s your earliest outdoor memory: Catching frogs while camping with my family
How did you first hear about the Mazamas, and what prompted you to engage with the organization? Mazamas had a reputation in Portland as the best of the best. Very safety conscious, and a group that was serious about mountain climbing. I had already climbed a number of mountains including Mt Hood years before I joined Mazamas, then I decided I should take BCEP to learn more and to meet more climbers.
As more people seek to recreate outdoors, what advice would you offer them? Get some good training so you can enjoy the outdoors safely and more confidently.
What activities/situations/people most inspire you? Pick one. The BCEP students who are non-traditional. Who have not grown up hiking and spending time outdoors, and who might start out less physically fit.
What is your favorite book/movie/TV show/social media account that you follow and why? Deep Survival (Laurence Gonzales) – Led me to consider why we do what we do, and how each of us deals with challenges when they occur.
What’s on your adventure bucket list? Kilimanjaro, Borneo, Antarctica, more Pacific NW climbing
The Mazamas fully embrace the opportunity to publicly support the Bureau of Land Management’s historic effort to address our intensifying climate crisis by improving biodiversity and ecosystem resilience on our public lands. Our current predicament unquestionably demands aggressive action and rethinking fundamental priorities.
We agree wholeheartedly that preserving mature, old-growth forests is essential to any new plan. Not only do these forests store vast quantities of carbon from our atmosphere, but logging activity in these forests instead releases vast, harmful quantities of carbon – and needs to stop now.
These mature forests have shown they are more resilient to drought, insects, and fire, rendering them more valuable than ever. They support countless wildlife and plant species, enhance our threatened water supplies, and help combat flooding and erosion. Saving them from destruction must be a keystone of any forward-thinking and, yes, planet-saving, standards.
We believe much more can, and should, be done to mitigate and even reverse ongoing damage to our public lands. The BLM must continue to decommission unneeded roads. It should greatly limit free-range grazing and transition to rotational grazing wherever possible. The Bureau must work to restore and protect critical wetlands; and focus on biodiversity (rather than monoculture) when replanting/reseeding in deforested or otherwise-damaged areas. While the BLM and other public land managers have long juggled competing priorities of economic, recreational, and ecological interests, at this point there is only one path forward, lest these publicly owned treasures simply cease to exist: Restoration and preservation of environmental health and biodiversity must lie foremost in all planning.
(This was submitted to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning on behalf of the Mazamas)
Meet the Schwabs: They’re a blended family— each with varying degrees of “from-here.” While Meg moved to Oregon from the Midwest as an adult, Michael’s family basically got here with the Pioneers. Tegan and Isaac actually have the deepest roots to the Pacific Northwest though, because they’re members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde through their mom’s side of the family.
Thankfully, they all love being outside equally, and enjoy spending lots of family time exploring the outdoors. They were grateful to discover the Mazamas during COVID, and decided to take the Families Mountaineering 101 class together last year.
Name: Michael (dad), Meg (stepmom), Tegan, 12, and Isaac, 9
Pronouns: He, she, she, he
Year Joined Mazamas: 2022
Present-day outdoor activities: Hiking, camping, backpacking, climbing, and snowshoeing
What’s your earliest outdoor memory? As a fam: the kids have been camping since they were babies, and we’ve been taking them on hikes since before they even liked it.
How did you first hear about the Mazamas, and what prompted you to engage with the organization? Since COVID, we were always on the lookout for activities to do outside, because it really seemed to help the kids get through being stuck with online learning and not being able to see their friends as often. We found Family 101 in 2021 (through a google search, I think?), but the planned dates that season didn’t fit with the 50/50 parenting-time schedule we have. For 2022, the calendar was almost exactly [magically] aligned, so we applied!
As more people seek to recreate outdoors, what advice would you offer them? For families specifically: get started as early as you can! Even when you think it’ll be hard at first (FYI: you are correct), you’ll all get the hang of it eventually. Nothing has brought our family unit closer than the times we’ve been hanging out together outside. Also, if you have the opportunity to go with other families with kids (ex. FM101!): jump on it.
What activities/situations/people most inspire you? Every time we’ve been at the summit of a crazy-difficult hike and seen a parent walk by with their baby in one of those backpack-carrier things. So metal.
What is your favorite book/movie/TV show/social media account that you follow and why? Primitive Technology by John Plant.
