Adventure
ArchiveOutside magazine, August 1996 Welcome to the Power Vortex Way up in the wilds of northern California, a harmonic convergence of high peaks, spires, whitewater, and singletrack By Andrew Rice When seemingly all of urban California is heading for Sierra Nevada retreats…
Outside magazine, October 1994 Bobsledding: What a Great Idea for a Movie By Todd Balf (with Greg Child and Dan Dickison) The U.S. bobsled team can’t seem to buy a win. First, they bombed at the Olympics in Lillehammer. Then, on a novel summer tour, they…
Outside magazine, October 1995 Conditions: Where the Air Is Unfair By Mark Jannot Ventura, home of lemon groves, California surf, and Patagonia Inc. headquarters, is also on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s air-quality hit list. Ever since amendments to the Clean Air Act were…
Destinations: News for Adventurous Travelers, November 1996 The Animals March, Two by Ten Thousand A winter’s worth of the continent’s most spectacular migrations As season’s change, many animals have to move, and when they move en masse, it can be spectacular. Here’s’ a…
According to legend, New Zealand’s South Island was formed when the dawn froze 150 shipwrecked gods into mountains. There are worse places to spend eternity. By Patrick Symmes Geoff Spearpoint/Hedgehog House Escapism 101: Mount Aspiring, Mount Aspiring National Park…
Dispatches, November 1998 Exhibitions It’s 900 Miles Long. It’s 20 Feet Tall. It’s … Art! On the Snake River, one man’s ode to the beleagured sockeye By Rob Nixon “I‘ll have to start a factory to make these things,”…
Outside magazine, January 1999 Books: Lives and Times By James Zug Crazy Horse, by Larry McMurtry (Penguin, $20). With doorstop-size biographies the rage, a compact alternative is arriving in the form of the new Penguin Life…
News for Adventurous Travelers, February 1997 Horns of Plenty Bull stats on the great King Ranch By Paul Kvinta Nothing is so quintessentially Texas as King Ranch. It’s big. It’s swaggering. It’s full of red meat. And, for those traveling to…
 Outside magazine, April 1995 After Rwanda From the shadows thrown by Dian Fossey, Jose Kalpers emerged as the mountain gorillas’ next great hope. Then came a civil war that decimated a country, put the primates further at risk, and left the exiled savior…
Destinations, May 1998 A Few Sage Comments on the Benefits of Higher — and Wetter, and Muddier, and Snowier — Education The simple secret to getting good at something — climbing, for instance, and sailing, mountain biking, snowboarding, and more — is to…
Outside Magazine, May 1999 INNS & LODGES Rainbow Ranch A deft-enough cast from the deck adjacent to your room in Rainbow Ranch’s south wing might well plop a Madame X into a riffle of the plentiful…
Outside magazine, July 1995 Triathlon: The Waning of Tinley? By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and Alison Osius) Scott Tinley, hoping to rub out the memory of a subpar performance at last year’s Hawaii Ironman, didn’t do himself any favors when he chose to…
Dispatches, August 1997 Y A C H T I N G Like the Vikings, Except for that Nasty Pillaging An adventuresome author tries to recreate a dicey 1,000-year-old voyage By Paul Scott It was like the crack you hear…
Destinations, August 1998 A Brief and Shining Season Summer is short in Colorado’s highest wilderness. Better hurry. By Stephanie Gregory Geographically, the north park region of Colorado couldn’t be much closer to the state’s megaresorts. Steamboat Springs lies just 65…
Outside magazine, November 1997 Because There’s Lots of Them A chat with John Swanson, molehill-bagger extraordinaire By Katie Arnold It used to be that to really wow your friends and neighbors, all you had to do was scale a…
Out Front, Fall 1998 Competition What Are Friends For? An Ironman up-and-comer looks to dethrone her mentor By Lolly Merrell When Heather Fuhr (pictured) closed on the heels of Paula Newby-Fraser at last year’s Ironman Triathlon World Championship…
Winter Travel Guide Our Journey, Our Selves By Lorien Warner Some 300 outfitters now offer thousands of female-only trips worldwide. “Women today are finding that it can be more fun to hang with the ‘girls’ than compete with the boys,” says Yvonne Lusetti of…
Outside magazine, January 1996 A Two-Elk Pileup’s Causing Big Delays… By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Brooke DeNisco, Martin Forstenzer, and Eileen Hansen) In what could be shaping up as a battle of the homespun heavyweights, Charles Kuralt has procured a radio station…
Outside magazine, February 1998 Field Notes: Diorama Obscura Shuffling among history’s spoils, with animate bones, 18 million bugs, and trickster memories By Mark Levine Not long ago, I returned home from a trip to Asia, where I had climbed a…
Destinations, February 1999 First Tracks Catching a Break (or Three) The endless-summer set has yet to find Raglan’s world-class waves. Lucky for you. Surfing N.Z. Getting Around: For getting…
