Originally appeared in the print version of Seven Days on Jan. 18, and posted here: http://www.7dvt.com/2012intergalactic-nemesis

Theater audiences can’t help but shift to the edge of their seats when they hear these four sounds: Thump … thump … thump … creeeeeeeeeeeeeak. The combination conjures up images of castles, Igor and ominous wooden doors with deadbolts, doesn’t it?

That’s exactly what Foley, or sound-effects, artist Buzz Moran will be counting on in an upcoming performance of The Intergalactic Nemesis at Burlington’s Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. Originally a live radio play in Austin, Tex., and now a touring stage show, Nemesis is billed as a live-action graphic novel. The sci-fi story, set in 1933, features a reporter and her assistant, a mysterious librarian, and sludge monsters from the planet Zygon that are, of course, threatening planet Earth. Hence the “intergalactic nemesis.”

Originally posted at http://www.emsexploration.com/wordpress/knitting-vermont-pride-into-ever...

When it comes to manufacturing socks, Ric Cabot and his team at Darn Tough have proved their mettle. The only sock mill left in Vermont (or in New England), Darn Tough is a third-generation sock-manufacturing business that prides itself on producing and manufacturing its Merino wool socks exclusively in Northfield, Vermont — and standing behind them with an unconditional lifetime guarantee.

With his feet (clad in the over-the-calf ski socks he’s wearing today) firmly planted on Vermont soil, Ric Cabot talks about Merino wool, keeping jobs in Vermont and Darn Tough’s commitment to making socks that will stand up to a lifetime of abuse.

Originally posted at http://www.emsexploration.com/wordpress/even-greener-at-the-green-mounta...

Even a day hike on the Long Trail can feel like an epic journey, thanks to the tree roots, boulders, mud, slippery rocks and scree that litter the trail. It’s one of the toughest thoroughfares in the East, but not from lack of trail maintenance. On the contrary, the Green Mountain Club is just staying true to founder James P. Taylor’s original 1910 mission to traverse the highest, the most rugged and most beautiful of Vermont’s green areas. Most beautiful? Yes. But you definitely have to earn your vistas.

Off the trail, the GMC is equally protective of its green spaces, and last month unveiled a new wood-burning heat and hot-water system on its Waterbury Center campus. That might not sound so very different from the Vermont Castings that’s currently cranking out heat in your living room, but combined with new and existing solar panels and solar trackers, this wood gasification boiler means the club is now net-neutral and expects to produce more energy than it consumes.

So what does gold-star-worthy energy production look like?

Well, it looks an awful lot like a reused 8×20-foot shipping container with a red wood boiler inside, attractively clothed in knotty pine. It answers to the name of “Biobox.”

Originally posted at http://www.emsexploration.com/wordpress/and-you-said-we-were-car-camping/

I blame shopping for my mountaineering habit.

Usually a new hobby comes first and buying gear comes second, but for me, mountaineering was born two years ago in the fitting room of the Eastern Mountain Sports in North Conway, NH.

It started innocently enough: I told my boyfriend that I was going into the dressing room to try on a few sports bras in advance of what was to be “some snowshoeing and maybe some car camping if we feel up for it” (his words). Ten minutes later, I reappeared and was handed a pair of double-boots, crampons, an ice axe and a topo map…of Mount Madison in New Hampshire.

So much for car camping.

An experienced winter backpacker, DJ coached me through the basics, aided by George at the North Conway school. A lifelong skier, I’d never known that mountaineers used plastic boots too — never mind that crampons came in different sizes and varieties of intensity. I also invested in a thick pair of socks (likely a trip- and relationship-saver).