One jeep-road ride leads to the ghost town of Alta The best of these is Tomboy Road, which connects Telluride to Ouray, the so-called “Switzerland of the Americas.” The route climbs 4,300 feet in eight miles to the summit of Imogene Pass; at 13,114 feet, it’s the highest…

Telluriding A longer trail for strong climbers is Sheep Creek, a ten-mile, two-hour loop. This ride is a fall classic because of the dense stands of aspen trees. The trail starts with tough, technical climbing on overgrown jeep roads and singletrack, followed by an hourlong descent on fast, smooth…

Logistics The inside scoop on Telluride Telluriding Main Street in the heart of town When to go With town at 8,750 feet, the riding season starts late and ends early–usually mid-June through late October. The best time to ride is generally in September and early…

Virtual adventure: Telluride to Moab Slogging uphill through sheep September 9, 1996 7:45 a.m. (Mountain time): I awake at the crack of dawn sweltering under a huge goose down comforter in the Viking Lodge, Telluride. Our room is obscenely opulent with beautiful fixtures, incredible woodwork, a pool,…

Volcano skiing erupts in Ecuador A local delicacy: Fresh roasted guinea pig German mountaineer Wilhelm Reiss first climbed Cotopaxi in 1872, and the volcano was summited regularly during the latter part of that century. One notable expedition by English climber Edward Whymper (who notched the first ascent…

Virtual adventure: Telluride to Moab Bouncing into Moab By Jason Lathrop September 15, 1996 7:30 a.m.: I wake up early, for once. We’ve got a 38-mile ride ahead of us today–but with a nice ratio of ascent to descent: 2,800 feet of climbing, 5,400 feet of…

Virtual adventure: Telluride to Moab The friendly folks of Gateway By Jason Lathrop September 14, 1996 9:30 a.m.: I step out of the Gateway Hut onto squishy red mud. Last night the rain dumped hard, yet again, and the ground all around us was soaked and…

Virtual adventure: Telluride to Moab Spring Creek runs bone dry September 10, 1996 9:30 a.m. (Mountain time): I wake up more or less sweltering on the top bunk in Last Dollar Hut. I’ve slept the longest and can hear the rest of the group laughing outside the…

 Outside magazine, October 1997 Roof of the World, Center of a Universe Jostling between the spiritual and the secular in Kathmandu, once and future base camp for all manner of quests By Bob Shacochis “And the wildest dreams of Kew are but the facts…

Winding a thousand miles from India to China, the Burma Road was built to defend China in World War II, but the atomic bomb made it irrelevant and the jungle reclaimed it. Mark Jenkins vowed to do what no one had done for nearly 60 years—travel the entire Burma Road—and discovered the madness of present-day Myanmar.