Adventure
ArchiveOutside magazine, June 1994 Mountain Biking: 150-kph Dreaming By Todd Balf (with Martin Dugard and Eric Hagerman) Funny things happen when you try to ride a mountain bike at 150 kph. Ask the new downhill speed record holder, Frenchman Christian Taillefer, who on…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Books: Time and Tide Caught Inside: A Surfer’s Year on the California Coast, by Daniel Duane (North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $21). Thoreau did it from the door of his cabin; Darwin, from the deck of the H.M.S. Beagle;…
Vacation Special, August 1997 F L Y – F I S H I N G T H E R O G U E Time Off the Grid In blissful isolation along the Rogue River, where it’s easier to find…
Outside magazine, October 1995 Books: Vengeance and Cactus By Miles Harvey Painted Desert, by Frederick Barthelme (Viking, $22.95). This vibrant novel has fascinating parallels with nature essayist Bill McKibben’s acclaimed 1992 nonfiction work, The Age of Missing Information. In that book, McKibben…
Destinations, November 1998 Ace is the Place A prime-season meander down South Carolina’s Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers By Parke Puterbaugh If your mental image of coastal South Carolina consists mainly of Myrtle Beach’s six-lane…
Out Front, Fall 1998 Anthropology O.J., B.C. New and disheartening evidence that domestic abuse is prehistory By Cristina Opdahl It wasn’t So Fred Flintstone flirted with waitresses in Rockapulco. And frittered away too much time at the lodge.
Outside magazine, January 1996 The Outside Prognosticator: Don’t Condo Me In Sheep rancher Randy Campbell says he’s been backed against a wall. “All the spring range is being subdivided for golf courses,” sighs Campbell, who works land near Vail, Colorado. Such growth has forced him to…
Outside magazine, January 1996 A Bimonthly Bath, Penguin Porn, and Thou New Year’s greetings from Don and Margie McIntyre, wrapping up 365 long days of Antarctic togetherness By Jack Barth Last January, adventurers Don and Margie McIntyre left the warmth of Sydney,…
Outside magazine, February 1998 W I N T E R O L Y M P I C S P R E V I E W Nagano? Naga-Yes! Sure, this year’s Winter Olympics will have its foibles, including…
Outside magazine, September 1994 When the Whammy Strikes It’s 3 a.m. in a big, foreign city. Do you know where your running shoes are? By Randy Wayne White Maybe through influence, but probably through curse, the Temple of the Giant Jaguar was the shaper…
Outside magazine, April 1996 26.2 Legendary Miles Of Foot-Pounding, Heartbreaking, Endorphin-Inducing Huff America’s oldest, greatest marathon transformed distance running from lonely obsession to the mass promenade of a fitness nation. On the centennial of the grueling Yankee race that helped launch a revolution, a boisterous salute.
Outside magazine, August 1999 THE MOUNTAINEERS Line of Ascent On a breeding ground for greatness, wisdom comes one humble step at a time It only takes a few minutes to learn how to strap on…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Ride Like a Pack Mule What you really need before hitting the road By Bob Howells If your bike-touring burden consists of everything in your pockets, it matters little what bike you ride: Your mountain bike will do…
Travel Guide, Winter 1995-1996 The Outside Yenta Says… 1. If you migrated toward (a), you’re a PURIST. Crowds and glitz, say you, are the source of all evil. Take your Birkenstock-wearing, muesli-munching, powder-lusting self to Mount Baker, Washington–Mecca for laid-back thirtysomething free-riders. Please,…
Outside magazine, August 2000 CAMPAIGN 2000: GORE | GORE’S GREEN CORPS BUSH | BIG MAN ON CAMPUS ASSUME THE POSITIONS RALPH NADER All Bulworth, No…
News from the Field, January 1997 Politics: Voters? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Voters. As the new Congress rolls in, meet the environmental bigwigs who’ll be pulling the strings By Juliet Eilperin Sure, being a member of congress has its perks–but…
Dispatches, March 1997 Expeditions: I Was a Middle-Aged Amelia Earhart Linda Finch’s vintage attempt to finish a legend’s journey By Paul Kvinta For The Record This One’s Mine, Dammit! Denied two years…
Outside magazine, January 1996 Books: The Spirits of Science By Miles Harvey Ship Fever and Other Stories, by Andrea Barrett (W. W. Norton, $21). Barrett, an Outside contributor and noted novelist, has put together a soaring collection of stories about characters, some…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Surfing: With the Worlds on her lumbar By Todd Balf (with Jim Kelly, Martin Dugard, and Alison Osius) Lisa Andersen’s beachside entourage was the size of a Paia block party. There were trainers, coaches, friends, family, and sponsors on hand…
