Everything
Outside magazine, March 1998 The Mountain is Ready for its Close-up This month, the most astonishing images of Everest ever caught on film premiere for all the world to see. And to coax this performance from the 29,000-foot headliner took the one filmmaker…
 Outside magazine, May 1996 I Hear America Slogging Who are these rough, smelly pilgrims, fueled by ibuprofen and Snickers, shuffling toward Katahdin? Appalachian Trail through-hikers, of course–wayfarers on a classic holy road that’s big enough to embrace rattled urban refugees, Walden-toting aesthetes,…
Outside magazine, September 1997 The Natives Are Restless (But Smartly Dressed) Sartorial tips from the Last Frontier, epicenter for the power- recreationalist Clint McCool Whitewater guide, high school economics and philosophy teacher. Photographed at Chilkoot Charlie’s Rustic Saloon, Anchorage. Ten years…
Outside magazine, February 2001 A Long, Brave Trip I FIRST RAN INTO Rick Ridgeway (“Below Another Sky,” December) some years ago when he was giving a talk about his K2 adventures. Halfway through the…
Two men, a continent, and the mother of all polar duels
Outside magazine, March 1999 Review: Just as Tough as They Look Beefy leather hiking boots to last you a lifetime By Kent Black ELECTRONICS | BUYING RIGHT |…
 Outside magazine, May 1997 Everest a Year Later: False Summit After a lifetime of wanting, Jon Krakauer made it to the world’s highest point. What he and the other survivors would discover in the months to come, however, is that it’s even…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Mountaineering: Tragedy at the Top of the World What really happened that fateful day? By Jeff Herr When you’ve just climbed to the top of Mount Everest, you want to linger there a few minutes, snapping photographs…
Dispatches, November 1998 Expeditions Meet Scott. He Knows What He’s Doing. Really. Is this man as hot as he thinks? He’s about to find out. By Bill Donahue The producers have, for some reason, bleeped the expletive, but…
 Outside magazine, April 1995 In Hunza They Live Forever Is it the water? The apricots? The sublime mountain scenery? Is it all in their heads? High in the Himalayas, looking for a prodigal son who might have the answer. By Rob…
The trail to some sort of personal peace seemed to wend high into the Himalayas. But where it led was back to an old friend.
 Outside magazine, August 1998 The First Law of Gravity Namely, that that which rises must eventually fall. A law that even the king of the Alaskan bush pilots probably can’t ignore forever. By Daniel Coyle Early morning at Ultima…
Dispatches, August 1998 Exploration Hello … Anybody Out There? Two climbers get first dibs on an untouched wilderness of peaks By Hampton Sides Dave Briggs got his first aerial glimpse of Greenland’s Sweizerland Mountains from a Bell 210 helicopter…
Outside magazine, August 1998 Field Notes: Cirque du Sailor Amid big-league swells, the world’s fastest ocean race runs aground in Baltimore By Bucky BcMahon Sometime before dawn on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday in spring, nine oceangoing sloops began feeling their…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Books: The Archdruid’s Happy Screed By Andrea Barrett Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: A Call to Those Who Would Save the Earth, by David Brower with Steve Chapple (HarperCollins West, $20). With the 25th anniversary of…
Outside magazine, September 2000 Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Baring All The Wildest Dream: The Biography of George Mallory, by Peter and…
 Outside magazine, March 1995 Surge Time at the Bottom of the Earth Chasing deep history in Antarctica, Genesis in reverse By Edward Hoagland As our stubby, white, 2,000-ton ship, the Professor Molchanov, passed the Gibraltarlike bulk of Cape Horn, the…
Outside magazine, September 1995 Blazes of Glory By Larry Burke Smokejumpers are a rare breed of professionals, experiencing daily trials and tribulations–not to mention a proximity to nature’s primeval forces–that would make most of us blanch. Every summer, armed with little more than parachutes…
 Outside magazine, December 1996 Come to Happyland Discover Burma, the dictators say, Southeast Asia’s most beautiful and friendly country. And so he did. A visit to an anesthetized state. By Michael Paterniti In the monsoon twilight, the clamor of Rangoon…
Adventure man. Freedom fighter. Brat. Meet Jack Wheeler, the Indiana Jones of the Right
Outside Magazine, February 1995 Trip-Finder Directory Abercrombie & Kent 800-323-7308; 708-954-2944 Above the Clouds Trekking 800-233-4499; 508-799-4499 Adventure Canada 800-363-7566; 416-588-7734 Adventure Center 800-227-8747; 510-654-1879 Adventure Cycling Association 406-721-1776 Adventure Network International 011-44-1494-671808 Adventures & Delights 800-288-3134; 907-276-8282 Adventures Costa Rica 800-231-7422; 406-586-9942 Africa Adventure Company…
Review, June 1997 Books: The Woods Divided By Miles Harvey Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon (Henry Holt, $28). In 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two British surveyors, embarked on a perilous trek through Indian-controlled wilderness to establish a…
Outside magazine, July 1999 SCIENCE Two Minutes to a Savage Tan Check your elevation—”well done” may be closer than you think BAKED, NOT FRIED Location Minutes to Crisp* Summit of Mount Whitney, CA. Elevation,…
Sport and adventure are often yoked to deception, and the chronicle of outdoor accomplishment comes studded with tales of those who deployed the Big Lie.
