Adventure
ArchiveOutside magazine, March 1995 Evaluation: Matchmaker, Shoemaker? By Sara Corbett We’re not all fortunate enough to have a knowledgeable running-shoe salesperson at the local sporting goods store — someone who’ll gently intervene when we snatch up the first comfy pair we find, who’ll deftly…
Outside magazine, September 1994 Boots for the Path of Most Resistance With a big load on your back, your footwear standards had better be rigid By Glenn Randall Stiffness–in backpacking boots, anyway–is next to godliness. Stiffness is what shields your feet from roots and…
Outside magazine, April 1996 Big Water: Will the Real Colorado River Please Rise Up? A $4.5 million experiment unleashes a deluge of habitat-restoring froth By Rob French It will begin with the touch of a human finger. An engineer will press a…
Outside magazine, August 1999 Hey (Hey!) You (You!), Get Off of My Trail! Can’t we all just get along? Apparently not. By Jill Danz Temporary détente at New Jersey’s Tourne County Park…
News from the Field, February 1997 Design: All the World’s a Workshop Forever in search of the perfect backpack, peripatetic tinkerer Patrick Smith says he’s found the answer deep in the woods By Michael McRae The backcountry is filled with loners,…
Winter Olympics Preview, February 1998 THE HORROR The Schmucks of Winter They cheated, they sniped, they taught us the true meaning of “loser.” God bless ’em. By Mike Grudowski Every rose, a great philosopher once said, has its thorn.
Outside magazine, January 1996 One False Move? By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Brooke DeNisco, Martin Forstenzer, and Eileen Hansen) Canadian high-wire walker Jay Cochrane expected last October’s jaunt above China’s Yangtze River to be the performance of his life. His host, the…
Outside magazine, January 1996 Up, Up, and…Ach! By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Brooke DeNisco, Martin Forstenzer, and Eileen Hansen) “Party pollution!” exclaims Jim DeForge, decrying the thousands of helium balloons that revelers will unleash this New Year’s Eve. In a pointed attack,…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Ride With Pride: The Spin Doctor Says: Pair Up Wisely By Dr. Ruth Westheimer “The most important consideration is that your partner really likes that wind blowing and seeing new vistas — and does not only ride to please the…
Outside magazine, June 1995 Reluctant Provider Why bamboo waits so long between incarnations By David Quammen The novelist Louise Erdrich recently published a lapidary one-paragraph essay, excerpted from something longer, that begins, “I would be converted to a religion of grass.” The…
Outside magazine, September 1995 Sport: Excuuuse Me for Living Can Dave Cullinan, cocky heart patient, recapture the worlds? By Eric Hagerman “I’m going to serve John Tomac a big can of whup-ass when I get fit,” says 25-year-old professional mountain biker Dave…
News for Adventurous Travelers, December 1996 The Grenadian Spell It starts with a whiff of nutmeg on the tarmac. A few jungle pools and plates of lambie later, you may never go home. By Bob Howells Twelve degrees north latitude is…
Outside magazine, April 1999 I’ve Fallen, and I’m Pretending I Can’t Get Up In the perilous quest to produce state-of-the art wilderness medicine, our writer is just what the doctor ordered By Ken Kalfus It…
Outside magazine, January 1997 Letters: Haitian Spell Bob Shacochis’s “There Must Be a God In Haiti” (November) was the best thing I’ve read about the battered Caribbean nation. Having studied its music, dance, and a bit of voodoo, as well as sponsoring a…
Bodywork, April 1999 Push. Pull. Explode. Repeat. Old-fashioned exercise with a latter-day twist Dynamic calisthenics essentially takes classic moves — squats, lunges, push-ups — and modifies them to prep your joints, boost reaction time, and improve your balance. The idea is to…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Mountain Biking: Eat My Mascara! Champion downhiller Leigh Donovan’s unpopular crusade By Eric Hagerman Downhill mountain bikers are like butterflies. They show up every spring, flapping their wings, showing off their colors. This year Missy Giove, 1994…
Outside magazine, July 1997 Letters: Bad Intentions I am appalled that killer Chad McKittrick got off with such a light sentence (“The Killing of Wolf Number Ten,” May). At the very least, his restitution ought to include the cost of his capture,…
Dispatches, July 1998 Environment Divided We Fall? The Sierra Club’s debate over immigration may be just the beginning By Dirk Olin When it was finally announced that the Sierra Club’s rank and file had scuttled a proposal to…
Outside magazine, October 1997 Jane Goodall We’re all equal in her eyes By Michael Nichols I met Jane Goodall at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1989. I was there to…
