Adventure
ArchiveOutside 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…
The Downhill Report, December 1996 It’s Deep–and It’s Definitely Playable There’s a fine line between floating and floundering. Now you can cross it for once and for all. By Michael Finkel Powder skiing, like healing crystals and the defensive line of…
Outside magazine, January 1999 From Spud to Stud Feeling fit? Bravo. But becoming a graceful, well-rounded athlete is an entirely different ball game. By Paul Keegan Chris Huffins “I have a lot of friends…
News from the Field, February 1997 Environment: How Green Was My Valley? Angry at the feds for putting fish before cattle, an Oregon rancher takes his case to the Supreme Court By John Brant “We’re only asking that the law…
Outside magazine, April 1995 Bodyboarding: And Huey Frowned By Todd Balf As an acclaimed master at Oahu’s Banzai Pipeline, bodyboarding champion Mike Stewart has seen a few things in his time. Until the Morey Bodyboards World Championship last January 14, however, he’d never witnessed…
Outside magazine, May 1998 Out There: One Hundred Yards of Solitude The truly personal places are where you decide to find them. So ignore that speeding ferry. By Tim Cahill Nations rise and nations fall. They crest like waves and…
Outside Magazine, May 1999 Sold to the Power Mac G3! Finding bargains on the Web’s auction block By Nate Hoogeveen Booking travel over the internet is already big business–1998 saw more than $3 billion in sales.
Outside magazine, July 1995 Surfing: Battle of the Buffed By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and Alison Osius) Sunny Garcia hasn’t always been what you’d call devout about his off-season training program. But before the 1995 tour, he paired up with fellow Hawaiian John…
Outside magazine, August 1997 Scavenging Angel Following in the wake of drug lords, one maritime salvager attempts to make good from bad By Randy Wayne White On the drive southeast from the old conquistador city of Cartagena to the broad…
Destinations, August 1998 The Big Easy Summertime adventuring, Canadian style, on the continent’s finest spot for cooling your heels By John Jerome Hang a Left at the Sturgeon And other secrets of navigating Canada’s Near North…
Outside magazine, November 1997 Can Beaker the Bobsledder Be Far Behind? One of Jim Henson’s most popular hairballs starts shilling for U.S. shredders By Adam Horowitz Sometimes, even within the fickle world of sports marketing, marriages of spokesperson to product…
Out Front, Fall 1998 Oceanography One Fish, Two Fish Sylvia Earle, mistress of the deep, surveys her perch By Karen Karbo More men have walked on the moon than where ocean explorer Sylvia Earle has walked. In 1979, Earle…
Outside magazine, May 2001 God’s Green Earth BRUCE BARCOTT HAS floored me again (“For God So Loved the World”). When I read his feature about the green preacher Peter Illyn and the burgeoning Christian environmental movement, I…
Outside magazine, January 1995 Smart Traveler: Wilderness By Mail Now’s the time to send away for tough-to-get permits By Debra Shore Like it or not, certain rivers, mountains, and backcountry campsites now have the cachet of a three-star restaurant where reservations are…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: Deep Space Shine Step one in sterilizing a spaceship is to swab the decks, knobs, and fuzzy mirror dice with rubbing alcohol. Step two is to bake the ship in a giant oven until any surviving microbes say “gaaack.”…
Outside magazine, February 1999 Books: The Way Home By James Zug BAGGAGE | BUYING RIGHT | THE OTHER STUFF | BOOKS…
Outside magazine, December 1995 Preassembled Salve for All Good Adventuresses Homemaking’s high priestess sifts through the medicine chest for first-aid kits By Martha Stewart I have a saying, “The right tool for the right job,” and when I look at a single…
Outside magazine, July 1995 Approach Shoes Backcountry footwear that’s part hiker, part running shoe, part Reinhold Messner By Bob Howells The indefatigable mountaineer is certainly familiar with the term “approach shoe”: It’s what he wears over trail and talus slope to the…
Outside magazine, July 1996 The Dotted Yellow Line to Happiness The best of the big-group rides By Stephanie Pearson The freewheeling days of summer are at hand, and there’s no better way to celebrate than taking a freewheeling ride on America’s scenic…
Outside magazine, August 1999 MOTHER NATURE Letting It Be She moved hearts, minds, and mountains THE REBEL The Importance of Being Ornery Living the life, monkeywrenching…
Outside magazine, December 1995 A Tale of Winning Ugly By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta You think no good can come of a paddler waxing Dickensian? Then don’t ask David Hearn about Gate 24. “It was the best and worst of slalom moves all…
News from the Field, February 1997 Business: What’s in a Name? New Wise Use tactics have enviros in the throes of an identity crisis By Todd Woody It’s a strategy that Suntzu and Machiavelli would have appreciated. Environmental groups forget…
