Table of contents for February 2014 in Outside

A Superb Pitch Man Like any editor, I have my idiosyncrasies when it comes to evaluating story ideas. It’s a running joke that I shoot down anything that takes place underwater. I have no interest in scuba diving, and I can’t be bothered with the state of our coral reefs. Don’t ask me to explain. Just know that your exposé on the Mariana Trench will be a tough sell. That’s not to say that underwater stories, or other topics that I habitually veto (see: dogs, fringe sports, dam removal), never get green-lighted. One of my favorites of the past couple of years, “Open Your Mouth and You’re Dead” (March 2012), is about free diving. I’m convinced that a fantastic yarn involving Quidditch (“Quoosiers,” June 2012) got assigned because I was…

For the 30 men competing in the first-ever Olympic halfpipe skiing event on February 13, at Russia’s Rosa Khutor Resort, winning a gold medal will almost certainly require landing a trick called the unnatural double cork 1260. What’s involved: two off-axis flips with three and a half rotations in the skier’s unnatural spinning direction. “From a difficulty standpoint, the unnatural dub 12 is right at the top,” says Josh Loubek, head judge of the Olympic halfpipe competition. So far only three skiers have pulled it off in competition. This is how it breaks down. THE CONTENDERS DAVID WISE, OF RENO, NEVADA, WAS THE FIRST TO LAND THE TRICK WHILE COMPETING, IN 2011, AND IS THE GOLDMEDAL FAVORITE. FELLOW AMERICAN ALEX FERREIRA AND CANADIAN JUSTIN DOREY ADDED THE TRICK TO THEIR…

A SKI JUMPER NEEDS to have just the right amount of crazy. Too much, you become a bobsledder. Too little, you never even try. Of the two U.S. women with real hopes to medal in the Sochi Games—the first Olympics to include women’s ski jumping—one, 19-year-old reigning world champion Sarah Hendrickson, seems to excel because she’s ethereal and light. The other, former champ Lindsey Van, 29, appears to defy gravity to escape a character that, even she admits, can be heavy and dark. Last fall, Van was lounging around with teammates Jessica Jerome, Alissa Johnson, and Abby Hughes before the U.S. National Championships at the 90-meter “normal” hill in Lake Placid, New York—a slope Van had barreled down 5,000 times. All four women grew up together in Park City, Utah.…

When you pack for your winter lodge escape, opt for the Kelty Flyway—the most do-it-all piece of luggage we’ve found. It has an internal frame for day hikes and plenty of convenient features for the trip there and back. Its 43 liters fit a surprising amount, thanks to separate compartments for stuff like electronics and dirty laundry. On one trip we fit a week’s worth of clothes, a laptop, and wedding gifts, and still had room for fishing boots and waders. At capacity it’s a bit heavy, but the duffel handle makes it easy to carry. $130; kelty.com…

Head Games IT GOES WITHOUT saying that Olympic athletes need to be strong, fit, and tough. But none of that matters if they aren’t capable of adapting quickly to unexpected circumstances. Take former Slovenian swimmer Sara Isakovic. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with one length remaining in the 200-meter freestyle final, disaster struck. Isakovic misjudged her final flip turn, and as she uncoiled her legs to explode off the wall, she could feel her toes just barely graze it. “I remember thinking, This is not happening! Why now?” Isakovic, 25, recalls. “Then, in a split second, I was able to refocus.” Riding on a surge of adrenaline, she tore down the last length to nab a silver medal, breaking the previous world record and missing gold by just 0.15 seconds.…

JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN INGREDIENTS: 3 green onions, chopped 1 habanero chile pepper 3 garlic cloves ½ inch fresh ginger root 2 teaspoons honey or dark brown sugar 2 teaspoons ground allspice 2 teaspoons ground black pepper 2 teaspoons dried thyme 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar ¼ cup tamari or soy sauce 2 tablespoons canola oil 4 boneless chicken breasts DIRECTIONS: 1. Combine the first ten ingredients in a food processor and blend to a coarse marinade. 2. With the machine running, add the vinegar, tamari or soy, and oil, and mix thoroughly. 3. Coat the chicken breasts in the marinade and refrigerate overnight. 4. Before cooking, bring the chicken to room temperature (about one hour). 5. Heat grill or oven to medium-high…

