I take gift-giving very seriously. Every year, I spend weeks strategizing the perfect present for friends and family. Each gift has to be unique and something they probably wouldn’t buy themselves but still something they’ll use religiously.

Between skiers, runners, and gym rats, I’ve got a lot of outdoor athletes on my list. Here’s what I’m buying for their stocking stuffers this year.

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For the Gym Rat

Smokin’ Buds True Wireless Earbuds ($25)

As anyone with dogs or toddlers knows, earbuds often disappear, and you can never have too many. With a 20-hour battery lifespan, different audio modes for various types of sound, and built-in microphones, Smokin’ Buds are good for blasting a favorite playlist at the gym—and taking calls, listening to podcasts, and watching movies in day-to-day life. Plus, they’re water-resistant and ready to handle a good sweat from a tough training day at the gym.

For the Runner

Amazon Basics High-Density Foam Roller ($8)

���ϳԹ��� editors test a lot of gear, and after nearly a decade of working for this publication, my home’s closets are littered with fancy foam rollers. But my favorite of the bunch doesn’t have varying foam densities or fancy pressure points; it’s a simple, smooth, black cylinder that gets the job done without unnecessary bells and whistles. The roller I’ve been obsessed with for the past five years has since been discontinued, but I found a comparable and equally affordable option in Amazon’s collection that I’m gifting to a couple of the runners in my life this year.

For the Skier

Patagonia Gear Patch Kit ($19)

Who needs a new hardshell when you can repair the one you’ve already loved for years? Patagonia’s Worn Wear Patch Kit comes with four sticky patches that adhere to all kinds of outdoor fabrics, from nylon and vinyl to rubber and plastic. The kit is perfect for any skier to mend a jacket on the fly but can also be used to patch up tents, sleeping bags, and all kinds of apparel.

For the Yogi

Hugger Mugger Yoga Wipes

Nothing throws off a practice faster than a stinky mat. Give the gift of freshness this holiday season with Hugger Mugger’s yoga mat wipes. Add water to the compact pods and they expand into towelettes. They’re made with bamboo and scented with lavender essential oils. Bonus: They can also be used to clean your face or feet.

For the Hiker

Hiker Micro Crew Cushion Socks ($25)

I’ve always been a sucker for Darn Tough’s bold color schemes and Goldilocks thickness: bulky enough to feel substantial but thin enough to fit into any pair of shoes or boots. I’ve even been known to throw them on beneath road running shoes for chilly winter jogs. A blend of 61-percent merino wool, 36-percent nylon, and 3-percent Lycra spandex make the Hiker Micro. Like every Darn Tough sock, if these don’t turn out to be the longest-lasting pair of socks your giftee has ever worn, they can ship them to the company and receive a in return.

The post Affordable Stocking Stuffers for the Fitness Enthusiast on Your List appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Sasha DiGiulian is busy. When she’s not training at the gym, traveling around the world to climb, or walking her good boy, Moose, near her home in Boulder, Colorado, she’s working as the CEO of , her plant-based nutrition bar company that she co-founded in 2022.

Because of her packed schedule, DiGiulian, a three-time U.S. National champion with more than 30 first female ascents under her belt, looks for convenience in the products she uses. Think: creams that moisturize and protect her skin��from the sun at the same time or face wipes that hydrate and clean.

Even her company’s bars fall into this category. DiGiulian wanted a convenient food to grab on the go that also fulfilled her health needs.

“Send Bars are how I get my greens and fuel when I’m at the crag, biking, or hiking,” she says. “There is so much health washing on the market, and I just want clean, real food with no refined sugars, preservatives, or unnatural flavorings—that tastes really good.” It doesn’t hurt that she can throw one in a bag on the way to the airport, either.

���ϳԹ��� of her tried-and-true bars, here are the products this busy climber swears by.

Ursa Major Essential Face Wipes

Ursa Major’s 4-in-1 Essential Face Tonic is made with superfood-sounding ingredients, like radish root ferment, rosemary, and willow bark extract. It also features witch hazel, green tea, and aloe vera, to name a few, for a formula meant to clean, exfoliate, soothe, and hydrate. These individually-wrapped wipes are easy to toss in a pocket or bag for a quick way to freshen up on any adventure. “I like to keep these bamboo face wipes in my pack to clean and hydrate my skin after a sweaty and dirty day out climbing,” says DiGiulian.

They’re sold in packs of 5, 20, or 40 wipes.

Sun Bum Lip Balm

DiGiulian relies on this 30 SPF lip balm to protect her lips from wind and sun when she’s getting after it outside. The product features eight percent zinc oxide for sun protection and shea butter and vitamin E, which, she says, soothe and repair her lips.

