Adventure · The Long Way
The Far Side of July: Across the Brooks Range on Foot and by Paddle
Four hundred miles, one food cache, zero trails: a month across the roof of Alaska, from Anaktuvuk Pass to the village of Noatak, walking and floating through the largest stretch of roadless country left in America.
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Adventure · Dispatch
Rinse Cycle: What the Trail-Town Laundromat Knows
Follow the hiker season north along the Continental Divide and the truest room in every trail town turns out to be the one with the change machine.
Water · Dispatch
Temperature Is a Rumor: A Summer at the Ladder
Every morning at 5:45, a loose republic of open-water swimmers convenes at a steel ladder on Lake Michigan's concrete edge. The lake sets the agenda; the board on the fence just takes minutes.
Running · Explainer
The Furnace You Carry: What Heat Actually Does to a Runner
Heat doesn't break runners through weakness — it breaks them through thermodynamics, on a schedule. A field guide to the furnace you carry, the number that matters more than the temperature, and the five predictable ways a good day ends in the medical tent.
Snow · Profile
The Forecaster's Summer
The last avalanche of the season ran in March. In July, Ruth Sandoval is still working it — with a tape measure, a chainsaw, and a database of close calls that nobody else wants to read.
Biking · Trip Report
Follow the Turtle: Three Days on the Maah Daah Hey
North Dakota's 144-mile badlands singletrack is the longest continuous trail of its kind in America, and close to the emptiest. We rode it south to north in three July days, between thunderstorms, and came out rearranged.
Running · Essay
Quit Like You Mean It
Ultrarunning has a hundred words for pushing through and none for the moment when stopping is the correct athletic decision. The drop is a skill. Almost nobody trains it.