EDITORS’ PICKS

THE ULTIMATE FLY-FISHING KIT

LIVE BRAVELY

TRAVEL
SPORTS CAMPS
FOR ADULTS

FITNESS
WHY YOU NEED
HEAT TRAINING

NUTRITION
MUSHROOMS
ARE THE NEXT
SUPERFOOD

GEAR
AN ATHLETE’S
GUIDE TO
MINIMALISM

OVERSCHEDULED.
ADDICTED TO
SCREENS.
IT’S TIME TO SET
OUR KIDS FREE.

REWILDING
THE AMERICAN CHILD
+ EXPLORE THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
BY RICHARD LOUV

NEW RITES OF PASSAGE

BY FLORENCE WILLIAMS

MAKE SPORTS FUN AGAIN

BY KATIE ARNOLD
Outside Magazine Contents
09.18

Features
42 Rewilding the
American Child
Kids today, we can
all agree, are discon-
nected from nature,
addicted to screens,
and tamed by well-
meaning parents. So
how do we restore
their freedom, fire up
their imaginations,
and let them loose to
play? The answers
are all around us.

62 In the Land
of Giants
Chile’s nearly com-
pleted Route of Parks
is thanks in large part
to Kristine and (the
late) Doug Tompkins,
who worked with the
government to protect
millions of acres of
peaks, rivers, glaciers,
and fjords. STEPHANIE
PEARSON rolls south
through Patagonia’s
new string of jewels.

70 On a
Rampage
Few mountain bikers
can match Casey
Brown’s hang time,
speed, or grit. Now she
wants to be the first
woman to ride in the
sport’s most punishing
event. BY GORDY
MEGROZ

t’s t t
Simple
A growing legion of
minimalist adventurers
insist that when it
comes to the gear
shed, less is more. But
as
found out the hard way,
getting rid of sports
apparel hurts a lot
more than unloading
jeans and polos.

2 P H OTO G R A P H B Y José Mandojana

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Outside Magazine Contents
09.18

Dispatches
11 MEDIA
Memoir: A new voice in
exploration literature cycles
the Silk Road. Plus, ranking
creature features.

12 BIG IDEA
The Artificial Wave: Why
the first World Surf League
competition on a man-made
swell is nothing to celebrate.
BY ALEX WILSON

28 16
Adventure Schools:
Classroom time isn’t so bad
when you’re building fly rods
24 36 in Virginia, pack-rafting
in Alaska, or barbecuing in
the Lone Star State.
Journeys: Swipe right for
guides, and the best acces-
sories for your next trip.

C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: C H A R L E S D U S T I N S A M M A N N ; P E T R A Z E I L E R ; H A N N A H M C C A U G H E Y; VA N C E J AC O B S ; J A S O N C H I L D S
Bethany Hamilton: Just
because she lost her arm to
a shark doesn’t mean this
surfing champion—the subject
of the new documentary
Unstoppable—is a victim.

26 GEAR
Wearable Tech: A solar
smartwatch that never
needs charging.
Fishing: Rods, reels,
waders—everything but
the one that got away.
Boat: Hobie’s pedal-
powered Mirage Pro Angler
keeps hands free to fish.
Women’s Base Layers:
Good-looking, hard-charging
bottoms and tops.

Performance: Athletes are

turning up the thermostat with
heat training. Bring on the hot
tubs and sauna workouts.
Laird’s Laws: The good and
the bad of superfoods, from
turmeric to butter coffee.
Training: A wholesale update
to Joe Friel’s cycling bible.
Nutrition: The magic
of mushrooms.

Shoulder-season classics
that go from barn to bar.

6
16
88

4 Cover photograph by
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Between the Lines Staying Wild
09.18

“Should I call the school to

make sure they made it?” I asked
my wife.
“They’re fine,” she said. Feedback
She was right. They were
fine, and they have continued to Nail-Biting Tales
be fine on dozens of solo rides If nothing else, Outside readers love adven-
to school ever since. Still, every ture. Our June issue featured accounts of
American parent can probably close calls in the great outdoors. Whether
identify with the angst I felt. In it was writer Earl Swift’s account of a crab
many cases, however, the fear of boat’s run-in with disaster on the Chesa-
letting go stands in contrast to peake Bay (“The Sea Is Come Up”) or con-
our own childhood experiences. tributing editor Kyle Dickman’s near death
I grew up on the campus of a encounter with a rattlesnake (“Rattled”),
large New England prep school, you told us to keep bringing the wild stories.
where at age five I roamed freely
until my mom rang a dinner I’m not sure I Vos profile (“Like
bell. In second grade, I started should have read a Boss”), which
walking a half mile to school “Rattled.” On showed how Vos
every day with my best friend. vacations I mostly will play an impor-
To my knowledge, my parents hike solo, some- tant role in height-
didn’t fret over those decisions. times trekking ening awareness
So what’s changed? For start- 60 or more miles and appreciation
ers, we are barraged with hor- through the back- of women’s cycling.
Set Our Children Free rific news stories that perpetuate the myth country and down Jim Vance
I still get a twinge of panic when I think back to that the world is now a much more dangerous into canyons. I’ve Culpeper, Virginia
the first time my kids rode their bikes to school place. As a result, fewer kids walk or ride a often wondered
on their own. I watched them roll slowly down bike to school alone, making parents who let what would hap- Rolling on
our driveway, hauling backpacks that seemed their kids do so feel like irresponsible outliers. pen if I were struck the River
half as big as their little bodies, then stop at It’s a problematic feedback loop, and just by a rattlesnake. Your online ar-
the bottom, just as I had instructed dozens of one of many factors that has fundamentally Now I know—in ticle “The Greatest
times. They looked both ways—twice—before altered childhood—there’s also addiction to detail. I’d probably Show on Earth” is
Olive, then eight, glanced back at Cash, six, screens, less unstructured time to play out- die. One thing I truly groundbreak-
as if to say, All set? Then they stepped on their side, and packed after-school schedules, to always do is hike ing stuff. I’ve rafted
pedals, took a wobbly right turn, and disap- name a few. This month, in “Rewilding the in jeans, no matter the Colorado River
peared from view. American Child” (page 42), we explore these how hot it is. But through the Grand
I visualized every detail of how their short conundrums with a series of provocative es- Kevlar shin guards Canyon, all 277
ride would unfold from there: a stop sign at says. There’s no right way to parent. You will sound tempting. miles of it. It’s an
the end of our street, a right turn, another encounter some wild ideas you might vehe- Sharon May intense, multifac-
stop sign half a block up a hill, another right, mently disagree with (say, unschooling) as Hurricane, Utah eted experience
then a quick left, and, finally, another 200 well as some less radical advice that might that’s life altering
yards to school. All told it’s less than a mile, inspire you to try something new (letting “The Sea Is Come in the purest sense
but the variables involved—distracted drivers, your kids walk to school). What we can prob- Up” was a grip- of the term. Your
a four-way intersection, no parent to guide ably agree on universally: if we want to raise ping account of beautifully chosen
them—made their journey feel epic. Simply the next generation of nature-loving adven- people who work photos, and the
trusting the outcome felt like a monumental turers, we need to change. —CHRISTOPHER every day in the way the article
act of parental negligence. KEYES ( @KEYESER) outdoors—such flows from east to
a well-told tale of west, brought me
how a string of in- a flood of wonder-
nocuous decisions ful memories and
can lead to an the biggest smile
Off the Map unforeseen result. I’ve had in a while.
For “In the Land of Giants” (page 62), con- Equally good was Rick Quinn
F R O M TO P : G R AYS O N S C H A F F E R ; B R I A N H AY D E N

tributing editor Stephanie Pearson and her
boyfriend, Brian Hayden, set out on Chile’s
future Route of Parks. After driving the rugged
Carretera Austral, they arrived just in time for
the ferry to their next leg, only to find that it
was out of service. After backtracking 93 miles
in the rain, Hayden made an unwelcome an-
nouncement: he’d lost his passport. With rain
still pouring, he rummaged through the car
and found it. The next day, he misplaced
his phone. “How can anyone lose their pass-
port and their phone in 24 hours?” Pearson
says. Happily, the ordeal ended with the
couple sipping pisco sours before setting out
on four days of hiking in Torres del Paine.
the Marianne Phoenix, Arizona
The Woodshed
In July’s feature “Up the Creek,” we
incorrectly stated that a picture of John
Singleton Copley’s painting Watson
and the Shark illustrates the 1775 Bat-
tle of Quebec. The painting depicts
Havana’s harbor. In the summer issue
of our Buyer’s Guide, the Vans Slide-On
sandals featured on page 136 are $30,
not $3. Outside regrets the errors.

6 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
Between the Lines Staying Wild
09.18

’s
> Glut Is
Another
Go With Us ’s
Join Outside GO at In his story “It’s Not
Mashpi Lodge, in That Simple” (page
Ecuador’s Chocó cloud 76), contributing
forest, a 3,000-acre editor Tom Vander-
reserve filled with bilt enlisted clothing
orchids, waterfalls, and maker and “practic-
400 species of birds. ing minimalist” Mac
Hike, take a ride on the Bishop to help him
elevated tandem “sky weed out his gear
bike,” or just gaze out collection. “I don’t
the floor-to-ceiling win- even know how to
dows while enjoying describe all the
a cocktail and a three- junk that was lying
course dinner. Trips around,” Vanderbilt
from $1,098, learn more says. Still, he decided
at outsidego.com. there were some
things he couldn’t
live without. We ran
t’s t s s the numbers.
This month’s “Rewilding the American Child” (page 42) celebrates
raising kids with a healthy dose of nature. Our staffers got their
love of the wilderness from their parents, but there were definitely
some rough times along the way, too.
FOUR
bikes: “The most
perfect machine ever
“One hot summer “On Cedar Key, off “When I was six, my invented. I have one
day, my mom took Florida’s Gulf Coast, dad took me to a space-saving folding
my brother and me my dad told my ten- mountain stream to bike, another pure
hiking to a secluded year-old sister to go play panning for gold. road, another for a
part of the woods pet a pelican. I think Almost immediately bit of off-road, and a
behind our house. he wanted to test a bug stung my dad spare at the in-laws’.
We arrived to spot a her courage. Anyway, on the eyelid, which But no real dupli-
young couple mak- it bit her. She steers swelled shut, sending cates here. Anyway,
ing out and getting clear of them to this us home.” —Aleta it’s part of my job.”
naked.” —Tasha day.” —Nicholas Hunt, Burchyski, associate
Zemke, copy editor associate editor managing editor

Stick the Landing

Photographer José Mandojana brought his
>
1,000
books: “They’re my

C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: M A S H P I LO D G E ; T H O M A S WA LT E R ; M A R T Y S C H A F F E R
hardtail to the shoot of mountain biker Casey By the Skin of lifeblood, so I don’t
Brown in Virgin, Utah (“On a Rampage,” page His Teeth feel bad about own-
70). “I love speed, but I’ve never tried anything New York–based photo ing a lot of them.”
like she does,” says Mandojana, who is based retoucher Matthew
in Los Angeles. “Just last month I took a fall Jones was in the
on a route I always ride.” For fun we compared
Mandojana’s skills against Brown’s.
dentist’s chair when his
phone went off. Senior
photo editor Leah
TEN
pairs of sneakers:
Brown: Lands Mandojana: Catches Woodruff was on dead- “Somehow I can
60-foot jumps vs. two feet of air, feels line to get this issue’s never get past the
without flinching. like he’s flying. cover image from him, childhood thrill of
so he sent her the pic- opening a fresh box
WINNER: Brown, for actually flying ture mid-cleaning. His of kicks. Plus, NYC is
dentist understood— the ultimate stage
Brown: Strips Mandojana:
life in New York. to see and be seen.”
the brakes from Rides the brakes
vs.
her bike, goes 60 hard, goes 30
miles per hour. miles per hour.
“Brown has launched from hundreds of similar
WINNER: Mandojana—safety first!
jumps. But this one is making her nervous. The wind
Brown: Mandojana: is gusting hard enough to knock an airborne rider
Soars over a vs. Bunny-hops off-kilter. If that happens, Brown will probably slam
trailer for an
advertisement.
a curb for a
challenge.
i t t s t’s s st s
—GORDY MEGROZ, PAGE 70
WINNER: Brown, by at least 35 feet

8 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
 Running into Trouble
In June, while the rest of the Outside staff sat comfortably at our com- A Picture
puters in Santa Fe, four editors went to Wyoming for the Bighorn Trail Is Worth a
Run, which hosts races ranging from 18 to 100 miles. Their results were Thousand
impressive, especially since it rained for part of the trip. But no good Followers
adventure is complete without a few hiccups. We ranked the worst ones. Since we launched
our Facebook
FOURTH PLACE enough for Outside trail. But I was too group Outside
“For the first time in correspondent Peter confident. Twenty Travel in May, we’ve
my life, I missed the Vigneron. I was the steps later, I slipped been blown away
start. (I blame sleep only one sleeping in a and fell on my ass.” by the photos that
deprivation.) But tent, which became —Online managing members have
beginning in dead last increasingly muddy. editor Abigail Wise, posted from as far
place was actually Once we finally de- 32 miles afield as Agadiur,
great for my mental cided on a spot, I Morocco, and Yog-
game. I got to run the slept until about 11 FIRST PLACE yakarta, Indonesia.
first few miles at my P.M. That’s when “By mile 88, after a In fact, the images
own pace and had the lightning began.” night of running in are so great that
fun passing people all —Social media rain, hail, and knee- we’ll share the
the way to the finish editor Jenny Earnest, deep mud, I found best photograph
line.” —Associate support crew myself laughing submitted during
t ’ t i social media editor uncontrollably and the month of Sep-
Jeep and Outside TV teamed up to present Svati Kirsten Narula, SECOND PLACE singing to a group tember with our
A Road Few Travel, a series about adventur- 32 miles “After barreling down of imaginary moose. almost 900,000
ers including Jon Rose, Chris Burkard, Ayesha miles of slick, muddy In other words, the Instagram follow-
McGowan, and Melissa Arnot (above). Find THIRD PLACE singletrack, I gave last 12 miles took a ers. Be warned:
TYLER REID

out how these individuals cut their own path “We moved camp- myself a pat on the long time.” —Senior the competition
in the wild at outsidetv.com or on the free sites twice because back for navigating editor Matt Skenazy, will be stiff.
Outside TV Features app (Android and iOS). they weren’t good the pretty technical 100 miles

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All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Views expressed herein are those of the author exclusively. Printed in the United States

10 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
 Dispatches Media
09.18
Harris cycling
through Tibet
in 2006
Life Cycles
A FRESH NEW VOICE ON WHAT
IT MEANS TO BE AN EXPLORER
IN THE 21ST CENTURY
BY EVA HOLLAND
KATE HARRIS IS at the controls of a Cessna
172, flying above the Yukon’s frozen Lake
Laberge on a bluebird late-winter day. Her
instructor, Jessica, is in the copilot’s seat,
ready to take charge if need be. Harris is
learning to execute steep turns, and as she
practices the sharp 45-degree maneuvers,
I watch the horizon twist itself into a near
vertical line from the back of the plane.
“Now pull, hold that nose up,” Jessica says.
“Keep that bank angle, a little more bank.”
Harris, 36, is the author of the thought-
ful and compelling new memoir Lands of
Lost Borders ($25, Dey Street), and she’s no
stranger to adrenaline-inducing adventure.
The book, out in the U.S. on August 21, is al-
ready a bestseller in Canada, and it tells the
story of a 14-month-long cycling trip Harris
took tracing the Silk Road with her childhood
best friend. But it’s also about much more:
the seemingly arbitrary ways that history,
MELISSA YULE
geography, and politics can throw up borders
between us, and what it means to be an ex-
plorer in the modern era. She moves beyond
the old definitions, so closely tied to conquest
and colonialism, and presents exploration
as a way of seeing the world. “We long our
whole lives for things we’ve never known,
places we’ve never been, abstractions that
come alive to us in unexpected ways,” Har-
ris writes. “Perhaps the great task of modern
explorers is not to conquer but to connect, to
reveal how any given thing leads to another.”
Harris grew up in rural Ontario, playing
outside and plowing through books about the
men and women who forged paths through
the world’s remote places. Her dream to be-
come an astronaut-scientist took her to the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
then to Oxford and MIT. It also sent her to
a Mars simulation in the red dust of Utah
and, once disillusionment with laboratory
life chased her from academia, led her down
the Silk Road by bicycle. Her recollection of
that journey is beautifully written, a vivid
conjuring of landscapes most readers have
never seen. Of Marco Polo, her predecessor
on the Silk Road, she writes: “All [he] did was
travel to lands new to him but old to others
and write about what he saw. Could it be so
simple? The idea gave me strange hope.”
Hope is the right word. Lands of Lost Bor-
ders is fundamentally optimistic and uplift-
ing, and Harris is funny and generous. So
many adventure memoirs detail seemingly
superhuman feats of endurance that are off-
limits to most mortals. Harris, instead, sug-
REVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
RANKING THE SEASON’S ADDITIONS
TO THE MONSTER-MOVIE CANON
This summer has been packed with
that Hollywood mainstay: the creature
feature. But many of the oversize,
sometimes ancient, always imaginary
megafauna they depict are starting
to feel like old friends. We decided to
settle the score on which franchises de-
serve resurrection and which should go
quietly into retirement. —WILL GORDON
THE PREDATOR
JUST QUIT ALREADY!
You thought you’d seen the last of
them, but the long-haired aliens
of the Predator franchise are back
to killing a bunch of people and
letting a few survive. This time
they’ve reengineered their DNA
and… eh, we don’t care anymore.
JURASSIC WORLD
Life, uh, finds a way, and so do
Jurassic Park’s producers. In
Fallen Kingdom, our heroes save
the dinos from a volcanic erup-
tion, and soon the creatures are
wreaking havoc in the States.
Were sure we’ve seen this one
before, but OK, we’ll see it again.
THE LINE
THE MEG
A 75-foot prehistoric deep-sea
predator stalks Jason Statham
and friends off the coast of
China in this adaptation of Steve
Alten’s book series. There are
sure to be sequels and we don’t
mind, given The Meg’s snarky
humor and special effects.
JUST CAN’T QUIT YOU
THE LAST SHARKNADO
The always self-aware series
is back for its final installment.
With chainsaw-wielding D-
listers and scientifically dubious
plotlines, these movies set a
new so-bad-it’s-good standard.
We’re sad to see them go.
gests that anyone can become an explorer
simply by taking a long walk—or a bike ride—
and paying close attention to the world as it
passes by. Her enthusiasm is contagious.
Those flying lessons were another form of
exploration. When her hour was up on that
day back in March, Harris set us down gen-
tly on the runway at the Whitehorse airport,
a couple hours north of the off-grid cabin
where she lives—reading voraciously as she
did as a child and plotting her next adven-
tures. Safe on the ground, she broke her silent
focus with an exclamation: “I don’t want to
stop!” I felt the same way when I turned the
last page of her book.
OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 11
Dispatches Big Idea
09.18
HUMANKIND’S advance toward the singu-
Liquid larity—a vaguely conceived techno-future
Imbalance which could result in man, machine, and
nature merging seamlessly—is afoot on all
ARTIFICIAL WAVES
fronts. In the realm of artificial intelligence,
NOW OFFER RIDES AS experts believe it will occur in this century. In
GOOD AS THE REAL the fields of cybernetics, genetic modification,
THING. BUT IF YOU and artificial cloning, it seems as if the future
TAKE SURFING OUT has already arrived. Of course, not all break-
OF THE WILD, IS IT throughs are of equal consequence. Like the
STILL SURFING? basic pleasure models in Blade Runner, some
are designed purely for our entertainment.
BY ALEX WILSON
One innovation in that category is an artifi-
cial wave in the heart of California’s dry Cen-
tral Valley. It sits some 100 miles inland from
the Pacific, in the farming town of Lemoore,
off a side road lined by stands of feral palm
trees and double-wide trailers. Developed
by the Kelly Slater Wave Company, the Surf
Ranch houses a 700-yard-long pool that,
according to the official literature, produces
a “high-performance, bi-directional wave
12 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
featuring barrel sections and maneuver sec-
tions.” In early September, it will play host to
a World Surf League competition.
The wave itself is generated by an under-
water hydrofoil, pulled through the pool by
a train-like conveyor. To build it, Slater, an
11-time world champion, and his partners
enlisted the help of an expert in fluid dynam-
ics named Adam Fincham. They spent years
running simulations on parallel supercom-
WAV E S : B E N J A M I N L E E / E Y E E M / G E T T Y
puters, fine-tuning the bottom contours of
the pool, adjusting the speed and hollowness
of the wave, and studying the effects of hy-
drological factors such as turbulence decay.
For surfers the results are historic: flawless
waves capable of rivaling—and even super-
seding—those found in the wild, available at
the push of a button.
This isn’t a new idea. Artificial surf for rec-
reation has been in existence since the 1930s.
In the U.S., the Big Surf Waterpark’s wave pool,
which opened in 1969 in Tempe, Arizona, is
P H OTO G R A P H B Y Hannah McCaughey
 Kelly Slater
stalling at the
Surf Ranch

