Exploration & Survival
Archive
Survivorman LES STROUD talks about venturing into the world's harshest environments alone, and the importance of a good harmonica.
Deserts tend to be, well, dry. But there's still sometimes water to be found—if you know where to look.
My 12-year-old daughter gets very cold at night when we’re camping. We are backpackers and tend to camp just under treeline between May and October. She currently uses a junior polyfill bag with an inflatable pad and some good long underwear. What could we do to keep her warm and give us a peaceful night’s sleep?
Karl Stanley is a stubborn, unconventional big talker with some powerful enemies. He's also a fearless mad genius who's reinvented DIY exploration in his homemade submarine. Ready to climb aboard?
GPS units in hand, obsessed adventurers are roaming the world to claim a new set of firsts: 16,232 places where major lines of latitude and longitude intersect. Sound geeky? Not when your sweet spot is at 17,000 feet on the side of a remote Bolivian volcano.
In the January 2008 issue of ϳԹ, writer Alan Prendergast investigates the death of Peter Absolon, the Rocky Mountain Director of NOLS. High in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, in a flash of catastrophic bad luck, Absolon lost everythingwithout making one wrong move. In this mountain tragedy, nature was…
Ever wonder how it feels to get attacked by a shark? Spend seven weeks lost in the jungle? Get buried by multiple avalanches? Brace yourself for 10 of the hairiest survival stories ever told—and the life-saving tips you can learn from them.
What happens when two brothers plunge through the ice of a frozen Wisconsin river? One refuses to give up, the other refuses to die, and each has a very different story to tell.
Bear Grylls has endured Everest, the North Atlantic, and, for his hit show Man vs. Wild, many a ghastly meal. So can he survive being called a fraud? This is not a man to bet against.
On road trips to remote places, other than a set of jumper cables and a quart of motor oil, what else do I need to keep in the car in the event of a mishap? In other words, what are the essentials for road safety/survival? Jeff Los Angeles, California
Did our November 2007 feature package "The Good, the Bad, & the Just Plain Lucky" get you squirming for more thrills? Here, check out our archive of past tales of woe, plus instructional videos from the Wilderness Medical Society's annual conference.
In early September, shortly before departing London to begin filming the new season of his hit Discovery Channel series Man Vs. Wild, Bear Grylls granted ϳԹ an exclusive e-mail interview. It was the first time he'd communicated directly with the press since allegations surfaced in July that he'd slept in hotels during the filming of s
Introducing a master's course in adventure, fitness, gear, sports, sex, and so much more. Because it's a big world out there—and you need to be prepared.
For the July 2007 feature story "Me. By Myself. For a Long Time. (Very Long.)", we sent Thayer Walker to the uninhabited island of Isla Pargo with little more than a dive mask, a knife, and the clothes on his back. Here, see video diary segments from his time on the island, a gallery of his photos, and hear a podcast interview with the man himself.
...to travel smarter, go faster, dress better, eat right, work less, and play more.
I’m trying to build up a comprehensive survival “grab-bag” of sorts, with items such as a compass, medical supplies, and emergency food. What are your recommendations for essential supplies that should be in such a kit? Colton Chaska, Minnesota
Alive survivor Nando Parrado reveals the untold harrowing account of the 1972 plane crash in the Andes and its terrible aftermath
An exclusive conversation with the hero of one of the greatest survival stories of all time.
In ϳԹ's May 2006 issue (on newsstands April 11), Nando Parrado finally reveals the untold horrors of the Alive survivors’ suffering—and the courage and faith that got them out alive. Here’s a sneak preview of our exclusive excerpt from Parrado’s book Miracle in the Andes, to be published by Crown on May 9.
Hurricane Katrina transformed the Gulf Coast into a surreal, swiftly changing landscape of devastation and survival. In the days that followed, a photographer and a Mississippi writer traveled along the coast to New Orleans, documenting the impact of the biggest natural disaster in American history.
They've done it! Here, view the final entry from the ϳԹ Philosophy team. They’ve successfully completed the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island.
Here, view the journal entries of the ϳԹ Philosophy team as they attempt the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island.
For decades, no one had traversed the entire length of the Wakhan, following the old Silk Road from the northward bend of the Panj River. We had no idea if it could be done.
Here, view the journal entries of the ϳԹ Philosophy team as they attempt the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island.
Here, view the journal entries of the ϳԹ Philosophy team as they attempt the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island.
Here, view the journal entries of the ϳԹ Philosophy team as they attempt the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island.
Here, view the journal entries of the ϳԹ Philosophy team as they attempt the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island.
Here, view the journal entries of the ϳԹ Philosophy team as they attempt the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island.
ENOUGH WITH SILLY STUNTS on tropical islands—Survivor is so yesterday. For the real deal in white-knuckle reality TV, check out Survivorman. Each episode of the new Science Channel series—premiering September 16 at 9 p.m. EDT—finds 43-year-old survival expert Les Stroud alone in one of the planet’s harshest environments, from the…
ϳԹ, big and small, is all about risk. The risk that things may go terribly wrong. That danger will finally cut off your credit and hit you with a hefty bill. That luck will flee the scene as the dark tide rises. In the tales of calamity that follow, our 13 unlucky writers hold forth on their personal odysseys into the land of nightmares.
