Indice dei contenuti per January 2013 in Outside

Think Small It’s been more than two years since Austrian BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner unveiled his ambitious Red Bull Stratos mission, a plan to free-fall from a height of 128,000 feet and become the first human to break the sound barrier without the aid of jet propulsion. That announcement gained considerable worldwide attention, including an August 2010 cover story in Outside. Not only was Baumgartner challenging a record that had stood for more than 40 years, but he was trying to execute a NASA-scale project while relying on a sponsor known more for kitschy stunts—like landing a motor cycle atop the Arc de Triomphe replica in Las Vegas—than for pioneering science. When Stratos was delayed, many observers assumed that Red Bull had bitten off more than it could chew. As…

A team of adventurers plays a risky game of dress-up to re-create Shackleton’s legendary survival epic BY NICK DAVIDSON IN 1916, BRITISH explorer Ernest Shackleton, stranded in the Antarctic on remote Elephant island with his crew from the shipwrecked Endurance, led five men on a desperate crossing of the Southern Ocean in a lifeboat. It took them 17 days to reach South Georgia island, some 800 miles to the northeast. Then it was another day and a half of nonstop overland trekking across glaciers to reach a whaling station, from which Shackleton would eventually mount a successful rescue of the rest of his crew. Among the greatest survival epics of all time, it’s not the kind of journey anyone would want to repeat. Or so you’d think. This month, Tim…

THE FIRST source-to-sea descent of the Amazon River, completed by Polish kayaker Piotr Chmielinski and San Francisco newspaperman and rafting novice Joe Kane over the winter of 1985–86, was a six-month epic that claimed one of the last great adventure prizes. Chmielinski and Kane were two of just four people left standing after the 12-person expedition was held up at gunpoint by Shining Path rebels, consumed by infighting, and ultimately abandoned by its self-serving South African leader, François Odendaal. Kane’s 1989 book, Running the Amazon, was both a classic and a bestseller. But now it turns out that the trip may no longer count as the first descent. New evidence, currently under review by a respected scientific journal, makes the case that the tributary where Chmielinski and Kane put in,…

CONVENIENCE: Snowcat Powder Safari, Powder Mountain, Utah Just an hour north of Salt Lake city, Powder Mountain’s Snowcat Powder Safari picks up guests near the main lodge in one of two ten-person cats. With access to 3,000 acres of backcountry terrain and an average annual snowfall of 500 inches, knee-deep powder turns are a guarantee. After nine to fifteen runs, head back to Salt Lake or book a condo at wolf Lodge (from $110; powdermountain.com). $425; includes bag lunch and avalanche safety gear; powdermountain.com ADRENALINE: Baldface Lodge, Nelson, British Columbia Baldface’s 50-degree pitches and 3,000- vertical-foot runs make it a prime destination both for Teton Gravity Research filmmakers and for experts seeking virgin terrain. Of course, skiing 20,000 feet a day means you better listen up when the company recommends…

In the first seven months of 2012, the country of Georgia, sandwiched between the Caucasus Mountains and the black Sea, saw a 54 percent increase in visitors, including savvy Europeans taking advantage of budget-friendly flights and a straight forward visa system (360 days, issued on arrival) to bask on black Sea beaches and tour ancient castles. Now tourists are coming in winter to explore what Georgia is touting as the Switzerland of the Caucasus: the ski resorts and backcountry of the country’s 16,000-foot peaks. While it’s just five years since the brief war with Russia over the separatist states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the country borders the still restive republic of Chechnya, the situation in Georgia remains stable and safe. Lucky for you, because there is endless, pristine…

CrossFit Endurance’s unconventional 12-week marathon training plan —C.S. Brian MacKenzie has a few pointed words about your endurance workout. “If you’re running five miles a day at the same speed and think you’re getting a lot out of that, you’re sorely mistaken,” says the founder of crossfit endurance. “If you’re not trying to improve, what’s the point?” macKenzie, who lays out his radical philosophy in the new book Power Speed Endurance, believes that short, intense exercise can give you many of the long-haul benefits of classic distance workouts—and spare you the chronic injuries and boredom. To try this 12-week program for runners, seek out a crossfit endurance gym or coach (there are hundreds listed at crossfitendurance.com). “If you can’t make it through the first week, back off a little,” macKenzie…

