The National Park Service (NPS) wants everyone to know that it does not take kindly to BASE jumping inside Yosemite National Park.

Over the course of eight days, the NPS released two detailed reports highlighting its dogged pursuit of illegal BASE jumpers in the California park.

On October 31, officials at Yosemite National Park published the account of a BASE-jumping bust that had occurred two days prior. The report, , said that a parachutist staged an illegal jump near El Capitan.

The culprit was caught, the NPS said.

“Thanks to the quick reaction, coordination, and sharp observations of visitors and rangers, the individual was located and cited for illegal air delivery,” the release stated.

The news update followed a that the NPS published on October 24. That release announced the recent convictions of three different BASE jumpers, all of whom had staged illegal jumps inside the park in recent years. The release included details of each court case:

On September 16, a California court sentenced Christopher Durrell to 18 months of probation, $600 in fines, and 40 hours of community service after he was cited for a jump that occurred on July 15, 2024.

Also on September 16, a California court sentenced David A. Nunn to 2 days in jail, 12 months of probation, $760 in fines, and $458.77 in restitution fees for a jump that occurred on July 21, 2020. According to the release, Nunn collided with the rock wall on El Capitan after his equipment malfunctioned.

On October 7, a court sentenced Joshua Iosue to 2 days in jail, 24 months of probation, and $2,510 in fines for an illegal jump that occurred on July 15, 2024.

In a statement, Yosemite National Park Superintendent Raymond McPadden added that rangers “do not tolerate illegal activity in Yosemite National Park.”

“Our law enforcement rangers remain efficient, effective, and vigilant 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” McPadden added. “These convictions demonstrate the professionalism and dedication of Yosemite’s protection team in upholding federal regulations and ensuring the safety of both visitors and first responders.”

The two announcements come just two weeks after multiple news reports called attention to illegal BASE jumps occurring in Yosemite National Park amid the federal shutdown. Just one week after the federal government shut down��on October 1, reported that visitors to Yosemite were engaging in illegal and dangerous activity, including BASE jumping from El Capitan and climbing the cables up Half Dome without permits.

“It’s like the Wild Wild West,” John DeGrazio, founder of a local tour company, told the outlet. The story kicked off similar stories in outlets, ���Գ����ܻ徱�Բ������ܳٲ������.��

“Is it any more legal right now? No, not at all,” Elisabeth Barton, co-founder of a guiding company called Echo �����ԹϺ��� Cooperative, told The New York Times. “They’re just less likely to get caught, or at least there’s that assumption.”

That assumption may not be valid—at least, according to the NPS press releases. In both statements, the NPS reminded readers that BASE jumping is explicitly forbidden in U.S. national parks under a rule titled 36 CRF 2.17(a)(3).

“Despite this long-standing prohibition, a small number of individuals continue to engage in illegal jumps each year, often placing themselves, rescuers, and other visitors at serious risk,” the agency said.

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Ski mountaineer Christina Lustenberger has completed some of the most harrowing descents in history: Pakistan’s Trango Towers, Mount Cook/Aoraki in New Zealand, and the south face of Mount Robson in British Columbia, among others. Lustenberger, 41, describes what it’s like to ski a slope with deadly steepness.��

I was skiing a classic freeride line on Cheops Mountain in Rogers Pass, British Columbia. It had a series of steep ramps above a tight and constricted area between rocks.

I did a few giant slalom turns at the top to control my speed, and then skied through the constriction. The snow at the bottom of it was much deeper than the snow at the top, and the change in depth caught me by surprise. My tips immediately dug into the deeper snow, and I did two full somersaults. The whole time I was crashing, I was thinking about the cliff band below me, and whether or not I’d fall over it. Luckily, I stopped. That was probably the closest call I’ve ever had.

The “No Fall Zone” as I define it, is terrain where the steepness and exposure is so dangerous that falling will either be fatal, or cause life-changing injuries. When you are skiing this type of terrain, you have to be extremely calculated with your decision-making and even every movement of your body. You have to analyze a wide range of external factors that can harm you, such as the surface of the snow and the potential for avalanches. When you’re in the No Fall Zone, you’re always trying to stay ahead of danger.

There’s a lot of preparation that goes into skiing these lines, and my partner, Gee Pierrel, and I do a lot of homework. We track the snowpack and weather conditions for sometimes years, months, and then days leading up to a trip. We climb the line and assess the snow, and make mental notes about where it changes. We analyze our gear.

I do a lot of preemptive mental preparation to visualize the terrain and the conditions so that I don’t get surprised. I ask myself: What time will I be skiing? What will the conditions feel like? The scariest moments are when I am shocked by something I hadn’t thought through. When things start to go sideways, you can feel the loss of control very quickly.

What I focus on during the actual skiing depends a lot on the snow. The line we skied on Mount Cook/Aoraki in New Zealand had an extremely firm snow surface. It was basically ice. All of my mental engagement went into my ski edges, one turn to the next. There was no room for mental distractions. But because the snow was so firm, it eliminated the need to think about other hazards like a . Instead, I was just focusing on making sure every turn was exactly where it needed to be on the mountain. Then, I focused on the rappel points.

