We sought out warmer weather in Arizona, climbed freezing pitches in northern New Mexico, and ski-toured in Rocky Mountain National Park this January. Heres the gear that helped us start the year out right. 　　Eastpak Transverz suitcase ($140) I gifted this to my brother for Christmas, after traveling with him to Japan and feeling sorry to see him hoofing it...

　　Most quilts designed for the outdoors are created to be used as either throw blankets, or seriously ultralight insulation for backpacking. The former prioritize low prices over performance, while the latter sacrifice versatility in order to save a few ounces. But the traditional sleeping bag also brings limitations, mostly to your ability to spread out, get comfortable, and share a...

　　Sports bras are like brakes on a vehicle: no one gets excited about using them, but they’re absolutely necessary. We found a few that we actually enjoy wearing for their combination of comfort and versatile support. 　　The Winners at a Glance Best for Carrying a Phone on the Run: Oiselle Flyout Bra Best Adjustable Fit: Patagonia Maipo Low Impact Adjustable...

　　Originally, I had a vision. It involved getting into a car with strangers. 　　The idea struck me a few weeks before I left for Colorado, where I was going to report on the state’s notorious Interstate 70 traffic. Each winter, I-70 makes headlines and stymies skiers attempting to drive from Denver and the urban Front Range to the dozen or...

　　Say it with me: pants are boring. Why wear two pieces when you can roll your whole outfit into one? I’ll admit I was once an overall skeptic—I don’t love the way workwear has become trendy lately. But what may present as an obnoxious lifestyle trend can be surprisingly practical (not to mention make life more fun). Ranging from impressively...

　　I want to paint a picture for you, and it’s not a pretty one. It’s 30 degrees, and lightly snowing with a crisp, 15-mile-per-hour wind blowing in my face. For the last hour, I’ve been kneeling next to my Airstream holding a hair dryer, trying fruitlessly to thaw the black tank dump valve, which had frozen overnight. 　　This was a...

　　Adventures can provide fuel for romance, but only if you know how to take what you learned in the mountains back home. Just ask Paddy O’Connell. Paddy loves two things: fresh pow, and his wife, Carly. On their one-year wedding anniversary, the cutest couple in all of the outdoors ventured to Portillo, Chile to contemplate their affection for skiing and...

　　When it comes to bicycles and components, people tend to defend their preferences with what amounts to an almost-religious fervor. But ultimately our opinions about what’s “best” are often just that—opinions. The insufferable retrogrouch insists that steel is the only material worth considering, while the performance-obsessed racer maintains that, gram for gram, nothing beats carbon fiber, and ultimately they’re both...

　　How do you make the best of a golf addiction? Add running. That’s the formula contributor Alex Ward tried to perfect a few months ago, when he started figuring out a way to turn his rounds of golf into real exercise. Would golf be an endurance sport if he played sunrise to sunset? What if he wore running gear, carried...

　　It is fairly terrifying to trust a strip of fuzzy fabric to keep you from careening backwards down a steep, snowy ski hill while trying to climb up it. That fuzz’s friction is all I could think about the first time I splitboarded up Steamboat, Colorado’s blue runs at seven a.m. while my family was still nestled in their beds...

　　Today, I’m a 42-year-old dad with four kids. I work a 9-5 job, ski on the weekends, camp in the summer, drive a Tacoma…you get the picture. I’m essentially a cliched version of the middle-class outdoorsy American who’s floating along with the bunch. 　　But I promise I was much cooler when I was in my teens in the 1990s. I...

　　Greg Long had it on good authority that a wave bigger than any hed ridden at Mexico’s Islas Todos Santos could arrive between 10:20 and 10:40 A.M. on January 6, 2023. The 40-year-old had been chasing swells down to the islands in northern Baja since he was a teenager in the 1990s, planning his trips using the crude surf forecasting...