OBEY TRAFFIC LAWS: If you really think it’s worth risking trail closures or car or pedestrian accidents to set a virtual record, go to EntitlementIssues.com, not Strava. ANNOTATE DODGY RIDES: Use detailed notes, or, better yet, make the rides private. Nobody wants to repeat your ten-mile hike-a-bike to 13,000 feet. FACEBOOK WHEN IT MATTERS: It’s OK to share your ride if: (1) it’s actually impressive, and (2) you do so infrequently—think quarterly. Truthfully, nobody cares all that much. DON’T GOAD: If you’re that desperate to compete against someone, pay for a real race—or an MMA session.…

WHEN 36-YEAR-OLD ANDY POTTS turned to triathlon in 2002, after a swimming career that included a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter individual medley at the 1996 Olympic trials, he realized immediately that he would need to be a quick study to catch up with the younger, seasoned pros. Together with Mike Doane, who coaches Olympic and Ironman athletes, Potts developed an exercise-monitoring program that he and Doane call feedback training, which examines each day’s workout according to three variables: power (measured in watts or speed), distance (measured in length or time), and heart rate. That data is then used to generate the following day’s training routine. If Potts’s wattage is low or his heart rate is high, he could be overtraining, so the next day he’ll back off. The approach…

When sports psychologist Sean McCann started working for the U.S. Olympic Committee 21 years ago, he faced a hard sell to coaches and administrators. “We used to have to justify why it’d be a good idea to work on sports psychology,” he says. Now organizations from the NFL to the NCAA have guys like McCann on staff, and pro athletes have their sports therapists on speed dial. Case in point: hurdler Lolo Jones’s mental coach held the top spot in her phone—ahead of her pastor and her mother—before she competed in the 2012 Olympic trials. There’s a reason. In competitive sports, being mentally prepared is every bit as important as being physically fit. Sports psychologists typically work with athletes on issues like reducing performance anxiety (thanks to the profession, anxious…

For a DIY vacation in Colombia, stick to the well-traveled zones of the Caribbean coast between Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Tayrona National Park; the midcountry between Cali, Medellín, and Bogotá, which encompasses the Coffee Triangle and Los Nevados National Park; and the Santander region north of Bogotá, with its deep canyons and Class V white water on the Suarez River. Guide Hernan Acevedo can customize a journey, visiting coffee plantations and colonial cities through Voyage Colombia (voyagecolombia.com). To veer farther off the grid, Acevedo will put together a trip through his new company, Colombian Backroads (colombianbackroads.com), which specializes in hiking, mountain biking, and other adventures and pairs you with local, trusted guides. How to Get There: Delta, Avianca, and United offer nonstop flights from New York City to Bogotá. Within…

As Scott Keneally reported in “Playing Dirty” (November), nearly 1.5 million people participated in an obstacle race in 2012, and the sport’s popularity has inspired some pretty cutthroat business tactics among its Big Three: Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, and Warrior Dash. “I’m not bothered by the competitive spirit that would naturally be associated with the promotion of these events,” wrote Douglas Young, of Portales, New Mexico. “But I am troubled by the juvenile behavior reflected in that promotion. The shenanigans cited in Keneally’s article took me back to junior high.” Karen Latchford, from Palo Alto, California, wrote, “It was an in-depth, very well written article about some people I found pretty repulsive.” On Twitter, PatsHoppedUp wrote, “And here I thought people who humblebragged about obstacle races were the worst. Turns…

Tim Jarvis’s bid to challenge the Antarctic in vintage wool apparel comes as the original technical fiber is experiencing a renaissance. Even today, no other textile—natural or synthetic—is as useful or trustworthy. 1. Because wool is both plush and naturally fire-resistant, merino sheepskin is a luxurious choice for airplane-seat covers made by boutique brands like AeroSheep ($225; aerosheep.com). 2. Employing a new method to compress short and long fibers into batting, Ibex uses wool in puffy jackets like the Aire sweater ($295; ibex.com). The filling maintains loft longer than down and insulates better when wet. 3. Wool felt is soft to the touch and fends off spills, making it a good choice for gadget sleeves. Nau uses recycled fibers in its Pad Stash ($45; nau.com). 4. Wool is an ideal…

