Exploration & Survival
Archive
In the last decade, athletes have freeBASE'd the Eiger, paddled into 70-foot-plus waves, and dropped more than 100 feet off waterfalls. What’s next? And how will the stories be told? We asked the world's biggest adventure icons.
Photo: Flikr/tkd540 With their commercial use permits on hold, horse pack operators in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks aren’t taking trip reservations and are nervously awaiting a May 23 hearing at which U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg will outline…
Meet the men and women on the knife's edge of exploration
He was a proud Marine who survived three brutal tours in Iraq and had plans to redeploy with the national guard. But when 30-year-old Noah Pippin vanished inside Montana’s remote Bob Marshall Wilderness, he left behind a trail of haunting secrets—and a mystery that may never be solved.
Veronika Scott's initial coat design, with Tyvec shell. Photo: Brittany Thomasson In 2010, while pursuing her degree in product design at Detroit's College for Creative Studies, a single idea changed the course of Veronika Scott's life. She decided to make a coat. Not just any…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tbjzZHuGTng%C2%A0 Twelve-year old Tom Schaar has been skating since he was four, but only started attempting the 1080 a couple weeks ago. The Malibu-based prodigy made four attempts on March 26—and nailed it on his fifth try, landing three complete mid-air rotations off a 70-foot tall mega ramp at Woodward…
The nation's four best wilderness first aid courses
Some might say this is the perfect telescope for the star-searching newbie. If you can't hone in on the galaxy you're looking for on your own power, Celestron's Prodigy 6 robotic self-aligning telescope will find it for you. Using electronic motors, an intelligent on-board computer, a…
Kathy Willens/ Associated Press The rancorous feud at New York’s 108-year-old Explorers Club has finally drawn to a close. Yesterday, the board of directors gathered at the club’s Manhattan headquarters and voted to oust controversial president Lorie Karnath in favor of Alan Nichols, a San Francisco-based…
Photo: Young Hoon Oh Young Hoon Oh, South Korean PhD candidate in anthropology at UC Riverside, is headed to Nepal at the end of the month to attempt his second Everest summit. But his itinerary extends well beyond the days he'll try to reach the top…
In the heart of New York City, a power struggle is under way at the century-old Explorers Club—with claims of tyranny aimed at Lorie Karnath, the current president. She says her detractors are mired in the past, and in a fight this rough, somebody isn’t coming back alive.
In 2009, Outside readers met Colton Harris-Moore, a smart, slippery teenager who became notorious for stealing cars, boats, and planes in the Pacific Northwest. The climax came a year later, when Harris-Moore swiped a small plane in Indiana, landed in the Bahamas, and vanished.
In this teaser for HBO’s Real Sports, BASE jumper Jeb Corliss crashes into Table Mountain. The show airs this Sunday at 10 Eastern.
Some of us are scoring powder days, while others are getting skunked. Either way, it’s shaping up to be a weird and dangerous winter all across the country—and nowhere is this truer than the backcountry. So far, 8 skiers and boarders and four snowmobilers have…
Badenoch, training. Photo: Joe Bell This spring, Andrew Badenoch plans to launch a 7,000-mile trip from Bellingham, Wash., up to the southern coast of the Arctic Ocean, before looping back. His locomotion will…
The husband and wife team perform their Wingsuit versus Edge 540 stunt in the video above. Read more in “As Long as They Both Shall Live.”…
Facial Landscapes, By Cory Richards By now, you've heard all about Cory Richards and his film Cold, which won big awards at Banff Mountain Film, Telluride…
In November, 2010, slackliner Andy Lewis rigged a 130-foot length of webbing between two sandstone cliffs outside of Moab, Utah, and walked it—out and back—with no safety harness or net. The line, dubbed Shakes McCoy, was the longest anyone had ever free-soloed. Lewis has soloed 44 highlines—swaying, bouncing…
BASE stands for “buildings, antennae, spans, and earth,” and jumpers parachute from these and other fixed objects—an incredibly risky pursuit that has claimed at least 180 lives since 1981. The world’s deadliest sport has no governing body, but the online magazine Blinc maintains the official BASE jumping fatality list (BFL), which assigns each dead jumper a B
Professional daredevils Rex and Melissa Pemberton were drawn together by a mutual passion for risk and adrenaline. Now they have a marriage based on love, trust, and the strange, stoic acceptance that their life partner could die at any moment.