What’s on your adventure bucket list? Re-doing our favorite trips we did when the kids were too little to take them with us. Banff National Park, Zion, and the Inca Trail stick out as the main ones.
Ali Marie & Susan Koch on Dog Mountain. Photo supplied by Ali Marie Koch
In her 20s, Ali Marie Koch struggled with anxiety, an eating disorder, depression and panic attacks.
“I tried a lot of different things to make myself feel better,” Ali recalls. But nothing helped. She even succumbed to her suicidal thoughts with a failed attempt. “When I found myself in a place of hopelessness, I knew I had to create a path back to wellness.”
That path led her to the Mazamas. Well, actually her mother, Susan Koch, a 2008 Basic Climbing Education Program (BCEP) graduate, hike leader and Guardian Peaks award recipient, shepherded her to the organization.
“I didn’t think there were other people like me who were happy on a hiking trail and not walking at the mall,” Susan says. “But I just fell in love with climbing and hiking, and the Mazamas were so kind and made me feel so welcome.”
Susan, a physician with Kaiser, wanted to at least try and expose Ali to the outdoor experiences that positively transformed her life decades before. They began hiking together. Susan waited until Ali’s strength and endurance increased and the wildflowers were peaking. Then she brought Ali up Old Snowy.
“When I stood on top of that mountain, I felt a sense of strength and inner peace I’ve never felt before,” Ali says. “I was connected to something bigger than myself…I thought there was a secret sauce here, which can lead to mental and physical wellness.”
Now 11 years into her recovery, Ali is an active Mazama who enjoys snowboarding, climbing and split boarding. She also aims to offer up some of that “secret sauce” to next year’s BCEP students via the Alano Club of Portland, the largest and oldest recovery center in the United States. Peak Recovery, a project of Alano, supports people in mental health and substance use recovery with free outdoor movement-based programming rooted in a true love of nature.
With Ali as program manager, Peak Recovery is excited to partner with the Mazamas and fund nine BCEP students in 2023 who identify as being in mental health and/or substance use recovery. Peak Recovery will cover the cost of the class and provide transportation in a 9-passenger Sprinter van. After the class, participants in the Peak Recovery cohort will be gifted a membership to the Mazamas to continue on their mountaineering journey.
“The ethos of Alano and Peak Recovery is in line with the Mazamas,” says Joe Preston, BCEP committee chair. “It’s the kind of partnership that will help us be more inclusive and welcoming, and we all want to see efforts like this expand every year.”
In 2022, BCEP put together several affinity teams, including an all-Latino team, an LGBTQ team and a sober team. The Peak Recovery partnership is an 18-month pilot program that Ali and Brent Canode, co-founder and Alano’s executive director, hope will become an ongoing partnership with the Mazamas.
“There’s a popular saying, and one of my favorite truisms in the behavioral health field, which goes like this: ‘The opposite of addiction is connection.’ At Alano Club of Portland we’ve taken that idea a bit further, recognizing that the point of connection must be meaningful and authentic for true community to grow and flourish,” Canode says. “Like most things in life, recovery is not a
One-size fits all journey, and those points of connection must speak in a way that compels a person to reach out and then remain on that path. That’s why we are thrilled to bring Peak Recovery to our community in partnership with the Mazamas, another legacy non-profit with a deep history of service and impact in Oregon.”
Susan and Ali credit the Mazamas in part for the happy, healthy lives they lead today, exposing them to a community of people passionate about movement and time in nature, tightening their family bond with trips that included the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and highlighting how resilient they are as women in the healthcare field.
“It’s been such a privilege to spend time in nature with other Mazamas, some of whom we now feel are like family,” Ali says. “It’s now a privilege to light this fire, to share the transformative, healing powers of mountains with others.”
Learn more and register for the course at Peak Recovery under the Mountaineering section for the “Mazama + Peak Recovery” BCEP team.
Applications will go live January 18th, and applications close February 9th
Anyone applying for these 9 spots on the “Mazama + Peak Recovery” BCEP team will all be in the same cohort (which will be led by James Jula from the Mazamas BCEP leader team)
Being and feeling safe is a right for all people. This is not true for many within our community.