Outside magazine, January 1993 A Little Good, Clean Fun In Baja …but I liked it anywayBy Tim Cahill Martine Springer was tall and tan, fit as a broadcast aerobics instructor, and she was waist-deep in the resort pool, demonstrating how to get back into a sea kayak once you’ve…
The Trip-Finder, January 1999 Alaska Biking the Alaska Highway Outfitter Price Accommodations Alaskan Bicycle Adventures 800-770-7242, www.alaskabike.com $3,195 rustic lodging, tourist hotels Cyclevents 888-733-9615, www.cyclevents.com $1,750 camping, tourist hotels The Route: Riding 12 to…
Or does it loathe that enraptured human touch? An earthy tale of fungal romance, fully consummated.
The lures of the Southern Ocean are few. Seven-story avalanches of frigid sea. Blinding squalls of snow. Hull-peeling icebergs. There’s little sane reason to sail this territory, unless you’re a sportsman looking to shatter the round-the-world record — or are assigned to rescuing someone who foolishly thought he could.By…
 Outside magazine, December 1996 Mush, Mush, Mush, Dammit, Mush! As it preps for its 25th running, the Iditarod considers a mangy history of PCism, marauding polar bears, and the occasional random murder. Trail notes from America’s last great race. By Elizabeth Royte…
Outside magazine, November 1997 Assuming That the Calibration of My Heart Rate and Recovery Times Has Been Optimally Linked to My Individualized Nutritional Needs, I Will Kick Your Ass A bit of in-your-face conversation with triathlon’s controversial heir apparent By John…
Outside magazine, July 1997 I Am Monkey Flower Be the edible plant, urged the Queen Diva of foragers, and my wilderness hikes would yield a bounty of strange-looking, odd-smelling, but altogether damn tasty grub. Gastronomy meets botany, and the Weed Woman is your guide.
 Outside magazine, April 1997 Oh, Wilderness By Frederick Turner A C C E S S & R E S O U R C E S The Wildest West Exploring the geologic marvels and agoraphobia-inducing expanses of Grand Staircase“Escalante National Monument will put you in…
When former NFL hit man Darryl Haley lumbered into the Ironman, he knew that he would become the biggest thing triathlon has ever seen.
Within the anachronistically macho world of professional surfing, respect comes when you rip like a man and act like it's no big thing. Two-time world champion Lisa Andersen is the first woman to pull this off, changing the way beach boys look at beach girls and bringing droves of young women into the sport. But hey, no big thing.
Like Buford Pusser before him, Sheriff Harry Lee is mad. For his brazen archenemy--the nutria, a large, burrowing, oversexed rodent with an insatiable appetite for flood-control canals--that means a dose of maximum justice.
Two things guaranteed to ruin a trip are dysentery and bad traveling companions, and I frankly prefer the former, because dysentery at least ensures some quality private time. Unfortunately, there are no guidelines by which to cull good travelers from bad. People expected to be tough will sometimes fold like…
Long after Ken Burns inspired a nation to sniffle, Civil War hobbyists are reenacting America's deadliest conflict—over and over and over. Live from the ersatz killing fields of Gettysburg, our man asks: Is this any way for adults to behave?
Outside magazine, October 1992 Dave Scott, Mere Mortal He virtually invented the sport of triathlon. He became its first pro, won its biggest race six times, set unassailable standards for preparation and athletic passion. There’s only one thing the original Ironman never figured out about his…
Why does Miguel Indurain keep winning the Tour de France? In Spain, at the start of the season that could bring an unprecedented fifth straight victory, only one answer makes sense.
Give us deep pleasure or give us death! A summer road trip with purpose.
So, you have to ask, when it comes to the great outdoors, is anything OK anymore?
The recovery he helped bring upon the Hudson has been far more personal for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. than the process of simply cleansing a river. It has washed him of his sins, returning his birthright charm and political pedigree to full shiny view — and leaving onlookers wondering what's next.
Deep beneath Moscow a crew of urban spelunkers frolics, hunting Stalin's secret hideaway, Ivan the Terrible's torture chamber, bootleg nuclear weapons, and a little fame and fortune
By positing a heretical theory of nutrition, Barry Sears unleashed a multimillion-dollar monster. Now, with his credibility and nest egg hanging in the balance, he's trying to get his creation back under control.
