Adventure
Archive
Dreams of Bengal tigers and visions of imminent extinction led Peter Matthiessen to a predator's last stronghold in the jungles of India. It was a place, the author discovered, where not seeing is believing.
One of climbing’s most famous survival sagas began on the night of July 13, 1977, after British mountaineers CHRISTIAN BONINGTON and Doug Scott completed the first ascent of Pakistan’s 23,900-foot Baintha Brakk—a beastly massif known as The Ogre. During his rappel down, Scott swung wildly across the face and broke…
A quarter-century after he changed everything by summiting Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, Reinhold Messner is looking fit, feeling adventurous, and acting about as mellow as a snapping turtle. Ah, well: Great men aren't always sweethearts—and Messner is still the best there ever was.
Behind the green door: Waimea Canyon on the island of Kauai Q: My husband and I are going to Hawaii for three weeks in October (mostly for hiking, kayaking, and snorkeling). We were thinking of spending some time on Kauai and the Big Island. How many days…
To be a surfer girl in Maui is to be the luckiest of creatures. It means you’re beautiful and tan and ready to rip. It means you’ve caught the perfect dappled wave and are on a ride that can’t possibly end.
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Something happens in the high latitudes around Cape Horn. Eighty-knot williwaws blast down from the surrounding peaks. Thiry-foot waves rear up. Ships are tossed around like ice cubes in a blender. Why embark on a wind-powered expedition in these waters? For one sailor, it's a pilgrimage to the place where his great-grandfather came to grief in 1875—an
Remember the lessons of Everest 1996? Nobody else seems to. The world's highest peak is more crowded than ever—and ripe for a deadly reckoning.
Monsoon hopeful: Arizona’s Mount Lemmon Q: We had planned a climbing trip to northwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona but are worried there’s nowhere open given the recent fires. We’re looking specifically for top-roping spots. The skill level in our group ranges from amateur to intermediate, and…
For two credulous seekers, dreaming of the lost big-wall treasure of the Sierra Madre Occidental is better than the real thing
A grand day for a paddle: Snake River with the Tetons looming in the background Q: My fiancé and I are going to Grand Teton National Park for our honeymoon. I remembered reading an article in Outside that said the best way to see the park and…
A cragged view of South Korea’s Seoraksan National Park Q: I’m headed over to South Korea for the World Cup and would love to work in some whitewater rafting while I’m there. The rivers should be runnable, as it appears to be the rainy season. Any recommendations?…
WARNING: If you are pregnant, or have kids of any age, read on. This report contains information guaranteed to provide you with the premier places to rest you head. Then rip it in the great outdoors with your wee ones. Access and Resources 888-502-9612 www.cheatmountainclub.com Ten…
What do Sheryl Crow and a 22,000-gallon wave pool have in common? They’re both going on tour this summer with the Jeep World Outside Festival, a first-of-a-kind union between a major popular music concert tour and the exploding world of outdoor adventure sports. 2002 Summer Tour Dates The Jeep World…
32 YEARS AGO this summer, my pal, the crime novelist Jim Crumley, his overeducated farmer friend from Arkansas, Harold McDuffy, and yours truly hiked six miles to Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park. For someone who had spent most of his life in the desert country of southeastern Oregon, this…
Island R&R: a sandy spit off the coast of Grenada Q: How can I book a windsurfing trip to Grenada? — Marilyn Adam, Redding, California Adventure Advisor: A: No need to book in advance; Grand Anse Beach is littered with…
Have boat, will paddle: coastal cruising off Vancouver Island Q: Four of us are planning to fish, canoe, and camp for two weeks in June. We’re considering Canada but have been warned of the black flies. How can we avoid them? Thank you, — Patti Hansen,…
As lawmakers accuse seven government biologists of fraud, the truth is drowned out by the headlines
After a dark year, Nepal offers up a trove of glittering new prizes: 103 peaks and miles of virgin terrain
When the weather turns ugly and conditions get rough, every mountaineer must make the ultimate choice: storm the summit, or call it quits.
