Adventure
ArchiveOutside magazine, April 1995 Cowboy Nation: The Aerobic Cowboy: The Tush-Push Frontier A line-dancing odyssey to the land of the rhinestone-chapped and ready By Ed Zuckerman It was 7:30 on a Friday night, and the cavernous dance hall at In Cahoots, a…
Dispatches, May 1998 AFTERMATHS Nuclear Weapons Waste? Right This Way. While protesters cry foul, the U.S. government prepares to throw open the gates of the nation’s first permanent plutonium graveyard By Michael Dolan A small cluster of white…
 Outside magazine, May 1999 Eat My Backwash, Se±or! Sixteen hours in the foul Argentine drink, at a pair of the world’s longest (and strangest) swim races By Ken Kalfus Photographs by Rob Howard After…
Outside magazine, July 1995 Cinema: Check Out Those Lifelike Blowholes Hollywood unveils its kinder, gentler, bad-press-proof killer whales By John Alderman “These are not illusions,” says Walt Conti, owner of Edge Innovation, a movie special-effects boutique in Mountain View, California, explaining his…
Outside magazine, August 1997 Cheeky Bit of Ocean There, What? Exactly why are two young Brits pedaling, pedal-boating, and cross-dressing their way around the globe? Splendid question. They’re still trying to come up with a logical answer.
Fitness special, August 1998 Welcome to Your Future, Sissy Boy You fancy yourself an athlete? Well, so did the NBA All-Star, and the American League Rookie of the Year. But hard-guy trainer Mark Verstegen broke them down.
Outside magazine, November 1997 And 856,000 Choruses of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” Later … An armada of fearless oarsmen sets out on a 3,000-mile transatlantic free-for-all By Bill Donahue November is shaping up to be an unpleasant month for…
Outside magazine, November 1998 How Hard Is Hard? To firm up the nebulous, get cozy with your lactate threshold At what pace should you be working? Good question — and one you should be constantly…
Women Outside, Fall 1998 Longevity My, You’re a Pretty Young Thing Our octogenarian correspondent meets the septuagenarian of his dreams — with predictable results GEAR | TRAVEL | FITNESS |…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: Haven’t Been There. Ain’t Done That. It’s not easy being a world-beating adventurer these days. On a planet teeming with energetic busybodies, you have to find something to be first at. But fear not. In 1996, there will be…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: Bikini A-Go-Go Move over, Belau. The Marshall Islands’ Bikini Atoll, nuked repeatedly in U.S. surface tests in the forties and fifties, is about to become the South Pacific’s new must-dive local. “No question,” says Daniel J. Lenihan, chief of…
Destinations, February 1999 Chuck Darwin, Eat Your Heart Out The Chiricahua Mountains are as rugged and diverse as the Galápagos but have one big advantage: They’re right here at home. By Jonathan Hanson Up at…
Outside magazine, December 1995 A Landscape of Possibility To lose the wilderness, author Rick Bass argues, is to lose our ability to imagine By Rick Bass When the 104th congress reconvenes next month, its unfinished business is likely to include 22 million…
Outside magazine, May 1996 He’s Bad. He’s Windy. He’s a Tourist with an Attitude. Meet Robert Young Pelton, guerrilla guide to the world’s most dangerous places By Jack Hitt Robert Young Pelton is a tough guy. Just ask him. By his own…
Outside magazine, July 1996 A Five-Ring Tune-Up At least reigning C1 world champion David Hearn can joke about Michal Martikan, the Slovakian whiz kid who won the final Olympic-preview race last April on Tennessee’s Ocoee River. “You mean he’s still 16?” asked the incredulous fourth-place finisher,…
Outside magazine, September 1994 Hang Gliding: Holier Than Thou By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and John Alderman) Over the years, top-ranked American pilot Tony Barton has collided with mountains, tangled in trees, and splatted on hardpan, but until the second day of last June’s Sandia…
Travel Guide, Winter 1995-1996 Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Part II A test to pair you with your sultry better half By Paul Kvinta The cliché-filled travelogues that lump all islands together in a wad of sand, cocoa butter, and umbrella-festooned drinks are intrinsically flawed.
