Exploration
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After years of sounding the climate-change alarm, writer Bill McKibben realized that gentle persuasion wasn鈥檛 cutting it. So he got mad. Then he got busy: tweeting, organizing, protesting, getting arrested, and becoming Big Oil鈥檚 biggest threat.
In the 16 years since Into Thin Air, Mount Everest has become safer in many ways, with better storm forecasting and amazing high-altitude rescue helicopters. So why did 10 people die in 2012?
It's a lot easier to imagine you're a colonial settler when you're not 25, Katie Heaney learns
Grizzly print, and a notebook. Photo: 国产吃瓜黑料rs and Scientists for Conservation Rachel Carson earned a master's degree in zoology from John Hopkins University and spent most of her career working as a marine biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife…
Tsunami debris. Photo: Stiv Wilson By Stiv Wilson, 5 Gyres Institute Out across a plastic stratified strand, two surfers, silhouetted in the failing light, are finishing a session. A year and half ago, this wasn鈥檛 a surf spot. A tsunami destroyed everything…
What made Katie Heaney feel like a combination of Pocahontas and Jesus Christ? Standing on a board and holding a paddle.
An interview with the founder of the One World Futbol Project, the makers of a virtually indestructible soccer ball that's being donated to children in need
Sea turtle hatchling, Baguan Island, Philippines. Photo: Keith Ellenbogen Examples of poor ocean health are too easy鈥攗nfortunately鈥攖o find in many parts of the world, especially along densely populated coastlines or in the midst of ocean gyres filled with plastic pollution. But what is…
Fall is here, and the temps are dropping鈥攖ime to pick a fresh new adventure in the American Southwest
Allie Bombach on location. Photo: Miguel Tercero What is it about movers and shakers? What makes them tick? Filmmaker Allie Bombach wants to know and is using her MoveShake film series to uncover some answers. The year-long project debuted in early June with the…
Katie Heaney won't ever climb Mount Everest, but she's ready to step outside and try some things鈥攍ike looking for a moose
Bug spray seems messy and outdated. Do the apps for Android phones and iPhones really work? What about bug-repellent clothing?
On Monday morning at approximately 1:32 Eastern, the new rover Curiosity touched solid ground on Mars after a flight through the planet's atmosphere that NASA dubbed “seven minutes of terror.” The state-of-the-art exploratory vehicle will photograph and take samples to see if there…
Plying the Icicle River, Washington. Photo: Leah Ricketts By Russ Ricketts It all started innocently enough. My friend Matt told me about snorkeling with the salmon in our local rivers in the Cascade Mountains. His epic tales of huge fish, deep pools and fast currents held…
Want to look at maps on your tablet instead of your phone so that they're bigger and easier to comprehend? Trimble Outdoors just released its MyTopo Maps app for the Kindle Fire and other Android-powered tablets. Now you can plot your next outdoor adventure on the big…
This illegal deer stand is bigger than most Manhattan studios. Photo: St. Louis County Land and Minerals Dept. Deer hunters wait. They find a good spot in the forest, and they wait. To get a better vantage, they might climb into a tree or build a…
Give money to your favorite environment-protecting non-profit without spending a dime. Clif Bar is inviting outdoor enthusiasts to protect the places we play by sharing photos and stories of our adventures on聽MeettheMoment.com. (Clif Bar's Meet the Moment is also sponsoring 国产吃瓜黑料's So There…
The Arctic Row Team. Photo: Arctic Row On July 15, a team of four men will attempt to complete the first non-stop unsupported row across the Arctic Ocean by journeying from Inuvik, Canada, to Providenya, Russia. The men will row their 29-foot-long, 6-foot-wide boat in shifts…
For some of us, the human drive to explore, even though most of the earth's surface area has already been mapped, even though it's no longer necessary in order to obtain food and shelter, endures. And in an urban environment where many public spaces are not open for public use, this drive becomes the urban explorer's urge to infiltrate.
A titanium bike with swooping lines and parallel triangles for added flex and greater shock absorption.
For better and (only sometimes) worse, elite athletes are our role models. We admire their discipline and commitment; their strength and skill inspire us to reach higher in our own lives. When I talked to alpinist Hilaree O'Neill last month by cell phone from Everest Base Camp,…
San Francisco views at Angel Island State Park. Photo: John Trippe/FecalFace.com If you're all about eating locally-produced food and being active in your community, consider staking claim to some nearby dirt or sand, too. Here's a quick (and coastal-centric) list of camping options.
We start the day with a car accident. The bikes are unloaded and we are on them. It's another scorcher, so we're ready to ride by 7:30 a.m. We're filling the last waterbottle when an 84-year-old Italian man backs out of his garage and into the side of the van.
