Last fall, tech entrepreneur and multi-millionaire Bryan Johnson spent two hours having all the plasma in his body removed. There was nothing wrong with his plasma; he simply hoped that replacing it would help him achieve eternalÌęyouth. ÌęSo, despite very limited scientific evidence, Johnson swapped it all for a protein-based fluid called albumin.

It’s not the first time Johnson’s pursuit of immortality has made the news. The 47-year-old allegedly spends about $2 million on anti-aging treatments each year. In 2023, he injected himself with a liter of plasma harvested from his then-17-year-old son. At the time, Johnson he was trying to “become like an 18-year-old.”

I turn 32 this spring. That’s not old, but it’s old enough to have gotten my first few wrinkles. Over the last few years, I’ve watched my friends get laser facials and boob jobs. I’ve watched them spend a fortune on face creams and dyes, an endless and expensive game of whack-a-mole with their laugh lines and battle scars. Sometimes it doesn’t work, and I feel validated. Sometimes, it does, and I feel I’ve been left to grow old alone.

As women, we’re taught that we are desirable as long as we’re beautiful. We’re useful as long as we’re young. But it’s not just the cosmetic aspects of aging that scare me. I’m also afraid of the pain and endless surgeries my grandparents—both in their mid-80s—are enduring right now. I’m afraid of having to hang up my ice axes and skis, and give up steep trail runs for slow walks around the pond. I’m afraid of the day that achy knees cost me access to all the places I love.

That fear is very human—and very common. While Johnson may be one of the more extreme longevity obsessives, he’s far from the only one.

You may have heard of 81-year-old real estate mogul Kenneth Scott, who spends about on “vampire facials”—a skin treatment involving injections of your own blood plasma—supplements, and other unproven therapies. Or posh gym chain Equinox, which recently launched a $40,000-per-year membership aimed at helping its members live longer. Other folks go the budget route, paying just $10 to $100 per month for , an off-label immunosuppressant that’s recently become the darling of longevity zealots.

With the advent of experimental new therapies, pop-science books like The Blue Zones, and big-name wellness influencers like Andrew Huberman and Wim Hof, more people than ever are tapping into the longevity trend. According to research firm Grandview, the current longevity market was valued at $37 billion in 2020. By 2028, it’s projected to .

I get it; I’m not immune to the allure. But still, when I first started reading about the extreme lengths people go to for longevity—the plasma swaps, the drugs, the weird diets—my initial reaction surprised me. It wasn’t bemused curiosity; it was a flash of fist-balling, brow-sweating, red-hot anger. It pissed me off. I just couldn’t put my finger on why.

Bound By Biology

It’s said that there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. And while a privileged few have proven that extreme wealth can help you avoid taxes, they have yet to successfully fend off death. With infinite money and resources, most problems seem solvable. But how much control do we really have over our lifespans?

To find out, I called up Cambridge professor Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel laureate in chemistry and author of Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality.

I chose Ramakrishnan because of his expertise in this field. But, more importantly, he’s not peddling anything. Unlike other top longevity authors and researchers,ÌęRamakrishan isn’t selling a training plan, video course, or pill. He doesn’t own any longevity-coaching startups, and he doesn’t have any supplement sponsors forking over a commission.

Our lifespan is dictated by factors outside of our control, Ramakrishnan told me. All our cells undergo regular wear and tear just from living, eating, and surviving. Different species have adapted different strategies for dealing with that wear and tear. Some animals have robust mechanisms for cleaning out problematic cells, which helps them live longer. But developing and maintaining those mechanisms takes energy and biological resources.

That cost might be worth it for a large animal, which isn’t likely to get eaten quickly. An elephant, say, is going to last a while, so it makes practical sense for the species to develop some strategies for cleaning out dead cells and living longer so it can reproduce more and defend the community group.

Small animals, on the other hand, tend to get eaten pretty early in life. To work with that constraint, they evolved to grow, mature, and reach reproductive age as fast as possible. It never benefitted them to develop sophisticated biochemical machinery for dealing with old age because they never got there. For millions of years, small animals evolved under that constraint. Everything about a rabbit or mouse—from their rapidfire puberty to their litter size to their fast metabolisms—adapted within the bounds of this shorter life. Same with human beings. All of our machinery is adapted to work within a medium-sized lifespan.

In other words, our capacity for longevity is built into the blueprint of our species. It’s the framework—not a feature you can freely dial up or down.

The Illusion of Control Ìę

Still, some human beings live longer than others. Take Jeanne Calment, the oldest woman who ever lived. She died in 1997 at the age of 122. Allegedly, she also smoked a cigarette and drank a glass of port wine every night.

“She was simply lucky that she didn’t come down with cancer or other diseases,” Ramakrishnan says. “There’s definitely luck involved.”

There’s also genetics. In an old but often-cited on twins, researchers found that about 25 percent of longevity was heritable—in other words, predetermined by your genes. The remaining 75 percent can be influenced by individual lifestyle factors.

But when it comes to those lifestyle factors, we don’t have as much control as we’d like to think. According to the Social Determinants of Health, a for thinking about factors that influence overall health, our personal habits—like eating, smoking, drinking, and exercising—only account for about 30 percent of influencing factors. The rest are structural and social forces far harder to control: about 40 percent of a person’s health is determined by socioeconomic factors, 10 percent by their physical environment, and 20 percent by their access to healthcare.

Even if radical new therapies did come online in our lifetime, there are bigger forces at play here. A in the journal Nature indicates that people cannot live much longer than they do now. There is a cap on the human lifespan, and we’ve reached it. No one has lived to 120 since Calment died. There’s no guarantee that anyone ever will. At least, not until we cure all cancers, dementia, and other neurological diseases—something Ramakrishnan says is still very far off.

The truth is we have little control over our lifespans. Many of us obsess over what we eat and how we exercise not because these habits hold the secret to health and longevity, but because we feel helpless, and are comforted by the illusion of control. But even if you eat and exercise perfectly, you can still die young.

When The Plan Goes Awry

My father wasn’t perfect. He often worked too much. He stayed up too late. He had a weakness for Little Debbie Nutty Buddies. He once binged an entire season of Game of Thrones in a single sitting even though he’d sworn to my brother and I that he’d wait to watch it with us (we’ll forgive him someday). And often, at the dinner table, he would make me laugh so hard I’d shoot orange juice out my nose.

But he did a lot of things right, both as a dad and as a health-conscious American man. He ate mostly rice and vegetables, wore sunscreen, and woke up at 5:00 A.M. every day to run five miles and lift weights. He was thin. He had a rich social life. He was a good husband and father. He spent time outside. And despite all that, he died from an out-of-nowhere heart attack at age 53.

