Outside’s Best Longform Stories of 2024

Published December 26, 2024 04:02AM

From tourists behaving badly in national parks to a camping trip in one of the hottest places in the world, Outside published a long list of captivating features this year. My personal favorite, “Death on Shishapangma,” by the talented Gloria Liu, explores the risks of rushing to summit the world’s highest peaks through a terrible tragedy. Liu retells the deaths of four mountaineers with compassion, and her detailed storytelling brings the disaster—and the victims—to life.

I asked my colleagues to send me their top picks for the long reads of the year, too. Of the nearly 40 longform stories we published in 2024, these are our favorites. —Abigail Wise, digital director

“Can Colorado’s I-70 Traffic Problems Ever Be Solved?”

This story was a beautiful union of two great minds thinking alike. Senior editor Alison Osius suggested a profile of Colorado’s I-70, the often-clogged highway that leads to some of the most beautiful mountains in Colorado. Then she approached longtime Outside contributing editor Gloria Liu to write it, and Liu said, “I’ve always wanted to write that story.” Liu brought a lot of creative thinking to the project, seamlessly melding funny and poignant scenes with traffic data. If you think you don’t want to read a story about a highway, think again. You’ll laugh for sure, and maybe even cry. —Mary Turner, senior brand director

“Our Coast to Coast Walk Across Northern England Was an Exercise in Hope and Joy”

In this beautifully worded travelogue, author Steven Potter and his wife, Emma, take a belated honeymoon to northern England and cross it from west to east during a 200-mile walk. There are scenes of misery—blistered feet that have Steven hobbling, nettles that sting Emma’s bare bum on a pee break, and a 40-minute downhill run to make a supper engagement after they’d already knocked out 16 miles. But their delight and good nature override everything. Gorgeous photos by Emli Bendixen round out a happy adventure, with some deep thoughts on how wandering changes us, often for the better. —Tasha Zemke, managing editor

“How Did This Climber Get Away with So Much for So Long?”

I choose “How Did This Climber Get Away with So Much for So Long?” for the way in which the writer, Annette McGivney, assembled a huge and detailed mosaic of the key events, disturbing and sickening though the effect was. She was respectful of the victims and meticulous in reporting. I was proud of the editor, Alex Heard, and Outside for the work and resources that went into this 11,000-word investigative piece. Such stories are difficult, and important. —Alison Osius, senior editor

“In Montana, a Threatened Swath of Old Growth Fuels a Longstanding Debate”

I’m a sucker for a passionate environmentalist. A fly-fisher defending her local waterways? A wildland firefighter committed to educating the world about sustainable fire? Can’t get enough. It’s probably why I love this story from Montana-based writer and producer Laura Yale so much: it’s packed with people who fight with everything they have to protect the forests they—and an endangered population of grizzly bears—call home. First, we meet Rick Bass, a prolific writer and activist who, lately, has been focused on protecting a rare swath of old-growth in northwest Montana from logging. Then we encounter the well-meaning Forest Service representatives, the tribal leaders, and the conservationists. This is a story of devotion, but it’s also a story with wonky, hard-to-parse policy and science. Yale expertly weaves the two together, walking readers through the thorny overlap between economics, policy, and conservation without losing sight of what motivates her characters in the first place: a deep sense of responsibility for and interconnectedness with the land and all its inhabitants. —Abbie Barronian, senior editor

“I Needed to Stop Drinking. So I Hiked 100 Miles in Maine.”

What struck me most about W. Hodding Carter’s story about his struggles with alcoholism—seen through the lens of a grueling hike through Maine’s rugged 100-Mile Wilderness—is the sheer courage it took to write it. The vulnerability. The honesty. It had to be an agonizing story to tell—and even harder to live through. I mean, shit, it was painful just to read. But it was also incredibly inspiring. Carter’s struggle through an experience he can’t control, his battle with himself, his pendulum of self-loathing and fierce determination to get himself right—there’s something really universal and relatable about it. Insert your own demon and you’ll probably see a little of yourself in the author. I know I did. —Kristin Hostetter, head of sustainability and contributing editor

“I Went to Yellowstone National Park to Learn Why It Turns Tourists into Morons”

Tourists have, in recent years, been gored by bison, boiled alive in hot springs, scalded by eruptions, mauled by grizzlies, and more at America’s first national park. The headline to this story sums up the situation pretty perfectly, and the story itself is a deep dive into the chaos that happens when visitors get too close to wildlife and geothermal features. I rolled my eyes plenty reading this one. —TZ

“Christina Lustenberger Skis the Impossible”

I didn’t know I needed to read this story until I did. I also didn’t know who professional ski mountaineer Christina Lustenberger was before it. This raw profile made me realize how few longform stories I’ve read about female skiers or alpinists. Though Lusti’s feats are superhuman, her experiences as a woman—down to an anecdote where she’s the supposed leader on an expedition but everyone is instead taking cues from a man—are so relatable. And her willingness to be genuinely vulnerable has the perhaps non-intuitive effect of making her only seem more formidable. This was a motivating and empowering read. —Gloria Liu, contributing editor

“I Went on a Dark Cave Retreat. Things Got Weird.”

Tim Neville has been writing for Outside for years now, and somehow each new story is better than the last. For this one, he spent four days in a pitch-black cave dealing with his thoughts, resulting in an intense inward adventure. It was grueling and enlightening and beautiful and, well, very dark. I’ll never forget the video of him as he emerged from the cave to see the light again. His insights will always stick with me. The story also just won a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. —MT

“This Is What It’s Like to Camp in One of the Hottest Places on Earth”

Leath Tonino possesses an endlessly compelling voice, and he uses it here to point to spots of beauty and grace amid the desolation of Death Valley in August. We sent him to North America’s lowest point in the heart of a summer heat wave while hikers were dying from heatstroke—perhaps not the most responsible editorial call. But Tonino, as always, found a stillness and peace in what he calls the Capital-H Heat. Nestled deep among climate anxiety, a respect for nature’s fury, and a heat so oppressive it all but robs him of language, Tonino found a way to depict of one of the most extreme places on the planet in a gentle, generous manner. —Jake Stern, digital editor

“Navigating Orca Alley: One Family’s Journey Among Rudder-Bashing Whales”

I was fascinated by the stories of orcas ramming boats in European waters. Was it a revenge mission by the whales against humans? I kept seeing news story after news story about boats being sunk by the giant whales. Then Caroline van Hemert, a wildlife biologist and writer, reached out to tell me that she and her family planned to sail through the very waters where the attacks were happening in order to complete a voyage to Greenland. There’s no one I trust more when it comes to the relationship between humans and wildlife than Caroline. She lives in Alaska and has grown up around grizzlies, is not a sensationalist writer, and usually sides with the animals. Her riveting account of their journey through Orca Alley is gripping—and finally makes some sense of why this is happening. —MT

Our Best Longform Stories of 2024