The Feed

Oct 4, 2026

Gus Scott with his father, Gus Scott Sr., 1959. Kane Creek. Photo via Gus Scott (and shared on Tom Martin’s Facebook tribute.) For almost a decade, I’ve been following ghosts through Glen Canyon. My backcountry travels are guided not by destinations, but by the stories recorded by the men and women who loved this landscape of gilded sandstone and muddy water. Most who experienced the Colorado River before Glen Canyon Dam have long been deceased, yet I’ve developed unusual friendships with many of these spirits who have kept me company on solo explorations. In the process, I failed to face an e

Oct 5, 2026

Today's episode is an encore presentation of my June 2024 interview with Conny Simes about her 57‑day, 1,134‑mile solo circumnavigation of Lake Superior. Conny describes the changing landscapes—from the Apostle Islands and Pictured Rocks to the remote Pukaskwa coast—along with the logistics, weather, and resupply challenges she faced. The episode also explores how the journey supported Conny’s personal recovery while managing Ehlers‑Danlos syndrome, the people she met, safety lessons, and practical advice for paddlers planning their own expeditions. Learn: Lake Superior map What are Agates? Cr

Oct 4, 2026

Japan Alps Traverse Length: ~250 Miles Time: 19 days Start Point: Toyama on the Japan Sea End Point: Shizuoka on the Pacific Ocean Where do I even start? I have a love affair with Japan. Maybe it’s the food. Maybe it’s the kindness of strangers. Maybe it’s the fact that you can walk through a tiny farming village, disappear into the mountains, sleep beside a river, soak your feet in a hot spring, and then eat some of the best sushi of your life, ... The post Walking Across Japan: 250 Miles Coast to Coast (Part 1) appeared first on The Trek .

Oct 4, 2026

Can you hear it? That tapestry of sound that rolls across the empty morning, hanging in the frosty air. The sun is not yet up when he begins, but it doesn’t matter. The world wakes when he says so. First comes the baseline thrum, a deep resonance felt more than heard, like a train car passing through the ground beneath your feet. Then the high whistling howl, something birdlike, vocal wings pitched to carry the body of the call over the mountain, ... The post 14. A Morning Howdy from the Mountain King appeared first on The Trek .

Oct 1, 2026

On Sunday, Tigst Assefa ran the third-fastest marathon in history, winning the Berlin Marathon in 2:11:04. But that doesn’t tell half of it. With just over a mile to go Assefa was ahead of world record pace, projected to run an astonishing 2:09:45. Then, she started to limp, significantly slowing but gutting it over the final mile and change to hang on for a new course record. Did she run out of fuel, hit the wall just before the finish line, pay the price of an early push? Nope…she tore her Achilles tendon. For the last 1.4 miles, as her manager put it, “She was effectively running on one leg

Oct 2, 2026

The dance of renewal, the dance that made the world, was always danced here at the edge of things… —Ursula K. Le Guin, Dancing at the Edge of The World Note: this story is published in Volume 15 of The Climbing Zine My first sense of it is auditory. I am walking toward the rim, eyes straining to see over an edge I can’t yet comprehend beyond expectation, when I hear a noise… Source

Oct 4, 2026

This is a guest post by Josh Sanders, a PCT thru-hiker with a background in environmental policy. t may sound strange, but I’m going to spend the next few minutes trying to convince you to protect a part of what I will unabashedly call my least favorite section of the entire PCT. Bear with me. You may have heard that the Trump Administration is rescinding the Roadless Rule. This could impact hundreds of miles of trail along the PCT, ... The post Opinion: I Hate This Roadless Area on the PCT. Help Me Protect It appeared first on The Trek .