We spent last night at an ancient stone farmhouse. It was technically a hotel, but it felt like we were staying in someone's home. The family served all the meals, and entertained us with stories translated through the daughter. The food was exceptional: cheese from the family's flock and herd…
Biking is tiring in a really satisfying way. Hammer all day on a bike and you'll feel fulfilled and ready for food and rest. Driving in a car for four hours after hammering all day is brutal. Packed into the backseat with your teammates, your feet swell and even if…
What if you are backpacking or camping, and are confronted by a fast-moving wildfire? What should you do? What should you carry?
Alite Designs cofounder Tae Kim at the Ranger Station library. Photo: Mary Catherine O'Connor Tae Kim grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, where, he says, 鈥測our crazy uncle teaches you how to go camping.鈥 (His crazy uncle really did teach him how to go camping.) But…
Ric Gillespie has spent the past three decades looking for what he calls an 鈥渁ny-idiot artifact鈥: a bombproof discovery that will persuade the world he鈥檚 found Earhart鈥檚 crash site. Here are TIGHAR鈥檚 greatest whiffs.
A Q&A with an 国产吃瓜黑料 in Aspen participant
Tantalizing new evidence prompts an ambitious search for Amelia Earhart by a group that can't seem to quit
Photo: Kalakutskiy Mikhail/Shutterstock This fall, Hal Herring plans to go backcountry hunting with his son near his Montana home. If they both take an elk, they'll be able to provide the family with enough meat for the following year. But should House…
James Caird in surf. Photo: Frank Hurley In 1916, after losing his boat The Endurance on an expedition to Antarctica, Ernest Shackleton and five crew members hopped in a row…
No better place to be on Memorial Day weekend. Photo: MountainFilm Telluride MountainFilm Festival kicks off today鈥 always one of the best reasons to decamp to this gorgeous box canyon in southern Colorado鈥檚 San Juan Mountains. The schedule鈥檚 packed with outdoor screenings, panel…
As astronauts spend more and more time in space, their bodies degenerate. Gravity doesn't exist as it does on earth, and so there isn't the same amount of resistance from weights. During space flight, astronauts experience a force of gravity one-millionth as strong as we experience on earth. In such…
Falcon 9 lauch. Photo: SpaceX Yesterday, the same man that sent a rocket into space also had his company announce the release date for one of the most efficient electric cars on the market. Elon Musk, the 224th richest…
Watch Andrew Wonder's award-winning documentary about urban explorer and guerrilla historian Steve Duncan's forays into New York City's tunnels
I work outdoors in some serious deer tick habitat. I saw that Outdoor Research makes the pre-treated BugOut gaiters. Do your recommend them, or do you have any other suggestions for staying tick free?
Todd Balf鈥檚 new book unearths a nail-biting 19th-century adventure story all but lost to history
First, assume an Australian accent. It'll help when you pronounce the name of this snazzy bike trailer setup: Midget Bushtrekka.聽This pimped out bike trailer has “duallies” (kind of) and is designed to pivot and absorb shock. It can be adjusted to fit on a range of bike…
By the winter of 1854, the Advance crew had been trapped for almost two years, their ship frozen in ice just below the North Pole. Some had lost limbs to scurvy and frostbite; some had succumbed to Arctic hysteria; all of them were starving.
Eight of the biggest icons in the world 国产吃瓜黑料 offer their hard-earned tips
In the last decade, athletes have freeBASE'd the Eiger, paddled into 70-foot-plus waves, and dropped more than 100 feet off waterfalls. What鈥檚 next? And how will the stories be told? We asked the world's biggest adventure icons.
Ikal聽Angelei on the shores of Lake Turkana. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize Running Ethiopia's Omo River聽can be a serious adventure, as we described here in 2008, but more importantly, the river is a lifeline for those who rely on the water and…
All aboard who's going aboard. 聽Photo courtesy聽Linx Co-op In our May issue we rounded up 12 amazing off-the-beaten path National Park adventures. Trekking into Yellowstone National Park (oh, you've heard of it?) didn't make the cut. But that doesn't mean you should avoid the聽3,472 square…
Meet the men and women on the knife's edge of exploration
Watch live streaming video from cornellherons at livestream.com As I write this, I can hear geese and a Belted Kingfisher in the distance and I'm watching a Great Blue Heron sitting over her day-old egg. I'm thousands of miles away from…
The B.C. Coast 聽Photo: Flickr/Dogwood Initiative If the U.S. doesn't allow the northern half of the Keystone XL pipeline to be built, Canada is just going to sell its oil to power-hungry China. That's one of the common rebuttals to opposition of the proposed Keystone XL…
Kate Kernerman on her way to a campground. Photo: Ryan Branciforte It was a brisk and sunny morning, typical for the dry winter we're having in San Francisco. As I locked my bike up to a sturdy fence and started down the escalator to the 24th…
The beginnings of Jeffrey Smith's EV for the Baja 1000聽Photo: Strategic Recovery Institute In its 44-year history, the Baja 1000 off-road race has been about speed, sand and full throttle. This coming November, the legendary race will also be about instant torque and low or zero…
Surfer Mark Visser has a can鈥檛-miss formula for becoming cable鈥檚 next action hero: crazy stunts, against-the-odds luck, and a growing Internet fan base. So why isn鈥檛 it working?
