Text by Shane Klippenes and Photography by Jim Wells

Unlike some athletic endeavors, racquetball is an inexpensive sport to tryout, with many court facilities offering equipment rentals to newbies for a fair price. (Access Fitness provides a ball, racquet and eye protection for $5 per visit).

After you’ve rented a few times, or if you’re just ready to buy your own equipment right away, here’s a short list of essential gear you’ll need and price ranges to go with them.

A basic primer on Cold Weather Camping

Text and Photography by Shane Klippenes

The idea of a winter backpacking adventure had borne so much promise, excitement, and intrigue while hatching the plans back home, next to a piping hot, cast iron wood stove with a steaming cup of Seattle’s finest at hand. Two weeks later, hunkered in a flimsy tent, tied off with 550 cord to multiple trees, bracing against 50mph wind gusts carrying chill factors far below zero, the challenge was no longer theoretical, but palpable. In retrospect, I did almost everything wrong on that trip. I brought a tent that wasn’t up to the task, carried too much food and clothing, and learned the hard way how ineffective melting snow as a water source can be. However, I walked away from that first adventure with a desire to get it right and the sense of satisfaction that comes from passing Mother Nature’s impromptu, high consequence tests.

On Point with seasoned fetch masters

It happened in an instant: the mallards that had been committed to the decoys flared at my movement, but not before a migrating greenhead folded at the bark of the gun and fell onto an ice floe. Daisy, my yellow lab and hunting partner, bolted from the natural cover of cattails and plowed into the slushy water. Her zeal for the hunt and the retrieve combined with an error in judgment on my part, erupted simultaneously to embroil her in a life and death struggle that I could only watch from the safety of the shore.