Adventure
ArchiveOutside 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.
Outside magazine, November 1996 Cross-Country Nation A report from the tracks in Oslo, capital of the land where to be Nordic is to ski nordic By Bill McKibben Warning! as you read this article, remember that Norway is not the…
Dispatches, November 1998 Sport I’m Going Big. Anyone Care to Follow? Layne Beachley looks to make her mark at surfing’s Triple Crown By Laura Hilgers Gale-force winds were whipping the peaks off six- to eight-foot waves last December when…
Winter Travel Guide 1996 Party Like It’s 1997 Jeff Williams If you want to be among the first in the world to ring in 1997, you’ll have to go far out of your way to do it-to the Chatham Islands, some 475 miles east…
Outside magazine, April 1995 Cowboy Nation: The Aerobic Cowboy: The Tush-Push Frontier A line-dancing odyssey to the land of the rhinestone-chapped and ready By Ed Zuckerman It was 7:30 on a Friday night, and the cavernous dance hall at In Cahoots, a…
Dispatches, May 1998 AFTERMATHS Nuclear Weapons Waste? Right This Way. While protesters cry foul, the U.S. government prepares to throw open the gates of the nation’s first permanent plutonium graveyard By Michael Dolan A small cluster of white…
 Outside magazine, May 1999 Eat My Backwash, Se±or! Sixteen hours in the foul Argentine drink, at a pair of the world’s longest (and strangest) swim races By Ken Kalfus Photographs by Rob Howard After…
Outside magazine, July 1995 Cinema: Check Out Those Lifelike Blowholes Hollywood unveils its kinder, gentler, bad-press-proof killer whales By John Alderman “These are not illusions,” says Walt Conti, owner of Edge Innovation, a movie special-effects boutique in Mountain View, California, explaining his…
Outside magazine, August 1997 Cheeky Bit of Ocean There, What? Exactly why are two young Brits pedaling, pedal-boating, and cross-dressing their way around the globe? Splendid question. They’re still trying to come up with a logical answer.
Fitness special, August 1998 Welcome to Your Future, Sissy Boy You fancy yourself an athlete? Well, so did the NBA All-Star, and the American League Rookie of the Year. But hard-guy trainer Mark Verstegen broke them down.
Outside magazine, November 1997 And 856,000 Choruses of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” Later … An armada of fearless oarsmen sets out on a 3,000-mile transatlantic free-for-all By Bill Donahue November is shaping up to be an unpleasant month for…
Outside magazine, November 1998 How Hard Is Hard? To firm up the nebulous, get cozy with your lactate threshold At what pace should you be working? Good question — and one you should be constantly…
Women Outside, Fall 1998 Longevity My, You’re a Pretty Young Thing Our octogenarian correspondent meets the septuagenarian of his dreams — with predictable results GEAR | TRAVEL | FITNESS |…
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.
