Exploration & Survival
Archive
This 1,000-mile race across the frozen wilderness of Alaska necessitates some very specialized kit
A remote car accident, a broken ski, a tumble in the snow, and a slow descent into hypothermia before (spoiler alert!) a dramatic rescue
When a person goes missing outdoors, there’s a specific protocol for finding them within the first 24 hours. After that first day, it becomes much tougher.
国产吃瓜黑料 filmmakers Taylor Rees and Renan Ozturk thought it would be a mellow working vacation: they’d capture footage of four young Brits as they traversed 250 miles of Iceland’s fissured terrain, starting in December.
In Search of a Moment?is a short film from photographer David Fontneau about his journey to become a?photographer. Fontneau says he was drawn to photography because he found himself constantly searching for the “purity of the moment,” which took him to quite a few…
Mauls six people and takes 10 hours to capture
Our best travel and adventure photography of the year.
Authorities have called off the official search for Randy Bilyeu, but treasure hunters continue to comb the area for leads
Is it legal to auction off an unclaimed 17th-century cannon on the Internet? Or does that make you a pirate?
One of the world's great polar explorers died on January 24 after traveling alone across Antarctica for 71 days
Who wouldn’t want to surf in the clouds? An aviation engineer in Alabama is on a mission to find out.
Knowing how to survive in the wild isn't the same thing as knowing how to survive in the big city when an earthquake or tsunami strikes. Wherever you live, Japan's new survival manual may save your life.
Some of the best medicine for kids with attention-deficit disorders may be extreme sports and outdoor learning. That's good news, because not only do they need exploration, but exploration desperately needs them.
German explorer Martin Szwed claims to have shattered the speed record for a solo ski to the South Pole last year. He has revealed no GPS data, no photos—no proof whatsoever that he even attempted the journey. Since his return from the icy continent, he has lost his house, job, and sponsors and is the subject of two investigations by the German government. Should anyone believe him?
A man wakes up on a muddy logging road in the middle of the mountains. His truck is dead. His phone is out of range. He’s got no food. How did he make it out?
People coming back to life after being frozen stiff. Frogs that cryopreserve for winter and then reanimate. The emerging frontier of extreme cold is offering revolutionary new insights and therapies for everything from deadly exposure to peak athletic performance.
Remembering a leader whose talents were hard to match and whose enthusiasm was contagious
Our favorite adventures of land, sea, and air from 2015
An American mountain biker narrowly avoided drowning when he took a spill trying to cross a rushing river. Here’s what he did right.
The North Face co-founder left an indelible mark on outdoors recreation and environmentalism here and abroad
The year ahead will be filled with goggles that guide us down the ski hill, stoves that could save humanity, and Kubrickian pods that will carry us to the edge of space
Charged?is the true story of Eduardo Garcia, who survived a horrific accident while hiking in the Montana backcountry in 2011.
The Macnab is the Scottish equivalent?of?the Triple Crown for hunters: competitors must catch a salmon on the fly, shoot a brace of grouse, and take a stag all between dawn and dusk. Most participants will fail. But, as we learn in Haste Ye Back, from Selena?and Simon K Barr of…
It’s simple enough: put your butt on a piece of plywood and skid down the 1,600-foot slope. But it’s had profound economic effects on a Central American city.
Bear Hunter?is a film by?Caroline?Santinelli?that profiles 13-year-old Kerigan?Disorda. Disorda went bear hunting with her father for the first time when she was 11, and the activity quickly became?her biggest passion. She now wants to be a bear biologist and spends the majority of her time in Vermont's…
A user's list for all the travel, fun, and affiliated delights you can cram into a year
It was the biggest set ever built for a Hollywood film in the 1920s, and then it was buried in the sands of the California Coast. The real story begins when a young filmmaker embarks on a decades-long attempt to excavate it.