the best known of the first-generation pools,

though it basically just churns out waist-high
whitewater. Since then the technology has
lurched forward in chlorinated pools and fetid
trenches around the world. The past decade
saw a surge in development, with one Span-
ish company, Wavegarden, designing pools
for sites in Texas and Europe. Until recently,
however, no pool came close to providing the
kind of surfing experience found in nature.
Now we’re entering a post-breakthrough
period. Slater’s company is already planning
to expand the Lemoore Surf Ranch by adding
two pools that will be open to the public (so
far the prototype wave has largely been invi-
tation only) and is on track to open a second
Surf Ranch in Palm Beach, Florida, next year.
Another outfit, the BSR Surf Resort in Waco,
Texas, opened an impressive pool in May.
All this is ostensibly a good thing for those
interested in the technical and athletic pro-
gression of surfing. These new wave pools
give surfers a controlled field where they the benefits of a life tied to the ocean—the
can hone their skills and refine their equip- fulfillment found in learning the cycles of the
ment—something they’ve never had before. seasons and the tides and the weather, the s
And while surfing’s 2020 Olympic debut in subjection of self in the face of a massive nat- be produced on
Japan is still slated to take place in the Pa- ural ecosystem, the mental rewards that arise
cific, there’s little doubt that the future of from reading discernible patterns in apparent demand, by a
competitive surfing will be tied increasingly chaos, the patience and character developed machine, it
to manufactured waves, especially given the during hours spent doing nothing but staring strips away all
financial incentives to match the timing of
swells with a broadcast schedule.
at the horizon. What happens to surf culture
when wave pools produce generations of dev-
t ts
Still, the consequences of a shift toward otees who have never set foot in the ocean? of a life tied to
artificial environments could fundamentally I wondered about this last spring, on my the ocean.
alter what it means to be a surfer. Until this way to Lemoore to watch the Founders’ Cup,
moment, wave riding was inextricably linked which served as a test run for the World Surf
to the wildest and least predictable settings League event. I arrived during a break in the
on the planet. As a result, surf culture is action, and aside from a slight ultramarine
permeated with more than a little transcen- tint, the Surf Ranch pool looked a lot like remain mostly identical and predictable. The
dentalism. Tom Blake, a foundational 20th- the irrigation canals I’d passed on the road. I event was still under way when I left.
century surfer who crossbred his own natu- watched the sunlight on the surface for a few Technology has done a lot to change surf-
ralistic philosophy with ancient Hawaiian minutes, until a voice announced over the PA ing, mostly for the better. World War II–era
values, famously carved the words NATURE system that a wave was about to be gener- advances begat the neoprene wetsuit, wave
= GOD into a sandstone rock face. Later he ated. Then the whir of the electric train cut forecasting, and the materials used in mod-
wrote a treatise, “Voice of the Wave,” and a through the air, and a flawless right-hander ern surfboards. But human-made waves rep-
book, Voice of the Atom, which articulated formed, running for two-fifths of a mile. resent something different. This isn’t tech-
what many surfers know instinctively: that As former world champions Mick Fanning nology that comes into the ocean with us or
riding waves is a way to be subject only to the and Stephanie Gilmore took a few rides, I makes it easier for us to adapt to its cycles. It’s
rhythms of the planet and your own ability to found myself in awe of the wave’s reproduc- an alternative experience in an entirely arti-
sync with them. Trading the ocean for a pool ible perfection. I obviously wanted to ride it. I ficial environment. Disconnect waves from
does away with this line of thought. was even entertained, for a while, by the con- nature and surfing becomes subsumed by our
Of course, surfing doesn’t need to be any- test. After about an hour, though, I started to advance toward a singular future.
TO D D G L A S E R

thing more than a pleasurable experience feel dried out by the inland heat, then a little
provided by the transfer of energy through a bored, with a familiar instinct rising inside Alex Wilson is deputy editor of The Surfer’s
liquid medium. But if that can be produced me to sneak back to the coast. It was clear that Journal. This essay is adapted from his report
on demand, by a machine, it strips away all the surf conditions and performances would on the Founders’ Cup for Outside Online.

OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 13
 The first time Andrea overcame her fear of heights,
it was from a WATERFALL 2 oo feet in the air.
FIRSTS THAT LAST and the NC design are service marks of the EDPNC.

SEE HER STORY AT VISIT NC. COM

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Dispatches Adventure Schools
09.18

PHYSICAL
EDUCATION
FROM LEARNING TO
PACK RAFT IN THE
ALASKAN WILDERNESS
TO PERFECTING
THE BASICS OF
BACKCOUNTRY
SKIING IN CHAMONIX,
WE PRESENT THE
ULTIMATE COURSE
CATALOG FOR
A CONTINUING
EDUCATION IN THE
OUTDOORS. PLUS,
FOUR ELECTIVES
FOR CRAFTING
YOUR OWN GEAR.
BY CHRISTOPHER
SOLOMON

16 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE P H OTO G R A P H B Y Petra Zeiler

Dispatches Adventure Schools
09.18
a b
f e
KAYAKING 101
Instructor: Otter Bar Lodge
Kayak School
Tuition: $2,390
There may be no better place to learn
how to whitewater kayak than this
37-year-old institution, hemmed in
by 8,000-foot peaks on the shores
of California’s remote Salmon River.
Newbies taking the weeklong Beginner
Kayaking class will learn to roll on the
property’s ponds before progressing to
the Class II–IV Salmon or the mellower
Klamath River. With one instructor
for every three paddlers, you’ll be on
the water several hours a day (inter-
rupted only by sushi lunches), learning
strokes, river safety, and how to move
downriver with the control of a water
spider, as founder Peter Sturges says.
By week’s end, attentive students
should be able to handle themselves in
Class III rapids.
18 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
a, d. Ladies AllRide
b, f. Otter Bar Lodge Kayak School
c, e. Boulder Outdoor Survival School
c
C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: L A U R E N C H U R C H ; P E T E R S T U R G E S ; VA N C E J AC O B S ; A M A N DA C O N D E ; VA N C E J AC O B S ; P E T E R S T U R G E S
d
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL 101 MOUNTAIN BIKING 102 ELECTIVE: BUILD
Instructor: Boulder Outdoor Instructor: Ladies AllRide YOUR OWN BIKE
Survival School Tuition: $385 After five days of
Tuition: $1,725 This two-day, women’s-only instruction from
Carrying little more than a knife, mountain-biking skills camp com- famed frame
clothes, and a water bottle, you’ll bines top-notch instruction, a sup- builder Steve
move fast and light from the 11,000- portive atmosphere, and marquee Garn, who’s been
foot alpine forest on Utah’s south- locations such as Bend, Oregon, and teaching the art
central Boulder Mountain down to Grand Targhee, Wyoming, without the for more than a
the slickrock and slot canyons of macho competitive atmosphere. At decade, cyclists will
Escalante country during BOSS’s its Lyndonville, Vermont, course, for leave BREW Bikes in
seven-day Field Course. Along the instance, each morning begins with Boone, North Caro-
way, seasoned guides will teach you a few hours of small-group skills and lina, with a frame
how to make fire from friction, build drills. Novices might practice dropping shaped completely
shelter, and find water. BOSS offers off low boxes or learn how to drive the by their own hands.
classes ranging from three to 28 days, bike forward with their arms as well as Class size maxes
so you can go as deep as you want. their feet. One afternoon concludes out at two, and stu-
Perhaps the most lasting lesson you’ll with sessions on topics like flat repair, dents can craft any
learn isn’t a skill at all, but a deeper chain breaks, nutrition, and stretch- style, no welding
connection to the earth. “Many people ing, and the next day participants experience required.
come out of it feeling a shift in them- ride with instructors on the Kingdom $1,675, materials
selves,” says Eli Loomis, the school’s Trails, which stretch 100 flowing miles included —A B B I E
executive director. through the state’s northeast corner. BA R R O N I A N

a b
C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: C O U R T E SY O F O F F S H O R E S A I L I N G S C H O O L ; K E L LY D E A N YA N D E L L ; C O DY D O W N A R D P H OTO G R A P H Y/ R A S H M I PA P P U ;
S C R U B I S L A N D R E S O R T, S PA , A N D M A R I N A , B R I T I S H V I R G I N I S L A N D S ; C O DY D O W N A R D P H OTO G R A P H Y; R O B E R T J AC O B L E R M A
f e
WILDERNESS PHOTOGRAPHY 200
Instructor: Cody Downard
Photography
Tuition: $900
Jackson, Wyoming, in late spring is
the outdoor photographer’s Dis-
neyland. Think wildflowers, majestic
bison, and clouds exploding behind
the snowcapped Tetons. You’ll
want a big lens and a tripod to cap-
ture it all at the workshops led by
Cody Downard, a former photo editor
and photographer for National Geo-
graphic Adventure, Ski, and Bicycling.
Exhaustive and demanding, the
course will see you log about 20 hours
of field time in two days, starting
with predawn wake-up calls to shoot
the sunrise at iconic spots such as
Schwabacher’s Landing. A onetime
Yellowstone park ranger, Downard
knows some secret spots, too:
“In the spring, there’s a good chance
we’ll see grizzly bears.”
a, d. Offshore Sailing School
b, f. Texas barbecue
c, e. Jackson Hole, Wyoming
c
d
BARBECUE 201 SAILING 210 ELECTIVE: BUILD
Instructor: Foodways Texas Instructor: Steve and Doris Colgate’s YOUR OWN BOAT
and Texas A&M Offshore Sailing School The 12-foot
Tuition: $495 Tuition: $4,260 Passagemaker
If you want to learn the secret to In just a week, Fast Track to Cruising dinghy offers a
Texas ’cue, you can’t do better than gives landlubbers the knowledge to spirited sail and
the Barbecue Summer Camp in Col- handle sailboats up to 50 feet in length a straightforward
lege Station. It’s the most compre- in most weather conditions. The British build. First-timers
hensive hands-on hog-to-table study Virgin Islands are an ideal classroom, can put it together
of the style. Over three days, university with consistent winds pushing across in only five and a
meat-science professors team up clear, uncomplicated, and gorgeous half days under the
with stars from the Lone Star State’s waters. You’ll learn the ropes, quite expert guidance of
barbecue scene to discuss everything literally, at the tiller of a Colgate 26, a the instructors at
from designing pits and learning “the virtually unsinkable boat designed by Seattle’s Center for
art of the smoke” to brining basics, school founder Steve Colgate that’s Wooden Boats, a
meat selection, marinades, and wood used to train midshipmen at the U.S. floating museum
choice. Expect field trips to such Naval Academy. Next, you and your and community
locales as the smokehouse at Martin’s instructor cast off in a much larger space on Lake
Place in nearby Bryan for a chat and vessel for several days at sea. The week Union. Plus, there’s
a meal with the pit master. Camp concludes with an overnight unsuper- plenty of room to
finishes with a poultry session that vised sail. Pass muster and you get your take it out for a spin.
becomes your farewell lunch. You’ll bareboat certification, which allows $2,175, materials
head home full. you to skipper the big ones yourself. included —A . B .
OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 19
Dispatches Adventure Schools a, c, e–f. Puro Surf Hotel and Academy
b. Tiny Home Builders
09.18 d. United Bicycle Institute

BICYCLE MAINTENANCE 200

Instructor: United Bicycle Institute
Tuition: $1,050
Sure, you know how to change a flat, but
what about repairing anything greasier? UBI’s
weeklong Introduction to Bicycle Maintenance
course gives you the chance to unleash your
inner wrench without permanently screwing
up your $3,000 Specialized in the process. The
institute offers classes throughout the year in
Portland and Ashland, Oregon. Each day stu-
dents tackle the anatomy and repair of a differ-
ent bike system. One day is devoted to wheels
(tires, tubes, and hubs); the next focuses on a b
the drivetrain (cranks, chain, bottom bracket,
and pedals). Bring your battered Surly, and by
Friday you’ll have given it a complete overhaul.
Pick Portland for the food and amazing craft
brews, or take your full squish to Ashland’s
clinic, where, when the final bell rings, flow
tracks and chunky natural descents await just
five minutes away.

TINY-HOUSE CONSTRUCTION 201

Instructor: Tiny Home Builders
Tuition: $400
Intrigued by the idea of retreating to your own
hand-built tiny home, but don’t know where
to start? At Tiny Home Builders’ two-day
workshop, you’ll learn all the essentials from
Dan Louche, author of Tiny House Design and

C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: P U R O S U R F ; T I N Y H O M E B U I L D E R S ; P U R O S U R F ; U B I S TA F F ; P U R O S U R F ( 2 )
Construction Guide, while nailing together a
portable Thoreauvian cabin in the woods.
Topics include roofing, how to frame soundly
enough to haul your house down the highway, f c
and smart roofing. (“Water is the number-one
destroyer of homes,” says Louche.) Classes
take place across the Southeast, but book the
Asheville, North Carolina, session next sum-
mer and you can cast to rising brook trout on
nearby Mills River, then talk about where you
might fit a kegerator in your new home over a
pint at one of the city’s 32 breweries.

SURFING 220
Instructor: Puro Surf Hotel and Academy
Tuition: $1,220
Each day at this school in the small town of El
Zonte, El Salvador, includes yoga and stretch-
ing, a breathing seminar, exercise routines, and
a two-hour taped surf session with Interna-
tional Surfing Association–certified coaches.
Video analysis helps instructors tailor on-
land training for students of all levels before
honing their techniques in the skate park
and lap pool. In three days, you’ll master the e d
sport’s seven essential maneuvers: bottom
turns, carves, cutbacks, reentries, floaters,
barrels, and airs. When school’s out, relax in ELECTIVE: BUILD YOUR OWN SURFBOARD
the clifftop infinity pool at Puro’s 13-room Coastal Maine breeds hardcore, weather-be-damned surfers, which is exactly why you should
boutique hotel, grab some world-class ceviche trust the folks at Grain Surfboards in York to help you shape a ride that’s up for anything. The
at Beto’s Restaurante, or enjoy the back- company’s hollow boards are made from locally sourced wood and sport classic lines. At
packer bar scene and live music at La Guitarra Grain’s four-day workshop, students can shape anything from a four-and-a-half-foot short-
in neighboring El Tunco. —A L E X A N D RA TA LT Y board to a ten-foot longboard. $1,750, materials included —A . B .

20 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE

a b
C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: A N D R E W B U R R ; C H R I S E R I C K S O N ; B R I A N G R O S S E N B AC H E R ; B E T H C L E A R Y; B R I A N G R O S S E N B AC H E R ; R O B J A R V I S
f e
MOUNTAINEERING AND
PACK RAFTING 300
Instructor: Alaska Mountain School
Tuition: $4,100
The only Alaskan adventure skills you
won’t learn in this 12-day course are
catching halibut and flying a bush
plane. After meeting in tiny Talkeetna,
you’ll take a ski plane to the spectacu-
lar southern section of Denali National
Park and set up camp on a glacier in
an area climbers named Little Switz-
erland for its 8,000-foot peaks. You’ll
spend the first few days brushing up
on your climbing skills and learning
glacier travel, ropework, and crevasse
rescue. Midweek you’ll ascend 7,510-
foot Italy’s Boot and burro your 50-
pound pack to the Class II Tokositna
River. Once there you’ll tug on a
paddling suit, inflate your pack raft,
and bob 55 miles downstream until
Talkeetna comes into view again.
a–b, d. Alaska Mountain School
c, e. Orvis and Florida Keys Outfitters
f. High Mountain Guides
c
d
SKI TOURING 301 SALTWATER FLY-FISHING 310 ELECTIVE: BUILD
Instructor: High Mountain Guides Instructor: Orvis and YOUR OWN FLY ROD
Tuition: $1,000 Florida Keys Outfitters Some of the most
Ski touring can be daunting—snow Tuition: $1,445 pristine water in Vir-
pits, probe poles, emergency bea- Sight-casting for tailing tarpon is ginia flows through
cons—but during High Mountain fly-fishing’s ne plus ultra. It’s also Rose River Farm
Guides’ five-day intro course in the fiendishly challenging. Head down to in the town of Syria.
Alps, you’ll learn the basics of safe and Islamorada, where Orvis and Florida During the farm’s
efficient backcountry travel. The week Keys Outfitters demystify the art five-day course,
begins in Chamonix, France, with of stalking the saltwater shallows. students stay in
lift-accessed outings during which
After checking in to the stunning and cabins on the prop-
you’ll work on fundamentals like
historic Cheeca Lodge, you’ll polish erty, share meals,
managing transitions and laying an
your technique with Truel Myers, and spend their
efficient skin track beneath the Mont
Blanc massif. As your confidence one of the top casting instructors in days learning from
grows, you’ll ski Val Ferret, on the Ital- the nation. The next two days, your a master bamboo-
ian side of the mountain, and spend guide will pole you into the bay sur- rod builder. There’s
a night at Rifugio Bonatti. There your rounding the Everglades in a 20-foot also ample time to
guide will drip-feed information as flats skiff, teaching you the art of fly angle for the wild
you traverse a glacier before finishing selection and how to sight and quick- rainbow, brown, and
with a classic Chamonix ski tour, such fire to the redfish and snook tucked brook trout that
as the Col du Tour Noir on the Swiss among the mangroves and the fero- call the river home.
border. If your time is limited, the com- cious tarpon in water no deeper $2,500, all-inclusive
pany offers shorter clinics as well. than a backyard pool. —A . B .
OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 21
Dispatches Journeys
09.18

Boarding Call
IF YOU CAN’T
UPGRADE YOUR
SEAT, UPGRADE
YOUR TRAVEL TECH
BY EMILY REED

Bose Quiet-
Comfort 35
headphones $350
With three levels of
noise cancellation, you
can select how much
to tune out.

SteriPen Pure+ UV
water purifier $70
A UV purifier that
gives you peace of
mind without wasting
space in your carry-on.

Away The Bigger

carry-on $245
An internal battery
makes searching for
an airport outlet a
thing of the past.

Skyroam Solis Global

hot spot $175
This tiny Wi-Fi hot
spot connects to five
devices at once and
will keep you online
for up to 16 hours on a
single charge.

Friends on
a Powder Day
LYFX WANTS TO REVOLUTIONIZE
THE WAY WE PLAY BY CONNECTING
LOCAL GUIDES WITH TRAVELING
ADVENTURERS. BUT CAN IT SUCCEED
WHERE OTHER APPS FAILED?
BY GRAHAM AVERILL
PEDRO M C CARDELL was on a solo motorcy-
cle trip to Patagonia when he realized that he
needed help. The mountains that dominated
the horizon were inviting, but access was a
puzzle. “I needed a local to show me around,
but I had no good way to connect with them,”
says the Italy-based former advertising ex-
ecutive. That experience led him to create
Lyfx. (Silicon Valley slang for “life experi-
ence.”) The app launched in Utah, Colorado,
and California in July, and aims to be the Uber
or Airbnb of adventure, connecting travelers
in need of beta with knowledgable residents
willing to show them around for a fee.
the guiding industry. Climblife connects
wandering dirtbags with would-be guides,
Showaround lets international travelers book
a variety of experiences led by locals, and
Back40 links up venturesome vacationers
with “hosts” throughout New England.
Of course, similar platforms have come
and gone. In 2015, James Hamilton launched
GuideHire but couldn’t keep it afloat. “It
wasn’t an issue of getting people on the plat-
form—we had plenty of guides and plenty of
users,” he says. “But we couldn’t get people to
book through us. They’d use us for research
and then book directly with the guide.”
Hamilton thinks his timing was off and
travelers weren’t willing to reserve adventures
without a bit of personal interaction first. But
given the ubiquity of Uber and the rise of
Airbnb Experiences, the short-term-rental
giant’s attempt to get into peer-to-peer ac-
tivities, the market may finally be ready.
“I think people will use the service,” says
Nikki Harth, co-owner of Surfhouse, a hotel
and guiding outfit in Encinitas, California. Like
Lyfx, Surfhouse seeks to plug guests into the
local scene. “People are now spending more
“When you’re surfing, having a local show you
around makes the experience so much better.”
Alex Kosseff, executive director of the
American Mountain Guides Association,
is intrigued by the idea of guiding apps and
believes they could be beneficial for guides
because many don’t have the time or know-
how to market themselves effectively. But
he’s less sure about the legality. “Guiding on
public land in this country is incredibly regu-
lated,” Kosseff says. “Anyone taking money
for that service needs to have a permit.”
To work around this, Lyfx launched with
professionals that already have the neces-
sary paperwork and requires its peer-to-peer
experts to abide by any applicable laws and
regulations. However, the app is leaving it up
to its nonprofessional guides to obtain all per-
mits and certifications. But a few situations,
like showing someone your favorite point
break, don’t require dealing with any red tape.
And if Lyfx or its competitors can overcome
all that, they’ll still face the hardest challenge
of all: securing market share. “Until one of
these apps gets traction and gains that criti-
cal mass of users,” Kosseff says, “I’m afraid
LY F X

Lyfx isn’t the only app trying to disrupt money on experiences than things,” he says. they’ll continue to come and go.”

