In an effort to get us rolling on best practices for backcountry swimming (and to try to use airport time a bit more efficiently than just drinking beer and watching football in the bar) I have taken the liberty of writing up a first draft of what the heck we are trying to accomplish (aka, a "Statement of Need").  This is very drafty so please, feel free to tear it to pieces, suggest all kinds of changes, additions, or deletions, or to just throw it out and submit an entirely new version--you won't hurt my feelings!

Todd Miner