Adventure
ArchiveOutside magazine, March 1999 Review: Always in Touch (if, That Is, You Want to Be) The latest mobile electronics put the backcountry online By Brent Hurtig ELECTRONICS |…
Outside Magazine, December 1998 Winter? These Guys Made Winter. Seven Olympic venues, one charming Main Street, and a host of High Peaks — it all adds up to Lake Placid, America’s original snowbound resort By Bill McKibben Lake Not-So-Placid All…
Family Vacations, Summer 1996 Howdy, Dude Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys–but it’s okay to pretend By Nancy Debevoise Our Favorite Places | The Hysterical Parent | Inside…
Dispatches, July 1998 Rodent Rights Why Is Everybody Always Pickin’ on Me? They’re cute and furry, yet they get no respect. A look at the star-crossed plight of the American sod poodle. Yes, it’s now official: prairie dogs have become…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Sloth: Then Again, There’s Always Pop-Tarts By Adam Horowitz With apologies, I ask all you connoisseurs of fine food to hold the outrage. Blasphemous though it may be, someone has to stand up for the more practical-minded among us.
Dispatches, May 1997 Physics: Bloody Idiotic, As You Chaps Might Say The (possibly apocryphal) tale of British Rail’s chicken cannon misadventure By Shane Dubow By now, anyone who’s gone on-line knows the Internet is great at hatching all manner of…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Rowing: Odds That… The U.S. women’s eight will break six minutes…..3-1 The U.S. men’s eight will win a gold medal……..10-1 Redgrave and Pinsent will remain undefeated…….1-1…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Politics: Eat Your Heart Out, Al Gore Meet Sherry Boehlert, the man environmentalists can’t do without By John Galvin “He may well save the republicans in spite of themselves,” intones Mark Childress, vice-president of the Environmental Working Group,…
Outside magazine, October 1994 Endurance: Get With it, Guys By Todd Balf (with Greg Child and Dan Dickison) Last July, Ann Trason won her sixth straight Western States 100 women’s title, beat all but one of the men, and bettered her own course record by 37…
Outside magazine, October 1995 Mountain Biking: Eyes for Mammoth By Todd Balf (with John Alderman) Mountain-bike professionals are no strangers to tough conditions, but July’s World Cup stop on California’s Mammoth Mountain was in another realm: The course was buried in ten feet of…
Features: Election Preview ’96, November 1996 The Boy Scouts Find A Compass In the shrink-wrapped politics of the environment, it’s not how far you go, but in what direction By The Editors “Clinton knows that if he wins in ’92, he’ll…
Outside Magazine, 1999 Annual Travel Guide Doing the Wild Thing Eight bush camps and jungle lodges where the floor show is fierce Temple Tiger Jungle Lodge, Nepal Milk and musk: That’s what a Royal Bengal tiger smells like. So said…
T H E H O L I D A Y G I F T G U I D E Shop for THE JOCK Shop for THE WANDERER Shop for…
Dispatches, April 1998 RETAIL One Giant Leap for Suckerkind How to buy lunar real estate, and other “bargains” on the World Wide Web By Katie Arnold As though there weren’t already enough distractions on the Internet, virtual malls are…
News from the Field, February 1997 Tinseltown: Alas, Mr. Speilberg has declined to direct By Adam Horowitz OK, here’s the plot: A dream team of Hollywood titans–one an avowed environmentalist–announces plans to build a 1,000-acre studio atop some of L.A.’s last wetlands. Unbowed…
 Outside magazine, May 1998 The Jungle Took Her Twenty-seven years ago a young Canadian woman went to Borneo seeking a sort of paradise, a place where she could study the mysterious red ape, gather science, garner respect…
Outside magazine, May 1999 Epitaph for a Crusader Terry Freitas lived for a cause, a place, a people, but he died for no good reason at all. When Terence Freitas returned to the United States on…
 Outside magazine, June 1994 The Hydroponic Dreams of Laird Hamilton He was born in a bathysphere, baptized in surfboard resin, raised in the rainforest in Hawaii. Who else is ready to ride the biggest wave on earth? By Bucky McMahon…
Outside magazine, July 1995 Windfishing: Call Me…Dude By John Galvin Though catching air off the lip of big waves is Jeff Olson’s first love, he’s also been known to tell a pretty good fish story. “When this one hit, he pulled my board backward,”…
Vacation Special, August 1997 R A F T I N G T H E G A U L E Y The Hillbilly Autobahn The best swimming in Mexico: Ocean? By Stephanie Gregory…
Outside magazine, October 1995 A Spin Around the Gab Galaxy By Sara Corbett “America loves a female athlete with a big personality,” says Kathy Dasilva, a producer of MTV Sports. “Someone who’s a force field unto herself, who’s all-around big.” Of course, the…