When we are skiing terrain with softer snow, my focus goes into the stability of the snow and whether or not there is surface movement. When you ski soft snow, you can kick up a sluff avalanche, and when it gets going down the mountain, it can hit you. It doesn’t take much force for sluff to buck you off of your feet. When I’m skiing these lines, I’m always asking myself, Where��is the sluff? Am I to the right or the left of it? Where will it run?��You can’t afford to get pushed around by falling snow when you are skiing terrain with extremely steep exposure.

When you’re skiing in the No Fall Zone, you’re essentially trying to stay in control in an uncontrollable environment. You can only do the best of your ability, given your training and equipment selection, and preparation. At the end of the day, there is still a huge amount of risk that you accept, and the consequences you are nudging up against. And if this suits your personality, then it is fair game.

The more time you ski this type of terrain, the more chances that something bad will happen. You lose friends. You witness accidents. I’m not ignorant of��the risks I’m taking on. It weighs on me, but I still feel the drive and purpose to ski these lines and engage with the risk.

There is also fun and a feeling of thrill. I loved the feeling on Mount Cook of the mountain testing every skill that I’ve accumulated throughout my career. I could engage with the mountain and push back on it. When you come out on the other side of an experience like that, it is thrilling and extremely fulfilling.

There is also a rhythmic dance during the skiing that is part of a special mind-body connection. Even when you’re just skiing at the resort your mind is so engaged with where the next turn is going to be. You are thinking, Am I going too fast? Too slow?��The dance between your thoughts and your body, no matter where you are skiing, is the same.

My crash on Rogers Pass was in 2015. After I crashed, I got back up and skied to the side of the cliff. I took a few minutes and got my composure, and finished the line. I don’t take near-misses lightly. I debriefed with the skiers I was with, and also with myself. I asked myself, How would I have done things differently?��

It’s been ten years, but I’ve continued to reflect on that moment. It was a line I had already skied five or six times. It was familiar. When you start to have positive engagement with a line, you start to feel more comfortable. You spend that much time on a knife edge, you get accustomed to the exposure. I’ve realized that is when you can become complacent.

Skiing in the No Fall Zone over and over, you can feel this confidence grow. But I truly believe that there is no place for too much confidence or too much ego in this type of terrain. You always have to enter it being humble, knowing that you can always lose control.

As told to Frederick Dreier. This interview was edited for length and clarity.��

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Alex Honnold is staying busy.

When he’s not announcing a Netflix special or completing a route on El Capitan, Honnold, 40, is hosting a conservation podcast, producing television shows, and still finding time to take his two kids into the great outdoors.

�����ԹϺ��� recently caught up with Honnold to discuss his various media projects. His podcast, , launched its fifth season on October 28. We also chatted about his strategy for getting his kids outdoors, why he’s choosing to climb a skyscraper on Netflix, and how Hollywood can learn to do climbing right.

An excerpt of our interview is below.

5 Questions with Alex Honnold

OUTSIDE: The last time we spoke was before your 2024 show Arctic Ascent. We discussed the elements you look at when choosing a media project—from the climbing, to the storytelling, to parts of the TV show or film that resonate with a mainstream audience. How did you assess this equation when deciding to pursue the Netflix event Skyscraper Live?

Alex Honnold:��For me, Skyscraper Live is less about the storytelling and audience. Basically, it’s a really fun thing to climb, and it’s really hard to get permission, so if someone gives you permission, you have to say yes. It’s something that I scouted maybe 12 years ago for a different TV thing that fell apart, so I never got the opportunity to actually climb it. But I knew I was capable, and the climbing is really fun. If you see the actual show, you’ll see that it is insane. So in some ways it’s not like��Arctic Ascent��where I’m asking what the climate story is. This is basically pure fun for me and the audience. There’s really no bigger angle to it. It’s just sheer entertainment, for me and for the masses. The building is beautiful, and it sticks out of the landscape.��I think that anybody who is watching��Skyscraper Live will be struck by how it dominates the landscape.

The other thing, when we talk about picking media projects, is that the whole Skyscraper Live project is only going to take two weeks of my life, between the scout trip and then the actual trip. A project like��Arctic Ascent is a six-week expedition in remote Greenland, and it takes a much bigger toll in terms of family and personal fitness and those kinds of things. So, the opportunity cost involved for something like��Skyscraper Live is almost zero. It’s super fun with no downside. Whereas some of these big expeditions to remote parts of the world have a big downside, in that I have to be away from my family.

We’re living in an era when topics like conservation, battling climate change, and the preservation of public lands are under attack. It can feel daunting to pursue these movements. What are your tips for staying engaged and energized with these movements?

One of the things I love about hosting the Planet Visionaries��podcast is that I get to hear a lot of very affirming personal stories around conservation. When you think of global environmental issues, it is very sobering. Plastic in the ocean, for example, is a very daunting and overwhelming issue that humanity is struggling with. I got to interview Dr. Sylvia Earle, who is a renowned ocean conservationist, and she is working with . I spoke to her about the restoration of these clam and oyster beds in the Hudson River, and how it has cleaned up a section of the river over the course of a few years. I love talking to guests about marine conservation because the ocean, if given the slightest opportunity, regenerates quite quickly. Life comes back. The water can clean up. It’s amazing. So, when you look at conservation locally, or on a small scale, and you hear about these specific projects, it’s actually quite inspiring because you can see that yes, you can have a real impact on a specific place.