Diving on lost ships is one thing. Exploring the boat that shadowed your life is a murkier adventure entirely.
It sounded like a good idea at the time: Journey to the sopping epicenter of the wettest place on earth, bag the peak, and get back in time for supper. But that was before the clouds clamped down on Mount Waialeale. Before the jungle closed in and the map became irrelevant. Before the machete-wielding, pig-hunting swamp guide said, "Would be so easy to get lost
Eight daredevil surfers head to the Amazon for a shot at the longest, wildest white-knuckle ride in the world
Only a few badges—Lifesaving, Dog Care, and the impossible Seven-Minute Mile among them—stood between this lapsed Scout and his boyhood dream of earning Scouting's highest honor
Accompanying Outside‘s inside report on the battle for the 2003 America’s Cup are graphically stunning images by New York-based photographer Jeff Riedel. The 34-year-old found his way into the profession in the 1990s after his grandfather gave him an old camera and he ventured down to Virginia shoot a rally…
THE FOUNDING FISH Eric Swanson Eric Swanson BY JOHN MCPHEE (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25) MCPHEE ON SHAD—what could be better? Famous for luring readers deep into surprising and esoteric subjects, from Florida citrus (Oranges, 1967) to the Swiss Army (La Place de la Concorde Suisse,…
An assault by Frodo, one of Jane Goodall's big-screen chimps, results in the death of an African child
Clip in and hang on for the 31st America's Cup—a game of skill, guile, wealth, power, pettiness, paranoia, espionage, and egomania. And the sailing's not bad, either.
“I don’t even think of Tony as an adult,” said Phil Jennings, a 12-year-old I met at the HuckJam. “He doesn’t act like the big man. He’s one of us.”
The scientists were clinging to the side of the ice they’d been standing on, 50 feet above the waterline. In a few seconds, the berg had gone over on top of them.
“I want to get off my pills someday,” Roger says. “I think that if I stay around regular people a lot, maybe that will help me.”
Be the first to bag the Seven Plummets—the deepest spots in each of the Seven Seas
By Marshall Sella BEFORE HE VANISHED in Mexico in 1914, never to be heard from again, the formidable writer Ambrose Bierce, whose short stories often explored themes of horror and death, cobbled together his Devil’s Dictionary. It was a fiercely satirical work, filled with definitions such as “fidelity…
A Wyoming mountain guide sounds off on a famous Teton toilet and the politics of packing it all out
Optional take-it-out policies are cropping up in our parks—but will anyone volunteer?
A Florida cemetery offers die-hard greens the ultimate in recycling—no coffins, no pickling, just a home in the loam
On Truthquest—a spirited version of MTV's Road Rules—teens go wild, but without the pagan excess
br NAME: LISA RANDS AGE: 26 GIG: BOULDERING SPECIALTY: TECHNICAL OUTDOOR CLIMBS HOMETOWN: BISHOP, CALIFORNIA HEIGHT: 5′ 4″ WEIGHT: 115 POUNDS SEEN NEXT: September 14 and 15 in Rovereto,…
BLUE LATITUDES From Our Pages Outside adventure laureate Tim Cahill journeys from Sahara salt mines to a Jamaica yoga retreat in his new collection, Hold the Enlightenment: More Travel, Less Bliss (Villard, ). Pairing lively history with nearly 30 years of vintage photos, Jocko Weyland’s The Answer…
There are easy ways to reach the North Pole—by plane, helicopter, or icebreaker. And then there's the Børge Ousland way. A super-tough son of Norway and the greatest living Arctic explorer, he likes fellow adventurers who ski hard, pull their own weight, and can take a touch of frostbite—no whimpering allowed.
