ajtestbed It’s summer, I see cars driving through my neck of Marin County everyday, wetsuits hanging from mirrors, surfboards strapped to the roof. More people learn to surf every year, and around here that means thousands of new wetsuit customers a season. In my 30 years of surfing experience, even lifers often treat their wetsuits like … Read more
New Zealand opened its borders to international travel again this spring. Forget Montana. The South Island of New Zealand is really, truly, the Last, Great Place.
In September 1959 a five-foot whisper of a woman, the French swimwear designer and alpinist Claude Kogan, set out for the 8,188-meter (26,864 ft) summit of Cho Oyu, the world’s sixth-highest mountain. She was joined by her friend Claudine van der Stratten of Belgium and Ang Norbu Sherpa in what was to be the culmination … Read more
I searched for Doug as he disappeared behind the rise of a wave. Swells came from all directions as the wind took our kayaks one way, but the maniacal inland sea forced us another. We flailed, paddling aggressively as if our lives depended on it because they did. The bow of my boat thrust out … Read more
Big, but not too big. Light, but not too light. Cool-looking but not too bling-y. PNW is really hitting the sweet spot with their bike gear the past few years. Their droppers are fantastic and at least try to be unique, their grips are very good, and their new line of mtb apparel kicks ass. … Read more
Western Australia is a huge craggy hunk of reefs and points sticking way out into the middle of the Indian Ocean, practically begging big storms roaring off Antarctica to send its worst. It’s beautiful. It’s terrible.
Emerging from the hair salon on an early May day, my freshly shorn mane still smelling of styling product, I hear the river. Only a block away, turbulent with snowmelt as it courses over the boulders. So close, I think. I might as well check. I hop on my bike, and within moments am face … Read more
After 19 pitches up Half Dome’s Northwest Face route, a small ledge appears for a brief respite from gravity. Take a seat on the highest-consequence bench on the planet.
This is an all-hands on deck situation. The Brooks Falls bear cams, in Alaska’s Katmai National Park are back for another summer. And the bears are big-time out and about. Clicked it on for first time this morning and there were five brown beauties lolling about in the water. Two hours later, I’d barely moved. … Read more
Ever see a grey tangle of old wood or look at the darkened base of a redwood tree and wonder: Did this burn? Is that why it’s discolored? It can be hard to tell after a couple decades whether something has been burned or otherwise coated in soot. Especially rocks. Now imagine trying to determine … Read more