Adventure
ArchiveOutside magazine, July 1994 Havana in the Rearview Mirror A final, heartbreaking trip through la revolucion By Randy Wayne White Land, sea, or air, 90 miles is 90 miles, except when describing the water space between Havana and Key West, a distance protracted by…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Middle Distance: Odds That African runners will claim every gold……..9-1 Gebrselassie will set at least one world record………10-1 An American will medal……….15-1…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Promise Kept Natascha Badmann served notice on the multisport community last November, first winning the Duathlon World Championships and then finishing a respectable sixth in the short-course triathlon worlds a week later. This May, she followed through in impressive fashion, annihilating the…
Outside magazine, October 1995 Wilderness Education Gone Brutally Wrong By Larry Burke The idea that nature forges sound character is one of man’s oldest convictions. It was this basic belief that gave rise to, among other things, the philosophy of John Muir, this magazine,…
 Outside magazine, November 1995 A Darkness on the River What the son found in the Peruvian jungle was a terrible truth. What his father found there months later was a way to begin again. By Tim Cahill The Marañón River drops…
 Outside magazine, November 1996 The Volcano Runners No elite runners train at higher altitude, or suffer more, than the human lungs who roam these oxygen-starved slopes. And yet Mexico’s great marathoners still labor under a faint cloud,…
Outside magazine, November 1997 YURI TRICYS TREE PLANTER Should Tree-Planting Become a Medal Sport, Here’s Your Winner Looking for some real athletes? You know, the kind without massage therapists and sports psychologists and closets full of shoes? Good, because rather than wasting energy…
Out Front, Fall 1998 Endurance Queen of Pain There’s only one way to break the tedious swim-vomit-swim cycle: Pray for an underwater visit from Santa By Martha Corcoran “I know physically I can swim the distance. I don’t take…
Outside magazine, April 1998 The Outside Portfolio When the Giant Sequoia Talks, People Listen A guide to green investing in an uncertain, tail-of-the-bull age By Nelson D. Schwartz THE OUTSIDE PORTFOLIO: When the Giant Sequoia…
Hardware and Software, February 1997 Books: Rough Edges, Terminal Dreams By Miles Harvey Letting Loose the Hounds, by Brady Udall (W. W. Norton, $22). “There are times,” explains a character in this sinewy collection of short fiction, “when the only way…
Outside magazine, May 1998 Anatomy of a Big One Riding huge surf is simple, really: Know how the wave works, time your entry right, and, um, hope for the best. By Daniel Duane Something Wicked This Way…
Outside magazine, May 1999 Endurance 113 Miles to Go? Pull, Dammit! To dream up the world’s toughest rowing race, it helps to be called The Hammer If you happen to wake at dawn some…
Outside magazine, June 1994 Mountain Biking: Iron Johnny By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and Eric Hagerman) The buzz at March’s Cactus Cup wasn’t so much about former world champion John Tomac’s win as the way he looked doing it. He was buffed…
Dispatches, August 1997 M E T E O R O L O G Y Say, Brother, Can You Spare a Huge Windfall? One woman’s high-priced offer to save us from nature’s wrath By Sarah Horowitz…
Dispatches, August 1998 Esoterica Games (Really Weird) People Play By Katie Arnold It’s surely no secret that Europeans, enthusiastic practitioners of such dubious activities as snooker and ferret-legging, possess a flair for peculiar sports. But it is in August, when…
Outside Magazine, November 1998 Review: No Halfpipe Can Hold Me For those with all-mountain aspirations, a freeride board is the answer By Mark North SNOWBOARDS | BUYING RIGHT | THE OTHER…
Women Outside, Fall 1998 Yellow Pages: Resources for the Adventurous Athlete Fitness By John Brant, Gretchen Reynolds and Lea Aschkenas GEAR | TRAVEL | FITNESS | HEALTH |…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: Hey, Isn’t That Al Oerter? Maybe you aren’t going to the summer Olympics because you can’t get tickets. Or maybe it’s just jitters about Atlanta’s style–after all, do you really want to see waiflike foreign gymnasts get razzed off…
The Outside Prognosticator: The Chicken Little Machine Just when you thought the weird weather of recent years was simmering down, 1995 had TV forecasters quaking under their shoulder pads again. As 1996 kicks off, prepare to hear more about a mysterious Defense Department installation–the High Frequency Active…
Dispatches, February 1999 Business “We Will Win, and Earth Will Win!” And other emissions from America’s greenest CEO By Erik Stokstad When Ray Anderson threw a 24th birthday bash for his billion-dollar carpet-manufacturing company, Interface, hundreds…
Travel Guide, Winter 1995-1996 St. Vincent/Grenadines By Jonathan Runge If the British Virgin Islands are the junior college of Caribbean sailing, the Grenadines are graduate school: Relatively long stretches of open water between the 30-odd islands south of St. Vincent make…
Outside magazine, December 1995 Offering Oneself to the Fat Boys Even to a man with a powder pedigree, skis with girth provide the gift of flotation By James Salter I can’t remember when I started to ski powder–when I had to, probably.
