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Essays
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A Freediver Finds Belonging Without Breath
Is freediving the most adventurous kind of meditation?
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The Art of Apprehensive Adventuring
When to push past those voices urging you to wait.
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Do You Have the ‘Fear of Nature’?
It’s called “biophobia,” a disconnection from nature that’s reducing our collective will to preserve species and habitats.
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Anatomy of a Sandbag
Sometimes we need “encouraging.” Sometimes we do the “encouraging.” Here’s how it all goes down.
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What Does it Take to Actually Get Dams Removed, Anyway?
A long, strange trip to kill four dams.
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Why Aren’t You Using Your Vacation Days?
Companies pay employees not to work at least 10 days a year. So why aren’t Americans doing more of that?
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The Found Gift of Night Powder
Thinking about skiing, missing skiing, ready for winter.
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An Ode to the Humble, Indispensable Bandana
Never hike without this perfect accompaniment.
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What I Think About When I’m About to Be Obliterated by a Giant Wave
Rushing through the stages from panic to acceptance when a mass of water looms.
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Living With Grizzlies As Neighbors
For some, a place doesn’t feel truly wild without brown bears.
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The Fading Miracle of Seasonal Animal Migrations
Bird migrations figures are plummeting. But we can act.
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The Not-So-Bad Bad Day
Life is 10 percent events and 90% your reaction to them. Or something like that.
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Private Land Owners Keep Trying to Keep You Out of Public Streams
The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that the public has a right to stand on privately owned streambeds to fish…
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During the Clean Water Act’s 50th Year, What Should We Celebrate?
Some rivers and lakes wouldn’t be swimmable today without this critical law. But it could use a refresh to help…
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The Time I Saved a Bear’s Life By Smoking a Spliff
Smoke ’em if you got ’em. A bear’s life may be at stake.
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Who Should Manage Public Lands Sacred to Native Americans?
Native Americans’ decadeslong struggle for control over sacred lands is making progress.
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Hiking Public Lands Shouldn’t Require a Ladder and a Lawyer
The West’s checkerboard pattern of public-private ownership often means hikers and hunters can’t access public land.
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Thoughts on Honoring the Dead, and the Living
Almost exactly eight years ago, in late September 2014, the mountain world lost three of its biggest stars in two…
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In Defense of Camping Comfort
He slept on the ground. He slept on rocks. He mocked the air mattress. And then he tried it.
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Some of My Best Friends Have Been Bicycles
Sometimes you have to say goodbye. Some it’s easy, sometimes it’s not.
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Leaving Your Politics at the Sand (Or the Crag, the Trailhead, etc.)
There really is nothing a good day of surfing won’t cure. Even political screaming matches.
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Bikepacking Is Running Away from Home for Grownups
Vans are sweet and all, but they’re marks of adulthood. Sometimes a little regression to childhood is just what you…
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When Your Partner Needs to Do Big Expeditions
Navigating the excitement for the best and fear of the worst when your partner’s climbing a huge mountain.
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As it Ebbs the Colorado River Comes Alive
Water expert Char Miller says the Colorado River’s delta with Mexico has slowly been coming back to life.
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Western Wild Salmon Might Finally Get a Big Win They Desperately Need
This could be the year that four Snake River dams in the Northwest get dynamited to allow salmon a hope…
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The Vanishing Adventurescape of the Ditch
As the climate becomes drier, ditches are disappearing, and the loss can be deeply felt.
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When a ‘Belaytionship’ Comes to An End
Nobody knows you like your first and longest climbing partner—so how do you say goodbye?
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Learning the Ropes in a Mountain Town
Have you moved to a rural adventure town in recent years? Here’s a primer on what the locals expect.
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Foraging Around the Fringes
Late spring brings the real bounty of the forest—if you know what to look for.
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Why Sometimes Just Finding Silence is Enough
In which a new parent explains: “Now that silence is really all I have time for, I’m realizing that silence…
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We Need Every Tool to Fight Today’s Wildfires
Fire expert Steve Pyne says New Mexico’s largest recorded fire has a lesson for us but it isn’t to stop…
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An Ode to My Chacos
When a pair of shoes is a lot more than just a pair of shoes. Sound familiar?
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Bison, Back Where They Belong
Bison on Montana’s National Bison Range are back where they belong, managed at last by Native Americans on the Flathead…
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Swimming in a Flash Flood
This story begins several years ago with a flash flood in the desert of northwest New Mexico. It was a…
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How Much Will a Favored Place’s Name Change Change?
An Alaskan bay’s name change won’t change the place at all. But in important ways, it will change everything.
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This Grizzly Family Comes With Paparazzi
She’s grizzly bear 399, and wherever she wanders with her four cubs, there’s bound to be trouble.
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Are User Fees a Fair Solution for Public Lands Management?
While fees provide vital resources to our underfunded national parks and forests, they create a barrier to access for low-income…
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Why We Need to Protect Way, Way More Land Than We Already Do
Linking protected areas from Yellowstone to the Yukon shows the value of conserving large landscapes, not just isolated parks and…
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How to Make Your Own DIY National Park
Beat the lines at national parks by creating your own homegrown park.
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Wildlife Fauxtography May Be Behind That Instagram Post You Just Liked
There’s unfortunately often an unnatural reason behind so much perfectly composed nature photography.
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A Hypocritical Oath: When Environmentalism Doesn’t Extend to Favored Toys
Recycling? Sure. Recycled surfboard? Uh, no thanks.
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Threats to Wild Spaces Can Unite Even the Unlikeliest of Groups
Activists, ranchers, anglers, and skilled tradespeople in Oregon bucked political trends to prevent a pipeline through wild places they love.
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‘Utahlorado’ Is An Idea For A Mega-State Of Awesomeness
Can’t have too much of a good thing.
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For the Planet’s Sake and Our Own, We Should Let Rivers Run Free
By removing aging dams, we can restore freshwater ecosystems, support Indigenous communities, and improve public safety.
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Let’s Not Squander the Miracle of a Wild Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park turns 150 years old this month — a milestone truly worth celebrating.
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Keep (Running) Simple, Stupid
Does anything stay beautiful forever? Trail running can, if you follow the principles of KISS.
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Vanishing: In Love With the Blue Oaks
California’s stressed blue oak woodlands abound with beauty and teem with uncertainty.
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Imagine a Great River, Flowing Free
26 years ago punching a hole in Glen Canyon Dam was called a “certifiably nutty idea.” Yet today, with Lake…
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An Ode to the Pulaski, the Hero’s Tool
If you’ve ridden or a hiked a trail, you’ve experienced the craft of this versatile workhorse.
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What It Takes and Why It’s Worth It
A life built around adventure has massive tradeoffs—but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
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The Simple Joys Of Being New (and Bad) at Things
Finding pleasure, inspiration, and motivation in the mindset of a beginner makes it all better.
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Don’t Look Down
We’re off this week, spending time with our (growing) families. That in mind, we’ll be posting some of our fave…