Oct 4, 2026

There are no HomeGoods stores within one hundred miles of my house. In this town, there’s no Target, no World Market, no IKEA, no Anthropologie Home. There’s no place to wake up on the first forty-degree morning in September and buy three ochre throw pillows, a woven basket, and a ceramic pumpkin that says PSL Parking in script. There’s also no compelling thrifting, antiquing, or even Marketplace. I’d love to stroll architectural salvage, open old drawers, come home with a mirror so heavy it’s considered a risk on my life insurance, but the antiquing here is limited to mining detritus, and I p

Oct 3, 2026

“I’m so sorry.” This is never a promising intro to a text early in the morning. I hesitated to look. Ken Sleight, aged 97, had died in his sleep. Throughout the day, I received more messages about Sleight. Although I was sad to hear of his passing, the messages gave me pause. Did these folks know that I never met him? The thought stung. I should have made a better effort, but I’ve long entrusted most of my canyon country encounters to the desert. Damn. However, whether you met the man or encountered his literary myth, Sleight touched the lives of all who advocate for public lands and the Color

Oct 3, 2026

High in the Peruvian Andes, the 620-kilometer Alma Andina pushed Poli Berber across 5,000-meter passes, remote dirt roads, and far beyond the race she’d imagined. When altitude, exhaustion, and a failed derailleur threatened to end her ride, she discovered that moving forward sometimes means letting go of the plan. Find her written recap, a route map, and a video made along the way here... The post Alma Andina: A Journey Into the Soul of the Andes appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com .

Oct 2, 2026

“I think it’d be a nightmare from a public relations standpoint, for MLB to be seen as wanting to come in and tear up a national park to build a baseball field for one game.” - Rob Wallace, Teton County resident and former Assistant Secretary of the Interior in the first Trump administration. Early-morning view of the Teton Range from Blacktail Ponds, Grand Teton National Park. Author photo. On Saturday, September 28, The Washington Post broke a story about something I can only describe as the most preposterous public lands proposal I’ve ever heard in my entire life: building a baseball park f

Oct 2, 2026

Hi, Doug, come on in! Please, make yourself comfortable. We appreciate you making the time. We know your calendar is packed, what with all the "clean coal" promotion, those mandated lease sales no one shows up to, the baseball stadium in Teton National Park , and, well, the reflecting pool. Ha! [Slaps him on that back] I'm just messing with you, Doug! Look, we realize it’s unprecedented to get a performance review as a cabinet secretary, but you’re coming up on your two-year anniversary as head of Interior. It's been a little rocky, so we thought now would be a helpful time to give you some fe

Oct 1, 2026

Over the past year or so, I’ve had on my journalism hat and been investigating the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, prompted by their petitions to the California Fish and Game Commission to increase restrictions on some six-plus miles of our coast that will make some of our local fishing (and gathering) illegal. It’s a very tangled issue where we — the vast majority of locals and businesses — are opposed to the EAC’s attempted interference in our lives. (Bolinas is a famously green, self-reliant town that is a significant producer of vegetables and fish in the San Francisco Bay Ar

Oct 1, 2026

Panthertown Valley is a relatively small 6311-acre wilderness area in Nantahala National Forest in western North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s a little bit off the beaten track, but far from obscure, as the old promoter’s trick of slapping the label “Yosemite of the East” seems to have piqued interest over the decades. The Yosemite comparison owes itself to the granite features of the mountains that surround the valley. Proto-Half Domes, I guess. These smooth outcrops are a far cry from El Capitan, but they do possess a distinct character. Unlike the tectonic uplift and glacial s

Oct 1, 2026

Yesterday morning we launched our National Data Center Tracker , and within hours we had a major new project to add to it as well as legislation aimed at preventing projects like it from being built on federal public lands. The ground is moving fast. NPR reported Wednesday that nuclear startup Valar Atomics is proposing a massive data center complex on more than 9,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land near Price, Utah. The project, called Project Beehive, would include data centers powered by roughly 456 small nuclear reactors, along with a facility to produce nuclear fuel and facilities

Oct 1, 2026

At the Unicorn 5K event. Day 1,098 – 5K Race (19:09, 157 bpm) Why run a 5K race when training for an ultra? There are several reasons. First, the crowd makes it easy to get my heart rate up. In training, to get my heart rate over 150 bpm requires me to spend mojo. At the running race, all I need to do is follow the crowd and let my natural competitive instincts do the work. Second, if my heart rate doesn’t come up, or if my effort feels unusually difficult for the pace, then I know I’m carrying more fatigue than I realized. This 5K was placed in the middle of an unload block prior to an Italia

