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Longtime ���ϳԹ��� readers will tell you: The funniest story this magazine ever published appeared early in its history, in 1983, when a prolific writer named Don Katz persuaded the editors to let him celebrate the strangest sport anybody had ever heard of. His odd but true tale became an instant sensation.

Six young men set out on a dead-calm sea to seek their fortunes. Suddenly, they were hit by the worst gale in a century, and there wasn’t even time to shout.

There’s a common misconception that Black people don’t love wild places. Latria Graham, a southerner with deep connections to farms, rivers, and forests, says the problem isn’t desire but access—and a long history of laws and customs that have whitewashed our finest public lands.

To celebrate ���ϳԹ���’s founding in the boffo year of 1976, we asked a longtime contributor to risk embarrassment by dressing as an outdoorsy dude from that era, then circulating among innocent people to watch their jaws drop. The result was an offbeat gem by one of the magazine’s most versatile and creative voices.

To be a surfer girl in Maui is to be the luckiest of creatures. It means you’re beautiful and tan and ready to rip. It means you’ve caught the perfect dappled wave and are on a ride that can’t possibly end.

A recklessly picaresque, highly philosophical, gloriously unmapped road trip in search of secret places you'll have to find yourself

Days into a trip spent with his father and brother in Greenland, author Wells Tower was seized by a tantrum-pitching impulse and the overwhelming desire to punch himself again and again in the face

A brilliant American financier and his wife build a lavish mansion in the jungles of Costa Rica, set up a wildlife preserve, and appear to slowly, steadily lose their minds. A spiral of handguns, angry locals, armed guards, uncut diamonds, abduction plots, and a bedroom blazing with 550 Tiffany lamps ends with a body and a compelling mystery.

At the bottom of the biggest underwater cave in the world, diving deeper than almost anyone had ever gone, Dave Shaw found the body of a young man who had disappeared ten years earlier. What happened after Shaw promised to go back is nearly unbelievable—unless you believe in ghosts.

A story about an American icon, environmental displacement, and slob behavior by the human race

Millionaire Forrest Fenn launched a thousand trips when he filled a chest with gold, rubies, and diamonds, and hid it somewhere north of Santa Fe. If one man is going to find it, by god, it’s an ex-cop from Seattle named Darrell Seyler.

He glanced through the glass and saw Tilikum staring back, with what appeared to be two human feet hanging down his side. There was a nude body draped across Tilikum’s back.

Having constructed the greatest flotation device mankind has ever known, our fearless writer embarks on an ill-conceived, possibly insane crossing of alligator-infested North Florida via a string of seriously imperiled and incredibly beautiful rivers. (Yeah, it's a tube.)

It's been more than 50 years since the Colorado River regularly reached the sea. But this spring, the U.S. and Mexico let the water storm through its natural delta for a grand experiment in ecological restoration. As the dam gates opened, a small band of river rats caught a once-in-a-lifetime ride.

On the morning of June 30, all 20 members of Prescott, Arizona's Granite Mountain Hotshots headed into the mountains to protect the small town of Yarnell from an advancing blaze. Later that day, every man but one was dead. Through interviews with family, colleagues, and the lone survivor, a former hotshot pieces together their final hours—and the fatal choices that will haunt firefighting forever.

What happens when a Black woman decides to solo-hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine during a summer of bitter political upheaval? Everything you can imagine, from scary moments of racism to new friendships to soaring epiphanies about the timeless value of America’s most storied trekking route.

After a legendary career in adventure writing, Tim Cahill thought his story was over. Thrown from a raft in the Grand Canyon’s Lava Falls, he was trapped underwater and out of air. When he finally reached land, his heart stopped for several minutes. Then he came back—and decided to risk Lava again.

For years, an annual ball in tiny Talkeetna celebrated the immeasurable role of Carhartt clothing. We sent a writer to cover the event, where devotees regaled stories of heroic trousers and death-defying coveralls.

There’s nothing funny about motion sickness. Really. I mean it.

His life’s grand pursuit has killed his closest companions. His bride-to-be is his best friend’s widow. His exploding fame owes as much to happenstance (stumbling upon Mallory’s body on Everest) and luck (escaping an avalanche in Tibet) as it does to his great skill as a mountaineer. An intimate look at the serendipitous, tumultuous, and nearly unbearable success of Conrad Anker.

For 90 million years the turtles have massed to lay their eggs. This time they gathered for their own mass murder…

One of the first women to make a splash during ���ϳԹ���’s formative years was E. Jean Carroll, who in 1981 reported on a championship that was equal parts rodeo and beauty pageant. She came back with a story that advanced the magazine’s rambunctious style and treated saddle queens with the respect they deserve.

Change is inevitable. When it happens in our relationships, it’s best to take a cue from the currents and go with the flow.

After a remarkable 20-year stretch as a journalist, Don Katz switched hats and created one of the most successful tech and media startups of all time. Here he talks about how a love of words fueled his ambitions in both professional pursuits.

We spoke with Eric Hansen about an ���ϳԹ��� writing career that ranged from stunt comedy to investigative reporting—and led to a new career in international health

We talked to one of America’s best young writers about race and culture. The subject was an essay that helped fundamentally change our understanding of the challenges that historically marginalized people face in the outdoors.

Tim Zimmermann’s feature about a 12,000-pound orca that killed a SeaWorld trainer changed the future of marine parks, was developed into a powerful 2013 documentary, and turned the author into a vegan

How Susan Orlean reported the classic ���ϳԹ��� story about the surf girls of Maui

We caught up with author Sebastian Junger to find out how he reported the incredible ���ϳԹ��� Classic story of the Andrea Gail’s crew, what’s changed in the commercial fishing industry, and why he’s drawn to people who have dangerous jobs

Rahawa Haile set out on the AT during one of the most tumultuous periods in our political history. The story she wrote about it for ���ϳԹ��� in 2017 hit a nerve, and encouraged many others to get out on the trail. We followed up with her to find out what scared her the most, the one piece of gear she couldn’t live without, and why thru-hiking is always worth it in the end.

Cahill’s stories and rollicking misadventures around the world have made this publication what it is today. Here he talks about his role in the creation of ���ϳԹ��� magazine, choking down snake blood and gallbladder cocktails in the name of journalism, and how he came back from the dead after a frigid swim in the Grand Canyon’s biggest rapid.

Freezing to death. Heatstroke. The excruciatingly painful sting of a box jellyfish, which can kill a person in under a minute. After writing the classic 1997 story “Frozen Alive,” Peter Stark became an expert on what it feels like to die in the wild. We asked him why people are so interested in reading about it—and about his own close calls.

Wells Tower on discovering the hard way that his father sleeps naked, how to navigate sibling punching episodes, and the simple fact that, pitfalls and all, it’s important to take your chances and just go

In a conversation among three hall-of-fame veterans from ���ϳԹ���’s early years, E. Jean Carroll talks about her life, her career, and how she came to write a funny, much loved story that had serious feminist intent

Journalist Natasha Singer has covered everything from human-rights issues to tech. But early in her career, we sent her to a gala in Alaska to report on pants. The resulting ���ϳԹ��� Classic was one of our most-loved features.

The longtime contributor explains how a fly rod and a fascination with the natural world launched his journalism career and segued into a prescient book on pandemics