Today, we are reaffirming that statement and voicing our support for our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members. The murderous rampage on March 17 in Atlanta by a racially-motivated gunman, led to the deaths of eight individuals, six of whom were Asian women. This alone is a horrific and tragic event. But it is not an isolated incident. The United States has a long history of anti-Asian violence and hate which has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are dedicated to actively listening to the Asian members of our community, to receiving feedback, and implementing change. We want you to know that we see you, we hear you, and we are working to become an organization where you feel fully supported and welcome.
Today, we are calling upon our Mazama community to show their support for our AAPI members and to aid in disrupting the cycle of violence and hate. We ask you to act to prevent gender-motivated harassment and violence in our communities, and to learn about the history of racism and violence against Asians in this country. And we ask you to question your everyday interpretations, judgements, and actions as you review the list of resources below.
A few action steps the Mazamas have taken in the last year to address the culture of systemic racism and gender-based violence within our community:
Launched an online Preventing Sexual Harassment & Sexual Assault training.
Published an Equity Statement that was crafted by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team.
Supported a Mazama board member and committee member’s enrollment in the Intertwine Alliance Equity & Inclusion Cohort.
Supported two staff members attending The Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge Fundamentals Training.
Implemented learnings from that training including updating language in our job postings and accessibility language on our website.
Worked with our partner outdoor organizations to schedule a Systemic and Structural Racism 2-day intensive training for our Executive Director and a board member. The learnings from this training will be shared with our membership. (scheduled for October 2021)
The Mazama Board voted to sign on to the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge.
Several other initiatives, including proposed amendments to our organization’s bylaws, are in progress. This is just the beginning of our work to make the Mazamas a truly welcoming and inclusive place.
What can you do to learn more and provide support to our AAPI community?
Distract: Find a way to pull attention away from the situation, or the person being attacked.
Delegate: Evaluate the situation and organize others to respond.
Document: Record the incident. Keep a safe distance when recording, and always ask the person targeted what they want you to do with the footage. Do not further victimize an individual by posting a video/audio without their knowledge.
Delay: After the incident, check in with anyone who was affected to show them that their experience and well-being matters, and that you see and value them.
Direct: Step forward in a situation directly and intervene, either physically or verbally.
The Mazamas does not tolerate violence or racism in our community. If you have witnessed or been subject to harassment while participating in our courses, activities, or events, we implore you to file an incident report. To the extent possible, confidentiality will be maintained except as necessary to conduct the investigation and take appropriate remedial action.
LEARN Most of us have a lot to learn when it comes to racism, anti-racism, and allyship in the United States, particularly as it relates to the history and prevalence of anti-Asian rhetoric. There are hundreds of important resources available online, in the library, and through your headphones. Here are a few places and statements to get us started:
We also encourage you to learn more about Oregon State Bill 289, which would increase penalties for bias crimes perpetrated on Oregon public lands and provide means for restorative justice. Email your state senator to share your support and encourage them to vote for this bill.
The Mazama staff would like to thank the members of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team who continue to hold us accountable and encourage us to use our platform to denounce hate. Their time, efforts, and support are critical to the Mazamas becoming a more inclusive and just organization.
Written by Aimee Filimoehala, Mazama Vice President Printed in the January/February 2021 Mazama Bulletin
The Mazama Executive Council endorses the following proposed amendments to the bylaws. Updating and modernizing the bylaws will allow the organization to attract many new like-minded members, to improve operational efficiency, and to take a definitive step toward increasing diversity and inclusivity in the Executive Council, which is critical for a modern council’s decision-making ability. Understanding the reasoning for these bylaw changes will be facilitated by a town hall meeting in early spring. A special election to vote on the bylaw changes will be held in early May 2021. We continue to look to our past for a foundation, while also reaching to the future as we aspire to challenge ourselves to be better.
Glaciated Peak
According to our current bylaws, an individual must summit a glaciated peak to qualify for Mazama membership. The original intent of this requirement served to foster a sense of community and ensured that all Mazamas shared a love for the mountains. There has been an ongoing and genuine interest from nonmembers to become part of our member community while enjoying outdoor activities being offered through the Mazamas, including:
Hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, and rambling
Rock climbing
Skiing (Nordic and Backcountry)
Canyoneering
Outings
Removing the requirement of summiting a glaciated peak allows us to:
Remove a barrier to becoming a Mazama, which is in line with the council’s goal to make it easier for participants that share the values of the organization to actively participate in and contribute to the Mazama experience.