22 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
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Dispatches The Outsider
09.18
What Unstoppable Looks Like
SURFER BETHANY HAMILTON LOST HER ARM TO A SHARK 15 YEARS AGO.
IF YOU THINK THAT’S SLOWED HER DOWN, YOU DON’T KNOW HER STORY.
BY SUSAN CASEY
WORDS MATTER, and they especially matter
when you’re writing about Bethany Hamilton.
The world knows the story of how a marauding
tiger shark changed the course of Hamilton’s
life in 2003, taking her left arm while she was
surfing on Kauai’s north shore. She was 13 years
old, a wildly talented grommette with her eye
on a professional surfing career. Descriptions
of that encounter invariably use words like vic-
tim and tragedy, but in the aftermath, Hamil-
ton has served notice that neither label applies.
Even as the media referred to her as “shark-
bite girl” and tried to categorize her as a dis-
abled athlete, Hamilton, now 28, has never
thought of herself in those terms. “At that time
in my life, being so young and resilient, and a
charger at whatever came my way, the loss of
my arm felt like a speed bump,” she says. “A
little hurdle to go over.”
That doesn’t mean the experience was
easy. The next time you’re tempted to indulge
in a spell of whining, consider the following:
Hamilton lost 60 percent of the blood in her
body that day. Less than a month later, stitches
barely out, she was back in the ocean relearn-
ing how to surf. (She kicks her legs to counter-
balance paddling with one arm, and her father
rigged a handle on her board so she can duck-
dive.) Two months after that, she returned to
competition. She won a national champion-
ship in 2005, and turned pro in 2007.
Over the past five years, Hamilton got mar-
ried; finished third on the television show
The Amazing Race with her husband, Adam
Dirks, a youth minister she met in 2012; won
a women’s pro event at Oahu’s Pipeline, an
infamous wave that has killed at least 11 peo-
ple; and got barreled at Teahupoo, a Tahitian
break even more treacherous than Pipeline.
In 2014, she flew to Bali to practice her aerial
surfing skills at Padang Padang—a fast snap-
per of a wave where she fell many times, occa-
sionally coming up bloodied—and ultimately
landed a frontside air-reverse 360, which she
calls “the gnarliest thing I’ve ever done.” Not
for long, perhaps: Hamilton and Dirks’s first
son, Tobias, arrived in June 2015. Their sec-
24 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
ond, Wesley, followed in March 2018.
Hamilton’s run of accomplishments is
chronicled in the new documentary Unstop-
pable, out this fall. Between footage of her
triumphs, the film includes smaller moments
from everyday life: breastfeeding Tobias after
competition heats, surfing breaks near her
home in Kauai, pumping iron while eight
months pregnant with Wesley.
The film also reveals what really sets Ham-
ilton apart: her titanium core. She cross-trains
up to five hours a day, a mix of surfing, swim-
ming, HIIT gym workouts, trampoline ses-
sions, Pilates, beach sprinting, and underwater
running while carrying a heavy rock. Maybe
this tenacity comes from her devout Chris-
tian faith, or maybe it’s learned and hard-won,
but the documentary makes clear that Ham-
ilton is a driven competitor, unafraid of pain,
no stranger to setting and achieving the most
outlandish goals.
It would be unreasonable not to allow her
some lingering fears. She’s respectful of sharks
but not enamored of them. If Hamilton has
any obstacle it’s frustration, the disappoint-
ment when she falls short of her own zenith.
In 2016, seven months after giving birth
to Tobias, Hamilton spotted a big swell on
the weather maps and island-hopped over
to Maui in pursuit of one of the world’s most
formidable waves: Jaws. She was towed into
and rode a 40-footer. Then she decided to
raise the degree of difficulty by actually pad-
dling into a giant wave. Her first few attempts
resulted in memorable wipeouts, but she re-
turned to the lineup and got one of the day’s
best rides. Hamilton laughs as she describes
it: “Probably one of the scariest sessions of
my entire life, and it was soooo fun at the same
time—like this weird, crazy, fun sort of thing.”
Tobias hadn’t even reached his first birth-
day when he and his parents landed in Fiji,
where Hamilton had been chosen as the wild-
card entry at the World Surfing League’s elite
Fiji Pro event. Few of the sports cognoscenti
expected her to place. En route to taking third,
Hamilton defeated six-time world champion
“Being so young
and resilient,
and a charger
at whatever
came my way,
the loss of my
arm felt like a
speed bump,”
Hamilton says.
“A little hurdle to
go over.”
Stephanie Gilmore and the top competitor on
the women’s pro tour, Tyler Wright. “This re-
ally isn’t supposed to be happening,” Sports
Illustrated wrote on its website.
After Hamilton’s Fiji performance, surf icon
Kelly Slater declared himself “ridiculously im-
pressed.” Meanwhile, big-wave legend Laird
Hamilton (no relation) says: “She’s a surfer at
the core, and her desire and love for the sport
has allowed her to do some stuff that even
surfers who have all their limbs can’t do.”
Even with two toddlers, Hamilton is not
slowing down. “I want to push my aerial surf-
ing,” she says. “That’s the area that feels com-
pelling and exciting to me.” She and Dirks
recently published a children’s book, Unstop-
pable Me. Next she’s launching a lifestyle app
for young women, with fitness, nutrition, and
other advice tucked in among tenets of her
Christian beliefs. America’s industrial food
system, she says, has wreaked havoc on our
well-being: “We need to recognize what we’re
doing to ourselves, and the earth, with food.”
Bethany Hamilton, nutritionist? Local-
food activist? Children’s-book author? App
developer?
“It’s almost like I need a challenge,” Hamil-
ton says, giggling at the understatement. With
that she hits on one of the reasons people are
so moved by her story. We all need a challenge
now and then, but those among us who face
the most daunting ones with grace and grit we
call heroic. In the Bethany Hamilton lexicon,
that’s a word that fits perfectly.
P H OTO G R A P H B Y Mike Coots OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 25
Dispatches Wearable Tech
09.18

Light-Years
Ahead
A SUN-POWERED
SMARTWATCH SOLVES
THE BATTERY PROBLEM
BY SCOTT ROSENFIELD

WHEN I BUY a gadget, I expect it

to work as advertised. This sets
me up for a lot of disappointment.
Inaccurate GPS trackers, coun-
terintuitive interfaces, and—most
frustrating of all—batteries that
die well before they’re supposed
to leave me forlorn.
Thus, it was with much trepida-
tion that I decided to try the Lunar
smartwatch. The solar-powered
activity monitor launched on
Kickstarter last September with
a simple promise: never worry
about battery life again. But could
a small startup crack the all-day-
use problems that still plague
giants like Apple and Samsung?
In bright, sunshiny New Mexico,
where I live, the answer is yes.
The watch needs only an hour of
daily light exposure to go on work-
ing forever—and the company
says artificial indoor light works
just as well as the sun. Now, don’t
expect the Lunar to replace your
training watch just yet. There’s no
heart-rate monitor, and in place
of a display, a simple face ticks
behind a transparent solar panel.
Vibrations alert you to texts and
calls on your synced phone, while
an LED array flashes when you
hit activity targets. But for the
convenience of never having to
charge again, I’ll take it. $199

26 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE P H OTO G R A P H B Y Inga Hendrickson

Cast her imagination
into the wild.
crownofthecarolinas.org

Text "Fly Fishing" to 555-888 

For More Information
Dispatches Fishing
09.18

B C D

J
F

G
I

H
GUTTER CREDIT TK

28 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE P H OTO G R A P H S B Y Charles Dustin Sammann

 K
Landing Gear
WHAT YOU NEED TO
BRING IN A LUNKER
BY KELLY BASTONE
A. Patagonia Middle Fork
Packable waders $349
Though extremely durable, these
1.6-pound waterproof-breathable
waders scrunch down to the size
of a camp pillow, so they won’t
overwhelm your pack on treks to
remote waterways.
B. Ross Evolution LTX
4-5 weight reel $385
We like to think of the LTX as an
upgrade to the classic Evolution
LT in the form of a larger arbor (to
retrieve line faster) and a stronger
drag (it puts the brakes on baby tar-
pon as well as football-size trout).
But Ross’s commitment to preci-
sion machining hasn’t changed. The
LTX feels as sharp as ever and still
produces that beloved quiet click.
C. Fishpond River Armor
El Jefe net $230
Made of fiberglass covered with a
protective Kevlar and carbon-fiber
skin, the El Jefe is light enough
to wield one-handed but tough
enough to bully boulders. And the
shape is handy for both boating and
wading: the long handle helped us
land fat tailwater trout before they
snapped our superfine line.
D. Simms Freestone
wading boots $150
This time-tested icon has always
been hardy, but it had a reputa-
tion for making your foot feel like a
cinder block. Recent improvements
changed that. A grippier proprie-
GUTTER CREDIT TK
tary-rubber sole increases in-
stream traction, an expanded neo-
prene ankle wrap boosts warmth
and cushioning, and plastic plates
in the toe and heel facilitate a
more natural stride.
E. Costa del Mar Montauk
sunglasses $199
Polycarbonate lenses like these
aren’t as sharp as glass but they
protect better against UV, and we
appreciate that when scanning
the water off Florida’s panhandle.
Sticky Hydrolite rubber on the nose
and earpieces keeps the Montauks
in place, the full wrap blocks glare
from all directions, and holes in the
temples make it easy to use a scrap
of fishing line as an ultralight leash.
F. Scientific Anglers Amplitude
Smooth AST Plus Trout line $100
This long-shooting line makes any
fly rod feel like a cannon, courtesy
of a proprietary material that never
loses its slickness.
G. Yeti Camino
Carryall 35 tote $150
Shove dirty shoes and wet waders
into this tote, which has a water-
proof bottom to protect your car
from sloppy contents. In the field,
rigid sides keep it from tipping over.
H. Umpqua UPG HD
Weekender fly box $40
This improbably small box (just
1.8 inches thick) still opens wide
enough to give it the space to
accommodate a mind-boggling
quantity of flies.
I. Gerber Magniplier tool $74
An angled nose enables easy
release of bass or pike (your
hand doesn’t block your view of
the hook), and an ergonomically
shaped hot-forged aluminum grip
fits snugly in your palm.
J. Orvis Safe Passage
sling pack $89
Artist Linda Leary lent her “groovy
grayling” print to Orvis’s sling, which
secures a hemostat on the front
strap and stashes fly boxes, a water
bottle, and everything else behind
you, so they don’t snag your line.
BEST ROD FOR SALT WATER
K. Orvis Helios 3D $849
The Helios 3D is gloriously accu-
rate. On Bahamian flats, it punched
through 20-mile-per-hour winds
and let us make 60-foot casts
that set shrimp right on the noses
of bonefish.
BEST ROD FOR LOOKING GOOD
L. Tom Morgan Rodsmiths
Graphite $1,495
Morgan is known for crafting
$4,000 bamboo masterworks,
but this graphite model is
pretty perfect, too. It also makes
a great daily and excels at the
short game, executing close-range
casts with excellent sensitivity.
BEST ROD FOR DISTANCE
M. G. Loomis Asquith $1,000
Light but bazooka powerful,
the Asquith is the first fly rod to use
Shimano’s SpiralX construction,
which wraps a graphite core with
carbon-fiber tape. The result is a
distance ace. The nine-foot five-
weight we tested shoots line to the
river’s farthest reaches and proved
itself on technical streams.
BEST ROD FOR BIG GAME
N. Shimano Clarus $90
Plenty of rods are tough enough to
haul in mighty fighters. The Clarus
is in that camp, but because it’s
crafted from an eight-layer graphite
blank, it offers strength without a
weight penalty.
BEST ROD FOR TROUT
O. Scott G Series $845
Delicate and accurate, this
medium-action stick lets you feel
M N O
every flick. It dropped dry flies
gracefully and nailed tricky casts in
tight quarters. For technical fishing
on small rivers and in mountain
streams, there’s no better tool. Yet
it’s surprisingly versatile and man-
aged to chuck a weighted streamer
when duty called.
OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 29
Dispatches Boat
09.18

Hands Free
THE BEST UPGRADE TO YOUR FISHING
EXPERIENCE? A SMALLER CRAFT.
BY JOE JACKSON

THERE’S SOMETHING to be said for hanging

your line off the back of a motorboat, waiting for
a monster to bite, then wrestling it aboard and
whacking it into submission with an old table leg.
But on balance, I prefer a more sporting arrange-
ment: angler versus fish from the cockpit of a
small human-powered craft. The 38-inch-wide
Hobie Mirage Pro Angler 14 affords stability
when you stand to cast, and at 13 feet 8 inches
long and 120 pounds, it stows easily in the ga-
rage. Hobie’s lauded MirageDrive—two foot ped-
als that spin flippers under the hull—is far more
responsive than a propeller, allowing you
to maneuver and properly fish an eddy while
keeping your hands free to cast or reach for your
gaff. Throw in an extremely comfy removable
seat that uses an intuitive Boa system to
adjust the mesh lumbar support and you have
just the right mix of physical challenge and
mechanical advantage. $3,550

30 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
FORTY YEARS FROM NOW, SHE MIGHT BE FISHING FOR DORADO OFF THE COAST OF
BAJA, OR ROADTRIPPING THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT NEAR KALISPELL. BUT SHE’LL
ALWAYS LOOK BACK TO THIS MOMENT WHERE YOU HELPED HER CATCH THE BUG.

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Dispatches ’s s s
09.18

Underneath It All
DELICATES FOR EVERY
SPORT AND SEASON
BY ARIELLA GINTZLER B

A. Icebreaker 200 Zone One

Sheep onesie $220
Steeze aside, one-piece base
layers are ideal for frigid mis-
sions. Icebreaker’s features
mesh panels for breathability
and a long zipper for fuss-
free bathroom trips.

B. Smartwool Merino 150

Base Layer tank top $65 A
This buttery-soft piece is
form-fitting enough to layer
but loose enough to wear
alone. Hike in it, throw a fleece
over it, fall asleep in it. C

C. Fabletics Tess
Warp Knit bra $35
The full-coverage design is
forget-you’re-wearing-it com-
fortable, courtesy of a wide
chest band that doesn’t dig in.

D. Ridge Merino Inversion

Midweight leggings $55
When the temperature drops,
these full-length bottoms are
the ticket. The exposed-elastic
waistband minimizes bulk.

E. ExOfficio Give-N-Go Sport

Mesh Hipkini underwear $24
The Hipkinis offer full coverage H
in the back without the high
rise of traditional briefs. The
mesh fabric is silky smooth and
wicking for all-day comfort. D
E
F. Oiselle Wazzie Wool
shirt $96
This midweight long-sleeve
top offers a flatteringly close
fit and generous length.

G. Lululemon Energy bra $52

The Energy is the Goldilocks
of support systems, providing
enough compression—even for
full-chested women—for a
20-mile run without smother-
F
ing or fitting like a corset.

H. Craft Fuseknit
Comfort boxers $30
G
A midthigh inseam makes the
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Fuseknit Comforts ideal for

days that aren’t cold enough
for full-length long johns. A
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premium comfort.

32 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE P H OTO G R A P H B Y Charles Dustin Sammann

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Dispatches Performance
09.18

So Hot Right Now

WHY ELITE ATHLETES ARE TURNING UP THE THERMOSTAT IN PURSUIT OF AN EDGE
BY ALEX HUTCHINSON

S A M A R M S T R O N G / G A L L E R Y S TO C K

34 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
IN FEBRUARY 2014, the Canadian women’s
soccer team realized it needed more juice in
the gym. So management called in an electri-
cian to redo the wiring in the team’s make-
shift workout room in suburban Vancouver,
to prevent two rented industrial heaters from
blowing the fuses. “The plugs just couldn’t
handle it,” recalls César Meylan, the team’s
head sports scientist.
Then, for five straight winter days, Meylan
put the squad through grueling 90-minute
circuit-training sessions with the room kept
at a toasty 95 degrees. Each player swallowed
an ingestible sensor that allowed Meylan to
monitor core temperature in real time, and
he doled out brief periods of rest or snippets
of encouragement to any player whose read-
ing deviated too far from the goal of 101.3 de-
grees. That fever-like temperature, he says,
“is the driving factor for adaptation.”
Though ice baths have long been the tor-
ture of choice for serious athletes, there’s
been a pronounced shift in the past few years.
Heat is now hot. Athletes around the world
have begun exploring the potential perfor-
mance benefits of heat training for everything
from marathoning to high-altitude moun-
taineering. Heat therapy is also gaining atten-
tion as a tool to fight heart disease and repair
muscles. Maybe the sauna-loving Finns—
who, in addition to topping the rankings in this
year’s World Happiness Report, have racked
up more than 100 Olympic track and field
medals—have been onto something all along.
The origins of the current boom in heat re-
search can be traced back to the 2008 Olym-
pics. University of Oregon physiologist Chris
Minson was helping marathoner Dathan
Ritzenhein prepare for what was expected
to be a sweltering summer in Beijing. Heat-
acclimation protocols, which usually involve
a week or two of sweaty workouts, are a well-
established way of triggering adaptations—
increased blood-plasma volume, lower core
temperature, higher perspiration rate—that
help you perform in the heat. “But I had this
niggling fear,” Minson recalls. “What if the
race wasn’t hot? What if it was cooler?”
No one knew for sure whether being well-
adapted to heat might come with trade-offs,
like performing worse in cool conditions. So
Minson set up a study with 20 cyclists to find
out. The results, published in 2010, sparked
a frenzy among sports scientists. Ten days
of training in 104-degree heat boosted the
cyclists’ VO2 max by 5 percent and improved
their one-hour time-trial performance by
6 percent—even when the testing room was
kept at a brisk 55 degrees. Suddenly, hot rooms
and nonbreathable track suits were being
hyped as the poor man’s altitude training.
The initial thinking was that, whereas
working out in thin air triggers the formation
of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, a main
benefit of heat training was an increased vol- Heat is a shock
ume of blood plasma to ferry red blood cells to to the system,
your muscles. Whether that plasma boost ac- generating
tually translates to improved athletic perfor- some of the
mance remains contentious. Carsten Lundby,
an endurance expert at Copenhagen Univer- same cellular
sity Hospital in Denmark who has studied heat responses
training, is skeptical that simply increasing that exercise and
plasma volume improves performance after
just a week or two. However, the resulting
altitude do.
dilution of your blood might trigger a natural
EPO response to produce new red blood cells,
just like altitude training—an idea he’s cur-
rently testing with a six-week protocol.
But plasma volume isn’t the only param-
eter that heat changes. According to Meylan, tub for roughly 40 minutes, hoping the heat
psychological resilience and altered percep- would help sustain the elevated red-blood-
tion of high temperatures are among the key cell levels they’d developed during altitude
benefits his players received from heat train- training in Flagstaff, Arizona. Blood tests
ing. That, in part, is why Canada’s women’s suggested the approach worked.
soccer team will likely head to southern Spain All of this sounds so implausibly wonder-
or Portugal right before next summer’s World ful that Minson is careful to dial the hype
Cup, which will take place in France. back. To most of the age-group athletes who
More generally, heat is a shock to the sys- call him for advice on how to leverage the
tem, generating some of the same cellular benefits of heat, he suggests that they sim-
responses that exercise and altitude do. For ply train more, focus on recovery, and maybe
that reason, scientists are now studying its lose a little weight. From a health standpoint,
therapeutic benefits (see “The Sweat Cure,” if you have to choose between exercising and
below), as well as cross-adaptation, the idea hot-tubbing, he says, the former is a no-
that heat training might prepare you for a trip brainer. Still, he’s pretty excited about the
to high elevations, or help you maintain an field’s potential—even if it’s old news to the
edge when you return. Finns. “We’re patting ourselves on the back
A practical example: Last year, three elite and saying, Hey, we came up with this really
steeplechasers visited Minson’s lab three or cool idea,” he says. “But the reality is that it’s
four times a week to soak in a 105-degree hot been around for thousands of years.”
The Sweat Cure
EXPOSING YOUR BODY TO HEAT MAY OFFER SERIOUS HEALTH BENEFITS
Heart: Chris Minson has shown that eight weeks of hot-tubbing produces
“really profound changes” in markers of cardiovascular health like blood pressure
and artery stiffness, perhaps due to increased blood flow when you’re hot.
Brain: Recent data from a multidecade study of 2,300 Finnish men found that those
who hit the sauna four or more times a week were only a third as likely to develop dementia
or Alzheimer’s compared with those who took just one sauna a week.
Muscle: In a 2017 study from Qatar, participants showed a 17 percent boost in muscle
strength after 11 days of sitting in a heat chamber at roughly 120 degrees for an hour
at a time. The technique might be particularly relevant for injured athletes or those re-
covering from surgery as a way to maintain their muscles when they can’t exercise.
OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 35
Dispatches
09.18
Consider
the Superfood
MOST NUTRITION TRENDS AREN’T
WORTH YOUR TIME. BUT THERE ARE
A FEW EXCEPTIONS.
BY LAIRD HAMILTON
I LOVE FOOD. Not just
because it tastes great,
but because it’s fuel for
my body. When it comes
to powering my life in the
water or on the beach,
proper nutrition is just as
important as my training
regimen. And while I tend
to take a fairly simple ap-
proach to my eating habits,
focusing predominantly on
36 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE
i ’s s
nutrient-dense and locally
sourced whole foods, I
also believe in occasionally
challenging my body and
trying out new ingredients
or methods that seem
promising. Once I give
something a reasonable
shot, I’m quick to move on
if I don’t see results.
Take the fruitarian diet,
for example. Years ago, peo-
ple were calling it a surefire
way to detox, so I decided
to see for myself. For a few
weeks I ate only fruit and
low-starch vegetables for
breakfast and lunch. I ‘d
heard that it might give my
digestive system ample
chance to rest and reset on
a daily basis, so I could put
more energy toward sup-
porting my physical efforts.
The effects were disap-
pointing: mood swings,
bloating, and sluggish-
ness during my workouts.
Shortly after, I returned to
my normal routine.
Nutrition trends get
a bad rap—and for good
reason. We’re constantly
crowning a new superfood
and celebrating different
supplements before there’s
sufficient research to back
up the claims. However,
every so often a certain
food or way of eating
does, in fact, offer serious
health and performance
benefits. I am a big believer
in butter coffee, turmeric,
and medicinal mushrooms.
These items have a mate-
rial impact on how I feel
and perform, and I’ve made
them part of my daily diet.
When it comes to decid-
ing what to test, I stick to
real foods, steering clear of
anything that seems like it
was made in a factory. I’d
P H OTO G R A P H B Y
rather eat fish eyes than a
manufactured substance
whose name I can’t pro-
nounce. I live half the year
in Hawaii, where there are a
huge number of ingredients
that aren’t readily available
on the mainland—like cheri-
moya—and many of them
are extremely nutritious.
Thankfully, our collective
culture has begun to focus
more on what we put into
our bodies and where it
comes from, and grocery
stores are reflecting that
shift. With a large selection
of products that align with
a whole-foods-only ap-
proach, it’s easier than ever
to experiment healthily.
Hannah McCaughey
 Training