Hollywood loves rock climbing in 2025. We had earlier this year, and another film called�� is coming. If you could advise Hollywood on how to make a climbing film where the actual climbing seems legit, what wisdom would you pass along?

It’s funny because I just did a cameo for a different Hollywood movie that was actually inspired by The Dawn Wall.��Basically it’s a buddy film where two buddies from high school go up on a wall together and discuss some of their old problems while on a portaledge. But basically, I think if Hollywood wants to do climbing right, they should involve a real climber in the process. Unfortunately, the person writing the film rarely knows anything about climbing.��������ڴڳ󲹲Բ����,��at least, is so over the top that it’s entertaining.��The Eiger Sanction is probably the best example of climbing done right in a film. It actually looks legit. They are actually climbing on a wall. That works.

It’s the end of 2025. What are the feats of outdoor recreation or climbing that stand out in your mind?

Off the top of my head, within rock climbing, Brooke Raboutou climbing 15c is an obvious milestone. She’s America’s darling, and she climbed 15c; that was in the spring. is the hardest bouldering session. That is incredible. Even last week, Jim Morrison skiing a 12,000-foot line on the North Face of Everest. I know that he personally spent three seasons going over there and waiting for the weather. I have a lot of respect for people who can see through a project like that. To wait for conditions and to make it happen. The obvious thing is in 31 days. It’s insane. He was averaging 16 hours a day for 31 days. Can you imagine doing cardio for 16 hours a day every day for a month?

Would you ever want to bite off something like that?

I love doing big climbing link-ups like that, but not at that scale. Yesterday, I climbed a . I’ve been thinking of a cool idea to connect a few climbs in Yosemite, and have been beginning to piece together parts of it. But after doing just that segment yesterday, that felt like a lot. So we will see how it shakes up.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.��

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Update, October 28: It happened again! On Monday, October 27, the Hinsdale County Search and Rescue had to save two more motorists who had become stranded on Engineer Pass by the snowdrifts.��

According to Hinsdale County SAR, a couple from Texas, along with their two dogs, became stranded on the west side of the pass. Two SAR team members drove up the pass, and then proceeded on foot to reach the stricken vehicle. Officials located the two individuals and their dogs, and then hiked with them back to the SAR vehicles, which drove them back to Lake City.

“Hinsdale SAR would like to remind everyone to check current road and weather conditions before heading into the backcountry,” the team wrote on Facebook.

Original story, October 27: We interrupt your pre-Halloween planning for this very important news flash:

Despite the prevalence of sunshine and unseasonably balmy conditions in many corners of the country, it is, indeed, late October. This means that Mother Nature can kill you with one wave of her magic wand.

High on the side of America’s tallest mountains, there’s wind, rain, ice, and yes, lots of snow. And alas, a number of Americans are learning the hard way that sunshine and mid-fifties in the high country can quickly become a life-and-death situation.

The latest example of this comes from the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. On Thursday, October 23, the Hinsdale County Search and Rescue team received a call that two motorists were stranded high on the side of Engineer Pass. A snowstorm had blown in that afternoon, and , the jeepers had continued up the route and gotten stuck in two-foot snow drifts.

For those unfamiliar with Colorado’s geography: Engineer Pass is a gorgeous if extremely rugged ATV route connecting the towns of Ouray and Lake City. Jeepers, overlanders, and pickup truck enthusiasts drive their four-wheel drive vehicles up and over Engineer Pass throughout the summer while completing the so-called Alpine Loop.

This corner of the state is known for the occasional mishap on four wheels. Let’s just say that the tourists keep the local sheriff and towing companies busy throughout the summer.

Anyway, Engineer Pass tops out at 12,800 feet above sea level. This is not the elevation you want to be at when a late-October blizzard rolls through.

Luckily for the motorists, rescuers sprang into action and were able to reach them. They got to the duo—a father and son—at about 10 P.M., and were able to bring both of them to safety. But only after they snapped a few amazing photos of the beleaguered jeep stuck up to its axles in snow.

Look, I get it, it’s still sunny out and we all want to go drive over high mountain passes, and climb high peaks. It’s still worth reminding everyone that the scorching rays and summer vibes this time of year can change at the drop of a hat. Just ask those 20 hikers who were rescued from the flanks of Mount Washington on October 25.

According to the Colorado SAR teams, the jeep drivers on Engineer Pass were from Florida. I’m sure it was plenty warm there.

The post Look at This Jeep Stuck on a Colorado Mountain Pass appeared first on �����ԹϺ��� Online.

We’re living in a gilded age of adventure filmmaking.

That was the title of a feature story I edited for �����ԹϺ��� Magazine a few years ago. The writer, Nick Heil, surmised that the outdoor industry’s best filmmakers had finally mastered the technology and techniques to produce truly meaningful documentaries—you know, the kind that win Academy Awards.