The Downhill Report, December 1996 Flash! Bumps Are Actually Good For You! Not sure it’s time to return to moguls? Remember, you used to hate broccoli, too. By Michael Finkel Jonny Moseley can empathize. Although he’s a two-time World Cup overall…
 Outside magazine, December 1997 Mourning in the Land of Magic Rampant in the island nation of Indonesia is the idea that everyday life is governed by forces unseen, administered by the true leaders of the country, sorcerers known as dukuns. Among the…
Outside magazine, January 1998 Review Essentials Strength Through Simplicity By Patrick Leyland THE STREAMLINED HOME GYM | ESSENTIALS | THE OTHER STUFF | BOOKS…
Outside magazine, March 1996 1-800-SNOWJOB By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Brian Alexander and Steve Law) Organizers of the embattled Iditarod International Sled Dog Race say they expect a near-record 73 mushers at the starting line this month. Among the entrants will be…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Fallout Kudos to Outside and Alex Shoumatoff for taking on the Los Alamos National Laboratory (“Bomb City, USA,” April). The nuclear weapons money machine keeps rolling along while cleanup programs are being cut. One LANL document states that the lab’s continuing…
Outside magazine, July 1999 EXPLORATION Deep Blues Forty fathoms down, divers have been dying on the wreck of the Andrea Doria. Will this be the worst summer ever? A Mystery Endures Not long after…
Outside magazine, August 1995 Expeditions: Crampons and Spokes By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard) This month, mountain guides Peter Bogardus and Shepard Kopp say, they’ll bring exploratory mountain biking to new extremes by pedaling to remote peaks in western China. They’re calling the expedition…
And other divinations from Tom Brown's Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School. As told by David Rakoff—Acolyte of the Standard Class, Master Bowdriller, Sweat Lodge Scaredy-Cat, and Friend to the Vole
Dispatches, February 1998 EXPEDITIONS Gramps Is Doing What? Vaughan, 92-year-old spring chicken, mushes through another Alaskan winter By Bill Donahue It’s not exactly the remark you expect to hear from a guy who’s about to hop on a dogsled…
The recovery he helped bring upon the Hudson has been far more personal for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. than the process of simply cleansing a river. It has washed him of his sins, returning his birthright charm and political pedigree to full shiny view — and leaving onlookers wondering what's next.
Dispatches, March 1997 Activism: Bovine Trespassers Beware An Oregon environmentalist makes his point–with a hail of gunfire By Bill Donahue “My god!” cries Robert Sproul, an 82-year-old Oregon cattle rancher. “They were just innocent cows.” Innocent or not, 11 of Sproul’s…
Outside magazine, May 1996 Adventure: On 3,456 Kit Kat Bars and a Prayer Samantha Brewster’s backward tacking into sailing history By John Tayman It’s been done before, so it isn’t unimaginable. Still, sailing nonstop around the world, alone and in the wrong…
With what? Dire expectation, for one: Of snail-like progress through the soul of RV Nation. Of Truckers Use Low Gear, High Wind Warning, Slippery When Wet. A few days on the road as the highest-impact camper, and yes, please check the oil.
Outside magazine, June 1999 MY DELTA, MYSELF You can go home again–so long as home is the blacktop along the mighty Mississippi My Delta, Myself | A Little Good, Clean…
Outside magazine, August 1995 Aquaculture: Scales of Justice By Karen Wright “Fishermen think we can track these bass out of aircraft,” says Bob Lunsford, a Maryland state biologist, “and frankly, we don’t tell them any different.” Lunsford is talking about 3,000 wild black bass…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Intake: Souped-Up Smoothies By Rita Dimmick Increase your brain power, detoxify your digestive tract, even improve your sexual performance. These are the promises being proffered by the latest twist in short-attention-span health food making its way east: souped-up smoothies.
Dispatches, December 1998 Expeditions Everest? No Problem. Except for This Damn Full-Body Cast. An avalanche-battered snowboarder resumes his climb-and-carve assault on the world’s highest peaks. By Tim Zimmermann “I remember this sudden rush…
Travel Guide, Winter 1995-1996 How to Carve Out Some Savings By Ron C. Judd Deep in the heart of every skier lurk two great fears: unsettlingly steep slopes and unreasonably steep ski-trip prices. To survive the first, sideslip. To avoid the second, consider a…
 Outside magazine, October 1997 And Old Views Shall Be Replaced By New It’s just a matter of days now, when this stoppering of China’s signature river, the largest works project of the millennium, will begin. The ambition is tremendous, the environment transformable,…
Outside magazine, September 2000 Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Baring All The Wildest Dream: The Biography of George Mallory, by Peter and…
Beneath the skin of the Australian landscape known as Kakadu, a huge wealth of uranium awaits. Above that same skin lies wealth of a more intimate sort: paradisiacal scenery, the first touch of human history, and 50 millennia of artistic achievement, rendered on soft, glowing sandstone. Can you see the dilemma here?