Directly support our mission of inspiring everyone to love and protect the mountains.
Advance efforts of inclusiveness and diversity in our organization regardless of socioeconomic status, physical abilities, age, and outdoor interests.
Increase membership while improving both political presence and financial stability.
Our identity is preserved through our behavior and established culture. Other well-established mountaineering organizations such as the American Alpine Club and The Mountaineers have no such requirement and are still considered climbing organizations by their members and the larger community. The Mazamas will continue to recognize climbing achievements through badges and awards, including:
Completing the Basic Education Climbing Program,
Completing the Intermediate Climbing School,
Completing Advanced Rock
Summiting a Glaciated Peak,
Summiting the Guardian Peaks
Summiting the Seven Oregon Peaks
Summiting the 16 Northwest Peaks
Operations
Recent unpredictable and unavoidable events have highlighted limitations in conducting day-to-day business given our existing bylaws. In order to improve our ability to comply with bylaws while operating effectively, the Executive Council is recommending we separate some of the day to day operational structure currently dictated in the bylaws into a separate operations document. Recommended changes to the bylaws will:
Change the name of the Executive Council to the Board of Directors (Board), and its members will be board members or directors;
Allow board communication by electronic means according to Oregon law as needed;
Remove the requirement for two authorized signers for all financial transactions and allow the Executive Director or an authorized officer to sign for expenses up to $1,000;
Move the creation and management of committees to conduct essential work to an operations document.
Board Makeup
The existing Mazama Bylaws require board members to be a Mazama member in good standing for at least three years. A recommendation to emphasize skillset, applicable experiences, and diverse backgrounds vs. length of time within the organization is being made. The practical needs of our organization require knowledge and proficiency in specialized areas such as fundraising, accounting, and law, to name a few. With the current requirements, we have severely limited our ability to find and recruit the talent that is needed for our board. If we remove these requirements and instead place value on experience vs. length of time with the Mazamas, we will be able to recruit highly skilled board candidates and improve confidence in our members that we are operating in their and the community’s best interests.
Recommended changes to the board makeup include:
Removal of the requirement for three years of continuous Mazama membership to run for the board. These nine board members will still need to be voted in by the membership.
Three additional board members, who need not be Mazama members, will be appointed by the nine board members for their special skills or experiences, including their connections in the broader non-Mazama community, and they will share the same voting rights and responsibilities. Appointments will be made for three-year terms with the exception of the initial appointments. To stagger vacancies and to provide continuity, the initial appointments will be: first appointee for 1 year; second appointee for 2 years; and third appointee for three years.
Keep an eye out for the official voter guide in the March/April Bulletin. We will be holding a virtual town hall meeting on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, to discuss the proposed bylaw amendments.
If you have questions or comments about the bylaws, please email bylaws@mazamas.org.
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2021 Mazama Bulletin.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – pillars of the sustainability mantra. Many of us buy bulk, bring our canvas totes to the store, and sort out as much recyclable waste as possible. I once made a New Year’s resolution to not buy anything that came in a plastic package for two months. But what about the fourth R?
Repair is often the most difficult R to practice. First, most good repairs require specialized equipment and knowledge. I’m not questioning the silver tape repaired spark-hole in your puffy – but that’s solution won’t work for everything. To repair most fabrics you’ll need at a minimum a spool of thread and a needle. Beyond that, the would-be repairer needs to know basic sewing techniques like how to tie a knot at the end of your thread, a stitch type, and how to end your seam. Other things, like chipped skis, delaminated hiking boots, or skins that are coming unglued require techniques only applicable in those specific situations.
A knotted double strand of thread for strength.
Luckily for all of us, the internet has made many of these repairs accessible to the layman. Youtube videos, blogs, and thousands of obscure forums across the web offer detailed steps to complete many types of repair.
Some would argue that time is an issue, but many repairs, especially clothing repairs, can be completed in half an hour or less. I do not think people are too lazy to repair their gear either; we’re dedicated, passionate people.
The author’s first attempt at an embroidered repair. Embroidery isn’t covered here and requires additional equipment including a hoop and embroidery needles. If you’re interested in learning more, let us know.