Being open-minded and answering in the affirmative have taken Berty Mandagie from Java to Seattle to the top of Machu Picchu, where the word “yes” sparked the next chapter of his life’s adventures
Expedition kayaker Erik Boomer on man-eating walruses, making friends with fear, and the impact of his last name
The quest for ever bigger and more dangerous televised wingsuit stunts is going to boost the sport's already high body count
As the team attempting the first ski descent of Makalu prepares to ascend, they first perform an ancient ritual
After a long and wet week, the team attempting to ski the world’s fifth-highest peak has made it to the base of Makalu
As each week brings fresh reports of African and Middle Eastern migrants and refugees dying on the Mediterranean in overcrowded boats, a self-made Louisiana millionaire and his Italian wife have taken to the sea to save them.
There is an Arctic glimmer in the eyes of many nations around the world right now. There is no turning back—the Arctic is about to get a lot busier and a lot warmer. And it’s nearly untouched beauty is at risk of being lost forever.
From survival strategies to kindling tricks to impress your friends, we’ll cover it all so you can make sure you’re warm and well s’mores-ed
Millionaire Forrest Fenn launched a thousand trips when he filled a chest with gold, rubies, and diamonds, and hid it somewhere north of Santa Fe. If one man is going to find it, by god, it’s an ex-cop from Seattle named Darrell Seyler.
The jack-of-all-trades swaps the pigskin for an ice axe (and the tent for a real bed)
In 2010, a renowned art dealer from New Mexico named Forrest Fenn reportedly hid a treasure worth more than a million dollars somewhere in the mountains north of Santa Fe. He then published a book called The Thrill of the Chase that contains clues regarding the treasure's…
A new and physically gruesome form of BASE jumping involves affixing a parachute directly into the jumper’s back—with metal hooks
Suspension BASE Jump: Piercing Gravity is a short film from The Extremity Project in which?Josh Miramant becomes the 11th person in the world to complete a Suspension BASE Jump. In Suspension BASE Jumping,?the parachute is attached to piercings on the jumper’s back. The jump took place on May…
For two members of the New Horizons mission to Pluto, aeronautics and planetary science are only part of their overarching fascination with the natural world. We spoke to them about the unlikely intersection of skydiving, cave diving, and space exploration.
Jed Mildon became the first person ever to land a quadruple backflip on a BMX bike on Sunday, July 12, 2015.
The Man Who Flew to Earth is a documentary feature film that follows the lives of Gary Connery and his wingman Mark Sutton, as they plan, prepare and undertake a feat deemed to be impossible: to fly and land a wingsuit without using a parachute. You can…
A deadly collapse at a popular cavern near Seattle has raised the question of whether signs and warnings are enough to stop visitors from venturing where they shouldn’t
For more than 25 years, the Bandaloop dance troupe has performed on high-altitude sideways stages, from Seattle’s Space Needle to skyscrapers in South Korea. This June, they took their act to the granite walls of the Yosemite backcountry. Here, a quartet rehearses on the flanks of 8,500-foot Mount Watkins.
Beginning this June 16, six dancers and a nine-person support crew headed into Yosemite’s wilderness for ten days of hiking and pirouetting.
The risks are worth it to show my kids one of the wildest places on the planet
Every year, an elite group of racers gathers in the small Northern California town of Arcata. They’re not runners. They’re not cyclists. They’re not drivers. They’re much stranger than that. Their competition: the Kinetic Grand Championship, a grueling three-day, 42-mile schlep over sand, water, mud, and pavement. Their steeds: bizarre amphibious human-powered vehicles. So sit back, buckle up, and enjoy the wild, crazy ride.
When Fran?ois Guenot vanished last summer on a wild and remote Alaskan coastline, many in the state dismissed him as yet another unprepared greenhorn. But a revelatory road trip with Fran?ois's father and brother revealed he was something special: a tough, soulful wanderer whose story resonates with the grand traditions of the American outdoors.
Polar Explorer?Eric Larsen judges the quality of his life by how many nights he gets to spend in a tent each year.?By his estimates, he's spent years of his life sleeping and living in various places around the world, and?roughly a year camping solely in the Arctic…
Drop your jaws and pack your bags. 国产吃瓜黑料's best adventure photography of the year.
The climbing great died Saturday while attempting a wingsuit flight from Yosemite’s Taft Point
The Pearl River is full of trash, Volkswagen-sized catfish, and a heckuva lot of gators. Swimming in it? That was Pop's idea.
