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Six nightmare scenarios that keep the best adventurers up at night
In an interview from Sarah Burke's bedside, friend & fellow ski star Kristi Leskinen gives Grayson Schaffer the prognosis.
Hurdler Lolo Jones was the feel-good story of the Beijing Olympics, until a tiny mistake cost her a medal—and made her tale even more compelling
ϳԹ reviews the iSimple TranZit IS77 an iPod or iPhone car stereo system adapter for your next road trip.
Inside Floyd Landis’s clandestine campaign to torment his former boss
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Patagonia Rio Gallegos fishing waders.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Patagonia Rock Grip Wading Boots.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Waterworks Force SL fishing reel.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Scott S4 855/4 fishing rod.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Sage VXP fishing rod.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Canon EOS 60D camera.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Adidas Boat CC Lace water shoes.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Olympus E-5 camera.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Sperry Ping Buckle water shoes.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Pentax WG-1 camera.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Chaco Z1 Pro water shoes.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Panasonic DMC-LX5 camera.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Keen Gorge Boot.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Nikon D7000 camera.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Teva Gnarkosi water shoes.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Leica V-LUX-2 camera.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Columbia Sportswear Drainmaker water shoes.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Smith Optics Tenet Sunglasses.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Orvis Access rod.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the L.L. Bean Wicker Creel fishing basket.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Patagonia Go To shirt.
ϳԹ reviews the best gear in the 2011 Summer Buyers Guide, including the Orvis Premium Brodin Guide Net.
For three top alpinists, pulling off one of the most difficult ascents in mountaineering history required speed and daring. Getting down alive took a miracle.
A look at the outermost limits of human performance, from the fastest marathon and longest swim to smokingest fastball and deepest freedive.
They climbed the biggest walls, descended the longest rivers, and sailed the highest seas. And they went farther and faster under their own power than anyone else in 2010. Chosen for their ambition, their attitude, and their audacious lines, these are ϳԹ's inaugural adventurers of the year.
Whitewater kayaker Hendrik Coetzee had decided to call it a career after a decade of first descents on the wildest rivers in Africa. The river’s most feared predator had a different ending in store.
Your urgent inquiries about the world. Answered.
From hot springs to mountain-town fiestas to one surprisingly easy island getaway, we've got you covered.
Now more than ever, the world could use some bright ideas. Like these.
A coffee-table photography book of the world’s greatest adventurers and the places they tackled.
Three-layer Gore-Tex, articulated arms, and neoprene-protected latex gaskets make the Rogue the most durable, breathable drytop around. www.kokatat.com…
Aimed squarely at the Gen Xbox crowd, the Sidekick looks and feels like a game controller. If you’re all thumbs, you’ll be all right with the more than 30 downloadable games from T-Mobile.com, e-mail sync, contact manager, and instant messenger. And should you find yourself locked up in a Turkish…
For those who can’t disconnect, the waterproof speakers in the Multy Lynk work with any Bluetooth-enabled device. Best application: Use the boom microphone to call for help from your cell phone. vozsports.com…
Shots in the Dark It’s no secret that Nikon’s 12.3MP D300s (an HD-video-enabled update on their popular D300) and the Canon 7D go head to head in the prosumer DSLR category, but the two companies took different tacks in their designs. The D300s favors the still photographer, with a zippy…
Snap these aluminum grabbers onto any pair of Dynafit bindings and you can ski-climb slopes up to 25 degrees before having to de-skin and boot-pack. Available in three widths (82, 92, and 100 mm). 8.3 oz; TAGS: steep slopes, security…
Priced for entry level but tuned for the long haul, the Desperado combines sturdy no-flutter carbon-reinforced nylon blades with Werner’s classic heavy-duty fiberglass oval shaft. www.wernerpaddles.com…
