Montezuma鈥檚 funerary mask. A cheating blue-blood fianc茅. A meth-addicted grave robber. A country of primary colors and corruption. And a protagonist whose internal conflicts are in stark contrast to the face she shows the world.听

This is just the beginning of memoirist Lili Wright鈥檚 debut novel ($26, Marian听Wood Books/Putnam). The fast-paced, 450-page literary thriller combines mystical realism with reporter-solid revelations about Mexico鈥檚 drug war and the issue of relic repatriation in the art world. Set largely in Oaxaca, Mexico, it鈥檚 an immersive exploration of place and cultural veneration of the sacred object.

The story has a shape-shifting, restless quality to it. It鈥檚 told from multiple points of view (鈥淎nn,鈥� 鈥淭he Looter鈥� 鈥淭he Gardener;鈥� 鈥淭he Housekeeper鈥�), and in short (often one-word) sentences. Wright鈥檚 scenes are constructed with care, full of sensory descriptors, blunt dialogue, and surprising verbs (鈥渇idgeting a crossword;鈥� 鈥渟tabbing a walking stick;鈥� 鈥渢obacco fingers twinkling鈥�). Threaded through each is the Mexican backdrop, captured in high detail and arguably better developed than any of the characters.听

In this way, Wright is similar to her character The Looter, whom we see in the prologue frantically cleaving the earth in search of the one-eyed Aztec mask around which the story will revolve. Wright, too, is obsessed with peeling back our layers of self-imposed protection, with exposing the details in the overlooked cracks of the world.听

When we first meet the heroine, Anna Ramsey, she is leaving her art-dealer fianc茅 and her curated New York City life behind, bound for Mexico. She means to acquire the Aztec mask for her father, a disgraced, alcoholic art collector still mourning the death of Anna鈥檚 mother 20 years before. Anna, a fact-checker (an odd profession for a protagonist, but, one assumes, an insight into her character as a truth-seeker), is the nexus of the story. Around her, the other characters loom, fading in and out of focus, hidden and revealed in turn.听

At times, however, it seems as though Wright is grasping for command over her considerable stable of characters, that their exploits are upending her control. As the momentum builds so does the violence, which becomes almost sensational, while the romance between Anna and Salvador feels canned. Toward the end, the mask changes hands like a hot potato, and Wright doesn鈥檛 orchestrate its trajectory enough to allow the reader to keep up. The plot, while ambitious, becomes increasingly chaotic as it progresses.听

Given the intricacies of the storyline, Wright takes writing liberties that don鈥檛 always work in her favor: a grin is never just a grin, it is a 鈥渨olfy grin.鈥� A sleeping man is curled 鈥渋nto a comma, a messy hunk of punctuation.鈥� An addict鈥檚 insides are 鈥渁 toilet of acid.鈥� On one occasion, the air smelled of cinnamon and dust; on another, raw meat. At best, this over-writing is distracting. At worst, it will make the reader long for simple, unembellished narration.听

However, out of the litany of lines that reach and fail, there is the occasional sentence good enough to redeem the rest. If readers stick with this book, it鈥檒l be because of imagery like this: 鈥淗e turned the corner. Threw the fucking cup against a wall. The juice dripped down the stucco, a new sun exploding.鈥�

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In another life (from 2005 to 2008), David Goodrich was the director of the UN Global Climate Observing System in Geneva. Now his days are spent entirely on a bike. The retiree is cycling across America, hoping to further the national conversation about climate change by interviewing people he meets along the way and giving presentations to students about the consequences of global warming.听

With a 36-year career as a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under his belt, there鈥檚 probably no one more qualified to embark on such an ambitious project in the service of environment and education.听

Soon after retiring, Goodrich left his home in Rockville, Maryland in May 2011. Seventy-five days and 4,208 miles later, he reached the coast of Oregon with meticulous documentation of his encounters, observations, and experiences on the road. He met farmers in Tribune, Kansas, despairing over droughts and diminished profits. He saw forests in Cameron Pass, Colorado, decimated by mountain pine beetles, whose numbers have exploded because of recent warm winters. These impressions of a changing America became , out from Pegasus Books next year.听

