The Dirtbag Diaries

In 2021, Dirtbag Diaries producer Cordelia Zars launched a theater company. For two years it was a side hustle where she used her strengths as an artist, storyteller and songwriter. Now, she’s taking the leap to directing full time with Empathy Theatre Project. Plus, friends and contributors share their goals to keep you dreaming and scheming for the year to come. Happy New Year!Support comes fromPatagoniaAthletic GreensKuat RacksGlobal Rescue

5 years apart, Levin and Tilden Zars are wiry, rugged, and maddeningly strong on mountain bikes. They have scars to prove a childhood of egging each other on, and finesse to prove they've never let each other stay down after a fall. Through the ups and downs, the sends and the falls, they share a remarkable sibling bond.

We're sharing the first episode of our Dope Lake series that we're running on our show Climbing Gold. In 1976, a plane carrying four million dollars in marijuana crashed into a small alpine lake in the Yosemite high country. Broke and living off discarded scraps of tourist meals in the valley below, America’s best climbers smelled opportunity. The events at Dope Lake became climbing’s most potent myth and inspired a Hollywood blockbuster, but the real story and the lives it changed is stranger than fiction

This week, Autumn Ellingford Rhodes and Nikki LaRochelle find their footing in the mountains after challenging moments in their lives. We hear how pushing themselves in the outdoors helped Autumn and Nikki feel empowered as female athletes.

In the Pacific Northwest, Jenny Abegg is a renowned local mountain person. She fell in love with climbing and the lifestyle, traveling around the west and making several trips to Patagonia. Over time, her relationship with climbing changed and she evolved into a trail runner. When Jenny had another opportunity to visit Patagonia, she took the chance to see a familiar place from a new perspective.

Fitz talks with the directors of BURIED, Jared Drake and Steven Siig. In 1982 a massive avalanche descended on Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe, CA that triggered a five day search for eight missing people. BURIED chronicles the third deadliest avalanche in US history, the miraculous rescue efforts and the trauma that still haunts the survivors today.If you haven't watched the film yet, we highly recommend it before listening to this episode. You can watch it on Apple TV.

Tressa had always used movement to cope with life’s complexities. When she found a partner that could keep up with her, she knew he was a keeper. Until one fateful day when she knew she’d need to rely on mountain therapy more than ever before.

In our annual Tales of Terror episode, we've got creepy sounds in the woods, mysterious, disembodied hands in the night, and hooded figures bearing axes in the desert. Mua ha ha.

A campfire conversation with the Dirtbag Diaries staff about their favorite pieces of gear - from surfboards to secret potions - and whether a brand new pair of socks is better than a beloved, threadbare set.

“I didn’t need the phrase ‘send it’ explained to me the first time I heard it. I knew what it meant.” In their early 20’s, Forrest Wood sent everything they did. Skateboarding tricks. Dishes. Group projects. But after a series of gnarly injuries, Forrest had to spend years building back their confidence– both athletically and emotionally. And the phrase “send it” came to mean something very different to Forrest than it did before.