Dispatches, April 1997 Sport: Carving Toward Destiny? Chris Davenport tries to secure the top spot in extreme-skiing history–on his own terms By Michael Finkel E A R T O T H E G R O U N…
Outside magazine, July 1996 Aesthetics: Spare Not the Grace Notes By Bob Shacochis I prefer to think that the wilderness as we have it these days, however attenuated and besieged, is more than ever the last refuge of the raw sensualist, and that the…
Outside magazine, September 1995 No More Curse of the Sheepherders But why would such a wholesome nation want the America’s Cup? By Randy Wayne White All things considered, the best place for a journalist to watch the finals of America’s Cup XXIX…
News from the Field, December 1996 Chemistry: The Not-Quite-As-Big Bang Shredding’s volitile new form of avalanche control By Hal Clifford When Doug Abromeit, director of the Forest Service’s National Avalanche Center, recently spied two teenage snowboarders in Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon,…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Policing the Flyways of Disease From the peculiar vantage point of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the world beyond America’s borders swarms with pathogenic threats. With more than 2.5 million foreign animals arriving in the United States every year–any one of which…
Outside magazine, March 1995 Big Weather The Ice Storm The picturesque has become terror, whole forests collapsing at once. Lessness rules. By Barry Hannah The Gale Forty-knot winds. Fifty-foot seas. And a ship that suddenly…
 Outside magazine, May 1994 A Death in Navajo Country Leroy Jackson loved this land and fought to protect it. Last fall his body was found on a lonely New Mexico road. Was he murdered? Or had he somehow lost his way?…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Paddling: Nicklaus, Jordan..Who? Greg Barton, America’s most celebrated unknown athlete By Martin Dugard Devoted paddlers talk about greg barton’s kayak stroke with the same reverence that country-clubbers reserve for Jack Nicklaus’s golf swing. No unseemly kerplunk marks the…
Gone Summering, July 1998 The Sky Is Not the Limit Look, up there, it’s the Dakotas’ main attraction! By Louise Erdrich And Don’t Forget the Terra Firma The 244,000-acre Badlands National Park is probably…
Outside magazine, October 1997 The Ironmen They invited us to their masochists’ ball. Amazingly, we accepted. By John Tayman ‘We were the first that ever burst / into that silent sea,” quoth Coleridge. Nothing…
Outside magazine, October 1997 Phil Knight His big sell: Everyone’s an athlete By Donald Katz A billionaire nearly six times over, and every cent of it born of entrepreneurial obsession and the abiding allure…
The Downhill Report, December 1996 A Little Humility Never Hurt Learning to snowboard can be a bumpy ride. Get over it, will you? By Mike Harrelson Ask most folks to describe their first day on a snowboard, and what they’re sure…
Outside magazine, December 1997 Philanthropy: Do-Gooders Rule! In this age of mounting apathy, an unlikely subculture steps up to the plate By Paul Kvinta And the Moral Is, Never Underestimate the Home-River Advantage…
Outside magazine, June 1995 Paleontology: Don’t Touch the Femurs By Chris Dray “Finally, I can get back to work.” That’s about all Peter Larson had to say after a jury last March acquitted him of the major charges in a rare case involving dinosaurs…
Outside magazine, March 1996 Goodness, Gracious By Todd Balf and Paul Kvinta (with Brian Alexander and Steve Law) After last December’s inferno at the Malden Mills plant in Methuen, Massachusetts, shock waves could be felt both locally and throughout the outdoor-recreation business. The blaze…
Outside magazine, June 1996 Food and Drink Cycling Haute Cuisine By Bob Howells As many a resting athlete knows, there’s something about a malt beverage–and we’re not talking milkshakes–that soothes sore muscles and cools a hyperthermic body core. So next time…
Outside magazine, August 1995 Environment: A Moment on the Goofs Rome is burning. So why are greens throwing water at a book? By Keith Schneider (with Margaret Kriz) Gregg Easterbrook looked happy enough, but for somebody who once wrote an article entitled…
Outside magazine, October 1999 Adventure at the End of the Century The sight of George Leigh Mallory’s well-preserved body on Everest confirms that adventure, like life, is not always pretty. It means risking all on a mountain—as Mallory did, with tragic…
Outside magazine, January 1996 Heave To, Felix! Thar Blow th’ Faeroes! For good nautical fun, nothing beats the blizzardy, icebergy waters of the North Sea. Which makes it just the place for two friends willing to go anywhere in the name of unjustifiable adventure.