Outside magazine, June 1994 Mountaineering: New Route, Same Dangers By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and Eric Hagerman) Because of a well-earned reputation as the world’s most dangerous 8,000-meter peak, K2 doesn’t see a lot of new routes–the old ones are tough enough.
Outside magazine, July 1996 Innovation Within Reason Seattle legend-in-the-making Monque Barbeau looks to expand the boundaries of trailworthy cuisine Seattle legend-in-the-making Monique Barbeau looks to expand the boundaries of trailworthy cuisine One of the reigning queens of the current Northwestern culinary scene is Monique…
Outside magazine, September 1994 Milestones: Xaver Bongard, 1964-1994 By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and John Alderman) Xaver Bongard, one of climbing’s most colorful of big-wall specialists, died on April 15 when both his parachutes failed to deploy during a BASE jump near Interlaken, Switzerland. The…
Travel Guide, Winter 1995-1996 Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Part I Ten questions to help you find that perfect mountain By Paul Kvinta If you’ve ever been beaned by a flying snowboarder, failed to score the perfect lodge martini, or found that the only diversion…
Outside magazine, September 2000 The Naked Truth I’M SURE YOU’LL TAKE some flak for having a naked girl in your magazine (“Marla Streb’s Mind-Body Problem,” July), but Andrew Tilin’s article (as well as the pictures) rocked, and that’s what mountain…
Winter Olympics Preview, February 1998 THE FIGHTERS A Brawl of Their Own Does women’s hockey have finesse? Sure. Quickness? Certainly. Good fights? Oh, baby. By Julian Rubinstein THE DOPE ON Men’s Hockey The Contenders: After…
Outside magazine, March 1996 The Aficionados: Because It’s Stronger, Faster, Lighter…and Looks Really Cool The latest and greatest in accessories, as flaunted by the gearheads of Cycle Club Basingstoke By Alan Coté In the inevitable race for first-kid-on-the-block status, it helps to…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The River Made Wild By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Brooke DeNisco, Martin Forstenzer, and Eileen Hansen) A year ago, kayaker Scott Shipley was none too impressed when he surveyed the then-under-construction Olympic whitewater course on Tennessee’s Ocoee River.
Outside magazine, March 1995 Ride With Pride: Progressive Machines: Road Bikes By John Lehrer For inveterate roadies, the picture is not a pretty one: In 1994, road-bike sales declined for the third straight year, and this year the ten most prolific road-bike manufacturers will…
Review, April 1997 Buying Right: Bantam Binoculars By Gregory McNamee If you spend time in the backcountry, where there are specific advantages to being able to discern whether that distant lump on the trail is a fallen log or a hungry bear,…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Politics: But Will They Pack Out Their Own T.P.? By Stephanie Pearson A recent poll suggests that if you’re a Republican, chances are you don’t trust your party to be good to the environment. But thanks to the new Republican…
Outside magazine, October 1996 Dance: Absurdity Runs Through It Introducing River, a toe-shoe homage to Norman Maclean’s classic By Paul Kvinta “The women throw themselves against the men, like fish floundering on a riverbank,” says choreographer K. T. Nelson, revealing the…
News from the Field, December 1996 Archaeology: Hands Off My Radioactive Detritus! One man’s lonely fight to preserve our nuclear legacy By Christopher Weir William Gray Johnson steps across the Nevada Test Site’s fractured hardpan, scanning a flotsam of bent and…
Outside magazine, January 1997 The 1997 Outside Prognosticator Featuring Picabo Street, Carl Lewis, Nostradamus, Bigfoot, and our very own Psychic Friends! By Ned Zeman Swein MacDonald Tricky thing, the future. just when think you’ve got it nailed, it starts…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Books: Tales of the Trimate By Andrea Barrett Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo, by Birute M. F. Galdikas (Little, Brown, $24.95). As a graduate student, Birute Galdikas was befriended by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, who’d…
Outside magazine, April 1999 The Thick Red Line How a battlefield breakthrough may save your hide By Sarah Friedman The timeless humor of Monty Python’s Black Knight, that daft warrior who upon losing an arm…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Milestones: Steve Sinclair, 1951-1996 By Todd Balf Steve sinclair spent two decades joyfully pushing the outer limits of ocean kayaking, trying to devise a way to paddle what nobody thought was possible and to understand the intricacies of a particularly…
Gone Summering, July 1998 Forgive Me, Mr. Abalone Because off northern California’s “Riviera,” diving for slimy sea creatures is but one of many worthy pastimes By Patrick Symmes Exploring the Lost Coast Free from…
Outside magazine, October 1997 Edward Abbey He loved to be in our face. Still does, no doubt. By Terry Tempest Williams With a pen in his right hand and a monkey wrench in his left,…
Outside magazine, October 1997 The Record Holders Pity the ones who will follow them By Brad Wetzler Joe DiMaggio’s 56 consecutive games with a base hit. Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals in a single Olympics. Cool Hand…
The Downhill Report, December 1996 Because You Have the Closet Space With a ski for every condition, it’s now downright impossible to have too many By Bryant Gates Remember me? I’m the guy whose giant ski bag…