MY PLAN TO TREAT Julia Mancuso like an Olympic superstar is falling apart. I rented a red Porsche Cayman at LAX and made brunch reservations at the Ivy. But it’s already 10 A.M., I have to get her to a photo shoot at noon, and she hasn’t showered after her morning beach workout of sprints, tuck jumps, and stutter steps. Fortunately, Mancuso’s throwing audibles and solving problems. She knows this great little organic non-GMO spot on Abbot Kinney. “I showered last night,” she says, both simplifying things and confirming the basic nature of her appeal. Mancuso is the Olympic champion you’d want to drink a beer with. The 29-year-old Lake Tahoe, California, native trains for skiing by surfing and paddleboarding, appears untroubled by minutiae, and then, like Big Papi, comes…

IT WAS ONLY eight o’clock on the evening of May 30, 2013, but the beach was completely dark. The moon hadn’t yet risen above Playa Moín, a 15-mile-long strand of mangrove and palm on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. A two-door Suzuki 4x4 bumped along a rough track behind the beach. The port lights of Limón, the largest town on the coast, glowed six miles away on the horizon. There was no sound except the low roar of surf and the whine of the engine straining through drifts of sand. Riding shotgun was Jairo Mora Sandoval, a 26-year-old Costa Rican conservationist. With a flop of black hair and a scraggly beard, he wore dark clothes and a headlamp, which he used to spot leatherback sea turtle nests on the beach. Mora’s…

MAZDA CX-5 TOURING AWD THE SELL: A sporty crossover. THE TEST: With its 184-horsepower, 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, the CX-5 is downright peppy, even when loaded down with people and bikes. Its suspension and steering are crackerjack, especially at this price. It railed S turns on country roads, which is especially impressive considering its 8.5 inches of ground clearance—far more than almost every other crossover we tested. Another perk: the rear seats split 40-20-40, allowing skis and snowboards to bisect the second row while leaving room for four passengers. Too bad Mazda doesn’t sell the turbo-diesel model in the States. THE VERDICT: 30 hwy; mazdausa.com…

FOLLOW THE LEADER —GORDY MEGROZ GERMANY HAS dominated Olympic bobsledding for years, winning eight gold medals at the past five Games. How do you beat them? Hire BMW to build your sled. In 2011, the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation asked the automaker to develop the fastest bobsled ever built. Engineers used technology similar to what’s in BMW’s Formula One race cars to craft a hull from carbon fiber and synthetic laminate (instead of the more commonly used fiberglass), to reduce weight and vibration and allow the sled’s driver to rattle less and focus more. They also scanned the bodies of two of the team’s bobsledders to produce mannequins for testing and to fine-tune the sled’s ergonomics for more precise steering. So how much faster are the new models? BMW…

—G.M. IF KIKKAN RANDALL wins cross-country gold on February 11, as most pundits predict, it will be a first for the U.S. and the first Olympic medal won by an American in the sport since Bill Koch took home the silver in 1976. Her biggest accomplishment, though, might be convincing people that crosscountry skiing is entertaining. With streaks of pink in her blond hair and a penchant for feather boas, Randall, 31, brings snowboarder-punk flair to an other wise staid sport. She also races the sprint, an event that wasn’t part of elite competition until 2001. (It debuted at the Olympics in Salt Lake City.) Compared with the 30-kilometer grind that has always defined cross-country, the sprint is a kilometer and a half of fury, where six athletes go elbow-to-elbow…