A Hole in the Wind is full of layman-terms climate information, rollicking cross-country adventures, and deep introspection as the 53-year-old Goodrich pushes his physical limits to see our changing world in real life.听

On June 27, Goodrich set off on the final leg of the trip, which will be the book鈥檚 conclusion. He鈥檒l cycle from Moscow, Idaho, to Chinook, Montana, spending two days on the 50-mile Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. The park has become a symbol of climate change owing to its rapidly disappearing namesake glaciers.听

国产吃瓜黑料 spoke to Goodrich about his final trip and the nitty-gritty of writing a book while on the road.听

OUTSIDE: How did you go about planning for a trip like this?
GOODRICH: In terms of my route, I鈥檝e got a spreadsheet of where I expect to be each day. I use the site , which is good on route planning.听

You don鈥檛 want to discover at 3 p.m.听that you have a 1,500-foot climb before the end of the day. So my planning sheets are very detailed鈥攖hey include the number of miles I鈥檒l cycle each day, how much elevation I鈥檒l be facing, that sort of thing. I usually try to end each day in a town that has some kind of accommodation. And I use adventure cycling maps a lot.听

What kind of gear do you bring?
Part of what I pack depends on whether or not I鈥檒l be camping, and whether or not I鈥檓 self-contained. For the cross-country ride, I had four bags, a tent lashed onto my bike, and a handlebar bag. It all weighed between 40 and 50 pounds, depending on how much water I carried.听

If I鈥檝e got motels each night, then I鈥檒l bring two bags of clothes, a competent tool kit鈥攜ou want to be able to fix a spoke by the side of the road鈥攁nd a first aid kit.听

For conducting the interviews, I鈥檝e got a laptop, a smartphone that has enough storage space for interview recordings, and a camera. Each night, I write a journal entry about the day鈥檚 events.听

Lastly, I always bring pepper spray for dogs. I had a dog encounter in Missouri, and I had to rely solely on adrenaline to get me out of it. Never again!

My bike is an old clunky steel frame, because if you鈥檙e in central Wyoming or Nepal, and the frame breaks, you can always find someone who can work on steel.听

The day before I leave, I just lay everything out on the floor. It鈥檚 like my personal Everest Base Camp.

What are you hoping to accomplish from this final trip to Glacier National Park?
There are two parts to this trip. I want to see if I can still manage [to cycle long distances], and I want to investigate what climate change has brought to the northern Rockies and down into the plains. I鈥檓 also interested in how global warming has affected the wildlife.听
听
I鈥檒l be exploring these questions through my own observations and from my interviews with people on the ground. It鈥檚 as much about the people I meet along the way as the climate questions.

No matter how prepared you are, there鈥檚 always going to be something unexpected that the road throws at you. And I look forward to that. That鈥檚 the fun part.

Which books have helped inspire this journey for you?
Here are a few:

by Joshua Slocum (1899):听An aging sea captain, awash in debts and legal problems, laid the keel for the Spray, “a private ark, designed to float free of the irksome land.” He set sail from Fairhaven, Massachusetts and returned three years later. Eleven years after the voyage, Slocum took the now-decrepit Spray out of Vineyard Haven into a November gale, bound for the Bahamas. He was never seen again.

by John Steinbeck (1963): He was my age at the start (58) and roughly followed the route of my bike trip across the country. He implied that you could smell the salt air of the Pacific from the Cascade passes. His humor was dry: “I had conveniently forgotten how incredibly huge America is;” After a flat tire: “We would have no recourse but to burst into tears and wait for death.”

by Maurice Herzog (1952):听French guides from the Chamonix Valley (which was a frequent sojourn from our days living in Geneva) take on one of the highest mountains in the world, well before oxygen tanks. Annapurna is now recognized as a deathtrap. Herzog and his companion Lachenal reach the summit; they had no business surviving. Herzog loses most of his fingers and toes and dictates the book during his year of plastic surgery. He has “the assurance and serenity of a man who has fulfilled himself.”

What is your writing process like?
When I'm on the road, I'll post each night on the magnificent , a journaling site for touring cyclists. It鈥檚 important when I sit down to write seriously that I can bring myself back to that pass, that river, that roadhouse. Sometimes the best stuff comes when I can still feel the blood pulsing in my legs in the evening. And I can still remember the bad jokes I thought up during the day's ride, which may not be an upside.

