I may have just talked myself out of one of my dreams. For years now I’ve held out hope of an opportunity to travel to Africa to see one of my favorite species, mountain gorillas, in the wild. This year it looked like that dream could finally come true. I have the vacation time, I […]

Last week I read about the closing of Ascent Outdoors, a mom-and-pop gear store in Seattle that had been in business for over 20 years and had just opened a third location. I’d been there once, years ago while in town scoping the University of Washington on a grad school visit. Stopped in (it may […]

Longtime apparel whiz Eric Artz takes the reins of a company that earned an eye-popping $2.78 billion in 2018. See the full post >

Heather McLeod was in her prime at 35 years-old. She was fit, active, and ate well. She got after it in the mountains of Colorado Springs, CO climbing, skiing, and hiking as often as she could. She had two young children, a wonderful husband, and thriving community. During a July 4th vacation in Durango, she […]

When I started riding bikes, off road, in the late ’80’s, I saw the bike as an escape vehicle and trails as portals out. I knew virtually nothing about endurance or backcountry survival, but I’d been raised backpacking and hunting and as such I felt comfortable being ‘out’ in the woods. Going into the woods […]

Cory, aka “Second Chance Hiker” set out in late January on the PCT with two goals—finish the whole trail and lose 200 pounds doing it. Neither of those goals are simple or easy or close to guaranteed, but Second Chance is approaching his self-appointed task with humility, optimism, and a sense of humor. He has […]

Mountain biking in Santa Cruz, California, is quite popular, as it should be. There are scores of redwood-lined trails and open hilly grasslands overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It’s freaking awesome there. There is a reason mtb brands like Santa Cruz (duh) and Ibis are based there, with Specialized nearby in Morgan Hill. Because Santa Cruz […]

The idea made perfect sense. Limit the number of people who simply show up to Yosemite’s Half Dome to climb the famed cable-assisted granite peak on a whim, and accidents would be lessened. Eight people had died climbing Half Dome in the preceding decade, so, citing overcrowding on the trail up to the roughly 8,000-foot […]

Adventure is everywhere—it’s not just for “adventurers” either. See the full post >

Photographer Xavi Bou stitches together multiple seconds of flight into one image to bring haunting shape to the flight patterns of birds. See the full post >