Freestyle mountain biker Andreu Lacondeguy has just acheived unprecedented amplitude on a 45-feet long speed jump. He got about 35 feet out and 25 feet high from his FMX ramp, which he had hauled to the small village of…

In my book, every trade show or conference necessitates at least a day or two of recovery, ideally in a ski town. So on my way home from SIA in Denver, I stopped in Breckenridge. I hadn't been there since a family ski trip in, oh, 1993. It wound…

When visiting one of the best ski towns in North America, it's worth it to splurge on a meal in one of the country's best restaurants. But these days such trips are in short supply, so what can you do? Not much, unless you have a recipe.  I gathered up…

Courtesy of Flickr Punxsutawney Phil, a.k.a. Mr. Groundhog of Groundhog Day, has seen his shadow this morning in Pennsylvania, the AP reports. That means six more weeks of winter, so you’ve…

Daron Rahlves sustained a heinous crash in the ski-cross finals of the X Games yesterday, dislocating his hip. He was wincing as an ambulance sped him from the course, reported the Denver Post. This brings up the obvious question: Will he recover in time to compete in…

“Pipeline likes certain people.” That’s how surfing legend and two-time Pipe Master Gerry Lopez explains the epic performance of Brett Barley at this year’s…

What does it take to make the U.S. Ski Team's Olympic roster? A lot, according to the new documentary “Truth in Motion: The U.S. Ski Team's Road to Vancouver.” After airing on Saturday, it's now free (in HD!) at iTunes, thanks to sponsor Audi.  —…

There have been several trade shows in outdoorlandia in the past couple of weeks. I just spent the last two days at SIA, the big snow sports show in Denver.  If you've never been to a trade show, it can best be described as a spectacle. Picture…

Just in case you were out and missed the 2010 Winter X Games, we compiled a list of our ten favorite moments. You don't have to agree. Tell us what you think in the comments section below. 10) Anything involving…

In 1999, at the age of forty-three, Lori Schneider awoke with numbness in over 50 percent of her body. Two months later, her entire body was numb. She had Multiple Sclerosis – MS. MS is a disease that attacks the central nervous system, and often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed…

Courtesy of Wikimedia The Kızılot municipality in Turkey's Manavgat district of Antalya has just banned fireworks during the summer to protect loggerhead sea turtles in the area, the Anatolia News…

Ted Ligety has won the World Cup giant slalom in Slovenia for the third year in a row. This is his first World Cup win this season, and he cinched it with a combined time of 2:22. Austria's Marcel Hirscher took second…

Portraits from photographer Michael Lavine of the next generation water conservationist.

It seems everyone is a fan of Avatar. Officials in China renamed the Southern Sky Column to Avatar Hallelujah Mountain, according to The Goat. Hallelujah Mountain, of course, is the exact name of the mountain in the film Avatar. Chinese officials,…

Courtesy of Wikimedia E. coli's been the culprit for many a food poisoning, but it turns out the microbe's got some good uses, too. The company LS9, which bills itself as a “renewable petroleum company,” has just made a major breakthrough…

I'm picky about ski packs. My requirements: It has to carry well. It has to have enough pockets but not too many, enough straps but not too many, and a good weight-to-capacity ratio.  I have to admit that I wasn't overly keen on the Deuter Freerider PRO 30 when I…

Actiona and lifestyle photos of the three-time champ.

