Devon O’Neil is an Outside correspondent based in Breckenridge, Colorado. His story “Irmageddon” was selected for The Best American Travel Writing 2019.
From the outside, things seemed perfect for the former world extreme skiing champion: he had a family, a successful guiding business, and unending adventure out his front door in Valdez, Alaska. But something dark festered beneath the surface.
The Colorado-based maker of bike racks and locks is a case study in the uncertainty that small outdoor businesses are navigating right now. With the right combination of luck and creative thinking, their future may not be all gloomy.
Spanish-speaking guides call the drug "levanta muertos" for the way it "brings life to a dead person"
When once crowded mountain communities like Breckenridge, Colorado, saw visitors vanish this spring, locals scrambled to mitigate the economic damage and plot a return, while keeping their towns' character intact
My grandpa served in the Army's tough-as-nails Tenth Mountain Division during World War II. After the war, soldiers from the Tenth pioneered the rambling mountain lifestyle I live today. Every year, I ski to remember him.
A harrowing backcountry rescue at 11,000 feet exposes the precarious situation first responders are in thanks to the coronavirus pandemic
The reclusive Slovenian made two first descents of 8,000-meter peaks, including the only full descent of Everest. He died in a forestry accident earlier this week.
When a father of two was shot through his tent in the Southern California park last year, the murder revealed a mysterious trail of previously unpublicized incidents that had happened nearby—and sparked a $90 million lawsuit.
Since 2011, a venomous battle has been waged over the two-wheeled soul of Nederland, Colorado (population 1,500). On the one side: locals who ride the trails every day. On the other: people from down canyon in Boulder (population 107,000) who mostly ride them on weekends.
When 60-year-old Tim Watkins disappeared on a stretch of singletrack outside Colorado Springs, no one suspected that the truth of how he died would rip the community apart
Matt Wells and Denny Hogan have been adventuring together for decades. As they push 70, they're not ready to give it up yet.
Devon O’Neil watched from a distance as Irma—one of the strongest storms to ever hit land—battered the Caribbean island of St. John with 200-mile-per-hour winds. Two months later, he returned to the place where he grew up to help clear the wreckage and process the destruction of his former home.
When alpinist and photographer Cory Richards dug himself out of an avalanche in 2011, he emerged alive but scarred—an ascendant star in a community that tends to shun the very idea that trauma can have lasting effects. As his profile climbed ever higher, his career and personal life imploded. Six years later, one of the world’s best artist-adventurers comes clean about the panic attacks, PTSD, and alcohol abuse that nearly killed him.
K2 has never been skied from top to bottom, but two daring adventurers hope to change that this year
How one of the world’s best mountaineers made a last-second decision that would take his life