When it comes to the serious writing, I've learned a lot from my daughter, who's a professor and very disciplined. She sits down at 7:30, spends a half-hour on email, then shuts down Facebook, texts, the phone, and all of those other distractions. She flips on Toggl, a little time-tracking app, and punches the stopwatch when she starts actual writing and stops it when she's not. That's what I try to do also.听

Lastly, for me cellulose is important stuff. I can only sketch out a piece on a legal pad first, in unintelligible code. Then after research and chewing and reworking on-screen comes that magical moment when the printer lights up by my feet and honest-to-goodness paper and pages start coming out. It isn't real until then.

Any last words?
As a scientist, I observed networks for climate change in the ocean, the atmosphere, and the land surface. So climate change was a very clear thing for me. Right now we need to be aware that there鈥檚 a little bit of human-caused climate change in all of our long-term weather patterns. We are living in a different world. 听

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Many world-curious writers evoke one of two emotions in readers: either a yearning for parts unknown or a gratitude for the comforts of the familiar. When reading Bob Shacochis, it鈥檚 harder to say.

($26, Grove Press) compiles 20 years of magazine writing by longtime journalist, novelist, and听compulsive adventurer Bob Shacochis. He charges across the globe, from Mount Ararat in Turkey to Kamchatka, Russia, using experiences and physical terrain as tools for self-discovery and anthropological exploration. The resulting 13 essays included in the book are poignant, observant, and swashbuckling all at once.听

The collection opens with the titular novella 鈥淜ingdoms in the Air,鈥� a 140-page dispatch that sees Shacochis traveling to Nepal in 2001 with Thomas Laird, a photographer friend of his who lived there a decade earlier. They鈥檙e traveling through Upper Mustang, an area of the Himalayas formerly sealed off from foreigners. What unfolds is a calamitous haul on horseback, during which Shacochis mines the turbulent political landscape, challenging geography, and his friend鈥檚 inner turmoil as Laird observes how the country has changed in his ten-year absence.听

It鈥檚 Shacochis at his no-bullshit best, and it sets the tone for the subsequent essays, compiled and republished from their original forms in magazines such as Men鈥檚 Journal, 贬补谤辫别谤鈥檚, and, yes,听国产吃瓜黑料.听

Shacochis, a National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist, favors run-ons and fragments; he jumps from one scene to the next without coaxing us through a transition; he rarely uses dialogue. His writing is pared down and to the point, Hemingway-blunt, and yet it reverberates with meaning. 鈥淎ll human endeavor here is overshadowed by vast wilderness, the horseshoe of severe mountains above the cultivated plain that corral Upper Mustang鈥︹€� he writes. 鈥淪ometimes wolves prowl the fringe of the hamlets; in the higher pastures, sometimes villagers will kill a snow leopard for culling their herds. This is the home of the mythical yeti, the abominable snowman, and a bloodthirsty pantheon of local spirits; when night falls superstitious villagers bolt their doors.鈥�

These essays are about more than just place, and Shacochis has a听knack for distilling expansive, complicated situations down to their most important parts and plucking details that transport. Kamchatka, 鈥減erhaps Russia鈥檚 most famous nowhere,鈥� he introduces as a place to which children pretend-banish each other as penalty for losing a game. The rani (queen) of Kathmandu is 鈥減ale-faced and fine-boned and thin, elegant in her traditional gray bukkhoo and apron, her doe eyes beautiful but heavyhearted.鈥� The decline of Mozambique鈥檚 Gorongosa National Park is summarized in a sentence: 鈥�… its infrastructure blasted to rubble, its bountiful population of animals slaughtered, eaten, reduced to gnawed bones and wistful memory.鈥�

In a way, the essays in Kingdoms in the Air are templates for how to live. Shacochis is not advocating for reckless travel as a means for indulging restlessness. Rather, he鈥檚 showing by example that a big life can be lived in many ways: by learning about injustice and beauty, by cultivating openness and curiosity instead of fear or hesitancy, by seeking strange lands, and by observing, empathizing, and questioning.

