Adventure
ArchiveFor better and (only sometimes) worse, elite athletes are our role models. We admire their discipline and commitment; their strength and skill inspire us to reach higher in our own lives. When I talked to alpinist Hilaree O'Neill last month by cell phone from Everest Base Camp,…
Hui Yu Kim, “Boating Fun” (Atkins’ Young Environmental Photographer of the Year: Under 16 Highly Commended) Don't let the incredibly long and clunky name turn you off: The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management's annual…
If you plan to get out in an inflatable this season, you’re probably going to have a great time regardless of what body of water you’re cruising. But if you’re looking for the biggest thrills and the most excitement, consider this your go-to list.
Cougar. Photo: Shutterstock Cougars are on the rise in the Midwest. From 1990 to 2008, the number of sightings confirmed by wildlife professionals increased. That's good news for fans of big cats, which were extirpated from most of that area around…
Many people's backs will hurt just watching the above bodyboarding video. It's a five-minute montage of flips, turns, and wipeouts on thick slabs of crashing surf. For others, the video will be inspiration to get in the lineup. For others, the video will just lead…
Brought to you by Mark Thatcher, the guy who invented Teva's, Sazzis are sandals with individual toes cut into the sole. It's kind of like Vibram's Five Finger concept: Let your toes work independently and you get more traction, stability and agility on awkward…
Not far from Sydney, in the suburb of Bondi Beach, there is a cold-water swimming club on the bay called the Bondi Icebergs. Every Sunday from May to September, more than 700 swimmers race in order to make, or…
Kaieteur Falls, Guyana. Photo: Wilderness Explorers Newsweek said last week that visiting Guyana should be on your Bucket List. Then USA Today said just about the same thing. We first sang Guyana's praises…
In this new weekly roundup, we scour the Web for our favorite long-form magazine and newspaper articles, collecting them here and on Longreads.com and Twitter. This installment focuses on fires, beetles, and the politicians who threaten our forests and parks.
This is the third in a three-part series excerpted from Laurel Holland's forthcoming book, Spindrift. Her father, Bill Holland, was killed while attempting an unroped descent of Slipstream, the 3,000-foot frozen waterfall in Alberta, Canada's Jasper National Park. His body was discovered 21 years later, a mile from the estimated site of his fall.
A St. Petersburg man recently kitesurfed into a jump over a pier during tropical storm Debby. The YouTube clip is making the rounds online, from the Huffington Post to Grind TV. Anyone watching the video with any…
This is the second in a three-part series excerpted from Laurel Holland's forthcoming book, Spindrift. Her father, Bill Holland, was killed while attempting an unroped descent of Slipstream, the 3,000-foot frozen waterfall in Alberta, Canada's Jasper National Park. His body was discovered 21 years later, a mile from the estimated site of his fall.
Red Bull has put up a 90-second trailer to its new mountain-biking movie, Where the Trail Ends. From it, you get that the movie follows a group of mountain bikers going off trail for some pretty amazing freeriding. The movie features riders…
This is the first in a three-part series excerpted from Laurel Holland's forthcoming book, Spindrift. Her father, Bill Holland, was killed while attempting an unroped descent of Slipstream, the 3,000-foot frozen waterfall in Alberta, Canada's Jasper National Park. His body was discovered 21 years later, a mile from the estimated site of his fall.
Thirty-five years ago, a national recession and high fuel prices led to the opening of the massive, controversial Trans-Alaska Pipeline System—and a host of problems and pollution that came with it. Sound familiar?
Washington's Little White Salmon is the most difficult regularly run river on the West Coast, yet it has only claimed two kayakers. The second, Jenna Watson, died on June 16. Here's the story.
Ar Vag. Photo: Be Open Thibault Penven, a student at the University of Art and Design Lausanne, created a fold-out dinghy that works as a shuttle between the shore and a ship. In just…
Ben Marr. Photo: Forge Motion Pictures For the latest video in the series Of Souls and Water, Forge Motion Pictures followed kayaker Ben Marr to Canada.
The third episode in Forge Motion Picture's series of Souls and Water features whitewater kayaker Ben Marr surfing waves at night. Click here to find out how the crew got the light on the boat at night.
