Outdoor Explorer

You don’t have to be a genius chef if the people you are cooking for are hungry enough, which is one reason why freeze dried food tastes so good at the end of a day backpacking. But there’s so much more you can do.On the next Outdoor Explorer, we'll hear from two backcountry cooking experts to talk about ideas, tools, and the yummiest stuff you’ve ever tasted out under the sky. KSKA: Thursday, Oct. 2, at 2:00 and 9:00 p.m. Listen now:

Navigating and avoiding getting lost is a bottom-line requirement for spending time in the wilderness. It’s also a sport and a source of competition. We’ll learn about orienteering, and along the way get tips about how to know where you are when you’re traveling in the backcountry. Navigation can be an interesting puzzle, and it can also save your life. KSKA: Thursday, June 5, at 2:00 and 9:00 p.m. Listen now:

April is World Landscape Architecture Month. While many of us might see a proposal for a new park or trail and then the construction work on the park or trail, what we don’t see is the immense amount of work that happens when an idea is first conceived. Landscape architects are the people who take an idea for a new park or trail and then make it a reality. On this show, guests include a landscape architect, a promoter of inclusive playgrounds, a trail advocate, and a parks and recreation director. They all work together to develop some of the most important resources in our communities, places we can gather, recreate safely, and connect with nature.

On the next Outdoor Explorer, author Chris Lundgren and videographer Max Romey, will share stories of Alaska. Chris is the author of Accidental Adventures: Alaska, a book about mishaps with good outcomes. Max is a videographer who uses watercolors, photography and film to tell stories about Alaska and beyond.

Parents of three Anchorage Olympians join us in the studio. Some of them are headed to Sochi, where the winter games start Friday, so we pre-recorded the show. We’ve heard from athletes, but as a parent it is easier to identify more with the parents: with their pride, and trepidation, and with knowledge of the sacrifices made for a young person to succeed at the highest level. We'll learn how parents produce an Olympian, and how it feels, good and bad, once you have one in the family. KSKA: Thursday 2/6 at 2:00 and 9:00 pm Listen Now

The outdoors can teach us many lessons, from skills like pitching a tent and cooking a hot meal to life lessons such as communication and decision making. Alaska is full of women and men of all stripes that have lived full lives in the outdoors. Join your host, Paul Twardock, on the next Outdoor Explorer as he speaks with Alaska ski pioneer Jim Mahaffey and retired Denali Mountaineering Ranger Daryl Miller. Thanks for listening!

KSKA: Thursday, March 09, at 2:00 p.m. On the next Outdoor Explorer, we’ll talk about summer camp choices, and practical considerations for parents in planning your kids' summer. Summer may not seem close today, but it is definitely time to begin scheduling your kids’ activities. LISTEN NOW

KSKA: Thursday, Jan. 12, at 2:00 p.m. On Outdoor Explorer, we're fortunate to meet some of the world’s most amazing people, and that was especially true when Dario Schwoerer was in town to talk about his 100,000-mile sailboat voyage. On our next show we'll hear from Dario about his amazing family, some scary moments they've endured, and their hopes for our planet. LISTEN NOW

On this week’s Outdoor Explorer, we’ll talk about the development of the ski trail system at Kincaid Park with Jim Burkholder, who was a young school teacher at Dimond High School in the early 1970’s when he and other visionaries began cutting ski trails around Beercan Lake in Kincaid Park.

KSKA: Thursday, June 29, at 2:00 p.m. Fly fishing is the art of catching fish with style. It’s about the journey, not the destination. But going to exotic destinations can be a big part of it. On the next Outdoor Explorer, we’re talking about traveling for fly fishing with some very accomplished anglers. LISTEN HERE

KSKA: Thursday, Feb. 16, at 2:00 p.m. One of the biggest and best events of the Anchorage winter is a ski race that crosses the whole city, held the same weekend as the Iditarod start. It’s the Tour of Anchorage, and it’s coming up soon, with some of the nation’s best skiers and plenty of regular folks who just want to go the distance. LISTEN NOW

On the next Outdoor Explorer we are learning about outdoor summer camps for kids. Once school is out camps are a ritual for many families, however camps have changed a lot in the last 20 years. Camps have become more professional and are not just a month living in the woods.

With record amounts of snow comes lots of interest in recreating in the mountains. Hear from avalanche experts about staying safe outside.

The summer season for sleeping outdoors is short, but there’s still a lot of Alaska out there in the winter with wonderful backcountry recreation and easy travel on snowshoes, when the rivers are frozen and it almost never rains. We’ll be talking about winter camping and snowshoeing. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. You can be comfortable, have great access to the backcountry, and sleep under the most amazing dome of stars. KSKA: Thursday 1/23 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm Listen Now

If you really love what you do outdoors, its natural to want to document that with pictures or video. Outdoor filmmaking is exploding as young people deploy equipment that is much less expensive than it used to be. This week on Outdoor Explorer we talk to adventure filmmakers. It goes beyond strapping a GoPro to your helmet. KSKA: Thursday, Dec. 11, at 2:00 and 9:00 p.m. Listen now:

KSKA: Thursday, May 26, at 2:00 and Thursday, June 02, at 8:00 p.m. If you’re headed for Homer, learn about the tide pools, the forests or the critters living under the docks from an enthusiastic group of young educators. We recorded the next show at the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies, went to a remote field station, and got some ideas to enrich time outdoors with knowledge and insight. DOWNLOAD AUDIO

KSKA: Thursday, Feb. 9, at 2:00. Backcountry skiing comes in many varieties. On the next show, we’re looking at two extremes. On one end are the alpine daredevils who look for the hardest, steepest, most dangerous lines. On the other end are the touring skiers exploring our glorious mountain scenery by the most practical means available. These two ways of looking at skiing are for different personalities and different kinds of athletes with different goals, but Anchorage is prime for either option. LISTEN NOW

Tour of Anchorage 2013 from ATMI on Vimeo.

You don't have to be an Olympian to participate in a Nordic ski race. Anchorage has races for the rest of us, where fast skiers can duel at the front while older and less competitive skiers push their personal limits. The Tour of Anchorage is the biggest race of the year, with up to 2,000 contestants covering up to 50 kilometers, but local volunteers organize many other cross-country ski races during the winter that are open to anyone willing to try. KSKA: Thursday 1/9 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm Listen Now

On this Outdoor Explorer, Harlow Robinson, executive director of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame, will catch us up on the Hall’s class of 2020. The planned induction ceremony for the event, the moment and the individuals to be honored was slated for April, but the celebration has been delayed to next year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the 2012 Mount Marathon race, two runners were terribly injured and one disappeared, never to be found. Organizers hope this year’s race is safer, without losing its adventurous edge. On the next Outdoor Explorer, we’ll talk about the new rules, and about the joy of mountain running and competition with two of the best in Alaska, plus a race organizer. Also new for this week's show, host Charles Wohlforth is in Homer, at KBBI. KSKA: Thursday 6/27 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm Listen Now