Resources

You won’t find Alexandera Houchin on social media, but you can catch glimpses of her at Bikepacking.com and the Radavist, both of which feature her regularly. If you’re inspired by single-speed riding and want to join the worldwide community of folks who are always in the wrong gear (including us), the Kona Unit ($1,400) and Salsa Timberjack ($1,700) are great options from well-known brands. konaworld.com, salsacycles.com

Krista Langlois is a regular contributor to AJ. She lives, writes, and rides her bike in Durango, Colorado, but filed this story from a magical summer escape on the East Coast. kristaleelanglois.com, @cestmoilanglois

Must be something in the British water. The three longest rivers in the world, the Amazon (Ed Stafford), the Nile (Levison Wood), and the Yangtze (Ash Dykes), all have British adventurers listed as the first to hike the length of their banks—though who knows who may have accomplished those feats without media attention in centuries past. You can follow the adventures of Pete Casey—and maybe kick in a few bucks to help him—at ascentoftheamazon.com.

What to believe? The Guinness Book of World Records falsely cited Cheeta as the world’s oldest nonhuman primate based on the Westfall/Gentry deception. In the Tarzan movies, Cheeta was played by both male and female chimps, with the character’s gender changing at whim. And chimpanzees don’t even appear in the original Tarzan novels. Me Cheeta, a fictitious autobiography “ghostwritten” by James Lever, was published by Ecco in 2009.

Jim Herrington is a photographer whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and GQ, among other places. His book, The Climbers, was published in 2017 and was featured in these pages. jimherrington.com, @jimherrington

Feeling a sudden urge to prove you can hang with Slovenians? Climbing Triglav is generally done in two days. There are many routes, even the easiest of which requires navigating an exposed via ferrata. You can overnight at one of three huts, each of which sleeps dozens. We cannot guarantee the availability of beer at the summit, however.

Jayme Moye is a writer based in British Columbia. Her work has appeared in National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveler. jaymemoye.com, @jaymemoye

Avalanche safety experts will likely be busier than ever in years to come. As the climate warms, everything from the way the snow flows on a mountain to avalanche frequency is changing. According to a 2021 Scientific American article, studies around the world show avalanches are increasing even as snowfall is lower than historic averages; more-intense bursts of snow are resulting in more-dramatic slides.

Kelly Cordes is a writer and climber living in Estes Park, Colorado. kellycordes.com, @kcordes

Because owners are tight-lipped about the surf there, and because outsiders with access generally try to avoid angering locals by showcasing the waves, there are fewer photos of the great surf at Hollister Ranch than you might expect. A local painter named Matt Beard, however, has been given run of the place and is renowned for his golden-tinged oils of the Ranch’s best breaks. mattbeardart.com, @beardart

Photographer and writer Michael Kennedy is a legend in the mountaineering community. He worked as editor of Climbing from 1974 to 1988, then he bought the magazine in 1988 and ran it as publisher until 1998. He also acted as editor-in-chief of Alpinist from 2009 to 2012. He has numerous big-mountain first ascents under his belt, including the north face of Mount Hunter, the Infinite Spur on Mount Foraker, and the Wall of Shadows on Mount Hunter, all in Alaska.

Natural and unnatural wonders are revealing themselves as Lake Powell recedes. Gregory Natural Bridge, one of the largest natural bridges in North America, is now visible after being subsumed entirely in 1969. Archaeologists are revisiting once-flooded sites in Glen Canyon and finding intact rock art and pottery. Vegetation and natural sediment flows are returning. “We’re seeing Glen Canyon come back to life before our eyes,” said Eric Balken of the Glen Canyon Institute.

Dawn Kish is a Red Bull Illume award-winning photographer based in Arizona. dawnkish.com, @dawnkish

Fresh Off the Grid’s Megan McDuffie and Michael Van Vliet live and cook in Bend, Oregon. If they wanted, they’d have lines out the door at a cafe called Fresh Off the Grid and could serve nothing but pumpkin French toast, carrot fritters, and sausage flatbread. freshoffthegrid.com, @freshoffthegrid

Okay, so Gem-O-Rama is kaput. But that isn’t the only gem-hunting game in town. Not even close. Nearly every state has sites open to the public for potential lapidaries. Five of the top are: Emerald Hollow Mine in Hiddenite, North Carolina; Crater of Diamonds State Park, Murfreesboro, Arkansas; Jade Cove Trail, Big Sur, California; Morefield Mine, Amelia County, Virginia; Graves Mountain, Lincolnton, Georgia.

Brian Guido is a Los Angeles-based photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and WIRED. brianguido.com, @brianguido