Last summer, adventurers Will Gadd and Gavin McClurg completed a historic paragliding expedition through the Canadian Rockies. And when?Gadd, who completed a historic first ascent of a frozen Niagra Falls earlier this year,?calls something “the truest adventure” he’s ever been a part of, you know it had to…
They get paid to climb mountains and raft whitewater. But guiding isn't all a dream—not with whiny clients, lousy tips, and the occasional colleague pranking you in a gorilla suit.
Our anonymous survey results are in. These are the genuine horrors and joys of leading strangers into the wild.
The versatile watercraft goes way back
A look inside the survival capsule Italian explorer Alex Bellini has commissioned to help him achieve an unprecedented feat: Spend a year on an iceberg as it melts into the Atlantic.
For Scott Rogers, photography has always been about two things: friends and fears
Sir Ranulph Fiennes reflects on the life of a 71-year-old explorer as he stares down the barrel of one of the planet’s hardest ultramarathons.
Human-body-flyer Dean Potter is a man of many talents. Known for daring free-solo climbs, high-lining, BASE jumping and winguiting,?Potter recently made a film about his decision to take his dog, Whisper, wingsuit-flying with him. The full?When Dogs Fly film is now available here.?…
Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will now attempt the first solar-powered, round-the-world flight in their high-tech, carbon-fiber, kind-of-cramped plane
That's how Mark Twain defined a gold miner. But when our writer heard head-spinning treasure tales from a legendary prospector named Flint Carter, he organized a full-scale expedition into the mountains near Tucson, Arizona. Following a hand-drawn map, the team lit out for the harsh Sonoran Desert hopped up on gold fever in search of the fabled Lost City.
This month, 50-year-old Russian adventurer Valery Rozov became the first person to BASE jump from Kilimanjaro, the largest freestanding volcanic mass in the world. Video by?Red Bull Media House. ? ? ?…
The arts of bushcraft and wilderness survival are lost on many, but not renowned traveler and British TV personality?Ray Mears. We Belong to It,?a film by Goh Iromoto, follows the bushcraft expert into the heart of Wabakimi Provincial Park in…
Sometimes the best way to improve while learning a new sport is simply to embrace the embarrassment and laugh at yourself. Watch as our Online Editors learn from expert coaches and try to master rock climbing, skiing and running in our?Zero to Hero series.?…
Red Bull Athlete Cedric Dumont performed the first ever wing-suit flight over the Great Pyramids of Giza on Thursday January 29, 2015. After a 3-year wait, the Belgian athlete could not hide his emotions and genuine excitement to fly over the…
Give a bunch of guns and gold to hearty, tattooed Alaskans, and turn them loose.
It's easier (and yields warmer results) than you'd think
What to do when it's dark and frigid outside? We have some ideas. For starters, try building a backyard sauna, mixing up a powerful cocktail, joining a mountain race, mixing up a powerful cocktail, joining a mountain race, creating the perfect cabin fire, learning to dogsled, swinging a war hammer, kicking back with a classic adventure book, or escaping to a tropical island. Just hurry up—spring will be here before you know it.
From that time Lance Armstrong showed us how to fix a flat tire to an investigation into USA Swimming’s sex abuse scandal, we look back at the stories that defined the year.
Mountain Hardwear athlete Mike Libecki and his daughter venture across Antartica. There are many lessons learned along the way. ?…
Canadian Kate Harris' sure-fire two-step guide on how to become a modern explorer.
If courage is grace under fire, as Hemingway once wrote, then Sandy Cunningham is as courageous as they come. From a childhood in war-torn Rhodesia to living in a tent in Kenyan lion country, the owner of a bespoke travel company sees the future of adventure travel in the globe’s uncharted corners, where travelers take control of their own narratives.
Our vision of the year ahead, from sure bets (more fitness tech) to bold predictions (we're all moving to Seattle!)
With warp-speed ascents that include the Matterhorn (1:56) and Denali (9:43), ultrarunner turned alpinist Kilian Jornet Burgada is the king of the endurance world's latest obsession: fastest known times. And now he plans to run up Everest.
As investigators piece together the details, Douglas Messier—who witnessed the crash from the desert floor—reports on the warning signs that preceded the disaster, the already rampant finger-pointing, and the viability of space tourism.