Sifting through the ashes—and questions—amid one of one of the worst fire seasons ever Michael Darter Unfriendly fire: one of 235 homes incinerated by the Cerro Grande blaze in Los Alamos in May CHRIS KIRBY IS a large…
Outside magazine, March 1998 Field Notes: Fool’s Gold In the diaphanous mists of the Ecuadoran Andes, a king’s ransom lies buried. Or does it? By Melik Kaylan You want to hear about the treasure’s secrets?” said Andrës Fernžndez-Salvador the day…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: With No Giant Soda Cans, Can It Truly Be Called Freestyle? They plunged hundreds of feet while “riding” snowboards and kayaks, and crowds loved “freestyle bungee jumping” at last year’s inaugural Extreme Games. As Chris Stiepock, the event’s PR…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Ride With Pride: Progressive Machines: Mountain Bikes By Bob Howells and Gordon Black Performance in reserve — that’s the theme for this year’s mountain bikes, and you don’t have to deplete your finances to get it. Examples: Stiff, lightweight aluminum…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Big Weather: Tornadoes Greenness, hail, air pressure flattening your skull. Hide the children, save the banjo. By Jane Smiley By the time I was 25 and living in Iowa City, my fear of tornadoes was a significant fact…
Outside magazine, April 1999 Go West, and Preferably at Race Pace The training secrets of the athletes on the Old Frontier? Play often, work seldom, and always remember that the good guys wear white. Fashion by…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Geography: Dick Clark, Please Report to the Date Line Where will you be when it’s time to party like it’s 1999? By John Galvin The year 2000 may be four sweeps through the calendar away, but the race…
Outside magazine, September 1995 Racks That Take to Any Body How to carry all of your gear, on Subaru or Suburban, while feeling no strain By John Lehrer For years, sport racks have done job one–securely clamping gear to vehicle–with utter competence.
Outside magazine, November 2000 Chips on the Old Block I recently spent eight days on Mount Shasta, and I guess I fit your definition of a techreationalist (“The Everest of Silicon Valley,” Dispatches, September):…
Review: Hardware and Software, January 1997 Carving Tools New proof that gear makes the athlete: skis and snowboards that practically turn for you By Craig Dostie Whether you cruise on one plank or two, the technique everyone wants to master is…
Outside magazine, March 1996 Anthropology: Tiptoe Through the Turmoil Is scientific colonialism alive and well in Tanzania? By Kiki Yablon About 3.6 million years ago, three human-like creatures stood up and walked across the muddied volcanic ash near what is now Tanzania’s…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Cycling: And No French Aftertaste By Alan Cote Funny how the Tour DuPont sneaks up on you. On the seventh of this month, 126 of the world’s finest cyclists will finish wending their way through Appalachia in the seventh running…
Gone Summering, July 1998 Need a Little More? Sporting diversions to keep you hopping from now till Labor Day By Kimberly Lisagor July 4 Mount Marathon Race, Seward, AK Don’t be fooled by the distance —…
Gone Summering, July 1998 Where Earth and Water Mix It Up On Cape Cod, “landscape” is a word that defies definition By Paul Theroux The Cape You Don’t Know To paraphrase Heracleitus, it’s not…
Outside magazine, October 1997 Chico Mendes After he was cut down, his ideas took root By Kate Wheeler Had the Brazilian ranchers who murdered Chico Mendes known what was coming, they might never have shot…
 Outside magazine, October 1997 Uno … Dos … Tres … Urrrrnggghhh! Six thousand years of triumphant Basque sport have come down to this moment, when the toughest mother from the world’s toughest race attempts the near impossible.
The Downhill Report, December 1996 Flash! Bumps Are Actually Good For You! Not sure it’s time to return to moguls? Remember, you used to hate broccoli, too. By Michael Finkel Jonny Moseley can empathize. Although he’s a two-time World Cup overall…
 Outside magazine, December 1997 Mourning in the Land of Magic Rampant in the island nation of Indonesia is the idea that everyday life is governed by forces unseen, administered by the true leaders of the country, sorcerers known as dukuns. Among the…
Outside magazine, January 1998 Review Essentials Strength Through Simplicity By Patrick Leyland THE STREAMLINED HOME GYM | ESSENTIALS | THE OTHER STUFF | BOOKS…
Outside magazine, March 1996 1-800-SNOWJOB By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Brian Alexander and Steve Law) Organizers of the embattled Iditarod International Sled Dog Race say they expect a near-record 73 mushers at the starting line this month. Among the entrants will be…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Fallout Kudos to Outside and Alex Shoumatoff for taking on the Los Alamos National Laboratory (“Bomb City, USA,” April). The nuclear weapons money machine keeps rolling along while cleanup programs are being cut. One LANL document states that the lab’s continuing…
Outside magazine, July 1999 EXPLORATION Deep Blues Forty fathoms down, divers have been dying on the wreck of the Andrea Doria. Will this be the worst summer ever? A Mystery Endures Not long after…
Outside magazine, August 1995 Expeditions: Crampons and Spokes By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard) This month, mountain guides Peter Bogardus and Shepard Kopp say, they’ll bring exploratory mountain biking to new extremes by pedaling to remote peaks in western China. They’re calling the expedition…
And other divinations from Tom Brown's Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School. As told by David Rakoff—Acolyte of the Standard Class, Master Bowdriller, Sweat Lodge Scaredy-Cat, and Friend to the Vole
Dispatches, February 1998 EXPEDITIONS Gramps Is Doing What? Vaughan, 92-year-old spring chicken, mushes through another Alaskan winter By Bill Donahue It’s not exactly the remark you expect to hear from a guy who’s about to hop on a dogsled…
Outside magazine, October 1995 St. Lucia By Trish Reynales Sure, St. Lucia’s twin peaks make for great postcards. “Pitons soar a half-mile into the sky. Mist dripping from the vines. Parrots mocking me from the palms. Mud up to my knees.
