Long Reads
ArchiveDavid Roberts, a major figure in modern adventure literature, has explored risk, death, and loss for more than 50 years. Now he鈥檚 fighting cancer while producing new writing鈥攊ncluding a series of reflections on his disease鈥攖hat friends and colleagues believe is his best work yet.
On New Year's Day in 1985, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 was carrying 29 passengers and a hell of a lot of contraband when it crashed into the side of a 21,112-foot mountain in Bolivia. For decades conspiracy theories abounded as the wreckage remained inaccessible, the bodies unrecovered, the black box missing. Then two friends from Boston organized an expedition that would blow the case wide open.
The final holdout at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation earlier this year wasn't a dyed-in-the-wool rancher or hardened militiaman. He was a young, half-Japanese kid from the Midwest who had no affiliation with the Bundy brothers or the Patriot movement. This is why David Fry drove across the country to join a group of extremists he'd never met.
American churches are building first-class gyms to get followers in shape and attract new members to the flock. Critics see lucrative businesses masked as ministries, but the programs are a spirited defense against our obesity epidemic.
Want to perform like a pro, even with the years piling up? Nick Heil got the deluxe treatment at Exos, a cutting-edge outfit that works with NFL players and soccer stars. He came out slimmer, stronger, and more focused鈥攖he perfect upgrade for anybody, at any age, who plays hard in the outdoors.
A morning run or evening spin class may feel great, but if the rest of your day involves sitting on your ass, a brief burst does little for your overall well-being.
The diet has quietly become the rage among ultra-endurance athletes and elite soldiers, and it's a surprisingly yummy way to fuel up.
Team Rubicon began in 2010 with a unique dual mission: providing disaster relief and giving struggling American veterans a vital sense of purpose. The program has a reputation for ignoring best practices and obliterating red tape, and it has already disrupted the aid industry. Now founder Jake Wood wants to take on the Red Cross.
When his daughter developed a serious form of arthritis, Logan Ward watched her drop out of sports and lose confidence. The one place she could still move with ease was underwater, and he decided to push her boundaries with one of the world鈥檚 most high-risk sports: freediving.
Halfway around the world, fly-fishing scientists are unraveling the secret lives of giant steelhead鈥攐ne cast at a time
The Dari茅n Gap is a lawless wilderness on the border of Colombia and Panama, teeming with everything from deadly snakes to antigovernment guerrillas. The region also sees a flow of migrants from Cuba, Africa, and Asia, whose desperation sends them on perilous journeys to the U.S. Jason Motlagh plunged in, risking robbery, kidnapping, and death to document one of the world鈥檚 most harrowing treks.
In his latest novel, Dave Eggers follows Josie, a former dentist escaping the loss of her practice and a divorce, and her two children, Ana and Paul, as they take a road trip through Alaska. In this exclusive excerpt, they break into an abandoned ranger鈥檚 cabin to wait out a wildfire and hide from a man who Josie is convinced is pursuing them.
For years, Chuck Thompson dreamed of picking some random spot on the map of British Columbia and plunging in for an adventure. He got all he could handle and more on the Klinaklini River, a Class V rager that cuts through heavily forested wilderness north of Mount Waddington. In fact, he's lucky he got out alive.
Fed up with tight National Park regulations鈥攏o BASE-jumping, no slacklining, no fun!鈥攁dventurers are getting cozy with a surprising new advocate: the Bureau of Land Management. Nowhere are the agency's lenient recreation policies on better display than Moab, Utah.
The twenty-three-year-old makes millions of dollars a year, lives a stone's throw from Pipeline, and is the heir to Kelly Slater's throne. The question is: does he want it?
This is the story of a place at the edge of the world, where a black bear ventured into a Russian hamlet and attacked a human. One bear became two, two became dozens, and before long no one would leave their home, and no one had any idea what to do.
The rarely visited national park is home to tropical beaches, pristine coral reefs, some untapped surf, and not much else. Matt Skenazy went exploring and found a few good waves and a lot of mysterious South Seas mojo.
Sally Bergesen created Oiselle to give female runners great-fitting shorts and sports bras with a dose of style. Now the swift little brand is on a mission to empower athletes by taking on Nike and its dominance over track and field.