The final essay, 鈥淟eave,鈥� is an appeal to Shacochis鈥� Florida State University graduate students to go out and consume the world. He writes, 鈥淟et the road end; stop at a crossroads where the light is surreal, nothing familiar, the air smells like a nameless spice, and the vibes are mesmerizing or just plain alien and stay, long enough to truly be there.鈥澨�

In Kingdoms, Shacochis beckons us along on his quest for these crossroads. More than a diary of days and locations, these essays are time stamps of an explorer鈥檚 long-spanning literary career, and they are not to be missed.听

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Zimbabwe is selling off its wildlife听in what officials there听are听calling a conservation solution to a devastating drought that is听depleting food sources for both humans and animals. 听last month听from Zimbabwe鈥檚 Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (called Zimparks) includes specific instructions for potential buyers: fill out a $50 鈥淓xpression of Interest鈥� form stating their intended use for the animals then mail it to Zimparks鈥� Harare office in an envelope labeled 鈥淟IVE ANIMAL SALES 2016.鈥�

Zimparks did not identify the species they intend to 鈥渄estock,鈥� but lions, impalas, zebras, and elephants are some of the animals up for sale, . Pangolins, pythons, and rhinos are protected against sale or hunting by the Parks and Wildlife Act of 1975 and cannot legally be traded. Elephant trade, however, is legal under CITES, the global treaty on wildlife trade, and a sold elephant calf can bring in anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000, .

Zimbabwe has bartered elephants to reap financial windfalls before. In July 2015, for example, Zimparks听made nearly $1 million when it听sold 24 baby elephants to , a 鈥渨ild animal theme park鈥� in China鈥檚 Guangzhou province that is notorious among animal rights groups for its inhumane treatment of performing animals. In March, Chimelong placed an order for 130 more African elephants, according to听Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force chairman Johnny听Rodrigues.

Zimbabwe authorities have been open about their plans to听sell听the country's听wild animals听again. 鈥淥ur ecosystem cannot handle such a large number of animals,鈥� Zimbabwe鈥檚 minister of environment, water, and climate, Oppah Muchinguri, . 鈥淪o we would rather export and sell more elephants and other animals to those willing to take care of them.鈥澨�

It鈥檚 unclear exactly how many elephants Zimbabwe has.听Muchinguri says more than 80,000.听The African Elephant Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has reported 45,000, with the bulk of them in northwestern Hwange National Park, the country鈥檚 largest game reserve. Whatever the number, it鈥檚 likely dwindling as elephants in Africa are being killed for their ivory faster than they are being born, .

Elephants transported overseas undergo complicated, life-threatening journeys. And since one Harare-based conservationist, who asked to remain anonymous, told 国产吃瓜黑料 that Chinese teams operating at night in Hwange National Park have already begun rounding up animals in preparation for sale, more听animals' lives could soon be at risk. This is how an African elephant would be captured and transported.

The Capture

First, an elephant must be separated from its herd. To do this, Zimparks will fly helicopters overhead and use gunfire to send the animals scattering, Rodrigues听says. At that point, rangers on the ground will zero in on a target elephant and use an air rifle to shoot it with a tranquilizer dart.听

The preferred sedative is Etorphine, or听M99, which will kill an elephant if its effects aren鈥檛 reversed soon听after it鈥檚 administered. The drug takes effect in about ten minutes, causing the elephant to keel over. The elephant is then blindfolded and a blood sample is taken. An antidote (Diprenorphine, or M50/50) is administered within 20 minutes or so, and the elephant is slowly coaxed to its feet and marched into a custom-built, cube-shaped transport container.

Built to minimize the chance of injury,听escape, and danger to nearby humans, the containers have solid metal and hardwood frames. Their hinged doors are secured with a series of metal bars across the front and听a groove for forklift extrusions runs along the bottom of the cage. According to the , the container must 鈥渂e of the size and strength to restrict the movement as well as restrain the animal in question. The animals must be able to stand naturally without being cramped but must not be able to move freely.鈥� IATA also specifies that the cages must provide ventilation openings through a slatted portion of the roof and accessible areas for food and water to be passed through. Inside, the elephant鈥檚 feet are chained to keep it from moving around.听

Training and Bureaucracy

The elephant is trucked in the container听to an outdoor enclosure called a boma鈥擲wahili for 鈥減lace of concealment鈥濃€攚here it could be held for months. During this waiting period, the elephant is trained to accept its travel container without becoming stressed. 鈥淶oos or officials from the destination country will usually send trainers over to start the process of , calming them down, getting them ready for the arduous transport trip ahead of them,鈥� says DJ Schubert, wildlife biologist for the Animal Welfare Institute. 鈥淭he trainers teach the elephants basic commands and test them for any diseases.鈥� This training can be done with food and positive reinforcement, as sanctuaries do, or with bullhooks and other painful training tools.听While the elephant undergoes its training, the source and host countries arrange the routing reservations and relevant documents.