Oct 1, 2026

During my past four years of my rookie season of child-raising, I have frequently reminded myself, “They said this was going to happen.” Or, “Someone told me about this exact thing/feeling/challenge.” Because I had interviewed 40 dads over a period of about two years, I had so many bits of their wisdom and their stories rattling around in my head. And it turns out they were right about many, many things. Since those interviews are now public as of the launch of my book So Far, So Good: 40 Dads Talk About Becoming Parents and How They Figured It Out , I thought I’d share a handful of my favorit

Sep 30, 2026

“DHS has been directed to consult with stakeholders and come up with a new plan, and that has yet to happen. If they resume construction [in Big Bend National Park], they will be resuming destruction against the will of both the people and the federal courts.” - Bob Krumenaker, Chair of Keep Big Bend Wild and former Big Bend National Park Superintendent Bulldozer in Big Bend National Park - Credit: Natalie Newman On August 17, after bulldozers and excavators had spent several days plowing their way through pristine native vegetation and wildlife habitat along the Rio Grande in Big Bend Nationa

Sep 30, 2026

Last year, in what I can only describe as a manic episode of new motherhood, I built an entire course load called The Rewilding. I had a baby, lost my former relationship to time, and in that strange postpartum expansion decided to build an entire curriculum about intuition, attention, ritual, self-trust, seasonality—whatever else I was trying to understand about being alive. Then I taught them. The Rewilding became a real thing! Seasonal practices, workshops, a winter session, a spring workbook, a group of people willing to get on Zoom and talk about their actual lives. People came back. They

Sep 30, 2026

For the past few years, something very strange has been happening all over America. A town discovers its county commission voted on a data center project behind closed doors. Residents somewhere else learn that a new transmission line is being planned to feed one. Public officials have signed NDAs with the companies involved. A project appears in county records under a name nobody recognizes. A development authority starts acting less like a public body and more like an outside company’s local office, rushing land, tax breaks and infrastructure into place while growing openly hostile to the re

Sep 30, 2026

A Desert Tortoise in the sited area of the Bonanza Solar Project. Laura Cunningham The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has called protection of a desert tortoise corridor north of Las Vegas “imperative” to the species’ recovery. Yet it is considering a massive solar project in the middle of it. Western Watersheds Project and Basin and Range Watch have formally protested the agency’s final environmental review of the proposed Bonanza Solar Project. The BLM is siting a 5,133-acre photovoltaic and lithium battery project on public lands in high-quality, intact Mojave desert tortoise habitat, 70 m

Sep 30, 2026

Alex Megos returned to Australia with unfinished business. His target was Slice of Heaven, a grade 37 (9b/5.15b)at Cheesedale near Nowra, south of Sydney. After falling just short on his first visit, Megos returned, found his moment and made the first ascent, establishing Australia’s hardest climb and first 9b. Here Dave Barnes details the route, how it came to be and the journey behind its first ascent, straight from the source. There was one day Alex Megos needed. He had flown from Europe to Australia for the second time in a couple of months, chasing a route he had come within one move of c

Sep 29, 2026

When I hiked through New Hampshire on my 2023 NOBO Appalachian Trail thru-hike, the White Mountains tested me in every way they could. I left thinking, Someday I’d like to come back. Last September I did, and this time I didn’t come alone. Bruce laced up his boots, shouldered a pack, and joined me on the Pemi Loop, a roughly 30-mile circuit around the Pemigewasset Wilderness that strings together some of the most spectacular ridgelines in the Whites. ... The post Back to the Whites: The Pemi Loop appeared first on The Trek .