A new initiative gives complimentary national park access to every fourth-grader in America. Can a class field trip turn kids into lifetime fans of the outdoors? Mike Kessler hops on the yellow bus鈥攁nd endures high-decibel Bieber sing-alongs鈥攖o find out.
John Muir rhapsodizing about Yosemite is one thing, but Ian Frazier has had it with people calling their favorite outdoor spots 鈥渃athedrals,鈥 鈥渟hrines,鈥 and 鈥渟acred spaces.鈥 The false piety detracts from the real task at hand: seeing these places as they actually are.
Help came right away. And then it stopped. Patrick Symmes reports on the business-as-usual corruption that brought a mountain kingdom to the ground.
When a group of canyoneering beginners were swept away in a flash flood last September, it was the worst disaster in Zion's 97-year history. And it illustrates a growing question: How far should national parks go to keep their visitors safe?
Lhakpa Sherpa 鈥嬧媓as climbed Everest more than any other woman鈥斺媋nd now she's on the mountain trying for her seventh summit鈥.
By European standards, Ireland鈥檚 County Donegal, tucked into the country鈥檚 far northwest corner, may as well be Mars. But for adventure travelers, it鈥檚 a hidden frontier packed with wind-bitten landscapes to mountain-bike, rowdy coastline to surf, and 500-foot sea stacks to climb. That is, if you鈥檙e brave enough.
The forgotten history of Brazil鈥檚 mosquito wars鈥攖he greatest public health victory you鈥檝e never heard of
Young, tech-savvy adventurers are taking sponsors and funding away from grizzled, old-school explorers who aren鈥檛 strong on Facebook and Twitter. But they don鈥檛 always pull off the awesome feats they say they will.
After two years of unimaginable tragedy, everyone from outfitters and Sherpas to would-be climbers and the Nepalese government is questioning the future of commercial mountaineering. And then there鈥檚 Morton, a veteran guide who spent the past year asking: What happens when you try to leave the world鈥檚 most lucrative mountain forever?
For 28 years, Kay Grayson lived side-by-side with wild black bears in North Carolina's swampy coastal forests, hand-feeding them, defending them against poachers, and letting them in her home. When she went missing last year, the only thing the investigators could find were her clean-picked bones. And that's just the start of the mystery.
Last winter, a federal government report acknowledged a long-standing pattern of sexual harassment against female river guides employed by the National Park Service in the Grand Canyon. But no official account can capture the day-to-day realities of that harmful environment. Here, three former Park Service river guides recount what they endured, and discuss what needs to change.
Even Sierra Club-approved activities can have disastrous effects on the natural places we revere. And that's led to a fracture between two should-be allies: recreationists and conservationists.
For a decade, the African nation of Burundi was home to a unique phenomenon: group jogs involving thousands of people who hit the streets to sing, socialize, and sometimes protest the nation鈥檚 authoritarian president, Pierre Nkurunziza. In March 2014, he banned the activity. As conflicts threaten to boil over鈥攁nd the body count continues to rise鈥攔unners have become both weapons and victims.
One of the biggest names in fitness has preached for years that a neo-paleo combination of protein and fats is the ultimate performance diet. Lately, he鈥檚 been telling his followers that they can even relax on the dietary guidelines a bit鈥攚hile getting outside to play more. Can it really be this simple?
Jordan Lewis runs the ritziest pot store in the country: Aspen, Colorado's Silverpeak Apothecary, where sommelier-like "budtenders" sell gourmet ganja in a designer showroom. But soon after he arrived, he found himself under siege from locals worried about that skunky smell wafting over their mountain valley. It's enough to drive a man to toke.
He surfs sixty-foot waves, performs Hollywood stunts, and can hold his breath underwater for six鈥攕ix!鈥攎inutes. Now he's freediving to tag hammerhead sharks for science.
Utah congressman Rob Bishop, a conservative Republican who has long opposed federal management of western lands, has emerged as the unlikely architect of a grand compromise, one that would involve massive horse trading to preserve millions of acres of wilderness while opening millions more to resource extraction. Is this a trick, or the best way to solve ancient disputes that too often go nowhere?
