For years, I’ve been on team trail runner. Ditch the bulky boots and reach for the GTX version of beloved trail running shoes for a combination of light and fast, no matter how much you have packed in your backpack or how long you have been on the trail. In my mind, it saved weight and made hiking more fun....

　　It’s a great year for planet-watching. In addition to this week’s stellar views of Mars, stargazers can admire multiple “planet parades”—the simultaneous appearance of several planets in the night sky—in 2025. Arguably the best parade of the year commences on January 18, with Venus and Saturn appearing within 2.2 degrees, or roughly two pinky-widths, of each other. The parade will...

　　Garmin launched the fēnix 8 at the end of last summer, breaking the $1,000 barrier for entry into a GPS watch model line. I expected a lot from this watch, not only because of the price, but because I had been using the fēnix 7 for a year and found it to be an excellent tool for every activity I...

　　Whatever adventure fuels your travel spirit, Marquette, Michigan, delivers it in Lake Superior–sized proportions. Located in the forested Upper Peninsula along the shores of this iconic lake, Marquette seems to just get better with every changing season. Whether you’re ice climbing in winter or chasing waterfalls in spring, this place is an outdoor paradise. Make the most of a visit...

　　Many hikers become obsessed with saving weight when deciding on gear for thru-hikes. Cut a few ounces here, save a few grams there — it all adds up. Gradually, we dial in our weight item by item, realizing we didnt need a second pair of shorts or a fourth pair of socks. 　　A few items, however, are a necessity to...

　　Finding the right sleep system for your adventures is a bit like finding your security blanket. The wrong one ensures you dont have a good time. The right one means you wake up refreshed and ready for more. 　　When your pack weight matters almost as much as staying warm, the Argali Alpine Sleeping System is built to strike that perfect...

　　My 95-year-old grandpa is often the toughest, smartest guy in the room. He raced motorcycles across the Mojave Desert and flat-bottomed boats across the Missouri River, survived Rocky Mountain snowstorms on horseback, and even built a house at age 60. The man valued reliable gear and taught me the adage, You get what you pay for. 　　But even with that...

　　Fresh, pillowy snow was piling up on Vail Pass. Determined to get my fill of it, I charged up for my second lap, beads of sweat rolling down my face, neck, and back, wicking through my base layers and — to my relief — the Raide TourTech Ski Bibs as well. I stretched the softshell material, taking the longest strides...

　　In 2023, Tatiana O’Hara, a content creator in Atlanta, Georgia, began to document her running journey on TikTok. She posted videos as a newbie runner, and soon attracted a dedicated following of other beginner runners. By the end of 2024, she had launched her own local run club. When people are looking for a run club for slower runners, they find...

　　In Japanese, the word Nisei describes someone born in North America whose parent(s) were immigrants from Japan.Its one of several terms Sierra Schlag hears people use to describe her heritage when she visits Japan. For a long time, the disconnect between her and her ancestral culturewas hard to reconcile. But through skiing, Schlag found her full self. 　　In her film...

　　The Idaho Panhandle is tucked away so snugly between Washington, Montana, and British Columbia that people often forget it’s there. The landscape is characterized by dense fir, hemlock, pine, cedar, larch, and spruce forests. Deep greens and wooly, gray skies tightly hug the Purcell Trench, rimmed by the Selkirk Mountains to the Northwest and the Cabinet Mountains to the Northeast....

　　The Eureka Valley Sand Dunes on first mention in Death Valley National Park are a photographers playground. The golden mounds that rise 600 feet from the valley floor are framed by the red-and-white stratified sandstone of the Last Chance Mountains. Green lumps of prickly shrubs, called Eureka dunegrass, sprout up from the sand. 　　People are in we the first time they...