Adventure
ArchiveOutside 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 —…
Dispatches, March 1997 Extreme Games: A Break Too Large? The Jaws Invitational boasts an all-star lineup and $100,000 in prize money. And that, say some top big-wave surfers, is why it shouldn’t take place at all. By Brad Wetzler…
 Outside magazine, May 1996 Africa: Untamed, Uncensored and on Celluloid In a style that’s more Peckinpah than Marlin Perkins, Dereck and Beverly Joubert have revolutionized wildlife filmmaking with unflinching documentaries that combine violent realism and equally dramatic story lines. Their work has brought…
Outside magazine, June 1999 Pro and Conservation After reading your exhaustive green-groups package (“Near to the Ground,” April), I feel compelled to express a newfound sense of motivation, as well as the desire, to aid…
Outside magazine, August 1995 Cycling: Sidi Tecno Fire By Douglas Gantenbein Shelling out $190 for a pair of fine Italian shoes is justifiable if you’re dressing to meet Isabella Rossellini for chianti on the piazzo. But if you’re going to spend that kind of…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Extras: Lap-Lane Toys for the Technologically Savvy By Laura Hilgers If you’re a swimmer with a gear fetish, you’re a pretty frustrated sort, unless you’ve seen the new sculpted lap-lane devices from Zura Sports, which not only give you something…
Outside magazine, June 1994 Fine In-Line Skates Roll with high quality, not just high technology By Jim Harmon Buy right or buy twice–a lesson that in-line skaters have lots of opportunities to learn the hard way. Try to save some money…
Outside magazine, December 1996 He’s Still The Coolest A few moments with Old Man Winter, on his life, his loves, and the prospect of being phased out by a thing called global warming By Bruce McCall Old Man Winter is one…
News from the Field, January 1997 Sport: I’ll Have Mine on the Rocks and Straight Up Jeff Lowe’s towering plan to bring ice climbing to the masses By Julian Rubinstein Jeff Lowe is an idea man. when he’s not scaling mammoth,…
Outside magazine, August 1998 Field Notes: Cirque du Sailor Amid big-league swells, the world’s fastest ocean race runs aground in Baltimore By Bucky BcMahon Sometime before dawn on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday in spring, nine oceangoing sloops began feeling their…
And other lofty ideas that pop into one's head and refuse to leave
Outside magazine, September 1999 CYCLING Negative Spin After this year’s events, will the Tour de France ever be albe to redeem itself? Early in the morning on July 4, 189 cyclists were pooled together in a mass…
Outside magazine, September 1999 Just Add Intensity Ahtletes dread intervals because they’re tough. They’re also worth it. By Terry Mulgannon RUNNING | SWIMMING | CYCLING A GUIDE YOU CAN…
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, October 1994 Cycling: Miguel, You’re Swell By Todd Balf (with Greg Child and Dan Dickison) Miguel Indurain isn’t a big talker, but he had to be beaming in the aftermath of his record-tying fourth consecutive Tour de France victory last July. In a year…
Dispatches: News from the Field, November 1996 Film: Look Who’s Fornicating The latest from Miramax goes to show that it’s a bug-@#!*-bug world By Elizabeth Royte At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Miramax Films made a move that was…unusual. The studio…
Outside magazine, March 1998 Out There: The Platypus Prophecy Stumbling through the Australian night and, God help him, straight into the Meaning of Life By Tim Cahill Here is the wily platypus hunter, stalking the forests of the night.
Outside magazine, April 1995 Intake: Backcountry Dining Without Regression By Ami Walsh For Tim Loveridge, program coordinator of the Boston-based Appalachian Mountain Club, a trip into the backcountry is an excuse to indulge in the sort of grub most of us haven’t stocked the…
Outside Magazine, November 1994 Books: Ravage of the Rainforest By Andrea Barrett The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston (Random House, $23). Mess with the rainforest and see what you get: predatory viruses that tear into the human species like a tiger through a…
Outside magazine, June 1999 HONK IF YOU’RE IRRATIONAL They called it an unmapped drive through Indiana. But it really was a silent cry for help. My Delta, Myself | A…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Women’s Sprints: Odds That… Gwen Torrence will win three gold medals……..2-1 Merlene Ottey will shake the winner’s hand…..50-1 The U.S. women will take all sprinting gold…..4-1…
Outside magazine, April 1995 Environment: No, Uh, Cooperation in Defense of Mother Earth Can’t anybody organize this thing? How backroom feuds led to this month’s Earth Day chaos. By Bill Gifford Nobody organizes Earth Day,” former senator Gaylord Nelson said last summer…
Outside 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: Haven’t Been There. Ain’t Done That. It’s not easy being a world-beating adventurer these days. On a planet teeming with energetic busybodies, you have to find something to be first at. But fear not. In 1996, there will be…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: Bikini A-Go-Go Move over, Belau. The Marshall Islands’ Bikini Atoll, nuked repeatedly in U.S. surface tests in the forties and fifties, is about to become the South Pacific’s new must-dive local. “No question,” says Daniel J. Lenihan, chief of…
Destinations, February 1999 Chuck Darwin, Eat Your Heart Out The Chiricahua Mountains are as rugged and diverse as the Galápagos but have one big advantage: They’re right here at home. By Jonathan Hanson Up at…
Outside magazine, December 1995 A Landscape of Possibility To lose the wilderness, author Rick Bass argues, is to lose our ability to imagine By Rick Bass When the 104th congress reconvenes next month, its unfinished business is likely to include 22 million…
Outside magazine, May 1996 He’s Bad. He’s Windy. He’s a Tourist with an Attitude. Meet Robert Young Pelton, guerrilla guide to the world’s most dangerous places By Jack Hitt Robert Young Pelton is a tough guy. Just ask him. By his own…
Outside magazine, July 1996 A Five-Ring Tune-Up At least reigning C1 world champion David Hearn can joke about Michal Martikan, the Slovakian whiz kid who won the final Olympic-preview race last April on Tennessee’s Ocoee River. “You mean he’s still 16?” asked the incredulous fourth-place finisher,…
Outside magazine, September 1994 Hang Gliding: Holier Than Thou By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and John Alderman) Over the years, top-ranked American pilot Tony Barton has collided with mountains, tangled in trees, and splatted on hardpan, but until the second day of last June’s Sandia…
Travel Guide, Winter 1995-1996 Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Part II A test to pair you with your sultry better half By Paul Kvinta The cliché-filled travelogues that lump all islands together in a wad of sand, cocoa butter, and umbrella-festooned drinks are intrinsically flawed.