Suntegrity 5-in-1 Tinted Sunscreen Moisturizer

The climber applies this tinted sunscreen moisturizer before spending any time outdoors or even just running errands. It’s made to protect skin��from the sun with 30 SPF, as well as hydrate and add a hint of color as it goes on. With ingredients like aloe vera, cucumber extract, and sunflower seed oil, it’s also free of fragrance, cruelty-free, and vegan. “I’m big on sunscreen, and I find that this is also a nice tinted one to smooth out blemishes and bring a little color to my face,” she says.

Love from Yours Sunny Side Up SPF 30 Mist

DiGiulian uses this mist as a way to re-up her sunscreen on big outings. “Normally, my days are pretty long outside,” she says. “So I like keeping a mist like this with me to maintain the protection.”

She also loves that it doesn’t go on oily or shiny and can be applied over her makeup without feeling caked on or like it’s clogging her pores. Plus, it’s cruelty-free.

Olive and June Nail Polish

Just because she covers her hands in climbing chalk for a living doesn’t mean DiGiulian doesn’t like a good manicure. She uses Olive and June’s tab press-ons when she’s going from the crag to dinner, she says. She appreciates that the tab variety doesn’t require glue, which saves her from the strong scent—not to mention everyone else��around her when she’s applying them on a plane or in a car.

“They go on and pop off so easily that they’re perfect for post-adventure meetups where you want fun nails,” says DiGiulian.

The post Sasha DiGiulian’s Self-Care Essentials appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

The Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) World Series Finals kick off on August 26 and run through September 1. is made up of three races: the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc Orsières-Champex-Chamonix (50K), the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix (100K), and the classic UTMB (100M), across France, Italy, and Switzerland.

Sure, crowds come for the world-class athletes and spectacular views of the Alps, but, some might argue, another big draw is the food—and even the race participants get a taste on the course. Much of the fuel at aid stations are sourced from nearby communities, who bring their best. Think: locally made croissants, bread, cheese, and prosciutto.

But for those of us who haven’t had the pleasure of running by tents filled with freshly baked French baguettes on our long runs, here’s the weird, the specific, and the sometimes gross on how we fuel our adventures.

The Food ���ϳԹ��� Editors Eat for Ultramarathons

Birthday Cake

On a 13-hour, nearly 10,000-vertical foot ridge scramble/romp through the high peaks in New Mexico a few years ago, I fueled with the food of the gods: birthday cake in a bag. I had somehow scammed my way into having three cakes at my birthday dinner a few nights prior and figured the calorie-to-weight ratio of buttercream frosting couldn’t be far off from Gu. So I cut a generous piece of birthday cake, put it in a Ziploc, and stashed it in my pack. By the time I went to eat it, it had lost all structure and I could easily squeeze it directly into my mouth from a hole I cut in the bottom corner of the bag.

—Abigail Barronian, senior editor, ���ϳԹ���

Raisin Scones

The last time I ran 100 miles, it was a self-supported multi-day journey through the English countryside. The bad news: no aid stations. The good news: pubs and cafes at far greater frequency. I was able to refill my vest with raisin scones and coffee every ten miles. By itself, a scone is pretty dry. But combined with a mouthful of coffee (or even water), it becomes an easy-to-digest, carby snack that’s just the right amount of sweet. Plus, it’s perfectly sized to fit in a chest pocket.

—Corey Buhay, interim managing editor,��Backpacker

Real Food

I have been blessed with a rock-solid stomach and have never had gastrointestinal issues during any run or race. That gives me the freedom to consume just about anything, but I notably veer away from energy gels and opt for real food—either the breakfast burritos or ramen noodles available at aid stations or��peanut butter tortilla wraps (sometimes with Nutella) and Pay Day candy bars (because they don’t melt and have a good blend of calories, carbs, fat and protein). I have also been known to drink pickle juice straight from the jar��for the sodium content. I love the taste!

—Brian Metzler, editor-in-chief, RUN

Trader Joe’s Many Things Snack Mix

I’m all about having a variety of guilty pleasure snacks on hand during an ultra! My favorite is a specific mix from Trader Joe’s called Many Things Snack Mix, with honey-roasted peanuts, sweet and spicy Chex-like cereal squares, pretzel sticks, and bread chips. It’s basically Chex mix. I put it in a Ziploc bag and relish being able to eat it without guilt during my run (because when I eat it at home, it’s never really fulfilling any kind of nutritional need and I always eat too much of it!).

I’ll also pack a Ziploc bag with gummy bears, and then another one with half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Peanuts and peanut butter go down easy for me while also providing a bit of a “stick to your ribs” satiety, while the gummy bears have a fun texture and come with a sugar rush. A��PB&J sandwich kind of combines both sides of that, and then the Chex mix—as long as it has some spicy pieces—wakes up my taste buds.

—Svati Narula, contributing editor,�����ϳԹ���

PB&J

My go-to is a good old-fashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s simple, reliable, easy on my belly (maybe I’m just used to it), and gives me the perfect balance of carbs and protein—plus, all the nostalgia of my childhood days. I love it so much.

—Mary Mckeon, director of audience development, ���ϳԹ��� Inc.