Sep 29, 2026

When a cow is grazing on public land, she becomes other people’s business. If she spends too much time in one place, say, in the creek-side shade of a cottonwood grove where the grass grows like lettuce, her concentrated footprint can negatively affect the ecosystem. Pretty soon, unless she has reason to move from the shade, there’ll be no more lettuce-like grass. And what would otherwise be the concern of a rancher or farmer becomes an issue for everyone. A cow spends about a quarter of her life grazing. Between drinking water, licking saltlicks, chewing her cud, sleeping, and babysitting cal

Sep 29, 2026

I hold and turn my helmet like a classroom globe, dragging my fingers over each mark, each sign of wear. Every indent, every groove represents a route, a pitch, a move, a memory. Note: this piece is published in the new Zine, Volume 17, now available to order. In my hands is my beaten-up shield. It’s lightweight gray plastic with a foam interior and a back that is ventilated… Source

Oct 2, 2026

After seven years of pressure on rock climbers in Western Victoria, Australia, the authorities have today walked back sweeping bans on rock climbing at Mount Arapiles, to introduce only a token ban, representing approximately 2 per cent of the rock climbing routes at this popular State Park. The changes are listed in the document you can find here . This climb-down has come after sustained public pressure against Parks Victoria, the responsible authority managing this issue. When extensive Arapiles climbing and walking bans were first proposed in November 2024, the CEO and several executives w

Oct 1, 2026

Greetings! I recently joined John Gay on The Shakeout Podcast to talk about performance supplements. Before long, we found ourselves revisiting a familiar villain known as lactate. I expanded on some of my thoughts from that conversation in my other newsletter, Physiologically Speaking , and thought I’d share that piece here since it’s incredibly relevant to runners! Enjoy. For decades, lactate was blamed for burning legs and muscle fatigue. Now the pendulum has swung in the other direction (as things tend to do in this space). Lactate is a fuel, a signaling molecule… and it might even be some

Oct 1, 2026

In the second installment of The Cut List, Lucas shares a dozen things he once considered essential but now sees as dead weight after two busy decades of bikepacking, traveling, and obsessing over gear. Find a sweeping mix of habits, equipment, and beliefs he’s learned to leave in the dust in The Cut List Vol. 2 here… The post The Cut List (Vol. 2): Gear Lucas Has Left Behind appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com .

Sep 30, 2026

Stay warm without needing to haul a ton of weight using these ultralight quilts tested and approved by one of FM's expert gear writers

Sep 29, 2026

I used to roll my eyes a little at apple picking. It felt like a manufactured fall activity, the leaf-peeping equivalent of a corn maze: pay $30, pick a bag of apples you could’ve bought for $6, take a photo, leave. But not every fall orchard in New England is a zoo - in fact most are small family run operations that are worth a visit. This Week’s New England Outdoor Report UNCOVERED Depending on where you are in New England, Honeycrisp season might be peaking right now , which matters more than it sounds like: go too early and you’re picking underripe Macs, go too late and the good stuff’s pi

Oct 3, 2026

Potatoes. Yes, potatoes! We wrapped them in foil and cooked them over a fire on the Florida trail. (We had just spent the entire day sloshing through knee deep water. Wildfires were not a concern.) In my defense, I was twenty-two, and they were delicious. Canned apple juice. In my dad's old external frame pack. In Utah, somewhere. I don't know. I was eighteen. A cotton sweatshirt. In the cold, often thunderstormy mountains. In my defense, fleece was heavy back then. The sweatshirt was pink and had sheep on it. I loved it. Not sure what happened to it. A fancy dress. We had skied into a cabin p

Oct 2, 2026

Warren, Vermont / © Mitch Moraski The big news here in Vermont this autumn has nothing to do with Ben & Jerry, maple syrup, or even Bernie Sanders. It’s the leaves. Fall foliage is insane this year, the best in a long time. So I suggest you get yourself to Vermont pronto. Quit your job, sell your house, leave your spouse — do whatever it takes. Our forests are an aurora. If you can’t make it, do not worry. I offer you not only images, captured this week by the photographer Mitch Moraski , but also a reminder about recognizing the wonder wherever you are. In an essay like this, it would be cust

