TGR Journal

Why Every Rider Needs to Take A Mountain Bike Class

For most mountain bikers, there’s a powerful driving force behind why we ride. Sure, it’s about connecting with friends, getting out into the woods for some fresh air, or getting in a quick burn after work. But let’s be real, on top of all of those factors, the simple power of progression is what keeps us out there day after day, seeing what we can learn next on our bikes. For everyone who’s ever ridden on two wheels, though, there comes a time when we get stuck. Whether it’s a feature we just can’t wrap our head around, speed that we can’t seem to find, or a type of riding we’d like to get into but are too scared to just go try, there’s a simple solution. Seek help!

TGR Journal

Blood Sweat and Gears: The I-90 Corridor

Like so many riders around here, I got my first true taste of PNW riding at Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park on a gloomy day where the sky wasn’t quite sure whether it would start pouring rain. That first experience, on Thanksgiving Day in 2017, with lap after lap of grin-inducing riding on the nearly two-dozen XC and freeride trails, kickstarted a love affair with loam that I’ve been unable to shake. Thanks to many trips back to the area since, that love affair has been compounded after getting to know the nooks and crannies of the hundreds of miles of singletrack in the greater Seattle area. It’s clear that this might be one of the best places in the world to be a mountain biker. This past spring, I dove deep into the story behind trail building and access in this part of the country, learning about how the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance has worked tirelessly for the past decade to ensure a bright future for bikes.

TGR Journal

The Grand Lake Traverse

Jill Garreffi and Jovanna "Jo" Hart are two open water swimmers with big, audacious goals. After years of exploring the many bodies of water in the Jackson, Wyoming region, they concocted a challenge to traverse Grand Teton National Park by its many lakes: Jackson, Leigh, String, Jenny, Bradley, Taggart, and lastly Phelps Lake. Aptly nicknamed The Grand Lake Traverse (GLT), their swimming odyssey consisted of 18.82 miles of swimming,17 miles of hiking, and a whole lot of stamina and endurance. On August 24th, 2018, Jill plunged into Jackson Lake—with Jo shortly to follow—with hopes of becoming the first swimmers to link the GLT.

TGR Journal

The Art of Letting Go

As mud season rolled around in Jackson, and my thirst to be near salt water became stronger and stronger, it was time for something new. I remembered my grandpa telling me stories of how he traveled up the coast through Oregon and Washington and all through the PNW in his 30s. He told tales of cold water and lush, moss-covered forests, thick with life, and rocky cliffs that jut out of the ocean. One week in May, my partner volunteered his Subaru for a road trip and we set out for the Oregon coast. I expected to find new places, a change in scenery, and some fun waves. But to nobody’s real surprise, I found much more: clarity, peace, and realization as I moved through grieving the loss of a loved one.

TGR Journal

Spirit Animal

There’s a bike tumbling down the rocky hillside ahead of me. Squinting I watch it tomahawk out of view and suddenly think, wait is that Brian’s bike? No. That can’t be what’s happening, shaking off the thought as I attempt to get back on my bike. I’m on my saddle for a few more seconds, before having to dismount and down climb what feels like a rock-strewn trail that is generously labeled as singletrack. After one petrified scramble to the bottom of the trail, I find my friends Max and Brian patiently waiting for me in the brush. They’re quick to inform me that my observation was half correct. Brian’s bike did a somersault off the trail. What I didn’t see is that he went with it. Brian’s arm is bleeding from the ordeal, but he nonchalantly shrugs it off. Max is mildly concerned but follows him without saying anything. Horrified, I get back on the saddle and try to push away the question that was bouncing around in my brain when I first got here: Am I going to survive this trip?

TGR Journal

How the Vorhees Saved the North Fork Championships

Whenever I talk about kayaking to non-kayakers, somehow, the North Fork Championships finds its way into the conversation. Whether it’s where I met some of my closest friends, the most savage beat down I ever took on a river, my favorite stretches of whitewater, or how hard I’ll dance after a full day of paddling and photographing, all of it pretty much circles back to that one weekend a year in Banks. So when the event made a comeback after a pandemic and a switch in leadership, I knew it was a pretty important story to tell.

