Table of contents for August 2013 in Outside

BLAKE JORGENSON It took six days for Jorgenson to get this shot of mountain biker Darren Berrecloth setting up a cliff jump near the border of Nepal and Tibet in May. To get there, he and Berrecloth traveled by plane, by jeep, by donkey, and on foot, with all their camera gear and a bike. “It was totally exhausting,” says the Whistler, British Columbia, photographer. But it was worth it. “It was like traveling back in time. There’s nothing out there but tea huts, exposed mountains, and great riding.” THE TOOLS: Nikon D3S, 80–200mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/2,500 second JEREMY KORESKI Koreski wasn’t expecting great surf last January when he shot this image of Noah Cohen getting barreled off the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, with…

June’s “Feeding Frenzy,” by Carl Zimmer, which tackled the resurgence of ticks—and the deadly diseases they spread—generated plenty of concern among readers. But it was Ned Zeman’s thriller “Dead of Night,” about the shooting death of American financier John Bender, that prompted them to play judge, jury, and psychoanalyst. There is evidence to suggest that both Ann and John suffered from bipolar disorder, which can escalate into severe psychosis. If they were both psychotic—which seems likely, especially in John’s final days—it might be impossible to determine what actually happened in that room. The increased paranoia, obsessive behaviors, and hoarding suggest a break with reality. MASSIMO BALESTRI ONLINE I wonder if Ann is so unstable that she doesn’t even realize she killed him. For me, 550 Tiffany lamps in the bedroom…

DAVE LAMOUREUX was paddling his sea kayak out from the beach at Truro, a small town near the northern tip of Cape Cod, when he saw something bob to the surface off his bow. It was a calm, clear Atlantic morning last July, and at first Lamoureux, a 45-year-old titanium businessman who has made a name for himself on the Cape by fishing for tuna from his kayak, thought it was a seal feeding on a striped bass. He coasted forward to take a look. Two fins emerged from the water, about seven feet apart. Lamoureux realized that he wasn’t approaching a live seal but a dead one, and it was in the mouth of a great white shark. He had just baited his lines, so his deck was covered…

FOR THE past 12 years, American women have dominated beach volleyball, thanks to the duo of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, who won back-to-back-to-back Olympic gold starting in 2004. But at last year’s London Games, fellow Americans Jen Kessy, 36, and April Ross, 31, took home a surprise silver, giving the U.S. an impressive one-two finish. With May-Treanor now retired, and Kessy and Ross competing on a revamped Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) tour, all eyes will be on the pair. ASCENDANCY: The two aren’t exactly rookies. They’ve competed together for seven years, and before London, they took gold at the 2009 World Championships. But as the new faces of American volleyball, they are suddenly grappling with the expectation to win consistently. “We’re still getting used to it,” says…

SUMMIT TO SEA Boise, Idaho → Mount Vernon, Washington 825 MILES, FOUR DAYS This epic takes you past wild rivers, vast deserts, big mountains, and pristine coastline. In short, the best of the West. Load up on groceries at the Boise Co-op before taking Highway 55 over Little Donner Pass and down a pine-studded canyon to Route 95. Stop in Riggins and cast to native cutthroat trout in the Salmon—one of the longest free-flowing rivers in the lower 48—then head for Winchester Lake State Park and post up in a deluxe yurt at the foot of Craig Mountain ($70, mountain bikes and canoe included; parksandrecreation.idaho.gov). On day two, head north on Highways 3 and 97 and stop in Harrison to ride part of the 72-mile paved Trail of the Coeur…

MAN IN FULL In 2006, Ashton Eaton was a high school senior in Bend, Oregon, hoping to land a college scholarship in football, track, or the long jump. His track coach had a different idea: What about decathlon? Eaton’s response: What’s decathlon? Fast-forward four years and Eaton had won three NCAA decathlon titles at the University of Oregon. Last year, he broke the world record for points in a decathlon competition at the U.S. Olympic Trials and then captured the gold medal in the London Olympics. But this seemingly smooth rise to the title of World’s Greatest Athlete actually belies a tale of extraordinary perseverance. Raised by a single mother, Eaton frequently ran across Bend as a teen to see friends when he couldn’t get a ride. In college, he…

