Everything
World's youngest ski patroller? Taylor Justice on the job at Aspen. Photo: Taylor Justice There are overachievers, and then there is Taylor Justice. The 12-year-old skier/climber/straight-A student started shredding double-black diamond chutes when she was eight. Three years later, she joined the…
Fire Season. Photo: Ecco/Harper Collins On Thursday, Banff announced that Fire Season won the Grand Jury Prize in its 2012 book competition. Written by…
Photo: PublicDomainPictures I saw my first polar bear of the trip before I even boarded my flight from Chicago to Winnipeg. Submerged in water up to its snout, it stared at me from a World Wildlife Fund poster hanging by the men's bathroom in Concourse F. …
There were no shortage of heroes as Hurricane Sandy made its way from the Caribbean, up along the coast of the southeastern United States, into New Jersey, and then across Pennsylvania. Hospital personnel evacuated patients from at least one facility that lost power. Firemen…
Let’s start with nature’s wünderfabric. Not only is merino wool (sourced mostly from sheep in New Zealand’s Southern Alps) a sustainable, bio-degradable fabric, but gear makers have figured out how to make it softer and thin enough to wear on a hot summer day.
If you ski mostly in wet snow, like the stuff in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, then you need something waterproof. In drier climes, like the Central Rockies, a water-resistant soft-shell glove should suffice. The more leather it has, the more waterproof it’s going to be.
Choosing the right bindings is just as important to your snowboard experience as your board and boots. We've selected three of our favorite bindings to help you find what's right for you.
Scaling rock and ice in the winter is serious business. Bring the right stuff.
We put 70 jackets through the wringer—running, skinning, skiing, and hiking. After nitpicking over pocket placement, breathability, and ever other detail under the sun, we settled on these six.
Frigid temperatures, biting wind, blowing snow—if you’re well outfitted, it doesn’t really matter.
From minimalist speedsters to winter-ready mountain scramblers, we’ve got you covered.
Got Gaiters? Our favorites are still Outdoor Research's light, packable, breathable Verglas.
From avoiding a "golden shower" to how much money—yes, money—to bring.
After months of torture-testing the latest crop of outdoor gear, we've compiled a list of our eight favorite items, from the Never Summer Proto CT/CTX snowboard to the Atlas Race snowshoes
The movie poster. Photo: Courtesy of Messner One of the biggest films that screened at the 2012 Banff Mountain Film Competition was Messner, a 108-minute German documentary with English subtitles directed by…
A composite image of Sandy making landfall at night. Photo: NASA/Goddard The death toll from Sandy in the United States has risen to 75, according to the Associated Press.
State-of-the-art prosthetic will be tested at Chicago's Willis Tower
Here is a view of Sandy's life from above. It was recorded by NASA's GOES-13 Satellite. It begins on October 23, when Tropical Depression 18 morphed into Tropical Storm Sandy. Before that, on October 22, at roughly 11:00 a.m., about 320 miles southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, a hot towering…
Waiting out the storm. Photo: Lonnie Dupre Lonnie Dupre has attempted to climb Denali in January each of the last two years. Both times he hit bad weather. So he huddled inside…
After sticking out Hurricane Irene, Maksim Charnyy didn't think Sandy would be any different. Ignoring mandatory evacuation orders, he stayed in his building with 70 or 80 percent of the other residents. And then the water came.
Whether you’re at the resort or deep in the backcountry, if your boots don’t fit properly you’re miserable. Not sure about size or which brand fit you best? Consult a fitter. To narrow your choices, match the boot to the binding you’re pairing it with.
You now have two choices when it comes to telemark bindings: 75mm (traditional duckbill) and the newer NTN. The former is favored for its simplicity, lower cost, and greater variety of boot choices, but NTN is vastly more powerful and releasable, and it’s better-suited to driving today’s fattest skis.
Rather sort your sock drawer than run on a treadmill? Us too. Here’s the gear you’ll need to keep running outdoors all winter long.
While the minimalism trend has shifted the center of the running universe toward lighter, more neutral designs with lower heels, shoe buyers are still faced with one crucial question: Performance or comfort?
It’s all about fit. Too loose and your head is a yolk inside an eggshell. Too tight and you’ll get migraines from all the pressure points. Most of today’s helmets have features that allow you to maximize fit.
Most goggles feature fog-resistant double lenses, but the cheap ones are built flat and bent into the frame, creating distortion, which can cause headaches. Invest in optically correct spherical lenses. Polarization? It cuts reflected light, but it can mask ice, too.
We tested out the best backcountry and alpine boots to help you find the best fit for your ski experience.
Dynafit-style tech bindings, like the Radical and the La Sportiva RT, are the only ones that offer a true free pivot, meaning there’s no hardware attached to your boot heel or sole. They have fewer moving parts, ice up less, and require 15 percent less energy from you than other bindings.
My friend always races triathlons in a red unitard because he says it’s his lucky outfit and wearing red makes him faster. I think he looks like a crazy malnourished Santa, but he always beats me. Can the color of my kit really affect my performance?
I can’t get my dog to stop knocking over the trash. You got anything fuzzy and “positive” for that?