Dispatches, November 1998 Breakthroughs So Can I file a Patent on My Wife’s Panty Hose? And other modest proposals from the cutting edge of science By Denis Faye Once, there was a world without velcro, devoid of Gore-Tex, and…
Women Outside, Fall 1998 Toys Sharp Objects The best ways to slice, carve, chop, whittle, and otherwise be a cutup By Michael Kessler GEAR | TRAVEL | FITNESS |…
Dispatches, April 1998 ENVIRONMENT When We Say Roadless, We (Kinda) Mean It The Clinton administration’s latest bold move could spell the end of subsidized logging … or not By Alan Freedman It’s the timber industry’s oldest maxim: If you…
Outside magazine, January 1996 Ma Sparker By Bill Donahue The story seemed almost biblical: 60-year-old Charmian Glassman so loved her prodigal, forest-fire-fighting son, Jason Robertson, that she ventured into the dry, manzanita-specked hills near her Mount Shasta home and reportedly set the forest ablaze,…
Outside magazine, February 1998 Out There: OK Gorillas, No Belching During the Pledge of Allegiance Bringing a little jungle indoors, to a fresh generation of primatologists By Tim Cahill LISTEN UP! Tim Cahill speaks on Outside Radio…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Symptoms: Seven Reasons to Stop, Period By Ken McAlpine Active rest may satisfy your compulsions, but there are still times when complete rest is best. “Injury and breakdown are right around the corner from success,” warns trainer Diane Buchta. “Fortunately,…
Outside magazine, April 1996 Redemption on Wheels By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta While the sight of a longhaired man carrying a cross at Eastertime may be a little disconcerting, don’t worry: The fellow tromping around Madagascar this month with a 12-foot-tall rolling crucifix…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Surviving the Drive Through By Lisa Twyman Bessone Ever notice how a long road trip brings out the James Dean in us all? We act rebellious, even a little dangerous-driving fast, howling along with the tunes blaring, wolfing Big…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Calculations Sports by Calories By Katie Arnold Counting calories, we admit, is really Jenny Craig’s gig. But outdoor athletes might take note–to make sure they’re getting enough fuel for their pursuits. “You shouldn’t get hung up on numbers,”…
Outside magazine, December 1992 Triathlon: Ask Mr. Ironman By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and Alison Osius and Terry Rutlin) If you placed bets on last year’s triathlon season, Andy Carlson was the ultimate preseason gamble. In 1990 he was Triathlete magazine’s Rookie of the…
Outside magazine, December 1995 In This Corner… By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta Score one for the mighty green and golden bell frog. Since 1993, Australian officials have tried to relocate the endangered thimble-size creatures from a trash-filled brick quarry that’s slated to become…
 Outside magazine, February 1998 Yes, it is a Lovely Morning. Now Why Don’t You Just Go to Hell. Drop 28 virtual strangers at the South Pole. Blend in eight months of mind-numbing darkness. Fold into extremely close quarters. Add a pinch of…
Outside magazine, April 1996 Environment: Lock and Load! Industry Goon at 12 o’clock! Meet Rick Valois, commander-in-chief of the first eco-militia By Bill Donahue He’s probably the only environmentalist in the United States with camo-clad, gun-toting foot soldiers at his command, and…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Ride With Pride: Practice Rolling Acts of Kindness Harmonious trail riding in five friendly steps By Sara Corbett As anyone with a set of knobbies knows, there can be trouble out in the hills, as mountain bikers are…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Running: Hey! You! Get offa my singlet! By Todd Balf (with Jim Kelly, Martin Dugard, and Alison Osius) As the unusually large five-man pack jockeyed for the final sprint at the 10,000-meter U.S. cross-country national championships last December in Portland,…
Outside magazine, April 1997 Another Herbal Wrap, O Immortal One? Should fortune, fame, and flabby acolytes be your heart’s desire, the first American sumo champion suggests thinking really, really big By Brad Wetzler When he…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Paddling: Mission Uncomfortable Mark Robbin’s lonely quest for the other side of the continent By Bill Donahue The setting is bleak–a Motel 6 in the middle of nowhere–and Mark Robbins is weary. “This isn’t fun,” he laments, sprawled…