THE CHOPPER CAME flat over a dense forest of tree ferns, black beech, and red-flowered rata trees. It sailed over New Zealand’s Fiordland cliffs and fell to the whitecaps of the Southern Ocean. The cliffs were threaded with waterfalls, like in Avatar. Nick Wallis, a 33-year-old pilot for Alpine Helicopters, banked tight over a black rock awash in the swell and settled next to a bull seal that didn’t budge. My wife hopped out and trotted straight to the seal, which bared its teeth. “Hey, Kim,” I yelled. “Those guys can take your arm off!” She shot me a look that meant, Don’t worry, you big dummy, who can resist my charms? and sat beside it and began to tell it how handsome it was. Matt Wallis, Nick’s 34-year-old brother,…

Given how thoroughly the subject of Mount Everest has been picked over by writers through the years, it can sometimes seem impossible to come up with a new angle on the world’s highest peak. Today I did a quick search for “Everest books” on Amazon.com that yielded no fewer than 9,800 results. Granted, I didn’t have time to wade through them all to see how tenuous the link was to the mountain, but the raw number proves my point: Everest is an inexhaustible source for adventure narratives. This month, not only does Grayson Schaffer uncover a fresh perspective on Everest, but his reporting could permanently change the way people think about the peak. After spending six weeks at Base Camp in 2012—and chronicling one of the mountain’s deadliest seasons—Schaffer returned…

For 25 years, contributing editor Peter Heller has been a participant in some of the most hair-raising expeditions this magazine has covered. “The trips take a bit more ibuprofen these days,” says Heller, 54, of Denver. “But I just can’t turn down an opportunity to do something I’ve never done before.” For this issue, Heller, author of The Dog Stars, a postapocalyptic novel about a bush pilot in the Colorado wilderness, took it a bit easier than usual (“Best Kept Wild,” page 78), helicoptering in to a remote lodge in New Zealand. Here’s a look back at some of his Outside stories 1989 Kayaks the first descent of China’s Dadu River; expedition member drowns in Heller’s arms 1990 Travels to Siberia during the Cold War to boat and party with…

IT’S TIME TO BUILD your summer stack: that squatty tower made up of equal parts brain candy, literati buzz, and guilty pleasure. This year’s juiciest offerings feature an African aid-work hustler, a monster in backcountry Alaska, a drifter in Hawaii, a Spaniard obsessed with murder and cheese, and a trio of river rats who risk jail and damnation to become legends of the Grand Canyon. Start with The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (Scribner, $21), by Outside contributing editor Kevin Fedarko. In the spring of 1983, snowmelt and rainstorms threatened to blow out Glen Canyon Dam, the concrete plug that harnesses the Colorado River above the Grand Canyon. To ease the pressure, dam engineers sent a raging…

LOBSTER PRICES have always ebbed and flowed, but mostly they’ve stayed high enough to make the lobster roll, summer’s most delicious seaside fare, a rarefied treat. No more. Thanks to record catches in the past two years, wholesale prices for the bugs have dropped by more than 15 percent, making it easier for innovative chefs from Maine to the Midwest to experiment with the sandwich. In New York City, the West Village eatery Ditch Plains has a Lobster Ditch Dog, a wiener topped with lobster mac and cheese. At Cincinnati’s Senate restaurant there’s a lobster BLT. And in Chicago, at Little Market American Brasserie, there’s chef Ryan Poli’s Baja Lobster Roll (pictured here), Maine lobster meat tossed with shallots and lemon vinaigrette, then topped with a chipotle-mayo slaw. What’s with…