Six months before my dad’s funeral, I lost my dear friend and former boyfriend Alexander. He was a vegetarian. He fasted. He’d just taken the MCAT and was on track to be a doctor. He exercised and stretched. He even flossed every day. And he right before he turned 25.

Both of themÌędid practically everything right. And they’re gone.

And that, I realized, is why I’m angry.

Johnson often wears a T-shirt that says “Don’t Die,” as if it was that easy. As if, for my dad, it was avoidable—and all his fault for not doing the right things or adopting the correct obscure therapies soon enough.

As if, instead of spending his free time with his family, he should have been flying to Dallas to get his plasma replaced or consulting with overpaid doctors about a custom nutrition plan. As if that would have saved him. As if any of us could be so arrogant as to pretend to play defense with the Reaper.

Can You Extend Your Life?

Of course, it’s Johnson’s prerogative to spend his free time pursuing various therapies and longevity-boosting routines. We all have our hobbies. And maybe it’s not my place to say this is a less-worthwhile use of time than dodging cactuses on a steep trail run under the hot Colorado sun, which is how I spend many of my free afternoons.

The good news is that some studies show that lifestyle choices can make some difference—and even help offset our genes. One long-term study published in 2021 examined more than 350,000 individuals with DNA markers indicating they were genetically predisposed to early death. The study showed that exercise and other healthy habits reduced that chance of early death in those populations by . The effects aren’t necessarily dramatic. The researchers estimated that even if you adopt such habits by age 40, they’re only likely to add about five years to your life. Still, eating relatively healthy and exercising: definitely good for you.

The nitty gritty of what you eat or how you exercise tends to be less important. A recent study shows that only exercising on weekends is just as beneficial for your health as sticking to a strict daily routine. Concepts like the Blue Zone Theory—which purports that people living in certain areas of the world hold the secrets to longevity—rest on shaky science, according to critics.

However, some research shows that how much you eat does matter. In animal studies, animals placed on restrictive diets tend to live longer than those that aren’t. A quick caveat, though: these fasting studies often use animals on a gluttonous, all-you-can-eat diet as the control group. They don’t always compare fasting mice to mice who eat in moderation.

“So these studies might just show that all-you-can-eat isn’t healthy, not necessarily that fasting is the benefit,” Ramakrishnan says. Regardless, the science does indicate that caloric intake makes a difference.

Sleep is another big lever you can pull. One of more than 700,000 U.S. veterans showed that folks who slept at least seven hours a night lived 18 percent longer on average. And even if you don’t sleep a ton, sticking to a can also increase your life expectancy.

Cold-exposure therapy and contrast therapy (the practice of alternating between heat and cold) are also commonly touted as ways to boost longevity. But while cold therapy has been shown to help —both contributors to chronic disease—the effects aren’t necessarily long-lasting. Longevity studies thus far have mostly been limited to mice and worms. There’s no evidence that cold exposure can make human beings live longer.

Does Biohacking Really Work?

So, what about the biohacking stuff—the rapamycin and the lasers and the thing Kenneth Scott does where he bathes his face in his own blood? Does that give us the power to take back control?

Ramakrishnan calls some of these therapies “promising.” Rapamycin, for example, mimics the effects of calorie restriction by targeting similar metabolic pathways. In mice, rapamycin has been shown to extend lives by 20 percent. But humans aren’t mice.It’s also only FDA-approved as an immunosuppressant for organ transplant patients, because it helps prevent the body from rejecting the new organ. Its side effects include slower wound healing and a higher risk of infection—the opposite of what you want if you’re trying to live forever.

Stem cells are another promising (albeit new) area of research, Ramakrishan says. So are genetics—i.e., reprogramming cells. However, both involve injecting human beings with new cells or new DNA, which is difficult to do safely.

Johnson’s plasma replacement strategy represents another approach: cleaning out senescent cells that have stopped dividing because they’re too old. Scientists think they can have a domino effect on nearby cells, causing them to become senescent, too. This is an enormously complex process, though. And while plasma replacement sounds good in theory, it might not actually address any of the root causes of senescence. We just don’t know yet.

In other words, the science on all of this is new. The studies that do exist are small and mostly inconclusive. And many of the folks who say otherwise are trying to sell you something.

Yes, there are some promising therapies and drugs on the horizon, Ramakrishnan says, but it could take decades before they’re available. Plus, they’re expensive and time consuming.

As I researched, I started to do some mental math, adding up all the time I’d spend planning out therapies, working to pay for them, and agonizing over whether or not they worked. I realized it wasn’t worth it: I was more likely to spend years missing my life by trying to extend it. Perhaps the right question to ask isn’t how to live a longer life, but how to live a better life.

The Gift of Growing Old

When I started writing this story, I wanted to punch Johnson in the teeth. For his dumb shirt. For his arrogance. But now, I just want to shake him. He—and all of his adherents—are missing the point: the hours you spend swapping plasma or getting your skin lasered to look younger are hours you could be spending with your family and friends. The money you spend on rapamycin could go toward a plane ticket to visit that college roommate you haven’t seen in ages, or to a date night with your partner. Spend it on a scuba certification, a telescope that lets you see the stars, a skydive, a dance lesson, a concert. On any one of a million things that make this life worth living.

I think of the afternoons I’ve spent flopped on my housemate’s bed, talking between sunbeams about what it means to grow older. I think of the pre-party minutes we’ve spent examining each other’s roots, our new freckles, the pudgy bellies we laughed over. I have such fond memories of growing up—even when it was hard or painful or ugly. I want fond memories of growing old, too.

Alexander never got the chance to watch his hair go gray, or to see time etch his laugh lines into place. He will be 24 forever. I think often of how much he’s missed.

If I’ve learned anything from his death—or that of my dad—it’s that aging is a privilege. It’s precious and bittersweet and wonderfully human. It isn’t easy. But nothing worth doing is.

The post It’s Time to Give Up on the Longevity Experiment appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

If it weren’t for travel, Margie Goldsmith, age 80, says she would have died at least three times by now. Ten years ago, the globe-trotting author and travel writer endured a risky surgery for pancreatic cancer. Two years later, the cancer returned. A few years after that, Goldsmith was diagnosed with lung cancer. She survived it all, she is sure, because she’s been a world traveler for 50 years.

You’ll be forgiven if you’re a little skeptical. After all, globetrotting isn’t often a prescription for the ill or infirm. But recent research suggests that travel and tourism could have powerful impacts on your health and even longevity.

How Travel Helps to Slow Aging

According to a this fall by Fengli Hu, a PhD candidate at Edith Cowen University in Perth, Australia, travel could be a powerful tool for slowing down the aging process. Hu’s main theory is fairly straightforward: Many of the lifestyle practices medical and mental-health experts endorse—like social engagement, appreciating nature, walking, and learning new things—are intrinsic to travel.