The greatest barrier to Repair for many of us is emotional. We have been conditioned to think success means having new-looking clothes with no flaws or blemishes. Ads make us lust after the gear we don’t own yet. Someone with patches on their clothes looks less-than. Fitting in often feels like it requires a certain standard of dress. I can hear the devil’s advocate pointing to a fashionable sweater that comes with patched elbows, or distressed denim. But those items look new. A patched hole on a sock is clearly a repair, not a fashion statement, embroidery covering up moth holes tells the story of a sweater that was kept rather than discarded. Frequently we see people who wear repaired gear as iconoclasts, as the last of the real dirtbags. With bravery and a small amount of time, we can be those iconoclasts.
Embrace repair. Repairing an item when it is damaged instead of throwing it away prevents it from going to a landfill and prevents the waste associated shipping and making a new one. Try a simple repair Learn to darn. Take your shoes in to be re-soled. Wear your repair with pride. Whether your issue is know-how or being nervous to wear something repaired, join me!
I am going to share some simple repair techniques, and some of the items I’ve repaired, and had repaired in the next few pages. It is humbling to share this work – I’m far from an expert. But I believe in practicing what I preach. I want to encourage those who’ve never repaired anything to give it a try and celebrate my fellow Mazamas who are already repairing their gear. If you have a repair you’d like to share, or if you need help with a repair, send us a picture and some tips on how you did it: publications@mazamas.org.
Some tips for people new to repair:
Don’t be embarrassed if your repair is obvious. Overcome the shame in visible mending and in ugly mending. As a society we need to be comfortable with imperfection. If we can’t pridefully wear things we fix there will always be stigma around repaired clothing. This is classist as well as unsustainable. Think of your repair as art, as sustainability, as making your stuff unique.
If you can’t fix it, check out one of our local Pacific Northwest Repair companies. Seattle and Portland are both home to gear repair shops, they’re active on Instagram – it’s a ton of fun to see the projects they work on. There are also cobblers who specialize in shoes and boots and local tailors who can make gear fit you and fix clothing.
A note about these techniques: I’m a big fan of diving into something. This isn’t a master class on sewing or any other kind of repair. Check out YouTube and Instagram if you want to learn some really masterful techniques – or see videos of the techniques I describe. This hopefully doesn’t need to be said: but we are not advocating for repairing essential safety items, climbing gear and ropes come to mind, which a poor repair could cause to become dangerous. Repurpose or recycle those things!
Some vocab:
Right side: the side of the fabric that will show when worn. For example on a sock, the right side is the side that doesn’t touch your foot. On a pillow, the right side is the outside.
Wrong side: the side of the fabric that is hidden when worn. The inside of a sock, the side of a pair of pants that touches your body.
Seam allowance: the space between needle holes and the edge of the fabric. This space prevents your stitches from ripping to the edge of the fabric and helps prevent the fabric from unraveling.
For the following stitches you’ll need: needle, scissors, thread.
Whip Stitch: Fixing holes in socks without darning
I frequently use a whip stitch because it’s simple and strong. Full disclosure, I have not learned to darn so I repair all my socks with a whip stitch. It works for me and holds up to heavy use. If there is a hole where fabric has been fully worn away, this method will make your item slightly smaller, it could also cause some abrasion. It’s great for small holes in socks, not great for a big hole in the thigh of your jeans or a seam where most of the seam allowance has ripped away. If you’re looking to cover a large hole consider patching or darning.
Pros: Easy, prevents fabric from unravelling, visible
Cons: Visible
Steps:
Tie a knot at the end of a piece of thread, you’ll get a feeling for how much thread to use as you repair things more frequently. I generally about a foot of thread to give myself plenty of length to work with. If the repair is in an area that gets a lot of use I will double the thread over and tie the ends together. There are all kinds of fancy knot tying techniques for sewing. For a single strand of thread I simply tie two overhand knots on top of each other – it’s easy to remember and effective.
Turn your item inside out if possible. You’ll be stitching on the inside of the garment. If you can’t turn the item inside out, like the jacket shown below, your seam will be visible. If you would prefer the smooth side of the seam against your skin, adjust appropriately.
Insert the thread in the fabric and pull through, til the knot is flush with the fabric.
Hold the sides of the hole together and take your needle through both sides. Pull the thread through until it stops.
Insert the needle in the opposite side of the seam, piercing both sides again. Pull the thread through.