Spam Musubi

My go-to rolls are the perfect combination of salty and sweet and are packed with carbs and protein. Plus, as a runner who’s prone to an upset stomach after the ten-mile point, they’re bland enough that they tend to stay put when other snacks come right back up. Best of all: Spam musubi’s a hand-held roll that travels well and is just as tasty at room temperature after a couple of hours in my pack.

—Abigail Wise, contributing editor,�����ϳԹ���

Good Vibes

I prefer to subsist on basically nothing but good vibes and enthusiasm for about three or four hours before inevitably crashing and burning due to a lack of fueling.

—Matt Skenazy, features editor, ���ϳԹ���

The post The Incredibly Specific, Occasionally Gross Food We Eat to Fuel Our Ultras appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

As I jogged up an arroyo at high-noon on a local trail near my home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I felt the sun beating down on my head and shoulders. I glanced at my phone’s weather app, which informed me that it was 78 degrees Fahrenheit, but the “real feel” was 87 degrees. My shirt was drenched in sweat and my fingers had started to swell. I reached for the last sip of water from my running vest as I hit mile three.

In my late-twenties and early-thirties, I ran ultramarathons, and sports drinks filled with electrolytes were part of my training kit. Powders to dump into my water sat alongside my collection of GUs and energy bars. But I haven’t run an ultra in years, and my electrolytes stash has dwindled along with my average weekly mileage. These days, when I head out for a run, I grab my phone, a hat, and maybe a water bottle, depending on how long I’m planning to be out.

I squeezed the last drops from my water bottle and checked the map. Just one mile to go. As my shoes pounded the sandy trail, I began to wonder if I was hydrated enough for my quick lunch run. I’d definitely underestimated how hot 78 degrees would feel. Should I be supplementing my water with electrolytes while exercising��in the Southwest’s summer heat?

The answer, it turns out, is slightly complicated.

Do I Need More Electrolytes When I Exercise in Hot Temperatures?

Electrolytes are essential minerals, like sodium, potassium, and magnesium, that give off an electrical charge. They’re key for helping cells in your nervous system, heart, and muscles function normally, and they play a role in regulating the amount of fluids in your body.

But not everyone needs extra electrolytes just because of high temperatures, says Hayden Hess, an��assistant professor at the University of Buffalo’s Center for Research and Education in Special Environments.

Whether or not you need additional electrolytes depends on how much you’re sweating��and your sweat sodium concentration. The short answer, says Hess, is that the intensity of your sport, activity, or workout—and your environment—are the two most important factors in determining whether you need to down extra electrolytes. “Higher intensity physical exercise and a hotter or humid environment will require more fluid and potentially electrolyte replacement,” he says.

Can I Get Enough Electrolytes from Natural Foods, or Should I Use Drinks or Supplements?

The average electrolyte replacement supplement ranges from 150 to 1,000 milligrams of sodium, which, Hess says, is usually sufficient when paired with 16 ounces of water. But still, he points out, the average person probably doesn’t need it. “Most people in the U.S. exceed the sodium recommendations of 3,500 milligrams per day,” he says.

Our tendency to eat too much sodium is primarily due to the high salt content of . Because most people are already getting enough salt, and sometimes too much, there’s usually no need to add more through special drinks and supplements. The exceptions, says Hess, are when someone is working out for a long time—think longer than two hours—and doing so in an especially hot or humid place. Or they might be what Hess calls a salty sweater—someone with a high concentration of sodium in their sweat. You might qualify as a salty sweater if your sweat burns your eyes or tastes very salty, or if you have salt on your skin and clothes after your sweat dries.

For either of these exceptions, working a regular electrolyte drink or supplement into your exercise��hydration probably makes sense. If you’re looking for more exact information about your own sweat and electrolyte loss during workouts, Hess suggests using an that gives��runners and cyclists an estimate of their sweat rate and sweat volume.

When I plugged in the data for my recent four-mile desert trail run, the calculator��told me that I was most likely dehydrated if no fluid was consumed during my workout. But��because I was running for less than two hours, I knew it was OK that I’d left my��Propel powder at home.

Abigail Wise used to run ultras, but now aims most of her mileage at exercising her four good dogs or pushing a stroller on shorter trails near her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.��

The post Should I Be Drinking More Electrolytes in This Heat? appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

In my twenties, chips, gummy bears, and the cheesiest burritos I could make once fueled all of my runs, climbs, and camping trips. Now well into my mid-thirties and trying to set a better example for my growing toddler, I’ve spent the last two years rewriting my usual travel menu. I’ve largely replaced Skittles with real fruit and beer with La Croix. Flaming Hot Cheetos no longer claim permanent residency in my glove box. These days, as I stock up on snacks at the grocery store, my cart overflows with berries and carrot sticks.

But I can’t seem to kick my chip habit. After all, what’s a camping trip without a good bag of chips? On a recent snack run, I scanned the rows of Lays and Doritos, and quickly walked by the impostors—cauliflower crackers and freeze-dried broccoli don’t count—until my eyes fell on the row of SunChips.