Travel Guide, Winter 1995-1996 Dominica By David Noland Dominica is for people who need sweat and grit in their tropical vacation: The island’s few beaches are mostly of black volcanic sand, and none rates even fair by Caribbean standards. What Dominica…
Outside magazine, March 1997 While Visions of 2,200-Pound Burritos Dance in His Head Not to mention spinning kayakers, tap-dancing marathoners, and flying haggis. The Keeper of the Records for the Guinness Book explains how to make a run at immortality.
Outside magazine, May 1996 Wildlife: Would you stuff this into your suitcase? Renowned bird-lover Tony Silva’s ugly fall from grace By Gretchen Reynolds “Nature has certain rules you don’t violate,” Tony Silva told a reporter in 1985. Dark-haired, dark-eyed, intense, and at…
 Outside magazine, June 1999 Culture Clash Journalist Philip True hiked into Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental seeking meaningful contact with the native Huichol Indians: an exotic trek with a little reporting thrown in, an encounter with an ancient…
 Outside magazine, August 1995 Without a Trace Jeff Wandich learned a hard lesson from his tragedy at sea: Human nature doesn’t allow people to vanish without a trace By Randy Wayne White Late on a windy night, in a hundred feet…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Cycling: Odds That… Rebecca Twigg will win the 3,000-meter pursuit……3-2 Lance Armstrong will ride away with a gold……..5-1 Miguel Indurain will medal…….10-1…
Outside magazine, May 1995 Speed Skating: Bonnie Blair’s Entirely Predictable Farewell Tour By Todd Balf Rarely does an athlete bid farewell to a sport while at the top of his or her game. But at 31, Bonnie Blair has just wrapped up one of…
Brad Pitt's in Tibet. Steven Seagal's flacking his lama creds on Letterman. Dharma's rampant at the local U and Buddha has settled in the East Village. With America sweatily grasping all things Shangri-La, it's a virtual Lamapalooza out there. But will the true cause benefit?
Dispatches, August 1998 Exploration Hello … Anybody Out There? Two climbers get first dibs on an untouched wilderness of peaks By Hampton Sides Dave Briggs got his first aerial glimpse of Greenland’s Sweizerland Mountains from a Bell 210 helicopter…
Kamchatka, east of Siberia. As the curtain rises on the new frontier of adventure outfitting, attendees include your guide (he's the one with the armored vehicle), the local businessman (he's the one with the machine gun), the UN environmentalist (he's the nervous-looking one), and your fellow tourists (they'll be arriving any moment now). Please enjoy the show
Outside magazine, September 1999 TECHNOLOGY Heavy Breathing A device for improving lung capacity has athletes in a lather For years, the quest to gain stamina and speed by developing bigger, stronger lungs has led athletes of all stripes…
Outside magazine, November 1995 Showdown in the West By Larry Burke Nowhere is our national distrust of Washington more extreme than in the West, where ranchers, loggers, and miners lately have been playing brinkmanship with the federal government, whose environmental laws often cramp their…
Family Vacations, Summer 1997 Come Along, Little Doggie All you need to know before bringing your best friend to the backcountry By Ron C. Judd A sk any good trail dog: When slopes get steep and…
Outside magazine, October 1994 Why This Man Isn’t Smiling As if fuming Republicans weren’t enough… A pocket primer on Bruce Babbitt’s iffier “allies” from the Democratic aisle. By Ned Martel With two long, strange years behind him, Bruce Babbitt will find himself on familiar…
Dispatches: News from the Field, November 1996 Beach Bumming: Hey, That Isn’t Karch Kiraly! With geriatric stars and a familiar milieu, sand soccer makes its move By Julian Rubinstein For years, the Association of Volleyball Professionals, purveyor of the popular beach…
Dispatches, March 1998 PARCEL POST Neither Rain, nor Sleet, nor Hungry Hawk … Oops Need to see yourself in all your whitewater glory? A plucky fleet of pigeons will try its damnedest Forget liability woes and pricey river permits. It…
Outside Magazine, March 1999 Review: The Other Stuff ELECTRONICS | BUYING RIGHT | THE OTHER STUFF | BOOKS BOB…
Outside Magazine, November 1994 Paddling: Painfully Close By Todd Balf (with Jim Hage) “We’re disappointed but we’re not devastated,” said a spokesman for French kayaker Mathieu Morverand, who on August 14 abandoned his solo voyage across the North Atlantic a mere 170 miles from…
Outside magazine, June 1999 Culture We Say It’s Art. But What About Ewe? Two acclaimed landscape artists face their touchiest critics ever For more than 35 years, art fans have thrilled to the…