Sifting through the ashes—and questions—amid one of one of the worst fire seasons ever Michael Darter Unfriendly fire: one of 235 homes incinerated by the Cerro Grande blaze in Los Alamos in May CHRIS KIRBY IS a large…
Outside magazine, March 1998 Field Notes: Fool’s Gold In the diaphanous mists of the Ecuadoran Andes, a king’s ransom lies buried. Or does it? By Melik Kaylan You want to hear about the treasure’s secrets?” said Andrës Fernžndez-Salvador the day…
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: With No Giant Soda Cans, Can It Truly Be Called Freestyle? They plunged hundreds of feet while “riding” snowboards and kayaks, and crowds loved “freestyle bungee jumping” at last year’s inaugural Extreme Games. As Chris Stiepock, the event’s PR…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Ride With Pride: Progressive Machines: Mountain Bikes By Bob Howells and Gordon Black Performance in reserve — that’s the theme for this year’s mountain bikes, and you don’t have to deplete your finances to get it. Examples: Stiff, lightweight aluminum…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Big Weather: Tornadoes Greenness, hail, air pressure flattening your skull. Hide the children, save the banjo. By Jane Smiley By the time I was 25 and living in Iowa City, my fear of tornadoes was a significant fact…
Outside magazine, April 1999 Go West, and Preferably at Race Pace The training secrets of the athletes on the Old Frontier? Play often, work seldom, and always remember that the good guys wear white. Fashion by…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Geography: Dick Clark, Please Report to the Date Line Where will you be when it’s time to party like it’s 1999? By John Galvin The year 2000 may be four sweeps through the calendar away, but the race…
Outside magazine, September 1995 Racks That Take to Any Body How to carry all of your gear, on Subaru or Suburban, while feeling no strain By John Lehrer For years, sport racks have done job one–securely clamping gear to vehicle–with utter competence.
Outside magazine, November 2000 Chips on the Old Block I recently spent eight days on Mount Shasta, and I guess I fit your definition of a techreationalist (“The Everest of Silicon Valley,” Dispatches, September):…
Review: Hardware and Software, January 1997 Carving Tools New proof that gear makes the athlete: skis and snowboards that practically turn for you By Craig Dostie Whether you cruise on one plank or two, the technique everyone wants to master is…
Outside magazine, March 1996 Anthropology: Tiptoe Through the Turmoil Is scientific colonialism alive and well in Tanzania? By Kiki Yablon About 3.6 million years ago, three human-like creatures stood up and walked across the muddied volcanic ash near what is now Tanzania’s…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Cycling: And No French Aftertaste By Alan Cote Funny how the Tour DuPont sneaks up on you. On the seventh of this month, 126 of the world’s finest cyclists will finish wending their way through Appalachia in the seventh running…
Gone Summering, July 1998 Need a Little More? Sporting diversions to keep you hopping from now till Labor Day By Kimberly Lisagor July 4 Mount Marathon Race, Seward, AK Don’t be fooled by the distance —…
Gone Summering, July 1998 Where Earth and Water Mix It Up On Cape Cod, “landscape” is a word that defies definition By Paul Theroux The Cape You Don’t Know To paraphrase Heracleitus, it’s not…
Outside magazine, October 1997 Chico Mendes After he was cut down, his ideas took root By Kate Wheeler Had the Brazilian ranchers who murdered Chico Mendes known what was coming, they might never have shot…
 Outside magazine, October 1997 Uno … Dos … Tres … Urrrrnggghhh! Six thousand years of triumphant Basque sport have come down to this moment, when the toughest mother from the world’s toughest race attempts the near impossible.