Nostalgia washed over me as I reached for a red bag of the Garden Salsa flavor. Growing up in the nineties, SunChips were the snack. I distinctly remember opening my childhood best friend’s pantry with envy and grabbing the always-present bag of French Onion SunChips.

SunChips’ Appeal to Health-Conscious Outdoorsy Types

In retrospect, I’m not sure I totally understand the hype. Sure, they’re totally delicious—mouthwateringly salty, with a slightly sweet aftertaste. Each flavor brings something a little different, from the gentle bite of Garden Salsa to Ranch that bursts with tang. And there’s something about the way they crunch: hearty, like you’re biting into a snack of substance. But there are a lot of other good chips out there. SunChip’s secret to success was, of course, that millennials like me grew up assuming they were better for you than regular chips.

During its 1991 debut, SunChips leaned into the healthy branding: “multigrain snacks” appeared in big letters on the bag, next to a bright sun and a stalk of wheat. A few years later, the company added “30% less fat than regular potato chips,” pandering to nineties diet��culture. Today, SunChips’ packaging still screams, in huge font, “100% Whole Grain.”

Back then, with flavors like Harvest Cheddar and Garden Salsa, who were we to argue? In the early days, SunChips weren’t only highlighting ingredients and fat percentages; they were specifically targeting outdoorsy types. One ad from the nineties pans over a desert scene as a couple munches on SunChips on top of a camping trailer, enjoying the sunset.

SunChips’ intentional alignment with the outdoorsy, sporty crowd created an aura of health around the snack, so—regardless of whether the claims were totally true—the brand leaned in more. There were puns about sunblock and sunscreen in many of its commercials. Then, in 2008, SunChips appeared on shelves in what the brand claimed was the world’s first compostable bag.

But planet-friendly packaging and camping commercials don’t equate to health food. Consumers actually pushed back against the “” SunChips bags, and the brand quietly returned to its less eco-friendly, but quieter bags two years after that particular marketing push fell flat.

Are SunChips Healthy?

Health has been front and center in SunChips’ marketing campaigns over the last 33 years, and they at least had me convinced for a few decades that the chips were a healthier option than other brands. But lately, as I overhauled my family’s summertime shopping list, I started to wonder whether I’d been duped.

The answer, according to registered dietitian nutritionist , is complicated. SunChips really are made with whole grains, which are key for sufficient intake of fiber and nutrients, like B vitamins, iron, and magnesium. Neglecting whole grains in your diet could increase the risk of chronic illnesses, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer, due to missing out on the protective antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties found in these foods.

That said, SunChips still have salt and fat—110 milligrams and 6 grams per serving of the original flavor, respectively. Sodium and fat are key parts of a healthy diet, but Manaker says you should��eat them in moderation.

“Ideally, people are getting their whole-grain fix from ancient grains, whole-grain bread, and other similar foods that do not contain large quantities of added salt and fat,” she says. “But since most Americans are missing the mark, these can be a healthier choice than a deep-fried potato chip.”

When I compared the nutritional facts of SunChips’ Garden Salsa (my personal favorite) with Kettle’s Air-Fried Himalayan Salt chips and my guilty pleasure, Flaming Hot Cheetos, I was surprised to see that Kettle was the overall healthiest. Cheetos carried 11 grams of fat, compared to SunChips’ and Kettles’ 6 grams, and both SunChips and Cheetos had some saturated fat—at 0.5 grams and 1.5 grams, respectively—compared to Kettle’s zero. Kettle has a whopping 370 milligrams of potassium and 2 grams of protein; the others have neither. When it comes to sodium, Cheetos come with 210 milligrams per serving, SunChips have 140 milligrams, and Kettle��chips have��135 milligrams. And finally, for all of its marketing around whole grains, SunChips has 2 grams of fiber, which is a bit more than Kettle’s 1 gram and Cheetos’ less than a gram.

Numbers aside, for me—someone who strives to make fresh produce and simple whole grains the main part of my diet—I don’t see any harm in grabbing a bag of SunChips on my next trip to the store. I’m also trying to unlearn the “good-food, bad-food” language that most millennials grew up with. I want my two-year-old to eat food because he’s hungry and it makes him feel good, instead of slapping labels on his meals and snacks. So if the two of us��want to munch on some chips of the Garden Salsa variety from the comfort of our camp chairs, that’s exactly what we’re going to do on our next trip.

The post Are SunChips Actually Healthy? A Recovering Junk-Food Enthusiast Investigates. appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

As a working mother of an eight-month-old, I’m in a near constant state of sleep deprivation. I stumble through workdays in a haze. More than once, I’ve arrived at the office and realized that I’d left my laptop at home, 20 miles away. I yawn in meetings and only keep up with my to-do list by the grace of a $10-a-day coffee habit.

