This article is copublished with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. 　　Black Butte is an inactive volcano that rises from the high desert in eastern Oregon. In May 2022, a turboprop plane approached its pine-blanketed slopes, carrying about ten men wearing bulky Kevlar outfits. They were smoke jumpers with the United States Forest Service, the agency that...

　　Few things scare Caroline Paul. Not scuba diving with sharks, nor flying a motorized gyrocopter that looks like a dubious cross between a bobsled and a whirlybird. The 60-year-old adventurer has been chasing risk since she was a girl growing up in Connecticut. At 13, she attempted to break the world record in crawling—12.5 miles—but was thwarted at mile 8.5...

　　Everyone knows cultivating a garden takes work. You must nurture it with sun and water and soil. But you’ve also got to prune it once in a while, and that’s the hardest part. How do you walk into a beautiful garden and start to hack at the greenery? But cut you must if you want it to flourish and remain...

　　The celebrity trial of the century, this was not. 　　On Thursday March 14, a district judge in Wyoming named Stephanie A. Hambrick presided over the court case of Irish movie star Pierce Brosnan—yes, he of James Bond fame. Brosnan, 70, was accused of breaking sacrosanct rules of decorum in Yellowstone National Park during his visit there on November 1. The Park...

　　Puerto Rico Why Now: After rebounding from a series of devastating earthquakes in 2019 and 2020—and Hurricane Maria in 2017—this U.S. territory (read: no passport required for Americans) quickly became one of the hottest destinations in the Caribbean. Although it has long been a favorite with surfers, 36 years have passed since Puerto Rico hosted the sport’s world championships. But...

　　We get it: It’s hard to hear bad news about how global warming is affecting the sport we love, especially when Mammoth stayed open into August and Alta broke historic snow total records just last season. Yet we still have to heed to what science is telling us, which is that U.S. winters are indeed getting shorter and shorter. 　　A...

　　If you’ve never heard the legend of Blowhole, I can tell you all about it, because I was there from the start. 　　My husband and I are dogsledders. Wisconsin-based, though we travel; when your life revolves around sled dogs, you’re always chasing snow. We met Blowhole in April 2018. I had entered the Kobuk, an unsupported, 440-mile race between seven...

　　Pioneering mountaineer, climate advocate, and adventure filmmaker David Breashears died on Thursday, May 14 at his home in Massachusetts. He was 68 years old. 　　The news was confirmed by longtime members of the American climbing community Ed Viesturs, Kathy Harvard and Jed Williamson, all of whom were close with Breashears and his family. They told Outside that Breashears died of...

　　We get it: It’s hard to hear bad news about how global warming is affecting the sport we love, especially when Mammoth stayed open into August and Alta broke historic snow total records just last season. Yet we still have to heed to what science is telling us, which is that U.S. winters are indeed getting shorter and shorter. 　　A...

　　For a half-second, I thought the naked man crutching toward me on the trail was a hallucination. But the 44 kilometer mark was way too early in the race for me to have been hallucinating. As I moved to the right side of the double track to give him some room, I noticed a crucifix hanging from a silver chain...

　　While I was getting ready for a friend’s birthday party last year, a podcast came on about how almost anyone could run a marathon. There are few things I enjoy more than pestering my friends to do absurd things with me, so I spent the night trying to convince them that a 26.2-mile race could be fun. 　　I was probably...

　　Dear Sundog: Developers in Moab are building a subdivision named after Ed Abbey. They’re naming the cul-de-sacs Monkey Wrench Way and Hayduke Court. What a load of crap! Cactus Ed hated all real estate development in his beloved desert—and fought it his whole life. I’m sure he’s rolling in his grave, and I’m sure Hayduke would have blasted this place...