Well, it’s here. The new, merged Backcountry-Couloir Magazine arrived in the mail this week. I don’t usually cheer mergers, so I wasn’t exactly leaping for joy when I heard that the venerable Couloir Mag (which began right here in SoCal) was going to be absorbed by Backcountry. I’m sort of the sentimental type, especially when it comes to blood-sweat-and-tears efforts like Couloir, which Craig Dostie built from a xerox newsletter into the “Earn Your Turns” classic we all know and love.

But, Couloir is gone now, which at least relieves us of the burden of having to decide which of the two mags to subscribe to (and feeling guilty about jilting the other). The addition of Couloir’s talent to the Backcountry pool certainly extends the magazine’s reach, offering the promise of better, richer coverage of the backcountry skiing world.

The debut issue features an extended 2008 gear review section, and an interesting article on a new avalanche terrain rating system that Canada is trying out. Overall, the new mag looks a lot like the old Backcountry Magazine, so if you’re pining away for Couloir, I recommend moping for a while—and then ordering up a Backcountry subscription.

I’ve updated my review of the Bear Vault BV350 Solo bear canister, as well as my comments on bear cans in general.

Call me a reformed skeptic—bear cans work. Yes, they remain heavy, bulky, and difficult to get into your pack, but they also offer peace of mind in the backcountry. And in many parts of the Sierra, they’re required by law.

It’s that happy time of the month when I get to do my new content dance. Up for your inspection is a review of R.J. Secor’s authoritative guidebook, The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails.

The depth of coverage in Secor’s book is truly astonishing. According to the cover, The High Sierra describes “every known route” on over 570 Sierra Peaks. This has become the climber’s bible for Sierra afficianados. If you love to hike or climb in the Sierra, you really owe it to yourself to pick up a copy—your bookshelf is naked without it.

Here’s a chiller of a story for you from the Los Angeles Times: Russian submarines planted the national flag on the seabed two miles beneath the North Pole, claming the land as an extension of Russia’s continental shelf—and therefore within their domain for oil and gas exploration.

It turns out that Global Warming, which is melting the ice, made the move possible. And rich petroleum reserves are believed to be located in the region. More oil to burn means more warming means less ice means more access to oil, and so on, leading credence to those who believe we humans are going to burn every last drop of oil on the planet and damn the consequences.

If that’s not enough good news for you, the article goes on to note that huge sections of the Russian north’s permafrost are now melting. As these vast deposits of biomass thaw, they degrade, releasing huge quantities of methane, which is according to the article 23 times more potent a greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide.

A sudden, massive release of Methane has been on the doomsday scenerio books for a while, even if you’ve never heard about it before. I read a Sci-Fi book over ten years ago about such a scenario, which led to a sudden season of killer hurricanes that nearly destroying human civilization (”Mother of Storms” by John Barnes). This is yet another of those ‘tipping point’ threats that could lead to a much warmer future than expected. Well, we’ll know soon enough, won’t we?

If you’re like me—fair-skinned, that is—you’ve probably discovered that sunscreens don’t all perform the same. I can put on a thick layer of SPF 50 and still get torched. No, it’s not just that sunscreens tend to wash off as you sweat: some just don’t work that well.

Many formulations only give SPF ratings for UVB rays, which turn out to be less damaging than UVA. Some sunscreens now contain new ingredients designed to filter UVA light. Many of these newer chemicals are not yet approved by the FDA, and are only available in sunscreens sold in Europe.

I switched to a dual UVA-UVB formulation (Neutrogena Ultrasheer) about a year ago, and I immediately noticed a difference. My skin seemed to be getting considerably less sun during extended hiking. That’s the good news.

The bad news is I just checked my sunscreen’s ranking at Skin Deep, a consumer site that provides free information on just about every sunscreen on the market. Unfortunately, while my sunscreen rates highly for dual protection, it also rates high for toxicity.

Yes, it turns out that many of those new chemicals are absorbed through the skin into your body, whereupon they go about doing exactly the sorts of things chemicals love to do: cause trouble.

Skin Deep prefers sunscreens that use physical barriers (nanoscale titantium, for example) for their effectiveness against UVA/UVB rays and reduced toxicity. But wait—Skin Deep also notes that nanoscale technology is itself largely unregulated and untested. Figure this in the ‘unknown risk’ category. Many elements which are ordinarily safe become outrageously toxic in nanoscale states (gold, for example).

So, choose your poison: hormone-damaging chemical compounds, or potentially catastrophic nanoscale particles. Or, put on a hat and a long sleeve shirt and leave the sunscreen at home.

If you’re free this Sunday, August 5, you might enjoy paying a visit to the University of California’s Barcroft Research Station. They’re having their annual open house, allowing the public to come in and try to sniff out the top-secret projects normally kept under wraps.

Barcroft sits around 13K on White Mountain. Normally, the road is locked about a mile or two from the lab, but this Sunday the road will be open to the main station, cutting off a good chunk of walking time if you want to head to White’s 14,246-foot summit.

This time of year isn’t my first choice for hiking White Mountain, as monsoon thunderstorms can pop up with little warning, but for your troubles you’ll get short lectures from researchers, refreshments, and ’sales of souveniers’. For more information, see the White Mountain Research Station Website.