TGR Journal

TGR Tested: Fast & Light Overnight Ski Kit

There’s this thing about big overnight ski missions that nobody really tells you about: the reality is that they’re usually pretty cold and miserable. Despite that, suffering through an uncomfortable night, carrying more gear than normal, and the problem of where to go to the bathroom are all eclipsed by the simple pleasure of dropping into a hard-earned line in untouched snow. For most of the season, I’m the type of skier who would rather get up a little early and move a little faster to get up and down an objective in a day, but come springtime on big mountains like Mt. Rainier (Tahoma) the overnight option opens up new possibilities – and besides, spending the night at 10,000 feet on a glacier high above everything else is really something special.

TGR Journal

Wildly Creative

Her email said she’d come out for a visit. That wasn’t quite what I expected when I reached out to mountain biker and artist Micayla Gatto to ride with and photograph in Jackson, Wyoming. The whole idea was a complete long shot. We hardly knew each other, first crossing paths by chance in a karaoke bar in Bellingham, Washington. After a riveting rendition of Baby Got Back, I felt that we had built enough of a rapport for me to invite a complete stranger to come visit. A year later, she decided to take me up on my offer.

TGR Journal

Stoke Seekers

I made the “Stoke Seekers” comic strips because I feel that the outdoor sports community bonds over the collective experiences that so many people go through as they grow as an athlete. Every sportsman has some cool, funny, or scary story from their experiences that I like to put on paper. The “Stoke Seekers” strip will hopefully serve as a way to help people relate to one another and remember that getting outside is about having fun! I make the strip using watercolor paints, pens, some photoshop, and the stories of my friends.

TGR Journal

Fear and Wind Loading on Thompson Pass - AKA How to Ski Alaska on A Budget

It's 10am. I’m curled up on a five-foot-long vinyl couch staring up at a beige ceiling. The smell of stale beer and ski boots is momentarily interrupted by an arctic breeze and the rich scent of Folgers. Native Alaskan and Fairbanks resident Clyde Hewitt is now standing in the galley of our 31H Minnie Winnie Motorhome with a steaming pot of coffee. "Welcome to the One Love Lot boys; we were talking in the Wildwood this morning and decided we'd like to bump you all up to the shoulder of Girls Mountain.” (A 5500-foot roadside peak that towers over the Worthington Glacier.)

TGR Journal

TGR Tested: MTB Editors' Picks

Looking to up your style while out on the trails this summer? Take a peek at what we think are some of the best new products on the market for mountain biking. We're looking at apparel, protection, shoes, and accessories for all shapes and sizes and all kinds of riding.

TGR Journal

Welcome to the TGR Journal Vol. 2

Last spring, the TGR Journal was conceived as a collection of TGR’s best writing and long-form storytelling that would run a few times a year. Well, we all know how 2020 went. Either way, it’s good to be back, and we're beyond excited to show off our second volume of the TGR Journal, this time with a whole new collection of words, photographs, thoughts, and even some art.

TGR Journal

Elyse Saugstad - On My Own Terms

How Elyse Saugstad crafted a ski career she's proud of. If you ask Elyse how she feels about the future of the sport she doesn't even need to think twice to tell you: "I honestly think that the most exciting thing in skiing right now is women, and I'm really thankful that I've been a part of it one way or another."

TGR Journal

A Cookbook For Ski Bums

If you're a twenty-something-year-old still poaching free breakfast burritos from the gas station then it's time for either an intervention or to get yourself a copy of Beyond Skid. The Beyond Skid cookbook is a volume of delicious, healthy meals that can fuel your passion for all things mountain sports. And the best part? Everything is super easy to make.