Outside magazine, December 1997 Out There: Taking the Red-Eye For our misty frequent flier, what a long, strange 100 months it’s been By Randy Wayne White More by Randy Wayne White Croco%#@! Dundee…
Outside magazine, January 1998 Out There: I Have a Scheme Attention charlatans, con men, mountebanks, and swindlers: Here’s Tim! By Tim Cahill It was a money-laundering scheme for rapacious dimwits and hoggish simpletons. There was $2 million in it,…
Outside magazine, March 1996 Bodies of Evidence A few good sports share bits on their pieces By Cory Johnson Body Part: Feet Body: Ultramarathon Tom Johnson, 36, Loomis, California; North American 100-kilometer record holder, three-time winner and course record…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Newtie, We Hardly Knew Ye A de-evolutionary study of the surprisingly green past–and strangely murky future–of Congress’s new Mr. Big By Ned Martel “If at some point in the next 50,000 years the Earth tilts, as it…
Destinations, June 1997 Drat. I Bogeyed That Outhouse. Found too much solitude in the Smokies? Gatlinburg will fix that. By Parke Puterbaugh Gatlinburg, Tennessee, holds fast to the northern boundary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park like…
Outside magazine, August 1995 Milestones: Pesky No More By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard) Lance Armstrong and Robyn Erbesfield, two of America’s best international athletes, had a lot in common last May. Both were pursuing majors titles that had so far eluded them and…
Outside Magazine, November 1994 The Hex Factor On Cat Island you’ll find sun, sand, and just what the houngan ordered By Randy Wayne White Before explaining how I became the confidant of practitioners of obeah, a form of black magic, and before…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Winter Camping: Garuda Emeishan By Douglas Gantenbein Freestanding tents long ago cornered the market thanks to their strength, stability, and convenience. But what’s often overlooked is that tents that must be staked and guyed can be just as strong —…
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…
Dispatches: News from the Field, November 1996 Sport: Could This Be the World’s Greatest Athlete? Meet Chris Waddell, Paralympic skiing legend cum sprinting hopeful By Katie Arnold At his home in western Massachusetts, 28-year-old Chris Waddell is mulling a decision…
Dispatches, March 1998 SCIENCE Is This the Audition for Stupid Pet Tricks? In the name of research, a dubious idea is born “People ask me if David Letterman knows about this,” muses neurobiologist Robert Barlow, “but I can’t imagine Mr. Letterman…
Outside magazine, April 1995 Art: The Celestial Obsession of James Turrell With vision, chisels, and bulldozers, a sculptor makes a megastatement By Tim Vanderpool From afar, James Turrell’s big dream looks like your average volcanic heap. A massive brown pile that rises…
Outside Magazine, November 1994 Running: A Tarahumara Storm By Todd Balf (with Jim Hage) Last August’s leadville trail 100, the grueling ultra-marathon waged mostly above 10,000 feet, wasn’t your typical media-free, footpath-less-traveled ultra. Scott Tinley was there, with microphone in hand, filming a CBS…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Law Enforcement: Drop that Rack, or I’ll Vaporize You Yellowstone’s infamous Antler Wars enter a new phase By Todd Wilkinson “It’s fine with us if they believe there’s a camera lurking behind every tree,” says Brian O’Dea, criminal…
Outside magazine, August 1996 The Wannabes: It’s Been Fun, Modern Pentathlon… …But don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Presenting the winner and losers in the made-for-tv future of the Games Beach Volleyball |…
Outside magazine, April 1995 Oceanography: R2DTuna By Mark Wheeler “Tuna are the fighter planes of the fish world,” says Dave Barrett, a 35-year-old ocean engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hoping to put that power in a can, Barrett and his colleagues are…
Outside magazine, July 1994 Cycling: The LeMond Boomerang By Alan Cote In the quest to build the lightest frame, some bike designers have chucked rigidity along with weight. That’s the reason many cutting-edge bikes flex considerably under pedaling forces, resulting in a mushy ride that soaks…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Whitewater: Odds That… Americans will sweep the solo events……..10-1 The dam will burst during David Hearn’s run…..20-1 Scott Shipley will fail to win the gold medal……..100-1…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Is This Any Way to Travel, the Sequel How, you may wonder, could self-proclaimed Father of Freefalling Dan Osman (“Is This Any Way to Travel,” January) one-up his earlier stunts of falling–deliberately–from 600-plus-foot cliffs and arresting himself with only climbing rope? “I…
Outside magazine, October 1994 Speed: Step Aside, Carl Lewis By Todd Balf (with Greg Child and Dan Dickison) If Leroy Burrell had business cards inscribed with the words “World’s Fastest Man,” would anyone argue? Burrell, who briefly held the world record for the 100-meter sprint four…
Outside magazine, November 1995 The Wayward West: It Came from the Outback And then the best growled, snacked, and was sent to bed for being bad. But Congressman Don Young and his minions, eager to gobble up the nation’s environmental laws, aren’t sated yet.