The sign read, “Tenaya Canyon is extremely dangerous. Many have lost their lives in the attempt.” Thus warned, my 78-year-old dad was set to hike and rappel through it. And I had agreed to join him.
ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?height=317&deepLinkEmbedCode=gycHlhMzqXtZ8oFXZTsgVYUFt9vsv93J&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK&embedCode=gycHlhMzqXtZ8oFXZTsgVYUFt9vsv93J&width=563" After a jump from Cape Town’s Table Mountain this morning, Jeb Corliss crashed and broke both his legs while filming for HBO. The 35-year-old fell roughly 200…
On December 20, actor Gerard Butler was held down by a set of 10-12 foot waves at Maverick's. He was out surfing the break with Greg Long, Peter Mel, and Zach Wormhoudt…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=q72uhQeTCmM Here's a survival story to wake you up on a Monday morning. On December 31, 22-year-old Australian tourist Erin Langworthy jumped from a bridge over the Zambezi River attached to a bungee cord. The cord broke and Langworthy briefly blacked out…
Alone in a vast Alaskan wilderness, seven teens fend off a grizzly bear—then try to stay alive
Felicity Aston wants to become the first woman to cross Antarctica alone. The 33-year-old English explorer plans to travel more than 1,000 miles—to the geographic South Pole before veering off on a path towards Hercules Inlet. The journey…
A guy calls, says he found some mysterious papers left behind by a dead relative who apparently shrunk human heads and bodies. Do we wanna come see? Uh, no. But we knew Mary Roach would.
Since the release of 127 Hours, a certain canyon in Utah has become a lot more popular—and dangerous
ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?deepLinkEmbedCode=xuZXYyMzoqJXug2nw7YJ3bWfhe9wrBKp&height=357&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK&embedCode=xuZXYyMzoqJXug2nw7YJ3bWfhe9wrBKp&width=566" This past weekend we posted Yve Rossy's TED talk online. This morning, his crew sent us video of his latest stunt. The swiss pilot donned his wing, jumped out of a helicopter, and flew above the Swiss Alps with two Breitling jets.
The swiss pilot and self-proclaimed Jetman flies above the Swiss Alps with a team of Breitling jets.
A few months ago, National Geographic put a picture of swiss pilot and self-proclaimed jetman Yves Rossy on its cover. In the picture, Rossy is casually looking right while flying in a bright red suit under the cover of his carbon fiber wing—which…
No GPS or weather reports—just a sailboat, the wild open ocean, and the constellations. Think you could find your way across the South Pacific? James Campbell rides along with a master navigator in the Caroline Islands, where they’ve been sailing this way for thousands of years.
By Patrick Symmes, Guest Blogger Taking a child kayaking is the easy part—kids and water mix well. But like trout, kayaks only thrive in beautiful places, and that means hard driving and long going. Kids don't always deal with a long drive as well as a wet splash. Passing through…
A few weeks ago we reported on Jeb Corliss's plan to shoot through a hole in China's Tianmen Mountain while wearing a wingsuit. This past weekend, the American flew through the 360-foot-tall, 96-foot-wide, 260-foot-long hole after jumping out of…
The skyrocketing market value of yarchagumba, a rare fungus prized as an aphrodisiac, has led to turf wars—and possibly murder.
ext_script = "//video.losangeles.cbslocal.com/global/video/videoplayer.js?rnd=979014;hostDomain=video.losangeles.cbslocal.com;playerWidth=420;playerHeight=315;isShowIcon=true;clipId=6105845;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=CBS.LA%252Fworldnowplayer;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=fixed" A couple who took their 80-lb. dog for a hike this Saturday in the Angeles National Forest ended up spending a night on the trail after their canine refused to budge. Baxter, a labrador mix, stopped after cuts on…
Go behind the scenes as photographer Michael Muller shoots surfer Josh Mohr for our August 2011 cover.