Brand-New Ride
A CLASSIC CYCLING MANUAL
GETS A COMPLETE REBUILD
BY NICK HEIL

WHEN ENDURANCE COACH Joe Friel published the first edition of

The Cyclist’s Training Bible in 1996, serious riders had few resources
to help guide them to peak performance. The book quickly became a
classic and is one of the bestselling training manuals ever published.
Given its popularity and influence, it was no small decision when,
in late 2016, Friel decided to rewrite the entire thing. “So much had
changed since the first book, I felt like I was just applying Band-Aids
in later editions,” says Friel, who is now 74. “I decided to scrap the old
manuscript and start with a clean sheet of paper.” The all-new fifth
edition ($27, VeloPress) was released earlier this year. Here’s a look at
how Friel’s advice has evolved based on the latest science and evidence.

DATA talked about one and goal race type

Then: Heart-rate
monitors
Now: Power meters
In 1996, power
meters were rare and
expensive. In 2018,
they’re ubiquitous
and affordable (start-
ing at about $250).
More important,
tracking power—or
functional threshold
power (FTP)—is the
current gold standard
for measuring cycling
performance. Friel
recommends tracking
both heart rate and
power to reveal your
efficiency factor.
“Understanding the
relationship between
these two metrics
is critical,” says Friel.
“Heart rate is input.
Power is output.”
PERIODIZATION
Then: Linear
Now: Varied
Systematic training
plans—or periodiza-
tion—designed to
help athletes peak
at a specific time
of the year, are now
the norm. “But in the
late nineties, most
athletes didn’t know
what periodization
was,” Friel says. “We
form of periodization, is essential to plan
and that was it. Now optimal training, Friel
I’m discovering that says. For example,
athletes are quite to become a better
knowledgeable, so climber, spend more
there’s a lot more time on FTP for long
information on how uphill slogs. To im-
to plan for the sea- prove sprinting, focus
son.” Friel’s update on maximum power
lays out alterna- output to optimize
tives to linear plans short bursts of speed.
(which systemati- Understanding your
cally increase volume assets and your
and intensity) to limitations will guide
cater to individual planning for your
needs, like those who entire season.
recover more slowly research shows how the gym. But for the athletes commonly
(for example, older RECOVERY potent consistent busy rider, building kept track of mileage,
athletes), have er- Then: Rest sleep can be for hard- strength while cycling time, and speed. A
ratic schedules, or are Now: Really rest training athletes. can be an excellent diary not only follows
time crunched. The “It is possible to feel “There are vital hor- alternative. Friel these independent
important thing is to recovered before monal functions that calls this functional metrics, along with
craft a program that adaptation has taken simply can’t be dupli- force training (FFT). more recent ones
works for you, Friel place,” says Friel. “And cated any other way,” It might involve like power, but it also
says. Otherwise you’ll when we artificially Friel says. “Serious using big gears on helps you evaluate
wind up with “random speed up the recovery athletes tend to do flat terrain, or finding progress by setting
training and poor race process, we short- a lot, and when they steep hills for short goals and managing
performance.” change the adaptive can’t fit everything in, intervals. FFT can be daily, weekly, and
process.” Translation: the first thing to go is nearly as effective monthly training
TRAINING TARGET riders often don’t sleep.” Prioritize rest and easy to track as loads. It will help you
Then: General make easy-day rides the same way you do lifting weights. answer important
road racing easy enough. “Zone your workouts. questions such as: Is
Now: Assorted one should not be ANALYSIS my FTP improving?
specialties zone three,” he says. RESISTANCE Then: Training log How is my power-to-
Not all cyclists are TRAINING Now: Training diary weight ratio? How
created equal. There SLEEP Then: Lift weights According to Friel, a does my training
are sprinters, climb- Then: Seven to Now: Build strength log collects infor- load compare with
ers, time trialers, and nine hours on the bike mation, but a diary my best season? “A
all-arounders. Focus- Now: As much as Weight training is far does something training diary reminds
ing on the gap be- possible from obsolete; plenty with those details. you every day why
tween your strengths A growing base of of cyclists still hit In the late nineties, you train,” Friel writes.

I L LU S T R AT I O N B Y Joe Ciardiello OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 37

Dispatches Nutrition
09.18

The Shroom Boom

FUNGI ARE HAVING A MOMENT.
HERE’S WHAT ALL THE BUZZ IS ABOUT.
BY SARA ANGLE

CHAGA, reishi, has shown that Rebbl Reishi

cordyceps, and lion’s reishi may help Cold-Brew
mane mushrooms reduce fatigue and This drink blends cof-
have been staples in prevent the onset fee, coconut milk, and
Eastern medicine for of overtraining symp- reishi extract. A bottle
hundreds of years. toms. Mushrooms packs nine grams of
Now they’re going of all kinds contain fiber, without added
mainstream, popping high amounts of sugar. Some studies
up in unexpected the antioxidants suggest that reishi has
places like cold-brew ergothioneine and antimicrobial and anti-
coffee and energy glutathione, both viral properties. $4
bars. Early research of which protect
suggests that these hemoglobin from Kettle and Fire
four mushrooms may damage and reduce Mushroom Chicken
be especially benefi- inflammation. The Bone Broth
cial for performance. latest crop of mush- Lion’s mane makes this
A recent study in the room-based prod- broth especially potent.
Journal of Dietary ucts feature other Sip a cup by itself for ten
Supplements found flavorful ingredients, grams of protein, or use Four Sigmatic
that cordyceps could so you can get a it in soups and stews Chaga Mushroom
improve endurance, boost without the for an extra kick. $16 for Elixir Mix
while other data earthy taste. two cartons These individual pack-
ets of powdered chaga-
mushroom extract
mix well in hot water.
Research suggests that
chaga helps stave off
fatigue, so it could re-
place your daily coffee
if you’re feeling bold.
$38 for 20 packets

Purely Elizabeth
Banana Nut
Butter Grain-Free
Superfood Bar
You won’t taste
the reishi extract
amid the cashews,
pumpkin seeds,
coconut oil, and chia
in these gluten-free,
paleo-friendly bars.
Bonus: each one
boasts six grams of
protein. $28 for 12
Om Fit
Mushroom Powder
Add a teaspoon of this
organic blend to your
preworkout smoothie:
A it includes cordyceps
and reishi, a combina-
tion formulated for
training and recovery.
$25 for 50 servings

38 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE P H OTO G R A P H S B Y Hannah McCaughey

Style

FALL GUY
RUGGED BUT
CLASSIC STAPLES
FOR SHOULDER
SEASON

Fjällräven
Skog shirt, $110;
Dickies Work shirt,
$24; Carhartt
Rugged Flex Rigby
dungarees, $40 and
up, and Watch
hat, $10; Merrell
Ontario Mid WP
shoes, $170; 5.11
Tactical Operator
belt, $40; Marmot
Empire Waxed
Field pack, $85

OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 39

BIG ADVENTURES
FOR
BIG FAMILIES
FIVE ACTION-PACKED VACATION IDEAS
FOR EVEN THE LARGEST OF TRIBES
The key to having fun family
adventures is simple: keep
everyone happy and have
a back-up plan. The best
way to do this is to stack the
deck in your favor and head
someplace where you know
there are a bunch of options
nearby. That way, if mountain
biking is a bust, you can
hunt for frogs, head to the
lake, or give the zipline
another whirl. Here are five
ways to entertain the entire
clan.
PICK THE RIGHT
NATIONAL PARK
Nearly all of our national
parks have family-friendly
trails and activities, but if
we had to pick just one,
we’d start with Great Smoky
Mountains National Park.
Newfound Gap Road, which
bisects the park, has tons of
quick hikes branching off of
it and a canopy that comes
alive with colorful leaves
in the fall. Bonus: Kids can
search for the park’s 30
species of salamanders in
creeks near the visitor center
and campgrounds. If you
want to blow their minds,
head for the tallest trees
in the world at our other
favorite: Redwood National
Park, where an easy (and
incredibly scenic) drive along
the Davidson Road delivers
you to the base of massive
trees.
SKI RESORTS AREN’T
JUST FOR WINTER
Ski resorts all across the
country have invested heavily
in their summer programs,
extending their “off-season”
well into fall with activities
that range from guided
fly-fishing to lift-served
mountain biking. Utah’s Park
City Mountain might be the
king of summer mountain
resorts, offering classics
like the Alpine Coaster, as
well as a full-fledged kids’
adventure program with
age-appropriate ziplines
and ropes course. And don’t
BRANDED CONTENT
forget the 20 miles of lift-
served bike trails—Mom can
hit the flow trails while Dad
and the kids play it safe on
the green trails. Vermont’s
Smugglers’ Notch has too
many water parks to count,
llama treks, and dog carting
(think mushing without the
snow).
HEAD FOR THE DESERT
Moab might be best known
as an extreme sports
hub (and it is). But here’s
the thing: it’s really kid
friendly, too, particularly
in September, when the
desert starts to cool off
and the crowds thin. The
town sits between two
world-class national parks
with accessible hikes galore.
Let your kids climb Whale
Rock, in Canyonlands, and
get up close and personal
with three arches on the
mile-long Windows hike in
Arches National Park. Need
a bit of education on your
vacation? Check out the full
cast skeleton of Gastonia,
one of the dinosaurs that
used to call the area home,
at the Dinosaur Museum.
STAGE YOUR OWN
FAMILY CAMP
Pick a destination
that has multiple
adventures right out
the door and you can be
your own camp counselor,
designing a vacation that
feels a lot like summer camp
(but with less poison ivy).
Adventures on the Gorge,
a sprawling tent-and-cabin
resort sitting on the rim of
the New River Gorge in
West Virginia, has immediate
access to some of the
Mid-Atlantic’s best rock
climbing and whitewater
rafting, and guides who
will lead you on family-
appropriate excursions.
GO GLAMPING
Car camping is awesome,
but setting up a tent with
three toddlers who want to
“help” can be challenging.
Skip to the good stuff by
embracing glamping, and
stay at a resort that has tents
or yurts already set up for
you. Under Canvas, which
has glamping sites near
Yellowstone, Glacier, and
the Grand Canyon, offers
The all-new 3-row
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The biggest Subaru SUV
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who like to bring the
family when heading out
on life’s adventures. And
you can go confidently
thanks to standard
Symmetrical All-Wheel
Drive. Learn more at
subaru.com/ascent.
Instagram-worthy canvas
tents and plush beds within
striking distance of classic
national park terrain. Or go
full pioneer at Conestoga
Wagon, in Georgia, where
you’ll sleep in covered
wagons with bunk beds and
enjoy weenie roasts and
stories by the campfire each
night. The Holidays, on San
Clemente State Beach in
California, has 1960’s style
vintage campers for rent
with surfing and hiking right
outside your door.
 Love is now
bigger than ever.
Presenting the all-new 3-row 2019 Subaru Ascent.™

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 c
3
R E WI L Di NG
the
AMeRI CA N
C hild
IN WHICH WE

UNPLUG A

GENERATION OF

SCREEN-ADDICTED

KIDS FROM THEIR

DEVICES, GIVE THEM

OUR CHILDREN are in crisis. Let’s start there.
FREEDOM TO ROAM
Sure, adults have, since roughly forever, bemoaned “kids these days” as
spoiled and incapable. Earlier this decade, the trendy parenting argument was ( U N S U P E R V I S E D ! ),
that by giving our offspring too many things and not enough responsibility, we
were creating a generation of entitled wimps. That’s still the prevailing wisdom, HELP THEM MAKE
but even as we try to land our parental helicopters, there’s growing awareness
FRIENDS WITH
that we face a far more ominous challenge.
Today, America’s kids are caught up in one of the largest mass migrations in ANIMALS, AND SHOW
human history: the movement indoors. Only recently have we begun to spend
our lives penned in by walls, staring at screens. Increasingly we don’t touch, THEM THAT WE,
look at, or even speak to each other, connecting instead through apps. When
we do get together, it’s for a quick coffee date. At home, children see Mom and TOO, LOVE TO PLAY
Dad thumbing away nonstop on their devices and follow suit. OUTSIDE
For many of us who came of age before the smartphone, this transforma-
tion has been painful. If your childhood was full of hours spent wandering the
neighborhood with a pack of friends, your screen time composed of Saturday-
morning cartoons and after-school specials, the rise of the digitized, over-
scheduled, indoor lifestyle can leave you deeply dispirited. For kids the price is
much higher: a steep rise in health problems, heightened social pressures, and
c

3
a frightening set of new addictions around technology.
It’s time to make childhood an adventure again. Kids deserve the chance to
explore nature without an agenda or a chaperone, to take risks and learn to get
themselves out of trouble, to fall in love with nature so they become stewards
of the earth. They need, more than anything else, to be allowed to follow the
crooked, sometimes scary, and truly wild paths to adulthood that turn brave
little kids into healthy grown-ups.

42 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
PHOTOGRAPH BY HANNAH MCCAUGHEY 09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 43
3 c
TURN
THEM
LOOSE
W H E N W E T R U LY
LET OUR CHILDREN
RUN FREE, THE
O N LY G U A R A N T E E
I S T H AT T H E Y
WILL SURPRISE US
BY BEN HEWITT
BY THE TIME my eldest son, Fin, turned
six, the age at which he might reasonably
have been expected to enter the public-
education system, my wife, Penny, and I had
long since determined that neither of our
children (Fin’s brother, Rye, is three years
younger) would darken a schoolhouse door-
way. As if this wasn’t recalcitrant enough,
we’d also decided to pursue a self-directed,
curriculum-free educational style known as
unschooling. This meant that at the age when
most American children are busy memoriz-
ing the alphabet, our sons were running wild
in the fields and forests surrounding our rural
Vermont home, belt knives and bow drills at
the ready. Like many of our contemporaries
in the unschooling movement, we placed
our faith in the freedom and trust that more-
formal learning institutions are ill-equipped
to provide. The result, we assumed, would
be a degree of curiosity and resourcefulness
that no school could equal.
I wrote about my family’s educational
path in a 2014 essay for Outside called “We
Don’t Need No Education,” and then in my
book Home Grown. I didn’t know exactly
what to expect from the publication of our
story, but I know I didn’t expect what I got.
My inbox was flooded with e-mail from
readers in at least as many countries as I have
fingers, and I fielded calls from producers at
the BBC, the National Geographic Channel,
and CBS’s 60 Minutes, to name a few.
Obviously, I’d hit a nerve, one rubbed raw
by a growing but still largely unspoken dis-
satisfaction with compulsory standardized
44 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
Fin Hewitt
on his
family’s
farm
learning, accompanied by a collective grop-
ing toward a satisfactory alternative. Could
my family’s grand experiment be the answer,
or at least part of it? Could my free-ranging
sons really learn all they needed to survive
and even thrive in an increasing complex and
technology-driven world? Should Penny
and I be revered or brought up on charges
of negligence? I soon realized I’d bitten off
more than I could chew, and quick as we
could, we returned to living the quiet life
we’d led before our brush with mainstream
notoriety. This included the running of our
small farm, the continuation of my freelance
writing career, and yes, the unschooling of
our two sons, by then 12 and 9.
Over the intervening years, I’ve been
asked repeatedly for updates, and mostly
demurred or answered in only the vaguest
of terms. Partly this was due to an increased
sense of protectionism around our boys dur-
ing their blossoming adolescence, and partly
it was rooted in my feeling that people were
hungry for a particular type of affirmation
that I could not provide: the assurance that
PHOTOGRAPH BY PENNY HEWITT
despite their atypical education, my sons
would prosper in the modern world.
I still cannot (nor do I care to) offer such
affirmation. They are now only 16 and 13,
still kids after all, albeit of an age when
the oncoming headlights of adulthood
loom large and the awareness of those new
responsibilities can feel overwhelming. But
then this is true of any child. Come to think
of it, it’s true of most adults I know, including
myself. As children, we tend to view adult-
hood as some sort of self-actualized plateau;
as adults, we tend to view it as a double-loop
roller coaster operated by a drunken carny.
I’ve learned a lot over the past four years,
much of it informed by my sons. I’ve watched
as Fin’s interest in music has become a driv-
ing force in his life, leading him to seek out an
apprenticeship with a master guitar builder
and, ultimately, to part-time enrollment in
a public school with a unique student-led
program that has them composing songs,
booking gigs, touring, and recording. Fin
loves the social opportunities school pro-
vides, along with the chance to immerse
himself even more completely in music. And
while it was initially difficult for Penny and
me to see him walk through those doors, there
is no denying that the life of my unschooled
son is richer for the public-education system.
Many times I have had to remind myself that
just as I encourage others to challenge their
assumptions regarding education, so too is it
healthy to challenge my own.
Rye continues to be mostly unschooled,
with just a bit of sit-down math thrown into
the mix. He still spends the majority of his
days in the woods. He remains a commit-
ted practitioner of traditional skills, as well
as an avid hunter and trapper. (Indeed, the
very morning I sat down to write this piece,
I awoke at 3:30 A.M. to drive him to the field
where he’d scouted wild turkeys the week
before; four hours later, I picked him up,
along with tomorrow night’s dinner.) His
skills have evolved to the point where he now
mentors younger children. He is saving for a
truck, working part-time at dairy and veg-
etable farms and at a maple-sugaring opera-
tion down the road. I suspect that once he
turns 16 and is granted a driver’s license, it
won’t be long before we watch his taillights
disappearing down our driveway. He talks of
big-game hunting in Alaska and the allure of
Idaho’s Sawtooth Range.
I want to make one thing clear: we never
set out to rewild our children, at least to the
extent that I understand rewilding to mean an
emergence of body, mind, and spirit within
the natural world. Truthfully, we sought only
to provide them the opportunity to fully in-
habit their childhoods and their learning, in
whatever ways felt most enriching. The fact
that much of this occurred in the woods had
at least as much to do with geographic cir-
cumstances as it did with philosophy. This
is not to say that we didn’t have hopes and
aspirations for our sons; of course we did.
And still do. They’re our children, after all.
But I’ve come to believe that modern par-
ents too often do a poor job of distinguishing
between responsibility and control. Which
is to say, it is our responsibility to provide a
base level of material, intellectual, and emo-
tional support for our children, along with
experiences that will enrich their lives. But
we cannot control the outcome. Perhaps our
children will develop into the capable, com-
passionate, and successful (however we de-
fine success) people we fervently want them
to be. And perhaps, in ways that may be dis-
appointing or flat-out painful, they will not.
Almost certainly, their interests and lives
will evolve in surprising and delightful ways.
With the passage of time, I have become
increasingly aware of a particular sort of
irony that runs rampant in the unschool-
ing and rewilding communities, which are
joined at the hip by an ethos of freedom
and self-reliance. We choose a more liber-
ated approach to our children’s upbringing
REWILD iN G
at least partially out of a well-intentioned
desire to ensure the development of specific
qualities: curiosity and courage, resilience
and resourcefulness. We want to instill a
strong sense of place and a connection to
something larger than themselves, some-
thing that helps them understand the world
is not solely the domain of humankind.
In and of itself, this desire is not prob-
lematic; I doubt there’s a parent alive who
doesn’t want their child to develop specific
qualities. It’s when we link these qualities to
a particular outcome that we begin to lose
our way, that we conflate responsibility with
control. I know that Penny and I have been
guilty of this. Perhaps, in ways I don’t yet
fully understand, we still are.
You can want all the freedom in the world
for your children, and you can do your best
to provide it. But what they do with it? That,
my friend, is simply not up to you.
BEN HEWITT ( @LAZYMILLHILLFARM)
IS THE AUTHOR OF HOME GROWN:
ADVENTURES IN PARENTING OFF
THE BEATEN PATH, UNSCHOOLING,
AND RECONNECTING WITH THE
NATURAL WORLD.