Outside magazine, October 1997 I Was a Prisoner of the Mudpeople It could have been the Fly-Fishians that got me. Or the Marathon Men. Or even the dread Golf-oids. But the fiendish Congregation of Dirtheads had already claimed my soul. From the cults…
News from the Field, December 1996 Wildlife: Hasta la Vista, Poultry Celebrities share their favorite recipes to aid a carnivorous friend By Mike Steere If the gray wolf knew of the bathos perpetrated in its name, the species might have boycotted…
Outside magazine, June 1994 Wildlife: Who’s Afraid of a Little Blood and Guts? One entrepreneur’s sticky plan to bring man and shark closer together By Brian Alexander Jon Cappella still believes his idea is a blue-chipper: Dump bucketfuls of fish innards…
Outside magazine, January 1998 Review Books Haunted by Waters By Miles Harvey THE STREAMLINED HOME GYM | ESSENTIALS | THE OTHER STUFF | BOOKS…
Outside magazine, March 1996 The Showroom: The Worthiest Steeds, Circa 1996 By Gordon Black, Alan Coté and Bob Howells GT Backwoods, $654 The Backwoods may have a low-end price, but don’t be fooled: This bike would be regarded a…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Volleyball: Side Out, Part Two: Trouble in the Big City By Todd Balf In the final preseason event held indoors last February at Madison Square Garden, Randy Stoklos and Adam Johnson easily ousted Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes. For the…
Outside magazine, July 1999 The Diving Dig The Diving Dig | The Cartwheel | The Figure Four | Take the Stairs | The Crossover Dribble…
Roiling nature outside my boat, a nicely fashioned society within, and just an inch of planking between. The joys and geopolitics of seagoing
Outside magazine, September 1996 This Is Great! Drink a Little Beer, Play a Little Frisbee, and Save the World! All rise for Adam Werbach, the Sierra Club’s new 23-year-old president By Paul Keegan Adam has the munchies. “Oh yeah, sandwiches and soda…
Outside magazine, October 1996 It’s Just the Dog in Them Seven reasons why, the next time you venture outdoors, you might want to pack a pooch. Profiles in canine courage. WEELA Pit Bull, ten years old Mise-en-ScŠneSpring 1993, in…
Outside magazine, January 2001 A Hard Place I WAS BRIEFLY A “guest” of the Turkish secret police in the Kurdish area near Iraq, have stood guard over sleeping friends along fluid borders of war-torn nations, and…
Outside magazine, March 1997 OK, Now Where Are the Pedals? Having swapped his bike for an Indy Car, would-be speed racer Greg Lemond considers the road ahead from a very new vantage point By Ned Zeman…
Family Vacations, Summer 1997 The Adventures The Tenderfoot’s Almanac Tents and trails, guides and grub, and everything else you’ll need for the finest family backpacking trips Family Adventure Camps From sailing school to digging for artifacts, eight learning…
Outside magazine, June 1999 Et Tu, Kitty? Stalking a scratching, slinking army of feral cats through the ruins of ancient Rome By James Hamilton-Paterson On a recent visit to rome i had the initial…
Outside magazine, August 1995 Climbing: Black Diamond SuperGenius By Rod Willard Good thing Mr. Spock wasn’t much for scaling rock faces: Packs designed for climbing are generally…well, illogical. They’re either too big to take to the top or too small for stowing the hardware…
Outside magazine, September 1997 Look Ma, No Shame With their exploits comes a plaintive cry for attention. Who are we to argue? By Elizabeth Royte To be heard above the din of like-minded expeditioners and gain the attention of a…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: For You, I Get It Wholesale Want to buy a chunck of Jackson Hole, Taos, or 38 other Forest Service-owned mountain tracts that are now leased to ski-resort operations? If Republicans in Congress have their way, you may get…
 Outside Magazine, November 1994 The Happy, Wholesome, Hip-Hop Life of the MammothTeenage Death Dwarfs High on the mountaintops, the kids are winning By Bucky McMahon If Tommy Czeschin, star freestyler of the Mammoth Mountain Junior Snowboard Team, were to ride down…
 Outside magazine, May 1996 I Hear America Slogging Who are these rough, smelly pilgrims, fueled by ibuprofen and Snickers, shuffling toward Katahdin? Appalachian Trail through-hikers, of course–wayfarers on a classic holy road that’s big enough to embrace rattled urban refugees, Walden-toting aesthetes,…
Outside magazine, November 1997 Assuming That the Calibration of My Heart Rate and Recovery Times Has Been Optimally Linked to My Individualized Nutritional Needs, I Will Kick Your Ass A bit of in-your-face conversation with triathlon’s controversial heir apparent By John…
Ben Johnson always ran in front. First in Seoul, first in scandal, first in exile. But now the pack, increasingly drug-ridden and morally indistinguishable from the fallen sprinter, has caught up to him. Which is exactly why Johnson thinks he can be out front once more.