TGR Journal

Behind the Lens: Keegan Rice

Keegan Rice is a man who eats ants off the ground. I’ve seen him do it. He says they taste like citrus. Aside from trail-ants, Rice is also known to appreciate other finer things in life: A nice surf break, a tallboy of Modelo, and some deep pow. For a while now, one of the things in life he holds closest to his heart is photography, and he's going to tell us all about it.

TGR Journal

Loose Boots: Caite Zeliff

Caite Zeliff, about skiing, passion, obsession and mental health. A lot of athletes talk about their “mental game.” But not so many of them talk about their mental health, and few athletes, let alone people, talk about it as candidly as Caite Zeliff. TGR Athlete, two-time Queen of Corbet's and all-around badass Caite Zeliff sits down with our own Taylor Fry to chat about her journey to where she is now and how mental health and skiing can be totally intertwined.

TGR Journal

Oaxaca Dreaming - A Mexico MTB Adventure

Mexico isn’t just for spring break. Last November, in a pre-pandemic world, TGR Editor Max Ritter made the trip down to Oaxaca's Sierra Norte mountains. On Day 1, getting his mouth burned by spicy hot chocolate that was too good to put down really set the tone for the whole week-long trip to Mexico’s mountain biking paradise, getting his fill of singletrack, mezcal, and culture so beyond imagination, all while knowing that his crew barely scratched the surface.

TGR Journal

The Internet VS. The Backcountry

It’s 2021, so we can all agree that the internet is one of the single greatest things to happen to humankind, right? Well, maybe. Online information is a powerful thing, its influence reaching like tendrils into our world in ways we are only now starting to understand. But is it affecting our relationship with taking risk in the mountains?

TGR Journal

Rules of the River - A Grand Canyon Photo Epic

Click. Click. The gas on the stove ignites. Someone has started boiling water for coffee. This is my alarm clock most days, unless I’m on morning cook duty myself. It’s November and I’m on the Grand Canyon; time really doesn’t matter down here in the ditch. The pace of life is determined by the sun and the moon, so I’ve decided: no watch on my wrist for 24 days. I open my eyes, greeted by the glowing red walls and a large moon setting behind them. Delphinus is still just visible in the sky. There are a lot of things that usually happen on a day in the ditch, but things normally start with a coffee and Baileys followed by a good breakfast, and I’m totally alright with that.

TGR Journal

The Reality of Last Ascents

How Kilimanjaro’s dwindling glaciers are warning sign for the rest of us. Many athletes are watching the landscapes they love to recreate in change before their eyes due to climate change- particularly in winter sports. For ice climber Will Gadd, this meant watching glaciers he's climbed in the past melt before his eyes on an expedition to Africa. There's always been a huge focus on first ascents in climbing, but how about last ones?

TGR Journal

Mindfulness in the Mountains

On the magic of ski towns, how skiing fast can help us slow down, and the sacred ritual of waxing your skis. Mental space counts for a whole lot in the outdoors. But it's easy to lose sight of it when all the fun, enticing things about a mountain town are calling for you. So, how in the world do we just slow down for a minute?

TGR Journal

The Rise of Hardboot Snowboarding

With the popularity splitboarding has gained in the past few years, snowboarders can finally get in the backcountry with their two-planked friends. But the set up still isn't perfect and lacks some key features needed for long days in the mountains. Phantom Snow Industries is looking to fill the gap between splitboarders and skiers in backcountry technology with one simple tool: the hardboot.

TGR Journal

Doodles and Day Dreams

Artist and photographer Katie Lozancich blends reality and fantasy in her mixed media artwork.

TGR Journal

Welcome to the TGR Journal Vol. 1

Digital media is an ever-evolving space, one that presents unique challenges, new opportunities, and lots of excitement at every turn of the road. TGR has been on the forefront of the action sports media world for a quarter century, constantly pushing cutting edge storytelling techniques in the world of film and written word. Now that we're about to turn 25, we wanted to try something new.

TGR Journal

All Hail The King

How an unintentional change of plans led to discovering new things, re-kindling a desire for local skiing, and perspective on how to move forward with travel and expeditions within our sport. COVID-19 changed the world, but here's what we learned.