Aug 24, 2026

Not long ago, I drove six hours with the Mancos Shale riding shotgun. That isn’t a buddy’s quirky nickname, as in: Yo, my man Mancos, my Shaley bro, hand me the Doritos and Sour Patch Kids, would ya please? It is in fact a geologic formation, a remarkably friable gray-blue-brown mudstone deposited in the Late Cretaceous, some ninety million years before present, when much of what we today call the American West was inundated by a vast inland sea. To an unsuspecting bystander, a turkey vulture or big-rig trucker, I must have seemed to be a lone soul on a desert road trip, only the radio’s pop d

Aug 22, 2026

“If you’re unwilling to contribute $392 to the U.S. economy for one day of skiing at Beaver Creek, then the terrorists will win” - President George W. Bush Share Over several months in 2026, The Storm examined hundreds of newspaper articles, ski area master development plans, U.S. Forest Service reports, and other archives documenting the evolution of lift-served skiing across the American West – and, in particular, Colorado – since the end of World War II. This fossil record of a mostly pre-internet culture captures the facts and sentiments of skiing’s past unfiltered by nostalgia or selectiv

Aug 13, 2026

“You’re on belay, Mom.” “What does that mean?” she replied. “You’re safe, Mom. Climb when ready.” Over the last five-plus years of her life, before she passed away from complications caused by dementia, we’d often say, “You’re safe, Mom,” in an effort to calm a growing sense of restlessness and panic. Story by D Scott Borden, published in Volume 24 of The Zine. Photos: D Scott Borden… Source

Aug 10, 2026

This one took me three years and several hundred dollars in archival fees to be able to write. It's the most personal thing I've published here, and it's also the most political — those turned out to be the same essay. One branch of my family came from Romania during the immigration wave America decided it feared. The other branch is Diné and never came from anywhere. I went into the federal record to find out what the country actually did with both of them, and what I found changed how I think about the fight we're in right now. If you're new here: I usually write about water, public lands, a

Jul 21, 2026

Manti-La Sal National Forest in the fall If you love public lands, there’s a certain kind of article you need to learn to recognize on sight. It runs in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and once it’s worn out the marquee names it filters down into the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek and even Outside, the once-venerable outdoor magazine that’s supposed to be on your side. It’s written in a calm, reasonable, grown-up voice. It concedes that our public lands are in trouble, and then it kindly offers to help. And down at the bottom, in the italicized author bi

Sep 23, 2026

Set on Canada’s remote Canol Trail through the Yukon and Northwest Territories, this time-traveling piece weaves the past and present with memories of the late Iohan Gueorguiev. In it, author Brad Roach shares glimpses of Iohan’s legend and later retraces a path they once shared to spread some of his ashes. Read it here… The post Chasing Windrider: Memories of Iohan Gueorguiev appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com .

Sep 14, 2026

Climbers die all the time; that’s the game. But the death of climber Fiona Layton in a rappel accident in July — the cause, “knot migration” — seems to have created a lot of debate, both technical and ethical. In this accident, the two climbers were rappelling on a 9.6mm rope and a 6mm rope, using them together, as you would with two 8.5mm climbing ropes. The 6mm slipped, creating mismatched ends, and Fiona rappelled off the 6mm rope and was killed. Before you read on, maybe watch the film of Fiona’s Kyrgyzstan trip, as often — as climbers — we can become numb to the human tragedy behind such

Sep 11, 2026

On August 28, the online site NOTUS broke the news that officials at Yosemite National Park and the U.S. Department of the Interior had been quietly conferring for months with a private developer—Jeff Pori, the owner of Las Vegas, Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital—on a proposed land exchange with a controversial goal. According to the initial story and others that followed, Pori has been trying to obtain a small parcel of Yosemite land—between one and two acres—in a swap for a piece of comparably valued turf somewhere else in California. He would then give this parcel to the federal govern

Aug 27, 2026

Through the long Arctic night, I pushed my fatbike through soft snow in the dense forest. The clouds blocked out the stars, and the tree canopy pressed in on me. Running my front light on the lowest setting to preserve the battery, I was surrounded by darkness, with only a small patch of light shining on the snow in front of me to show me the way. The very image of grim determination. Photo by John Summerton. Subscribe now I wasn’t supposed to be pushing my bike. On cold snow, my fatbike runs like a tractor over the trail and movement is easy. But the March weather in Lapland was too warm, hov