Destinations, July 1997 S M A R T T R A V E L E R It’s Not a Canoe. It’s a Tuba. Tromping about on Spain’s unique western shore, where fjords abound and vino is a breakfast staple…
Out Front, Fall 1998 Relations The Taliban and I Shall we lunch? I get the kabobs. And he’s having Afghanistan. By Amy Goldwasser “It’s a good thing we don’t have beaches anywhere in our country,” Mawlawi Abdul Wahab says…
Outside magazine, May 1997 Bends in the River Time and man roiled his boyhood waters, yet memories still flow unchecked By John Jerome We name places, places name us, whether we want them to or not. I’m an Oklahoman, although…
Outside magazine, August 1996 The Book On: Rowing The Peskiest foe for the U.S. women’s eight? Overconfidence. By Lisa Twyman Bessone “It’s great that everyone will be gunning for us,” says Yaz Farooq, coxswain of the U.S. women’s eight crew…
Outside magazine, August 1996 Your Enemy Is Our Enemy “Well, they do like to shoot birds,” figures Maureen Hinkle, a lobbyist for the National Audubon Society. Hinkle is speculating on the motivations of the newest member of the green movement, the National Rifle Association. Last…
Outside magazine, October 1994 While Foursomes in Funny Pants Sleep… Fortunes, and alligators, lie waiting. Tales of a golf-course pirate. By Randy Wayne White Florida treasure hunters are as common as Kansas wheat, so it is not surprising that I, because of my specialized…
 Outside magazine, November 1995 Born Again by the Schussmeter If you can get the turns down on the slopes, they say, you can get the turns down elsewhere. In the cradle of alpine skiing, a fool can always hope. By Chip…
Features: Election Preview ’96, November 1996 Something Toxic This Way Comes A teardrop-by-teardrop look at how close Newt Gingrich’s dream legislation is to becoming law. And who, if elected, might spoil his plans. By Lolly Merrell THE BILL: Unbeknownst to…
Outside magazine, November 1997 It’s for You Worldwide phone service is almost upon us. Will it be worth the costs? By Doug Fine You’re toting an expensive laptop past a 14-year-old militiaman in Kigali, Rwanda, searching for a place…
Family Vacations, Summer 1996 We’re Doing What? Six great trips you’ve never thought of By Laura Billings Our Favorite Places “Been there, done that” may well be the credo for your kids’ generation. To wrestle their…
Outside magazine, April 1998 Out There: Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make me a pot In Maya Ortiz, achieving the good life requires a guy like Rick, bachelor and entrepreneur By Tim Cahill It was somewhere near three in the morning when Chillero’s…
Outside magazine, February 1997 Above Suspicion Touring foreign lands with fake credentials, an unflappable cohort, and a Cessna 182 By Randy Wayne White Meeting hellish deadlines when in the field is tough enough without attempting to compose while strapped into a…
Outside magazine, May 1998 Something Wicked This Way Comes It walloped Hawaii, uprooting palms and swatting aside men who thought they could surf it. Now the biggest swell in 30 years was barreling across the Pacific, aiming for the coast. Anyone feeling lucky?…
 Outside magazine, May 1999 From the Wonderful People Who Brought You the Killing Fields Never Mind the Land Mines, the Kidnappings, the Chaotic Weirdness. When the Henchmen Of Cambodia Throw Down the Welcome Mat For Tourism, the…
Outside magazine, July 1995 Evaluation: Measuring Up the UV Index By Ami Walsh If you pay any attention to your local TV or radio meteorologist, you’ve probably noticed the National Weather Service’s UV Index in the daily forecast. This number is an attempt to…
Dispatches, August 1997 E Y E C A N D Y The Tornadoman Cometh Much to the delight of twister-lovers, artist Ned Kahn takes his chaos on tour By Anne Goodwin Sides E A R T O…
Shark Alley, August 1998 Here, Sharky, Sharky In the seas off South Africa’s Dyer Island, shark mania and risk adventure have combined with a vengeance. For a few bucks, one of a gang of ill-qualified, ill-equipped dive operators will drop you into the…
 Outside magazine, November 1997 She Thought She Spied a Killer Beast Out There Among the Turks, and fled the river for the hills where odd adventure lurks. “Hello,” said Bob the earless dog. “I’m one of many quirks.” A looking glass experience…
Outside Magazine, November 1998 Ode to a Buck-Naked Cowboy Is there poetry — or adventure — to be found among the silver sage, flat tires, and unlikely characters of the Black Rock Desert? Maybe. By Tim Cahill I was driving north,…