Category: Regular Contributors

Book Review by Barb  Laine

This is a charming, entertaining, and educational little book, written by RMOWP member Virginia Parker Staat. It brought both tears and chuckles – what more can a reader ask? Although written for children eight to 14, it’s a lovely story for all ages. It’s also a true story, and includes delightful illustrations by Andy Ramon.

Continue reading The Legend of El Patron

By Peter Kummerfeldt

The challenges of functioning effectively – and safely, in a cold environment are directly related to your ability to protect yourself from the ambient temperature, precipitation and wind. While accurate numbers are difficult to come by, it is estimated that about 600 people die each year from accidental hypothermia – many of these, about 50%, are elderly. As with heat challenges, the emphasis needs to be an awareness of the environmental threats, on early recognition of what is happening, minimizing the risk and then on effective treatment of hypothermia should it occur.

Continue reading Cold Challenges

By Cecilia Travis

Avalanche! Even reading about avalanches spooks me. Continue reading Unexpected Danger on the Lulu City Trail

By Angelo Sculli

As most of RMOWP knows, I retired in 1997 to pursue a second career as a wildlife photographer. A year later, I was diagnosed with ALS, commonly called Lou Gerhig’s disease after the great Yankee HOF first baseman. Continue reading My Super Power

Article by, & photos courtesy of Myra Wood Bennett

There is an old saying that your “there” is no better than your “here.” It is a belief held by those whose main requirement in life is to live within a short distance of the nearest big box store. For others, it is a place that speaks to mind, body and soul. For me, it is the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Continue reading Old Jeeps and Hearts of Gold

Founded in 1973, Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers is among the oldest and most respected organizations of outdoor communicators in the American West, with a number of current members tracing their earliest involvement with the group to the 1970s and ‘80s. Continue reading Lifetime Membership for Longtime Members

Article & photos by Jim Baker © 2016

I have a regular routine for Sunday mornings. Most of my life I have had to get up early. Now that I am old and do not have to get up, I still wake up early. This gives me time to do what I really want to do Continue reading Sunday Morning

(Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles presented at the Writers Forum during RMOWP’s 2015 conference.)

Article & photos by Maryann Gaug © 2016

Driving along the San Miguel River in southwest Colorado, I realize how comfortable I am here. Canyon walls tower above me, layer upon layer of silt, mudstone, and the occasional layer of rounded rocks where a stream once flowed. The red and brown walls formed over eons, remnants of the ancestral Rocky Mountains. I pull off the road and eat lunch in the shade of a cluster of cottonwood trees.  Not many vehicles pass by … a road on the edge of nowhere. Continue reading The Comfort Zone