The Transport

When the paperwork is ready, the elephant is dead-bolted inside its container, which is then forklifted onto a flatbed truck and driven to听Harare International Airport in the country鈥檚 northeast. Air cargo companies or military air force cargo jets are used for the flight. The interior layouts of the planes are modified to fit the animal containers and the accompanying vets and keepers.

There are no time caps on the transports. The 24 elephants sent to Chimelong, for example, spent 48 hours in transit.

The Risks

Ed Stewart, one of the founders of PAWS, a non-profit dedicated to rehabilitating hurt or orphaned wildlife, has relocated many animals from dire situations to his northern California wildlife sanctuary, ARK 2000. He calls the moves 鈥渕ilitary operations.鈥� He鈥檚 never had an animal die or become injured on a move, but he emphasizes that it can鈥攁nd does鈥攈appen.听

鈥淓lephants can die from suffocation when they go down [in the container], either from slipping or lying down from exhaustion,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat suppresses their organs. The container is too small for them to lie down on their sides like they鈥檙e used to; they can only go down on their chest and knees. If that happens in an airplane then there鈥檚 nothing anyone can do. It鈥檚 an emergency situation.鈥澨�

The IATA stresses in its guidelines that all transported animals be kept cool during takeoff and landing, well-hydrated throughout the trip, and given just the right amount of food and sedation. Otherwise, they can easily become dehydrated or go into shock.

Arrival

After landing in the destination country, handlers unload the elephant鈥檚 container from the plane and fasten it to a commercial, flatbed truck with the capacity to handle the load (an African elephant typically weighs between 4,000 pounds and 14,000 pounds). The elephant is then driven to its final location.

Under U.S. laws, animals coming from a foreign country need to be quarantined for 30 days, so a recently-imported elephant wouldn鈥檛 immediately go on public display. According to Stewart, the quarantine period has an unintended benefit: it gives the animal some time to recover.

鈥淭he strain from the move doesn鈥檛 go away when they get there,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he animals are still very stressed by what they鈥檝e been through.”

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Justin O. Schmidt was in Costa Rica visiting a friend鈥攁 fellow entomologist investigating the ecology of the听screwworm听fly鈥攚hen his well-honed insect radar led him to a nest of rare听Polybia听simillima. He was excited. Notorious for depositing their stingers snugly into a victim鈥檚 flesh, these black, bullet-sized wasps also have a remarkably resonant sting.听

In Schmidt鈥檚 words: 鈥淥pportunity knocks, and then flees. I was not about to let this opportunity flee.鈥� So he put on his bee suit, and, armed with clippers and a bag, charged into the thrumming hive of wasps. The wasps stung him several times in the face and neck. He went about collecting the nest as red puncture wounds appeared one-by-one in his skin.听

Being stung in the line of data-collecting duty is normal for Schmidt. A biologist and听entomologist who has been called the听鈥淜ing of Sting,鈥澨齢e studies the nuances in the venoms of the world鈥檚 stinging insects, from tarantula hawks to sweat bees. His new book,听, out from Johns Hopkins Press this month, even includes a ranking鈥攄ubbed the听鈥攐f each of the 83 types of stings he鈥檚 experienced while conducting his field research. The rankings run from a minimally painful one (for example, a deer fly bite) to four (a bullet ant bite, which will leave your skin burning for hours). His scientific interests aren't as nutty as they seem鈥攈is quest is to find out, why do these insects fight back the way they do?