Roam Away ment, government action

from Home
Teach your kid to
be a neighborhood
adventurer
In March, Utah’s governor
signed legislation specify-
ing that caretakers cannot
be charged with neglect for
allowing unaccompanied
children to do things like play
in local parks or bike to the
corner store. The bill, a reac-
tion to cases in which parents
were referred to child-welfare
agencies for letting their
school-age kids roam their
neighborhoods, was the first
of its kind in the U.S. (New
York and Texas are contem-
plating similar laws.) Though
a victory for the so-called
free-range-parenting move-
alone won’t reverse a cultural
shift that has American youth
spending so much of their
leisure time indoors.
“You can’t just snap your
fingers and say, Do what I did
when I was a kid,” says Mike
Lanza, a Silicon Valley father of
three and the author of Play-
borhood: Turn Your Neighbor-
hood into a Place for Play. “You
need to work with your chil-
dren: understand where they’re
at with independence and give
them a bit more rope every
day.” By following this kind of
careful process, Lanza says he’s
reached a point where he rarely
sees his three sons—ages nine,
ten, and fourteen—between
school and dinner because
“they’re outside having fun.”
Here’s how to follow his lead.
—JACOB BAYNHAM
Begin Early
When you’re walking with your
toddler, let go of their hand
frequently so they can smell
a flower, watch a bug, or
pick up a stick. Allow them
short periods of unsupervised
play in the yard.
Explore Together
As your child reaches kinder-
garten and grade school, walk
and bike with them as often
as possible. You’ll meet neigh-
bors, which makes roaming
safer, and you can model
crossing roads. You’ll also
familiarize yourself with their
future roaming territory.
Establish Boundaries
When your child is ready to
head out solo, have them
start with short excursions:
to school, to the store for a
snack, or to a friend’s house.
When you think they can
do more—perhaps around age
eight—let them roam for an
hour at a time, but set
clear borders, like that busy
boulevard a few blocks away.
Slowly expand their range.
Give them a watch to keep
track of the time, and
tell them when they’re ex-
pected home.
Clear Their Schedule
It’s hard for a kid to feel a real
sense of freedom if they’re
racing between piano lessons,
soccer games, and dance
classes. When a child has an
entire afternoon to roam,
the rhythm of their play is
directed by their own inter-
ests, the environment around
them, and daylight—just like
it used to be.

09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 45

c
3
T H E L I F E AQ UAT I C
W H AT C O M P E L S A C O U P L E T O S P E N D
M O N T H S AT S E A W I T H T H E I R F O U R Y O U N G
CHILDREN? A BURNING DESIRE TO DO
S O M E T H I N G D I F F E R E N T.
AS TOLD TO MEGAN MICHELSON
IN JUNE 2011, with a nine-month-old and
a two-year-old in tow, photographer and
writer Somira Sao and her husband, James
Burwick, a mountain guide, professional
skipper, and marine consultant, set sail
aboard their 40-foot carbon-fiber racing
boat Anasazi Girl to cross the Atlantic from
Maine to France. They did it—and then kept
on going, adding two more members to their
family as they sailed around the world over
the next six years.
Sao had fled Cambodia as a two-year-old
with her family in 1979, during the Khmer
Rouge regime, and eventually settled in
Maine. She says she wants their children—
Tormentina, ten, Raivo, seven, Pearl, five,
and Tarzan, two—to see that “the world isn’t
so big after all.” Aside from being dismasted
by a rogue wave off the coast of Chile during
one particularly stormy passage, their years
at sea were filled with invaluable family time.
They completed their circumnavigation of the
globe in May 2017.
This June, the family relaunched Anasazi
Girl in the Caribbean. Sao, who is expecting
their fifth child in December, says they are
considering selling the boat and switching to
a catamaran to sail Polynesian style—just
a paper chart, the stars, and a few simple
navigational tools. She spoke with Outside by
phone from a dock on Grenada.
“When we got pregnant, we said to each other,
‘Let’s keep the adventure going. Let’s not
settle down.’ After I gave birth, I did not have
that nesting feeling. This traveling, change-
able lifestyle with the kids became a natural
extension of how we were already living.
Before our Atlantic crossing in 2011, we
had never even gone on a day sail with the
kids. We figured that if everyone was miser-
able, we could pull into port in Canada. We
46 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
had an amazing trip—21 days nonstop to
France—and realized that this lifestyle was
much better than living in a van. All of a sud-
den, we were eating baguettes and Camem-
bert. No looking for hotels, no searching for
a place to camp.
I wouldn’t encourage novice sailors with
no experience to go sailing with their kids,
but I do feel like parents should be able to do
what their skill and comfort level allow. James
had 32 years of experience as a professional
captain and a solo circumnavigation under
his belt. I felt very familiar with the boat
from helping him prep for his solo voyages.
We didn’t see it as endangering our family.
The kids have learned adaptability, un-
derstanding, problem-solving, and risk
management. They know what it takes to
accomplish a really big project. They have
a broad knowledge of the world and many
different cultures. We involve them in every
step of the voyage—making lists, maintain-
ing the boat, working on the mechanical,
electrical, plumbing, sails, lines, and rig-
ging, using navigation instruments, provi-
sioning, and prepping safety gear. They have
an understanding of limited resources, that
fresh water, power, fuel, and food are not
available endlessly at sea. What they don’t
have is a set idea of what’s expected in life.
A lot of kids grow up with this assumption
that you’re going to go to school, go to col-
lege, get a job, get married, buy a house, have
kids, raise them, and then retire.
In 2014, on day 21 of a passage from New
Zealand to France, a gigantic rogue wave
knocked us down and broke our mast in
three places. Nobody was hurt, but we were
stressed. We stayed calm and did not panic.
We were 13 gallons short of diesel fuel to
make it into port. After about 48 hours, a
Chilean navy ship picked us up, and the
captain offered to tow the boat into Puerto
REWILD iN G
Williams, so we didn’t have to abandon ship.
When we’re on our boat, we’re not just
on a two-week vacation visiting a foreign
country. We’re actually living in different
places around the world together, making
long-term friendships beyond what a short
trip can allow. I wouldn’t trade any of it—not
even the experience of getting dismasted.
The longest passage we’ve done is 32 days,
from the Cape Verde islands across the equa-
tor to South Africa. The kids make a lot of art,
do origami, play games. We read books out
loud and watch movies. It’s a different type
of reality when we’re at sea. All that stimula-
tion from land is gone, and you are left with
the basics of nature—sunrise, sunset, subtle
changes in light, clouds, and sky. They notice
the changes in wind, sea, all the elements.
Many people we’ve met while sailing and
traveling have become our kids’ teachers:
biologists, engineers, doctors, naval archi-
tects, professional sailors, professional ath-
letes, sailmakers, filmmakers, musicians,
actors, artists. These world-class leaders
and innovators are who we want our children
to learn from.
Making a big passage may seem over-
whelming to some, but for our kids, these
seemingly hard problems are not that dif-
ficult to accomplish. They’ve learned that
whatever you want to do, it’s possible to
break it down into smaller, more manageable
pieces to accomplish the big goal.
We’re looking for clean air, clean water,
clean dirt. A lot of the voyages that we did,
especially in the Southern Ocean, allowed
us to be in very remote and wild places that
people never get to see, and to show the kids
that these untouched places still exist.
Each port we’re in, we say, ‘OK, is this
working for the family?’ If not, then we make
a change.
Anasazi Girl is a boat designed for one
person, so it’s always too small. But you
know what? When it’s nice out, it’s fine. We
live mostly outside. With boat life, there’s
a closeness that I don’t think most families
who live on land ever experience.
You never know what your family’s ad-
venture fit could be. There are no rules. It’s
all about making the choice to try something
different from the norm.
Right now we don’t have the financial
security of having a house or a big savings
fund for college. In my mind, that’s not re-
ally investing in a child’s future. I believe
the time we invest in our kids now is what
is important.”
Tormentina
Sao-Burwick in
New Zealand
in 2013
Go Big or
Go Bigger
Dreaming of a radical
change of scenery for
i it st
It’s easy to talk about pulling
the kids out of school, selling
the house, and riding off into
the sunset. It’s a lot harder
to learn what this kind of
bold choice really requires.
One smart strategy: give
your imagined escape a test
run with a vacation that will
provide lasting memories,
even if you decide to beat a
retreat back to the comforts
of home. –J.B.
Set Sail
If you’re a certified sailor
but hesitant about taking
an international adventure,
veteran outfitter Sunsail of-
fers weeklong flotilla trips to
destinations including Italy
and the British Virgin Islands.
You’ll captain your own boat,
but you’ll have backup from a
professional crew that offers
daily chart briefings. Never
hoisted a jib? Sunsail’s starter
courses, available for cruises
along Croatia’s Dalmatian
Coast or through the Ionian
Islands of Greece, set your
family up with an accredited
instructor, so you can learn
skills as you hop between
anchorages. From $3,700
Roll Away
Thanks to #vanlife, a bevy
of businesses will rent you a
tricked-out camper van. But
for a family looking to truly
PHOTOGRAPH BY
drive away from it all, it’s hard
to beat Roamerica, in Portland,
Oregon. Its Sportsmobile-
converted Ford vans are
kitted out with sinks, stoves,
fridges, pop-top roofs, and
bike racks, plus amenities like
Rumpl blankets, Helinox camp
chairs, and beef jerky. For an
epic three-week trip, head to
Washington’s Olympic Penin-
sula, catch a ferry from Port
Angles to British Columbia’s
Vancouver Island, and drive
north to Whistler, then east to
Banff and the rugged Canadian
Rockies. Take back roads and
linger at will. Four-wheel-drive
van rentals, $206 per day or
$4,326 for three weeks
Work the Farm
The rise of agritourism means
there are tons of places that
SOMIRA SAO
will help you get your overalls
dirty. A good place to start
is browsing options online
at Farm Stay U.S. and World
Wide Opportunities on Or-
ganic Farms. For a classic New
England experience, check
out Liberty Hill Farm in Roch-
ester, Vermont, where Beth
and Bob Kennett manage
120 Holsteins for the Cabot
Creamery Co-operative. Your
family will stay with the Ken-
netts in their 19th-century
farmhouse and begin each
day with a communal break-
fast. Your duties will include
milking, stowing hay, and
bottle-feeding calves. Come
dinnertime, says Beth, you’ll
feel that “sense of purpose
and accomplishment you get
from meaningful work.” $142
for adults, $68 for kids
09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 47
 REWILD iN G
khaki short shorts and Tretorn sneakers, or
c
rambles around the woods with his camera.
3
It took Meg and me close to two hours to
jog, then limp, and finally stagger through the

CHILD’S
course. When at last we saw Dad waiting for
us, I was filled with such a surge of relief that I
broke into a sprint. We probably came in dead
last, but it didn’t matter. I’d felt the strange,

P L AY buzzing euphoria of sticking with something

that seemed impossible. I was hooked.
I ran the same 10K nearly every spring
after that, not because Dad asked me to but
T H E B E S T WA Y T O R A I S E P H Y S I C A L LY S T R O N G because I wanted to. I got faster and some-
A N D C A PA B L E K I D S I S T O F U E L T H E I R L O V E O F times won my age group (and, in my thirties
GAMES—AND STOP FORCING THEM TO COMPETE and forties, the women’s division outright).
Still, I didn’t join the track or cross-country
AGAINST EACH OTHER
team like Meg did. I just ran out the door
clutching my yellow Sony Sports Walkman,
BY KATIE ARNOLD blasting Bananarama. This was before kids’
soccer leagues started at age three, before
six-year-olds raced triathlons, before some-
EARLY LAST SUMMER, a friend asked me if I would take her 11-year-old daughter run- one invented a world championship of bal-
ning. There was a local 5K coming up in a few weeks, and she thought I could help coach the ance biking for toddlers. Before childhood
girl to success in her first race. itself became a competitive sport.
I hesitated. Her question went right to the thorny heart of modern parenting. Most chil- Sometimes I wonder what might have
dren these days aren’t getting enough exercise or time to move their bodies outside. But many happened if my parents had pressured me to
others are stressed out by an overdose of structured, competitive sports. compete. Maybe I would have run in college
I must have looked conflicted, because my friend added enthusiastically, “It would be such or gone further in the sport. But I’m pretty
good training for her!” sure I wouldn’t be racing ultramarathons in
She wasn’t the first person to assume that because I’m a competitive outdoor athlete, I my mid-forties. As a girl, I ran because I felt
must be an aggro parent, too—a Tiger Mom of the trail set who enters her kids in gnarly races. free, because I made up stories in my head as
As an ultrarunner, I’ve conditioned myself to endure and even enjoy hours of mental and I went, because I loved to run. The fact that
physical adversity in the mountains. And my online column for Outside’s website, Raising I still do is because of what psychologists
Rippers, pulls straight from my experi-
ences bringing up two daughters, now
ages eight and ten, with my husband.
We go rafting, take backcountry ski
Arnold’s
trips, and spend long days hiking at al- daughters
titude. But there’s a big difference be- plus friends
tween helping your kids feel confident on a trek in
New Zealand
in their abilities and pushing them to
compete. When our family is out hik-
ing or riding and the girls start to fuss, I
give them food and water and tell them
what I tell myself during the hardest
parts of an ultra: You’re stronger than
you think you are, keep going. Yet I’ve
never tried to make them racers.
This is due mostly to my own path
into sports. When I was seven and
my sister, Meg, was ten, our dad sug-
gested on a whim that we run a 10K.
The idea was so outlandish, the mile-
age so meaningless, it seemed like a
joke. We weren’t runners, except in
the way that most little kids in the late
seventies were runners: we circled the
bases during kickball, and I ran like
hell to get away from the boy next door
when he tried to smash snowballs into
my face. Dad wasn’t a runner, either.
He preferred long bicycle rides in his

48 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18 PHOTOGRAPH BY K AT I E A R N O L D
I’M THE
CAPTAIN
OF MY
OWN SHIP.
Get your fish on at
call intrinsic motivation: pursuing a goal
for personal fulfillment rather than external
rewards. “As humans, we’re more likely to
stick with tasks that arise out of our own free
will and choice,” says Jessica Lahey, best-
selling author of The Gift of Failure. Intrin-
sic motivation creates a powerful positive
feedback loop: you do something because
you love it, and the more you do it, the more
you improve, which motivates you to keep
going. Too much intensity too soon, though,
can be detrimental. According to a 2016 re-
port published by the American Academy
of Pediatrics, children who specialize in a
single competitive sport before puberty are
more likely to suffer from overuse injuries
and burnout. Often they quit.
My girls are bright and strong-willed,
with their own ideas and dreams and a fierce
determination that’s sometimes madden-
ing but mostly a relief. They’ll surely need
it to navigate the years ahead. They climb,
swim, ski, run, and play lacrosse for fun
and friendship. Still, I can sense the com-
petitive fires starting to flare. Which is just
fine, though I have no plans to add any fuel.
Instead, I’ll steal a page from my dad’s play-
book: open the door and then let them de-
cide if they want to walk through. Above all
else, I’ll keep it fun.
That was the approach I chose with my
friend last summer. “OK,” I told her, “I’ll
take your daughter running. But only on
trails, and it won’t be ‘training’—we’ll just
have a good time.”
When I showed up at the trailhead a few
days later, I was met not by one girl but by
her and a gaggle of 25 friends—apparently
word had gotten out about our plans. It
had rained heavily the night before, and the
woods were sloppy with mud. We set off
at an easy pace, initially trying to skirt the
shin-deep puddles. But pretty soon the kids
charged right in, shrieking and falling and
getting back up. It looked like they’d gone
crazy on a natural Slip ’n Slide.
At the turnaround about a mile and a half
in, an eight-year-old boy named Johnny
took off his sneakers. One by one, the other
kids followed suit, laughing as they sprinted
through the woods, their bare feet barely
touching the ground. They weren’t run-
ning, they were just playing. As I lingered
behind them, it dawned on me that after all
my miles and races, this is why I still run—to
feel young and free and giddy with possibil-
ity. So I kicked off my shoes and chased them
all the way back to the trailhead.
KATIE ARNOLD ( @KATIEARNOLD) IS
OUTSIDE ONLINE’S RAISING RIPPERS
COLUMNIST. HER MEMOIR RUNNING
HOME PUBLISHES IN MARCH 2019.
50 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
Age-Appropriate
Adventure
When and how to
introduce your mini-me
to your favorite sports
Children are much more likely to enjoy
outdoor activities—and stick with
them—if they start out at the right
moment in their physical and cognitive
development. Kids also do best when
they’re allowed to explore, instead of
being cajoled into ever more challenging
situations. “Too many parents approach
sports with a fixed mindset, saying,
We’ve got to get to the end of this trail,’”
says Paul Dreyer, CEO of Avid4 Adven-
ture, which instructs kids ages three and
up at camps in Colorado and California.
“You’ll have a lot more success if you
say, ‘Let’s go get better at the two skills
you learned last week.’ ” Here, he offers
guidelines for introducing kids to four
common sports, but his overarching ad-
vice to focus on fun and go slow applies
to all manner of activities. —J.B.
Biking
> Most kids are ready for a balance bike
(a ride with no pedals) by their third
birthday. They may scoot slowly at first,
but eventually they’ll be lifting both
feet off the ground for long stretches.
Even then, however, there’s no reason
to race out and get a real bike.
> When they upgrade to a pedal
bike—usually around age five—keep it
simple: a coaster brake and no gears.
> Add gears and hand brakes when
they have demonstrated the requisite
coordination to manage all these
functions simultaneously (and have
hands large enough to reach the levers).
>Throughout their training, talk
through hazards (pedestrians, street
crossings) and establish rules, like
leaving ample space between riders.
By tracking their ability to assess
risks, you’ll know when they’re ready
to cruise the neighborhood alone.
Climbing
> This sport comes naturally to tod-
dlers, but you can fuel their passion
by joining them on a playground struc-
ture or boulder. If they get stuck, ask
if they want to move a foot or hand
one more time, but avoid telling
them where to put it.
> When they’re around six, take them
to a climbing gym. Show them how
REWILD iN G
belaying works, teach them knots, and get
them used to checking equipment. When
they tucker out, spend time watching tal-
ented climbers of all ages for inspiration.
> Once they have solid skills, head to
an outdoor crag for top-roping. As you
venture farther afield, make them earn
the right to belay you or lead climb—
big moments that probably shouldn’t
arrive until they’re in their teens.
Paddle Sports
> Don’t wait for your kids to be able to
swim. Put them in a PFD and take mellow
lake or bay outings together on a sit-
on-top kayak, paddleboard, or canoe.
Have them float in the PFD, too, so you’ll
both know what to expect if they fall in.
> Once they’ve gotten comfortable,
give them kid-size paddles so they
can “help.” Don’t sweat their technique—
just let them learn how it feels to move
the water and steer the boat.
> When kids show an interest in manag-
ing their own watercraft, paddle alongside
them and have conversations about fac-
tors like wind and other boaters. Wait until
they’re at least seven before you let them
go out alone—in calm conditions while
you’re on the beach with another boat.
> Moving up to rivers, the ocean, or any
waterway with significant traffic means
starting the process all over again.
Skateboarding
> The American Academy of Pediatrics
recommends kids be supervised when
skating until age ten, but you can get
them rolling much earlier. Before they ever
stand on a board, make them put on a
helmet, plus wrist, elbow, and knee pads.
Explain that falling is part of skating and
have them practice tumbling in their gear.
> Make them stand with one foot for-
ward and then the other a few times to
decide which stance is more comfortable.
When you head for the blacktop, begin
with slow pushes and glides. Have them
practice stepping off the board to avoid a
fall and sliding a foot to brake. Show them
how to turn in a full circle, riding forward
and backward. When they can consis-
tently balance on flats and gentle slopes,
they’re ready to try the shallowest bowls
at your local skate park.
Screened Out
’s si s ti
to the vexing challenge of
getting teens to put down
their phones: education
Diana Graber’s eldest daughter was in
eighth grade in 2010 when her school had
its first cyberbullying incident. It was noth-
ing major—just some kids being mean to
each other on Facebook. But to Graber, who
had recently finished a master’s degree in
media psychology and social change, it was
a missed opportunity for a teachable mo-
ment. So she started visiting her younger
daughter’s sixth-grade class to talk about
digital citizenship. Two things became clear
to her. First, middle schoolers are woefully
unprepared for the addictive nature of
smartphones and the complex ethics of so-
cial media. Second, with guidance, kids can
grow into healthy users of devices and have
a positive influence on virtual communities.
Intervention is desperately needed.
Surveys show that teens, whose develop-
ing brains make them more susceptible to
addiction, spend an average of around four
hours a day on connected devices—not
screen time for kids before 18 months, just
an hour a day until age five, and consistent
limits for kids over six. Need to be in touch
with your nine-year-old about carpooling?
Give them an old-school flip phone.
School Yourself
If you’re going to be a reliable digital guide,
you need to know the terrain. This means try-
ing out ubiquitous mobile games like Mine-
craft and joining platforms like Snapchat,
Instagram, and Musical.ly—then spending
the time to understand their capabilities and
allure. This will also set you up to friend or
follow your child.
Set Ground Rules
When you’re ready to give a kid their first
device, establish how many hours a day they
can use it (with a maximum of two hours),
when they can use it (after homework
and chores), and which apps are off-limits
(any that facilitate chats with strangers).
Tell them you’ll have the passwords to the
c
phone and any e-mail or social accounts.
Establishing these guardrails up front helps
prevent heated arguments later.
Delay Social Media
Users must be at least 13 years old to
legally use most social platforms—with
good reason. “Social media requires ethical
thinking,” Graber says. “ ‘Do I upload a photo
that will hurt someone’s feelings?’ A child’s
brain isn’t ready to make that kind of deci-
sion before their teen years.” Once your kid
begins engaging with social media, monitor
their activity and talk with them if they post
something that makes you uncomfort-
able. The dialogue will reveal how mature a
cybercitizen your child has become.
Model Good Behavior
Don’t bring your phone to the dinner table.
Keep it in your pocket during conversations.
Silence it when you’re in the woods. Show
your children that you can control when and
how you engage with your device.
REWILD iN G