Chris Davenport has returned from his Antarctica skiing adventure. And the film crew that accompanied him (Granite Films) brought back some pretty amazing footage. Below is…

The creation of the European-based Freeride World Tour has taken freeskiing (also called extreme skiing) competition to a whole new level.  Athletes that areawarded one of the few coveted spots on this circuit get the chance to competeon massive, unskied faces in…

In the climbing world there are a few people who uniquely stand out:Messner, Viesturs, Moro, House, and many more – you know the names. Andthen there are those climbers who have forgotten more climbs than mostpeople have attempted. They may not have been the most difficult orgarnered the fame…

photo: Pavel Novak Historian Tom Holzel may have figured out a way to determine once and for all if George Mallory and Andrew Irvine were the first to summit Everest in 1924,…

Wish you could be climbing in Patagonia right now? This as close as you'll get from your office desk. Colin Haley wore a helmet cam while ascending Aguja Guillaumet. The audio is a little choppy from the wind, but the video is well worth it. (Hat tips:…

Courtesy of Flickr The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core drilling project, whose goal is to improve scientists understanding of climate change, has just finished pulling up about 75 percent…

Live screenings of this year's Aspen X Games will be hosted in Denver, Colorado, according to…

Courtesy of NASA Hayley Shephard will attempt the first ever solo sea kayak expedition around South Georgia Island. Her goal is to bring attention to the endangered albatross bird. She will set out on February 3, facing extreme cold, frigid…

A comprehensive training program will not only prepare us to run 636 kilometers across Lake Baikal in about ten days, it will also help to prevent injury while dragging 100 pounds of gear and food along the way. Here are…

Freestyle skiers were some of the last American athletes to find out whether they were Vancouver-bound this season. After the long wait, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt, the U.S. Olympic Committee and Team, and Visa announced the official Olympic roster at Utah's Deer Valley Resort…

Colorado's Arapahoe Basin will host its eighth annual Beacon Bowl and Avalanche Awareness Day  on Saturday, February 6, according to skinet.com. The…

For a few seasons now, Salomon has been handily churning out mini ski movies and publishing them on its website. These bite-size bits of inspiration are the best antidote to the Tuesday afternoon blues I've found so far. The latest episode, #15, is one of the better ones—a story about…

The PacSun USA surf team has taken the overall lead at the 2010 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships in…

TAWOCHE 2k10 dispatches #4 from renan ozturk on Vimeo. Renan Ozturk and Cory Richards completed the first ascent of Tawoche's central south buttress, reports…

Five Americans represented the U.S. National Team at the final round ofthe UCI Track World Cup in Beijing, January 22-24, reports…

The 2011 Tour de France will begin with a flat stage in the Vendee region on the western coast, states…

The U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Park City was held last week. Kelly Clark placed first on the women's side, and Shaun White took the victory for the men. Oh, and White also landed the first ever…

“Truth in Motion”, a documentary on the U.S. Ski Team produced by Audi, will premiere this Saturday, 8 p.m., on NBC. The film follows the lives of the U.S. skiers as they prepare for the…

Felix Baumgartner wants to become the first man to break the speed of sound with his own body. The project is called…

The human spirit is an amazing creature. Somehow, climbing big mountains brings it out. Cindy Abbott is no exception. With a broken leg on Aconcagua, she hobbled down from the high camps to be helicopter out, had surgery and was climbing again seven weeks later. Now she is going…

Andre Greipel has clinched his second Tour Down Under, reports Bicycling News. Greipel took an early lead in the 2010 Tour, winning the first two stages, and fought off challenges by both Lance Armstrong and Team Sky. Greipel…

As we mentioned in our November issue, Yosemite National Park is a great place to play in winter. But not this weekend: Thanks to El Nino's weeklong onslaught, all roads leading into the park are temporarily closed. Check the park's homepage…

It's been dumping (again) here in Southwest Colorado, so last night I took off early from work to lap some runs at the local pint-sized home-town ski area: Hesperus. It has precisely one wooden-seat lift (circa 1958) that goes approximately 2 miles per hour,…

Last one up the mountain? Well, you can be the first down the pow with this handy skin-ripping technique. Veteran ski mountaineer Andrew McLean, who's bagged first descents on all seven continents, shows how in this recent video he posted to his blog.  —Kate Siber…

Land of the Freebie If you're like me, 2009 left you a lot broke and a little fat—in serious need of some low-cost healthy outdoor activity. But that's tough to find when lift tickets are approaching $100 and on-mountain burgers top ten bucks. If…