Outside magazine, September 1999 BOOKS Rough Going Buy this book! Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam,…
Outside magazine, November 1995 Jurisprudence: Presumed Gullible By Ken Olsen It almost seemed cruel. After tracing fugitive animal-rights activist Rod Coronado to a house on an Arizona Indian reservation, police spun a tale about an injured bird down at the local fire station. The…
Outside magazine, June 2000 Whale Watching: Q&A with Peter Bray By David Friedland Despite the modern trend toward the efficiency and ease of airplane travel, one brave Cornish man is about to attempt a crossing of the…
Outside magazine, October 1995 Entertainment: John Muir, You’re Going to Disney World! From the marriage of wilderness education and entrepreneurial scheming, a brainchild is born By Debra Shore Were you really satisfied with your last visit to a national park? Think about…
Features: Election Preview ’96, November 1996 He’s Back And He’s Tanned, Rested, and Ready Forget Colin, Pat, and Jesse. The big-time endorsement every politician covets this year is that of television commercial icon Iron Eyes Cody, beloved symbol of the environmental movement. So…
For the preternaturally talented Alex Lowe, world's best climber, the path to every summit passes directly through his family room. Which, he's discovering, is a tricky route to take.
Outside magazine, May 1997 Diabolique It’s not the fact that Jeannie Longo crushes her cycling rivals so effortlessly that bothers them. It’s that she’s so unpleasant in victory. By Dana Thomas It should have been,…
Dispatches, December 1998 Environment Pipe Dreaming The oil industry covets yet another Alaskan paradise. And this time it looks like no one can stop them. By Dirk Olin The vast, treeless expanse of arctic coastal plain that lies along…
Outside magazine, June 1999 Expedition If the Approach Doesn’t Kill You, Try Out the Ascent Deep in the Karakoram, three American climbers attempt the biggest wall of them all…
Outside magazine, August 1999 Jocko’s Rocket Will the car of the future come screaming out of the Mojave desert? By Brad Wetzler Ninety miles east of Los Angeles, the San Bernardino Mountains give way…
Outside magazine, April 1995 Cowboy Nation: Clothes Make the Cowpoke From the homespun to the highflautin, the best in buckaroo gear By Sara Corbett In a marketplace choked with faux western wear, it’s important to keep in mind that cowboys, real cowboys,…
Outside magazine, July 1994 Tour Preview: Meanwhile, Among the Grown-ups… A bookie’s-eye view of the big race By Eric Hagerman Months before this year’s Tour de France, and already the rumors were voyant. The course, some claimed, was designed to expose the weakness…
Outside magazine, August 1996 The Book On: Swimming A skeptical world can’t help but ask: will the Chinese women come clean? By Gretchen Reynolds In the history of competitive aquatics, no team has ever been so reviled as China’s female swimmers. Arriving…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Presumed Redundant Concluding a chain of events that resembles something out of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, U.S. marshals have finally located fugitive river guide William Stoner in Sydney, Australia, and are now pressing for his extradition. Stoner, you may recall,…
Outside magazine, October 1994 Classics: The Dutch Oven By Donovan Webster These days, camp fashion demands equipment that glitters like NASA nuggets and weighs less than helium. Which is important if you’re making a very classy through-hike of the Appalachian Trail, but not so for lesser…
Outside magazine, November 1995 Embraced by the Strangler Fig Cut loose with the world’s most maddeningly optimistic adventurer By Randy Wayne White After surviving a hideous car crash in 1980, my friend Tucker Comstock experienced a spiritual refurbishment that helped her shed…
Review: Hardware and Software, November 1996 Books: Postcards from the front By Miles Harvey Aftermath: The Remnants of War, by Donovan Webster (Pantheon Books, $23). “All around us, human bones poke from the ground,” writes Webster. He is looking out over…
Outside magazine, November 1997 Books: Season’s Gleanings Ready for the annual fall book blitz? You are now. By Miles Harvey The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier, by Bruce Barcott (Sasquatch Books, $24). Barcott grew…