Surfers along the East Coast, from Florida to New England, used the conditions generated by Sandy to catch bigger waves than they'd normally see. Florida did not suffer the damage from Sandy that states further north…
NYC, Avenue C at East 6th Street, Oct. 29, 2012. Photo: David Shankbone/Flickr The loss of life and property damage from Superstorm Sandy is still being tallied, but the catastrophe is pointing a spotlight on the need for cities to adapt…
A rough map of Linsdau's route Photo: AaronLinsdau.com In a Monday blog post, American skier Aaron Linsdau reported from South America on the gear he was packing into Antarctica. One picture stands out. It shows two of his five duffel bags…
Outside's East Coast editor visits the town he grew up in, situated on the west side of the Hudson River about 25 miles outside of Manhattan, in the middle of Hurricane Sandy
An Olympic sport at the turn of the 20th century tries to find its way back into the modern Games
For a secure, three-closure fit, try the Infuse snowboard boots.
If it’s been a while since you bought telemark or alpine touring gear, you’ll notice that the game has changed quite a bit. Skis that used to be fat are now narrow, almost every new model has some degree of rocker, and Dynafit and Dynafit-style bindings are becoming increasing common at the resort.
Traction, bindings, and weight—these are the biggest differentiators. Let’s start with traction. For steep, icy, or rocky terrain, go aggressive with as many underfoot claws in as many locations as you can get, as well as a heel lifter to save your calves on steep climbs.
If it’s time for an upgrade, start by answering this question: Do you ski almost exclusively at resorts? The defining characteristic of the ones reviewed here is that they’re built for comfort, not aerobic speed.
First things first: your pack will be heavier. You’ll be packing more food, fuel, and layers. As for shelter, if you’re not expecting high winds or heavy snowfall, you probably don’t need to upgrade to a four-season tent; a sturdy (read: not ultralight or mostly mesh) three-season model should see you through.
As backcountry skiing has boomed, so has splitboarding. In the past five years, participation has quadrupled, and companies from Black Diamond to Burton to K2 have tossed their hats into the ring with split-specific gear.
The first question to ask yourself is: Down or synthetic? Synthetic insulation is water-resistant, dries quickly, and is usually not as marshmallowy as its natural counterpart, which makes for better layering.
The nimble, lightweight Velvet Guru stands head and shoulders above the competition in a park setting.
Like riding in slippers, the Boa Coiler is one comfy boot.
Our testers raved about the great energy transfer that the DVa delivers.
When the results were tallied after our on-mountain evaluations, these were our female testers’ favorite planks.
Our Vermont-based test crew started with a field of more than 30 snowshoes and narrowed them down to these three favorites.
Go deeper with our favorite telemark and alpine touring bindings of the year.
We found three fashionable boots ideal for snowshoeing and general winter tomfoolery.
*UPDATE: I heard from kiteboarder Damien LeRoy via Facebook on Tuesday at 11 Eastern. He included more details about the video, which features kiteboarder Rob Douglas, and the safety precautions taken by his team. I have included those details below. You can also click to watch this…
Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy as seen from space Photo: NOAA GOES-13 When Hurricane Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey, around 8 p.m. last night, it lived up to the deadly reputation forecasters feared, and the death toll from the storm has continued to rise…
On March 11, 2011, an underwater earthquake that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale caused a tsunami that may have killed an estimated 20,000 people in Japan, flattened tens of thousands of homes and businesses, and led to a disaster at…
A pair of polar bears walks across the ice near Churchill. Photo: FloridaStock/Shutterstock The first European to encounter the polar bears of what is now Churchill, Manitoba, was Jens Munk, a Norwegian explorer who wintered on the southern…
After air bags saved lives in several high-profile slides last year, demand (and curiosity) has never been higher. In 2011, there were five manufacturers making air-bag packs. This winter there are at least 10, and an increasing number of cat- and heli-ski operations are outfitting their clients with them.
Think of your pack as a closet on your back. And just as there’s no right way to fold your clothes, there’s no single pack that’s suited to everyone. But allow us to offer some advice.
From wool-insulated workout wear to the hardest hard shell we’ve ever seen, this year’s backcountry jackets are an eclectic crop. Material upgrades and smart design leaps have made outerwear a locus of innovation. (Molecular-level polymer coating, anyone?) But enough lab-speak.
Those lift-line elitists snickering at your old traditionally shaped skis could use some manners, but they’ve got a point: the new rockered shapes make skiing more fun. Which ones should you buy? There are two schools of thought.
You don’t have to give up the amenities of a large urban environment just because you prefer traveling on two wheels over four
Step 1: Get rid of all chew toys. They encourage possessiveness.
Pumpkins are cheap, local, and plentiful at this time of year. Should I fit them into my diet?
Most flip-flops aren’t very high-tech. That's just the nature of this kind of footwear. Unless they’re being made by Olukai. That company's Kia'i II flip was researched and developed with the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. A hand-picked group of elite guards—from Oahu, Maui,…
At first glance, the Santa Cruz TRc (as in Trail Carbon) seems to fit neatly between the California company's venerable Blur XC model, a nimble, fast race platform with four inches of travel, and its more enduro oriented 5.5-inch Blur LT. Indeed, looking at the TRc stats on paper (five…
Patagonia National Park, under construction. Photo: Eli Steltenpohl “Buying the land was the easy part,” Kristine Tompkins told a packed house during a presentation at the San Francisco Patagonia retail store last week. She was referring to the 2.2 million acres that she and…
For life's little scrapes, there are Band-aids; for the hard knocks, there's SourcePoint. Photo: Erika Benson Earlier this week, I took my daughter to get cranial sacral therapy. Pippa is four and recently hit her head on the concrete floor so hard she threw up. My acupuncturist…