Exploration & Survival
Archive
How to start from scratch and expand your horizons
Professional vehicle dwellers share their tips for making the most out of life on the road
The assassination of Goldman Prize-winning activist Berta Cáceres last March shocked the global community. But in her home country of Honduras, where more than 100 activists have been cut down in the past five years, it was business as usual.
Lessons I learned from organizing a homeless-youth outdoors program and how you can apply them to improving your own corner of the world
On Oct. 5th, Valery Rozov looked over the edge at 7,700 meters above sea level. He leapt over a huge glacier and flew by his old record set in 2013.
From picking the right vehicle to carrying the right stuff to planning the right itinerary
A new documentary tells the story of Kazakh teenager Nurgaiv Aisholpan's quest to become an eagle huntress and upend centuries of male-dominated tradition
This guy got arrested for sending it off tall buildings into deep water. Here's what he gets really, really wrong with his jumps.
Delve Action and Louie Wray set up the world's longest human-anchored highline.
The hunt for the truth about Eastern Air Lines Flight 980
Have you ever found yourself on a boat besieged by pirates? Aboard a derailing train? Former Navy SEAL Clint Emerson explains how to survive these crises and many more in his new book, 100 Deadly Skills: Survival Edition.
I’m an underwater photographer, but you won’t find many macro images of coral or clownfish in my portfolio. I’m inspired by the people who connect most directly with the water: freedivers, researchers, filmmakers, and, above all, rescue swimmers of the U.S. Coast Guard.
How two friends from Boston solved the world's greatest aviation mystery, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980
Utah-based Mountain Hub is out to crowdsource backcountry safety
Many travel insurance providers don’t cover the deadly sport of wingsuiting. But the case of one American man whose $161 plan covered the $175,000 cost of his air evacuation and treatment shows that it’s possible—under the right circumstances.
Last week's viral video illustrated how dangerous bears can be—and taught us a few lessons on how to survive such an attack
On his recent trip to the top of the world, polar explorer Eric Larsen didn’t so much hike as fight, slog, and swim. He’s now convinced that his will be one of the last on-foot expeditions to the North Pole.
Advances in wingsuit technology allow pilots to go farther and faster, with more precision. It's also easier than ever for them to get in over their heads.
Get out and explore the country’s weirdest sites with help from Atlas Obscura’s co-founder
We break down what's in the can, plus how to use it effectively
Veteran river guide Joshua “Frenchy” Tourjee was helping lead an OARS trip when he went missing more than a week ago near Pancho’s Kitchen
Adventurers Dave and Amy Freeman today emerged from 12 months living in the Boundary Waters wilderness in northern Minnesota. One of their top challenges? Filing their taxes on time.
The one-week boot camp puts paying customers in the middle of the Indonesian jungle, then helps them survive the journey home
The biggest craze in cycling combines the popularity of distance hiking, gravel grinding, and vanlife. But for bikepacking disciples like Tom and Sarah Swallow, simplicity and solitude are the real rewards.
Acrophobia gives context to how one person can go from feeling an insane amount of fear regarding high altitudes to a flow state where all the senses are heightened.
A 65-year-old Miami woman has been living in a tree on her property for the past decade. Now, she’s fighting with the county to stay put.
When I arrived, I realized there are two major stories unfolding here on the windswept prairie of North Dakota. One of them, the one that has drawn the most media attention, plays out in rallies and hashtags, Facebook Live streams, and confrontations with pipeline security workers. The other is more difficult to see unless you visit the camp itself, where old friends and long estranged tribes have reunited, and people share songs, prayers, and stories as they articulate a future in which tribal lands are no longer national sacrifice zones and the zero-sum logic of industry is not taken for granted.
The Mongolia Bike Challenge may be the most demanding mountain-bike race on earth. Started in 2010 as a ten-day event with multiple stage lengths in excess of 100 miles, the route takes riders through remote and mountainous terrain teeming with wild horses and with little in the way of course marshals—it’s each racer’s responsibility to carry a GPS tracking device.
Police searching for people who destroyed Cape Kiwanda’s famous Duckbill
To get bit by one is to experience something like a gunshot wound. And they’re multiplying.
A pair from Utah trying to complete the first ascent of a steep face in the Karakoram mountain range were caught in a snowstorm last month and haven't been seen since
Everything a beginner needs to know to become a competent marksman
An utterly inept man gets lost in the West for 37 days. What happens next is, believe it or not, why America created its first national park.
Zip lines, paddling circuits, flow tracks, and a ski-resort style business model are coming to a city near you
This spring, Virginia-based photographers Chet Strange and Parker Michels-Boyce set up a photo booth at Mile 806 of the Appalachian Trail. Using a classic studio backdrop, they captured dozens of northbound thru-hikers as they made their way toward Cold Mountain in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Strange and Michels-Boyce aimed to capture the variety of folks and personalities tackling one of America’s great trails. Here are 13 of our favorites.
He was kidnapped, survived an assassination attempt, and joined the hunt for the most deadly terrorist. Meet the most interesting man alive.
The incredible story behind a journalist's terrifying journey through high-conflict jungle
On July 30 at approximately 5:45 p.m. local time, Hollywood stuntman and skydiving luminary Luke Aikins jumped out of a Cessna Grand Caravan airplane 25,000 feet above Simi Valley, California. It was the first time in his 18,000-plus skydives that Aikins, 42, with a wife and young son, did not wear a parachute.