Outside magazine, December 1995 My Little Serrated Security Blanket The blacksmith of horror rejoices in the potentialities of an ice ax By Stephen King This is not the sort of gadget to inspire nursery rhymes. I look at the DMM Predator ice…
Outside magazine, July 1995 Cycling: The VistaLite VL530 By Hal Walter Most bike lights are sentenced to life on your handlebars. That’s OK when you’re staring straight ahead at single-track, but beyond the periphery of your bar-ends your prospects remain dim. A permanently mounted…
Outside magazine, August 1999 HOW-TO In Case of Tsunami, See Page 54 Gearing up for your worst nightmare? Buy this book. Brie: Don’t Leave Home Without It Do you ever lie awake at night wondering…
Outside magazine, August 1999 THE MAINE GUIDES Custom of the Country They make their own paddles. Their own pemmican. Their own packs. They make you happy. Welcome, tenderfoot: the Conovers on Sebec Lake, Maine…
Outside magazine, December 1995 Schizophrenic? Start a Compost Heap. By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta “Let yourself be absorbed by the creek or the cloud formation,” psychologist William Cahalan urges his clients. “Feel its healing power.” For Cahalan and a growing fringe of therapists…
Outside magazine, January 1998 Wildlife: For Me? You Shouldn’t Have. A Republican from Idaho says he has a gift for our endangered species. Which raises the question, What’s the catch? By Allan Freedman Drop and Give Me…
Destinations, February 1999 Long Weekends You’re Carving Where? Top-notch cat-skiing in an unlikely spot I‘d come a long way to see Charlie’s Bottom, and I wasn’t going to be denied. After a two-hour flight from…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: Germanimo! Why is this tribal clan looking so…Teutonic? Because they’re Indianers, part of a 100,000-strong German subculture whose members play-act the lifestyle of North American Indians. Inspired by the nineteenth-century pulp novels of Karl May (whose fictional German hero,…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Ride With Pride: Rid Yourself of Pain Shock absorbers: the next generation By Alan Cote Suspension technology isn’t going to stop bouncing rapidly forward, so you’ll need to invest in it with a certain mindset: Worry less…
Outside magazine, April 1999 Letters: Uncorked As a former commercial salmon fisherman now fighting to preserve the fish that once filled my nets, I appreciated your effort to reexamine the role of our nation’s dams (“Blow-Up,” February). As…
Outside magazine, June 1995 Milestones: Fabien Mazuer, 1976-1995 By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and Alison Osius) French sport climber Fabien Mazuer was an athlete you could love: smart, playful with the press, and immensely talented. While still a teenager, he pulled off some…
Outside magazine, September 1995 Environment: Operation Snuff Smokey A slew of bombings casts the U.S. Forest Service in a new role: victim By Jonathan Franklin Guy Pence is sleeping better these days, though it’s still hard to escape the recurring thought, What…
Outside magazine, October 1996 Bless You, Sir, May I Jog Another? By Devon Jackson The path to enlightenment and lasting world peace is an arduous journey. But for the long-shuffling disciples of Sri Chinmoy, spiritual visionary and proponent of ultra-endurance athletics, their 2,700-mile,…
Outside magazine, April 1999 Drop and Give Me a Month’s Worth Why modern calisthenics can bridge the gap between gym and field By Kevin Foley You may be approaching the warm months with enough…
News from the Field, January 1997 Enterprise: Seeing the Forest for the Fish One man’s subaquatic quest to clean up on history By Carl Hoffman Scott Mitchen insists he’s not trying to rub our noses in his good fortune. It’s just…
 Outside magazine, April 1999 The Report Card Want to know which groups are making the grade? So did we. By Florence Williams Ecotrust Founded: 1991 Members: None Staff: 25 Executive Director: Ian Gill,…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Film: The Big Whoosh Jan De Bont find star power in Mother Nature’s wrath By Johnny Dodd His last movie dealt with a psychotic who threatened to blow up a bus. Now director Jan De Bont (…
Gone Summering, July 1998 Heaven Can Wait The timeless terrain of the Smokies all but screams eternity. But first there’s a lot more fishing to do. By Donovan Webster The West Prong and Beyond…
Outside magazine, July 1998 Out There: Lord of the Flies And the bees and the wasps and all the other biting bastards that walk upon the earth By Tim Cahill The bug scream is a distinctive human sound. It…
Out Front, October 1997 Present at the Creation By Paul Kvinta The Nike Swoosh “Thirty-five dollars,” Carolyn Davidson says. That’s how much Nike paid her in 1971 to create one of the most recognizable logos in history. But the fledgling shoe…
Outside magazine, October 1998 Is Time Running Out for the Mythic Man Fish? The greatest breath-hold diver the sport has ever seen By Paul Kvinta Looking back on it, I should have suspected trouble right…