Repeat this looping process until you have closed the hole. Keep the stitches close together. If you’re worried about the strength of the seam, repeat the process going the opposite direction.
Once you think you’re done turn the item inside out and/or tug on the two sides of the fabric. If you still see a hole, you’ll need to whip stitch over that area as well. In the demonstration here I had tried to keep my stitches too close to the edge of the hole, there wasn’t enough margin to close up the entire area. I simply flipped the sock inside out again and moved the needle further away from the edge to include more area in my seam.
When you’re ready to finish the seam, stick the needle in the fabric under one of your other stitches and pull it out in almost the same spot. Don’t pull tight. Thread the needle through the loop you just created and THEN tighten.
Repeat step 7 for extra security. Trim your thread tail close to the knot.
Ready to wear!
Turn your item inside out if possible. You’ll be stitching on the inside of the garment. If you can’t turn the item inside out, like the jacket shown below, your seam will be visible. If you would prefer the smooth side of the seam against your skin, adjust appropriately.
Hold the sides of the hole together and take your needle through both sides. Pull the thread through until it stops.
Insert the needle in the opposite side of the seam, piercing both sides again. Pull the thread through.
Repeat this looping process until you have closed the hole. Keep the stitches close together. If you’re worried about the strength of the seam, repeat the process going the opposite direction.
Once you think you’re done turn the item inside out and/or tug on the two sides of the fabric. If you still see a hole, you’ll need to whip stitch over that area as well. In the demonstration here I had tried to keep my stitches too close to the edge of the hole, there wasn’t enough margin to close up the entire area. I simply flipped the sock inside out again and moved the needle further away from the edge to include more area in my seam.
When you’re ready to finish the seam, stick the needle in the fabric under one of your other stitches and pull it out in almost the same spot. Don’t pull tight. Thread the needle through the loop you just created and THEN tighten.
Pink thread used for visibility! If I’d taken tighter stiches or used a black thread, this repair would have been invisible. You can see some previously repaired holes on this sock if you look closely.
I chose to use a whip stitch in a pretty magenta on this split seam because I wanted to be reminded of the repair. This is from a company that does offer repairs, but fixing it myself guaranteed I’d get to keep the jacket I loved and reduced the waste associated with shipping the jacket to and from a repair company.
Ladder Stitch: Invisible Repairs
Learning the ladder stitch prompted me to write this article. I am proud of my visible repairs, but it’s also nice to have something in my toolkit that isn’t obvious. Think of the ladder stitch like a corset, your thread pulls the two sides together.
This one is also good for sewing pillows closed after stuffing them.
Pros: Still relatively easy, flies under the radar
Cons: Doesn’t work in every situation
Steps
Tie a knot at the end of a piece of thread, you’ll get a feeling for how much thread to use as you repair things more frequently. I generally about a foot of thread to give myself plenty of length to work with. If the repair is in an area that gets a lot of use I will double the thread over and tie the ends together. There are all kinds of fancy knot tying techniques for sewing. For a single strand of thread I simply tie two overhand knots on top of each other – it’s easy to remember and effective.
Insert your needle in the fabric, starting from the underside so your knot is protected and hidden.
Cross the gap and insert the needle in the other side of the fabric, leave some seam allowance. Often I simply follow the ridge where the two pieces of fabric met before they pulled apart. Run the needle behind the fabric for a few MM, then poke it through the same side. The ‘longer’ the distance between the needle holes the looser the edge will be.
Cross the needle over to the other side and repeat step 3.
Repeat 3-4 until you have stitches along the entire length of the hole. As you go, pull the thread to tighten.
There are two methods to end this seam. You can make a small visible knot, like in the whip stitch or you can tie a knot in your thread right where your line of stitches ends. To get the knot really close to the last stitch insert your needle into the middle of the knot and use the needle to pull the knot down. Remove the needle from the same side you inserted it. Then stab the needle into the seam and pull hard enough that the knot pops through the fabric and is hidden under the surface. Trim your thread ends and pull them inside the item so they are hidden.
Insert your needle in the fabric, starting from the underside so your knot is protected and hidden.
Cross the gap and insert the needle in the other side of the fabric, leave some seam allowance. Often I simply follow the ridge where the two pieces of fabric met before they pulled apart. Run the needle behind the fabric for a few MM, then poke it through the same side. The ‘longer’ the distance between the needle holes the looser the edge will be.