This past spring, we screened Solitaire, a movie about skiing and snowboarding the remote slopes of South America. For those that haven't heard of the movie, it is a different sort of beast. Filmmakers…
We start the day with a car accident. The bikes are unloaded and we are on them. It's another scorcher, so we're ready to ride by 7:30 a.m. We're filling the last waterbottle when an 84-year-old Italian man backs out of his garage and into the side of the van.
If the team from the University of Maryland can get, and hold on to, just a bit more air, their Gamera II craft will win $250,000. To claim the AHS Sikorsky Prize, the pedal-powered helicopter needs to hover…
We spent last night at an ancient stone farmhouse. It was technically a hotel, but it felt like we were staying in someone's home. The family served all the meals, and entertained us with stories translated through the daughter. The food was exceptional: cheese from the family's flock and herd…
El Mar, Mi Alma – film preview from Rebel Waltz Films on Vimeo. Anyone who dreams of surfing Chile should watch the trailer to El Mar, Mi Alma. It might be just the boost needed to book a ticket. Of course, there’s more to this movie than…
November is fast approaching, but neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama is talking about the E-word. Our eight experts coach them on how to handle one of the year's most sensitive issues.
Have doping scandals made you want to swear off the Tour forever? Here are five reasons not to pull the plug on this year's race.
Biking is tiring in a really satisfying way. Hammer all day on a bike and you'll feel fulfilled and ready for food and rest. Driving in a car for four hours after hammering all day is brutal. Packed into the backseat with your teammates, your feet swell and even if…
A couple of weeks ago, senior editor Abe Streep stopped by my office with a quick question. He'd been editing two stories for this issue—a Dispatches piece on the shuttering of state parks in California (“Access Denied“) and a Natural Intelligence column on the…
Passo dello Stelvio may be the best known stage of the Giro d'Italia, and for roadies it’s the crown jewel of climbs in the Italian Alps. Today we rode the ninth stage from the 2010 Giro Donne, Livigno to Stelvio, finishing with the classic climb and descent. A few…
Here's a great Father's Day video that we picked up off The Adventure Blog. It's a quick interview with mountaineers Peter and Lou Whittaker about climbing and guiding together.
Cramming a whole lotta adventure into one day doesn't have to be a sufferfest. Photo: Katie Arnold We recently took the kids to see a Brazilian jazz band perform outside at our local college on a hill above town. You can probably picture the scene: Everyone…
A descendant of America’s most famous acrobatic family brings classic daredevilry back to Niagara Falls
Photo: Shutterstock The Surfing Walk of Fame has announced its 2012 class. The seven inductees will have their names placed in the pavement at the corner…
By Erica Lineberry When I got pregnant in the summer of 2009, I was shocked at how matter-of-fact people were with their “advice.” Most annoying to me were the comments around my husband’s and my recreational pursuits, specifically climbing: “Kiss all those crazy weekend climbing trips goodbye!” and “I guess…
Fifty-eight miles through the Alps. That's what was on the agenda for today when we rode the eighth stage of the 2012 Giro Donne. And about 50 miles of that was a climb—nearly 8,000 feet total—over two significant passes. The owners of farmhouse bed and breakfast Acqua…
Simulated wetland used in silver nanoparticle research at Duke University. Photo: Benjamin Espinasse In recent years, many outdoor apparel manufacturers have embraced a new range of anti-microbial textile coatings that are designed to inhibit the growth of bacterial and fungus that cause odors. Less stinky…
White Marble. Photo: NASA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/Flickr By now you’ve probably heard of Blue Marble, the super hi-res composite image of earth. It’s not the single biggest hi-res…
New footage from Forge Motion Pictures of the North Fork Championships, where the world’s best kayakers competed on Idaho’s big-water classic, the Payette.
We arrived last night at dusk, pieced our bikes together from their boxes and hard cases, and devoured primi, secondi and dessert plates—pasta with oil and garlic, roasted pork and pannacotta—before passing out jet-lagged with exhaustion, hoping to get maximum sleep before our 6 a.m. departure. Today we rode the…