But the novelty of Hu’s research is that it creates a foundation for thinking about travel in terms of entropy. Travel, she writes, is a way to maintain a “low-entropy state”—in other words, a state of optimal health and efficient bodily function. Since she published the paper, dozens of media outlets have covered her work.

In a video call with șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű, Hu says she didn’t expect so much attention, especially given that the research is only theoretical at this point. She’s just begun to set up the related experiments, which will be completed in 2025. But the interest makes sense.

She says, “Many people are looking for a way to keep young and healthy, and travel can be a cost-effective way to improve their physical and mental health and slow down the aging process.” It’s cost effective, she says, because folks don’t necessarily have to travel to pricey, far-flung locations to experience the benefits.

The theory of entropy comes from physics; it refers to the natural tendency of systems to move from a state of organization and order to one of chaos and disorder. Entropy has also been used as a framework for thinking about aging and disease. When you’re young and healthy, your internal systems run smoothly. That’s order. As you age, cellular mutations and dysfunctions proliferate. That’s disorder—a high-entropy state.

Entropy almost always moves in one direction, Hu says, “but can be mitigated or slowed down with certain measures.” Being a tourist, she says, may be one.

Travel—that is, relaxing, leisure-focused travel—has the power to reduce stress, it encourages exercise, and it forces you to meet and socialize with new people. All of that keeps you sharp and optimizes your body’s performance and efficiency. As a result, Hu says, it could help you stave off physical and mental decline and potentially live longer.

How Travel Relieves Stress

Goldsmith started traveling when she was 32, in the wake of a nasty divorce. She needed something to pull her out of depression, and she’d always wanted to go to the Galapagos. So, she went.

“They say you can move a muscle, change a thought,” Goldsmith says. “Well, it turns out you can also move your location and change a thought.”

The change was exhilarating. Since then, Goldsmith has traveled to 149 countries. Travel has made her a more generous, compassionate person, she says. It’s also made her more resilient.

“I look at people my age, and they look like my grandmother,” she says. “They’re bent over with arthritis and they’re not moving. That will never be me. Travel gives you a more active life, a bigger life. It will keep you young.”

So far, experimental studies seem to support both Goldsmith’s experience and Hu’s research. One of the best-known is the Helsinki Businessman Study, a 50-year experiment involving more than 1,200 Finnish participants who filled out lifestyle and habit questionnaires between the 1960s and 2010s. In a , Timo Strandberg, MD, PhD, found a strong correlation between vacation time and longevity.

Participants in the intervention group—600-plus men who were given a strict health-and-nutrition regimen during the early years of the study—had a 37 percent higher chance of dying before their mid-70s, if they took fewer than three weeks of vacation per year. Those who took more than three weeks of vacation per year lived longer. Why?

“These men who had less vacation were more psychologically vulnerable to stress,” Strandberg said in a video call with șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. That stress included participants’ family and work obligations, as well as the added pressure to stick to a structured health-and-fitness regime. Taking more vacation seemed to benefit participants in the intervention group, likely by keeping their stress in check, Strandberg says.

Surprisingly, the amount of vacation time participants took seemed to have no correlation to longevity in the control group—those who weren’t given a health and fitness routine to stick to. The upshot? Giving yourself extra rules and routines can be stressful, no matter the intention. And the more stress, obligations, and prescribed regimens you have in your life, the more critical vacations may be. (Fitness fanatics, we’re looking at you.)

The Case for More Frequent VacationsÌę

Stress of any kind can have cumulative negative effects.

“One theory is that your acute stress—which can be good and healthy and help you avoid danger and so on—can turn into chronic stress,” Strandberg said. “Then that will show up in biological terms and in different markers in the body.” A vacation has the potential to act as a reset, chipping away at your total stress load and bringing it back down to healthy levels.

Strandberg adds that while the health benefits of a vacation include stress relief and lower cortisol levels, the effects are only temporary. As a result, he recommends taking several four- to five-day vacations throughout the year rather than a single three-week vacation. That way you’re continually keeping your stress in check rather than saving it all up for a single blow-out.

Kiki Keating, a travel curator and trip guide based in New Hampshire, is a firm believer in frequent travel. Keating, who identifies as “a very young 62,” just hiked 90 miles along the Portuguese coast and has a handful of other trips—including an overseas tour she does every year with her 86-year-old mother—on the docket for the coming year. The travel keeps both active, and it gives them something to look forward to. That sense of purpose, she says, is key to both living long and facing setbacks with determination. She’s watched many people use an upcoming trip as a life ring to pull out of depression or weather an injury or illness.

Goldsmith is one. Her first pancreatic surgery was extremely dangerous, a six-hour operation that only 25 percent of patients survive. But she felt she would make it; she had places yet to see.

As she recovered, dreams of travel motivated her to keep moving. “As soon as I got out of the hospital, the first thing I did was travel,” she says. Likewise, when facing a knee-replacement surgery earlier this year, she booked trips to Ireland and Scottsdale to give her something to look forward to—and motivate her to do everything she could to recover faster.

Travel Keeps Your Mind Sharp

But you don’t have to be in advanced years to benefit from frequent travel. Keating has also seen it impact how her adult children face challenges and deal with stress.

“Travel helps you to be more relaxed when you’re adapting to something new,” Keating says. “When you go to a place with a new culture and a language you don’t speak, it can feel hard at first. Then, after a day or two you’re like, ‘Oh, I take this metro and follow this red line and go to the blue line, and I know how to say hello, and this is where I like to eat.’ You remind yourself you can learn new things and adapt, and that gives you confidence.” Today, she says, her kids—all of whom traveled with her when they were younger—are good at taking adversity in stride. That’s a tool they’ll use for the rest of their lives to minimize stress, and it could pay big dividends in terms of wellness.

It’s not just about stress, either. A small 2018 study by Craig Anderson, a UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow, shows that experiencing awe can help . Other research, including a that followed more than 6,700 older adults, indicates that travel could also ameliorate cognitive decline. Mental stimulation—including learning new languages and visiting museums—has been shown to help by up to 47 percent.

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that challenging yourself to navigate a new place or learn new customs would have some of the same benefits.

“Travel is sort of like riding your mountain bike on a technical trail,” says Stephanie Pearson, 54, a professional travel writer who’s been globetrotting for more than 30 years. “You have to be in a similar flow space to navigate foreign languages, customs, and travel logistics. So I really think it does something cognitively to your brain. It also helps you reset and focus and see the world in a different way.”