Outside magazine, October 1996 Sport: From Wurst to First Propelled by Eastern Bloc training methods and a zest for junk food, a trio of Germans looks to sweep the Ironman By Lolly Merrell It’s midnight in Worms, Germany, and European Ironman champion…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Little Rascal A harmless pleasure cruise this was not By Randy Wayne White When my friend G.M. asked me to crew from Colombia to Panama and through the canal aboard his 35-foot Morgan sloop, I grudgingly consented–though I…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Movies: Legends of the Fall By Michael Paterniti As a minor literary movement unto himself, writer Jim Harrison has invented a cult of brazen heroes who live for the roar of fanged animals in wild places. To date, film versions…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Ballooning: The Legend of Steve the Adventurer By Todd Balf On the surrealness scale, it was off the charts: a 50-year-old Chicago securities dealer in the gondola of a hot-air balloon that he’d flown only once before, readying for takeoff…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Politics: Do Unto Endangered Species… With the environment up for grabs, God send in a green army By Bill Donahue And on the eighth day, after he had created Gingrich, Dole, and other democratically elected foes of the…
Dispatches, July 1997 S P O R T Where No One Has Gone Before? Mehgan Heaney-Grier’s precocious quest to become the world’s deepest free diver By Paul Kvinta The most peaceful part of Mehgan Heaney-Grier’s life begins at 40…
Dyn-O-Mite!, October 1997 The Illustrated History of Hat Head By Andrew Tilin and Mike Grudowski Who could have guessed, way back at that family reunion when your cousin Larry snuffled down one Schlitz too many and ended up with a Styrofoam cooler…
Outside Magazine, October 1998 Inspriation Enlighten My Load Sometimes you find yourself in the most predictable places By Pico Iyer I am sitting on a high hill above the dusty passageways of Ganden Monastery in Tibet. The sky…
News from the Field, December 1996 Sport: Why Is This Kid Grinning? Because 15-year-old Chris Sharma is the future of American sport climbing By Todd Balf “I think most people are past the age thing,” says Chris Sharma, 15, after another…
Outside magazine, December 1997 Enterprise: Eureka? Above the din of doubters, a prospector swears a filthy Canadian river will make him filthy rich By Trevor Curwin ‘Oh, it’s down there, all right. that gold is definitely there, as we speak,”…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Wildlife: Marty Stouffer’s Apocryphal America After a raft of allegations, his peers ask: Has the popular PBS filmmaker gone too far? By John Tayman When 50 filmmakers settled into missoula, Montana, last March for the 19th annual International…
Outside magazine, March 1996 Communications: Talk Alien to Me An Everyman’s plan to mingle with the stars By Paul Kvinta “If that call comes and you don’t answer, you’ll regret it,” trumpets astronomer Paul Shuch, in a wobbly impression of Humphrey Bogart…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Night Calls It was the last of its kind. When the red-crested heron vanished deep in Africa’s outback, a girl and her father traced the lonely rise and fall of their lives by its fading song. By Lisa…
Dispatches, June 1997 Jurisprudence: Hey, Get Your Ropes Off My Cathedral! A Wyoming judge is left to answer a thorny question: To whom does Devils Tower belong? By Bill Donahue For The Record…
Outside magazine, July 1999 BUSINESS Wall-to-Walls Climbing gyms go high-tech, top-dollar, and mainstream I’ll Stick with the Miso Soup It sounds like a Zen riddle: When is a sumo wrestler too fat? Recently, sumotori who…
Outside magazine, September 1996 Books: A Lyrical Turn to the Epic By Miles Harvey Accordion Crimes, by E. Annie Proulx (Scribner, $25). From Homer’s Odyssey to Dante’s Divine Comedy, perhaps the purest genre of literature is the travel…
October 1999 F E A T U R E S Adventure at the End of the Century The sight of George Leigh Mallory’s well-preserved body on Everest confirms that adventure, like life, is not always pretty. It means risking all on a mountain—as…
Outside magazine, April 2000 Snows of Yesteryear Mckay Jenkins’s article about the avalanche tragedy that struck Mount Cleveland 30 years ago (“And None Came Back,” February) was spare, elegant, and riveting—so much so that I told my…
Cycling Special, March 1997 Surviving the Mean Streets You can’t outrun all the obstacles you encounter in the city. You have to outsmart them. By Alan Coté Your Tutor: Mike Downey, 29, commutes three miles six days…
Outside magazine, May 1996 Acoustic Camping The summer’s best outdoor music festivals By Peter Nelson Kerrville Folk Festival May 23-June 16 at 50-plus-acre Quiet Valley Ranch, nine miles south of Kerrville, Texas. Tunes: Scheduled headliners this year include…
Outside magazine, May 1996 You Got the Beat? “I got my first heart-rate monitor last year,” Kelly McCown says. “It was revolutionary.” She may have come late to the party, but the reason seemingly every elite athlete is bleating about using a monitor is that it’s…