Filmmakers such as Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Max Lowe, Nick Rosen, and others had achieved such a high level, Heil wrote, by focusing on the blocking and tackling of visual storytelling: character development, narrative arc, and yeah, making peaks and waterfalls and canyons look really cool.

I thought about Heil’s conclusion as I watched the new climbing film K2—Chasing Shadows, which I viewed at The North Face’s Denver, Colorado headquarters in September. My take: It’s not just the filmmakers who have become experts at this stuff. Athletes have, too.

Directed by French filmmakers David Arnaud and Hugo Clouzeau, K2—Chasing Shadows follows the exploits of French alpinist Benjamin Vedrines as he attempts��to set a speed record for ascending the world’s second-highest peak without supplemental oxygen in 2024. The record that Vedrines is chasing is mostly irrelevant to the narrative arc of K2—Chasing Shadows.��

Instead, the film focuses on the internal demons Vedrines faces on the slopes of K2, perhaps the deadliest peak above 8,000 meters.��Back in 2022, when he was the sport’s rising star,��Vedrines nearly died after passing out just below the K2 summit. Luckily, other climbers found him unconscious��and brought him to lower elevations, where he made a full recovery.

Throughout��K2—Chasing Shadows,��Vedrines provides a running dialogue of the innermost thoughts and emotions of returning to the place where he brushed death. He unpacks these feelings—terror, excitement, triumph, embarrassment—in real-time into GoPro cameras mounted to his climbing poles and helmet. It’s as though he’s seated in a psychotherapist’s chair—one that happens to be placed on the vertical slopes of K2.

Vedrines cries. He laughs. He works things out in real-time. Is it the thin air that makes Vedrines open up? Who knows. But by making his internal dialogue accessible, Vedrines crafts a story that would make Chin or Lowe or any of the other previously mentioned documentarians proud.

“My first goal was to be transparent and to just be myself with this movie, and to show another aspect of what some athletes live through,” Vedrines recently told�����ܳٲ������.��“Sometimes, we experience a situation where you have pushed too much and gone too high and touched the limit, and this creates a lot of existential thought and big questions in your own mind.”

No, Vedrines does not own an advanced degree in filmmaking or literature. But he seems to have a preternatural ability to understand what the audience cares about.

“In the end, struggling with your own thoughts and your own personality can be a super powerful story,” he added.

Of course, a therapy session at 28,000 feet is boring if you can’t also view the peak in all of its terrifying splendor. And luckily, Vedrines is also a skilled visual storyteller. Yes, Clouzeau and Arnaud and the filmmaking crew deserve accolades for bringing the majesty and horror of K2 to life on the screen. But Vedrines deserves ample applause as well, because he shoots much of the footage himself.

The filming technique in K2—Chasing Shadows��brings bring’s K2’s steepness to life in a way��I have not seen in other films about the mountain. The method Vedrines and the team used is not entirely groundbreaking—they mounted a GoPro to his climbing helmet and pointed it downward.

But the perspective, when seen on a big screen, provides a dizzying view of the exposure climbers face on the peak. Suddenly, K2’s verticality becomes oh-so apparent. Vedrines looks down between his feet and sees the rock wall go down for thousands of feet. One wrong foothold, one bobble, one slip, and he is destined to fall for a while.

There’s another jaw-dropping visual element of K2—Chasing Shadows��that’s tied to Vedrines and his climbing technique. In recent years, he’s made headlines for ascending high peaks without oxygen and then soaring off the summit with a paragliding setup.

We get to see what this looks like in K2—Chasing Shadows, and let me tell you, it’s an edge-of-your-seat experience. Vedrines makes several flights from the flanks of K2, including a harrowing one into a blinding blizzard. For each one, he films via his GoPro, and also from a drone flying next to him.

This footage is the best part of the entire film. You have no idea if Vedrines will sail safely out of the other side of the clouds, or fly smack-dab into a vertical rock wall.

K2—Chasing Shadows��makes its international debut in November at France’s Montagne en Scene film festival. If you have the opportunity to watch it, I absolutely recommend you do.

I caught up with Vedrines recently to ask him about the film.

OUTSIDE: What technology and techniques did you use to bring K2 to life?

Benjamin Vedrines:��I had a nice team of two cameraman, Seb Montaz-Rossetand Thibaut Marot, as well as the guys at base camp, and they were there to capture nice moments. Seb is very experienced in high-altitude filming, and this is why he was the guy with me doing the summit push. We also had very nice footage from the drones. You don’t have all of this level of footage the higher I went, because I was using my GoPro on my head, and one at my side. It is important for me to capture personal moments in these ascents. But filming this way is very difficult because you have to be focused on the climb, and also be focused on filming what is going on. I’ve done several expeditions on routes in the Alps where I’ve had to do this, and it has become a new passion of mine. Over the years, I have improved.

How do you balance the need to focus on climbing and staying safe on the mountain with capturing the moment for the film?

My cameramen have told me that I have a good eye for capturing important moments. My intuition is that when the climb becomes hard, that is the interesting part that people want to see. For example, I made an effort to capture the moment during the storm on K2 because I was alone, and it is a very deep moment. Yes, there are moments when I need to focus on saving my life and trying to stay alive. There are other moments where it is merely uncomfortable, so I can afford to capture it with a camera. I know those moments will be powerful and real.