Welcome to the ninth annual Firefly Gathering, a four-day survival camp packed with pine-needle baskets, tomahawk throws, sinew glue, mycology crawls, and ecstatic drumming.
Pilot Fedor Konyukhov touched down in Bonnie Rock, Australia, having circumnavigated the globe in record time
Magnetoreception could be a latent human sense, silent for millennia but accessible with training. Is it worth developing—or even possible?
A Hollywood stuntman who’s leapt out of planes for “Godzilla” and “Iron Man 3” will attempt his greatest, craziest feat yet—on live TV
The Darién Gap is a lawless wilderness on the border of Colombia and Panama, teeming with everything from deadly snakes to antigovernment guerrillas. The region also sees a flow of migrants from Cuba, Africa, and Asia, whose desperation sends them on perilous journeys to the U.S. Jason Motlagh plunged in, risking robbery, kidnapping, and death to document one of the world’s most harrowing treks.
A quarter century of digging under ice sees winners, losers, and an Irish billionaire teaming up with De Beers
Expert wingsuit flyer and pilot Rex Pemberton’s latest trick: turning himself into a human rocket
Jacques Cousteau’s grandson, who stars in an upcoming “Shark Week” special, talks about ocean exploration in the 21st century, carrying on his grandfather’s legacy, and what we can learn from nuclear sharks
Bears in backyard pools, bears on TV, and now a bear attack
My journey from an average animal lover, to an active participant in conservation
Tracking the millions of tropical fish caught and sold in the global aquarium trade is our best chance for understanding the impact of Disney’s new movie on the world’s oceans
The park's main attractions are also its most dangerous features
Hotshots take on exceptional risk. Could unionizing give them the voice they need to avoid deadly situations like Yarnell Hill?
The primitive bushcraft expert wants to turn your nickels into arrowheads
They face unique challenges, longer odds, and sometimes outright hostility
We caught up with filmmaker Anson Fogel at 5Point Adventure Film Festival to talk about his powerful short film, When We Were Knights.
When a group of canyoneering beginners were swept away in a flash flood last September, it was the worst disaster in Zion's 97-year history. And it illustrates a growing question: How far should national parks go to keep their visitors safe?
The discovery of human remains in Costa Rica complicates theories on his mysterious 2014 disappearance
The United Arab Emirates wants to build an artificial peak to make it rain in the desert-bound cities. Let's just say the experts are skeptical.
At just 6,288 feet, this would be considered a hill anywhere else
When a group of immigrants set out across the desert, the results helped researcher create the Death Index, a new model for dehydration.
Do you want to see lightning? NASA just crunched the numbers and came up with the destinations where you’re most likely to see a bolt.
Jon Krakauer’s obsession with what killed the star of ‘Into the Wild’ has persisted for nearly 24 years. Whether it was ignorance or arrogance, do the details still make a difference?
With the San Andreas “locked, loaded, and ready to go," now's the time to assemble your quake kit
We asked Jim Delgado, NOAA’s director of maritime heritage, to help us compile this list of the 10 most iconic missing ships waiting to be discovered.
Pablo Valencia spent six days wandering the 110-degree desert before stumbling into McGee's camp. He shouldn't have been alive, but he was.
An amusing albeit brief look at the basics of adventuring outdoors.
Who says compound bows and bikes don't mix? (But seriously, this is fun.)
What it's like to call for help on the open ocean
It might be bougie, but it may be better than having more people on the mountain
American cavers were first to descend the 1,200-foot deep Sotano De Las Golondrinas, better known as the Cave of Swallows, in 1966. It’s one of the world’s largest cave shafts in the world and one of Mexico’s 13 natural wonders.
Or one Outside editor’s commitment to stop feeding you nonsense
The only thing we love more than our own dogs? Seeing all of our readers’ prized adventure companions. So all summer, we’ll be featuring a running gallery of our favorite pups. Use #OutsideDogs2016, we'll pick the best shots, and continue adding them to this collection. Here, a few hand-picked, photogenic creatures to get the ball rolling.
Take flight with paraglider Théo de Blic in the French Alps.
Young, tech-savvy adventurers are taking sponsors and funding away from grizzled, old-school explorers who aren’t strong on Facebook and Twitter. But they don’t always pull off the awesome feats they say they will.
The bizarre science behind Phil Broscovak's lightning strike, and his incredible journey of recovery
For 28 years, Kay Grayson lived side-by-side with wild black bears in North Carolina's swampy coastal forests, hand-feeding them, defending them against poachers, and letting them in her home. When she went missing last year, the only thing the investigators could find were her clean-picked bones. And that's just the start of the mystery.
At age 13, Martin Kristensen jumped out of a plane and realized there was no going back. Now a skydiving world champion, Kristensen learned to turn falling into flying, gracefully using his body like wings to dance with gravity. Through freediving, Kristensen is able to channel his energy into another form…
To The Explorers is a short film by Alex Goetz and Justin Grubb that serves as an ode to all the adventurers, explorers, and environmentalists that have dedicated their life's work to conservation and wildlife. The film won the Nat Geo WILD's 2016 Wild to Inspire short film competition. As a…
Win one of four trips led by an outdoors pro