Accompanying Tim Cahill’s tale of adventure among the ancient castles of the Assassins in Iran’s rugged backcountry (“Everybody Loves the Assassins“, October 2002) are images by Manhattan-based photographer Rob Howard. The journey marked the fifth collaboration between the two friends, and Howard’s second visit to Iran. Howard, whom Cahill…
For over 20 years, 47-year-old Grant Brittain has captured images of Tony Hawk pulling off tricks on a skateboard that defy human anatomy, common sense, and the laws of physics. Brittain first photographed The Birdman in the early 1980s while managing the Del Mar Skate Ranch and continues to do…
One of climbing’s most famous survival sagas began on the night of July 13, 1977, after British mountaineers CHRISTIAN BONINGTON and Doug Scott completed the first ascent of Pakistan’s 23,900-foot Baintha Brakk—a beastly massif known as The Ogre. During his rappel down, Scott swung wildly across the face and broke…
Thirteen otherwise courageous writers reveal their deepest, darkest fears in our homage to the creepy, crawly, menacing world of phobias. Prepare to squirm.
August 8, 2002 Towering 40 feet above the adventure village, Huck Mountain is one of the most impressive and imposing attractions at the Jeep World Outside Festival. But as remarkable as the giant ski ramp may be, it’s dwarfed by the daring of the athletes who brave its slopes…
August 22, 2002 After a long and exciting summer, the Jeep World Outside Festival, which brought both outdoor adventure and rock and roll to people across the country, has come to an end. Sheryl Crow carves the day away on the snowboard simulator. Star power: Crow and Gwyneth Paltrow…
The strangest stuff litters the flood-sloshed banks of the Mississippi River and her tributaries: tires by the hundred, refrigerators, automobiles, messages in a bottle, urine in a bottle, and (yikes!) the occasional ice chest containing a severed horse head. When the going gets gross, the man to call is Chad Pregracke, a crusading voyager in the war against trash.
"You never know. After this summer, my whole next album could be about kayaking."
Come to the light: Nightcrawling the Gifford Pinchot Forest for signs of you-know-who. Is there anybody out there?: Scanning the horizon for the big-footed one. The Bigfoot Hot Zone Thrown of the ape-man!: Rick Noll displays the controversial and anatomically diverse Skookum Cast. They walk among us: BFRO…
Turn-offs: Leeches, bad stylists—and spoilsports who mock Team Playboy X-treme
They walked down the aisle—now they're walking the world, retracing man's epic trek out of Africa
August 15, 2002 So what happens when the summer’s biggest tour lands in the New York City? Concertgoers cut loose, the trials bikers reinvent their show, and someone gets engaged on stage. It’s just a typical day at the Jeep World Outside Festival, but it’s always exciting— especially for…
July 12, 2002 April McKeen had a lot of questions. Should she ski first and then kayak, or maybe hit the bike track and then cool off in the scuba pool? When did the ski jump exhibition start and where was the climbing wall? Could she do it all…
Nothing comes easy for the riders of the TOUR DU FASO, West Africa's tortuous answer to the Tour de France. Their bikes are beaters, the heat is infernal, la dysenterie is inevitable, and every year the locals get shown up by European interlopers looking to find an exotic thrill. But for Jérémie Ouedraogo and his teammates—proud citizens of the fourth-
The Jeep World Outside Festival visits the rain-soaked grounds of Winter Park
He's no Lance (yet), but former U.S. Postal rider Levi Leipheimer has won the right to lead Rabobank, one of Europe's fastest squads
World-class athletes are forced to get inventive to stay in shape as the Jeep World Outside Festival rocks on to Seattle
Illustration by Dan Winters and Gary Tanhauser Illustration by Dan Winters and Gary Tanhauser The thrill of adventure is worth a few calculated risks. But sometimes whitewater rafts flip, bike frames snap, and wilderness guides lose the map. In a society where people are increasingly aggressive about putting…
After 34 years of blazing trails, Colin Fletcher anoints a footloose, gear-crazed successor
Aiming to ditch those pesky antiglobalists, the G8 elite huddle in backwoods Alberta