Why is it so important for you to share the emotions you feel on the edge of a mountain?

It’s important to make the audience try and understand what I do. Otherwise, you don’t really have any story. The real emotions that alpinists like me are experiencing on a mountain can only be captured on our own, by ourselves. In many situations, I am the only one with the camera, and I am saying things that come from deep inside of me. I can’t worry that ‘oh, people will judge me.’ I have a feeling when I am alone that I can say anything. So, what I say is what I think.

The post The Latest Film About K2 Will Make Your Jaw Drop appeared first on �����ԹϺ��� Online.

This story was produced in partnership with , an independent, nonprofit news organization.

It’s a perfect fall afternoon in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and I am on a guided hike alongside 15 strangers just a few miles beyond the park’s eastern entrance. As we click away with our iPhone cameras, our leader, a bearded 32-year-old named Adam Auerbach, regales us with the park’s history: In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson officially created it with the stroke of his pen. Lobbyists from mining and logging companies urged the federal government to rethink the decision, Auerbach says, setting up a century-long fight between the park and the extraction industry.

“People need to realize that the fight to protect places like this doesn’t end with the founding of a national park,” Auerbach says. “The fight will always be there, and every generation will have to fight.”

This hike, Auerbach tells us, is his way of continuing the battle. Since June 2025, he has led a series of what he calls “advocacy hikes” for anyone who wants to show up. During the outings, which he promotes on social media, Auerbach discusses the Trump Administration’s staffing and budget cuts to the National Park Service (NPS) and other public lands agencies, and how those cuts are impacting Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) and the people who work there.

Auerbach worked as a seasonal ranger at RMNP from 2016 until 2019, and his social circle includes full-time NPS rangers who still work in the park. But these staffers have been strictly forbidden from speaking publicly about the cuts. The administration has posted so-called “” at NPS sites, urging the public to blow the whistle on rangers who are critical about the administration, the NPS, and even U.S. history.

Amid this information crackdown, Auerbach has become a rare leak. Nobody from the RMNP has told Auerbach to stop these hikes, or to apply for a permit, he tells me. He shares details about the cuts, as well as the feelings of rangers, with anyone who will listen. “I don’t envy my former colleagues,” Auerbach says. “For them, it’s a management of risk tolerance. They know they can lose their jobs if they are too outspoken.”

Among our group are several students from the University of Colorado’s Masters of the Environment graduate program—Auerbach is a recent grad, and he is now working with a public lands advocacy group called Next Interior. There are also a handful of out-of-state hikers who saw the message online and were intrigued. The rest are locals from Boulder, Fort Collins, and the surrounding areas who, like me, wanted to learn more about the shutdown and its impact on RMNP.

In the weeks after the cuts, additional rangers took buyouts or retired. A federal hiring freeze prevented the NPS from replacing the open positions, leaving between 30 and 40 unfilled full-time jobs at RMNP. The park employs approximately 150 full-time rangers throughout the year, a former RMNP official told me, and it’s staff increases to about 350 in the summer with the addition of seasonal and part-time workers. Auerbach shares anecdotes of park employees having to work two or three different positions in addition to their specialty job. “If you lose that much staff, you have to divert people to those positions,” he says. “There’s this veneer that parks are still operating and doing well after the cuts. They aren’t.”

And Auerbach shares his gravest concern for RMNP amid the staffing cuts. While daily life inside the park may appear hunky dory to visitors, the NPS’s intense focus on superficial tasks like toilets and trash may leave it vulnerable to more existential threats: climate change, wildfire, and invasive plants and animals. “My fear is that Rocky will stumble through a year or two and still appear functional,” he says. “But it’s going to fail in its mission of protecting its natural wonders for future generations.”

Auerbach’s fears became heightened in early October when the federal government shut down. The Interior Department ordered all NPS sites to remain open, even as the overwhelming majority of full and part-time staff were either furloughed or let go. During previous shutdowns, national park sites have endured a long list of environmental harm: overflowing trash cans, damaged conservation sites, hikers venturing way off trail.

This cut was severe enough to impact even the communications team with the park. When �����ԹϺ��� and RE:PUBLIC reached out to the NPS to comment on this story, we initially received a bounce-back email.

“Due to the lapse in appropriations, I am out of the office and not authorized to work during this time,” read the message. “I will respond to your messages when I return.”

The NPS eventually responded to �����ԹϺ��� and RE:PUBLIC��for the story.

“Rocky Mountain National Park remains committed to protecting park resources and supporting employees,” a NPS spokesperson said. “Park leadership has encouraged open communication and use of available employee assistance resources. The NPS values constructive feedback and does not tolerate retaliation for staff who raise workplace concerns through appropriate channels.”

But �����ԹϺ��� spoke to full-time employees at RMNP and other sources for this story, and the information and perspective shared with �����ԹϺ��� and RE:PUBLIC not only supported Auerbach’s opinions, but presented a stark picture of life inside the park.

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The Trump Administration plans to lay off more than 2,000 employees of the Interior Department, including hundreds of workers from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management.

