ajtestbed Most hikers today won’t set foot in the Grand Canyon without first researching their trips online, downloading GPS coordinates, and maybe buying a satellite beacon. Ignoring the technology would mean confronting the unknown, a frightening prospect when talking about a mile-deep abyss. Yet this was the very reason John Harvey Butchart became obsessed with unraveling … Read more
As I descended the corniced summit ridge, I saw a climber coming up the same path. I hacked out a small ledge in the snow on the uphill side of the path and waved for him to come up and pass. There’s not much room for two people, and a fall to either side of … Read more
A couple weeks ago, Alastair Humphreys told me about the Explore feature on Kayak.com that allows you to enter the amount of money you’d liked to spend, and shows you where you can fly in the world for that amount. This is of particular interest to Alastair, because this year he’s encouraging everyone to save … Read more
There’s no mistaking when summer ends in the high country: A storm sweeps through, pummels the leaves, drops the first snow, and it’s over. Here at elevation 220, latitude 33, longitude 117, the transition is more subtle. One day it dawns on you that it feels like someone left a window open, or a thin … Read more
Lars and Katrin Schneider have a wonderful relationship with the American West. That’s not uncommon with Germans, but these outdoor photographers have twice bought a Volkswagen van (the same one, actually) and used it for extended tours of the left side of the country. Their most recent one is the subject of this new short … Read more
About a year ago, psychologist and author Kelly McGonigal gave a TED Talk on “How to Make Stress Your Friend,” which has now been viewed six million times. To paraphrase, McGonigal said this: Stress can kill you, but only if you believe stress is bad for your health. If you don’t believe it’s bad for … Read more
We learned two things in reading online campground reviews: One, there are some seriously sketchy campgrounds out there, and, two, people have wildly different expectations for what a campground should be. Some reviews are entertaining, some are downright scary, some are ridiculous. Here are our favorites. 1. Campground near Mt. Shasta, California, Yelp “There were … Read more
Henry David Thoreau could today have a fine career as a motivational speaker. If you need someone to light a fire under your ass to either a) get outside or b) start living or c) both, just go back 160 years to the stuff Thoreau was writing. It’s hard to believe he put all this down … Read more
Do you ever say yes to a bike ride, day of climbing, run, ski day, or other outdoor activity, and immediately after, notify your friend that you are just “coming off the couch”? Do you think you’re alone? Don’t. It’s a fact that 95 percent of all participants in outdoor activities are coming off the … Read more
I didn’t realize-or tried to ignore-that the man was talking to me until he was standing in front of my car. I had pulled in for gas in Cameron, Ariz., a dilapidated reservation outpost with a couple of gas stations and a gift store along the highway that most people drive to the Grand Canyon. … Read more