The original Rolodex killer will now call the office about your, um, plumbing emergency, check the online snow forecast, provide a soundtrack for your climb (via an onboard MP3 player), video your epic descent, and then e-mail your friends to brag about it. Beat that, three-by-five index card! Off the…
The Willis freestyle vest employs Astral’s split-panel design with two independent foam sections. An inner panel hugs your ribs, while the outer panel moves with your shoulders. astralbuoyancy.com…
Ansel in Your Pocket The design-conscious Germans didn’t invent the category of full-featured, full-sensor compact (that honor probably goes to Sigma, for last year’s DP2). But they do it better than anyone. The 12.2MP X1 uses a top-of-the-line CMOS sensor and a fixed 36mm f/2.8 lens of the first order,…
To cut about a half-pound out of their widest skins—they’re designed specifically for skis 110 millimeters or wider underfoot—Black Diamond has stitched a tough, waterproof nylon panel between strips of skin material. Other benefits we liked: It makes them easier to peel off and reduces a bit of drag…
This 4mm skirt features an extra flap of neoprene around the cockpit to keep you drier than the competition. www.snapdragondesign.com…
Research in Motion wraps all of the classic BlackBerry features—e-mail, Web browser, personal organizer, phone/QWERTY keypad, and more—into a sleek, palm-size package that doesn’t make you look like you’re using a butter dish to make calls. Should your trekking porters turn tail on you, odds are your worldwide-roaming BlackBerry will…
Improving on its top-of-the-line bent-shaft freestyle paddle, ϳԹ Technology shaved an ounce off its standard (30-degree offset) AT2 by switching to full-carbon construction. atpaddle.com…
Less Is More The war for more megapixels is over. In the G11, Canon actually drops to a 10MP sensor from the 14.7MP sensor in this camera’s predecessor, the G10. But don’t call it a retreat. No quality is lost—the new sensor presents a clearer picture, even in low light.
Depress a button and the Griz’s handle folds open. Push another and the handle lengthens to twice the length. Now you’re digging. We like how quick and easy it is. And the solid D-shaped handle. And how the big, gently serrated blade bites into rock-hard snow. 28 oz;…
With a gusseted crotch, articulated knees, and neoprene-lined closures, these waterproof pants are as comfortable as your old pair of Levi’s. www.lotusdesigns.com…
When used within earshot of civilization, the iPaq bridges the gap between handheld and notebook PC. On offer: 64MB of real computing power—think miniature versions of Microsoft Excel and Word—and integrated support for wireless local area networks for lightning-fast downloads anywhere you can pick up a Wi-Fi signal. Farther afield,…
It’s not a gimmick. You really can toss WRSI’s football-themed throw bag farther and more accurately. When your buddy’s trapped in a recirculating eddy, drill him in the head. Trust us, he’ll thank you. whitewaterhelmet.com…
Giant Killer The long-awaited prosumer follow-up to last year’s GOY-winning EOS 5D Mark II, the 7D is $1,000 cheaper than that top-shelf DSLR but in many respects a better camera. While it lacks the pro version’s full-frame sensor, the 18MP 7D more than makes up for it with a responsive…
When the slope rips out beneath you, your beacon will help friends find you, but how deep you’re buried will likely determine whether you survive. The BCA Float 30 (with an insulated hydration sleeve; shovel and probe pockets; and, new for this year, a diagonal-ski-carry system) deploys a 150-liter…
Last year, Wave Sport’s designers must have taken the same trip through the wind tunnel that Lamborghini techs made recently. Gone are the rococo flourishes and hard angles, replaced by spare, fluid lines. But where the Project’s predecessor, the ZG, allowed comfort and speed to compromise performance, this year’s…
The G4’s cool, buffed shell, recessed ports, and ergonomic edges house Apple’s most powerful mobile command center to date. We love iLife—an included suite of powerful programs that edit and organize photos, movies, music, and more. With 64 megs of dedicated graphics memory, a hard drive that buckles its own…
The Golden has the solid flex and feel of wood—it’s available in either ash or padauk—and because its blades are coated with a polymer similar to what’s used for spray-in truck-bed liners, it’s practically indestructible. wavedogpaddles.com…
One-Second Photo Polaroid is dead. Long live Polaroid! When the company announced in February 2008 that it was discontinuing production of its iconic instant film, reports about the end of an era ignored the fact that Fuji has supplied “Polaroid” film to the commercial industry for years. To fill the…
You can winterize any inflatable sleeping pad with an inexpensive (if bulky) closed-cell foam mat like THERM-A-REST’S Z LITE PAD.
