Story Samples

Please Peruse Some Story Samples

I am the original author of all these pieces. In some cases, it was originally posted on another website. If you’d like to commission an article, email trent@goldfinchadventures.com or fill out the form on the home page.

  • Maple Canyon Recap
    I really don’t like waking up early in the morning. This doesn’t really work as a photographer because if you’re going to be shooting outside, the best light is right as the sun shows up. OR, for this shoot, there’s some traveling that needs to be done. Maple Canyon isn’t very far away from Salt […]
  • A Week as an Adventure Photographer
    As an adventure photographer, you don’t have the luxury of a studio where you can keep all your gear in one place and move the subject to you. You are constantly traveling to locations and your gear has to come with you. The LowePro PhotoSport III is an adventure photographer’s camera bag. It was designed on the crux of adventure to be a climbing photography […]
  • Suunto 9 Peak: The Fitness Tracker for Those Pursuing Their Peak
    Meet Dave, a mid 50s father of five and grandfather of four. Dave works as a vice principal at a jr. high school and has no problem getting his daily 10,000 steps patrolling the halls. Dave has been somewhat active his whole life. He played sports in high school and participated in intramural competitions in […]
  • How to Choose a Quickdraw
    Please note: The content in this post is purely informational and does not substitute professional instruction. If you have questions or need education on the proper and safe use of climbing equipment, please contact your local climbing gym or a certified guide and/or instructor. *  You may have noticed that there is more than one quickdraw available on our […]
  • What to Bring on a Hike
    It’s kind of a loaded question, don’t you think? There are so many options of things you could bring, things like a hiking backpack, trekking poles, traction devices, water bottles or filters.  Most hiking backpacks aren’t big enough to bring everything you might need. Sometimes it’s all helpful, sometimes it never comes out of your pack and its only purpose is to increase your endurance for future […]
  • No One Likes a Stinky Trail
    Set the scene: It’s an uncomfortable topic. Certainly not one you want to discuss over dinner. Relieving your waste is just as natural as breathing even if you do it less often. That’s probably why we don’t really think about it as much when we’re planning a camping trip. How many times has the uncomfortable […]
  • Intro to Ice Climbing with Shingo Ohkawa
    A six-part series with Grivel Athlete, Shingo Ohkawa as he discusses the fundamentals of ice climbing, including what gear you need, techniques of tool throwing, and other helpful tips & tricks! 
  • Every Kid Outdoors
    Who knew that there is a program for fourth graders to visit any of our country’s national parks for free? Did you also know that this offer has been extended to fifth graders by the office of the National Park Service Director? How does this program work? Do I want to take advantage of it? […]
  • How to Fit a Crampon for Ice Climbing
    Shingo Ohkawa teaches how to fit the Grivel G20+ crampon to a compatible mountaineering/ice climbing boot. This same method can be used with any of Grivel’s Cramp-o-matic (full step-in) crampons paired with any mountaineering/ice climbing boot that has both a toe and heel well that the bails of the crampon can mount to. Many of […]
  • More to Discover with Silva
    Can you remember a time when you started a day hike in the late afternoon and had such a great time being out that you were late getting back? Do you remember the frustration of trying to navigate in the dark? Have you ever tried to see down the trail by the light from your […]
  • What’s a Gibbon?
    It’s always interesting to look at the name of a company and learn where the name came from. Let’s look at GIBBON Slacklines. Obviously, they make slacklines. A piece of material, usually webbing, that stretches across some gap that’s pulled tight enough to walk or even jump on. The gap can be two trees, man-made anchors (GIBBON Independence Classic), rocks, really […]
  • Campsite on a Glum Day on a Montana Riverbank
    I got this job as a content coordinator for Liberty Mountain. They’re an outdoor goods distributor, meaning we sell stuff to shops like REI. It’s more than just REI, that’s just the shop that everyone knows. They told me that the fact that I like to take photos was a bonus for them. They weren’t […]
  • Race Track in the Desert
    There are people who come into our lives that naturally find a place and make it better. You meet them and find some piece of common ground where a friendship can flourish. This is a story about a friend, I’ll call him Joe here, whose presence led to one of the best days ever. It […]
  • Climbing in Maple Canyon
    There are two Maple Canyons in Utah. One is seated just up the hill from Mapleton, a growing town just south of Provo. I learned the hard way that this isn’t the one that’s known for climbing. The correct Maple canyon is an hour south. It’s easy enough to find, although it was much less […]
  • Snowboarding in July
    I’m trying a different, humorous, writing style this time. What do you think? Drop a comment. It was a crazy thought that came to me as I was falling asleep. “I bet I could go snowboarding tomorrow.” Now, in Utah this isn’t that crazy of a thought. Ski resorts are usually open starting around thanksgiving […]
  • For Sale: Grandpa’s Nail Clippers
    I wrote this piece as part of a class competition. SPOILERS, if I hadn’t done well would I have included it here? The competition was who could write the story that created the biggest emotional response? It didn’t have to be true. The contest started in groups of five. Everyone read each other’s stories and […]
  • My Take on Debt
    The following is an exercise creating a script for an ad for Utah Community Credit Union’s new credit card. The exercise walks through the main idea of the script and defends why I believed the script would be successful. Then, the short script is built. The exercise focuses on just the dialogue, not on any […]
  • Pray for Snow
    This is a technical research essay that I wrote for a college assignment. It’s here to demonstrate my ability to gather and analyze qualitative data. This skill is important because my client may not always have a product that I am a target customer for. However, I have the skills to research and understand their […]
  • Fishing the Payette River, Idaho, Oct 2019
    This fishing trip was on the Payette River near McCall Idaho. This family spends a lot of time on this stretch of river, especially when the run is just right. This day was in October and the fish were biting. It was a relatively cold morning. We were eager to start hiking up the river […]