A wise person once said of backpacking, “the more you know, the less you need.” After two thru-hikes and decades of multi-day trips I’ve become more confident in choosing the gear that works for me, but I’ve made some poor choices along the way. It took a lot of experience

One of the greatest gifts Mother Nature has granted lovers of the outdoors is our planet’s wealth of alpine lakes. Blessed with fascinating colors and scenic mountainous backdrops, the vast majority of these high-altitude jewels come with a ‘must see’ quality not shared by many of their lower-altitude cousins. National

Over the years, Mount Everest has attracted a fine selection of the world’s weirdest, wackiest and most wonderful characters. For the most part, however, these days the idiosyncrasy of majority of those trying to scale the world’s highest peak tends to lie in the fact that they are very wealthy

Viewing the summit-shots of successful mountaineers, we could be forgiven for thinking there’s not much to the art of mountaineering other than healthy levels of strength, stamina, fitness, courage and, of course, a good beard. Above, however, we have chosen our words very carefully, for mountaineering is indeed an ‘art’

Whatever pursuits we turn our hands to in life, as beginners the chances of making mistakes are exceedingly high. Climbing and mountaineering are no exception to this rule, only the potential consequences of our errors in either of these high-risk activities are considerably more severe than in most others. While

The Matterhorn. Just say the name and your mind is likely to conjure all sorts of tales from its treasury of climbing mythology – accompanied, no doubt, by an image of what might just be the most iconic mountain in the world. Skewering the Valais and Valtournenche skyline with its

“Safe” is not a word you’d use to describe most Russian drivers. YouTube is absolutely filled with frightening Russian driver videos, showing everything from road rage, to epic accidents. So it’s not really surprising that a Russian school bus driver would attempt to cross a washed out bridge during a

For generations, mankind has fought the elements and has learned to thrive in some of the harshest conditions thinkable. But even after all of the advances we’ve made in taming our environment, we still find ourselves dedicating our weekends to getting lost in the outdoors. Regardless of whether you’re an

So what do you do when you’ve got a river running through a deep gorge, and no bridge in sight? If you were normal, you would probably drive up and down the river until you find a bridge, or at least a shallow crossing you might be able to fjord.

Grizzly Bear attacks are extremely rare and it’s highly unlikely you will ever be charged by one much less catch it on camera. But, that’s exactly what happened to two mountain bikers riding on a trail at the Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. The Grizzly in the below video