So when my editor assigned me a story that required sleeping every day at work, I felt a surge of gratitude. For a period of three weeks, I’d lie down for 30 minutes each afternoon. I’d track my productivity, mood, and energy level to gauge whether a daily siesta made me better at my job—and happier overall.

Research shows that napping can boost memory and improve mood. But I soon discovered that dozing off at the office is considerably harder than it sounds. On the first day, I got so wrapped up in meetings that I forgot about it entirely. The next day didn’t go much better: I unrolled my yoga mat on my office floor and shut the door. But instead of drifting off, I lay there obsessing about what I had to accomplish before the end of the day. “I have been up with the baby since 4 A.M.,” read the post-nap recap, “but I kept listing all the things I still had to do. Did not sleep for one minute.”

It went like that for two weeks, until finally I enlisted the help of Kelly Murray, a sleep consultant who works with both adults and babies. We quickly determined my problem: I was trying too hard! The more I forced it, she said, the less success I’d have. She urged me to dial back the pressure. If a nap felt unattainable, I’d practice breathing exercises, which can bring about a meditative state of deep rest. According to Murray, deep rest quiets the mind and offers benefits similar to sleep, like reducing stress and promoting learning.

Murray also suggested some changes to my napping environment. Ideally, I would hole up somewhere other than my workstation. The lights should be low, and maybe some calming lavender oil would help. I also needed to cut back on caffeine.

Next I called Valerie Cacho, a behavioral sleep physician, who explained that winding down is a process. “At the gym, you don’t go straight to the heaviest weights. You jog or warm up,” she said. She suggested a little pre-nap journaling to free myself of my busy thoughts.

Armed with these strategies, I dived back into the experiment. I worked from home, which allowed me to take naps in bed. It was easier to drink less coffee when I was the one who had to make it, rather than a barista at the café near the office, and that helped me scale back on caffeine. Every day around noon, I dimmed the lights, jotted down the afternoon’s tasks to clear my head, and once or twice even applied some lavender lotion. Then I focused on my breath, counting my inhales and exhales. And something truly magical happened: I drifted off into a light sleep.

Did I step back to my desk happier and refreshed? I did. Was I more productive? That, too. But the truth is, I missed my coffee habit more than I reveled in these gains. The morning after the experiment ended, I headed straight to the café.

The post I’m Exhausted All the Time. Could Afternoon Naps Change My Life? appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Many people in my home state of Minnesota spend weekends at their cabins “up North.” It’s not a practice reserved just for the wealthy either, as these basic structures are usually passed down through generations so that middle class families often own a rustic second home, too. Many of these properties feature homemade saunas, for cutting the chill year round.

In elementary school, my best friend’s family shared one that we’d visit multiple times each year. We’d drive up in humid summer months and spend evenings in the property’s rickety, old sauna before taking a dip in the lake, just a few feet down a grassy hill, dodging mosquitoes all the way. We’d splash into the cool, murky water, climb out, and stop to stare at the stars from the dock before heading back to the sauna to do it all over again. We slogged up north in frigid months, too, bathing in the sauna long after the main cabin’s water had been shut off for the winter to prevent bursting pipes.

So for me, saunas are a nostalgic representation of some of my happiest childhood memories. When I found out that , a small canvas tent company based in western Wisconsin, was releasing a portable sauna tent last fall, I had to try it.

���ϳԹ��� columnist Wes Siler raves about the perks of winter camping in one of Snowtrekker’s stove-heated canvas tents, which has a lot in common with the design of the Sauna Tent. They’re both heated by small wood-burning stoves that are light enough to easily throw into the back of your truck (depending on the stove size you opt for, they weigh between 17 and 25 pounds). And the camping and sauna tents are made from woven seven-ounce cotton treated with the water-repellent Sunforger to ward off mildew and rain. The key is that, unlike your nylon backpacking or car camping tent, the fabric still breathes well and won’t melt with a roaring stove three inches away from its wall.

When the shipment first arrived at my front door, a heap of stakes, poles, and unions, assembly seemed intimidating. But after glancing at the included instructions, we realized everything was color-coded, and it came together in about 20 minutes, fully ready to fire up. It’s easy to use, too: build a fire in the stove, adjust the front and back stove vents for airflow, zip up the canvas, and you’re ready to go. I added a bunch of rocks to the top of the stove, which I pour water onto when I want a wet sauna. If things get too hot too fast, you can always open one of the built-in vents or crack the door.

Three months later, it’s still sitting in my backyard where my husband and I use it a few times a week.

“When we moved to northern Wisconsin in the early nineties, we were introduced to sauna and fell in love with it,” says Jonah Lottig, operations manager at the family owned and operated business. “As a tent manufacturer, it felt natural to develop a quality portable sauna that was not limited to a single setting and still provided a true sauna experience.”