News from the Field, December 1996 Environment: Pssst, Mr. President, Have I Got a Parcel for You With wilderness to be saved and the coffers closed, the feds start swapping By John Brinkley After country-rock crooner Bonnie Raitt and more than…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Please Don’t Eat the Shrubbery In what amounts to the most revolutionary breakthrough in waste disposal since indoor plumbing, Americans in the dusty Southwest and elsewhere are flooding their backyards, stocking them with snails, hibiscuses, and bamboo, and letting these “wetlands” decompose…
Outside Magazine, February 1995 Boardsailing: Dunking Robby By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard) Robby Naish, sailing in the long shadow of perennial world champion Björn Dunkerbeck, appeared to have his rival’s number during the wave-performance competition in last November’s season-ending Aloha Classic at Maui’s…
Outside magazine, March 1996 Use a Shovel, Go to Prison By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Brian Alexander and Steve Law) It was, the prosecution said, a message to those who feel it is their “special right to destroy, loot, and plunder this…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Big Bass and the Men Who Love Them By hook, crook, and crawdad–live from the hunt for the world’s tubbiest largemouth By Brad Wetzler Shortly after Los Angeles cracked open during last year’s earthquake, Castaic Lake, a man-made…
Outside magazine, July 1999 The Rock-a-Copter The Diving Dig | The Cartwheel | The Figure Four | Take the Stairs | The Crossover Dribble |…
Outside magazine, September 1996 Peter Bird, 1947-1996 In the last message he sent to the world after leaving Russia, expedition rower Peter Bird exclaimed, “Hooray! Hooray!” After weeks of struggle in the Sea of Japan, the easterlies he’d been praying for had finally kicked in, setting…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Culture: Yo, Dog Breath! You Call That a Charge ? Is your living room ready for Craig Bone’s in-your-muzzle wildlife art? By Todd Wilkinson Wildlife painter craig bone, 40, has been called “the craziest white man in…
Outside Magazine, February 1995 Marathon: A Course of His Own By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard) Visitors get lost in New York every day. On November 6 it was German Silva’s turn. Unfortunately, the 26-year-old runner from Mexico was leading the New York Marathon…
Destinations, March 1997 Paradise Leased Borrow a million-dollar boat. Cruise the Caribbean. Grin. A beginner’s guide to sailboat charters. By Dan Dickison The Eel Ate My Homework Sailing schools teach navigation, confidence, and a good fish story or…
Outside magazine, May 1996 On Second Thought The most overrated The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man’s Recreation, by Izaak Walton. “Walton: Sage benign!” wrote poet William Wordsworth, who penned an entire sonnet in praise of Izaak Walton’s famous fishing guide. Hundreds of…
Outside magazine, June 1998 Field Notes: Strange Bedfellows Quiz: The Carolina hills are (a) an outdoor mecca, (b) a bizarro magnet, (c) both By Alex Heard You sure don’t seem like evil anti-environmental extremists,” I told Ralph and Sandra…
 Outside magazine, June 1999 I Am Elena. You Will Fly Now. There, up there in the Arizona sky! It’s the cream of the once-mighty Soviet machine! Now pulling g’s at an airport near you. By Peter…
Outside magazine, August 1995 Parachuting: Why Is This Man Smiling? A near-fatal leap by BASE jumping’s biggest star rekindles an old debate about the right to risk your own life By Eric Perlman Last May, Will Oxx stood at the lip of…
Outside magazine, September 1997 Minnesotans, Start Your Engines? A long-simmering feud heats up on Capitol Hill, as canoeists and speedboaters square off over some of the nation’s most hallowed wilderness By Jonathan Weisman Gary Joselyn dips his paddle into Poplar…
Outside Magazine, February 1995 Mountaineering: Warning: Geezers Wielding Ice Axes In the latest Himalayan trend, youngest on top is a rotten egg By Laura Hilgers You’re on to an eternal loser when you do that one, aren’t you?” remarks renowned British alpinist…
Outside magazine, August 1999 HIGH POINTS Still the One: The 1999 Everest Almanac Mountaineering’s main attraction is bigger than ever This year’s May climbing season on Mount Everest saw record fan participation, a bevy of Everest-inspired products, and—lest…
Outside magazine, September 1997 The Natives Are Restless (But Smartly Dressed) Sartorial tips from the Last Frontier, epicenter for the power- recreationalist Clint McCool Whitewater guide, high school economics and philosophy teacher. Photographed at Chilkoot Charlie’s Rustic Saloon, Anchorage. Ten years…
Outside magazine, July 1997 I Am Monkey Flower Be the edible plant, urged the Queen Diva of foragers, and my wilderness hikes would yield a bounty of strange-looking, odd-smelling, but altogether damn tasty grub. Gastronomy meets botany, and the Weed Woman is your guide.