including schoolwork—plus another two

exposure
3

or three hours watching TV. In one Korean

study, tech-addicted teen participants had
higher rates of anxiety, depression, impulse-
control problems, and sleep disorders. But
snatching the phones from our teens’ hands
isn’t the answer. Graber points to research
suggesting that kids with no access to
digital media suffer from some of the same
negative impacts on their mental well-being
as hyperactive device users—“because they
lack that connection with their peers,” she
says. Thus, she advocates for a modest
digital diet, but only after a child has the
requisite education. “Kids really need adults
to on-ramp them into this world,” she says.
Since her experience with her daughter’s
class, Graber has developed a three-year
curriculum called Cyber Civics that has
been implemented by schools in 41 states. It
explores issues like cyberbullying, digital pri-
vacy, and sexting. Teachers guide students
through social-media scenarios and have
them analyze the 50-page terms-of-service
agreements for popular apps. For parents,
her website Cyberwise provides courses
and educational resources. We asked her for
the CliffsNotes on a few key topics. —J.B.
Start Slow
It’s much easier to teach your tween about
smartphone use if they reach middle school
with a healthy digital diet. The American
Academy of Pediatrics recommends no
DAUGHTER
KNOWS BEST
A FAT H E R L E A R N S T O F O L L O W H I S
FIRSTBORN’S LEAD
PORTFOLIO BY JESSE BURKE
When photographer Jesse Burke first started snapping pictures of his five-year-
old daughter Clover Lee, he often lost his patience. “I realized very quickly that she
wasn’t going to listen to me, and I found it incredibly frustrating,” he says. One day,
while taking photos of her on the shore of Campobello Island, in New Brunswick,
he grew so angry that he took the rope she was playing with and threw it away. But
later when he reviewed the images, he realized that the best ones were of her playing
the way she wanted to, not his preconceived compositions. “It was an epiphany,” he
says. “The key is to relinquish some control to her.” He went from being his daugh-
ter’s stubborn director to being her collaborator. Over the next five years, the pair
regularly left their Rhode Island home on road trips to wild places, going as far as
Washington. Burke documented his daughter as she climbed trees, forded rivers,
and held butterflies and frogs. In 2015 he published the images in Wild and Precious,
a book that depicts the bravery and fragility of a girl growing up in nature. Clover is
now twelve, and her two sisters, Poppy Dee, seven, and Honey Bee, five, have “slowly
made their way into the frame once they could interact with the landscape,” says
Burke, 46. “All three of them have this compassionate embrace of the natural world.
It’s at the core of their existence, and I don’t see it going away.” —LUKE WHELAN

52 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
Burke and Honey
birding in Sharon,
Massachusetts

09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 53
 Poppy inside a
dead maple in
Rhode Island

54 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
REWILD iN G
exposure Clover
watching
a storm
approach in
Boston

09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 55
 Clockwise from left:
Honey exploring Arizona’s
Petrified Forest National
Park; Clover peeking into
a tree-swallow box in
Newport, Rhode Island;
Poppy, Clover, and their
friend Holiday netting crabs
in Barrington, Rhode Island

56 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
REWILD iN G
exposure Clover observing
tide pools at Rhode
Island’s Sachuest
Point National
Wildlife Refuge

09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 57

c
3
MAKE IT
EPIC
CHILDHOOD USED TO COME WITH RITES
O F PA S S A G E : Y O U R F I R S T F I S H , Y O U R F I R S T
H U N T, Y O U R F I R S T T A S T E O F O U T D O O R
RISK. WE NEED TO REBUILD THE STEPS ALONG
T H E J O U R N E Y T O A D U LT H O O D.
BY FLORENCE WILLIAMS
CADEN FUCHS can’t tell me what he did
in the sweat lodge. “It’s secret,” says the
14-year-old. “But,” he offers, “it’s a little bit
like I went in a boy and came out a man.”
A statement like that might freak some
parents out, but Caden’s folks rolled with
it. They knew he was out there with a tight
group of friends and a few trusted adults in a
Northern California outdoor program called
Vilda. The mysterious sweat lodge was part
of a yearlong coming-of-age curriculum
that also included backpacking, leadership
skills, a 24-hour solo fast, and an emotional
ceremony with all the parents.
Caden’s belief that something profound
about him had changed was very much on
target. In many ways, he was intentionally
and thoughtfully leaving behind parts of his
childhood. He still loves pizza and T-shirts
emblazoned with skateboard logos. He has
longish dark blond hair that he expertly ma-
neuvers with a quick head flip. And yet, after
the Vilda program, the eighth-grader now
helps out more at home without being asked.
He has taken on strenuous chores, is kinder
to his younger siblings, and is more expres-
sive about how grateful he is to his parents.
By guiding middle schoolers through
coming-of-age rituals in nature, programs
like Vilda are filling a critical gap. Outward
Bound offers “solos” of up to several nights
alone as part of the curriculum, and smaller
outfits like the School of Lost Borders, in
California, and Washington’s Wilderness
Awareness School focus on rites of passage.
Marin Academy, a private school in San Ra-
fael, California, offers a Wilderness Quest
program to high school juniors and seniors.
Not so long ago, American kids took a
pathway to becoming grown-ups that in-
58 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
cluded a series of rigorous and rewarding
steps: increasingly challenging labor on
farms or at home, their first fish and first
hunt, permission to roam over a zone wider
than the driveway. While ceremonies like bar
mitzvahs and quinceañeras—and, to some
extent, qualifying for a driver’s license—still
serve to initiate children into adulthood,
we’ve replaced numerous other rites of pas-
sage with just one: a kid’s first smartphone.
In his 2009 book Manhood for Amateurs,
Michael Chabon wrote,“Childhood is, or
has been, or ought to be, the great original
adventure, a tale of privation, courage, con-
stant vigilance, danger, and sometimes ca-
lamity.” But instead of having their own out-
door exploits and learning to sort out their
own problems, modern kids, we all realize,
are increasingly domesticated.
Adolescence has become almost pathol-
ogized. Teens are basically self-destructive
half-wits, the current wisdom tells us; with-
out a fully formed prefrontal cortex, they
lack judgment and take stupid risks. Many
do, of course, but a far bigger problem today
is that teens are taking too few worthwhile
risks and assuming too little responsibility.
And because they’re not learning through
exploration—the way teen brains were de-
signed to learn—they’re not developing the
emotional skills they desperately need. Our
changing culture has knocked away the scaf-
folding that used to provide formative and
enriching adventures. So what do we do now?
David Sobel, a professor of education at
Antioch University, is a proponent of res-
urrecting meaningful nature-based rituals.
Without them, he says, teens are in danger of
“overinfantilization, extended childhood, or
excessive nonmodulated risk-taking.”
REWILD iN G
For centuries, traditional rites of pas-
sage encompassed everything from slaying
beasts to offering up one’s own flesh for mu-
tilation. Across cultures, certain elements
remained remarkably stable: a phase of
separation and isolation, a period of trans-
formation through trial and reflection, and
a celebratory reintegration into the com-
munity. “The point is to endure some hard-
ship,” says Sobel, “and that prepares you for
adult responsibility, because being an adult
is hard. It tests your mettle, it tests your
capacity to persist in the face of difficulty.
Young people have lost that.”
To help kids regain it, some parents are
creating rituals of their own. Allen Jones, a
dad in western Washington, is the author of
Boys to Men: The Lost Art of Rite of Passage.
When both his sons were in middle school,
he recruited men from the community to
write them letters about their values; for-
mal discussions ensued around sex, work,
and spirituality. Over the course of a year,
father and son would go on outdoor excur-
sions, culminating in a tough final climb
up 12,300-foot Mount Adams. “I grew up
without much direction from my father,”
says Jones, who began experimenting with
drugs and alcohol when he was 13. “My goal
was for my boys to not be like me.”
The Lawlor family of Helena, Montana,
initiated all three daughters into big-game
hunting. Starting when they were five or
six, they’d accompany their father, uncle,
and grandfather on multi-day elk and deer
hunts. Once they were old enough to get
hunting licenses, at ten or twelve, the girls
would hike miles with the Winchester rifles
given to them at birth, lying in the snow
waiting for their quarry. They’d help quarter
and pack out the animal, learning to practice
respect by using every edible part. Tess Law-
lor, now 13, hung her first buck skull in her
room amid her stuffed animals and floral
quilt. The hardest part, says the soccer mid-
fielder and diehard fan of British cooking
shows, is pulling the trigger. But, she adds,
“It makes me feel more grown-up, and I feel
proud about providing meat for my friends
and family.”
Parents need to think about how to put
wildness back into childhood. One first step
is to introduce periodic technology fasts (if
not caloric ones). With less to keep them
indoors, kids naturally look outside, where
nature can become a comfortable, adven-
turous, and wisdom-yielding space during
times of transition and growth.
Another is to bake in some significant
milestones. To commemorate their son
Johnny’s 13th birthday last year, the Frie-
der-Stanzione family of Boulder, Colorado,
PHOTOGRAPH BY HANNAH MCCAUGHEY
arranged for him to climb a six-pitch route
in the local Flatirons with a guide. A few
months later, he competed a mountain-bike
race, 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest, find-
ing his way alone, at night, through 13 miles
of New Mexico’s Zuni Mountains. “We’re so
protective as parents,” says his mom, Julie
Frieder. “Here he could be in a risky situa-
tion, and the risk is so fundamental to his
maturing. This was raw risk and shivery fear.
I wanted him to be in that situation.”
Johnny repeated the ride this year, bring-
ing along his favorite stuffed animal, a move
that illustrates the transition he’s still in.
Next year, he and three friends plan to hike
California’s 220-mile John Muir Trail for
two weeks by themselves.
Frieder describes these rituals as a kind of
inoculation. “Life dishes out scary things,”
she says, “things you can’t plan for. If you get
crushed, how are you going to experience the
world, and get stronger and open yourself to
possibility? I want him to know some fear
and loneliness and happiness and elation.”
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR FLORENCE
WILLIAMS ( @FLOWILL) IS THE
AUTHOR OF THE NATURE FIX: WHY
NATURE MAKES US HAPPIER,
HEALTHIER, AND MORE CREATIVE.
09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 59
 REWILD iN G
believes that all young people deserve a rela-
c
tionship with what the author Henry Beston
3
called the “other nations, ... fellow prisoners
of the splendour and travail of the earth.”

MY B F F Jon Young, author of the 2012 book What

the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Se-
crets of the Natural World, agrees. He teaches
bird language and nature connection around

H A S PAW S the world. Students often tell him that when

they use the skills they have learned from
bird language with their spouses and chil-
dren, their home life improves.
T O DAY ’ S K I D S A R E L O N E L I E R Young also notes the importance of what
T H A N A N Y P R E V I O U S G E N E R AT I O N. he calls the initiatory moment, when a stu-
W H AT C A N H E L P I S A D E E P dent’s sensory understanding of animal
CONNECTION WITH ANIMALS BOTH communication snaps into place. He likens
this to the sudden flash of awareness that an
D O M E S T I C A N D W I L D.
artist feels at the outset of creation.
John Peden recalls his own initiatory mo-
BY RICHARD LOUV ment, the first time he recognized sentience
in another animal. He was 12 years old, hik-
ing with his father to a lake in Yellowstone
ONE DAY A FEW YEARS AGO, Lisa Donahue’s then six-year-old son was lying next National Park. They passed a rockslide, and
to the family’s retriever, Jack. The boy was stroking the dog’s fur. He said, matter-of-factly, Peden lifted his camera to take a photo of a
“Mommy, I don’t have a heart anymore.” pika, a high-altitude mammal that looks like
His startled mother asked him what he meant. a cross between a rabbit and a guinea pig. As
He answered, “My heart is in Jack.” he clicked the shutter, he noticed movement
This permeability of the heart (or soul or spirit or neurological connection—whatever we out of the corner of his eye.
wish to call it) occurs naturally when we’re very young. Some people continue to experience There, stepping into his field of vision,
it throughout life, though they may lack the words to describe it. They experience it with was a bull elk.
their companion animals and, if they have a chance, with wild animals. This essential con- The elk stopped and looked at the boy.
nection with other creatures can be a fragile thing. It needs nourishment to survive. Two more bulls, then a group of cows and
In recent months, a wave of alarming research has suggested the emergence of what some calves, stepped out of the forest. “The first
health officials are calling an epidemic of loneliness. That may be an exaggeration (solitude bull elk seemed to be thinking about what
does have its charms, and creativity often depends on it), but social isolation—a lack of he would do,” Peden recalls. “After the elk
meaningful interaction with others—is on the rise. The results of one study are particularly watched us for a while, they began to relax.”
disturbing: a generational survey by Cigna, the global insurance company, evaluated 20,000 Either they thought as a group, or one of the
U.S. adults on the UCLA Loneliness Scale, an academic measure of social isolation deter- elk sent an invisible signal. The elk moved
mined by a questionnaire. What it found was that, moving forward in age from the Greatest forward and split into two groups. The fe-
Generation to Generation Z, each age bracket feels progressively more isolated. males with calves went below Peden and his
What does it say about the direction of society when the younger people are, the lonelier father, while the three bulls, majestic and
they feel? A study led by psychologist Jean Twenge at San Diego State University found that powerful, moved along the rim above.
U.S. adolescents who spend more time in front of screens and less time in face-to-face so- “I realized that these animals were think-
cializing are more vulnerable to depression and suicide. ing and making decisions in much the same
In my own reporting, I’ve found that overscheduling, economic insecurity, fear of strang- way that people do,” Peden says. “It was
ers, and bad urban design may also play a role in separating us from one another. Not coin- clear that the elk were intentionally moving
cidentally, these are some of the same barriers that keep us removed from the natural world, in two streams around us. They came to-
at a younger and younger age. In addition to our social separation, I believe we suffer from gether and disappeared into the forest. The
species loneliness—a desperate hunger for connection with other life, a gnawing fear that we sun was going down, the sky was a vivid red-
are alone in the universe. Humans, in fact, are more alone than we’ve ever been. We comprise orange. My father and I were surrounded by
0.01 percent of all life on earth, yet we have destroyed 83 percent of wild mammals. Though this herd of elk, and then they passed.”
bacteria and fungi are doing just fine, we’re unlikely to take comfort in their company. For Peden, this was more than a learning
Sure, many of us live with dogs and cats. But to assume that pets alone can fill the void is moment, more than an intellectual acknowl-
like saying that the only human contact we need is within our own nuclear family—that we edgment of the intelligence of another crea-
just don’t need our uncles, cousins, friends, and neighbors. A nuclear family (even one that ture. It was a doorway into another world.
includes a dog) cut off from other social contact is more vulnerable to alcoholism, depres-
sion, and abuse. The same is true for the larger human family. RICHARD LOUV ( @RICHLOUV) IS
In an ideal world, deep animal connection would be taught and experienced in the course A COFOUNDER OF THE CHILDREN AND
of family life or through public schools, places of worship, and nature centers. John Peden, NATURE NETWORK AND THE AUTHOR
a quiet, down-to-earth professor at Georgia Southern University’s College of Behavioral OF LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS:
and Social Sciences, shepherds groups of college students into the wilderness. Often they SAVING OUR CHILDREN FROM NATURE
return humbled, more open to awe and wonder, and feeling less alone. Like many of us, Peden DEFICIT DISORDER.

60 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
PHOTOGRAPH BY HANNAH MCCAUGHEY 09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 61
 GUTTER CREDIT TK

