By Scotty Craighead

Last night at seven, I was grating three types of cheese, cooking ten slices of bacon, slicing two avocados, and toasting twelve slices of bread. It was two hours before my Senior Prom, and I was preparing dinner for my date and two other couples.

Before finalizing the grilled cheeses, we headed outside for the classic pre-prom photo-op. I wore a completely black suit complete with hat and cane. There was only one exception, the tan moccasins on my feet. There was no question as to which shoes I would wear. Four years of high school dances have taught me that moccasins make the best dancing shoes.

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This is the third installment in our series of videos for Return to the Outdoors, sponsored by Timex.

My favorite part of this video is Chouinard’s quip about sleeping bags. “There were years and years and years when I spent 250 days in a sleeping bag, probably.” Now there’s something to aspire to. Especially when you go on to found Chouinard Equipment, Patagonia, One Percent for the Planet, write a book or two, and help preserve huge swaths of South America’s Patagonia.

Chouinard is a hero, pure and simple.

The music in Yvon’s segment is by The Jason Spooner Trio. The introductory music is by Lucas Reynolds.

By Doug Workman, Valdez Heli Ski Guides

Some say anyone can ski in Alaska. They’re full of it. No, you don’t need to be a professional “athlete.” Nor do you need to hang it out daily on double-exposed near-death runs. But you do need to be a junkie. You know, the type that sits around drooling over ski photos in July. Or the geeked out freak sitting in front of his computer in May dreaming about snow, only a few weeks after a frustrating Valdez season in which there were more couch days than ski days.

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This is a video I made for Nau’s website, to accompany their Spring 2008 clothing line. Looks like they won’t be using it.

Bummer. They meant well. They really did.