Four-minute mile? No problem. Twenty-nine-foot long jump? Cakewalk. The real question is, How far have we come and how far can we go as athletes?
Dispatches, September 1998 Sport The Snow is Fake, but the Air Totally Rocks The notoriously contrived, made-for-television X Games finally get real. By Kimberly Lisagor Some might call it hype. But the next time a 110-foot snow cone towers…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Wearing the Future Welcome to the next paradigm of outdoor technology: clothing as gear By Sarah Friedman SHIRTS | INSULATION |…
Outside magazine, November 1995 Wildlife: Load the Stun Gun, Pass the Old Spice On the trail of 600 pounds of prehistoric phew By Stephanie Pearson With a monkey-like head and Lon Chaney Jr.’s overbite, it crashes through the forest, a fanged pied…
Outside magazine, September 1997 Stop, or I’ll Pop a Wheelie! Prowling for smugglers with the U.S. Border Patrol’s mountain-bike division By Jonathan Hanson Elle, We Hardly Knew Ye Dennis Conner’s Toshiba may be the…
Outside magazine, October 1997 Twenty Years: The Editor’s Note By Mark Bryant Legend around here has it that following the publication in our fourth issue of a refreshing but undeniably experimental adventure story set in the cloud forests of Peru, a certain…
Outside magazine, February 1996 Anyone Have a Stick of Doublemint? By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Debra Shore) Leading the women’s field in last November’s Philadelphia Marathon, Jeanne Peterson raced past the art museum to a massive roar. Three minutes later, an apparently…
Destinations, March 1999 Adventure Ready for Takeoff? Required reading for any would-be heli-skier By Susan Reifer In April of last year, after three weeks of storms, the Chugach Mountains near Valdez, Alaska, were ù…
Destinations, December 1998 Bold Lines, with a Daring Verticality Getaways Escaping the artistes and poseurs on the singletrack of San Miguel By Jeff Spurrier Off-road is an adjective not usually associated with…
Family Vacations, Summer 1996 Part One: The Adventures At Play in the Spray Strap on the helmets, tighten the Tevas, this ride’s gonna be WET All You Need is Dirt Want to be a hero? Repeat after…
 Outside magazine, September 1994 So You’re Young Black South African and You Want to Sail Around the World Neal Petersen knows it will take more than geluk. Ten thousand miles from his home, awash on the benevolent shores of Ireland, he hasn’t lost sight of…
Destinations, August 1998 Can’t See the Forest for the Fees The feds’ new pay-to-play scheme has public-lands users up in arms By Andrew Rice Jeff Pine is standing on a high ridge, thousands of acres of national forest stretching…
Dispatches, May 1997 Environment: The Yellow Haze of Texas America and Mexico join forces to answer a perplexing question: Why’s the air so dirty in our nation’s most remote preserve? By John Shinal From his seat near the front window…
Outside magazine, July 1994 Books: Polar Sagas By Andrea Barrett Mind Over Matter: The Epic Crossing of the Antarctic Continent, by Ranulph Fiennes (Delacorte Press, $21.95). Shadows on the Wasteland: Crossing Antarctica with Ranulph Fiennes, by Mike Stroud (Overlook Press, $21.95). The fun of…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Culture: More Powerful Than a Chunk of Tofu Live from Washington, a new breed of bleeding heart By John Galvin A new comic-book hero boldly invades the nation’s newsstands this month: Liberal Man, a tree-hugging crusader out to…
Outside magazine, October 1994 Triathlon: Dave Scott, The Imperishable Hulk At 40, the six-time Ironman champ asks: Can an old guy win the sport’s toughest race? By Ken McAlpine Last May, spectators at the Gulf Coast Triathlon in Panama City, Florida, witnessed a curious…
Outside magazine, October 1995 Hang Gliding: Thermal Letdown By Todd Balf (with John Alderman) For drama, it wasn’t bad: on the final day of the World Hang Gliding Championships last July near Ager, Spain, Thomas Suchanek of Czechoslovakia and Manfred Ruhmer of Austria, the…
Destinations: News for Adventurous Travelers, November 1996 All Creatures Fanged and Swine In the most biologically diverse area on Earth, watch your feet. By Bob Payne On the Osa Peninsula, wildlife is abundant, exotic, and striking–sometimes too striking. Snakes of all…
Outside magazine, May 2000 The White Death I’ve always been impressed by the quality of Outside‘s photographs, but I have to say that your avalanche shot on the cover of February’s issue is in a category all its…