Outside magazine, June 1998 Letters: The Lagging Response Bill Bryson’s story about his woeful friend Katz and their Appalachian Trail misadventures (“You Gotta Have Friends. Which Is Damned Unfortunate,” April) reminded me of a hike in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. My partner constantly trailed…
Outside magazine, July 1994 Environment: Rainbow Worriers The Forest Service tries, again, to corral a happy hippie jamboree By Ned Martel A sprawling campsite. Lentils simmer in iron cauldrons. Bota-squeezing women twirl in batik skirts. A sunburned longhair yowls that a U.S. Forest Service…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Decathlon: Odds That… Dan O’Brien will win the gold medal……..1-5 He will top the mythic 9,000-point barrier…..5-1 He will once again bonk in the pole vault……50-1…
Dispatches, March 1998 SPORT Lights, Action, Cameras? On the eve of defending his unlikely title, world champion Rob Evans insists that ice surfing’s a surefire hit. Now if only the cable honchos would listen. Oh, would that he’d ridden to…
Outside magazine, November 1995 Postnuptial Agreements Four resorts where you and your new-to-the-sport partner can find downhill harmony By Ron C. Judd You share private moments, swap toothbrushes, even exchange vows. Big deal. Agree on the perfect ski vacation, and people will…
 Outside magazine, June 1996 Balloonatics They’re swashbuckling billionaires and absent-minded dreamers, all chasing one of the last great adventures: 25,000 miles around the globe by jet stream and Icarian wing. No stopping, no sploshing. By Daniel…
The trail to some sort of personal peace seemed to wend high into the Himalayas. But where it led was back to an old friend.
So, you have to ask, when it comes to the great outdoors, is anything OK anymore?
Outside Magazine, September 1999 OFF-ROADING Going Down? Brian Head’s 6,000-foot vertical red-rock relief should do the trick You can be forgiven for snubbing Brian Head during ski season. For while tiny Brian Head Resort does amass…
Outside magazine, September 1999 CONTENDERS The Wild Bunch, Cont. Why stop at 12? There’s plenty more where those came from. POLITICS | VIRGIN LAND: A HISTORY | FRONT…
Bulletins Grandparenting: Geriat-Tricks By Bob Howells Call it cross-generational bonding, old-fashioned mentoring, or just doing neat stuff with the grandkids–more and more outfits are bringing disparate generations together on outdoor jaunts. Not surprisingly, Elderhostel lurks behind many of them, such as Let’s…
Outside magazine, October 1995 You’re Looking a Little Ozoned-out When it comes to the air you breathe, what you can’t see will hurt you By Mark Jannot I have a friend who’s always complaining about the tribulations of running in his own…
Outside magazine, November 1995 Music: Wastin’ Away Again Down in Vacaville By Mike Steere And the award for the most shameless and unprecedentedly obscene use of the environment for marketing purposes goes to…White Devil Records of Seattle. Along with its recently released CD of…
Outside magazine, February 1996 She Who Laughs Last… By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Debra Shore) Two days before the short-course triathlon world championships in Cancún, Mexico, last November, newly crowned Ironman champion Karen Smyers was neither training nor relaxing nor touring Mayan…
Outside magazine, March 1999 And the Placebo Costs Less, Too The results ù such as they are ù have come in on the latest wonder herb By Michael Kessler Before bustling off to the…
Outside Magazine, November 1994 Ultra: No, Thank You By Todd Balf (with Jim Hage) Perhaps Kawika Spaulding of Hawaii would have been in the running for the Huntington Beach-to-New York City Trans America Footrace had he chosen to stay away from whiskey at rest…
Family Vacations, Summer 1996 Bringing Up Grandpa We pushed the family-vacation envelope last summer when we took a multigenerational clan rafting on Idaho’s North Fork of the Salmon. There were 21 of us in all, ranging from my six-year-old son to my 75-year-old father. My…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Women’s Sprints Here comes Gwen Torrence, America’s fastest loose cannon By Mark Jannot Gwen Torrence promises to be among the most hyped athletes of the Atlanta Games: a hometown girl who returns to accolades and–a good bet–Olympic gold…
Outside magazine, July 1994 Triathlon: Beware of Dave By Todd Balf (with Derek Rielly) As the season kicked off last April with the St. Croix International Triathlon, the buzz on the street was about the imminent return of Dave Scott, the six-time Hawaii Ironman champion turned…
Dispatches, May 1997 Sport: A Man, A Plan, and a Hell of a Tan With a patient approach and all the tools, José Loiola stands poised to become the new King of the Beach By Johnny Dodd “Right now,…