Staying upbeat when stuck in the house: A reading (and viewing) list
Staying upbeat when stuck in the house: A reading (and viewing) list
Passing the time, inspirationally.
Hey reader,
Coming in with a quick one this week, as since returning to Colorado from Mexico, my wife, daughter, and I have been stuck battling Covid. In that light, this essay is a list of things — videos, digital publications, and newsletters — that I’ve been watching or reading to stay positive over the past 10 days of being cooped up in the house.
Also, following reader feedback I’ve made a few changes to the formatting of this newsletter. The “further reading” section is now immediately underneath this intro section, and the “community shoutouts” section will from now on be blended into "further reading.”
Additionally, hyperlinks to older Mountain Remote essays (and some other hyperlinks) will now appear in this new resource section, rather than having so much bolded text in the essay itself. This should help to consolidate the resources and any actionable takeaways from the essay into one place that’s easy to reference during the initial read or at any point in the future.
I hope this appears cleaner and more valuable to you!
See you on the other side.
Resources from this week’s essay
Kicking this new section off with a resource from the last essay, in which I noted my outreach templates were available for readers to view. Find them here. One note — some docs in this folder are a bit dated, as I haven’t used or updated them in several years.
Mountain Remote back essays for further reading:
Here is the Culdesac webinar I reference below.
Finally, welcome to the 18 new subscribers since the last essay! You’re here among a group of readers equally passionate about the outdoors — and the location independence that allows us to spend so much time there.
Staying upbeat when stuck in the house: A reading (and viewing) list
There are three avenues I currently turn to for an inspirational read or watch. Those are:
Backcountry ski and snowboard videos, particularly those involving Jeremy Jones, Antti Autti, Elena Hight, Cody Townsend, or Xavier de la Rue. I enjoy these skiers/riders because they tend to go in-depth on their trip planning and risk analysis processes, rather than simply showing the downhill ripping.
New urbanism. To me, part of the appeal of mountain towns is that they tend to be walkable/bikeable, including getting to and from trailheads. Though I don’t live in a major city, I enjoy nerding out on neighborhoods, cities, and/or businesses that are rethinking urban design to reflect those tenets (including by incorporating public transit, which I believe remote workers should take better advantage of).
Cleantech. Also sometimes called Green tech.
Ski touring
Traveling to Kyrgyzstan in February to embark on a week-long splitboard expedition in the Tien Shan mountains confirmed many things to me, not the least of which was this: I f*king love snowboarding, and I will passionately pursue it until I am no longer physically able. Since returning, I’ve been on a run of backcountry touring films. Here are the highlights:
Cody Townsend’s The 50 project, in which he is climbing and skiing 50 classic lines all over the world, makes for seemingly endless good theater. I haven’t seen them all yet but greatly enjoyed this installment, where he skied Alberta’s biggest peak in a total whiteout.
La Liste: Everything or Nothing, from Sherpa Cinema, is a very inspiring story of Jérémie Heitz and Sam Anthamatten attempting one of the world’s most notoriously harsh peaks.
Ode to Muir, with Jeremy Jones and Elena Hight, follows the two riders as they traverse the High Sierra for a week in the footsteps of John Muir. Here is the trailer (you’ll have to pay for the full movie).
If you’ve seen all of the above, Antti Autti’s entire YouTube channel is binge-worthy.
New urbanism
Last night I watched a fantastic (if somewhat slow) webinar about a company called Culdesac, which is designing and building car-free, high-density neighborhoods in big cities that have historically been car-centric (Tempe and Atlanta, for example). The webinar was hosted by the Congress for New Urbanism, an advocacy organization that pushes for smarter city design. The neighborhoods are adjacent to public transit, include coworking and plenty of bike parking, and have pick-up points for rideshare vehicles — but no parking for residents. In fact, residents must commit to not owning a car in order to sign a lease.
When I don’t have time for a full webinar, Streetfilms covers a similar topic in shorter YouTube videos. I particularly liked this video about the Dutch city of Utrecht.
Cleantech
First up for this section is Freethink, a publication that covers the cutting edge of innovation in sustainability, health, and technology. I particularly love the site’s reporting on small startups that are bringing forward-thinking ideas to market to address the climate crisis. The articles are very to-the-point, and Freethink’s YouTube channel offers some of the best short documentaries on these topics that I’ve found anywhere.
Smart Cities Dive is a website and daily newsletter that rounds up public policy developments that are shaping the future of society. Articles highlighted in the newsletter include the site’s own reporting as well as a collection of top news from other publications. The reads are quick — rarely longer than two minutes.
Elektrek covers news in the realm of electric transportation. As regular Mountain Remote readers are aware, I became an e-bike evangelist over the course of 2022. Much of my knowledge, at least what’s not gleaned from my own riding, is taken from Elektrek’s reporting. This publication and Clean Technica were part of the reason why I landed on a Chevy Bolt EUV for my first electric vehicle purchase.
For positive sustainability news, the non-profit publication Grist does great reporting and puts out a daily newsletter highlighting one major new development.
That’s all for this one. See you next week!