That’s which was posted on October 20 in the Northern District of California’s San Francisco division. According to the document, 2,050 workers across 89 Interior Department units are targeted for termination.

In a statement provided to�������ԹϺ���,��the Interior Department said that the proposed layoffs predate the current federal shutdown.

“Since the start of the current administration, with several court ordered pauses, the Department of the Interior has repeatedly reviewed and evaluated its current workforce and its Departmental needs,” the statement says. “This includes examining efficiencies, reducing redundancies, as well as offering deferred retirement programs and exploring options related to reductions in force (RIFs).”

The proposed cuts come as the federal government enters its third week of shutdown. Throughout the federal shutdown, President Donald Trump has repeatedly .

Government Executive,��a publication covering federal agencies, the layoffs are currently paused under a court order. On Wednesday, October 15, district judge Susan Illston labeled the cuts illegal . The court filing listing the layoffs was disclosed on October 20 as part of the temporary halt on the firings.

If approved, the cuts would leave major vacancies across agencies that oversee public lands and outdoor recreation. The Hill,��the layoffs target 474 employees from the Bureau of Land Management, 143 from the Fish and Wildlife Service, and 272 from the National Park Service. Of the 270 NPS cuts, 180 would be from parks in the Southeast, Northeast, and Pacific West regions of the agency.

Other cuts would target the United States Geological Survey, which is slated to lose 335 positions. The Office of the Secretary, the staff that serves current Interior Department Secretary Douglas Burgum, would lose 770 positions.

The proposed cuts mark the administration’s latest attempt to cull the workforce and budget at agencies that oversee public lands��and outdoor recreation. In February, the Trump Administration fired thousands of National Park Service employees—it targeted workers with so-called “probationary” status, which included workers who had recently been hired into new positions.

The administration then offered buyouts and early retirement to NPS and other Interior Department workers.��A federal hiring freeze prevented these agencies from filing many of the vacancies opened by the layoffs and buyouts.

The culling of federal agencies has provoked stern warnings from nonprofit groups and other organizations that work to protect public lands and the agencies that manage them.

On October 20, Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s lands protection program, called the latest proposed layoffs “sabotage,” in a statement sent to media outlets.

“The American people will ultimately pay the price for these planned layoffs at Interior,” Manuel said. “From national parks to wildlife refuges, staff at agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service protect and preserve our shared natural heritage. The Trump administration is deliberately hollowing out the federal agencies charged with safeguarding our environment to serve the corporate polluters who see our public lands as something to exploit, not protect.”

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Grab your plaid flannel shacket. Grab your wide-brimmed fedora. Grab your bottle of antihistamine. It’s pumpkin patch season!

C’mon honey, let get the kids! There are only ten days remaining for us to indulge in America’s favorite autumnal tradition: traipsing about an actual farm to snap selfies with smelly livestock, get desperately lost in a cornfield, and fork over top dollar for a decorative gourd or three.

Aha! A parking space, right next to an antique John Deere tractor. Everybody, listen up. A century ago, this hunk of iron was responsible for producing 85 percent of the American calorie intake, and hey, get back here! Don’t you want to hear the rest of my dad history lesson?

Fine, let’s go inside. Do you have the hand sanitizer? What about the Bactine? Great!

Hooboy, look at this place: its as if a museum of American agribusiness and a McDonald’s Playplace were sucked up by a tornado and then dropped into the suburbs. There are real goats and horses here, as well as a snack bar serving funnel cakes, plus hay bales stacked dangerously high, and all manners of rusty farming equipment painted to resemble barnyard animals. Where should we start?

Oh cool, a livestock feeding tank filled to the brim with corn kernels. Dive in everyone—what could go wrong? Oh god, it’s so deep! I’m sinking! Where did my daughter go? There you are—wait, you’re not my child. Aha! Nope, that’s someone’s shoe. Who’s crying? Are you my kid? You are! Fabulous. Let’s never go in there again.

Look, the farmer has erected a wild west boomtown out of plywood. Look kids, there are all sorts of storefronts from a bygone era of American capitalism: a saloon, a dry goods store, and even a Blockbuster Video. How quaint.

Who wants to do a potato sack race? Kids, back when I was your age, I was the LeBron James of this event in Field Day. Let me show you how it’s done. On your mark, get set. Go! I’m winning! I’m winning. I’m—oh my god, my lower back! Honey, get the Tylenol.��

OK, enough of that. Should we check out the corn maze? The advertisement on Instagram said it spans two zip codes! You lead the way, kids, let’s see if all that time playing Fortnite can help us navigate a labyrinth.

Wow, another wrong turn. And another one. Kids, where are you taking us? How long have we been in here, anyway? I could sure go for a funnel cake. We haven’t seen any other people for a while now. Are you sure we’re still in the same county?

Oh look, the farmer has placed a few plastic Home Depot skeletons in this corner of the maze as Halloween decorations. What, honey? Those aren’t fake? Where the hell are we!

OK, thank god, you found the exit, and not a moment too soon. Kids, go up to those plywood face cutouts and let me get your photo. This one is of a dog and cat. This one is a farmer and a cow. Ooh, this one is of a homicidal purple alien chainsawing my child’s head off. I think we found our 2025 Christmas Card.