TGR Journal

Lookback: Shangri-La

In 2014, Jeremy Jones re-defined snowboarding by chasing a line down a high-altitude spine wall in the Himalaya. It was AK-style snowboarding, just at 21,000 feet. Jones brought teamed up with fellow rider Luca Pandolfini and a dream team of TGR production crew to put together an unforgettable segment for Higher. Here's a look into what it took to find Shangri-La, drawn as a comic book page by illustrator Cy Whitling.

TGR Journal

COVID-19 Vs. The Ski Industry

2020 was a year unlike most anyone alive today has ever experienced. It tore apart ski towns, gutted economies, and broke many of the big companies mountain towns rely on. COVID-19 hit the U.S. snowsports industry hard and fast. Major revenue sources like resorts and retail stores dried up in March, and the industry’s biggest players, corporations like Vail, VF Corp and Amer sports are publicly feeling the pinch. Thousands of mountain town residents are abruptly out of work, left without lifts to operate, pistes to groom, and customers to serve. Without a well-communicated plan for returning to non-socially-distanced life, they have been left to wait at home and wonder what the future will bring. What's going on, and how does the future look?

TGR Journal

Dhaulagiri VII Dreams

Here’s the deal: Drew and Elliot are not professional athletes. But they did decide to go ski mountaineering in the Himalaya. Sure, they've done plenty of bold stuff together, from first descents in Alaska to volcano skiing in Russia, traverses in British Columbia and steep skiing in the Sierra-Nevada. But when you’re in basecamp at 16,000 feet, looking up another 10,000 to the summit of your objective, everything changes.

TGR Journal

If There's a Will, There's A Way - Behind the Lens of Eric Parker

The path to becoming an action sports photographer is typically unconventional, but this may be the wildest we've heard yet. Learn how Eric Parker's quesadilla making skills and quick thinking inadvertently landed him a dream gig with Teton Gravity Research.

TGR Journal

Haley Badenhop's Lessons Learned

When many of the steps required for success happen out of the public eye, it sometimes makes it difficult for an artist's work to be recognized and their hard work validated. Jackson local Haley Badenhop has taken a long and winding path to receive the feedback she does now: the man in the coffee shop commenting on the moose mural, clients sending pleased photos of themselves posed in front of her commissions, strangers recognizing her and her artwork from all corners of the globe. This life of hers came together slowly, somewhat unexpectedly, as most good things in life tend to do, and she’s excited to continue pursuing the life plan that she laid out for herself at ten years old.

TGR Journal

So You Want to be A Ski Mountaineer?

Ski Mountaineering is not straightforward. You simply can’t show up to a mountain as a beginner and just do it. It takes a combination of experience, gear, and patience to break into the discipline, which often feels daunting. Learn about how Katie Lozancich was introduced to the world of ski mountaineering, and hear some tips for how to break into it yourself.

TGR Journal

The Art Of Getting Shafted

Not every ski trip goes your way, but that's part of being a skier. Lily Krass muses on getting absolutely shut down on a trip to Chamonix last spring, where the only lines she dropped into were the ones through the bakery door.

TGR Journal

The Heavyweight Manifesto

They say a pound on your feet equals five on your back, and Jack Beighle doesn't care. If pursuing speed records or running uphill in lycra is what gets you out of the bed in the morning, then you can disregard the words that he's about to spray onto this page. But if you walk up mountains to enjoy the turns on the way down, listen up.

TGR Journal

TGR Tested: WTF is #Freemo?

Damn, our industry really just loves putting stupid names on things we like to do in the mountains. Call it whatever you may, but it’s really just skiing, and we can totally get behind this foot-powered trend of getting rad in big mountains. With dubious roots in the French Alps that soon found their way across the pond thanks to some enterprising North American freeride skiers, #freemo is the next big trend. What probably started with some baguette-wielding Frenchies in the tram line at the Aiguille du Midi is now unequivocally spreading to the steeps of North America, so of course we set out to figure out what the damn thing is all about.