Sam Sheridan made his name with A Fighter’s Heart, a bestselling account of his experience training for mixed martial arts. Now the former Merchant Marine takes on Armageddon in The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse (Penguin Press, $27). Published just two months after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast, Diaries is a curious handbook for armchair end- timers, complete with tips and genrefiction vignettes. JON BILLMAN talked survival with Sheridan. OUTSIDE: Your book is fun—there are zombie anecdotes, after all. But this is serious stuff, as we’ve recently seen. SHERIDAN: Watching the hurricane descend on the East Coast, I just kept thinking about the basic message of the book: self-reliance. If everyone is a little more able to take care of themselves, then…

Ullr Fest, January 6-12 BRECKENRIDGE, COLORADO January marks the 50th anniversary of Colorado’s wackiest festival, during which Breckenridge is transformed into an 11th-century Viking hamlet, complete with horned helmets, plenty of flasks, and the Ullympics, which features a Fryingpan throw and Woodenski race. Fire and Ice Winter Fest, February 1-3 LAVA HOT SPRINGS, IDAHO This gala includes a costumed polar bear float down the icy Portneuf River and the Running of the bulls, in which locals don underwear and Uggs for a jog to the town’s 112-degree hot springs. Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, February 1-10 SARANAC LAKE, NEW YORK The longest-running winter festival on the east coast, the carnival celebrates its 116th birthday with music, parades, fireworks, broomball, and the lighting of the ice palace, built with frozen blocks harvested…

MY TWO BROTHERS and I, along with a buddy of ours named Dan Bogan, own a shack at a place called Saltery Cove on Southeast Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. The shack is about 36 feet long and 12 feet wide, with the warped shape and discoloration of a cardboard shoe box that’s been soaked in the rain. A partially uprooted old-growth hemlock leans menacingly over the back corner, and the front deck sits about seven feet above the shoreline on wooden pilings that are in various stages of decay. The tidal fluctuations in this area are so wild that the shack might be 200 yards away from the water’s edge in the morning and then be at risk of becoming oceanic debris by lunchtime. When friends come to visit,…

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN WINTERS A FEW WINTERS AGO 35-year-old Massachusetts cyclist Tim Johnson, one of the country’s top cyclocross pros, was holed up in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, training on the area’s labyrinthine network of canyon roads. He was staying at the house of Ben Bostrom, 38, a champion motor cycle racer and accomplished road cyclist. The training ground was Latigo Canyon Road, a twisting and relentlessly ascending route out Bostrom’s front door. For all Southern California’s winter promise, the day was New England grim. “It was pissing rain and cold,” he says. “I was doing ten-minute intervals, going as hard as I could.” After the ride, Johnson uploaded the data from his Garmin GPS cycling computer to Strava, the “performance analytics” website and mobile app that allows…

Chris Carmichael Carmichael Training Systems LOOK BEYOND THE LEADERBOARD: Racing against your buddies is great, but many of these sites can give you training feedback you can’t get any other way. “GPS data, especially altitude and elevation gain and loss, can be helpful for interpreting data such as power and heart rate, because it provides context,” says Carmichael. And when you’re on the road, the extensive libraries of training rides can come in handy. “They’re a great way to tap into local knowledge for routes,” says Carmichael. Lynda Wallenfels LW Coaching STICK TO YOUR TRAINING PLAN: There’s a reason successful athletes pick a handful of events and then spend most of their time training. If you’re always competing, you never build a solid base or recover. “The danger is gunning…

POSTURE Stand against a doorframe and bend at your ankles four to six degrees. This is the position you should maintain as you run. STRIDE Overstriding can cause heel strikes and waste energy. Your feet should fall beneath you, with your head, shoulders, and hips aligned. ELBOWS To avoid a hunched position, keep your elbows tucked at your side and swing your arms in a straight line, thumbs pointed slightly outward.…

