Adventure
ArchiveRush hour on Half Dome. Photo: DirectCutter I'll never forget the moment I first glimpsed the iconic Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. It was 2001 and I had recently moved to San Francisco for a job editing…
Scientists previously thought that the smooth, hairless surfaces of fingers and toes wrinkled up like raisins after they got wet because water passed into the outermost layer of skin, causing it to swell. But recent studies have shown that the wrinkling is not a result of osmosis, but rather an…
When Palladium was founded in 1920, the company didn’t make boots; it made rubber tires for the fledgling aviation industry, tires of layered canvas, and vulcanized rubber. By the late 1940s, the World Wars were over and the French company shifted from making tires to building boots…
On December 22, 2011, 16-year-old Jake Hickman crashed while participating at a United States freestyle ski team selection competition in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The reigning J2 junior national champion caught the edge of his ski in the snow before a jump and the accident resulted in a spiral compression fracture…
Five-year-old William “rides the bump.” Photo: Peter Sullivan We had a dry start to winter here in Santa Fe, but by the time this picture was taken, on December 29, there were four inches of snow most everywhere in town. Just not on…
Ocean rowing, once an adventure sideshow, is on the rise thanks to new technology that has made record-setting crossings easier—and high-stakes rescues inevitable
Inside OAR Northwest's state-of-the-art, 30-foot Woodvale Ocean 4 rowboat, the James Robert Hanssen
Last year’s pitiful snow season left skiers and boarders starving for the white stuff. Which is why we’ve dug up a smorgasbord of new terrain, fresh trips, and killer deals that will have you ripping all winter long.
I'm unable to invest in a lot of new gear this snow season, so should I go with cross-country skis or a pair of snowshoes?
In September 2012, we posted the trailer for Tempting Fear, filmmaker Mike Douglas' surprise documentary on 29-year-old extreme ski-mountaineer Andreas Fransson. Douglas originally planned to make a short about Fransson, but after discovering how articulate the…
In 2010, visual artist Sue Austin received a grant from Arts Council England’s Impact Fund that allowed her to transform her wheelchair into a propelled, finned, scuba-tank-outfitted craft suited for underwater exploration. She designed it so that she could move the foot pedals…
A new social-media app for cycling has more than a million riders racing, cheating, and even dying for virtual supremacy over the world’s roads and trails. A recent convert to the cult explains how Strava is changing the way we ride.
January through December 2012. Photo: NOAA Last year was the hottest year on record for the contiguous United States since record-keeping began in 1895, according to a Tuesday announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Here's a breakdown…
There's no pipeline—or anything even resembling a trail or infrastructure—yet. And that's precisely why Ken Ilgunas decided to head out in September on a 1,700-mile hike tracing the planned route for the Keystone XL Pipeline—from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, to Houston, Texas. He wanted to…
The ultimate guide to the greatest ski adventure of your life
Whitewater kayakers Erik Boomer, Tyler Bradt, and Galen Volckhausen joined adventure filmmakers Tim Kemple, Anson Fogel, Blake Hendrix, and Skip Armstrong on a trip to a remote jungle in Mexico to find the ultimate waterfall.
Would confess so he could resume athletic career
Lightning. Photo: Shutterstock On Wednesday January 2, 42-year-old Irish adventurer Ian McKeever was leading a group of more than 20 people through the lunar landscape section of Mount Kilimanjaro when…
Also: the only curling quiz in the world
One of the world's best park and pipe skiers talks about new tricks and competing in the 2014 Olympics, and demystifies the life of a young, pro skier—it’s not all fancy cars and film premieres
The year’s biggest expeditions, events, and feats, from the deadly avalanche on Manaslu, to a whitewater first, to Felix Baumgartner’s 24-mile fall
Boards bound for new life. Photo: Snow Sports Recycling Program Way back in October of 2009 we wrote a story about a nascent ski and snowboard recycling program that the trade group Snowsports Industries of America (SIA) had launched. Since then, the…
In this weekly roundup, we scour the Web for our favorite long-form articles, collecting them here and on Longreads and Twitter. This installment focuses on icy adventures, mixed martial arts, and pee-wee football.
I'm not one for blatant self-promotion from manufacturers, but I have to hand it to Rocky Mountain on this video that captures the essence of what every mountain biker must hope their year gone by just looked like. The tacky singletrack, the big mountain vistas, the friendly race scene, the…
FalconGuides just announced the first 12 titles in a new line of interactive outdoor guides the company developed in partnership with Inkling, a platform for interactive learning. For the price of the download, readers get expert content optimized for iPhone, iPad, and Web, with…
There are a slew of stories coming out now about the rebuilding effort in the Rockaways. Residents who witnessed the storm destroy many homes, damage others, and take the lives of their neighbors are struggling to salvage what's left.
South Carolina surfers and other Lowcountry residents can't stop talking about two white sharks that have been spotted just off the East Coast. But these 16-foot giants may have been swimming in our waters all along.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zph835YAK7M This is what reducing chance looks like on the Australian coast: thousands of beachgoers scurrying to the water's edge of Bondi Beach in New South Wales after a siren warns of a shark sighting. The alarm was sounded on New Year's…
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Elizabeth Murray and her pupils. Photo: A Liquid Future By Gregory Thomas Not long ago, villagers on the remote Mentawai island chain off the west coast of Sumatra lived without electricity, cell phone reception, and even a local…
Being stuck in the the city shouldn't be used as an excuse for not going snowboarding, at least in Montreal. Snowboarder Sebastien Toutant proved that when he took to the slopes of Mount Royal to weave down trails, jump monuments, and slide down rails. The…
Bode Miller's ultimate goal is to ski at full strength in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Last February, Miller hurt his knee while skiing in a race there. When he tried to ski on it a…
Which is a serious problem when you’re the most famous stunt rider on the Internet. But as Nick Heil finds out, the oft-injured Scot is roaring out of rehab to dazzle the world once again.
The Colorado-based road-race champion logs much of his winter mileage indoors. Here's how he makes trainer time count.
I live down South and am leaving to go on my first ski trip this winter. How worried should I be about frostbite?
On Friday, December 21, big-wave surfer Greg Long suffered a wipeout on a giant wave at Cortes Bank. In the aftermath, he fought through a three-wave hold down before losing consciousness in the water. A detailed report from ESPN described the…
In this weekly roundup, we scour the Web for our favorite long-form articles, collecting them here and on Longreads and Twitter. This installment focuses on virtual reality, DNA mapping, and the New York Jets.
Here's a short video that might influence how you spend some of your time: 70-year-old Spaniard Juan Giriber recounting his first drop into a tube. The clip is a teaser for The Old, The Young, and The Sea, a documentary…
One of the most revered guides in the United States demystifies the life of a guide, explains what it takes to become one, and shares other insights gleaned from a life spent in the mountains
Beaver Creek. Photo: Jack Affleck/Beaver Creek Resort We’ve had a slow, dry start to winter here in the southern Rockies. So dry that doomsday scenarios began to creep in. Was winter dying? Would it ever snow again? Would our kids forget what skiing is? Would we…
It's unlikely that Robert Frost could have imagined such a choice when he wrote “The Road Not Taken,” but in 2012 slackliner Andy Lewis was at a crossroads. You may remember Lewis from Madonna's Super Bowl…
There are a lot of firsts nowadays, and Erden Eruc's voyage was the first thing to inspire Jonah Ogles in a while
Planting bulrush in Bayou Sauvage. Photo: Joe Spring It's been seven years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people and leaving molding shambles in its wake. New Orleans is still recovering, in some places more than others. This past May,…