Courtesy of Flickr The U.S. Energy Department has put out a report stating that 20 percent of the electricity demand in homes and businesses in the eastern half of the country could be met with wind…

Courtesy of Flickr Ryan Waters, 36, and Cecilie Skog, 35, have become the first to achieve an unassisted crossing of Antarctica, Explorers Web reports. They started their expedition on November 13, 2009 and ended…

Colton Harris-Moore, a.k.a. “the barefoot burglar” of Camano and Orcas Island, is still at large after 640 days since breaking free from prison, Bob Friel reports. Friel, who wrote the story on Harris-Moore in the January/February issue of…

Wanna stop shark finning? Yao Ming does, too. For a donation of just $100, the organization Stop Shark Finning will put up a billboard in a high-traffic area of China that features Ming and a plea to stop…

Mountaintop removal mining is bad, right? Stephen Colbert doesn't think so. Listen to him argue with Dr. Margaret Palmer, the leading author of an article on the harmful effects of mountaintop removal that appeared in the latest issue of Science.

A good piece of gear for off-piste skiers is an avalanche airbag system (ABS), but it seems that a lot of skiers who carry one aren't deploying them in the case of an actual avalanche. New Scientist writes about a new…

Snowboarder Danny Davis, 21, was seriously injured in an ATV crash this weekend and recently announced that, like his recently injured friend Kevin Pearce, he will not be able to participate in the Olympics. He is currently recovering after successful back surgery. With two strong snowboard contenders out, who behind…

Courtesy of Flickr The Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, host of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, February 12 to 28, will be up for public auction on February 19,…

You don't normally think of ice as something that increases safety, but SKI magazine explains how it does just that for alpine racers. The ruts caused by snowcats clearing the course can be dangerous for skiers, launching them off-course, so water is actually injected into the…

Laszlo Csizmadia, a Hungarian man, spent four years planning to skydive through New Zealand's “Hole in the Rock,” reports the BBC. Video of his attempt is just now making its way around the web. Will he make it?  See for…

On March 1, 2010, Kevin Vallely and Ray Zahab will embark on the i2P Siberian Express for Water Expedition. They will run 65 to 70 kilometers per day across the frozen surface…

Utah-native Johnny Collinson, all of 17 years old, just became the youngest individual to reach the Seven Summits. Backpacker's Daily Dirt blog has the story and reports that Collinson reached Vinson Mastiff, in Antarctica, earlier today. Collinson made it just in…

On December 29th, on the verge of the new decade,  the skiing industry lost a legend. Bill Levitt, long-time mayor of Alta, Utah, and owner of the Alta Lodge, passed away after collapsing in the ski area's dining…

In 2010, the Vancouver Olympics will be the first to include ski cross. What is it? Going downhill. Really fast. This video highlights American Casey Puckett, who has competed in four Olympic games but has never brought home a medal,…

Andre Greipel sprinted his way to the leader's jersey in Stage One of the 2010 Santos Tour Down Under. Daily Peloton has the story. Greipel is trying to repeat his 2008 tour victory, in which he won the first stage. …

Courtesy of Flickr Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez supertanker spilled oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound there is still oil around, Nature Geoscience reports. The massive cleanup effort that took place…

Courtesy of Flickr The Mayo Clinic has set up an Argentine expedition to study the ultra runner Diane Van Deren. Roughly 20 years ago, Van…

You are upside down, wedged in a deep crevasse at 19,000 feet in the Khumbu icefall. Your teammate is on top of you. You think another is nearby. Everyone knew the serac would give way, they just didn’t know when. Walter Laserer found out, up close and personal.