Aug 10, 2026

Devils Hole Pupfish / Olin Feuerbacher / USFWS Maybe we should kill off the pupfish — the Devils Hole Pupfish, which is reputed to be the rarest fish on Earth. It would be a quick extinction. We’d drain the only pool in the world where this endangered species survives: a bedrock cavern in the U.S. state of Nevada. And we’d live-stream the killing on YouTube. Only then might oblivion no longer be an abstraction. The last wild Devils Hole Pupfish, an inch long, iridescent blue or green, flopping on hot desert limestone, would gasp … and then gasp no more. We’d witness something that happens all

Jul 31, 2026

Photo of the Pancake Herd Management Area in Nevada (WWP/Erik Molvar) In northern Nevada, helicopters are flying over the Callaghan Herd Management Area and driving wild horses across miles of open desert in the Bureau of Land Management’s largest roundup operation of the year. Nearly 2,000 horses are slated for removal. Several have already died. Most will spend the rest of their lives in government holding facilities, where taxpayers will pay to feed and care for them for years to come, while others will face the threat of landing in kill pens awaiting slaughter in foreign slaughter plants.

Jul 30, 2026

Vincent Bouillard chased down Francesco Puppi late to win the 2026 Western States 100 in a course-record time of 13:46:15. Thomas Cardin, racing his first 100-miler, finished fourth in 14:07:58 – also under the previous record. In this exclusive conversation, one month after their feat, the two Frenchmen break down the pacing, preparation, technology and tactics behind the fastest edition in race history. The post Vincent Bouillard & Thomas Cardin: Rewriting Western States appeared first on Ultra Running Magazine .

Jul 28, 2026

One of Flip’s final production days. Photo: Chad Smith . The news hit me like a 1/0 Clouser to the back of the head. Scrambling to find sources in support of what I hoped was one of those idiotic death hoaxes, I found nothing but confirmation of the latter. The realization dropped like a lead weight from the screen of my iPhone to the pit of my stomach: Flip Pallot, dead at 82. I pinched my own arm and squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to wake up from a bad dream, but my consciousness and reality stayed the same, as did the truth–Flip was gone. Nearly a year has come and gone and it’s still hard t

Jul 23, 2026

Over five days at the start of July, American alpinists Eli Spitulnik and Michael Telstad made the first ascent of Hologram Wall (VI 3,300′ 5.9 A3R M6+ WI5) on Alaska’s Kichatna Spire. Their line is the first to climb directly up the mountain’s imposing south face, succeeding where an earlier attempt in April 2025 had been turned back by storms. Telstad described the ascent as a committing blend of big-wall and alpine climbing, undertaken in one of the most remote corners of the Alaska Range. After spending 1o days moving equipment, fixing pitches and sitting out bad weather, the pair finally

Jul 13, 2026

Dainty tubes, a threaded headset, and lugs are just a few of the features that make the Crust Nor’Easter atypical in today’s bike market. A few years removed from its release, clearance for 29” x 2.6” tires sits at the very edge of what even the most experimental gravel bikes can offer. After waiting more than half a decade for a specific version of this bike to appear, Nic finally got his hands on one. In his Crust Nor’Easter Review, he shares whether this antiquated object lives up to the dream… The post Crust Nor’Easter Review: Dreamboat appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com .