In the wake of the X Games star's suicide, friends contemplate the role of repeated head injuries and the psychological toll of retiring from BMX
It鈥檚 hard to believe a Colorado gear shop could outrage so many customers in the age of crowdsourced review sites and marketplaces like Amazon. But 123Mountain, owned and operated by European couple Olivier and Anna Sofia Goumas, has been fending off lawsuits for years. Has their luck finally run out?
Kristine and Doug Tompkins lived a life of adventure and risk uncommon to most couples. They also helped to protect millions of acres of land in Chile and Argentina. Following her husband's death, Kristine now faces the daunting challenge of creating six new national parks without him.
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鈥攏o 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?
The high-altitude, lung-busting challenge imported from Europe has become one of the hottest winter sports in North America. Why? Because this pursuit proves that premeditated suffering can be highly addictive.
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.
The endless cascade of nutritional information鈥攁bout localism, vegetarianism, veganism, organic food, the environmental impact of eating meat, poultry, or fish, and more鈥攎akes the simple goal of a healthy, sustainable diet seem hopelessly complex. We talked to scientists, chefs, and farmers to get the ultimate rundown on how you should fuel up.
It's expensive, demanding, and in the eyes of the many cities that have refused to throw their hats into the five-ring circus, a total scam
People thought Ned was a freak of nature when he was winning mountain-bike races at 40. That was 20 years ago. Now the sexagenarian is crushing fat-bike racers a third his age.
Fueled by Pop-Tarts and Little Debbies, 52-year-old software engineer Kurt Searvogel is out to break the record for the greatest distance pedaled in a year. What motivates a man to ride more than 200 miles a day鈥攅very day, rain or shine, hot or cold, sunrise to sunset?
Manuel Genswein has spent more than two decades burying himself alive and pushing shovels to their breaking point to 颅determine the best ways to save snow-slide victims. His biggest challenge? 颅Convincing the world鈥檚 most experienced rescuers that he鈥檚 right.
Australia is home to 24 million people and roughly 60 million kangaroos. The cuddly looking creatures are still a beloved national icon, but they're also the scourge of ranchers, frequent roadkill, a favorite on restaurant menus, and now the target of government-sponsored sharpshooters. Our writer hops Down Under for a rugged tour of one of the world's most surprising human-animal conflicts.
Want to find the crowd-free surf of yesteryear? Drive from Los Angeles to Baja, load five days of gear onto a SUP, and haul ass through thick fog, screaming seagulls, and open ocean to the rocky, big-wave coast of Todos Santos.
The marine biologist has done things in the ocean that would scare most people senseless. She's been alone in total darkness thousands of feet down, hovered under a Russian ship as it pinged her submarine, and been charged by huge sharks. But one thing does frighten her: the dire state of our overfished and polluted seas, something she spends every waking hour trying to change.
A user's list for all the travel, fun, and affiliated delights you can cram into a year
Take it from the world-champion surfer: there鈥檚 a right time for working, competing鈥攁nd fighting for your life
If a skier hucks without uploading a photo, does anybody see it? A road trip through the exploding business side of Instagram, where pro athletes roam Alberta stalking the next big trophy shot.
The rules: Pilot a boat 750 miles from Port Townsend, Washington, to Ketchikan, Alaska鈥攏o motors allowed. The prize: $10,000 nailed to a piece of wood. The result: Seven capsizings, four lifesaving Big Macs, one dramatic coast guard rescue, and a cast of oddball adventurers who reclaimed the salty heart of ocean racing.
What motivates an amateur racer to rack up thousands of training miles and take on the pain and tedium of marathons and ultramarathons? Sometimes it's about keeping a step ahead of your ghosts.
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.
With Airbnb and Yelp already operating in Cuba's capital, will hordes of American tourists sipping McDaiquiris ruin the very authenticity that draws us to the rebel island nation? Allow us to explain why you should go now鈥攂efore Cuba changes, while it changes, and because you will change it yourself.
You've seen the images from Everest Base Camp and Kathmandu, but one village was hit so hard that it ceased to exist altogether. Half the population was buried. The others had to find a way out. This is their story.