Great, let’s wait in line for the hayride. Here comes the tractor pulling the hay cart. Climb aboard! Finally, this is relaxing and not stressful, and I can see the entire farm from up here. It looks like the farmer is driving us over to the pig pen. Ah, we get out here? Oh, the farmer is handing us pitchforks and shovels. Oh, you want us to scoop up the pig manure and move it to the other side of the pen? Why are you handing me this 1099 IRS form? Kids, don’t fill that out!

OK, I’ve kind of had it with the pumpkin patch. This is awful. Let’s get the heck out of here.

Alright, arlight, I’ll calm down. You’re right, we haven’t picked out our pumpkins yet. There they are, all arranged nicely in a field. No, I don’t see any pumpkin vines anywhere. My guess is they just trucked these pumpkins out here and now we’re supposed to pick them up and carry them back. Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense, but oh well. Nothing about this place does, right?

Hey, that’s a great pumpkin you’ve chosen, it will carve up perfectly. Yours is fabulous too, honey. Oh, you want me to carry it. OK, sure. And this one, too. Oh, that’s a big one. And that one, and this one? Oof, my back hurts even more. I wonder if there’s a chiropractor’s office back at the plywood boomtown. Guys, wait up for me!

OK, let’s settle up with the cashier. We have four pumpkins, six mini pumpkins, and three winged gourds. And four cups of cider. Wait, how much? Can I pay in installments?

Well, I’m pooped. And dirty. Did you guys have fun? Great!

Yeah—I can’t wait for next year’s pumpkin patch season, too.

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On October 12, American distance runner Conner Mantz , crossing the line in 2:04:43. The time set a new U.S. record at the distance, shaving 55 seconds off of the previous best, set in 2002 by Khalid Khannouchi. Mantz, 28, describes what it was like to set the new mark.��

It hit me with about 4 kilometers to go that I was on pace to break the American marathon record. I remember having a really good feeling because I knew I could keep my current pace and go sub-2:05. I was running with Alex Masai of Kenya at the time—we had been working together since about mile 19—and I remember thinking how special it was that everything was finally coming together at this race.

I’ve struggled at the Chicago Marathon before—things hadn’t come together for me here in the past. There are so many things that can go wrong in the final part of a marathon. So to have this confidence in my ability is something I will always remember.

I can also remember being on the starting line and seeing the size of the crowds. And at some points along the first part of the race, I could hear people cheering my name. I had forgotten just how many people come out to cheer at the . It gives you a huge boost to see that type of energy.

Another memory, at mile 12, really stands out. My old college teammate Rory Linkletter of Canada ran up to me and said, “we are having such a blessed day,” and I responded by saying, “I knew you would catch up to me.” It was a special moment to be running with an old teammate and a friend I’ve been racing against for the last 13 years.

But my race wasn’t totally perfect. I struggled with grabbing my fluids and nutrition at the feed stations. I would slow down to make sure I didn’t lose my fluid, and I’d give up a few seconds. I know I can practice this and get better.

And the first miles felt much harder than normal. I was surprised at the speed we were going that early. I didn’t feel as smooth as I would have liked, but I still managed to race with a very calm mentality. I tried really hard to be a relaxed runner. I knew that the pack would take me to the pace I wanted to keep. So I was slow to react to any changes in pace or any surges by other runners. And I think this kept my heart rate lower in those early miles. I wasn’t pushing—instead, I was calculated. I was holding back because the marathon is a long event.

I tried to control the group less than I have in past races. Sometimes you need to control what’s going on in a race, but at Chicago I was very set on just following whatever the pace runners out front did for the first 14 to 16 miles. When we were running with a tailwind, we’d be faster than record pace, and when he hit a headwind, we’d slow down, sometimes by as much as ten seconds a mile. I’d find myself sometimes thinking, I should push more. I should go faster. I’m feeling good. But I’d always decide to hold back and just stay with the pacers. The risk goes up when you push—the reward goes up, too, of course. But for me, the calculation was how do I not risk too much? I kept thinking: I’m on American record pace. I want to leave today with an American record. I don’t want to risk it and lose the big goal.��

My big goal was the American record, because at Boston I had run 2:05:08 (Note: that time was deemed ineligible due to the Boston course’s elevation profile). I announced in June that I was going to chase the American record at Chicago, so that did put more pressure on me. But in the back of my mind, I also had stretch goals that were harder to achieve than the record. My major stretch goal was to break 2:04. I didn’t tell anybody about it except for my coach and one of my training partners.

Having that stretch goal made chasing the record easier for me. If I wasn’t hitting the pace for my stretch goals, I knew I wouldn’t be stressed out, because I’d probably be on pace for the American record.

There were moments throughout the race when I was like, This��is going to be awesome, and others when it was like, Oh��crap.��These feelings came in waves, and they would shift with the pace. But at 4 kilometers to go is when I knew it, like, I got this.��I try not to ever celebrate before the finish line. But I allowed myself to not worry anymore. I was just happy and confident.

