Adventure

Archive

If you want to get high, there's still a price to be paid for invading the towering ranges—despite some newfangled shortcuts

You could call it a youthful passion, but why mince words? What seized the author at age 19 was a fateful obsession with El Capitan.

Who is Barry Clausen and why has his two-bit cloak-and-dagger act made so many radical environmentalists, FBI agents, animal rights activists, and conservative ideologues furious?

Using cutting-edge techniques, three young mavericks set out to tackle one of the hardest routes in the Himalayas

Fall Special: The Indoor Climber's Guide to Gear, Training, and Access

Meet the toughest wall rats ever. Some of them are still redpointing routes (fused ankles and broken backs notwithstanding). Or running their own companies. Or passing the torch to young acolytes. A portrait gallery of American climbing's greatest generation.

Sometimes you just have to escape into the night, where unpredictable rendezvous and things that bite await you

Where the water is calm, the camping great—and the sea kayaking takes you to a world of beautiful swimmers

Warning: Research at your own risk. Welcome to the new frontier, where scientists use extreme adventure skills in the wild pursuit of knowledge.

IPO sluts, "lifestyle" vintners, and eco-radicals bearing lawsuits. Eroding hillsides, glassy-winged sharpshooters, and an imperiled river with dying steelhead. Napa Valley has them all, and each lends its own bouquet of New Economy hilarity, nose-out-of-joint agrarian rage, and NIMBY intolerance to wine country's unique, full-bodied blend of environmental poli

Has this tired old world been explored-out? Not Down Under, where uncharted, bottomless slot canyons hide just west of Sydney.

The Rise and Fall and Exile and Triumphant Possible Return of Rod of Massachusetts to the Battle-Torn Bedouin Kingdom of Dahab

Once a year, the adventurous Jenkins boys will be boys, reforging the bonds of brotherly affection by nearly killing themselves

Floating through class V whitewater and grizzly country in the shadow of Mount McKinley

For a Wyoming omni-sport adventure, start here...

There's nothing more all-American than a long summer road trip—except maybe a long summer road trip sponsored by a kayak company. Meet the hard-drivin', trick-huckin', heart-throbbin' river punks that may just turn freestyle kayaking into whitewater's answer to snowboarding.

Would you buy an environmental policy from this man?

Will Al Gore's green vision lead him to the Oval Office? Knock on wood.

Canoeing pioneers unveil the new 700-plus Northern Forest Canoe Trail

An outsized wilderness lives on in mythic dreams and salvaged hope

We liberate the sport of fly-fishing and take you back to the clean and simple basics. Now go fish.

What's a brilliant woman like this doing in a rough-and-tumble sport like downhill mountain-bike racing? Trying to think her way to the top of the winner's podium, that's what.

Guy Waterman had climbed every peak in the Northeast high country—in winter, and from all the cardinal directions. With his wife, he had co-authored four scrupulously principled books on New England wilderness, and he was revered as the conscience of the mountains, a beloved teacher and friend, a paragon of Yankee self-reliance. Why, then, did he hike to the top of his favorite peak on the coldest day of the year and lie down to die?

Will Earth's most fragile unexplored ecosystems survive the age of adventure?

On Alaska's most dangerous body of water, a rugged band of sailors lives to sail—and to tell about it

Lloyd Pye—writer, paranormalist, possible wighat—reveals the true origins of the starchild

Is it ever too late to become the caring parent you thought you could be? To find out, one man went in search of his adopted manatee—only to discover the many injustices that humankind has heaped upon these hapless marine mammals. And when Junior is fat, slow, and endangered, family values are nothing more than an easy way to break your heart.

Surrounded by a staggering array of hazardous waste, toxic emissions, chemical pollutants, and lethal military experimentation, the Goshute tribe of Utah decided to do the logical thing and offer up its reservation as a dump for 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear fuel. The neighbors are very upset.

Churchill, Canada, Isn't Just for the Bears

Successful guerrilla angling requires stealth, perseverance, and an insatiable, what-the-hell willingness to hunt for fish in some damn weird places

It’s not easy to add up all the ways in which Lance Armstrong has earned the title of American hero. Lance Armstrong Lance Armstrong First he was the fiery phenom, a brilliant athlete on the brink of greatness. Then he showed us the vulnerable, terrified, but always…

The treacherous history of the Matterhorn can be read in books and snowy graveyards, but to write it you've got to survive it

It's just a few short miles from the neon strip to the inky desert beyond. But to a solitary walker on her way out of town, the worlds of casino palaces and redrock spires might as well be galaxies apart.

From beginning to middle to end and back again, one adventure leads to another. So hold tight—it's a long ride

Canoeing the Bronx River is sheer metro adventure

Carl and Lowell Skoog are blazing virgin trails in the backcountry's wild white yonder

Come ski Mad River Glen, where it is resolved that progress is not a good thing—and that man-made snow is for sissies

The leatherback frogmen of the NYPD Scuba Squad patrol a hellish world beyond noir, where body parts abound, the water's filthy, and mob victims wear concrete shoes. And get this—they love it.