Photo: Young Hoon Oh Young Hoon Oh, South Korean PhD candidate in anthropology at UC Riverside, is headed to Nepal at the end of the month to attempt his second Everest summit. But his itinerary extends well beyond the days he'll try to reach the top…
Photo: Flickr/gailf548 A study published this week in the聽journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows how ecotourists, researchers, and others who are lucky enough to step foot on Antarctica might be leaving more than footprints. Seeds and other plant material hitch-hikes there by way of…
Black bear scavenges at a dump. Photo: Flickr/Mr Emprey As the debate rages over the environmental costs and benefits of oil derived from the tar sands in northern Alberta, wildlife near a major extraction area is already coming out on the losing end.
Researchers wield the collection trawl 聽Photo: Stiv Wilson Despite what you might have heard, there are no huge, visually striking debris fields of plastic shopping bags and PET bottles swirling around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But if that's the good news, the bad news is much worse:…
A U.S. Army sergeant launches a UAV. Photo: The U.S. Army Ecologists and conservationists have long and frustrating lists of hurdles that keep them from doing field work. Aside from the wild, dangerous miles between them and the remote regions of the world they need to…
In the heart of New York City, a power struggle is under way at the century-old Explorers Club鈥攚ith claims of tyranny aimed at Lorie Karnath, the current president. She says her detractors are mired in the past, and in a fight this rough, somebody isn鈥檛 coming back alive.
A rainless winter means little water at the new wetlands park. Photo: Seth Strongin/TheCity Project In South Los Angeles, a former bus and rail transit station has been replaced by a nine-acre park that includes native trees and plant gardens, walking trails and…
A team of biologists and filmmakers is 32 days into a 100-day, 1000-mile trek, via kayak, bike and foot, from the southern tip of Florida up to the聽Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia. And should you think that sounds like a bit of a pleasure cruise, check out this…
Australian Pat Farmer is on track to finish a ten-month pole-to-pole jog鈥攚ithout taking a single day off
While staying in touch is mandatory and part of an expedition for me, some people want to get away from it all and escape the modern noise that comes with 24 by 7 communications. If that is your case, then take a sat phone for safety but don鈥檛 use it…
From the world鈥檚 most fuel-efficient commercial plane to foreign economic collapses to a cloud-tickling hotel, the biggest adventure travel stories this year
A guy calls, says he found some mysterious papers left behind by a dead relative who apparently shrunk human heads and bodies. Do we wanna come see? Uh, no. But we knew Mary Roach would.
Alec Wilkinson revisits a failed polar attempt from the heroic age of Arctic exploration
Versatile outfits, shoes, and other gear made with world travelers in mind.
David de Rothschild is paddling Brazil鈥檚 Xingu River with a totem pole to stop the proposed Belo Monte dam
国产吃瓜黑料 reviews the best gear in the 2012 Winter Buyer's Guide, including the Columbia Hoodster boots.
The American Alpine Institute (AAI) is a 35-year old mountain school best know for its advanced trainings, expeditions, and exceptional instruction, as well as its committment to protecting public lands. Of course, they also know a thing or two about gear, and this summer at the…
Norway's forbidding Hardangervidda Plateau nearly killed Roald Amundsen when he attempted a ski traverse in the winter of 1896. But the failure set him on a path of training, study, and exploration that led to his historic conquest of the South Pole. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of that feat, Mark Jenkins and his brother Steve skied the route, an epic challenge that even now can prove deadly.
photo: Blair Beakley By the time you read this, I鈥檒l be 5,000 feet down in the Grand Canyon, rafting the Colorado River from Lee's Ferry to Phantom Ranch. My husband and I have been dying to do this trip for years, but it was…
It's much easier to throw a bike on a hitch rack than it is to lift it up and onto a roof rack. But there are usually drawbacks to that loading ease and convenience: hitch mount racks can block rear doors and hatches from opening and road shock can beat…
Arctic adventurer Lynne Cox tackles the legend of Roald Amundsen
The author on his new book and the search for Everett Ruess
During the Great Flood of 2011, the Mississippi was an unleashed monster, with deadly currents and a flow rate that could fill the Superdome in less than a minute. Defying government orders, Delta native W. Hodding Carter and two wet-ass pals canoed 300 miles from Memphis to Vicksburg鈥攕urfing the crest, watching wildlife cope with the rising tide and assessing 75 years of levee building.
Most alpinists call it a great year if they summit one 8,000-meter peak. Last spring, a Swiss mountaineer tried to knock off three.
Futuristic new submersibles are poised to take crews to earth鈥檚 greatest depths. It may get crowded down there.