Pearson adds that she’s felt a similar level of focus and challenge on trips near home as to far-flung places like Bhutan and New Zealand. As long as there’s an element of awe, discovery, and getting out of your comfort zone, she says, your mind and body stand to benefit.

“You don’t have to fling yourself across the world to have an awesome adventure. You can drive to a nearby park or city that you’ve never visited and have a rewarding experience,” Pearson says. “The benefit lies in having that curiosity.”

Corey Buhay is a freelance writer and editor based in Boulder, Colorado. She is a member of the U.S. Ice Climbing Team, which takes her to Korea, Switzerland, Czech, and Slovakia each winter. She dreams of one day being able to travel when the weather is actually warm. Her recent stories for șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű range from mountaineering bromance, with “After 50 Years of Friendship, These Alpinists Just Bagged (Another) Unclimbed Peak,” to trail-running records in “Forget Pumpkin Spice Lattes, It’s FKT Season,” to loss in the mountains, with “Years After My Mentor Died in the Backcountry, I Retraced His Final Footsteps.”

The post Can Travel Make You Live Longer? These Scientists Think So.Ìę appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

In the chaos of year’s end, it’s easy to forget to prioritize yourself. After all, few of us have time for serious goal-setting or self-care amid the airport runs, in-law-wrangling, and countless other rings of the family circus. Inevitably, the New Year sneaks up on us before we have any time to plan or ponder. By the time we figure out what we want our resolutions to be and what stuff we need to make them happen, we’re already a month behind.

Don’t let that happen this year. Instead, take a few minutes right now to set some intentions for 2025. Then, take advantage of deep Black Friday discounts to order what you need and set yourself up for success. To give you a head start, we pored through press releases and deals lists to round up the ten best deals on the market.Ìę

Looking to reduce stress in 2025? Drink Less? Get strong? Sleep better? Finally get over that niggling injury? We’ve got you. Find time for yourself this holiday season with these top wellness-focusedÌęsales.

1. Drink Less

Athletic Brewing Non-Alcoholic Beer

On sale November 25

With NA options this good, you won’t want to stop at Dry January. Athletic Brewing has made a name for itself with its wide range of athlete-friendly recipes and creative flavors (think: crisp IPAs, fruity sours, or darker brews perfect for the cooler months).ÌęFrom Monday, November 25 ,Ìęthrough Monday, December 2, customers who join the brand’s will receive 30 percent off their first order. That’s $10 to $11 per six-packÌęrather than the usual $14 to $15. Better yet: you can order up to eight sixers. Buy in bulk, and the savings add up fast.

2. Start Meditating

Manduka enLight Meditation Cushion

On sale November 25Ìę

In theory, meditation is something you can embrace anytime, anywhere. In practice, it’s often hard to make yourself do it unless you have a set routine—and a designated spot. Enter the enLight Meditation Cushion. Simple, comfortable, and elegant, this pouf is both a visual reminder of the commitment you’ve made to yourself and a portable self-care routine. The microfiber cover is incredibly soft, and the wool inner pillow is springy and non-allergenic. It also comes in a range of colors to fit unobtrusively in any room.

3. Do More Yoga

Liforme Radiant Sun Yoga Mat

On sale nowÌę

Consider this mat your yoga cheatsheet. Liforme’s mats are all equipped with subtle, printed,Ìęsymmetrical guidelines to help you dial in your body awareness and make sure you’re stretching evenly on both sides. That slight aid can be an enormous help, whether you’re new to yoga or looking to advance your practice. The non-slip surface is ideal for sweaty hands and feet, and the natural rubber base and eco-polyurethane top are both environmentally friendly.

4. Explore Wilder Places

Garmin Fenix 7X Pro Solar

On sale now

If you’re looking to spend more time in nature—and get lost less—you can’t do better than this ruggedized, high-powered, expedition-ready watch.ÌęThe Fenix 7X Pro Solar lets you download maps directly to the device. The watch uses satellites to triangulate your position and show you where you are on the map —which means you’ll always know your exact location, even when you’re off-grid and out of service. A bevy of fitness settings lets you gather data on everything from your sleep and recovery to your performance on off-trail backpacking trips and technical tail runs alike. It also has a built-in flashlight and some of the best battery life in the business: up to 37 days.

5. Sleep Better

Dream Silk Sleep Pillowcase and Mask Bundle

On sale now

Imagine if every side of the pillow was the cool side of the pillow. That’s sleeping on silk for you. Silk is something of a supermaterial. First, it naturally regulates temperature. And unlike cotton, it won’t suck the hydration out of your skin or hair while you sleep. The smooth texture helps prevent hair tangling and breakage and naturally wicks moisture. Dream takes all of those benefits up a notch using extra high-quality silk infused with antibacterial silver ions. Between November 18 and December 19, you can get both Dream’s silk pillowcase and silk sleep mask (either bundled or separate) for 30 percent off. The brand’s best-selling , which claims to promote nasal breathing and help stop snoring—is also on sale for 30 percent off.

6. Recover From an Injury

Hyperice Hypervolt 2 Pro Massage Gun

On sale now

Percussive massage can help warm up muscles, break up knots, and be an invaluable part of a physical therapy or recovery routine. So, whether you’re looking to rehab a current injury or prevent a future one, consider the Hypervolt 2 Pro as part of your plan. The handheld massage gun has five different head attachments and a powerful motor, which means it’s strong enough to loosen up even the stiffest muscles. And from November 21 to January 8, it’s $70 off.

7. Get Stronger

Momentous Protein Powder

On sale November 25

Momentous gets all its products NSF- and Informed-Sport certified. So,Ìęif you’re new to the space and worried about safety and purity, this is a great place to start. Athletes who are into creatine (a well-studied supplement used to bulk up and enhance recovery) should opt for the ($97), a combo pack featuring protein, creatine,Ìęand omega-3. Or, if you’re just trying to up your protein intake without breaking the bank, choose between Momentous’s whey and plant-based protein powders ($30 to $49).

8. Reduce Stress

Plunge Evolve Air Pro Inflatable Cold Plunge

On sale nowÌę

Cold-exposure therapy is having a moment, and not just due to the Wim Hof Effect. Emerging research shows that frigid dips and improve mental health. And these days, you don’t even have to go to a fancy health spa to reap the benefits. On sale throughout the month of November, the Evolve Pro Air lets you practice a cold-water immersion routine at home. The inflatable pool is made of a durable, insulated material and only takes 15 minutes to set up. You can fill the basic version ($1,012)Ìęwith ice or purchase the version with a chiller ($2,967) to keep the water at a steady 37 degrees Fahrenheit. If contrast therapy is more your game, you’ll also want to look at Plunge’s sauna options: the ($8,917) offers a compact design and has a traditional stone heater that gets up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

9. Get Faster

Polar Pacer Pro

On sale nowÌę

The Polar Pacer Pro was built for speed. Whether you’re looking to finish your first 5K or shave minutes off your marathon time, this lightweight sports watch has everything you need to understand your performance and dial in your training. Keep it simple by tracking your splits and mile times, or dive into the nitty gritty of your running economy, heart rate, and V02 max. Built-in cycling and running tests let you establish your baseline and track it throughout the year, and advanced analytics will alert you if you’re overtraining and at risk of injury.

