THRASHER'S
DESERT
SURVIVAL GUIDE
Words and photos by Michael Burnett
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VER ONE THIRD OF THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES
is the barren, cruel expanse known as desert. Here, among the
prickly cactus, scurrying rodentia, and slithering, biting, and
constricting reptiles, man has somehow been able to exist and
even thrive. With temperatures skyrocketing past the hundred-
degree Fahrenheit mark on a daily, and frighteningly, even a
nightly basis, survival is dependent on a special kind
of gumption as well as a close adherence to the
rules-rules that allow the would-be desert visitor
to defy the odds and stake a claim to the wonder
and beauty that is the mighty Mojave.
Left to right: Dark clothing is a no-no in the
heat of the desert, unless of course you're a style-
conscious pro skater or a member of the clergy.
Matt Mumford, the former, lipslides a flexy one in
Tucson. Nothing can stop a trainwreck-not
brakes, not whistles, not even the fact that the
photographer hasn't turned on his camera yet.
Luckily, Alex Gall can do backside 180's over
giant walls again and again and again.