Here’s the catch: Snowtrekker’s Sauna Tent isn’t cheap. The canvas retails at $4,200. Plus, it’s $300 for the frame (or DIY following included instructions for closer to $100) and $560 for the stove. But it’s a lot easier than building your own, and its retro style looks so good, you won’t mind having it set up permanently in your backyard. The canvas is incredibly high quality and traps heat nicely. It’s also portable; my husband and I plan to take it on a camping trip this winter. The tent itself is too small to camp in while the fire’s roaring, so we’ll need to bring another one to sleep in. But I can’t think of a cozier way to warm up before crawling into your sleeping bag.

Nights in northern New Mexico, where I live now, have been consistently in the twenties, sometimes dipping into the teens. Last night, eager to warm up after a particularly chilly day, my husband and I lit up the Snowtrekker stove. We opened both the front and back vents to rev up the fire, and within 15 minutes, our little canvas bubble was piping hot. I grabbed the pitcher of water we now keep in the sauna tent, and slowly poured it over the rocks on top of the stove. They sizzled and a mist of steam rose up. As the pine bench we sat on drank in the humidity, the smell of wet wood filled the tent, bringing me back to the sauna of my childhood. The only thing missing? A lake in our backyard to take a cold plunge in after.

The post I’ve Had a Sauna Tent in My Backyard for 3 Months and I’m Obsessed appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Every day for the month of October, Wisconsin-based artist and teacher Geo Rutherford features a new spooky lake on her TikTok account, . Rutherford knows a thing or two about lakes: she focused her thesis in graduate school on the Great Lakes, and her second-ever TikTok video, which was about them, went viral in August 2020. She calls herself a hobby limnologist, or freshwater scientist, and leans into the weirdness of lakes in her annual TikTok series every October. Each video runs for two or three minutes, in which Rutherford breaks down the history, science, and legend of the highlighted body of water—and ends with a “spookies” rating that judges the lake’s scariness out of ten. “I try to rate the location itself,” she says, “not the deaths that occurred there.”

We interviewed Rutherford to find out more about her annual video series and to get her list of the spookiest lakes in the world.

OUTSIDE: Where’d you get the idea for Spooky Lake Month?
RUTHERFORD:My mother and I are huge horror fans, so I was drawn to the spooky theme, and in the midst of all my lake research, I realized just how weird lakes are! There are crazy lakes all over the world, and I don’t feel like we learn about them in school. The concept of Spooky Lakes taps into our communal fear of the unknown and the uncertainty of what lies beneath the surface. Lakes rarely headline horror movies or magazines, but they can be strange, mysterious, and sometimes deadly. So, each video tells a spooky story about a lake on this planet in under three minutes. Spooky Lakes are not about conspiracy theories or the supernatural, but are instead an opportunity to learn about natural phenomena, historical events, environmental disasters, and strange happenings surrounding lakes and other hydrology.

How do you do your research for the videos? How do you choose from so many spooky options?
I essentially go on internet deep dives to follow leads that would possibly qualify for Spooky Lake Month. I’m looking for variety! I want a shipwreck, a dam disaster, an acid lake, a lava lake, a cave diving expedition that went wrong, a soap corpse, a submerged city, a mining disaster, etc. There isn’t an easy Google search that encompasses all those topics, so I’m constantly digging through National Geographic and Smithsonian articles. I feel like I just have a gut instinct for what qualifies, but my backup list is super long.

Honestly, I did some of the best lakes during my first year, so I’ve incorporated “haunted hydrology” into Spooky Lake Month. Now, I can basically do anything that’s wet. I still haven’t gotten fully into ocean topics yet!

What do you think are the top spookiest lakes and why?
What a difficult question! I do feel like it’s subjective. Everyone has different fears.

Lake Karachay (Techa River)

A nuclear disaster that led to a lake and river becoming extremely radioactive in Russia.

Lake Superior (Kamloops Shipwreck)

Lake Superior is spooky for a lot of reasons. I’ve done multiple videos on it during October, but the Kamloops Shipwreck specifically always gives me goosebumps.

Lake Vostok

A giant mysterious lake trapped under the ice in Antarctica. It’s taken them 20 years to drill a borehole in the ice.

Lake Nyos

It exploded and killed over 1,700 people.

Jacob’s Well

Cave diving is just terrifying. But imagine a corpse is stuck 100 feet below your feet while the artesian spring water percolates up through the remains where you’re swimming!

Kaali Crater Lake

An impact that created a lake happened during the Bronze Age. People actually witnessed the meteorite explosion, and the folklore from the region incorporated the story of the impact!

Crater Lake: Old Man of the Lake

A 400-year-old stump that floats around Crater Lake! And scientists don’t know why it bobs in the water the way it does. Wild!

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It was early October in Santa Fe, peak season for leaf-peeping the aspen trees that grow at higher elevations here, and to celebrate my mom’s 72nd birthday, I drove her and my infant son up to the local ski hill, which has a base elevation of 10,350 feet. On weekends from September 17 through October 9, Ski Santa Fe runs its Super Chile quad chair up the mountain, dropping you at nearly 11,200 feet on a big and mostly flat patch of grassy terrain, with great views of peaks and forests in every direction. Just $20 a pop ($15 for seniors!) to see the yellow groves in all their glory.