As told to Frederick Dreier. This interview was edited for length and clarity.��

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Maybe you saw , or your uncle Ron sent you one of the . I’m willing to bet that, at some point in the last few days, you learned that several on or near Mount Everest by a massive snowstorm that struck China and Nepal.

, reads the People Magazine story.����reads another.

Perhaps you, like me, stared at these headlines and—referencing your knowledge of the world’s highest peak—came up with some basic follow-up questions: One thousand people were on Mount Everest? In October? WTF?

It’s no secret that mainstream news outlets can sometimes distort or exaggerate the activities that happen on the world’s highest mountains. Thus, I’ve put together a short explainer to help you and Uncle Ron understand this latest Mount Everest drama.

What actually happened with the Everest snowstorm?

On Friday, October 3, a giant storm blew across the Himalayas and dropped feet of snow. In the autonomous region of China known as Tibet, the storm blanketed Mount Everest as well as the mountainous and hilly terrain surrounding it.

Alas, hundreds of day hikers, campers, people on week-long guided backpacking trips, and yak herders were in this region at the time. The snow jammed up roads and trails, and stranded nearly 1,000 of them in the backcountry. Temperatures plummeted to below freezing.

“It was raining and snowing every day, and we did not see Everest at all,” .

Yeah, things got scary, and the Chinese government, local firefighters, and even everyday citizens had to work long hours to get them to safety. A few trekkers reportedly suffered from hypothermia. Hundreds were eventually evacuated to nearby towns, including the tiny village of Qutang.

But in the end, everyone on the Tibet side was saved!

Wait, so none of these people were climbing Mount Everest?

No.

But they were Mount Everest climbers, right?

Nope. They were hikers, with zero intention of ascending the actual Mount Everest.

But were they��on Mount Everest?

I suppose it depends on your definition of “on” a mountain. If you define it as I do—being located between the base of the mountain’s prominence and the summit—then no, they were not.

Well, where the heck were they?

They were in campsites and at trailheads in the foothills and valleys near Mount Everest. One area where 350 or so people were trapped is called the Karma Valley, which apparently has fabulous views of Mount Everest’s Kangshung Face. The valley is pretty high—it’s at about 13,800 feet—but of course this is far lower than Mount Everest Base Camp.

Were these people intending to climb Mount Everest?

Sigh, no. Nobody has climbed the Kangshung Face in decades. It’s a sheer wall of rock, and only the best alpinists would even attempt it.

Were they close enough to, like, hit Mount Everest with a rock?

No dude, they were pretty far away from Mount Everest.

Well, what the heck were they doing there?

It turns out lots of people around the world love to go hiking and camping in pristine, mountainous backcountry.

Unfortunately, the storm hit during China’s Golden Week holiday, during which everybody in the entire country gets eight days off of work to celebrate National Day,��the official recognition of Mao Zedong proclaiming the People’s Republic of China way back in 1949.

Golden Week is a massive period of travel for the Chinese, and they descend on popular tourism destinations like Macau, Shanghai Disneyland, and yes, Tibet. Thousands of tourists venture into the backcountry to enjoy the fresh air, hike along trails, and snap photos of the world’s highest peak.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to go camping near Mount Everest? The Karma Valley is one of several stunning areas that are popular destinations for hikers. Here’s how describes it: “It is like magic—it will simply keep your eye and mouth open and wonder about the beauty.” I honestly want to book a trip there right this minute.

But, like, one guy died, right?

That’s correct.

Was��he��on Mount Everest?

according to multiple media reports, a South Korean climber named Tejung Park, 46, was climbing 21,247-foot Mera Peak in Nepal when the blizzard hit. He went missing and was later found several days later dead near the peak’s summit.

What’s up with Mera Peak?

It’s classified as a “” by the , meaning you can reach the top by hiking. You don’t need to do any technical mountaineering, and the elevation is low enough to reach the top without bottled oxygen.

Is that near Mount Everest?

I mean, it’s closer to Mount Everest than Cincinnati. But it’s still a few days walk from Mera to reach Mount Everest Base Camp. Sometimes people will zip between the two mountains in a helicopter. It’s pretty far from the area where the 350 trekkers were rescued.

Why��weren’t these people climbing Mount Everest?

The lion’s share of Mount Everest expeditions��happen in May and June, when the weather is calm, temperatures are relatively warm, and the route from Base Camp to the summit is clear.

Over the years, some climbers have ascended Mount Everest in September and October, but this time of year presents meteorological challenges. Every year, the summer monsoon drop tons of snow on the summit, increasing avalanche risk. Hiking through the deep snow drifts above 26,000 feet is torturous and time consuming. Plus, there’s always the looming threat of a massive storm.

So if they weren’t on Mount Everest, then they weren’t in danger, right?

Not so fast. The high elevation in the Himalayas, when matched with the punishing terrain, prevalence of avalanches, landslides, and floods, means that even somewhat minor weather events can put people into grave danger. According to multiple reports, not everyone on these trekking trips had the correct gear or clothing. The snow was so heavy that people’s tents collapsed. So yeah, these people were in grave danger, even if they weren’t trapped in the Death Zone.

So why do some of these media reports say that hundreds of climbers were rescued on Mount Everest?

Those stories got you to click on them, right?

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