Headquartered five minutes from Canada’s St. Lawrence River and the mighty surf waves at Lachine Rapids, Riot helped launch big-wave riding as its own kayaking subgenre. The Astro carries on that tradition with a fast-planing hull and delayed rocker to aid aerial moves but maintains a bow profile narrow…
1. Jackson Kayak rolled out 11 models this year—more than all the other domestic boatmakers combined. But our favorite was the completely redesigned 54-gallon Fun, which somehow manages to be a comfy, low-maintenance playboat that’s no slouch on performance: It won last year’s World Cup. 2.
The gold standard of expedition paddling gets a makeover with a more versatile neck closure to fit everyone from a linebacker to an Olsen twin and—thankfully, with all that water rushing by—a “relief” zipper. kokatat.com…
Top Touring Boat Paddle the nearly 18-foot-long Infinity as a day boat and it's fun if a bit cumbersome. Load it and head out for a week or more and it really shines. Serious paddlers looking for a comfy boat will love the Infinity's large cockpit and raised foredeck, which…
PATAGONIA‘s DOWN SWEATER SPECIAL EDITION will supercharge your winter jacket or sleeping bag.
Though it’s more than a year old, the Jefe, like its Tsangpo-stomping predecessor the Gus, has no equal as a creek and expedition boat. The long waterline, medium chines, displacement hull, and heavily rockered bow allow the boat to accelerate, track through turns, climb out of holes, and get…
ROOMY PLAYBOAT With a roomy cockpit and extra-large foot bumps—which can accommodate up to size 13 feet—the Agent is the best big-dude boat with agile performance. It’s not as speedy as Dagger’s previous freestyle boats, but thanks to an ultra-loose, yet edgy, double-release chine and a heavily flared stern…
Two reasons we rarely took these off: One, the bamboo-lined uppers are extremely fast-drying and comfy. Two, thanks to the collapsible heel and quick-lace system, you can wear them as slides or true stay-on-your-feet water shoes. salomonsports.com…
Fitness King Paddling to get a workout? This lightweight performance touring kayak absolutely flies when you put your head down and hammer. “It sprang from stop to go like a racehorse,” reported one tester after zipping across Lake Champlain and back. The Cat 5's deck is arced high to accommodate…
Not that you’d need it, with SIERRA DESIGNS’ BTU -5 SLEEPING BAG—an 800-fill down heat factory with one of the best heat-sealing hoods we’ve ever tested and a waterproof-breathable fabric.
Designing a one-boat quiver is always a compromise, but the Rx (a.k.a the Prescription) is no horse by committee. It can both play and run downriver, because it combines a flat freestyle hull—for spinning on a wave—with a progressive rocker and relaxed chines behind the hips, where eddy lines…
PERFECT FOR PLAYING, SUITABLE FOR DOWNRIVER If your town has a play park, put this boat in it. Here’s why: On a steep breaking wave, a slow, bouncy boat will get you airborne. But on down-tempo man-made waves, the boat has to make up the difference. The Ronin does: It’s…
OK, so they cost five times more than gas-station flip-flops. They’re worth it. The Chaco Flip uses a low-profile, ergonomic footbed that gives you just as much arch support as a good pair of running shoes. Plus, the sole is made out of 25 percent recycled rubber.
Best for Beginners One of the hardest things to learn in a kayak is how to go in a straight line. That's why kayaking newbies especially loved this ten-and-a-half-foot plastic boat. It stays on course and maintains speed almost in spite of what its paddler is doing. In rough seas…
KINCO‘s insulated PIGSKIN LEATHER SKI GLOVES are as tough as they are well priced, but you’ll have to waterpoof them yourself with a coating like Nikwax’s Glove Proof ($7; nikwax.com).