10. Optimize Performance

Whoop 4.0

On sale November 25

At long last, the fitness tracker with the enormous fan following is on sale. The Whoop 4.0 is designed to monitor everything from sleep and recovery to stress and physical strain. It lets you quantify how you’re feeling—mentally, physically, and emotionally—and offers insights to help you get back on track. From November 25 to December 3, you can sign up for 12 months of Whoop analytics (the Whoop 4.0 tracker device is included for free) and save $40 on the annual fee. Sign up for two years and you’ll also save $40 on the total.

The post 10 Black Friday Wellness Deals to Give You a Head Start on Your 2025 Resolutions appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

On November 14, Jenni Lowe, president of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation (ALCF) and widow of climbing legend Alex Lowe, announced that the nonprofit she founded in his name will officially dissolve before the end of 2025. The nonprofit’s assets—including the iconic Khumbu Climbing Center—will go to the Juniper Fund, a Nepal-based charity helmed by celebrity mountaineers Melissa Arnot Reid and David Morton. Jenni Lowe first initiated the handoff process about a year ago.

“It just felt like time,” she told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. “I’m approaching 70 years old, and I feel as though I’m ready to change direction in my life.”

The ACLF has been a force of change in the Khumbu region of Nepal since its founding 25 years ago. Jenni Lowe initially launched the ALCF alongside leading alpinist Conrad Anker to help indigenous mountain communities and to honor her late husband, Alex Lowe, after he was killed in an avalanche on Shishapangma in 1999. At the time, Alex Lowe was considered one of the best alpinists of his generation, establishing bold first ascents in Antarctica, Baffin Island, and in the Himalaya. He was only 40 when he died, and he left three young sons behind.

The cornerstone of the ALCF’s work was The Khumbu Climbing Center, a facility that helps provide safety education to Sherpa guides and other members of indigenous climbing community. Together with Anker, Jenni Lowe helped build the KCC from the ground up. Since its launch in 2003, the facility has provided life-saving training to hundreds of climbers.

From here on out, the KCC will continue under the umbrella of the Juniper Fund, a well-regarded nonprofit that has worked alongside the ALCF for more than a decade. The Juniper Fund’s mission to support the families of Himalayan high-altitude workers, especially those grieving loved ones killed in the mountains, dovetails with that of the ALCF. That made the hand-off an easy decision, Lowe told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű.

“The Juniper Fund does amazing work,” Lowe said. “When I started the ALCF, I was this young widow, and I had deep compassion for the women over there who I saw as in my shoes. The Juniper Fund stepped in to provide support to those families in a beautiful way.”

Lowe hopes the transfer of assets from the ALCF to the Juniper Fund will be complete by the end of 2025. That includes all monetary assets, the building that houses the KCC, and other resources. The ALCF’s board of directors will continue to be involved throughout this process, Lowe said.

Arnot Reid described the transfer as an opportunity to build on the Juniper Fund’s existing mission. But, she said, it’s important to emphasize that the KCC isn’t getting passed off, per se; it’s a powerful organization in its own right, and it’s simply getting a new financial backer.

“The KCC is run in Nepal by Nepalis, and it’s an incredibly successful and really well-run organization,” Arnot Reid said. “They don’t need our intervention to run the incredible programs they already have; they just need our support financially and awareness-wise to continue to bring their mission to people who aren’t aware of it.”

Arnot Reid said the Juniper fund is committed to supporting the KCC’s existing work and has no plans to alter or add to it at this time. Instead, the Juniper fund will work closely with the organization’s Nepali representatives and follow their lead.

But while the work will remain the same, Arnot Reid says Jenni Lowe’s leadership will certainly be missed.

“Jenni is a role model for me,” Arnot Reid said. “She worked really hard to make things happen in a space where people said it wasn’t possible, or ‘We can’t do that,’ and she did it with grit.”

That’s something Lowe is equally proud of: she said in her time at ALCF, the nonprofit accomplished more than she could have ever dreamed of.

“In the beginning, it was just a way for me to walk through the grief of losing Alex. I had no idea what I was getting into when I first started the foundation, but it was a huge gift to my life,” Lowe told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. “I love that community and I’ll miss them. But I feel satisfied and happy with what we’ve done. It’s time to make my world a little smaller.”

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On November 4, federal authorities issued misdemeanor charges against two Colorado residents for allegedly stealing historic artifacts from a roped-off area within Utah’s Canyonlands National Park this past March.The residents, identified as Roxanne McKnight, 39, and Dusty Spencer, 43, both of Pagosa Springs, allegedly entered the signed closure area around Cave Spring Cowboy Camp on March 23. According to a from the U.S. attorney’s office in Utah, the two then “handled and stole numerous historic artifacts.”

Cave Spring Cowboy Camp sits at the end of a popular, 0.6-mile hiking loop within Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District. The sandstone cavern houses a historic campsite that cowboys used during cross-country cattle drives in the early Twentieth Century. Some of the artifacts displayed there include nails, coffee cans, and bits of horse tack that are more than 100 years old.

Park officials didn’t learn of the incident until later in the spring, when rangers conducted a review of the cave’s trail-camera footage.

“The trail cam footage shows individuals clearly within the site, and the site is fenced off and signed,” Karen Henker, a public affairs specialist for Canyonlands National Park, told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű.

On May 15, the park alongside images from the footage and asked the public to help identify the man and woman in the video. One photo shows a woman sitting down on one of the artifacts. Another shows a goateed man with a beer in his hand. The request for public input worked.

“I can confirm that the identification was the result of contributions from that tip line,” Henker said.

In a , McKnight claimed she first heard of the charges when they were released online on Monday, November 4, and that they came as a surprise. She confirmed that she was in the desert in March but denied stealing or intentionally harming any artifacts.

She also saidÌęshe had not been in touch with Spencer for several months. Their court case is currently set for November 27, 2024 in Salt Lake City.

șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű was unable to reach Spencer for comment.

Since the initial news release and subsequent charges, the story of the alleged theft has appeared in a number of major news outlets including and . The story’s popularity is no surprise, Henker told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. “National parks are known to preserve important stories from our country’s past, and a lot of people feel strongly about that preservation,” she said.