WIDE LOAD Rolling Huts Winthrop, Washington The Methow Valley’s network of crosscountry ski trails includes 120 miles of immaculately groomed routes through pinestudded forests and fields. It’s also perfect for one of winter’s fastest-growing sports: fat biking. A local ban on the bikes was lifted last winter, and the Methow Valley Sports Trail Association has since opened a total of 18 miles of trails to the behemoths. “We’re finding that the bikes actually have less impact on ski trails than a skate skier does, and people are going crazy for them,” says the association’s Kristen Smith. Rent one at Methow Cycle and Sport (from $35; methowcyclesport.com), and base yourself at one of Rolling Huts’ six steel-and-wood, two-room structures. They come complete with cork floors, modular furniture, kitchenette, wood-burning stove, and…

THERE ARE WORSE ways to blow your mort gage payment than skiing untouched powder. But it doesn’t have to be that pricey. There are four strategies that can help you maximize your access without going broke Avoid the peak season. Most Northern Hemi sphere outfitters split the year into two pricing structures: prime time and everything else. High season generally runs from mid-January to the third week of March. Book before or after those dates and you’ll save. Example: a cat seat with Colorado’s Monarch Mountain is only $225 (instead of $300) if you reserve outside the busy season. Book through a third party. Bundling sites—which combine airfare, hotel, outfitter costs, and car rental—are convenient, but they can also hook you up with great deals. Last year, Ski.com comped airfare…

Isolation Exercise CARDIO 1. Kurt Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer: Thanks to the pivoting frame, the Rock and Roll mimics the road, so both your legs and your cycling-specific core muscles get a workout. $579; kurtkinetic.com 2. Crossrope Complete set: Seven interchangeable ropes, from two ounces to three pounds, clip into steel-ball-bearing handles and will get you Floyd Mayweather fast in no time. $139; crossrope.com Rx: Ride for an hour on the Kinetic or jump rope for 20 minutes three times a week. Set to increased resistance, the Kinetic is also great for highintensity intervals. WEIGHT TRAINING 3. DragonDoor Russian kettlebell: It comes in a range of weights, but the 35-pound cast-iron classic is favored by strongmen everywhere. $108; dragondoor.com 4. Metolius Wood Grips training board: More versatile than a…

AS STAFF NUTRITIONIST for the U.S. Ski Team, Allen Tran has cooked hundreds of meals for America’s best and boldest downhill and cross-country skiers. During the summer, at the team’s off-season training center in Park City, Utah, he oversees everything from breakfast to the recovery station, stocked with chocolate milk and homemade granola. In the winter, he’s tasked with cooking the athletes’ favorite recipes while traveling to some 15 events around the world. His philosophy is simple: flavorful foods, quality ingredients. In the morning, he serves carbohydrates and a small amount of protein, like oatmeal with nuts, to fuel the skiers all day. At night, he turns to ingredients that are high in protein and iron, like lamb and garbanzo beans, to speed athletes’ recovery. “When I plan a menu,”…

IT TAKES A SHARP BLADE TO CUT A FROZEN BEAVER INTO EASILY DIGESTIBLE STRIPS. If the Hobart Corporation, maker of fine commercial kitchen appliances, ever shoots a TV ad for its band saws, it should definitely feature the one Lance Mackey uses in his dog yard. Halfburied in icy, urine-stained snow, it is tasked daily with slicing up whole skinned beavers, along with halal-certified lamb chunks, 50-pound blocks of ground chicken and beef, and big king salmon—all of it frozen as solid as the rolling countryside near Fairbanks, Alaska, where any wintertime temperature above minus 20 degrees, Mackey told me, is tropical. Beaver isn’t the kind of meat you can buy over the counter, but Mackey’s mom has a good connection, a trapper down around Anchorage. Which is fortunate, since…

HYBRIDS THAT FORD RIVERS, OFFROADING BEASTS WITH THE FUEL ECONOMY OF SEDANS, SUVS THAT POWER UP SAND DUNES, AND A MINI BIG ENOUGH TO SWALLOW SKIS. THESE ARE THE BEST NEW RIDES OF 2014, PLUS DRIVING TIPS AND MUSTHAVE GEAR FOR EVERY JOURNEY. RANGE ROVER SPORT THE SELL: Go anywhere in high style. THE TEST: Climbing up deep sand in Northern California’s coastal redwoods, the Sport’s terrain-response traction control, sophisticated eight-speed automatic transmission (see “Four Is the New Six,” page 84), and active rear-locking differential turned its street tires into the equivalent of Vibram-soled hiking boots. That’s expected from Range Rover (as is the oak woodwork and heated steering wheel). What’s not? An 800-pound weight reduction over the previous version and a new supercharged 340-horsepower V-6 that make this behemoth…