Sep 24, 2026

In an essay reflecting on the recent death of Ida Amelie Robsahm and Kalie McCrystal Ian quotes the great mountaineer Reinhold Messner: “If death was not a possibility, coming out (of the mountains) would be nothing. It would be kindergarten, but not an adventure and not an art.” He continues with his own words in an essay which is is an absolute must read from top to bottom: For those of us drawn to mountains, the attraction is not recklessness. It is something much deeper. Mountains provide perspective in a world increasingly dominated by distraction. They challenge us physically and mentall

Sep 24, 2026

Do supershoes help women more? Advanced footwear technology has changed road racing, but the benefits may not have been evenly distributed. In this study , researchers compared elite performances from a pre-supershoe era (2009–2015) with an advanced-footwear era (2017–2024). For each sex, event, and era, they collected the top 50 performances in the road 10K, half marathon, and marathon. Each athlete contributed only one performance per event and era, which prevented a single superstar (or “super responder”) from flooding the data set. The clever part was the control group. Instead of simply a

Sep 20, 2026

“I’m exhausted, I don’t want to do this anymore.” I wanted to press send. I didn’t. I wanted to box up all my stuff and throw it on the front lawn. “Melbourne Marathon finishers shirt free to good home.” I didn’t. I didn’t start a race recently. I relentlessly argued with myself over it. I haven’t stopped since the first week of July. Work stress, home stress, races, training, work stress, home stress, races, training, repeat. It’s no one’s fault but my own, falling into a pattern of saying yes to everyone when I should be saying no. I had goals that I no longer give two shits about and fun th

Sep 20, 2026

I wanted a black cat. This should have been a fairly easy problem to solve. There are always black cats, because black cats suffer lower adoption rates . It felt like the shelters surrounding us across the Western Slope were filling with them. I saw them constantly on Instagram, tiny shadows with yellow eyes, elegant adult cats sitting in rescue kennels waiting for someone to understand their particular appeal. But I couldn’t just go to a shelter and choose a cat because my black cat was a manifestation. We already had three cats. There was no path to sensibly adopting a fourth. No, instead, I

Sep 16, 2026

Beat takes in the view from Aiguillette des Houches In my memory, it was the only cold day in Boulder all winter, a frosty Monday morning on the cusp of spring. My sister, driving my Subaru, crept down the icy switchbacks of Flagstaff Road as I sat in the passenger seat, watching diffused sunlight ripple across the eastern plains. “If this is the last sunrise I ever see, at least it’s a good one,” I thought, because I am particularly overwrought when I am stressed. Surgery is scary. The idea that strangers are going to render me unconscious and slice into my body — I don’t understand how anyon

Sep 10, 2026

Earlier this week Megan Eckert ran 636.5 miles in six days, winning the EMU Six-Day Race. We covered the result in yesterday’s issue , but kept thinking about it all afternoon.. What does that actually look like? What was her pace? What was the course like? How did her pace change? How long and how often did she sleep or take breaks? So I had fun and made something a little different for The Ultra Minute : an interactive story using the official lap data to explore her race. My favorite view shows every completed lap across the six days, with indicators for day/night. There’s also a closer loo

Sep 8, 2026

Last year, the National Park Service lost about a quarter of its previously 20,000-strong workforce to reductions in force, early retirements, and buyouts. But that didn’t go far enough for Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who tried to use last fall’s 43-day government shutdown as a mechanism for eliminating staff at regional NPS offices. A federal judge ultimately stopped that from happening, at least temporarily. Now, Burgum is back with a new plan that works around that court order by reframing the layoffs as a “reorganization.” NOTUS reports : “The reorganization plans across Interio

Sep 5, 2026

Dear 2025 Brandy “Pumbaa” Sales, You already know why you hike. At least, you think you do. Last year, you wrote about your 10 reasons for backpacking the Laugavegur Trail. You talked about health, adventure, pushing yourself, and the way you feel when you’re out there. A year later, I don’t think your why has changed. But I understand it a little better now. The biggest reason is pretty simple: You are choosing your health. There are a few things I wish I could tell you about the year ahead. ... The post Dear Pumbaa in 2025, This Is Your Why in 2026 appeared first on The Trek .