Artifact theft and desecration are surprisingly common in national parks. According to a , the National Park Service records hundreds of incidences of archaeological theft each year. Only about 16 percent of these cases are ever solved.

When asked how it feels to see this case get some traction, Henker emphasized that all suspects in the case are considered innocent until proven guilty.

“But we’re very grateful for the contributions and involvement from the public,” she told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. “To us, it shows just how much the public cares about these places.”

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Over the centuries, people have pressed all sorts of creatures, from cows to frogs to crickets, into the service of meteorological forecasting. Some instances of animal-aided forecasting are truly bizarre: In the 1800s, two British meteorologists created a complex instrument called a Tempest Prognosticator, which relied on .

Thankfully, much of that folklore and leech-keeping has given way to modern forecasting algorithms, radar, and satellite imagery over time—but not everyone is willing to leave the old methods behind. Here are a few of the strangest ways in which people still forecast long-term weather—ranked from least to most weird.

10. The Tanana River

The tiny town of Nenana, Alaska, is home to one of the longest-running gambling events in the United States. The game? Watching ice melt. Every year since 1903, locals have placed a wooden tripod in the center of the frozen Tanana River. A cable affixed to the tripod runs across the surface to a clock on the bank. When the river ice breaks up enough for the tripod to fall in, the cable yanks on the clock, stopping it. People from around the world place bets on when this will occur, and the jackpot often surpasses $300,000. The time of breakup is considered the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and avid bettors use all kinds of homespun algorithms to predict the time of breakup, incorporating such data as annual snowfall, temperature patterns, and even train schedules.

Our take: This is the least-weird method, since melting ice definitely means warm weather. Hard to argue with that.

9. Sunspots

The Old Farmer’s Almanac has been one of America’s most trusted sources of long-term forecasting for decades. Since the 1700s, it has predicted the weather by . As the theory goes, more sunspots are correlated with more solar activity and stronger magnetic storms, which could in turn affect the temperatures here on earth. For a long time, this seemed pretty out there. But more recently, research has started to back it up. As it turns out, , albeit mostly in northern Europe and in parts of the northern U.S. In years where solar activity is calmer, pockets of cold air form high in the atmosphere, which results in colder winters and stronger easterly winds over northern Europe and the northern U.S.. When solar activity is high, those areas see milder winters.

Our take: It’s unique, but there’s some scientific backing. Not that weird.

8. Foggy Days in August

Appalachian Folklore suggests the more foggy mornings you see in August, the more days of snow you’ll have over the winter. The traditional way to keep track is to put . End your August with ten beans, and you’re likely to see an identical numbre of days of deep snow over the winter. Unfortunately, there’s suggesting any truth to this. Though, it’s nice to have an excuse to keep your beans organized.

Our take: There’s no science behind it, but at least it doesn’t involve a captive live animal. Only a little weird.

7. Live Groundhogs

Puxatawny Phil is only one of dozens of groundhogs around the world that are kept under close watch in early February. If the groundhog sees its shadow, six more weeks of winter are said to follow. Of course, all the groundhogs have different predictions, and their rates of accuracy are . The idea of Groundhog Day came from a German custom, which had to do with a badger seeing his shadow. We think that swapping in the ferocious and unpredictable carnivore would liven up what’s become a somewhat sedate tradition.

Our take: We love to hate on beloved family pastimes. As popular as this method is, it’s still pretty weird.

6. Dead Groundhogs

In researching this story, we discovered that not only are there dozens of live forecasting groundhogs, but .ÌęExample A: a stuffed groundhog in Pennsylvania named Uni. Every year, Uni is lashed to a tiny raft and floated down Tulpehocken Creek for a while before he’s fished out. An official interpreter leans down to listen to Uni’s supposed prediction, and delivers the prediction in Pennsylvania Dutch. A second interpreter stands by to translate this prediction into modern English.

Our take: Uh huh. Weird.

5. Persimmon Seeds

Another gem from the American South: If you cut open a persimmon seed in the fall and find a spoon shape inside, expect snow. If you see a knife shape, the winter will be bitter cold. And if you see a fork shape, . While the seeds do contain shapes that resemble these three utensils, there’s no scientific basis for their correlation to weather conditions. But the fruit is still delicious, so we can’t not recommend trying.

Our take: It’s cute, but what do fruits know about weather? We’ve never met a persimmon that passed a third-grade science class. For sure weird.

4. A Desert Tortoise

No weather-telling groundhogs live in Palm Springs, California. There is, however, a highly respected tortoise. Every year, Mojave Maxine emerges from her burrow sometime in February, and her sighting heralds warmer weather to come. Like the Nenana Ice Classic, this one , though the gamblers are mainly children, and there’s no money involved.

Our take: She’s cute, but, like the persimmon, not likely to possess knowledge of basic math. Plus, she’s been asleep all winter. What could she possibly know? Real weird.

3. Wooly Worm Caterpillars

In the town of Banner Elk, North Carolina, thousands of people gather every year to . The strongest, fastest caterpillar is used to predict the weather. As the legend goes, each segment of the caterpillar corresponds to a different week of winter. The color of that segment tells you what the weather will be for that week. Every year, the festival’s official worm reader (which has, for years, been ex-NBA basketball player Tommy Burleson) hands down the forecast. He claims his predictions are up to 90-percent accurate.

Our take: We admire the organizers’ ability to get thousands of people excited about keeping worms as pets. But still pretty dang weird.

2. Pig Spleens

For decades, a family in Saskatchewan, Canada, has butchered a pig every six months and . The organ is split into six different segments, and sections of thickened tissue are said to correlate to spells of colder weather. Some years, Jeff Woodward, the current “pig spleen prognosticator,” analyzes several spleens and . He’s not the only such prognosticator in Canada, but he has among the largest followings.

Our take: The amount of training this requires is admirable. But the amount of dead animal handling is significantly more than that of the stuffed groundhog phenomenon. And again, there’s no scientific basis. We’re calling this one pretty out-there.

1. A 93-Year-Old AlligatorÌę

In Texas there lives a named Al. Every spring, handlers offer Al a large piece of chicken. If Al swallows the chicken, spring has arrived. If Al refuses the chicken or spits it out, six more weeks of winter are to follow. Al has now clocked about 18 years of service in his current role, but there’s no evidence that he has any idea what he’s doing.

Our take: No big decisions should be based upon a geriatric gator’s indigestion. Most weird.