Kamchatka, east of Siberia. As the curtain rises on the new frontier of adventure outfitting, attendees include your guide (he's the one with the armored vehicle), the local businessman (he's the one with the machine gun), the UN environmentalist (he's the nervous-looking one), and your fellow tourists (they'll be arriving any moment now). Please enjoy the show
Searching and Fleeing and Hoping are the verbs that populated Atlin, an almost-mythical town at the very end of the road. Here, the free spirits blew in and settled like random leaves, dreaming of a life amid the wilderness. But society, it turns out, isn't so easily escaped.
Three regular guys prepare to venture into orbit in a helium balloon. And thus is Amended the Grand Roll of Space Heroes: Shepard. Glenn. Armstrong — and Dave, John, and Bob
A condensed history of Attu: First there was only sea and sky and wildlife. Next came Aleuts, and Russians, and Americans, and Japanese. And a horrifically bloody battle, and scientists, and birders. And, on rare occasion, tourists. And finally—very soon—there'll be only sea and sky and wildlife.
It takes twin litanies to sketch the life of Sir Wilfred Thesiger. Of firsts: first Westerner to live as an equal among the Bedouin of Arabia's Empty Quarter, first to set eyes on the quicksands of Umm al Samim, first to survive a trek among Ethiopia's Danakil. And lasts, the most pressing being the most poignant: last of the true adventurers.
Is to attract (specifically to draw my wandering kayak to the Philippine archipelago). And to beguile (specifically me).
Within the instructive story of four American adventurers gone to Colombia on vacation, we encounter dozens of armed rebels, several ransom demands, one daring escape, many hard feelings, and a single elusive, slightly drab, certainly-not-worth-risking-your-life-over bird
And other lofty ideas that pop into one's head and refuse to leave
Crossing the Australian outback, where epic vistas, charismatic wildlife, and time-forgotten outposts are matched only by the unique social opportunities
The Outside Seer closes out the millennium, bringing us early news from the worlds of politics, exploration, and a saucy Ukrainian minx
Beneath the skin of the Australian landscape known as Kakadu, a huge wealth of uranium awaits. Above that same skin lies wealth of a more intimate sort: paradisiacal scenery, the first touch of human history, and 50 millennia of artistic achievement, rendered on soft, glowing sandstone. Can you see the dilemma here?
In the telecentric world of the X Games, only when it's not on the tube
But how long before Mother Nature stops taking it and starts dishing it out? Soon, say the Earth Changers. Very, very soon.
Then what to my wondering eyes should appear, but an odd little atoll and great birds with no fear. A slightly unusual holiday in the far Pacific.
As the sun sets on the gilded age of hot-air adventuring, a few fat cats look for ways—any which way—to keep pushing the envelope
In the nearly four decades since Jeff Hakman first rocketed down the face of a 20-foot wave at Oahu's Waimea Bay, he's been on a dazzling and harrowing journey. There were his golden years as the sport's premier competitive superstar. He went on to make millions as cofounder of the surfwear juggernaut Quiksilver USA. And then he almost lost everything to heroin
Ben Johnson always ran in front. First in Seoul, first in scandal, first in exile. But now the pack, increasingly drug-ridden and morally indistinguishable from the fallen sprinter, has caught up to him. Which is exactly why Johnson thinks he can be out front once more.
When you're baffled by bad beginnings, stymied by the unteachable, and running from impending doom, you'd better head for the hills
In the annals of unsuccessful exploration, no mystery has remained more puzzling than the endless wrangling among historians and New York literary agents over the fate of the legendary lost expedition of Colonel Sir Edward Fallow Pike. In light of the tremendous excitement over the recent discovery of an authentic fragment of Pike's journal in an Argentine wax
Four-minute mile? No problem. Twenty-nine-foot long jump? Cakewalk. The real question is, How far have we come and how far can we go as athletes?
A River Running West: The Life and Times of John Wesley Powell, by Donald Worster (Oxford, $35). On May 24, 1869, a one-armed Civil War veteran named John Wesley Powell put in to the Green River, in what’s now Wyoming, with a crew of nine roustabouts,…
Just another day of the extreme science at Mauna Kea, the most breathtaking observatory in the world
Outside magazine, July 1995 Durango, Colorado A town where you can have a real job, a real life, and still get to move in with the scenery. Several reasons to split the city and head for the Big Outdoors. By Mike Steere Population:…
Dispatches, September 1998 Law Blue Eyes, Medium Build. Last Seen Heading West on a Vintage Hartail. What does a mountain-biking pioneer do when his cocaine-smuggling past finally catches up with him? He rides like hell. By Hampton Sides There’s…