Torres del
Paine National
Park, Chile
GUTTER CREDIT TK
para Dios más perfecto que la Belleza.” John
Muir’s dictum, originally published 80 years
ago, rolls nicely off the tongue in Spanish.
(Translation: No synonym for God is so per-
fect as Beauty.) The words are carved on the
back of a wooden sign hanging at the entrance
to Cementerio Valle Chacabuco, a small
graveyard surrounded by a stone fence and a
dozen guanacos grazing the brown steppe of
764,655-acre Patagonia National Park.
This civilized plot in Chile’s wild Aysén
region holds the remains of Doug Tompkins.
Doug, a cofounder of the North Face and Es-
prit, and his wife, Kristine, former CEO of
Patagonia, are legendary conservationists
who began buying hundreds of thousands
of acres of land in Chile and Argentina in the
1990s. In 2015, Doug died in a kayaking acci-
dent on General Carrera, a massive turquoise
lake nearby. But the philanthropist’s spirit is
everywhere, from his Husky bush plane on
the grass runway to the black-chested buz-
zard eagle that swoops over the park’s head-
quarters. Doug’s radio handle was Águila,
Spanish for eagle. It’s as if he shape-shifted
into the actual bird.
I pay my respects to Doug, cross a dirt
road, and hike a network of trails that climb
3,000 feet to a chain of high-alpine lakes.
As I gain elevation, the stone structures and
organic gardens of park headquarters disap-
pear into the expanse of the vast Valle Cha-
cabuco, which appears to have been folded
and kneaded like bread by a giant hand. In
the distance, the jagged white peaks of the
Andes jut into the sky.
Muir would’ve liked this view. Call it
God or Beauty, but the panorama is over-
whelming. So is Chile’s “crazy geography,”
the phrase writer Benjamín Subercaseaux
aptly used, in 1941, to describe the powerful
natural forces that have shaped his country.
A protected landscape like this is a sight for
a sagging spirit to behold given the heated
battles threatening public lands in the U.S.
In Chile, the opposite is happening. In
January, outgoing president Michelle Bach-
elet and Kristine Tompkins signed a decree
designating ten million new acres of national
parklands. As part of that decision, the Chil-
ean government set aside nine million acres of
federal land, and Kristine donated one million
acres of private land to help create Pumalín
National Park–Douglas R. Tompkins and the
64 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
one I’m standing in now. The decree protects
an area three times the size of Yosemite and
Yellowstone combined. Ultimately, the grand
plan is to create a Route of Parks, connecting
17 national parks, a joint vision of Tompkins
Conservation, the umbrella organization
that encompasses all the Tompkinses’ non-
profits, and the Chilean government.
I reach the first glacial lake on the northern
flank of 4,875-foot Cerro Tamanguito and try
to make out Picaflor y Águila, a picnic spot on
the edge of a lagoon where Kristine and Doug
first camped in the early 1990s. (Kristine’s
radio handle was Picaflor, or hummingbird.)
They were so enamored by Valle Chacabuco,
then a 170,500-acre estancia, that they re-
turned frequently. Later they brought along
travelers can hike to hanging glaciers,
mountain-bike singletrack few others have ridden
fly-fish pristine rivers , backpack through empty public lands ,
rock-climb hundreds
horsepack into wilderness
or make the first ascent of a peak for the right to name it.
Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and
his wife, Malinda, who’ve donated gener-
ously to Tompkins Conservation and advised
on land acquisitions over the years.
“When we first saw Chacabuco,” Choui-
nard told me, “there was just this pristine
valley. We were camping out on a little site
right by a stand of poplar trees. That’s when
we decided to buy the estancia from the de
Smets, the Belgian family who owned the
sheep ranch. They were trying to make it by
selling manchego cheese. It wasn’t man-
chego. It had a funky barnyard flavor that
made it unsellable.” The de Smets eventually
sold to a Tompkins nonprofit in 2004.
From my heady vantage point, it’s easy
to get carried away by the rugged expanse
and romance of the place. But that would
be forgetting years of hard work, including
negotiating land transactions, creating park
boundaries, and pulling down thousands of
fence posts, in order to restore an ecosystem
that now attracts guanacos, Darwin’s rheas (a
relative of the ostrich), and at least 30 pumas.
C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P L E F T: L I N D E WA I D H O F E R ; P I E P E N B U R G / L A I F/ R E D U X ; B E T H WA L D ; G U I L L A U M E F L A N D R E ( 2 ) ; B R I A N H AY D E N ; B E T H WA L D ; J A M E S Q . M A R T I N ; M E R E D I T H KO H U T
“I love starting things at zero,” Kristine says
when I speak with her after my trip. She was
supposed to be at the park while I was visiting
but had been delayed in the States tending
to her 99-year-old mother, who died a few
months ago. “It’s a tough thing to pull off,
but this is the front end of what will be one
of the great national park routes of the world.”
THE ROUTE OF PARKS is still a rough concept
at this point. Most have been designated, and
Tompkins Conservation has contributed
land to eight of them. The route will eventu-
ally be loosely connected via 1,500 miles of
, kayak and
of unnamed routes,
areas seen only by gauchos,
roads and ferries, combining Chile’s noto-
riously rugged 770-mile Carretera Austral
(Southern Highway) with water passages and
roads farther south. It starts just south of the
city of Puerto Montt at Alerce Andino Na-
tional Park and ends at Cabo de Hornos Na-
tional Park, a series of islands and waterways
in Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the
southernmost point of South America. Once
the parks are all decreed, which is estimated
to happen as early
as this fall, the route Clockwise from
will create the larg- top left: Pumalín
National Park–
est string of national Douglas R. Tompkins;
parks in the world, the Carretera
featuring jagged peaks, Austral; a gaucho
sipping maté; Torres
aquamarine glaciers, del Paine (2); the
symmetrical volca- view from The Singu-
noes, milky rivers, lar Patagonia; Doug
Tompkins; Patagonia
steep-sided fjords, and park’s garden;
old-growth forests. Kristine Tompkins
 I’m traveling with my boyfriend, Brian
Hayden, and we’re on a somewhat ludicrous
mission to explore as many Chilean national
parks as we can in just under a month. Start-
ing in Puerto Montt, where the Carretera
Austral begins, our plan is to drive most of
the highway, hop a ferry in the village of
Puerto Yungay, ride 44 hours south to Puerto
Natales, near iconic Torres del Paine National
Park, and end up in Tierra del Fuego’s Yende-
gaia National Park, a 372,170-acre wilderness
about a quarter of which a Tompkins non-
profit bought from a jailed drug dealer in 1998
and handed over to the government in 2014.
As Chileans like to say, Patagonia “está
en pañales” (is in diapers) when it comes to
development, which makes the recreation
potential along the Route of Parks unlim-
ited. Travelers can hike to hanging glaciers,
mountain-bike singletrack few others have
ridden, kayak and fly-fish pristine riv-
ers, backpack through empty public lands,
“Doug Tompkins was the start of the environmental
,
movement in Chile ” Yvon Chouinard says. “When he started
,
down there especially during Pinochet
government you were a dead man. There were no
e n v i r o n m e n t a l o r g s —— z e r o . H i s w i f e , K r i s t i n e , i s m o r e o f a d i p l o m a t .
She’s done a phenomenal job of handing over those parks.”
rock-climb hundreds of unnamed routes,
horsepack into wilderness areas seen only by
gauchos, or make the first ascent of a peak
for the right to name it—like Doug Tompkins
and Yvon Chouinard did with 7,500-foot
Cerro Kristine in 2009.
Our plan has a few pitfalls, namely that
we’re driving south in late fall into potential
snow and ice, and we have a tight sched-
ule to keep to arrive in time for the once-
a-week ferry in Puerto Yungay. Planning
to be anywhere on time on the Carretera
Austral is wishful thinking. Chilean dicta-
tor Augusto Pinochet began constructing
the famous highway in 1976, using 10,000
soldiers to dynamite mountainsides, fortify
berms around cliffs, and hack through dense
rainforest. It took 24 years to build the road,
which is alternately paved, gravel, or dirt,
and there remain four impenetrable sections
that require a ferry bypass.
We wouldn’t be the first Patagonia road-
trippers in need of a backup plan. In 1968,
the now famous Fun Hogs—Doug Tompkins,
Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth, and Lito
66 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
Tejada-Flores—drove from California to
Argentina, picking up Chris Jones in Peru.
Their journey included a spectacular summit
of Fitz Roy, one of the world’s most techni-
cal peaks. The Carretera Austral didn’t exist
back then, so the men had to cross from Chile
into Argentina, which required thousands of
dollars in bond money—much more than the
Fun Hogs had—to travel south on Route 40.
“Tompkins, who was kind of a juve-
nile delinquent, said, ‘We’ll figure it out,’ ”
Chouinard recalls. “We got to Puerto Montt
and bought a rubber stamp that blotted out
the part that said our car wasn’t guaranteed
for Argentina or Brazil. For three dollars, we
got into Argentina.”
The Fun Hogs inspired my first trip
to Chile in 2000. I spent a week in the
off-season hiking in Torres del Paine Na-
tional Park, which felt rugged, remote, and
empty. Then I flew to northern Patagonia
and discovered what empty really looks like.
, if you opposed the
I borrowed a bike to ride along the Carretera
Austral, singing at the top of my lungs while
surrounded by utter wildness.
In October 2015, I returned to Puerto
Varas, a city in Chile’s Lakes District, where
I met Doug Tompkins at a conference. “We
hope to make 12 national parks before we
keel over,” he told me then. He was wearing
a black turtleneck, had a white mane of hair,
and reminded me a little of a more animated
Andy Warhol. “We’ll have to see if we can do
that. Conservation faces opposition wher-
ever it is. The use of territory is the most
politically sensitive, emotional issue there
is. Look at Grand Teton National Park. My
God, there was an armed uprising there! You
have to spend years, pay dues, win respect,
and make as few mistakes as possible.”
Doug’s love affair with Chile ran deep. He
began exploring the country when he was 18,
and later spent as much time there as pos-
sible while running two corporations. By
1991, he had amassed a fortune and soured
on consumerism. He cashed out and bought
a run-down, 42,000-acre farm south of
Puerto Montt at the end of a Chilean fjord.
Most of the farm is now part of Pumalín–
Douglas R. Tompkins park. In 1994, he mar-
ried Kristine, and over the years the two have
invested more than $500 million—from their
personal finances, Tompkins Conserva-
tion, and like-minded partners—to protect
1.3 million acres in Chile and 1.2 million in
Argentina, and to fund other environmental
projects. The Tompkinses weren’t always
been viewed favorably by Chileans, some of
whom considered them neocolonialists and
circulated rumors—that they were starting a
cult or populating their land with American
bison. But over the years, the pair earned the
trust of locals and government officials. Two
months after I met Doug, he died.
“Doug was the start of the environmental
movement in Chile,” Chouinard says. “When
he started down there, especially during Pi-
nochet, if you opposed the government you
were a dead man. There were no environ-
mental orgs—zero. But Kristine has prob-
ably accomplished more than Doug would
have had he been alive. He was pretty abra-
sive. Kris is more of a diplomat. She’s done a
phenomenal job of handing over those parks.”
And she isn’t done yet. In Argentina,
Tompkins Conservation is working with the
government to create several national parks,
including the flagship 341,205-acre Iberá.
There, in June, two jaguar cubs were born for
the first time in almost half a century.
THE BEAUTY OF the Route of Parks is how
vastly different each area is. Some have gla-
ciers, others have temperate rainforests, and
still others have both. Some are roadless;
others have exquisite luxury lodges. Even
more diverse than the parks are the people
who visit them. We meet a Chilean who
slung a guitar over his shoulder in south-
ern Patagonia and is hitchhiking all the way
to Machu Picchu. A South African couple
bought a Chevy van in California and are
driving down in full-on Fun Hog mode. One
American took his Salsa Mukluk fat bike on a
test ride through Alaska and has now turned
it loose on the Carretera Austral. And a time-
strapped German CEO jetted in to an upscale
lodge in Torres del Paine and is knocking off
as many hikes as possible in a week.
These travelers are all awestruck by the
volume of wilderness here. Case in point:
Queulat National Park. About 13 miles south
of Puyuhuapi village, Queulat’s one-lane
dirt-road entrance looks like a driveway. The
380,772-acre park, which opened in 1983
during the Pinochet regime, was named in
the language of the extinct nomadic Chono
people for the sound made by waterfalls.
Given that Queulat receives as much as 157
inches of rainfall per year, there are quite a
few of them, like the 2,100-foot cascade
that plummets from Ventisquero Colgante,
a hanging glacier. It’s best experienced by
crossing a rope bridge that sways over the
Rio Ventisquero, then hiking three miles and
1,300 feet up through a rainforest to a look-
out that captures the glacier, waterfall, sur-
rounding peaks, and milky blue lake below.
We are equally awed 230 miles south of
Queulat under the basalt peaks of Cerro
Castillo National Park, a 341,411-acre for-
mer natural reserve. We arrive in the village
of Cerro Castillo just in time to pitch our tent
at the campground behind Senderos Patago-
nia, a hostel and outfitter. It was established
in 2011 by Cristian Vidal, a renowned horse
trainer whose family settled in this valley in
the 1930s, and his American wife, Mary Brys.
The two met in Chile in 2007, when Brys was
finishing her master’s degree in sustainable
tourism. Vidal was her horseback guide.
Brian and I set up camp, Jetboil some
noodles, and wash them down with Chilean
Carmenère from a box as we soak up the or-
ange sunset over 8,776-foot Cerro Castillo,
the park’s namesake.
“Wow, that looks far away,” says
Brian, referring to tomorrow’s ob-
jective, a smaller peak covered in
dark clouds. Snow is in the forecast,
and we’re preparing for a cold night.
The hostel glows yellow below us
and is at full capacity with mostly
millennial hitchhikers.
Senderos Patagonia specializes
in long-distance horseback expedi-
tions. But Vidal and Brys just became
the official trail administrators for
the new national park and will work
closely with Chile’s National Forestry
Corporation (CONAF), which man-
ages the country’s parks, to oversee
trail building, search and rescue mis-
sions, guide certification, and the It’s a legitimate Creating national parks has always been
first studies on the park’s capacity. concern, as I learn a priority in Chile. Every president who has
The area is a magnet for rock climbers the next day. We served a full term since 1926 has expanded
(there are more than 200 routes), backcoun- shake a thin layer of ice off our tent and the system, which now totals 21.2 percent of
try skiers, and trekkers who camp along the head into the park with Francisco Ponce, the country. Everywhere I visit, I ask locals
five-day, 31-mile Las Horquetas circuit. Ac- a Senderos Patagonia guide. Our ten-mile what they think of the new parks. Most are
cording to Brys, the attention has dramati- round-trip trek feels more classically alpine, tentatively excited, adding the caveat that
cally increased real estate prices in the village hopping over streams, passing the base camp “es complicado.” Many express concerns
of Cerro Castillo in the past couple of years. for climbing Cerro Castillo, and ending in a about how the parks will involve local com-
“It’s becoming a world-class destination, wide, snow-filled valley at the foot of the munities and how the country will manage
but so much infrastructure is lacking that it’s peak’s intimidating serrated crown. The hike ten million additional acres.
a little scary,” says Brys, handing off the cou- is fantastic, but to access this area of the park While most parks won’t get close to the
ple’s five-month-old baby, Antonio, to Vidal we had to hop a fence and walk a mile or so quarter-million annual visitors that Torres
as she points out tomorrow’s hiking route on through private farmland. It’s legal, Ponce del Paine sees, even that park has a limited
a map. “It’s super exciting when you think tells us, because Senderos Patagonia pays budget of $2.1 million a year, with only 30
about what the government and Tompkins a fee to the landowner, but it’s not an ideal full-time rangers to oversee 700 square
Conservation are doing. We’re witnessing entry point to a national park, especially for miles. The final Route of Parks details—exact
history. But there are a lot of unanswered a trail that’s now receiving about 25 trekkers boundaries, staffing needs, budgets—are
questions for local people about how it per day and, due to CONAF budget con- still being ironed out. “The financing of pro-
is going to affect their culture.” straints, has only a few rangers to monitor it. tected areas worldwide is a great challenge,

MAP BY Petra Zeiler 09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 67

and in Chile the scenario is similar,” Richard
Torres Pinilla, the manager of protected wild
areas for CONAF, told me in an e-mail. He
explained that in addition to federal funding,
money to manage and maintain the parks
will come from local and regional govern-
ments and various other national and inter-
national organizations.
CONAF plans to begin managing the new
parks by April 2019. Tompkins Conservation
will collaborate with CONAF for at least the
next decade, especially on the extensive
rewilding and wildlife-rehabilitation pro-
grams the nonprofit has instituted in Pum-
alín–Douglas R. Tompkins and Patagonia
National Parks. And a new international or-
ganization called Corporación de Amigos de
los Parques, launched in June by Tompkins
Conservation, will raise money and advocate
for policies to help maintain the parks.
Kristine, who splits her time between
projects in Chile and Argentina and fund-
raising in the U.S., is confident that Chile will
do right by her gift. “The Chilean government
is going to take good care of these parks, be-
cause they’re excited about having a world-
class national park system,” she says. “These
are gorgeous places that people will want to
come visit. The people and landscapes of
southern Chile are extraordinary.”
RULE NUMBER ONE when traveling in
southern Chile: have a plan B. Parts of the
Carretera Austral are paved smooth as but-
ter; others are so potholed, eroded, or nar-
row that one jerky move could launch us
off a cliff, roll us into a ditch, or turn us into
grill decorations on an incoming semi. Dis-
tractions are constant—a fortress of snow-
capped peaks, a hitchhiker in need of a ride,
a gaucho in wool-lined chaps leading his
cattle down the road.
The distances between parks aren’t large,
but Mother Nature can make travel tricky.
Last December, a river of mud flowed four
miles down a mountainside in Corcovado
National Park, a 726,455-acre coastal swath
roughly 125 miles south of Puerto Montt. It
buried the small village of Santa Lucia, kill-
ing at least 15 people, crushing 28 houses,
and destroying miles of the Carretera Aus-
tral. Reconstruction of the road is slow
going. Our two-hour delay outside Santa
Lucia is brief according to our new friends,
a group of Santiago businessmen in the SUV
in front of us. They’ve come prepared with
a case of wine and are tailgating out of the
back of their car.
Despite construction stops, the days go
fast as we hike, camp, soak in searing hot
springs, sip Chilean wines, and eat lamb
asado. Early on in our trip, in the bathroom
of our cabin at Caleta Gonzalo in Pumalín
68 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
National Park–Douglas
R. Tompkins, I laugh
when I see the beech-
wood toilet-paper hold-
ers intricately carved
with flowers and recall
what Chouinard had
told me about Doug in an
interview just after his
friend’s death.
“He was a microman-
ager,” Chouinard said.
“We used to joke that he
would even choose the
type of toilet paper if you
let him. If you look at the
infrastructure of Pumalín
and Patagonia, it’s over
the top. He was a frus-
trated interior designer.”
Along the way, we
meet mostly Chileans
who have heard the buzz
about the parks and
ventured south to see
Patagonia, a once-in-
a-lifetime trip for most. After two weeks,
we’ve explored five parks, but I’m becoming
increasingly agitated about catching the ferry
in Puerto Yungay. When we finally reach the
village, which consists of the ferry office and
a café, we’re five hours early. I’m so happy to
be here, I’m not alarmed that neither the
boat nor another human is in sight.
“Oh look, we’re the first ones here,” Brian
jokes. To assuage my obsession with the
ferry departure, he has heroically driven the
last particularly steep and gnarly 50-mile
stretch of the Carretera Austral through rain
and sleet to make sure we arrive in time.
“Why are you here?” asks a kindly woman
behind the café counter who declares herself
Inés of Puerto Yungay, because she is the
town’s only resident.
“We’re here to take the ferry,” I say.
“Haven’t you heard?” she asks. “There’s
been an accident. The ferry is broken.”
We have no plan B. After some discussion
with Inés, who fortifies us with supersize
ham and cheese empanadas, we decide to
backtrack 300 miles north to Coyhaique,
the capital of Aysén, where we’ll wait for an
airline strike to subside before catching a
flight to Punta Arenas. From there we’ll drive
north to Torres del Paine. If all goes accord-
ing to plan B, we’ll arrive in three days.
“Awesome! I get to drive the sketchiest
part of road twice,” says Brian, hauling ass
over gravel at 60 miles per hour. It’s get-
ting dark, and we’re running low on gas. But
Brian cheerfully reminds me that missed
ferries and looming snowstorms are part of
the fun on the Carretera Austral.
Pumalín
National Park–
Douglas R.
Tompkins
When we arrive in Torres del Paine, I run
into a friend who happens to be in the park:
Euan Wilson, the founder of H&I Adven-
tures, a Scottish company that specializes
in exploratory mountain-biking trips.
“T he terrain here is un-friggin’-
believable,” he excitedly tells us. “It’s like
you’re on the moon, with lava flows and
rock.” Wilson has received permission to
scout new routes on a private estancia within
the park’s boundaries and has brought
Ernesto Araneda, Chile’s 2010 cross-country
mountain-biking champion, along with him.
“Yesterday was one of my best days,” he
says. “We had five hours of riding time and
only ten minutes off the bike. We were like
Beavis and Butt-head—we kept chuckling
because it was so hard to stop. The terrain
here lends itself to mountain biking, because
the soil drains well.”
Brian, a onetime category-two cyclist
who now races on gravel, peels off to ride
with the guys. I opt to hike to the base of
the famous Torres with Sebastian Kusch, a
27-year-old guide for Tierra Patagonia, the
architectural wonder of a lodge where we’re
staying on the eastern shore of nearby Lake
Sarmiento. Chilean Cazú Zegers designed
the hotel to almost magically disappear into
the grass of the arid Patagonia steppe.
The six-mile trail ascends around 3,000
feet to the base of the granite towers and sees
1,200 people on the busiest summer days.
Today we come across only a few dozen hik-
B E T H WA L D
ers, some of whom are wearing flimsy par-
kas to fend off the biting snow and wind. I
wipe back a few tears when we reach a small
lake located at the base of the 12-million-
year-old monoliths, feeling an overwhelm-
ing sense of relief that, in a world moving
at hyperspeed, at least these rocks haven’t
changed in the 18 years since I last saw them.
When we meet back at the hotel, Brian is
equally charged. “I’ve never ridden in such
vastness,” he says. “We might have been
some of the first people to ride those trails.”
Before we leave Torres del Paine, Basilio
Reinike, the head guide at Tierra Patagonia,
takes Brian and me to a small house connected
to a ranger station to meet Juan Toro Quirilef,
the park’s first ranger. Quirilef’s mother was
of Mapuche descent, known as the tribe that
the Spaniards could never conquer.
Now a cheerful, fit 65 years old, Quirilef
still patrols on horseback and says that his
biggest problem is too many people. “When
the park explodes with visitors, we don’t
have the time, resources, or money,” he says,
adding that he was recently offered the job of
being the sole ranger in Yendegaia National
Park. He turned it down.
“That park is huge!” he says. “I built this
house 26 years ago. Torres del Paine is my
home.”
BRIAN AND I never make it to Yendegaia,
either. Before we drive south to Punta Are-
nas to catch our flight home, we eat lunch in
Puerto Natales with Gonzalo Fuenzalida, a
Santiago native who guided down here for
about 20 years. He owns Chile Nativo, which
runs horsepacking and trekking trips to un-
touched corners of Chile. Fuenzalida is al-
most giddy as he tells me about the trip he’s
scouted in Yendegaia National Park.
“There’s no way you can do a trip like this
one on your own,” he says. “The logistics are
quite tricky.”
They involve taking a ferry from Punta
Arenas to Tierra del Fuego and driving to the
end of a new highway, which is being blasted
roughly a mile closer to the park every month;
a permit from the government is required to
travel around this obstacle. Trekkers then
set out to cross the peaks of the Cordillera
Darwin. After four days of hiking, they take
a boat to Puerto Williams, where they fly in a
small plane back to Punta Arenas.
It makes me sick to my stomach that I may
never get to set eyes on Yendegaia. But I sup-
pose it’s always good to leave something to
the imagination.
“When do you think the road to Yendegaia
will be finished?” I ask Fuenzalida.
“Never, I hope.” O timed to catch the early-morning
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR STEPHANIE
PEARSON ( @STEPHANIEAPEARS)
WROTE ABOUT TOURING LAKE
SUPERIOR IN 2017.
AC C E S S A N D R E S O U R C E S
V I VA LO S F U N H O G S
It would take months to travel the entire Route of Parks. Bite off a two-week
stretch by driving to any of the seven accessible parks along the Carretera
Austral. Or fly farther south to Punta Arenas to trek in Torres del Paine or
kayak Bernardo O’Higgins. —S.P.
WHEN TO GO: The weather is unpre-
dictable in Patagonia. September
through February is the spring-
summer high season. There’s more
snow in the fall and winter months
(March through August), but the
region is far less crowded then.
GETTING THERE: Latam offers daily
flights from Santiago to Puerto Montt,
Punta Arenas, and Balmaceda—the
three airports with the best access
to points along the Route of Parks.
Aerovias DAP offers flights to Tierra
del Fuego’s Puerto Williams.
GETTING AROUND: Some of the
major car-rental companies operate in
Patagonia. You’ll need a four-wheel-
drive vehicle; if possible, plan your itin-
erary to avoid a hefty one-way rental
fee. On the Carretera Austral, there are
four gaps that require ferry passage.
Most information on schedules and
tickets can be found at Taustral.cl
and Tabsa.cl. Cyclists: bring your own
tested and trusted bike.
WHERE TO STAY: There are good
campsites in most of the road-
accessed national parks. The iOver-
lander app provides invaluable infor-
mation on campgrounds, backcountry
sites, and water stops along the route.
The southern third of Chile is not lack-
ing in clean, comfortable, and occa-
sionally luxurious accommodations.
Highlights include the new Hotel Awa
(from $410) in Puerto Varas, on Llan-
quihue Lake, with floor-to-ceiling views
of the Osorno volcano and on-site
kayaks. In Hornopirén, Hotel Oelckers
(from $35) offers stout breakfasts
ferry to Pumalín National Park–
Douglas R. Tompkins. In the park, the
cozy Caleta Gonzalo cabins (from
$80), on the edge of Reñihué Fjord,
provide a relief from the frequent
rain. Getting to the Puyuhuapi Lodge
and Spa (from $260) requires a ten-
minute ferry ride, but the payoff is
steaming-hot outdoor springs within
view of Queulat National Park. Steps
from the Carretera Austral, Senderos
Patagonia hostel and campground
(hostel from $12.50; camping $8)
offers hot showers and easy access
to Cerro Castillo National Park.
Patagonia National Park has three
beautifully maintained campgrounds
and the luxurious Lodge at Valle
Chacabuco (from $350). A former
cold-storage plant, the Singular
Patagonia (from $445) near Puerto
Natales features Andes views, one
of the best restaurants in Chile, and
excursions into nearby Torres del
Paine and Bernardo O’Higgins National
Parks. Just outside Torres del Paine,
the stunning, sustainable Tierra
Patagonia lodge (from $2,300 for
three nights) has in-house trekking
guides, a spa, and a restaurant
looking out on the Torres. In Punta
Arenas, La Yegua Loca (from $150)
is a 1929 hilltop estate with eight
themed rooms.
OUTFITTED ADVENTURES: On MT
Sobek’s new On the Smuggler’s Trail
trip, guests trek for 12 days on an old
cattle-smuggling route through Pata-
gonia National Park (from $5,895).
Outfitter Chile Nativo offers treks and
horseback expeditions in Torres del
Paine National Park and points farther
south, like its new nine-day Terra
Incognita route in Yendegaia National
Park (from $4,000). On Outside GO’s
Uncharted Chile trip, guests explore
Torres del Paine for six days while stay-
ing in the luxury domes of EcoCamp
Patagonia, followed by three days of
exploring the Perito Moreno glacier
in Argentina ($4,325).
09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 69
 PHOTOGRAPHS BY
J OS É M AN D O J A N A