If you've got money to spare and a yen for skiing somewhere other than the Rockies, book a flight to West Virginia and hit the slopes at Snowshoe Mountain Resort. It's very family-oriented, so it's a great place to spend…

We live in a world of helmet cams, which is a beautiful thing. Freeskier Arne Backstrom snapped this footage on a qualifying run at the second stop of the Subaru Freeskiing World Tour in Revelstoke, courtesy of VoldR. Really fun to watch the cliff jumps. (He later won.) …

There will be 39 past and present Olympians competing in the Winter X Games this year, which will take place January 28-31 in Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado. There will be 250 athletes overall. ESPN will air…

In honor of Jonny Copp, Micah Dash, and Wade Johnson, who died in an avalanche in China last spring, Black Diamond, La Sportiva, Mountain…

Today the New York Times reported that Swiss ski phenom Lara Gut will miss the Olympics due to a hip injury sustained in a crash in October. Whenever I hear news like that, I feel a sharp pang of sympathy. In the past few years I have been plagued with…

I'm in Calpe, Spain, with team Astana. We just got back from a training ride with the team (well, we rode with them for an hour then got dropped like a bunch of fat journalists). Also saw the Garmin-Transitions and Quick Step teams out on the road. Popular place for…

Courtesy of LucasTheExperience/Flickr The MGive Foundation has raised more than $4 million for Haiti via its wireless campaign, CNET reports. People have been donating in $10 increments by…

Sandbox just released the first teaser from their upcoming snowboarding film, Now You Know. Transworld Snowboarding had the scoop, but you can watch it below:…

Because we all want to hear as much as possible about superstar skier Lindsey Vonn, I thought I'd post another video on her ridiculous workouts. Among the impressive tricks in this one: weighted squats on top of an upside-down BOSU ball. Take notes, fellas! …

In an effort to raise awareness about the lack of clean drinking water in the world, Katie Spotz has begun a solo voyage across the Atlantic.  Spotz is ten days into her journey from Senegal to French Guiana. She is working with…

Rush Sturges broke his back while running Bonito Falls in Chile, reports Paddling Life. Sturges and several other kayakers were on location filming for their Dream…

Ever wonder what Olympic athlete Julia Mancuso is up to during the offseason? She goes to Maui. And surfs. And Visa has the video to prove it: — Jonah Ogles…

Currently in the Madrid airport on my way between the Saxo Bank and Astana training camps. Had a great ride yesterday with the Saxo guys (for an hour, after which they started riding like pros and we journalists all fell off the back). That's me riding next to 2009 Tour…

Following Tuesday's devastating earthquake in Haiti, relief organizations are already beginning to raise funds. For those of you looking to donate easily and quickly, donations to the American Red Cross…

I took a little sojourn to Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia and brought along some key items to test out on the slopes. Fortunately, for testing purposes, I was greeted with blizzard-like conditions on both days, so I could really see how the…

63-year old Charlie Toups, who has been called “the ultimate ski bum,” has been imprisoned in Georgetown, Colorado, for more than fifty days because he won't plead guilty to several federal charges, reports the Denver Post. Since 1976, Toups has skied 120…

A new study published in Ecological Applications found that cleared ski slopes are more environmentally friendly than graded ones, according to the New York Times. Cleared slopes are created by cutting down trees to open up an…

Shaun White is the second to make the US Olympic Team, Burton announced Saturday. White snagged the win at the Grand Prix in Mammoth with a pair of double corks and a first-run score of 47. Meanwhile, Gretchen Bleiler came…

We hear a lot about the famous people on Everest so I like to focus on the not so famous; however you might define that. In her hometown of St. John’s Newfoundland, TA Loeffler is quite famous; even a legend. If you have ever read her Blogs,…

I was lucky enough to meet Doris Matyasovich–2003 DH Masters World Champ, 17-time Masters National XC Champ, and author of http://cgi.ebay.com/Dont-Tell-Me-I-Cant_W0QQitemZ230423536010QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Nonfiction_Book?hash=item35a650218a#ht_500wt_1041 –at the 12 Hours of Temecula. She was racing solo. You might ask why that's…