Schmidt has traveled far and wide to gather data, from Trinidad to Japan.听国产吃瓜黑料听caught up with the world鈥檚 foremost insect sting expert in between trips to ask him about his book, his poetic descriptions of pain, and the notorious award it鈥檚 earned him.听

OUTSIDE: How do you find the language to write about the different types of pain of insect stings?听
SCHMIDT: That is a real challenge, because you don鈥檛 want the language to be redundant for the reader. Each species鈥� sting feels unique and the key is to articulate it as accurately as possible. For example, stings from honeybees and听yellowjacket听wasps are a complex pain鈥攊t鈥檚 an itchy burning, like a flame or like ash fell on you. It鈥檚 a complicated, robust pain. Whereas the bites of bulldog ants鈥攂ig, charismatic ants鈥攃ause a pain that is very clean and pure, almost a sharp, piercing pain, like stabbing a tiny sharp instrument into your skin. It鈥檚 not the rich pain you get from a honeybee or a wasp. And then the tarantula hawk, well, that feels like a pure electrical zap. It鈥檚 an electrifying pain.听

These are few different characteristics. I do find myself running out of words because we don鈥檛 have many references for pain, like we do for smells.听

Apart from the physical strain of experiencing all those sensations yourself, what鈥檚 the hardest part of your work?
The hardest part is finding the creatures. I often have to rely on serendipity. I seek out places where I know there will be interesting stinging insects, and then I hope to stumble upon them. Knowing the area where they鈥檒l be helps to a certain extent, but often I鈥檓 surprised by certain discoveries. There鈥檚 a lot of luck involved.

The Ig Nobel Prizes, administered by actual Nobel Laureates, celebrate scientists who have 鈥渕ade people laugh, and then think.鈥� What was it like to win one of those?听
That was quite fun! I won in the Physiology and听Entymology听category for creating the Schmidt Sting Pain Scale. The awards ceremony was held on the Harvard/MIT campus on September 17, 2015. They put on a wonderful show. We were all hidden from the audience until the last moment and were then led onto the stage all attached to a rope, possibly to keep us from getting too unruly or lost. Only then did the public get a glimpse of us. We got a nice certificate to frame, ten trillion Zimbabwe dollars, and an artistic tree showing the main elements of life. 听

What do you want people to take away from your book?
I want people to realize that insects are beautiful. They have interesting stories to them, every bit as interesting as ours. Hopefully, readers will see those stories brought to life in my book. I want to instill a love of science and a sense of awe and wonderment for these creatures. If we don鈥檛 have that, then we鈥檙e missing something important to the human experience here on earth. We need to cherish our planet鈥檚 biology. 听

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Thousands of craft-beer loving cyclists will flood the small town of 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 headquarters for the third-annual this spring. From May 20 to 22, visitors will have the chance to catch film screenings, tours, concerts, beer tastings, and over 60 official bike rides. And it will all happen under reliable southwestern sun.听

The self-proclaimed 鈥淨ueen of Pain,鈥� , is slated to lead several mountain biking clinics;听San Francisco-based band will perform on the main stage Friday night;听and nearly a dozen restaurants around town are offering . Finally, the 2016 season will kick off听on May 22 with a backcountry race, alongside an expo featuring products from Yeti, Shimano, Maxxis, Smith, and other top brands. Post-race, festival-goers can unwind with swimming, bonfires, and, yes, beer and bike tricks galore at the Oskar Blues after-party.听

国产吃瓜黑料 is also partnering with Uber and gear retailer Yakima to create Uber PEDAL specifically for the Bike and Brew, supplying local drivers with bike racks to get every reveler (and bike) home safely.听

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In October 2015, Bend, Oregon-based pharmaceutical researcher Matt McFerran saw a Facebook post that would change his life: , the 1,147-acre resort in Idaho鈥檚 Sawtooth National Forest, was up for sale for only听$149,000. With a price tag that low he was sure there鈥檇 been a mistake.

Matt and his wife, Diane, applied for the property immediately, writing a proposal that included their prospective operating budget, future goals, and why they thought they鈥檇 be the best candidates to run Soldier Mountain. Matt also made three trips in as many weeks to the 36-run ski hill in an effort to familiarize himself with the mountain and the community, and to show his enthusiasm and commitment. On November 4, the board of the nonprofit Soldier Mountain Ski Area, Inc., chose Matt and Diane out of over 2,000 hopefuls to be the area鈥檚 new owners.