The peaks of the Italian Alps may look daunting, but climbing them is la dolce vita.

After all the bad weather, bad luck, and bad food, there was only one thing left for the publishers and producers of the next big adventure blockbuster to do: Kill the writer.

A crash course in old-growth tree climbing (it's tree hugging's rambunctious younger sibling). Wanna come out and have some deep fun?

Last winter was among the deadliest avalanche seasons on record in the United States and Europe. Why is the number of fatalities rising? And what's being done about it?

It takes a brave heart, a keen interest in cryogenics, and a thick coating of neoprene to climb into an iceboat and fly across a frozen lake at upwards of 60 miles per hour. But hey, hard-water sailors don't mind. What else would they do with all their free time?

A partner drops out, one thing leads to another, and suddenly our hero finds that peer pressure has him fighting for his life

A corps of rock rats in a hurry is putting the pedal to the mettle in big-wall climbing

Avalanche-safety wisdom to help you survive with the fittest

THIS DREAM OF LAND, of owning it—where does it start, how deep is it rooted? Go Stake Your Claim Ever fantasized about heading off into the country and building a little place with good views and a porch for the rocking chair? Here’s your blueprint on how to make…

It’s as American as Mom, apple pie, and the lust for elbow room: to find and purchase a slice of country heaven to call your own. A place to sleep under the stars and think wide-open thoughts. To put up a cabin. To watch the trees grow…

THIS DREAM OF LAND, of owning it—where does it start, how deep is it rooted? Go Stake Your Claim Ever fantasized about heading off into the country and building a little place with good views and a porch for the rocking chair? Here’s your blueprint on how to make…

Building a better base camp

A Wetland Restoration Comedy: how one man transformed vile, polluted, dank little swamp into the perfect glassy ice pond

The Outside Prognosticator 2000

The Pacific Rim's most explosive endurance sport combines speed, pain, and ancient tradition

What gets the equivalent of 1,000 miles per gallon, doesn't pollute, will save the world, and transports you in breezy style? Your bike.

Want to experience the suicidal rush of trying to break into the outdoor gear biz? Join us now for the saga of GoLite, a crazy little startup with everything stacked against it—except for one featherweight idea whose time may have come.

Can Virtual Adventure Thrive on the Internet? A Brazen New Web Site Says Yes. But Is This Digital Expedition into the Unknown a Revolutionary Way to Experience Sports, or a Business Disaster in the Making?

When did the realm of adventure and wilderness travel become Madison Avenue's favorite image bank? A traverse across advertising's new frontier.

An avalanche in Tibet takes the life of Alex Lowe

Rodeo kayaking's effort to transform itself into a mainstream sport

The rules (there are only three of them) remain the same for a lifetime, and they come from the mouths of babes

To save the day when the crevasse hits the fan; to be chased by AK-47-wielding bandits; to be the one guy who's gotta say, "Time to turn around, everybody"—this is what it means to be a professional guide. (Still interested?)

Some of the most innovative boats ever built prepare for the fiercest race in sailing history

The come-on: Grab two hours of challenging fun and fast adventure. But when a dark wall of water swept away lives and reputations, the question became: Why?

Deep in South Africa's interior sprawls Kruger National Park, the crown jewel of game preserves with 2,500 lions, 2,750 rhinos, 8,500 elephants, 30,000 zebras, 100,000 impalas...and 650 miles of boundary wire keeping animals in and poachers out. Welcome to the postmodern Eden, where everyone behaves—or else.

A tight crew of out-of-bounds crazies has been working overtime to turn the snow-flick world upside down with its relentlessly spectacular reels. Is it art or is it ski porn?

A tight crew of out-of-bounds crazies has been working overtime to turn the snow-flick world upside down with its relentlessly spectacular reels. Is it art or is it ski porn?

A Tex-Mex multisport adventure takes exhilarating turns in Big Bend country

Soaring over four continents, three oceans, and assorted hostile nations aboard a high-tech gondola, Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of England this year became the first men to circle the world by hot-air balloon. Here is their diary—the unforgettable highs, the lows, and the humdrum routine experienced by the unlikely duo who vowed to boldly g

In an exclusive excerpt from the forthcoming book by the men who led the quest to solve the mystery of George Mallory's disappearance, the authors for the first time reveal the evidence they uncovered—and offer their chilling re-creation of Mallory and Irvine's last hours.

Once, he rode the smoky ridges about the Umpqua River, a pack of baying hounds at his feet, the bawling of the terrified Ursus americanus ringing through the hills. Once, he was undisputed master of the kill. Once, Ray Hillsman slew a thousand bears. And then one man said, No more.

New School Skiing is teaching good old hotdogging some radical new tricks

Where the Suwanne hits the Gulf, a bygone Florida thrives in the wilderness

As the United States prepares to hand over the canal, Panama's wild wonders are ripe for discovery