Widen the horizons of adventure by taking the controls and becoming a pilot
From NASCAR rides to stunt-plane flights, gift giving gets amped up by a new wave of adventure entrepreneurs
In the name of science, a veteran skier braves darkness, claustrophobia, and deadly cold to find out what it's like to be trapped under the snow
For the relentlessly adventurous, learning the deeper lessons of injury starts with a tough rule: You break it, you own it.
The National Outdoor Leadership School is great at training kids to survive and thrive in the wild. So how does its boot-camp approach work with grown-ups? It's effective as hell—if you don't mind misery and suffering, and those nagging questions about what happened to all the fun.
There was evidence, but no investigation. A crime, but no suspects. Rumors, but no one willing to point the finger. When gunmen massacred up to 20 brown bears near a Canadian grizzly researcher's Kamchatka cabin, the warning was clear: On the lawless frontier of the New Russia, outsiders are no longer welcome.
A former CIA agent is on his strangest mission yet: giving Iraqi kids a scouting chance
Call us rubberneckers, but who can resist the panic, terror, and inspiration of a good survival tale? We combed through vast libraries of lore to find 10 more unforgettable, nearly unbelievable great escapes. Brace yourself.
Deep inside a remote canyon, a boulder shifts. In an instant, Aron Ralston's hand is pinned beneath half a ton of rock. So begins an ordinary hero's six-day ordeal of grit, pain, and courage—culminating in a decision to do the unthinkable.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry spent his life defying and outflying death. Then it caught up.
Two men, a continent, and the mother of all polar duels
Pilot an ultralight and what do you get? A bird's-eye view of the world and a dose of the maverick spirit of flying.
In adventure as in life, wisdom is passed down from father to son. Or not.
Sure, the wilderness is beautiful. But it can also frighten you out of your mind.
What happens when a solitary day hike turns into the ultimate test of survival?
“No one knows where I am, for the simple reason that I don't know exactly where I'm going. Not knowing is a key ingredient in this game.”
Canoeing the jungles of South America, where freedom is a family affair
Philip Smethurst is training young adventurers to spread Christianity to the planet's wildest corners
Gordon Giesbrecht didn't become the world's leading authority on hypothermia by sitting around the campfire. He got there by leaping into frozen lakes, injecting ice water into his veins, and taking lots of very, very cold baths.
Only a few badges—Lifesaving, Dog Care, and the impossible Seven-Minute Mile among them—stood between this lapsed Scout and his boyhood dream of earning Scouting's highest honor
“I don’t even think of Tony as an adult,” said Phil Jennings, a 12-year-old I met at the HuckJam. “He doesn’t act like the big man. He’s one of us.”
The scientists were clinging to the side of the ice they’d been standing on, 50 feet above the waterline. In a few seconds, the berg had gone over on top of them.
“I want to get off my pills someday,” Roger says. “I think that if I stay around regular people a lot, maybe that will help me.”
Joe’s hand began to tingle, and he called the group together. The toxins would leave his system in 48 hours, he said. He’d be conscious the whole time.
The respect of the men can be a cruel mistress and a harlot. But at other times it can be a nice mistress and a happy slut. You can't think about it too much.
The marines' mountain warfare training center is the ultimate test for some of the world's toughest troops: a make-it-or-leave regimen of backcountry ski combat, torturous night maneuvers, and deadly cold. Any volunteers?
The Intrepid Travels and Incredible Tales of Col. John Blashford-Snell, Explorer
In the seas off South Africa's Dyer Island, shark mania and risk adventure have combined with a vengeance. For a few bucks, one of a gang of ill-qualified, ill-equipped dive operators will drop you into the most dangerous water on earth. Problem is, no one's promising to get you safely back.
Thanks to improved safety standards and tandem flights, scores of acrophobes are giving hang gliding a second wind. And now, they're soaring in style—over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Meet the proud residents of the nation's arsenic capital. Now, will someone please explain to these good people why poison's a bad thing?
This is what happens to your body when you get tangled up in the business end of a box jellyfish—the most venomous creature on earth.
Struck by an urge to leap off a tall building? Pack your chute and head for Malaysia.
Has this tired old world been explored-out? Not Down Under, where uncharted, bottomless slot canyons hide just west of Sydney.
Once a year, the adventurous Jenkins boys will be boys, reforging the bonds of brotherly affection by nearly killing themselves
Will Earth's most fragile unexplored ecosystems survive the age of adventure?
The come-on: Grab two hours of challenging fun and fast adventure. But when a dark wall of water swept away lives and reputations, the question became: Why?
Soaring over four continents, three oceans, and assorted hostile nations aboard a high-tech gondola, Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of England this year became the first men to circle the world by hot-air balloon. Here is their diary—the unforgettable highs, the lows, and the humdrum routine experienced by the unlikely duo who vowed to boldly g
When a promising young runner went missing in Wyoming's Wind River Range, everything changed for the community of athletes she left behind.
Bill Haast, human pincushion, explains the pain and profit of being nailed 163 times—and counting—by his little scaly friends
In the dusty realm of big-league map collecting, one man cut a darker figure than his milquetoasty colleagues. Armed with an X-Acto knife and an arsenal of fake identities, he systematically ransacked the nation's libraries, hoping in his own peculiar way to dominate the globe.
There’s nothing funny about motion sickness. Really. I mean it.