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The National Outdoor Leadership School is great at training kids to survive and thrive in the wild. So how does its boot-camp approach work with grown-ups? It's effective as hell—if you don't mind misery and suffering, and those nagging questions about what happened to all the fun.

There was evidence, but no investigation. A crime, but no suspects. Rumors, but no one willing to point the finger. When gunmen massacred up to 20 brown bears near a Canadian grizzly researcher's Kamchatka cabin, the warning was clear: On the lawless frontier of the New Russia, outsiders are no longer welcome.

A former CIA agent is on his strangest mission yet: giving Iraqi kids a scouting chance

Call us rubberneckers, but who can resist the panic, terror, and inspiration of a good survival tale? We combed through vast libraries of lore to find 10 more unforgettable, nearly unbelievable great escapes. Brace yourself.

Deep inside a remote canyon, a boulder shifts. In an instant, Aron Ralston's hand is pinned beneath half a ton of rock. So begins an ordinary hero's six-day ordeal of grit, pain, and courage—culminating in a decision to do the unthinkable.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry spent his life defying and outflying death. Then it caught up.

Two men, a continent, and the mother of all polar duels

Pilot an ultralight and what do you get? A bird's-eye view of the world and a dose of the maverick spirit of flying.

In adventure as in life, wisdom is passed down from father to son. Or not.

Survival and Wilderness Skills

Sure, the wilderness is beautiful. But it can also frighten you out of your mind.

What happens when a solitary day hike turns into the ultimate test of survival?

“No one knows where I am, for the simple reason that I don't know exactly where I'm going. Not knowing is a key ingredient in this game.”

Canoeing the jungles of South America, where freedom is a family affair

Philip Smethurst is training young adventurers to spread Christianity to the planet's wildest corners

Gordon Giesbrecht didn't become the world's leading authority on hypothermia by sitting around the campfire. He got there by leaping into frozen lakes, injecting ice water into his veins, and taking lots of very, very cold baths.

Only a few badges—Lifesaving, Dog Care, and the impossible Seven-Minute Mile among them—stood between this lapsed Scout and his boyhood dream of earning Scouting's highest honor

“I want to get off my pills someday,” Roger says. “I think that if I stay around regular people a lot, maybe that will help me.”

“I don’t even think of Tony as an adult,” said Phil Jennings, a 12-year-old I met at the HuckJam. “He doesn’t act like the big man. He’s one of us.”

The scientists were clinging to the side of the ice they’d been standing on, 50 feet above the waterline. In a few seconds, the berg had gone over on top of them.

Joe’s hand began to tingle, and he called the group together. The toxins would leave his system in 48 hours, he said. He’d be conscious the whole time.

The respect of the men can be a cruel mistress and a harlot. But at other times it can be a nice mistress and a happy slut. You can't think about it too much.

The marines' mountain warfare training center is the ultimate test for some of the world's toughest troops: a make-it-or-leave regimen of backcountry ski combat, torturous night maneuvers, and deadly cold. Any volunteers?

The Intrepid Travels and Incredible Tales of Col. John Blashford-Snell, Explorer

In the seas off South Africa's Dyer Island, shark mania and risk adventure have combined with a vengeance. For a few bucks, one of a gang of ill-qualified, ill-equipped dive operators will drop you into the most dangerous water on earth. Problem is, no one's promising to get you safely back.

Your urgent inquiries about the world, answered.

Thanks to improved safety standards and tandem flights, scores of acrophobes are giving hang gliding a second wind. And now, they're soaring in style—over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Meet the proud residents of the nation's arsenic capital. Now, will someone please explain to these good people why poison's a bad thing?

This is what happens to your body when you get tangled up in the business end of a box jellyfish—the most venomous creature on earth.

Struck by an urge to leap off a tall building? Pack your chute and head for Malaysia.

Has this tired old world been explored-out? Not Down Under, where uncharted, bottomless slot canyons hide just west of Sydney.

Once a year, the adventurous Jenkins boys will be boys, reforging the bonds of brotherly affection by nearly killing themselves

Rediscovering Antarctica

Will Earth's most fragile unexplored ecosystems survive the age of adventure?

The come-on: Grab two hours of challenging fun and fast adventure. But when a dark wall of water swept away lives and reputations, the question became: Why?

Soaring over four continents, three oceans, and assorted hostile nations aboard a high-tech gondola, Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of England this year became the first men to circle the world by hot-air balloon. Here is their diary—the unforgettable highs, the lows, and the humdrum routine experienced by the unlikely duo who vowed to boldly g

The Ideas Toward a Larger Life

The Great Reinhold Messner unmasks his latest conquest

When a promising young runner went missing in Wyoming's Wind River Range, everything changed for the community of athletes she left behind.

Bill Haast, human pincushion, explains the pain and profit of being nailed 163 times—and counting—by his little scaly friends

In the dusty realm of big-league map collecting, one man cut a darker figure than his milquetoasty colleagues. Armed with an X-Acto knife and an arsenal of fake identities, he systematically ransacked the nation's libraries, hoping in his own peculiar way to dominate the globe.

There’s nothing funny about motion sickness. Really. I mean it.