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Well, folks, it’s election season again. Between that, , the war, the other war, climate change, and the rising cost of your favorite breakfast cereal, it sometimes feels like we’re all just a hair-trigger away from absolutely losing it. We’ve all tried doomscrolling. Some of us have even dabbled in worse coping mechanisms, like drinking heavily or . But none of that worked, either. So, what’s left? How can you shake the existential stress?

Sure, you could walk it out, or meditate, or lament the evils of this world to an expensive therapist. But sometimes, there’s only one cure for the bottled-up panic that lives rent-free inside you. And that’s to step up to the edge of the void, and scream into it.

To help you on your quest, we’ve compiled this handy list of our favorite cliffs, canyons, and chasms—all places with plenty of vast, cold, emptiness to ugly-cry into. Pick your favorite and let it all out.

North Rim Trail, Black Canyon of the Gunnison

If we got word that the gates of hell had opened up somewhere in the Western U.S., the is the first place we’d look. Don’t get us wrong—this national park is a gorgeous swath of wilderness and a world-class hotspot for climbers, campers, and fly-fishers alike—but it’s also a massive, black gash in the earth. The dark granite walls plunge more than 2,000 feet deep, and at its narrowest point, the canyon is a mere quarter-mile wide. The place feels ancient and solemn. And with far less visitation than the Grand Canyon, it also has an intimate feel that’s conducive to a nice, relaxing mental breakdown. This is a chasm that cares about your problems. Or, at the very least, it’ll put on a good show of listening. We recommend the 2.9-mile round-trip hike along the . Start from the North Rim Visitor Center and end at the aptly named Exclamation Point, a perfect, vertigo-inducing overlook.

Hanging Rock Trail, Hanging Rock State Park

Hanging Rock is one of North Carolina’s most popular hikes, thanks to its namesake cliff, which hangs over the edge of a plunging valley like Pride Rock in the Lion King. We recommend doing the 3.6-mile hike on a foggy day. On some fall mornings, when mist settles into the hollows between the mountains, the rolling green carpet of Appalachian forest disappears. All that remains is a shard of rock jutting out into cold, white nothingness. Socked in, you’ll finally feel fully and completely alone. Dig deep, embrace it, and scream yourself hoarse at will.

Pacific Valley Bluff Trail, California

If you need an emotional release ASAP, this short trail will have you at the edge of the vast Pacific in under a mile. The trail, which starts alongside Highway 1, lines a series of steep cliffs and promontories that butt right up against the crashing sea foam far below. Head west from the trailhead, then follow the northern spur until its end. On a windy day, you’ll be able to feel your hair whipping around your face as you gaze into the blue beyond, which adds a nice dramatic effect to any nervous break.

Shovel Point Trail, Tettegouche State Park

Minnesota’s Tettegouche State Park is home to sheer rhyolite cliffs that rise straight out of the steely waters of Lake Superior. You could target Palisade Head, which sits at the southern tip of the park and is home to the tallest cliffs, but then you’d have to do your screaming from a parking lot filled with smiling tourists. Instead, we recommend Shovel Point, a popular that traces a 200-foot-high cliff band high above the water. Go during shoulder season, when you’re more likely to encounter moody weather. This is also the best time of year if you’re worried about feeling your feelings in front of an audience; the young families tend to clear out come fall, giving way to RV-driving retirees who probably could relate.

Horseshoe Mesa Trail, Grand Canyon National Park

When it comes to , there’s no place that does it better than the Grand Canyon. This is America’s foremost chasm—our very best void—and we’d be remiss not to include it on this list. To escape the majority of the crowds, head to the Grandview Trailhead and hike , a two-pronged promontory that juts into the Big Ditch. The hike ends at an overlook at the mesa’s eastern tip. Downside: You’re not likely to have it entirely to yourself. Upside: Its position and exposure make it ideal for a cathartic lung-busting scream sesh. When you’ve had your fill of wailing and gnashing of teeth, give your fellow hikers a polite nod, and turn to trudge back the way you came.

Endless Wall Trail, New River Gorge National Park And Preserve

The New River Gorge also does a great riff on the chasm theme. While this one’s not quite as deep as the Grand Canyon or Black Canyon, it still provides a number of dizzyingly steep cliffs that gaze out over empty space. We particularly like the 4.8-mile out-and-back along the . Not only is the name appropriately theatrical and existential, but the hike itself also traces a sheer cliff edge. The views across the gorge are some of the most dramatic in the park, and the plentiful tree cover provides just a touch of privacy in case you need to let out a little sob or two.

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The massive search for missing hiker Austin King in Yellowstone National Park hit a snag this week, and the setback comes as a snowstorm is slated to hit the remote area where he vanished. On October Monday, 14, officials with the national park and the National Forest Service halted a private helicopter from dropping additional searchers into a remote area of the park.

The helicopter had been hired by King’s family as part of their ongoing efforts to search the slopes ofÌę11,372-foot Eagle Peak, which is where King last called his family on September 17.

Officials did not approve the helicopter because they could not verify if the pilot had experience flying and landing in mountainous terrain. The news was .

“We deeply sympathize with Austin’s family and their desire to continue searching for him,” Yellowstone superintendent Cam Sholly said in a statement provided to the website. “At this time, the park has limited resources to respond to Eagle Peak if something were to go wrong. The park’s helicopter is gone and there are limited air support resources capable of conducting high mountain rescues.”

King’s father, Brian King-Henke, toldÌęWyofile that he and others plan to continue their search on foot. But the weather forecast calls for snowstorms to hit Eagle Peak on Thursday, October 17. șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű reached out to King-Henke and officials with Yellowstone National Park but did not hear back by the publishing of this story.

A Disappearance in Rugged Terrain

King, 22,Ìę hiked into the backcountry on September 14 for a planned seven-day solo backpacking trip to climb Eagle Peak. He was reported overdue on September 20 when he failed to show up for a boat ride back home.

At the time of his disappearance, King was living in Grant Village, Wyoming, where he worked as a concessions employee within the park. A ranger who encountered King on the trail reported that he’d departed from his original route and had decided to climb the peak instead.

King was last heard from on September 17, which is when Eagle Peak was buffeted by snow and wind. He called his father from the mountain’s summit and left a voicemail around 7:00 P.M that night. The message didn’t appear in King-Henke’s phone until a week later, a searcher named John Lamb .Ìę“You can tell he’s scared, he’s cold—he doesn’t know where he’s at,” Lamb said. “It took him all day to get there, so you can just imagein trying to come down a mountain and not seeing at all.”

Searchers with Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks began scouring the area on September 21, but days went by without any sign of King. On October 11, King-Henke that searchers had found a handwritten note that King had written in the registry atop Eagle Peak. The message was dated September 17.

“I can’t feel my fingers and my glasses are so fogged from the ruthless weather of the mountains. I truly cannot believe I am here after what it took to be here,” King wrote in a shaky script. “I endured rain, sleet, hail, and the most wind I have ever felt.”

Eagle Peak, he wrote, was shrouded in fog, and King wrote that he had lost the trail on his way to the summit, forcing him to scale cliffs and navigate vertical off-trail terrain.Ìę“I am 22 years old, and I will never forget today for the rest of my life,” King wrote. “Life is beautiful. Go out and live it.”

The Search Expands

More than 100 people participated in the search organized by crews from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and the effort lasted 11 days. On October 2, Yellowstone shifted the effort from a rescue to a recovery.

“To date, more than 100 personnel including two helicopters, search dog teams, ground teams with spotting scopes, trackers, and a drone have searched more than 3,225 miles by air and ground at elevations ranging from 11,350 feet to 8,400 feet,” the park said in a statement on October 2. “Despite significant search efforts over the past week and a half, we have not been able to locate Austin.”

But King’s father continued a private effort, backed by donors. He raised more than $17,000 on crowdfunding platform GoFundMe and contracted private rescue teams to scour the Eagle Peak Wilderness.

“I haven’t given up on the impossible,” he wrote in a post on GoFundMe the following day. Instead, he set up a base camp near Cody, Wyoming, and continued to send out private search teams and volunteers.

“Austin hang in there,” he wrote on Facebook on October 7. “I’m coming to bring you home.”

Another week went by with no sign of King. And with the season’s first snowfall forecasted for October 17, the teams began to feel the time pressure. King-Henke pooled resources for the helicopter. When their request was denied, they continued to search on foot on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

On Thursday, October 17, King posted on the GoFundMe page that he and crews were planning to pack up their base camp at Eagle Creek Campground.

“It is and will be rough couple of days to wait and see how much snow we get to determine if we can go back out or we are done until next year,” King-Henke wrote in the post. “I prayed to God to ask him to allow us some more time.”

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The room has a heartbeat. It’s the first thing I notice when I walk into the lab: the gentle thrum of machinery, the metallic click and stretch of springs, and the rhythmic thud of two boots strapped to a gadget called the Time Machine that cycles above a treadmill.

At least, that’s what Adam Trenkamp tells me it’s called. Trenkamp is the șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű engineer who runs editorial testing at this new gear facility on the campus. The șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Gear Lab is the first of its kind in Colorado and one of just a few in the country. Last spring, șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Inc., CU Denver researchers, and Colorado-based outdoor startups began using it to test, study—and break—outdoor gear of all kinds.

I step further into the room, a stark white affair that’s half-classroom, half-science lab, nearly 1900 square feet in size, tucked deep in the campus’s engineering wing. Trenkamp follows me over to the Time Machine, which I later learn is a gold-standard piece of equipment designed and built by footwear test company . There, he pauses, then deftly catches one of the steel arms mid-swing. He holds a boot in his palm, and I peer to take a closer look at the sole.

The machine, which uses a system of weighted plates, shocks, and springs to simulate the impact forces of human legs, has been running on the treadmill for nearly 48 hours straight. That’s the equivalent of 70 miles on each shoe. I finger the tread. You can already see bits of the rubber wearing away. Corners of the sole are in shreds.

“Woah,” I say. I’ve been reviewing gear for ten years, and it usually takes me at least a month to get this kind of durability testing in the field. Trenkamp’s machine has cut that process down to a tiny fraction of the time—and in a way that’s scientific enough to accurately compare the performance of one product against another.

“This could totally change the way we test gear,” I say. Trenkamp smiles, just a little bit.

“EłæČ賊łÙ±ôČâ.”

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Over the last few years, Colorado-based conglomerate Vail Resorts has gobbled up ski hills left and right. Now, the company may finally be experiencing growing pains. Last week, Vail Resorts announced a plan to eliminate 14 percent of its corporate workforce and 0.2 percent of its frontline employees at mountain resorts over the next two years.

The decision came after Vail Resorts saw revenue decline for several quarters in a row, which prompted its share price to drop 25 percent over the summer. The job cuts are expected to free up $100 million in budget by mid-2026.

The company blamed unfavorable conditions (snowfall across the American West was down nearly 30 percent from prior years), as well as the receding wave of popularity that skiing enjoyed during the pandemic. The outdoor adventure and travel industries have all been facing a painful “” as people return to their indoor hobbies, and the ski world has yet to find its level.

Despite the cost cutting and revenue woes, Vail Resorts continues to eye expansion and acquisition.

“We have a very large focus on expanding in Europe and ultimately, ideally, we’d love to expand into Japan as well,” CEO Kirsten Lynch said in a . Vail Resorts, which currently owns 42 ski areas across the world, spent the past few years buying up hills across the U.S.—at times . Then, it ventured abroad. Just this May, it closed on its second Swiss resort, the Crans-Montana Mountain Resort near Geneva.

Vail representatives claim that the layoffs are a positive sign, not a negative one; slimming down the American staff just leaves the company poised for more agile growth and global expansion, the brand said in a . (In the release, Vail Resorts referred to the round of layoffs as part of a “two-year transformation plan.”)

So, what impact will the cuts have on skiers this year? In an email, Lindsay Hogan, senior director of communications for Vail Resorts, indicated that on-mountain impacts would be minimal.

“The corporate impacts are primarily focused on the consolidating and outsourcing of global shared services,” Hogan said in an email to șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. Many of the positions eliminated were in accounts receivable, payroll support, call centers, and other internal business services, she said. Most of the cuts will impact staffers at Vail’s corporate headquarters in Broomfield, Colo., or in remote positions—not on-mountain staffers. With less than 1 percent of operations staff affected—and more than 1,000 seasonal positions currently open—Hogan said skiers shouldn’t notice a big difference when they visit a resort this year.

In fact, Hogan said that “efficiencies” created by the cuts could make the skier experience even better than in years prior. Allegedly, they’ll make the company run more smoothly, which will help resorts deliver on all kinds of promises—from faster lift lines to better ski schools. Hogan also touched on the impacts of expansion on Epic Pass holders.

“Expanding our network gives our guests more value and more choices of where they can ski and ride,” Hogan said. “It gives our pass holders a choice of where to go, so they can choose new experiences, or go where the conditions are best in any given season.”

Hogan denied that the recent cuts had anything to do with the past year’s quarterly earnings reports. “This transformation is to set the company up for future growth,” she said. Still, that growth will likely depend on reliable snowfall. So far, Vail seems to be banking on the , and on storms so big skiers won’t be able to stay away.

As Vail learned last year, banking on the weather is a dubious proposition. But at least we won’t be the only ones praying for snow.

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