Cycling Special, March 1997 Happier Trails to You Put in a few minutes of practice, get back hours of carefree mountain biking. Not a bad investment. By James Rodewald Your Tutor: Susan DeMattei, 34, won a bronze medal…
Outside magazine, May 1996 Politics: Let the Rivers Run. Let the Arms Be Twisted Doesn’t everybody want to save America’s fabled river of grass? On the eve of campaign ’96, President Clinton dares the GOP to say no. By Tom Kizzia When…
 Outside magazine, June 1998 Lord of All He Surveys What do you do with $150 million and an overpowering desire to save the earth? You buy your own Yosemite. And hope the natives go along with the…
Outside magazine, June 1999 I Brake for Spelunkers On Florida’s Suwannee River, giving new meaning to the phrase “way down” My Delta, Myself | A Little Good, Clean Lust in…
 Outside magazine, August 1995 By Jury-Rigged Mainsail and the Grace of God To make it through the world’s longest, most unforgiving sailing race, you need to be plenty brave, plenty foolish, and pretty handy with a wrench By Craig Vetter A…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Prescriptions: Keeping Your Cool Under Fire By Katie Arnold Exercising in scorching heat isn’t just uncomfortable–it can be downright dangerous. When the air is warmer than your skin–around 95 degrees–your body’s climate control mechanisms go postal. Convection and radiation,…
Outside magazine, March 1996 Skating: The Way We Swerved An Oregon pair finds love–and pain–in the time of urethane By Bill Donahue The relationship blossomed just over two and a half years ago on the shoulder of Interstate 5…
 Outside magazine, February 1998 Winter Olympics Preview: Nagano? Naga-Yes! Sure, this year’s Winter Olympics will have its foibles, including a gaggle of over-hyped personal stories, suspense-killing tape-delays, and TV talking heads nattering on about “adorable” pixies on skates. But that doesn’t mean…
Outside magazine, January 1998 Sport: That’s Gunther to You, Pal How we can all live out our Olympic fringe-event fantasies By Bill Donahue James Owen Merion Roberts, 1916-1997 “Sherpas give trekking agents in Nepal a most unfair…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Books: The Archdruid’s Happy Screed By Andrea Barrett Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: A Call to Those Who Would Save the Earth, by David Brower with Steve Chapple (HarperCollins West, $20). With the 25th anniversary of…
The Outside Seer closes out the millennium, bringing us early news from the worlds of politics, exploration, and a saucy Ukrainian minx
Outside Magazine, September 1999 Beyond the Zone As the United States prepares to hand over the canal, Panama’s wild wonders are ripe for discovery. By Alex Markels The easy way to spot quetzals: Lounge on…
Outside magazine, November 1995 Climbing: The Last Ascent of Alison Hargreaves Why did the world’s finest woman alpinist never come off K2? By Greg Child On what seemed to be a perfect August day in the Karakoram range of Pakistan, Alison Hargreaves…
1999 Family Vacation Guide, Unsung Heroes I Want to be Alone! How to find solitude in America’s most crowded national parks They’re the blockbusters: Great Smoky Mountain, Grand Canyon, Banff, Yellowstone, and Yosemite, the five most…
Outside magazine, October 1994 Environment: Guess Who’s Loping in for Dinner? Under fire from every direction, the feds are finally set to put the gray wolf back in the West By Amy Linn Ask Rénee Askins what her enemies have been saying about government…
Features: Election Preview ’96, November 1996 He’s Back And He’s Tanned, Rested, and Ready Forget Colin, Pat, and Jesse. The big-time endorsement every politician covets this year is that of television commercial icon Iron Eyes Cody, beloved symbol of the environmental movement. So…
For the preternaturally talented Alex Lowe, world's best climber, the path to every summit passes directly through his family room. Which, he's discovering, is a tricky route to take.