鈥淢att made it very clear [to the board] that we were interested in having this be the next chapter of our lives,鈥� Diane says. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have the most experience or the most financial backing, but we had the most heart. I think that鈥檚 why they picked us.鈥�

The nonprofit group had bought the ski area three years earlier from actor Bruce Willis, a part-time resident of Hailey, Idaho, who purchased Soldier Mountain in the mid-nineties for its rich backcountry terrain. But Soldier Mountain Ski Area, Inc., accumulated an upkeep debt of $149,000 (the asking price)听and needed to unload the property.听

Three days after finding out he鈥檇 been selected, Matt quit his job and relocated to Fairfield, Idaho, where Soldier Mountain is located. Diane sold her Pilates studio and joined him a few weeks later. The McFerrans had Soldier Mountain up and running by the beginning of December (they closed for the season on March 12), which was the earliest opening date in over a decade. This was no small feat鈥攕ize-wise, Soldier Mountain falls right in the middle of the other ski hills in the area, which include Sun Valley (121 runs, 2154 acres), Bogus Basin (53 runs, 2,600 acres),听and Magic Mountain听(11 runs, 120 acres). The mountain relies on natural snow, and, luckily, there was a lot of that this year.

We spoke with Diane about her and Matt鈥檚 ambitions for Soldier Mountain, the realities of managing a ski resort with your partner, and what it鈥檚 like to buy a ski hill one day and devote your life to it the next.

OUTSIDE: What exactly did $149,000 get you?
DIANE: Included in the lease was the ski lodge, a rental shop, a bar and kitchen, lift and ski patrol buildings, two working chairlifts, snowmobiles, and two pickup trucks. We had to apply for a special-use permit with the U.S. Forest Service to get operations underway. We also had to secure permits for the backcountry skiing access, which we just got approved in February.

What were some of the challenges you and Matt faced this first season?
In those weeks before we opened, we learned just how many hoops we had to jump through to open our doors legally: business licenses, liquor license, forest service lease, backcountry permit, Idaho Outfitters and Guide license, just to name a few. It also became very apparent that we didn't just buy one business, we got many鈥攁 restaurant, a bar, a rental shop, a retail shop, a ski school, a cat ski operation, a Ski Patrol, and oh yeah, a ski area to sell tickets to.听

We also learned very quickly how to be directors of our HR department. With close to 50 seasonal workers, we have had the inevitable ups and downs, and we've had to learn to manage that many people. We also were told, almost immediately, by Idaho's Attorney General, that they weren't sure the ski area sold for a fair price and they needed to do a review on that. We couldn't finalize the sale until they reached a decision. That didn't happen until late February. They decided that Soldier Mountain was worth $13,400 more than we paid. We came to an agreement with Soldier Mountain Ski Area's board that we would distribute that amount of charitable goods and services in the next four years. With the price finalized, we can now finish the purchase of the ski area.听

One of the most amusing and unexpected things in those first few weeks was how many times we were contacted by people wanting to do a reality show on us and the transition from our Bend life to owning Soldier Mountain. Several Hollywood people with well-known shows and channels, and several smaller Internet and YouTube people pursued this. While it would have been good exposure for Soldier, I鈥檓 not the kind of person who would do well with a camera on me all the time. Matt would have loved it.

What sets Soldier Mountain apart from the other ski resorts in the area?
Soldier Mountain is a Fairfield institution. It鈥檚 the family-friendly alternative to Sun Valley, which is much bigger and ritzier. There are so many local families with fond memories of growing up at Soldier Mountain. People tell me that they learned to ski here and then went on to teach their kids to ski here, too. While it isn't the flashiest ski area in the region, it has a warm vibe that draws people in and makes them feel like they鈥檙e part of the Soldier family. People have a real sense of attachment to this place.

How do you and Matt approach working together?
Matt and I have said that while we aren't parents, Soldier Mountain is like our baby. It鈥檚 something we want to nurture and grow, something we care desperately about and lose sleep over. We divide roles and duties based on our individual strengths and weaknesses. We鈥檙e a team that cares听a lot about this mountain.