SINCE ARTHUR FROMMER published his first guidebook in 1957, globe-trotters have stuffed dog-eared volumes into their packs. But last March, Google announced that it would dissolve the series—which it bought in August 2012—after mining it for content. It appeared to be one more spasm of a dying industry: sales of travel books dropped 19 percent last year and 10 percent the year before. Last March, BBC sold Lonely Planet to a reclusive tobacco magnate at a loss of more than $100 million. Blame crowdsourced sites like TripAdviser and Wikivoyage, along with a swarm of innovative digital travel guides and tools like Wanderfly and VerbalizeIt. In the past few years, though, guidebook companies have started to respond. “Traditional publishers need to be platform neutral, so they can repurpose their content for…

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GRAYSON SCHAFFER On the morning of October 24, 2010, veteran climbing Sherpa Chhewang Nima labored up from high camp on 23,389-foot Baruntse, a gabled summit near Everest in eastern Nepal. There were high clouds and strong gusts blowing fresh snow. At just over 7,000 meters and not particularly difficult, Baruntse doesn’t get classified among the world’s great expedition peaks, but it’s a popular stepping stone. Roped to the 43-year-old was Nima Gyalzen,* a Sherpa in his thirties from Rolwaling, a valley to the west. Normally employed by Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International, Chhewang was freelancing on this trip, making $1,000. His only client was Melissa Arnot, a then 26-year-old professional climbing guide for Rainier Mountaineering who lives in Sun Valley, Idaho. (Arnot made headlines last May when she intervened…

ANCHORED in a aqual lagoon, surrounded by a necklace of thin coral beach, the 32-foot cutter Saltbreaker has a tight below-decks cabin that smells like mildew, body odor, and, just now, a strip-mall dollar store. The space is a catastrophe of new T-shirts, cheap baseball hats, sunglasses, ballpoint pens, disposable lighters, aerosol string, flashlights, nylon rope, and four liters of Jack Daniel’s, the duty-free maximum. “I heard you can get anything here for a bottle of Jack Daniel’s,” says Alex Kleeman, Saltbreaker’ 29-year-old co-skipper. It’s a balmy afternoon in June 2012. Alex and his 27-year-old brother, Nick, are floating inside a sparsely populated atoll called Fakarava, part of the Tuamotu island group in French Polynesia. The plan is to trade this dime-store gear for food and supplies as they head…

New York City writer Sarah Rose thought traveling to the South Pacific to report “Tune In, Give Up, Ship Out” (page 82), about inexperienced sailors circumnavigating the globe, would be the highlight of her year. “It was a week of sailing in paradise—what could be better?” says Rose, author of For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History. The trip turned out to be a little different than she expected. From bliss to misery, here’s a brief summary of her assignment. June 21–24: Lands in the South Pacific, but the Saltbreaker, the 32-foot yacht she arranged to meet, is four days behind schedule. Kills time lounging on “perfect whites-and beaches.” June 25: Boards Saltbreaker during rough seas. Sleeps in the quarter berth,…

To report “Disposable Man” (page 64), an investigation into the incredibly perilous work that Sherpas do in the Himalayas, senior editor Grayson Schaffer spent a month trekking between villages near Mount Everest. “It was a story that’s been hiding in plain sight,” says Schaffer. “I don’t think we fully comprehend just how dangerous the work is and how bad the safety net is when they fall.” To see Schaffer’s portraits of Sherpas, and video from his conversations, go to outsideonline.com/sherpas or download the August issue through our iPad app, Outside+ Magazine. A-REPORT CARD GRADE THAT BLIND ADVENT URER ERIK WHIHENMAYER GAVE WRITER TRACY ROSS FOR HER GUIDING WORK DURING A STAND-UPPADDLEBOARDING TRIP ON NORTH CAROLINA’S MELLOW CATAWBA RIVER. “NOT SURE I’D LET HER TAKE ME INTO RAPIDS, THOUGH,” SAID WEIHENMAYER,…

1. CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON: Different shapes fly best in different wind speeds. Diamonds are ideal in moderate winds, while big box kites are good when it’s blowing strong and steady. For beach kiting, go with a triangular kite like the Delta from Premier Kites ($47; kitesandfunthings.com), which has a polycarbonate frame and a 102-inch wingspan and handles well in all kinds of conditions. 2. LIFTOFF: Most kites require a partner and a breeze of at least five miles per hour to maintain loft. Here’s a surefire method for a successful launch on your first go. (1) Spool out 40 feet of line as your kite holder walks downwind of you. (2) Watch for signs of an approaching gust—swirling sand, rustling leaves—then run directly into the wind as your partner releases…

SAY I STEPPED outside one exquisite summer day and discovered a private jet waiting to chauffeur me anywhere I wanted to go. (Work with me here.) It would take me approximately zero seconds to pick my destination: the beach at Hanalei Bay, Kauai. This ganglion of Hawaiian surf culture features sublime sand buffeted by Crest-colored waves. But the real deciding factor? The entire island is a cyclist’s dream. And this cyclist’s dream ride would be Public’s new M8 Rivoli. Named after Paris’s famous cafés-and-couture street, this easygoing cruiser from San Francisco is ideal for beach bumming, with a sand-defying eight-speed internal hub and classic features designed to offer comfort and utility. Note the elegant, step-through mixte frame, made of forgiving chromoly steel, the soft leather Brooks saddle, and the plush…

T. Walker isn’t just the name of the company that makes the shirt you’re looking at; he’s a real-life globe-trotting adventure filmmaker and producer (first name: Tim) who couldn’t find a flannel shirt that was tough enough for field work and sufficiently refined for business meetings. So he and his wife, Melissa Elting Walker, a designer for J.Crew and Ralph Lauren, made one. It’s a good story and an even better shirt—slim fitting, made in America, and perfectly tailored. And it’s available in two weights, light and normal—like the Telluride above. $98; twalker.com REMOTE ACCESS Thirty miles off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina, lies the Frying Pan Shoals Light Station, a 49-year-old onetime lighthouse. Over the past three years, software engineer Richard Neal has transformed it into an eight-room,…

THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEREMY M. LANGE IT WAS AS IF THE WHIRLPOOLS COULD THINK—MATERIALIZING OUT OF THE MUDDY BROWN WATER AT EXACTLY THE RIGHT MOMENT TO ATTACK THE EXPEDITION’S MOST VULNERABLE MEMBER. IT WAS January 2012, and Erik Weihenmayer and Rob Raker were paddling the swirling Usumacinta River between Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas. Howler monkeys roared, and brightly colored birds chittered. Weihenmayer could hear the beauty around him, including a waterfall crashing in the distance, but couldn’t appreciate it. The river’s enormous flow created traveling whirlpools, eight to ten feet wide, that would appear out of nowhere, swallow boats, disappear, and then reappear farther downriver. A sighted person like Raker, an adventure filmmaker and longtime friend of Weihen mayer’s, could see them…

WHAT’S NEXT: ULTRAHIGH-INTENSITY LIGHTS The most powerful headlamp on the market, Petzl’s 760-lumen Ultra Rush, can illuminate an object 550 feet away but weighs nearly a pound. THE HURDLE: Bulb technology continues to improve, but as with electric cars, batteries need to get smaller, lighter, and more efficient. WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN? Not for 20 years at least, but we’ll see huge efficiency gains in the meantime. In five years, headlamps may run for 400 hours without a recharge. LuminAid’ solar-powered TPU pillow lantern ($20; luminaid.com) packs down to the size of a cell phone. When you get to camp, a few breaths of air turn it into a hangable lantern. Fully charged, it provides up to 16 hours of diffuse light for reading or cooking. Hold the translucent, honeycomb-patterned…