Cross the needle over to the other side and repeat step 3.
Repeat 3-4 until you have stitches along the entire length of the hole. As you go, pull the thread to tighten.
Needle inserted into the fabric next to the final knot. You’ll feel a little pop as the knot is pulled to the opposite side, through the fabric. Trim ends on the other side
There are two methods to end this seam. You can make a small visible knot, like in the whip stitch or you can tie a knot in your thread right where your line of stitches ends. To get the knot really close to the last stitch insert your needle into the middle of the knot and use the needle to pull the knot down. Remove the needle from the same side you inserted it. Then stab the needle into the seam and pull hard enough that the knot pops through the fabric and is hidden under the surface. Trim your thread ends and pull them inside the item so they are hidden.
Finished repair – you can just barely see the magenta thread where I finished my seam.
Bonus Round: Epoxied ski chip
I was pretty bothered by a big chip I took out of a pair of skis. Leaving it open was an option but could have led to further chipping and some increased rust potential.
Steps:
Make sure the surface is clean and dry, remove any debris.
Create a dam using masking tape, a couple of layers will create a nice wall around your chipped area. The green line is where I made my dam.
Mix your epoxy (available in small tubes from the hardware store)
Fill the chipped area with the epoxy, a bit of meniscus over the non-tape side is fine, but try to keep the epoxy level with the area of the ski. You can sand it down if needed.
Follow the curing/dying steps on the epoxy packaging.
When fully cured, remove the tape, and sand and rough areas or greebles.
A note on getting other people to repair your gear:
Several major outdoor brands offer free repairs on their gear. I’ve had generally positive results from these programs. The one exception: I sent a jacket in for a simple repair – one cuff needed new elastic binding; I received a new jacket instead. Perhaps they thought I’d reject a mismatched cuff, maybe the repair was more expensive than giving me credit for a new coat, or maybe their repair shop was full. The repair was truly simple, and something I could have done myself. At the time I was excited to get credit because I saw it as ‘better’ than getting my used jacket back. I’ve since changed my philosophy when it comes to asking brands to repair my gear: if they can’t complete the repair for whatever reason, I ask for it back and fix it myself. Ask the company you’re working with if they will send your gear back if they can’t fix it. Repair companies often have access to fabric for patching that you or I don’t have lying around and have professional sewing machines that can tackle much tougher stuff.
The pockets in this jacket blew out and the insulation could be seen. The local repair company added in the blue rectangles – color at my request – and reinstalled the zippers. Looks great and functions again.
I initially tried to fix this with tape, which quickly peeled off in this high friction area. There was not enough fabric here to do a ladder or whip stitch. The repair company’s strap based patch is highly superior, and gave me ideas for fixing other items I own. Again, done by a Portland area company.
It’s hard to see, thanks to the black thread used, but this seam had gotten loose. I couldn’t trim the threads without destroying the seam’s integrity so I tacked them down with black thread and pulled as many as I could to the back side. There is a special type of needle, called a ‘cheater needle’ that has an hinged eye and will allow you to feed thread through and pull to the back. Check it out online!
The company fixed the cuffs of this jacket – the dark gray you can see now used to be a sliver color. This is the same type of repair a different company wasn’t able to do – they sent me a new jacket instead. Not pictured: a cute new logo sewn on in the back where the old one had worn off.
If you’re anything like me, you get super hungry when you’re out in the backcountry. After a long day of backpacking or climbing, all I want is to sit down to a hot meal and load up on calories. An outdoor meal should leave me feeling satisfied and happy. Food that’s local, created sustainably, tastes great, and doesn’t break the bank is a definite plus.
When you’re craving a burger, fries, and a cold beer, re-hydrating a package of freeze-dried mediocre linguine from the store can be a bit of a letdown. But it doesn’t have to be! There are tons of options for do-it-yourself adventure food, and just as many non-corporate, tastier options than the wall of Mountain House at REI.
Enter: the dehydrator.
You can pick one of these up for pretty cheap (around $60 from many online stores), and they’re well worth the investment. Any beginner knows a home dehydrator is perfect for dried fruit of any kind. Apple rings (tip: cut the apple through the core for pretty star patterns in your rings), banana chips, mango, kiwi, strawberry, the list goes on. Feeling adventurous? Try adding some spices—spicy dried mango, anyone? Home-dehydrated fruits are cheap, easy, flavorful, and don’t contain added sugar and chemical preservatives.