The artificial holds and lines devised for gyms and climbing competitions don't just happen鈥攖hey're created and placed by devious people who want to force you to stretch, contort, curse, fail, and fall. We go behind the scenes with the masterminds who make this booming sport a serious challenge.
There are countless watches, bracelets, headbands, and foot pods on the market promising to record every little thing you do. But can any of it make you a better athlete? The author wades through the muck and the mire to data-mine his best self.
Every fall, the world鈥檚 best mountain bikers assemble at Red Bull Rampage to hurl themselves down cliffs in search of fame and fortune鈥攊f they make it down in one piece.
There's no quick fix for post-traumatic stress disorder, but research has shown that surfing's physicality and flow can give victims some relief and a way forward. The author hit the water with his close friend Brian, a former Navy SEAL whose service in Afghanistan beat up his body, tortured his mind, and pushed him into a zone where violence鈥攁gainst himself or others鈥攕eemed inevitable.
In 1990, a grisly double homicide on America鈥檚 most famous hiking route shocked the nation and forever changed our ideas about crime, violence, and safety in the outdoors
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.
Does the catastrophe that gave us 'Into Thin Air' still have the power to captivate? We talk to the cast and crew of the new movie 'Everest' about making an adventure epic roar to life for a new generation.
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鈥檚 an ex-cop from Seattle named Darrell Seyler.
In Jay Blahnik's first extended interview since Apple hired him to help launch the Watch, the company鈥檚 director of fitness for health technologies insists activity tracking is overemphasized, elite athletes have a sitting problem, and the real breakthrough apps for the device will probably be created outside of Cupertino.
When you're outdoors, you tend to worry about grizzly bears, sharks, and mountain lions. But the real dangers are the parasites and microbes you can't even see. Steven Rinella has been felled by the worst of them, and he offers an essential guide to prioritizing your panic.
The country's Sandinista government has cut a deal with a reclusive Chinese businessman willing to spend $50 billion on a larger-than-life transport waterway. There are a few unanswered questions, starting with whether Nicaraguans really want it and how much priceless habitat would be wrecked. Traveling the proposed route by motorcycle, boat, and boots, the author hunts for answers.
A group of eccentric engineers flocked to a dried-up lakebed in California to race for the championship title of a 117-year-old sport you鈥檝e never heard of
Chad Brown put down a gun and picked up a fly-fishing rod. The Navy veteran turned gear designer now wants kids and vets to heal each other on the great American waters that saved his life.
Over the past decade, ultrarunning has gone from a fringe pursuit for distance freaks to a hypercompetitive sport attracting big-time sponsors. But a mysterious training condition is suddenly plaguing its ranks, robbing a generation of top athletes of their talents and forcing victims to wonder: Is it possible to love this sport too much?
The oceans are in serious trouble, creating a tough question for consumers: Should I eat wild fish, farmed fish, or no fish at all? The author, a longtime student of marine environments, dove into an amazing new world of ethical harvesters, renegade farmers, and problem-solving scientists. The result: your guide to sustainably enjoying nature's finest source of protein.
When Fran莽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莽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.
In the grueling world of ultrarunning, she's an anomaly: a low-key athlete who thrives on unstructured training, competes by instinct, and crushes men in the sport's most prestigious race
The Pearl River is full of trash, Volkswagen-sized catfish, and a heckuva lot of gators. Swimming in it? That was Pop's idea.
Thanks in part to advances in wing technology, a few pioneering paragliders are smashing the limits by completing long-distance flights that were once thought impossible. Last spring, high-fliers Will Gadd and Gavin McClurg pulled off one of the most ambitious trips ever attempted: 385 miles down the jagged, frozen, potentially deadly spine of the Canadian Rockies.
Norman Ollestad's father taught him to surf during rambling, tough-love safaris down the coast of Mexico. Then the education came to a sudden and tragic end. Forty years later, Ollestad heads south with his own son鈥攁nd finds that the old road maps can only take them so far.
They get paid to climb mountains and raft whitewater. But guiding isn't all a dream鈥攏ot with whiny clients, lousy tips, and the occasional colleague pranking you in a gorilla suit.
Endurance cyclist Juliana Buhring left a notorious cult, wrote a bestseller, and then rode her bike around the world. She's just getting started.