Outside magazine, May 1997 Diabolique It’s not the fact that Jeannie Longo crushes her cycling rivals so effortlessly that bothers them. It’s that she’s so unpleasant in victory. By Dana Thomas It should have been,…
Dispatches, December 1998 Environment Pipe Dreaming The oil industry covets yet another Alaskan paradise. And this time it looks like no one can stop them. By Dirk Olin The vast, treeless expanse of arctic coastal plain that lies along…
Outside magazine, June 1999 Expedition If the Approach Doesn’t Kill You, Try Out the Ascent Deep in the Karakoram, three American climbers attempt the biggest wall of them all…
Outside magazine, August 1999 Jocko’s Rocket Will the car of the future come screaming out of the Mojave desert? By Brad Wetzler Ninety miles east of Los Angeles, the San Bernardino Mountains give way…
Outside magazine, April 1995 Cowboy Nation: Clothes Make the Cowpoke From the homespun to the highflautin, the best in buckaroo gear By Sara Corbett In a marketplace choked with faux western wear, it’s important to keep in mind that cowboys, real cowboys,…
Outside magazine, July 1994 Tour Preview: Meanwhile, Among the Grown-ups… A bookie’s-eye view of the big race By Eric Hagerman Months before this year’s Tour de France, and already the rumors were voyant. The course, some claimed, was designed to expose the weakness…
Outside magazine, August 1996 The Book On: Swimming A skeptical world can’t help but ask: will the Chinese women come clean? By Gretchen Reynolds In the history of competitive aquatics, no team has ever been so reviled as China’s female swimmers. Arriving…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Presumed Redundant Concluding a chain of events that resembles something out of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, U.S. marshals have finally located fugitive river guide William Stoner in Sydney, Australia, and are now pressing for his extradition. Stoner, you may recall,…
Outside magazine, October 1994 Classics: The Dutch Oven By Donovan Webster These days, camp fashion demands equipment that glitters like NASA nuggets and weighs less than helium. Which is important if you’re making a very classy through-hike of the Appalachian Trail, but not so for lesser…
Outside magazine, November 1995 Embraced by the Strangler Fig Cut loose with the world’s most maddeningly optimistic adventurer By Randy Wayne White After surviving a hideous car crash in 1980, my friend Tucker Comstock experienced a spiritual refurbishment that helped her shed…
Review: Hardware and Software, November 1996 Books: Postcards from the front By Miles Harvey Aftermath: The Remnants of War, by Donovan Webster (Pantheon Books, $23). “All around us, human bones poke from the ground,” writes Webster. He is looking out over…
Outside magazine, November 1997 Books: Season’s Gleanings Ready for the annual fall book blitz? You are now. By Miles Harvey The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier, by Bruce Barcott (Sasquatch Books, $24). Barcott grew…
Women Outside, Fall 1998 Regimens Armed and Dangerous? America’s freestyle diva can help with the first part. The rest is your business. By Gretchen Reynolds (with Lea Aschkenas) GEAR | TRAVEL |…
Outside magazine, January 1992 Triathlon: An Iron Grip By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard) The Ironman World Championship didn’t appear to have much going for it. Mike Pigg, the short-course maestro, decided to skip the October 19 race and a confrontation with defending…
Outside magazine, April 1995 The Big Showdowns By Sara Corbett The Calgary Stampede: July 7-16, Calgary, Alberta. Chuck wagon races, street dancing, and full-throttle carousing make this something of a cowboy Mardi Gras. A hefty cash purse lures top riders. Call 800-661-1260.
Dispatches, May 1998 LOST CAUSES Take My Monuments, Please! An Antarctic obsessive desperately tries to give his treasures away By Michael McRae ‘I guess it’s kind of a white elephant,” Warren Pearson admits, gazing at the hand-tooled copper…
Outside magazine, May 1999 Lowe and Behold With most media attention on mainstream athletes like Michael Jordan, Mark McGwire, and John Elway, it was so refreshing to read your profile of climber Alex Lowe (“The Mutant and…
Outside magazine, July 1995 Sport: The Next Best Thing to Arena Football John Vande Velde says your town needs his portable cycling league By Dan Gindling “We’re Americanizing the sport of cycling,” says John Vande Velde, the 46-year-old creator of the Vandedrome,…
Dispatches, August 1997 B U S I N E S S Come Spew on Us How best to lure industry to New York State? With a license to pollute, of course. By Bill Donahue…