MINI PACEMAN S ALL4 THE SELL: A high-style coupe that’s rugged enough for the mountains. THE TEST: Tight handling, stiff suspension, and a sporty engine make Minis as fun to drive as they appear to be. The all-weather Paceman is no different, just bigger. It’s 25 percent larger than the classic Cooper, and because this AWD coupe has nearly 40 cubic feet of cargo space with the seats down, it’s up for mountainous road trips. There’s enough legroom in the back to squeeze in a pair of six-footers, though if you intend to use the backseats regularly, opt for Mini’s roomier five-door Countryman ($27,400). THE VERDICT: It’s not quite as sporty as the classic Hardtop, but with a turbocharged four-cylinder and snappy six-speed manual transmission, it’s still a blast for…

—G.M. THE MALCONTENT TED LIGETY, 29 ON THE SLOPES: Gold medal trifecta! Ligety takes the giant slalom, super-G, and combined. OFF THE SLOPES: Despite newfound glory, opts to continue his war against the sport’s governing body over ski regulations, composing a novella-length blog post that includes 93 technical footnotes. Immediately after the Games, announces he has signed the entire Austrian team to Shred Optics, his ski-gear brand. THE MAVERICK JULIA MANCUSO, 29 ON THE SLOPES: Beats expectations—again—by medaling in the super-G and downhill. OFF THE SLOPES: Après hot-tub selfie on Instagram earns her a rebuke from the U.S. Ski Team for showing “too much side boob.” Stays one step ahead of the paparazzi by tweeting that she is back together with ex-boyfriend and Norwegian superskier Aksel Lund Svindal before they…

Skaters wear speed suits with built-in knee and shin guards and cut-resistant materials like Kevlar in vulnerable spots like the neck, armpits, and groin. 1500-METER START LINE The 500 meter is a pure sprint, so the start is crucial. “The racer who gets ahead first usually wins,”says U.S. Short Track National Team coach Stephen Gough. The entry into the first turn is notorious for pile ups, as skaters—especially those who started against the boards because of previous race times—make their moves. 2CORNER ENTRIES Passes usually take place on a straightaway, and skaters need to complete them before entering a turn. There’s not much time: a racer going 30 mph will cover a 95-foot straight away in less than three seconds. Fail to get past a competitor and contact is inevitable.…

Skiing in the middle of the season can mean long waits at the lifts and jampacked hotels. Here’s how to avoid both. Go early. according to kayak.com, fewer people book flights for the first two weekends of february than for any time during march. Our advice: take a sick day. Skip the hotel. If rowdy après scenes and hotel-room neighbors clomping down the hallway in ski boots aren’t your thing, check out home rentals in quiet bedroom communities through VRBO.com and airbnb.com. In Colorado, buses pull into aspen from Carbondale every half-hour and cost five bucks. Shuttles bring people to vail from as far as 40 miles downvalley every 30 to 45 minutes for just four bucks. And of course you can catch a bus to alta, snowbird, solitude, or…

Ride Away La Pedrera is a sleepy fishing village most of the year, but each winter its main street—a dirt road called Avenida Principal—becomes a Coachella-like mecca for Uruguay’s hipsters. Stay in town at boutique hotel Brisas (doubles from $190; brisasdelapedrera.com), or bunk down in nearby Punta Rubia at the funky Parque Reserva, a small resort with a zip line and a flock of peacocks (doubles from $130; parquereserva.com.uy). Rent a board from Punto Limite Surf Shop and hit El Barco, a right break with waves typically over six feet, or grab a lesson with La Pedrera Surfing School ($30 per day; 011-598-9978-0887). Then take a siesta and head to the oceanside patio at farm-to-table Olinda for a big South American steak. Go Dark Cabo Polonio is about as lo-fi…