Outside magazine, March 1998 Review: And While You’re At It … A few worthy extras for the discerning pedal-pusher By Alan Coté BICYCLES BUILT FOR ONE | AND WHILE YOU’RE AT IT ……
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: Montanabahn I’ve been getting lots of calls from out-of-state folk who want to know if they really will be able to drive as fast as they want here,” says Major Bert Obert, a field forces commander for the Montana…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Ride With Pride: Careful, Buster Urban attitude advice from an honest cop By Sara Corbett City cyclists have an attitude problem,” says Sergeant Richard Green, a bicycle patrol officer in Santa Barbara, California. “They think, ‘Look at us,…
Camping Special, April 1997 Play Wiffle Ball! Discuss Descartes! Swim Buck Naked! Because there are no boring camping trips, only boring campers By Brad Wetzler There’s always one in the crowd, the neophyte camper who, in a panic over leaving…
Outside magazine, June 1995 What Are You Whining About? Enough with the war stories about your scrapes and tweaks. Meet the people who really give it all to their sport–again and again and again. By Paul Kvinta So, you’ve taken a bad…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Spirituality: The 86-Proof Campfire After you’ve cut superfluous inches off your toothbrush handle, ripped the covers off your paperback, and generally waged war on expendable ounces, it’s important to declare amnesty. Make room for a little self-indulgence–something precious to your soul.
Outside magazine, October 1996 Water Sports: OK, But Do They Have Guys Named Corky? At the World Surfing Games, winter-addled nations look to join the tribe By Jon Cohen “Usually we just sit around and watch surf videos and think about waves.”…
Camping Special, April 1997 Two Strikes and You’re Out Screwing up in the woods is unavoidable–but repeating your mistakes is something else entirely By Brad Wetzler To err is human. but according to NOLS’s Tom Reed, it’s not always excusable.
News from the Field, January 1997 Forestry: No Plaid, No Poulan, No Problem Stuck in the doldrums, American loggers take a lesson from the Swedes By Daniel D’Ambrosio Training loggers used to be a simple affair: Here’s a chainsaw; there’s a…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Foreign Travel: Narrowboat to Nowhere A slow poke along England’s canals By Mark Kramer The 2,000 miles of narrow canals that weave through England were built a few centuries ago to ferry coal from rural mines to mills…
Dispatches, July 1997 E X P L O R A T I O N One Giant Maybe for Robotkind As NASA heads for Mars, its remote-control rovers spin their wheels By Eric Scigliano…
Outside magazine, July 1997 The Mild One In which the author confronts the one obstacle between his throaty bike and the call of the open road: himself By Nicholas Dawidoff The author considers the road ahead I took my…
Outside magazine, October 1996 Wondering Where the Lions Are The Goal: Encountering Zimbabwe’s legendary wildlife. The Method: Authentic safariing, on battered foot through prickly bush. The Result: Well, now that you ask… Gavin Ford, one of Zimbabwe’s legendary…
Outside Magazine, October 1998 Destruction The Fire Inside Trees burn, as do young men. And therein lies the lesson By David Guterson All day we stood on the fire line, bored, wetting down the trees. Occasionally we wedged…
Dispatches, October 1998 Events Men Who Run with the Bulls A bunch of guys in the desert try to get in touch with the Inner Bovine By Matt Purdue “I‘ve watched this in Spain on television and thought, ‘What…
Outside magazine, December 1997 Field Notes: Boneheads A tale of big money, prison, Disney World, and the world’s foremost dinosaur-hunting twins By John Tayman On the morning when the fair-market value for the world’s finest unassembled real-bone Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton was…
Outside magazine, June 1996 They’re Back Twelve gold medals, 21 world titles. But for four of this century’s finest athletes, the road to Atlanta begins in Atlanta with this month’s U.S. Olympic Trials. Where, as at least one of them knows, anything can happen.
Outside magazine, March 1996 The Technician: Practice, Patience, and a Few Swabs of the Hanky The basics of on-trail repair from D. Scott Daubert, grease monkey to the elite By Kiki Yablon Scott Daubert has one last item he’d…
Outside Magazine, February 1995 Environment: War of the Worldviews Yes, Wise Users hate greens. But have they really inspired a wave of anti-green hate crimes? By Paul Koberstein Last Fall, in the northeastern Oregon town of Joseph, angry loggers and ranchers on…
Outside magazine, June 1997 Sin in the Wild Outdoors We Confess Pride goeth before a fall, as any climber knows. But what about the other deadly sins that flesh is heir to? Gluttony It’s…