My mom, my seven-month-old, Beckett, and I arrived early, 15 minutes after first chair, but the line was already long. No big deal, we decided, enjoying the crisp breeze and sun while we waited, my baby playing in the grass beside us. A game of cornhole was going on to our right, and to our left we saw a large photo of a smiling couple, with the tagline: “Our ���ϳԹ��� Begins Here.” I thought to myself, “That sure is a weird VISIT NEW MEXICO ad campaign.”

Then came a warning that I would think back to many times that day. “The lift is running a little slow today,” a Ski Santa Fe employee told a few dozen of us standing in line.��

And so we waited, chatting and playing with the baby until it was our turn to jump on. My mom, who suffered a few painful falls while negotiating ski lifts several decades ago, fretted about how she would get on and off, but she was relieved when she saw that the lift operators were bringing every other chair to a stop to let people safely sit down and get settled. We boarded without a hitch.

Of course, stopping chairs meant that the entire lift came to a standstill every 20 seconds, mid-air. But the temperature was comfortable—high 60s—and there was plenty of great people-watching available, of all the hikers going up and down the mountain. A man with graying hair and bulging calves, wearing ultralight gear, was jogging up the steepest part of the run we were over, a long, straight-shot trail called Broadway. A cute family in puffies was cutting across a catwalk that serves as a green run during ski season. We even saw a woman hiking down, dressed in a brightly patterned, floor-length skirt.

About two-thirds of the way up, Beckett started to fuss. He needed a diaper change, which seemed unsafe on a moving lift, so I bounced him up and down until my arms were sore. My mom sang “Itsy Bitsy Spider” (with hand motions!) on repeat. We were both relieved when the top came into view.

After getting off and changing Beckett’s diaper, the three of us looked around, snapped a couple of photos, and got in line to ride back down. But the line up here was even longer than it had been below: 75 people or so. “Wow, there were a lot of early risers today,” I thought.��

We waited. Dark, ominous clouds rolled in, threatening rain. A cold wind picked up and the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. “It’s so funny,” a woman in line behind us said to her friend. “We’ve been standing here for an hour, but we’re still at the end of the line.”

My mom has had two hips and one knee replaced, and, to help preserve her only original knee, we couldn’t walk down the mountain. So we watched a little kid stack rocks in front of us, and shooed away bees buzzing around while we made small talk. We were also starting to wonder what the heck was going on.

“I saw a sign about someone’s adventure down below,” Mom said of the sign I noticed earlier. “I thought it was a tribute to somebody who’d died.” We looked around. Some women were in heels, with their hair and makeup all done up. Many were wearing Native American skirts and lots of bright, beaded jewelry. I thought back to the woman hiking down in formal wear. Then it clicked: a wedding. The ceremony had obviously just wrapped up, and the guests were heading down.

Right then, the same ski patroller who’d given us the initial warning about a slow-moving line appeared with a ride for members of the wedding party, on an ATV he’d driven up on the cat track. “We can take five right now,” he said, as I stared wistfully at the guests piling in. “Don’t worry, there will be more.” I heard him on a two-way radio, telling colleagues below that they needed to bring a few trucks up to shuttle guests or “We’ll be here all day.”

As I watched trucks come and go, loaded with people, I found myself wishing we could bum a ride. But then I saw an SUV going down with “Just Married” painted on the back window. That, I figured, was the last gasp for wheeled transport.

We waited. The temperature continued to drop. The ski hill employees packed up folding chairs and tables. I got goosebumps and held my son’s hands to keep them warm. My hips ached from standing and my back hurt from wearing a baby carrier for so long. Beckett started to fuss again, getting hungry after such a long wait.

I spent a lot of time over the last year planning my own wedding, which my husband and I hosted in early September on our farm. I’m not a professional, by any means, but—

Hold it: hell yes, I am. Our wedding was big and complicated and it took a lot of work. When people left our reception party—after the police came by around 11 P.M. and told us our neighbors were complaining, wheeee!—nobody got stuck waiting in our driveway. Given my vast experience, I have a tip of two to offer Ski Santa Fe, for the next time they host one of these.

First off, line management and exit strategies are crucial. I went to great lengths to avoid—you guessed it—lines, and it worked. I opted for a brisk, buffet-style dinner with plenty of servers to keep things moving, and to help make sure my guests didn’t stack up, I also had caterers passing out snacks, butler-style. To eliminate the drink line, we had one station manned by traditional wedding bartenders and a DIY drink station, where guests could pour their own wine, beer, and liquor.

So how would I have solved the ski hill wedding snarl? By using a simple triage strategy, dividing us line-dwellers into people who didn’t mind waiting, people who solved the problem by walking down, and people like us, who needed a ride, too. All they had to do was keep those ATVs and SUVs rolling until everybody was served.