THE SNOW REPORT WASN’T GOOD. “We’ve all skied nasty rain crust before, but this was something else,” James Balog told me when we met up in Ouray, Colorado, in early January 2012. “Absolutely, unbelievably horrible.” Yesterday, before I arrived, Balog and his field assistant, 29-year-old Matthew Kennedy, skinned off the west side of Red Mountain Pass, just south of Ouray, to download images from a weatherproof time-lapse camera they’d positioned on a ridgetop, at 12,186 feet. Now I’m tagging along as they check on a second high-altitude camera, part of a long-term survey documenting the effects of climate change on hydrology patterns in the American West. Thankfully, the sun has softened the thin, wind-hammered snowpack, and after an hour of easy skinning we reach Balog’s rig, a modified Nikon D200.…

Check the forecast: it’s cold and (we hope) snowy for the next three months. Whether you’re looking for a new resort jacket or an around-town heater, manufacturers are cranking out the innovations faster than ever. Down-insulated coats, which have been shedding bulk and gaining versatility in the past few years, have a new trick in their baffles: highly water-resistant feathers. Hard shells are as ultralight as ever and way more breathable. Wool, still the standard for stylish pea coats, is moonlighting as technical outerwear. Across the board, this year’s jacket crop is warmer, better fitting, and, most surprising, lighter than anything we’ve seen before. Here are seven of our favorites. Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer $300 Two years ago, alpinist Ueli Steck, a.k.a. the Swiss Machine, asked Mountain Hardwear to make…

photographs by BALAZS GARDI “THE WHOLE WORLD is watching now. I wish you could see what I can see. Sometimes you have to get up really high to see how small you are. I’m coming home now.” Thus spoke Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner as he stood outside the open hatch of the red Bull Stratos capsule on the morning of October 14. You know what happened next. Looking remarkably composed, the 43-year-old Baumgartner leaned forward and plunged to earth from a height of 128,100 feet, some 24 miles up. During a free fall that lasted 4 minutes, 20 seconds and featured 30 terrifying seconds of dangerous spinning and tumbling, Baumgartner broke the sound barrier, hitting a top speed of 833.9 miles per hour, or Mach 1.24. Eight million people watched…

For two years, downhill skiers have been in a froth over a proposed gondola that would connect Utah’s Canyons Resort to nearby Solitude Mountain, linking up 6,250 acres of terrain. Though the project has been slowed by concerns about environmental impacts, odds are that it will eventually get federal approval. Meanwhile, other Utah resort managers have been quietly discussing additional lifts and boundary openings that would bridge seven mountains throughout the Wasatch Range, creating a European-style network offering single-pass access to 17,000 acres. Here’s a look at how and when this ambitious project could all come together. 1. SNOWBIRD ALTA Since 2001, the AltaBird ticket ($99) has allowed skiers to swipe passes at boundary turnstiles. 2. ALTA SOLITUDE PROPOSAL: A lift from Alta’s base up to a cat-ski area known…

GET BARRELED: Surf into Yoga OAHU, HAWAII Meditative. Physical. Few sports require as much soul as surfing. No wonder the pros love yoga, and combining the two is what this trip is all about. Yoga instructor Rochelle Ballard surfed professionally for 17 years before starting Surf into Yoga, a wellness retreat a few barefoot steps from Sunset Beach on Oahu’s North Shore. A stunt double in the film Blue Crush, Ballard designs packages to fit your skills. Never caught a wave? Learn to time your takeoff on friendly swells at Puaena Point. More advanced riders can join her on a surf safari to 30-plus local breaks. Stay off-site if you like, but Ballard’s palmshaded, 1.3-acre property has three bungalows for rent, including the Beach Loft, a cedar abode with ocean…

100 MILES FOR ELEPHANTS Where: Kenya Who Runs It: hidden places hidden places’ founders, veterinarian dag Goering and author Maria Coffey, started the elephant earth initiative to make life better for the world’s largest land mammal. Join them by raising pledges of $500 to $2,500 to walk with Samburu guides on a nine-day camel-supported trek across Laikipia plateau, home to one of east Africa’s largest free-ranging elephant populations. Stay the first night in a luxury tented camp, then rough it for a week in expedition tents. January 23–31; from $3,450 per person; hiddenplaces.net 2013 SAFARICOM MARATHON Where: Kenya Who Runs It: Tusk Trust This hilly marathon through Lewa wildlife conservancy has raised more than $3 million for conservation projects. In addition to trip cost, overseas participants in the June 29…