MEAT MARKET It powered Shackleton, Mallory, and Amundsen, and now dehydrated meats are being pressed into energy bars. They’re just as easy to stash in a pack or pocket for a long run or hike, and they’re usually higher in protein. The only bone of contention: the taste. You’ll either love it or hate it. —MEAGHEN BROWN EPIC: A mix of meat, nuts, and dried fruit—and that’s about it. This Paleo-inspired snack has something most trail foods lack: omega-3 fatty acids. Available in bison, beef, and turkey. $8.50 for three bars; epicbar.com OMNIBAR: According to Brent Ruby, the physiologist behind Omni, the bars are designed with the precise nutritional balance of complex carbohydrates and protein for optimal energy synthesis. Made from Montana-raised beef, they’re intended for sustained activity—four hours or…

#1 Fleece It pills up. It melts in the dryer. It often smells like a wet dog. And it remains the quintessential chillbeating layer, which is why Patagonia recently reissued its iconic Synchilla Snap-T in the original 1980s colors. $119; patagonia.com #2 Climbing Scary-Tall Trees Best accomplished with folks who know what they’re doing, like the guides at Oregonbased Pacific Tree Climbing Institute, who offer roped-up ascents of 300-foot old-growth Douglas firs and the option to overnight in the canopy in a hammock. From $200; pacifictree climbing.com #3 Patches #4 Rolling a Fatty Logrolling is hard, both logistically (logs are heavy) and balance-wise (they roll). Key Log’s 60-pound synthetic hollow log rolls just like a western red cedar when filled with water and comes with beginnerfriendly flippers for added stability.…

A fascination with a cartoon animal and a Class V river lured her to the empty wilderness of Tasmania. Turns out the raw side of Down Under offers an amazing number of pristine places to camp, surf, hike, mountain bike, and kayak. STEP HANIE PEARSON goes all in. The cave is like a web. Cocooned in my sleeping bag, I stare a foot above me at whorls of coral and register that I’m lying under thousands of tons of overhanging rock. We’re camping alongside the Franklin River at the Newlands Cascades rapids, in the shallow caves that form the base of a limestone wall 100 feet high. I can make out a delicate web on the ceiling, likely the work of a Tasmanian cave spider, and wonder if a tiger…

ToyoTa 4runner TraIL premIum The SeLL: A rugged SUV for the masses. The TeST: On a high-alpine dirt track in Colorado, the 4Runner was surprisingly impressive. Unlike many of today’s car-like sport utility vehicles, the Trail’s stiff suspension and more than ample 9.6 inches of ground clearance, plus a manually tuned off-road suspension, made us feel like we could tackle any obstacle (sand, mud, rock, or snow) in our path. The trade-off for all that rough-riding capability is a gasguzzling 270-horsepower V-6 mated to a five-speed manual transmission. That combination made for somewhat sluggish acceleration on the freeway. THE VERDICT: A pure off-road performer that seats five, plus dogs. $38,645; 17 mpg city/21 hwy; toyota.com JEEP CHEROKEE 4X4 THE SELL: A people mover with legit rock-crawler cred. THE TEST: The…

VOLKSWAGEN JETTA THE SELL: The first truly sporty hybrid. THE TEST: This Volkswagen looks, drives, and behaves entirely like the gas-only Jetta, which is to say the drivetrain is ultraprecise and uncommonly smooth. VW paired its hybrid turbocharged fourcylinder engine with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, which results in delightfully rapid acceleration. And while a lot of hybrid sedans store batteries between the trunk and the cab, VW preserved the flip-down rear seats, so we had no problem fitting skis and a 29er mountain bike (front wheel removed) into our test rig. THE VERDICT: Fahrvergnügen goes eco with much success. KEYED UP A car key should never be any larger than a Zippo lighter, let alone the giant deck-ofcards-size ones that companies like Range Rover are kicking out and charging hundreds…