What long-term plans do you and Matt have for Soldier Mountain?听
A group recently asked us if they could use Soldier Mountain as a home base for paragliding and ski flying. We want to form unique partnerships and bring in other sports. All types of athletes are welcome here, not just alpine skiers. And we want to develop lodging. We can鈥檛 build anything permanent because Soldier Mountain is on Forest Service land, so we鈥檒l set up yurts or shipping containers for our overnight guests. Also, we鈥檇 love to have a snow-making machine, but that鈥檚 a few years down the line. For now, we鈥檙e happy to depend on Mother Nature.听

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Huckberry, the online retailer of aspirational-yet-affordable outdoor menswear and adventure gear, is offering its third-annual 鈥攁nd it might be the best one yet.听

The bootstrap business is the five-years-and-running passion project of 听who launched the site from a coffee shop near their San Francisco apartments in 2011. Today, Huckberry has more than 50 employees and stocks everything from 听to 听to .

The Explorers Grant was established to emphasize the value of outdoor immersion, wilderness discovery, and a deliberate defiance of the daily mundane. Last year, Huckberry selected ecologist Charles Post out of tens of thousands of applicants to join photographer Chris Burkard in Denali National Park and Preserve. (Read Post鈥檚 account of the trip .)听

This year, Huckberry is partnering with 国产吃瓜黑料 to give the grant winner the opportunity to choose from one of four epic trips led by a Huckberry Ambassador, plus $2,000 in store credit. Each of this year鈥檚 applicants will vote for one of the following adventures: fly fishing on Idaho鈥檚 Snake River with guide Maddie Brenneman; surfing and hiking the rugged California coast with pro surfer Cyrus Sutton; backpacking through the remote Olympic National Park with filmmaker and photographer Andy Best; or motorbiking and surfing in British Columbia with photographer Dylan Gordon.听

The . Ten finalists will be selected at random by the Huckberry team and asked to write a 250-word essay鈥攖he more creative and original, the better. The brand ambassador guiding the winning trip will announce the grant recipient on April 21.听

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Legendary pro听surfer Kelly Slater added 鈥渉ero鈥� to his long list of accomplishments after he helped save the lives of a woman and her young son who were knocked over听by a rogue wave听in Oahu on Wednesday.

Sarah White, wife of Australian surfing photographer Chris White, was pushing the couple鈥檚 22-month-old son, Van, in a stroller along the Rock Piles footpath by the Kamehameha highway on the island鈥檚 east coast on Wednesday afternoon. The footpath edges along a beach that has听been getting pummeled by winter swells intensified by El Ni帽o.听Suddenly a ten-foot-tall rogue wave came smashing over a sea barrier, submerging Sarah and Van and sweeping them across the heavily-trafficked highway.

Slater, who was at a nearby lifeguard tower, later described the wave to Chris听as a 鈥渢sunami鈥� traveling at high speed. He yelled to get the pair鈥檚 attention, but he couldn鈥檛 reach Sarah and Van in time to prevent them from getting hit. In the deluge, Van鈥檚 stroller somersaulted across the pavement before coming to rest against a fence. Slater听and two lifeguards rushed over. By the time Slater was able to get the broken stroller upright, Van had swallowed salt water and had sand in his nose, ears, and mouth. Sarah had cuts and bruises on her back, and she鈥檇 lost her cell phone, sunglasses, and camera. 鈥淣one of the material goods mean anything,鈥� Chris told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just so thankful that we have our boy!鈥�

It was Chris and Sarah鈥檚 14th season at Oahu (Van鈥檚 first), and they were on the island for a month-long holiday and photography expedition. Chris was shooting the surf at Waimea Bay when the incident occurred, and he remembers that the waves were particularly big that day despite the clear weather. 鈥淲hile this was happening [to Sarah and Van], I witnessed lifeguards at Waimea save the lives of two people who were close to drowning,鈥� he told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淏ig thanks to Slater and the North Shore Lifeguard Association. They are all heroes in my book.鈥�

For his part, Slater 听that he hopes to eventually be able to laugh about the incident with the Whites someday. 鈥淰an鈥檚 first wave was a huge one! Definitely a WA baby!鈥� he wrote.

Slater was in the area taking advantage of the epic swells. Apparently Waimea was so big that Slater couldn鈥檛 paddle into it. 鈥淔irst time I鈥檝e had a #WalkOfShame at #Waimea,鈥� he .

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