We got down eventually, of course: after more than two hours of waiting. We walked up the stairs, boarded the lift, and I sat down with a sigh of relief and began to nurse my son. Shortly after our chair pulled away from the station, we passed a group on the opposite side, nearing the top.

“We’re almost there,” said a woman on the other side of the lift. “Yeah, just another 20 minutes or so,” replied her friend. Little did they know!

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As I packed to go swimming with some friends last weekend, I realized I was running through the same checklist for them as I was for my five-month-old. Milk for Beckett? Check. Snacks for my friends? Got ’em. My cooler was stuffed with bubbly waters and beers to share—and a sippy cup for my kid. I saw a couple of spare trucker hats on our coat rack when I grabbed the infant-sized sun shade and stuffed them all into my bag, “just in case.” Noticing the sunscreen in my truck was almost gone, I reached for a backup so I had enough to go around.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been the Friend Mom of my group, the one who brings food in case anyone gets hungry and a couple backup sweatshirts should someone get cold, and I’m always just a little too happy to map out a trip plan. But becoming a stepmom to my partner’s 11-year-old daughter and giving birth to my son has escalated my role to a whole different level. Here’s how to embrace your inner Friend Mom, too. (Editor’s note: the Friend Mom role knows no gender, and is widely embraced by men, women, and nonbinary friends alike.)

Pack as Many Snacks as Possible

Every Friend Mom knows hanger is fun’s worst enemy. So, when shopping for a camping trip, buy as much chips, trail mix, baby carrots, and string cheese as you need for yourself; then multiply by the number of friends coming, plus two (what if someone brings a friend!). On your way out to camp, text your crew, “Stopping by Tia Sophia’s to get some breakfast burritos. Want anything?” No response? Better buy one for everyone. You can always heat any leftovers over the campfire later for dinner.

Bonus Points for Homemade

If you love to bake but know it’s unreasonable to have four-dozen cupcakes sitting around your pantry, you’ve discovered the perfect Friend Mom opportunity. Make your friends your guinea pigs and have them sample that new sea salt butterscotch cookie recipe you’ve been wanting to try on your next group hike.

Volunteer to Crew Unorganized ���ϳԹ���s

Sure, it’s great to work an aid station at your friend’s race, but when your pal really needs you is after an ill-advised solo ride of the 63-mile Alpine Loop in a rainstorm. Be there to dog sit her good boys while she pedals up a mountain and have hot spaghetti waiting for her when she rolls into camp two hours later than expected, covered in mud.

Bring Extra Gear

The key here is anticipating the worst case scenario for a wide range of conditions. June in the mountains? Grab an extra puffy in case it snows. A hike around a lake? Pack enough bug spray for everyone; that’s mosquito territory. Stuff your first-aid kit with enough bandages, Neosporin, and Superglue to patch up an army. Better yet: keep it all tucked away in your car, so you’re prepared at all times.

Create a Spreadsheet on the Down Low

There’s no such thing as prepping too much for an adventure. Go ahead and lean into your urge to over-plan and over-organize. Create that spreadsheet! But just like actual moms, Friend Moms can annoy as much as they help. So resist sharing your well-documented plans with the rest of the group unless specifically asked. “Oh, I think I read about a cool waterfall hike a couple miles south,” you’ll casually say at basecamp, mentally pointing to cell 21-D on your Google Sheet.

Designate Yourself Group Photographer

Whether you’re on a climbing trip or a bikepacking expedition, most people are too busy having fun to remember to take many photos. As Friend Mom, follow your instincts: snap the action pic of your pal reaching for that final jug or zipping down the trail, capture plenty of candid campsite photos, and insist on everyone posing for at least one group shot. (Do not take no for an answer. Stand tough!) Combine all of your photos into a shareable digital album, so everyone else can add theirs, too.

Turn Any Campfire into a Therapy Session

Did someone in your group start a new job, go through a recent break up, or move in with a different roommate? This is your chance to get to the bottom of how they feel about the recent change. Stay cool until everyone’s had a couple beers—or a couple s’mores—before you start asking the tough questions and offering unsolicited advice.

Clean Up Basecamp Before You Go to Bed

Your slobby friends may feel fine zipping into their tents with the stove still out and beer cans lining the fire ring, but you know everyone will feel more refreshed if they wake up to a clean camp. Plus, bears! As everyone’s unrolling their sleeping pads and brushing their teeth, take a few minutes to pick up any lingering food, bear-proof the trash, and pour an extra cup of water onto the fire pit for good measure.

Make Sure Everyone Gets Home Safely

If you’re traveling a rough road, insist on following anyone without 4WD. Always have jumper cables, a tire repair kit, and a recovery strap on hand. And when it’s finally time to part ways, as any mom or Friend Mom knows, there’s only one proper farewell to those you love: “Text me when you arrive, so I know you made it OK!”

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