A couple months ago, we ran a Q&A with writer Jon Turk and photographer Erik Boomer, two arctic explorers who were awarded a grant from Eddie Bauer First…
Every year the goriest moments from the Running of the Bulls flash across television screens, but the instances of bravery that follow are often cut out. Presenting the ten most dangerous moments at the Fiesta de San Fermin, from start to finish.
Satellite-linked emergency devices give backpackers, skiers, and boaters fingertip power to cry for help. Alas, people often cry wolf.
Futuristic new submersibles are poised to take crews to earth’s greatest depths. It may get crowded down there.
(Noa Ginella on his way to 1st place in the SUP cross.) Last week I went to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado, to standup paddleboard in whitewater rapids. It’s hard to explain why whitewater SUPing is so…
Before heading up to Alaska, Christopher McCandless spent time exploring the Western U.S. The following video clip highlights some of that journey, with narration courtesy of Hal Holbrook. For more about Christopher McCandless, check out the Back to the Wild DVD.
Ron Walline of Ancient Pathways demonstrates how to make a fire with flint and steel.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Guru, shows you how to build a survival shelter with a tarp, sticks, and rope.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Guru, shares some rules on eating in the backcountry.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Guru, demonstrates three types of fire starters.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Guru, shows you how to build a survival fire.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Guru, shows you how to signal help without a mirror.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a The Survival Guru, tells you the essential items for your survival pack.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Gure, shows you how to signal for help without a signal mirro.
Friends, family, fellow dirtbags, and the man himself on one of the world's best aerialists
Hi, my name is Katie and today I'm launching this blog, Raising Rippers, about bringing up adventurous, outdoor kids. Before our first daughter, Pippa (that's her below), was born, a friend of mine gave me the best parenting advice I’ve ever gotten: Start off as you mean to go on.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a The Survival Guru, shows you a primitive method of food procurement.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Guru, shows you the correct way to put out a camp fire.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Guru, shows you how to carve food paddles.
Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, a.k.a. The Survival Guru, gives you tips on staying hydrated in a survival situation.
Billy Meyer of Ancient Pathways shows you how to start a friction fire.
Outside’s Micah Cratty shows you how to instantly freeze a beer.
Whenever adventure goes wrong, more than 5,000 everyday heroes stand ready for wilderness search and rescue. Meet six of the best in the business: unsung pioneers, backcountry veterans, and saviors of last resort who will risk everything to bring you back alive.
Which current survival TV host has the most wilderness cred? The Editors Santa Fe, NM
Summer adventure is nigh so arm your pack with a good first aid kit like one from Adventure Medical Kits. And learn how to use it. Here's the scoop on wilderness medicine courses. CPR is a vital 3-4 hour class, endorsed by American Red Cross or American…
Outside's best writers share their thoughts on fatherhood and nature-bonding with Dad.
What should I carry in my car in case I break down in the backcountry or have to survive on the road during a blizzard? The Editors Santa Fe, NM
If I don't have a compass, how can I tell direction? The Editors Santa Fe, NM
Photo by carolyn.will on Flickr ESPN Action Sports announced yesterday two new events for X Games 17, which will take place this July 28-31 in Los Angeles. In the…
Don't worry: they had parachutes. Last November, BASE jumpers Marshall Miller and Hartman Rector led police on a miniature manhunt after they sneaked their rigs into the 28-story LDS Church Office Building in downtown Salt Lake and leapt from its observation deck. Miller and Rector–the grandson…