YOURSELF MORE IN THE GYM. CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON LACES UP FOR A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF PAIN. PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN WINTERS WHEN THE HELL did this become marathon training? For the past few minutes, I’ve been running 60-second gassers up Seattle’s Queen Anne Avenue, a stripe of urban asphalt so tilted that skiers often schuss down it on snow days. I’m testing a controversial endurance theory pushed by triathlete and trainer Brian Mac- Kenzie, and by the second wind sprint I know I’m in trouble. By the third, I’m biting back the pre-barf taste of oysters and copper pennies. After the fourth, I crumple to the rush-hour sidewalk, splayed beneath Seattle’s pigeon-colored skies. Women walking home from work literally step over my heaving body. And to think that I’m supposed to…

Last January, Matt Carnal, a cycling coach and endurance athlete in Colorado Springs, logged an astonishing 3,347 miles on his bike in 26 days. And while the distance alone is impressive (128 miles per day!), what’s more intriguing is that his primary motivation was to claim bragging rights in a monthlong online competition, Strava’s Ride Base Mile Blast. “I would have been training anyway, but not like that,” admits Carnal. “Strava gave me the motivation to really push myself and see what I could do.” Tens of millions of people now share their workout data on social-fitness platforms like Strava, MapMyRide, Nike+, and Endomondo. And for good reason. A Michigan State study last year showed that the presence of a virtual cycling partner can boost the likelihood that you’ll stick…

SEGMENT: Any designated stretch on a ride for which records are kept. KOM: Denoted by a golden crown on Strava, you rack up king (or queen) of the mountain awards by being the fastest on a given segment. SUFFER SCORE: Strava assigns one of these to your ride or run based on distance, time, speed, power output, and heart rate. GURU: MapMyFitness’s version of Strava’s KOM, this award is based on regularity, so you can be the Guru even if you’re not the fastest. BEAT YOURSELF: This unfortunately named Endomondo feature lets you compete against previous times—and provides an audio coach that gives you split times. And yes, you can also Beat a Friend. PEP TALK: Another Endomondo feature, this lets you follow friends and send encouragement in real time.…

SIX FEET TWO INCHES OF lithe muscle and golden skin, Kerri Walsh folds her lanky frame into a black leather chair at the Diagnostic and interventional Surgical Center (DISC) in Marina del Rey, California, and tucks her knees to her chest. She towers on beach-volleyball courts, but in a baggy sweatshirt and pink flip-flops she seems more guarded than dominating. It’s May 2012, and the London Olympics loom. Alongside teammate Misty May-Treanor, Walsh has already won two gold medals, and she wants another. But after a frustrating week of practice games against international competition on Manhattan Beach, she needs a mental tune-up. “I’m holding on too tight,” she says, “and when I make a mistake, I’m pissed.” Kicked back in a matching chair a few feet away, index finger on…

We’re flying in a Cessna 180 over jungle so dense that it looks like broccoli. Every so often, the canopy breaks to reveal an emerald patch, which marks the remains of a coca farm. Many of them in this 33,000-square-mile region southeast of Bogotá, called Meta, were wiped out ten years ago during Plan Colombia, a controversial U.S.–backed antinarcotic operation that included aerial eradication of thousands of acres. The fumigation killed the local campesinos’ legitimate crops as well. Out the window to our right is a flat-topped 8,000-foot mountain. A waterfall flows from top to bottom in such a voluminous cascade that we can see the rising mist from the plane. Like the peak, the waterfall has no name, although it’s at the center of 2,430-square-mile Serrania de la Macarena,…

Who says you can’t reinvent a classic? These flannel shirts look and feel like they’re cotton, but because they’re made from moisture-wicking polyester, they’re as warm and quick drying as your favorite midlayer. Translation: they’re just as suitable on the ski hill and the hiking trail as they are at the bar. Outdoor Research Feedback ($79; outdoorresearch.com) Marmot Doran ($90; marmot.com) Woolrich Pathblazer ($69; woolrich.com) Eddie Bauer First Ascent Expedition ($70; eddiebauer.com) Horny Toad Watchdog ($98; hornytoad.com) Mountain Hardwear Trekkin ($75; mountainhardwear.com)…