Aug 25, 2026

Karen Merlin lives in Les Contamines. When UTMB comes through the valley later this week, it goes right through her town. I wanted to talk to her ahead of race week because this spring she moved into a job that didn’t exist before she took it, and the title itself is a curious one. Elite athlete relations and inclusion programs sound like two different departments until you realize that the pros are the visible surface of the sport, and who wins, who gets covered, and who ends up in the photography all feed the same representation question about who thinks this sport is for them, a topic I’ve

Aug 24, 2026

As a general rule, ultra marathons don’t tend to reveal life’s great metaphors early in a race. You usually need to suffer a bit longer for your wisdom. Yet barely a few miles into the Tamalpa Headlands 50K, while beginning the first of a half dozen serious climbs, the day’s great big revelation hit me hard. “You don’t have to be anybody but you.” You don’t have to be elite. You don’t have to be legendary. You don’t have to be, as I told a friend the day before the race, dramatically bold and/or potentially stupid. You just have to be you. It was you that got yourself to this moment with your

Aug 20, 2026

What happens when an identity outlives its original purpose? The Walmart Meal Plan consists of $.79 mustard, a loaf of bread, pre-sliced cold cuts & cheese, a Monster Energy drink, yogurt, and Lu Petit Ecolier cookies. The shadow of the wind turbine on I-80 swoops past the pickup truck like a plane, but instead of disappearing into the horizon of the setting sun, it loops back around and over us again. Iowa is a bosom of green that’s welcoming with hospitality; the kind of place that has interstate rest stops with water spigots and educational displays about grassland health. Deeper into South

Aug 20, 2026

Feature produced in association with DPS A decade into DPS’s relationship with the American military and NATO allies, making skis has never carried more weight for the ski brand. Leading up the operation is Mike Cannon, who gets a point of view into a world which few civilians ever see when he travels to mountainous and arctic regions around the globe. The experiences have given him a unique understanding of what soldiers demand from their skis and how DPS can meet those demands through innovation, design and in-house manufacturing. It’s not enough to survive; 10th group soldiers must learn to

Aug 20, 2026

I ran 300 laps on the indoor track at the gym in our neighborhood, each one one-tenth of a mile, clockwise. This was a couple Fridays ago, when the air quality index was 110, which is technically “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” according to the EPA. At least I think it was 300 laps. It was probably more, because I ran until my watch hit 30.06 miles, and the gym says the track is 0.1 mile per lap, but my watch often recorded something a little short of 0.1 mile per lap, and I wasn’t going to try to keep count of my laps for five hours. The wildfire smoke moved into town the last week of July,

Jul 28, 2026

How pants made by a hippie California rock climber for high-stepping up granite became one of the most influential silhouettes in modern menswear

Jul 20, 2026

Opening scene from the film Warfare. I am a collector of parallel friendships. By this I mean my friendships tend to be defined by side-by-side interaction—relationships formed through common activity, practices, rehearsals, or collaboration. I’ve met most of my friends through sports, jobs, or some sort of physical exertion. Our friendships were cultivated over casual chats on group runs or banter riding bikes along a country road. Our conversations were defined by the rhythm between swings chopping wood in the backyard or by work projects approached shoulder-to-shoulder (or virtual square-to

Jul 17, 2026

This April, I spent four days in the basement of Utah State University pulling faded catalogs from olive-gray archival boxes in the . I’d crack a book from the 1970s looking for anything related to wool , flip a few pages, and get distracted by the same thing: men in fishnet undergarments . I’m not even kidding. Look: Upper left, from the 1973-74 Fall & Winter Norm Thompson catalog: “Norse-Net”as full of surprises as it is holes. Actually a thermal undershirt! Full of holes to keep you warm in the winter, cool in the summer, comfortable all the time. Wear it under a soft cotton T-shirt and lig

Jul 15, 2026

Lisa Jackson and her husband Graham regularly ran together - although she found more enjoyment from the sport “To imagine a future without him was inconceivable. I’d never lived my adult life without him by my side.” Lisa Jackson is talking about her husband, Graham, who sadly died from mesothelioma in 2021. Subscribe now Graham’s passing came at the start of a heart-breaking period of 17 months in which she also lost her father and her sister. Their story is part of Lisa’s latest book, ‘Still Running After All These Tears: A Runner’s Journey Through Grief’. In it, the serial marathoner and Ru