After drying some fruit, it’s time to branch out into the wider world of amazing dehydrator meals. Believe it or not, a simple dehydrator is capable of drying all sorts of foods, including vegetables, sauces, meats, soups, and beans (no soak time required).
Breakfast
Dose Juice on Unsplash
Trail smoothie: Simply blend up your favorite smoothie and spread it out on a dehydrator tray. Once it’s brittle, grind it up in a coffee grinder and put it in a resealable bag. Out on the trail, add a little water and you have a smoothie, just like at home.
DIY oatmeal: Packaged oatmeal is a little…gross. Sugar and mystery ingredients, anyone? Instead, add whatever you want to some instant oats and you’re all set. Some fun ideas are chia seeds, hemp seeds, oat bran (fiber), powdered milk (creaminess), sugar or substitute (if you have a sweet tooth), vanilla bean powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon or other spices, dried fruits, and nuts.
DIY granola bars: Easier than you think to make at home. There are plenty of recipes online, including for KIND bars.
Summer sausage or home-dehydrator jerky paired with a hard cheese (safe without refrigeration in cooler temps). Eat on whole grain crackers, or rehydrate some hummus and make a wrap.
Consider rehydrating a meal pouch at breakfast and letting it soak until lunch. Many foods are just as good cold as they are warm.
Dinner
StockSnap on Pixabay
Soup: Use your favorite soup recipe: dehydrate the veggies and add all the ingredients in a resealable bag. If you’re adding meat, consider purchasing freeze-dried meats since they don’t rehydrate very well when dehydrated. I did read that dehydrated canned chicken works fairly well.
Couscous, pasta, and instant rice: Same instructions as for soup. There are tons of recipes online—risotto, curry, jambalaya, and many more. Consider dehydrating a marinara or curry sauce in your dehydrator!
Ramen: Ditch the nutrient-deficient spice packet, and use the instant noodles with your own blend of dehydrated veggies and spices.
Other ideas: Instant mashed potatoes or polenta.
Dessert: Rice pudding (instant rice, raisins, sugar, cinnamon, water to rehydrate), fruit leather (DIY), apple crisp (granola, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, dried apples, water to rehydrate).
Online dried ingredient marketplaces
Don’t want to invest in a dehydrator or don’t have the time or space? There are online shops that cater to backpackers and sell pre-dried individual ingredients, reusable rehydration pouches, and single-serve condiments.
These stores are more expensive that doing it yourself, but if you’re pressed for time or don’t want to figure out how to dry some of the more persnickety foods (I’ve always struggled with squash), they’re a fantastic option. I’ve used Packit Gourmet (they also sell tasty meal pouches), but other options are Harmony House Foods and FoodStorage.com.
Other quick tips
Save your boil-in-a-bag pouches. Wash them out and re-use them for your own dehydrator meals.
Organize your dehydrator meals in clear, resealable bags. Write on the bag what is inside (and the day you plan to eat it on a multi-day trip), and place breakfasts, lunches/snacks, and dinners in separate stuff sacks for easy sorting.
Dry dark leafy greens in your dehydrator, then grind them into a powder in your coffee grinder. This is an easy way to add nutrients to your morning smoothie or oatmeal, or into a dinner pouch. “Power green” powders are also available online, but it’s much cheaper to do it yourself. All those grains and nuts take a toll on our digestive systems and adding greens can really help.
Alternatives to Mountain House
Mountain House meals are fine, but they can quickly get old. And 2 servings? More like 1. Found that one out the hard way.
There are plenty of smaller companies producing dried meals popping up in local shops and online.
Food for the Sole: Originally a mom making meals for her son hiking the John Muir Trail, they now make “tasty health-conscious adventure foods”. And they’re based in Bend!
Backpackers Pantry: Becoming widely available at local stores. They do actually serve 2 people, use high-quality ingredients, and are a member of 1% for the Planet.
Heather’s Choice: Small batch, healthy, and handmade in Alaska.
Fishpeople: Soups and chowders made with wild, sustainably caught seafood.
Packit Gourmet: Tex-Mex inspired meals from a mother-and-daughter team.
Outdoor Herbivore: Vegetarian and vegan options with no additives, less sodium, and no artificial anything.