Dispatches, September 1998 Politics A Paler Shade of Brown Republican hard-liners say they care — no, really — about the environment By Jonathan Miles It wasn’t particularly surprising — or even unusual — that more than 100 stalwart…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Good, Clean, Dangerous Places Wilderness is where we find our deepest imagery, our purest freedom, our truest selves. We’d be lost without it, and we’ve never needed it more than we do now.
Outside magazine, November 1995 Climbing: Dad, Am I Over the Hill? By Todd Balf (with Joe Glickman) As a 98-pound 12-year-old, Tommy Caldwell of Colorado climbed the Diamond on Rocky Mountain National Park’s Longs Peak, one of the premier big-wall routes in the country.
Survivor II, Episode 2 People who eat people are the luckiest people in the world By Bill Vaughn Courtesy of CBS Before the bloodthirsty lords of England turned Australia into a very large prison island stocked with…
Outside Magazine, October 1998 Frustration All the Bad Breaks Then the world’s many problems were suddenly solved By Bryan Di Salvatore Summer 1978. My friend Bill and I had fetched up on Tavarua, an uninhabited sand tonsure ringing…
Outside magazine, February 1996 Science: Out with the Old, In with the Snooze The new, improved Biosphere 2 might make for better science, but we sure miss Johnny Dolphin By Stephanie Pearson Remember Biosphere 2? A futuristic 1991 experIment, it placed eight…
 Cycling Special, March 1999 With the Wind At His Heels A gusty adventure in the wilds of Patagonia, both on bike and very suddenly off By Mark Levine Be the Sag Wagon How to…
 Outside magazine, May 1997 The Killing of Wolf Number Ten When Chad McKittrick murdered the pride of the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction project, he became the prey By Thomas McNamee A man in a blue 1988 Ford pickup truck turns…
Family Vacations, Summer 1996 Be Amphibious If Sea kayakers were any closer to the water, they’d have gills. By Bill Heavey Our Favorite Places | Inside Skinny | Hysterical Parent |…
Dispatches, July 1998 Trends If It’s 100 Years Old, It Must Be Good! Cycling’s slightly baffling (and very bumpy) infatuation with retro-chic By Paul Andersen ‘It’s the purest sense of the bicycle there is,” says Wes Williams as he…
Dispatches, August 1998 Animal Rights Put That Bunny Down, or I’ll Kick Your Butt Steve Hindi pioneers a new brand of brass-knuckled activism By Jonathan Eig Yes, it’s true that Steve Hindi is both an animal-rights activist and…
Outside magazine, May 1997 Toward Thee I Lurch, Thou All-Destroying but Uninterested Grizzly Bear Like Ahab before him, Troy Hurtubise obsessively stalks the Great Other, donning 147 pounds of homemade armor, suffering countless test-pummelings, and sliding into bankruptcy as he awaits the ultimate…
Outside magazine, August 1996 A Hip New Twist to Swimming Technique The secret to the perfect workout, say Olympic coaches, is all in the midsection By Laura Hilgers To become a more powerful and efficient swimmer, practice this simple dry-land exercise:…
Outside 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…
Travel Guide, Winter 1995-1996 Islands You’ve Never Heard Of By Jonathan Runge Culebra Just 17 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico, Culebra has been bypassed by the tourists crowding its parent island. This 11-square-mile, wishbone-shaped islet is defined as much by what…
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…