Everything
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…
Dispatches, September 1998 Science Jim Will Now Subdue the Panda by Killing It To the relief of wildlife everywhere, animal darting cleans up its act By Steve Hendrix Last May, when California Fish and Game warden Dave Smith…
Outside magazine, September 1998 Hey Neighbor First: Get to Know the Locals. Next: Dress to Blend In. And Finally: Seize Canada Fashion by Vicky McGarry, Photographs by Cathrine Wessel, Text by Susan Casey It’s tough to find on maps,…
Dispatches, September 1998 Politics A Paler Shade of Brown Republican hard-liners say they care — no, really — about the environment By Jonathan Miles It wasn’t particularly surprising — or even unusual — that more than 100 stalwart…
Dispatches, September 1998 Sport The Snow is Fake, but the Air Totally Rocks The notoriously contrived, made-for-television X Games finally get real. By Kimberly Lisagor Some might call it hype. But the next time a 110-foot snow cone towers…
 Outside magazine, September 1999 The Low-Tech, High-Speed, Retro-Manic Simple Life Join us, friends, for the epic buggy adventure of Eustace Conway, world’s fastest postmodern mountain man By Florence Williams Photographs by Daniel Peebles Eustace…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Swing Shift A simple routine that’ll take your hips from out of whack to in the groove “An athlete’s platform of strength, balance, and quickness needs to be based on good range of…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Straight Up, No Cheating Professional advice for topping 14,000 feet? Don’t sprint. YOUR INNER ARNOLD Talk of personal-best bench presses may be the stuff of locker-room preening rituals, but it’s…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Hip to the Bone Often overlooked, it puts the groove in your move By Matthew Segal STRETCHES | STRENGTHENERS…
Outside magazine, September 1999 MARKETING Hakkalüugi Be Thy Name The etymological quest to conceive hot new taglines for the latest gear Yes, it’s that time of year again: the gear world’s annual silly season, when companies must conjure up…
Outside Magazine, September 1999 OFF-ROADING Going Down? Brian Head’s 6,000-foot vertical red-rock relief should do the trick You can be forgiven for snubbing Brian Head during ski season. For while tiny Brian Head Resort does amass…
Outside magazine, September 1999 SPORT Out of This World Can a daring French rider called “the Alien” keep pace with downhill mountain biking’s wild, wild ride? “This is what I like,” says French downhill mountain-bike racing phenom Nicolas Vouilloz,…
Outside magazine, September 1999 TECHNOLOGY Heavy Breathing A device for improving lung capacity has athletes in a lather For years, the quest to gain stamina and speed by developing bigger, stronger lungs has led athletes of all stripes…
Outside magazine, September 1999 CYCLING Negative Spin After this year’s events, will the Tour de France ever be albe to redeem itself? Early in the morning on July 4, 189 cyclists were pooled together in a mass…
Outside Magazine, September 1999 Beyond the Zone As the United States prepares to hand over the canal, Panama’s wild wonders are ripe for discovery. By Alex Markels The easy way to spot quetzals: Lounge on…
Outside magazine, September 1999 BOOKS Rough Going Buy this book! Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam,…
Outside Magazine, September 1999 LONG WEEKENDS Head Down Past Gainesville, Turn Back 50 Years Where the Suwannee hits the Gulf, a bygone Florida thrives in the wilderness Keys to the Key Cedar Key is a straight shot southwest…
Outside magazine, September 1999 WILDLIFE MOBILITY Unnatural Selection When a protected bird preys on a nearly extinct fish, who do you back? From the water, tiny rice island in the Columbia River seems a peaceful place, the tall…
Outside magazine, September 1999 CULTURE Beyond the Cutting Edge An epic garden-tractor odyssey trumps the vision of David Lynch If next month’s premiere of the latest David Lynch film, The Straight Story, shocks your sensibilities and leaves you…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Murder Most Fish They call him Flipperùbut America’s newspaper of record calls him a warm-blooded Ripper. Our man investigates. By Tim Cahill A recent New York Times story blasted dolphins right…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Good, Clean, Dangerous Places Wilderness is where we find our deepest imagery, our purest freedom, our truest selves. We’d be lost without it, and we’ve never needed it more than we do now.
Outside magazine, September 1999 Wearing the Future Welcome to the next paradigm of outdoor technology: clothing as gear By Sarah Friedman SHIRTS | INSULATION |…
 Outside magazine, September 1999 Into Kosovo A Reporter’s Diary of Two Months on the Road Across a Ruined Landscape, Over the Accursed Mountains, and Down to a Place Where Nightmares Come True By Joshua Hammer I. La Vikinga, the hydrofoil that…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Look at All the Fire-Folk Sitting in the Air! In which two men of science, armed with flashlights, video cameras, and a 50-gallon garbage can, seek out the look of love in a fiery…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Virgin Land: A History POLITICS | VIRGIN LAND: A HISTORY | FRONT LINES | CONTENDERS Two millennia before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness…