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After kicking off an enormous slide on a familiar backcountry run in Colorado, our writer was forced to reconsider his relationship with skiing
The accident highlights an industry at a crossroads and raises a crucial question: As safety schools boom, who is responsible for making sure the students come home?
The beloved winter pastime has long been a massive polluter. Canadian startup Taiga Motors set out to transform the industry into something more environmentally friendly—and the big manufacturers are getting onboard.
Europe has always had something America doesn’t: an Alpine ski route connecting a network of full-service, premium lodges. That’s about to change, as San Juan Mountain Guides in Ouray, Colorado, launches the ultimate hut-to-hut tour in a stunning setting. We sent Devon O’Neil to check it out.
From the outside, things seemed perfect for the former world extreme skiing champion: he had a family, a successful guiding business, and unending adventure out his front door in Valdez, Alaska. But something dark festered beneath the surface.
The Colorado-based maker of bike racks and locks is a case study in the uncertainty that small outdoor businesses are navigating right now. With the right combination of luck and creative thinking, their future may not be all gloomy.
Spanish-speaking guides call the drug "levanta muertos" for the way it "brings life to a dead person"
When once crowded mountain communities like Breckenridge, Colorado, saw visitors vanish this spring, locals scrambled to mitigate the economic damage and plot a return, while keeping their towns' character intact
My grandpa served in the Army's tough-as-nails Tenth Mountain Division during World War II. After the war, soldiers from the Tenth pioneered the rambling mountain lifestyle I live today. Every year, I ski to remember him.
A harrowing backcountry rescue at 11,000 feet exposes the precarious situation first responders are in thanks to the coronavirus pandemic
The reclusive Slovenian made two first descents of 8,000-meter peaks, including the only full descent of Everest. He died in a forestry accident earlier this week.
When a father of two was shot through his tent in the Southern California park last year, the murder revealed a mysterious trail of previously unpublicized incidents that had happened nearby—and sparked a $90 million lawsuit.
Since 2011, a venomous battle has been waged over the two-wheeled soul of Nederland, Colorado (population 1,500). On the one side: locals who ride the trails every day. On the other: people from down canyon in Boulder (population 107,000) who mostly ride them on weekends.
When 60-year-old Tim Watkins disappeared on a stretch of singletrack outside Colorado Springs, no one suspected that the truth of how he died would rip the community apart
Matt Wells and Denny Hogan have been adventuring together for decades. As they push 70, they're not ready to give it up yet.
Devon O’Neil watched from a distance as Irma—one of the strongest storms to ever hit land—battered the Caribbean island of St. John with 200-mile-per-hour winds. Two months later, he returned to the place where he grew up to help clear the wreckage and process the destruction of his former home.
When alpinist and photographer Cory Richards dug himself out of an avalanche in 2011, he emerged alive but scarred—an ascendant star in a community that tends to shun the very idea that trauma can have lasting effects. As his profile climbed ever higher, his career and personal life imploded. Six years later, one of the world’s best artist-adventurers comes clean about the panic attacks, PTSD, and alcohol abuse that nearly killed him.
K2 has never been skied from top to bottom, but two daring adventurers hope to change that this year
How one of the world’s best mountaineers made a last-second decision that would take his life
The two neighboring Colorado giants are snapping up ski areas around the country, positioning themselves as the two titans of North American resort operations
The spring Everest season is shaping up to be an exciting one: Ueli Steck is returning to complete an epic traverse; Kilian Jornet wants a speed record; and the mountain will be packed with climbers who didn't get to attempt the summit in 2014 and 2015.
James Coleman is snapping up small ski areas in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. As warming temperatures shorten the winter season and the West contends with drought, we had to ask: Why?
With diehard shredders picking up their season passes, how many actually understand—or even read—the liability waiver every resort requires its pass holders to sign?
In October, Newell Brands put the beloved U.S. ski manufacturer up for sale. What happens next could affect the rest of the industry.
Climate change is affecting America’s recreation meccas—from Yosemite to Yellowstone—in profound ways. As the planet heats up and weather patterns shift, so will the ways we interact with the outdoors.
A 65-year-old Miami woman has been living in a tree on her property for the past decade. Now, she’s fighting with the county to stay put.
The second edition has more amenities than the original, but is still light enough to tow behind a Subaru
Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington plan to climb the world’s sixth tallest mountain in record time. If they're successful, it could launch a whole new type of commercial mountaineering.
The Mongolia Bike Challenge may be the most demanding mountain-bike race on earth. Started in 2010 as a ten-day event with multiple stage lengths in excess of 100 miles, the route takes riders through remote and mountainous terrain teeming with wild horses and with little in the way of course marshals—it’s each racer’s responsibility to carry a GPS tracking device.
There’s no universal blueprint for treating a concussion. The protocol depends on the individual’s symptoms and medical history, and recovery times vary.
A stranger-than-fiction mystery in Norway has physicists scratching their heads
A small resort in Canada is offering equity stakes to help pay for mountain improvements
Zip lines, paddling circuits, flow tracks, and a ski-resort style business model are coming to a city near you
The preeminent Colorado corporation is buying up ski resorts left and right. Many are hollering “Evil Empire!”, and say a monopoly would destroy the sport—but it's not all bad.
A movement to imbue land, rivers, and entire ecosystems with legal personhood status is gaining ground in the U.S.
On July 30 at approximately 5:45 p.m. local time, Hollywood stuntman and skydiving luminary Luke Aikins jumped out of a Cessna Grand Caravan airplane 25,000 feet above Simi Valley, California. It was the first time in his 18,000-plus skydives that Aikins, 42, with a wife and young son, did not wear a parachute.
The best American mountain biker in a generation has had to overcome heartbreaking tragedy to reach his pinnacle
A Hollywood stuntman who’s leapt out of planes for “Godzilla” and “Iron Man 3” will attempt his greatest, craziest feat yet—on live TV
The next evolution of topographic maps will be 3-D interactives that show how rivers change and landscapes erode with centimeter precision
For the past 15 years the U.S. has been recruiting pro baseball and basketball players to serve as diplomatic envoys to Muslim nations. Now with Dean Karnazes, we’ve begun sending adventure athletes abroad to build good will.
A new study paints a grim picture of how vulnerable open areas in the West are to all types of developments. Stopping it is out of the question. But maybe we can slow it down.
In a bit of political theater, a beekeeper protesting pesticide use is going to deliver a truckload of rotting honeybees to Capitol Hill today
The first American woman to summit Everest without oxygen canisters and make it back down alive explains why she snuck off to the mountain without alerting her sponsors—or even her parents
In her sixth ascent of the world's tallest peak, 32-year-old Melissa Arnot earned one of the few prizes left on the mountain
We thought you might like to know about the little guys—the ones that generated the least visitor spending in 2015. Go visit them. You can rest assured they won’t be crowded.
In the aftermath of deadly earthquakes this year in Ecuador and last year in Nepal, California structural engineer Kit Miyamoto went in to get a read on the damage
One ultrarunner who keeps getting lost at sea has all but proven that trying to pedal a giant hamster ball across the ocean is not a good idea
We asked Jim Delgado, NOAA’s director of maritime heritage, to help us compile this list of the 10 most iconic missing ships waiting to be discovered.
It might be bougie, but it may be better than having more people on the mountain
Third-party sellers are restitching old Petzl harnesses that are no longer safe to use. And Petzl is still seeking answers to a lot of questions.
Young, tech-savvy adventurers are taking sponsors and funding away from grizzled, old-school explorers who aren’t strong on Facebook and Twitter. But they don’t always pull off the awesome feats they say they will.
After deadly disasters on the world’s highest peak the past two years, demand for climbing Everest is low and some mountain guides are taking the season off. But there are still hundreds of climbers making their way to Base Camp right now.
This summer, a Los Angeles cruise company is sending 1,500 passengers on a month-long voyage through the Arctic
Meet the man revolutionizing how we save snow from season to season—climate change be damned
When a person goes missing outdoors, there’s a specific protocol for finding them within the first 24 hours. After that first day, it becomes much tougher.
You’ve probably never heard of the Ecuadorian, but he’s behind the force behind the speed records on some of the world’s highest peaks
A former pro ski jumper breaks down Hollywood’s attempt to portray an obscure winter Olympic sport
As many as 900 wild bison that graze in the park will be killed this winter, either by hunters or slaughter, to offset population growth and appease ranchers. Bison advocates, however, want to move the animals to other lands. At its heart, the debate about how to handle these creatures comes down to whether we believe them to truly be "wild."
He's the speediest skier on earth. Just how fast can he go?
An Alaskan engineer brought a bicycle to a 1,000-mile dogsledding race through the remote Yukon. He spent two weeks pedaling through the wilderness, with no tent.
Rising temperatures are increasing rockfall danger, and alpinists are already starting to see the new risks
A new documentary gives a never-before-seen look at the BASE jumper's near-death experience—and the almost-impossible jump he took just a year later
Spaceports and wildlife refuges have traditionally gone hand in hand. But with so many new commercial launch sites in the works, it's time to ask whether nature can handle the 21st century space race.
Who wouldn’t want to surf in the clouds? An aviation engineer in Alabama is on a mission to find out.
A Breckenridge distillery accidentally started an international competition that involves lining up hundreds of people to all do a shot of alcohol at the same time. Now the town has to defend the title.
Salty air speeds up corrosion on bolts at rock climbing routes near the ocean, making them potentially deadly. But groups around the world are finding a unique solution.
In Colorado, small units could be the solution to a chronic mountain-town problem: lack of affordable housing for the people who work there
Manuel Genswein has spent more than two decades burying himself alive and pushing shovels to their breaking point to determine the best ways to save snow-slide victims. His biggest challenge? Convincing the world’s most experienced rescuers that he’s right.
Boulder climber Brad Gobright works as a busboy, shares a house with five other dudes, and climbs stuff most of us would never dream of—without a rope
Capturing footage for Salomon Freeski’s latest installment was a once-in-a-lifetime event
All the outdoor access in the world doesn't mean much if your job keeps you chained to a desk with no time to enjoy it. So to find the best places to work in the U.S. in 2015 and 2016, we started by creating five company categories that reflect ϳԹ's values and focus: Gear, ϳԹ & Travel,…
The complicated relationship between high altitude workers and Western climbers is on display in ‘Sherpa’
The filmmakers behind Reel Rock talk Alex Honnold’s early years, the Dawn Wall feature documentary, and what makes a good movie
Her accomplishment is impressive by any measure, but it's also an exciting turning point in the star climber's career
Off-the-charts home values are turning countless adventure hubs into fiefdoms of the wealthy—but they aren’t going down without a fight
Google's virtual climbing projects are getting most of the press, but Mammut beat them to the punch—by nearly a year
A new and physically gruesome form of BASE jumping involves affixing a parachute directly into the jumper’s back—with metal hooks