EVENT
BY G O R DY M EGRO Z
70 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
in southwestern Utah, just outside Zion Na-
tional Park, staring down at a man-made,
20-foot-high dirt jump that she intends to
hit on her mountain bike.
Brown, a New Zealand native who now
lives in Revelstoke, British Columbia, will de-
scend 200 yards at around 40 miles per hour,
soar some 50 feet through the air, and then—
she hopes—safely land on a modestly pitched
runout. Brown has launched from hundreds
of similar jumps, often on her way to victories
at Crankworx competitions, where riders
are judged on how well they can make their
bikes perform like stunt planes. But this one
is making her nervous. The wind is gusting
hard enough to knock an airborne rider off-
kilter. If that happens, Brown will probably
slam into the desert’s sandstone surface.
“This is sketchy,” she says. The breeze
sweeps plumes of dust off the surrounding
ocher mesas. “If the wind doesn’t die down,
it could be bad.”
A big part of mountain biking, especially
the high-flying brand that Brown practices,
is crashing, and the 27-year-old knows the
consequences of a jump gone wrong. Her
five-foot-three-inch body, scarred and par-
tially held together with metal rods and pins,
is an illustrated guide to what can happen
when humans plummet from three stories
up and smack against the earth. At the end of
March, while riding in New Zealand, Brown
jumped 12 feet off a mound of grass and came
up short on the landing, slamming her chest
into the handlebars and tomahawking for 30
feet. The results: a cracked bike frame, nerve
damage in her left shoulder, and such bad
bruising to her left lung that she coughed up
blood for two days.
It’s now the middle of May, and Brown
is still hampered by lingering pain. Never-
theless, she was determined to come to the
tiny town of Virgin, Utah, for what she calls
exposure therapy, on terrain that, riders
will tell you, is some of the most dangerous
Red Bull Rampage, an invitation-only com-
petition, held in October, in which 21 of the
best riders in the world air into backflips and
off-axis spins and otherwise tempt disaster
while barreling down a seemingly unrideable,
700-vertical-foot mountain. It’s the sport’s
biggest event, and Brown wants in. A few
weeks from now she’ll petition contest or-
ganizers, hoping to become the first woman
invited to ride in the Rampage. They’ll make
their decision in early August.
But first the jump, which looms before
her on the event’s original course, just a mile
from the new one.
“Is it still windy down there?” Brown
shouts to a group standing beside the jump.
She’s brought along Garett Buehler, a close
friend who has competed in the Rampage
four times; her boyfriend, Marty Schaffer;
and her dog, Snuff, a black Lab mix who’s
almost always at her side.
“It’s better,” Schaffer replies. “You’re
probably OK to go.”
Brown buckles the strap on her full-face
helmet and lowers her goggles. She angles
her gray Trek toward the jump, her blond
ponytail swishing as she speeds down the
slope. As Brown launches from the lip, she
floats so high and far that she overshoots the
touchdown zone and lands on a flatter sec-
tion. She hits hard—her bike shocks com- athletes have been airlifted out after suffer-
pletely compress—slides off the saddle, and ing serious injuries. In 2015, Paul Basagoitia,
slams her backside onto her rear tire. a rider from Reno, Nevada, was paralyzed
“Ouch!” she yells. from the waist down after going off a ten-
Speckled with red clay, Brown cringes as foot cliff and crashing. In 2013, two riders
she walks her bike back toward the jump. broke their femurs.
“Yeah, Casey!” Buehler shouts. The acrobatics displayed at the Rampage
“Are you OK?” Schaffer asks. are among the most impressive spectacles
“Yeah,” says Brown, shaking her right in all of sports, but the bodily harm that
hand. “I wrenched my wrist a little.” can result is enough to make you wonder
She looks at where she landed and lets out why anybody thought it was wise to subject
a chuckle. “I’m fine.” Then she pushes her mountain bikers to such gnarly terrain.
bike up the hill to do it again. Todd Barber, one of the event’s founders,
says the idea came to him in 2000, when he
WATCHING THE Red Bull Rampage, which is was watching a ski-cross competition in
GUTTER CREDIT TK

and technically demanding you’ll find any-
where—a devil’s playground of 50-degree
knife-edge spines, 60-foot cliff drops, and
gap jumps over 70-foot-deep ravines.
Such obstacles feature prominently in the
streamed online, can be a nauseating experi-
ence. One minute you’re witnessing a rider
land a double backflip; the next he’s writhing
on the ground, a pile of busted bones.
Since the Rampage began in 2001, several
Lake Tahoe. “I thought, Why isn’t there a
competition that showcases what guys can
do on bikes?”
On hand with Barber was Paul Crandell,
who at the time was the director of events for

72 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
 Red Bull. He pitched the idea to his bosses.
The brass at the energy-drink company,
which never misses an opportunity to be
part of something involving human projec-
tiles, got on board right away.
The first Rampage was held in 2001 in
Virgin, which was chosen, Barber says, “be-
cause it has everything, the ridges and drops
and vertical. It reminded me of what guys
were skiing in Alaska.”
To select the slate of participants, a com-
mittee of five spends months poring over
competition results and footage, trying to
determine which of the world’s riders are
worthy. Applicants must prove that they
GUTTER CREDIT TK
have the ability to handle steep, loose, tech-
nical terrain and are daring enough to take
on enormous jumps and cliffs. During their
runs, bikers are judged on fluidity, style, am-
plitude, and line choice.
“People look at it and say, ‘I can ride that,’ ”
says Kurt Sorge, a rider from Nelson, Brit-
ish Columbia, who’s won the event three
times, including last year. “But you have to
be fast and fluid and throw in the tricks. And
you gotta deal with the wind and the heat.
There’s a lot that goes into it. It’s one of the
toughest challenges out there.”
The winner pockets $8,000. More im-
portant, a good showing at the Rampage can
lead to big sponsorship deals.
According to Barber, a female biker with
the goods to descend the length of the course
while pulling off tricks like the Superman—
in which riders take their feet off the pedals
and fly through the air while holding the
handlebars—has never emerged.
Brown acknowledges that what separates
her from some of the best male riders is the
shortage of tricks in her repertoire. But she’s
working on several, aiming to have them
ready by October.
“I’ve had other women want to compete,”
Barber says. “But there are a lot of guys out
there to choose from. It’s hard to say we’ll
give Casey a shot when there have been so
many guys knocking on the door for years.
I’m not opposed to it. But it’s gonna be tough.
The Rampage is not a proving ground.”
OVER THE PAST year, Brown has made a
strong case that she deserves a chance. Last
September, I joined a full house at Walk Fes-
tival Hall in Teton Village, Wyoming, for the
premiere of Teton Gravity Research’s annual
ski film. The crowd, mostly dressed in flan-
nel and brimming with anticipation, had
come for the usual adventure porn: skiers
and snowboarders descending steep faces
in deep powder, flinging themselves off
09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 73
 massive cliffs. With each colossal launch,
the pack yipped and hollered. But it wasn’t
until about halfway through the hourlong
film that they completely lost it.
That’s when Casey Brown and Cam Mc-
Caul, a pro from Bend, Oregon, appeared on
the screen, riding their bikes off a 20-foot
cliff into snow-filled Corbet’s Couloir, the
legendary Jackson Hole ski run. The icy pitch
rendered brakes useless; Brown hurtled for
300 feet at around 60 miles per hour. With
that, people leaped to their feet, shouting
and throwing their hands in the air.
After the movie, the talk was all about the
mountain-bike segment, both because the
stunt was novel (mountain bikers had never
appeared in a TGR ski film before) and insane
(nobody had ever been crazy enough to ride
a bike off Corbet’s). And by the way, several
asked: Who was that girl?
Besides her Crankworx victories, Brown,
who began competing in 2008, has spent
several years posting impressive results on
the World Cup downhill tour and in Enduro
World Series races. Among serious riders,
she’s noted for her in-flight style and hang
time, which seems to last seconds longer
“ T H E R E ’ S A QUOTE I LIKE,” BROWN
SAYS. " ‘THE B E S T THINGS IN LIFE A R E O N
THE O T H E R S I D E O F F E A R . ’ THE RAMPAGE
IS A REALLY GOOD MEASURE OF YOUR
ABILITIES. I W A N T T O B E P U S H I N G T H E S P O R T, A N D
THIS IS THE N E XT STE P FOR ME.”
than her peers’. “The thing that impresses
me is that she’s so confident,” says McCaul.
“She can take on any terrain, and she makes
it look good. Such stylish riding isn’t some-
thing we’ve seen from women before.”
But until that moment inside the theater,
most people outside the world of mountain
biking had never heard of her. The TGR seg-
ment, which was later posted online and
quickly went viral, with 730,000 views,
boosted Brown’s celebrity. A month later,
Red Bull proposed doing a short film about
her. She’s also been asked to shoot a com-
mercial for Coors Light.
Brown, who’s soft-spoken and demure,
shies away from much of the attention. “I
like to live a little more humbly,” she says.
“Looking forward and focusing on the fu-
ture are more important than looking back
at what you’ve done.”
In Revelstoke, she’s able to find sanctuary
from the limelight. When she’s home, which
74 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
is usually only five months of the year, she
spends her time working on her bikes, hang-
ing out with her family, or, in the winter, ski-
ing and snowmobiling with friends. And she
devotes a large chunk of time to her artwork,
a passion since childhood.
The tiny basement apartment that she
shares with Schaffer is a gallery for her work,
including a painting of Snuff, as well as pot-
tery she made at a nearby studio. Even her
bike helmet is painted with a sketch she did
of a coyote biting a snake. In some native
cultures, she says, “the coyote is the trick-
ster. I feel like I’m the coyote and I’m biting
my fears.”
She’s a good artist, which prompts me
to ask why she didn’t choose that as a ca-
reer, since art is less likely to put you in the
hospital. “Artists starve to death,” she says,
then thinks about it. “Well, mountain bikers
starve to death, too.”
Brown is hardly starving. Her income
this year, earned mainly through endorse-
ments with Clif Bar, Dakine, and Trek, will
reach six figures. She and Schaffer are house
shopping—with one stipulation. “There
needs to be enough land to build jumps,” says
Brown. It’s a remarkable success story when
you consider that when most children were
learning to ride a bike, Brown was swinging
from vines in a jungle.
ONE AFTERNOON in Virgin, Brown changes
out of her Dakine riding kit and into a tank
top and cutoffs. She says the shorts are sim-
ilar to what her father, Lou, wears around
Revelstoke—much to the embarrassment of
his children.
Airstream has loaned her a rolling bedroom
for a week—a thank-you for jumping her bike
40 feet over a trailer for an advertisement—
and we’ve taken lawn chairs from it and
plopped them in the middle of the shallow
Virgin River, where we’re soaking our feet.
I ask Brown if she’s seen the movie Cap-
tain Fantastic, noting that the story line—
about a father who raises his children off the
grid—sounds like her childhood.
“Lots of people say that,” says Brown.
“There are a lot of similarities.”
Only days after Brown was born in a
Queenstown hospital in 1990, she joined her
parents, Lou and Liz, along with three older
sisters and a brother, in Barn Bay, on the west
coast of the South Island, miles from the
nearest town. Lou had moved there with his
previous wife in 1975, to work as a fisherman.
“It was a remote and challenging place
to fish,” says Lou, a slight man in his sixties
who, like his daughter, seems drawn to ad-
venture. In 1983, after his second marriage
ended, he convinced Liz to join him.
Lou built a house from wood he had
scrounged in the jungle. The family for-
aged for and grew their own food and used
a windmill Lou had devised to generate their
own power. Twice a year, they would trek
eight hours to the closest town for supplies.
“As soon as you could walk, you walked there
and back,” says Brown. “I was probably two.”
Lou, who owned a boat, spent days on the
Tasman Sea catching rock lobster, which
he’d ship out on planes that landed on a
runway he’d made. Meanwhile, the children
mostly played. That included building forts
and “swinging from the trees like monkeys,”
says Jennifer, the second-oldest. Elinor, the
second youngest, recalls a long-distance
hiker dying near the family’s home. After
the body had been recovered and bagged,
the children watched while Elinor poked it
with a stick. “We didn’t really have values or
a belief system at that time,” Jennifer says.
“We were pretty wild.”
In 1996, after Lou had several close calls
at sea, the family moved to a 426-acre farm
in a town called Clyde, where they lived in
a tepee and attempted to grow vegetables.
The crops failed, which took a toll on Lou
and Liz’s already strained marriage. They
divorced that year, and Lou hit rewind and
left for Canada, where he’d grown up, with
Jennifer and Sam, his only son.
Liz stayed on the farm with Casey, Elinor,
and Jasmine, her daughter from her first
marriage. In 1999, a fire started when a tree
fell on a power line. Liz and Casey were at
home and rushed to open the gates for the
horse and their flock of sheep. By the time
they made it to the car to flee, the blaze had
reached the driveway, and the two narrowly
escaped by driving across the pasture and
through the fence. The farm destroyed, the
family moved to Hawea, a small lakeside
town, where they survived on welfare.
In British Columbia, Sam had begun
mountain biking and proved to be an
extraordinary talent.
“He was an amazing rider, but he was also
creative and innovative,” says Darren Berre-
cloth, from Parksville, B.C., who appeared
alongside Sam in several films. “He had great
style and flow, and would pick different lines
down the mountain, lines that other people
couldn’t see.”
Casey revered her brother from afar. Then,
in 2002, hopeful for a better life, Casey and
Elinor left for Canada to live with their father.

IN REVELSTOKE, an old logging town 350

miles northeast of Vancouver, Lou had taken
on several jobs, including one as a metal-
worker. When Casey joined him, he built his
daughter a bike out of spare parts, a clunker
with different-size wheels that Brown used
to chase her brother and his friends around.
“She was just like Sam—a total natural
from the time she was 12,” says Joel Pirnke,
a Revelstoke native who grew up riding with
Casey and Sam. “She was aggressive, but
with a really calm, relaxed style. As she got
older, she was passing the boys.”
Brown began harboring dreams of becom-
ing a professional biker. Sam, however, be-
came disillusioned with the sport’s bloated
egos, gave up, and in 2005 found work as a
logger. To get in and out of the woods, he
traveled by helicopter; he took pilot lessons
in hopes of someday earning his license.
Some time later, Sam befriended Colin
Martin, a convicted drug dealer with a bald
head and a stocky build. Martin offered Sam
a job, one that would appeal to his sense of
adventure and earn him serious money. Sam
said yes and went into outlaw mode.
Eventually, Casey became aware that Sam
was smuggling drugs into the United States.
She confronted him about it one day while
they were riding around in his truck.
“I don’t want you to do this,” Casey said. ON MY LAST DAY in Virgin, Brown and her “Part of what makes Casey so good is that
“I don’t want you to die.” entourage drive about four miles through she’s so tough,” Buehler interjected. “She’s
“Don’t worry,” he said confidently. “I’m the desert down a rutted road. They even- resilient. She can bounce back from any-
not going to.” tually reach the base of the current Rampage thing, so she keeps progressing—she’s not
Sam ran pot and ecstasy over the border course, where the event has been held since spending a lot of time off her bike.”
by snowmobile and, later, by helicopter, 2012. The wind is up again. Brown, Schaffer, and Buehler assess the
though he never got a license to fly. In Feb- “What do you think, Casey?” asks Buehler. wind and decide to wait a bit. Instead of rid-
ruary 2009, he flew a shipment of pot into “Perfect day for sailing,” she says. ing, we’ll hike to the top of the course and
Washington, landing in a meadow inside A day earlier, we’d driven here in less breezy check out some of the bigger features on the
Colville National Forest. The DEA was wait- conditions; Brown had sessioned some of the upper section.
ing and arrested him. course’s lower cliff drops and jumps, easily As we climb, the pitch gets steeper and the
Four days later, the Brown family was sending a 50-foot bluff over and over again. loose sand and rock starts to crumble below
called to Elinor’s house. When Casey walked Then, as the sun began to set, she hit a small our feet. On one stretch, I find myself on
in, a police officer standing in the doorway jump and landed funny, causing her to endo all fours, grasping for a solid handhold and
bluntly delivered the news: “Your brother over her bike and face-plant in the dirt. A silly realizing that if I fall, I’ll tumble 100 yards
killed himself.” Brown sank to her knees. mistake, she’d called it, but one that cracked over an outcropping of boulders. I find my-
Sam didn’t leave a note, and speculation the visor on her helmet and left her with a self wondering why Brown wants to ride her
swirled about why he’d take his own life. headache. A few hours later, when I asked bike down this.
To Brown, it didn’t matter. Her best friend how she felt, she said she’d mostly recovered. “There’s a quote I like,” Brown says. “ ‘The
was dead, and she spent several months in “Just a little hucker’s neck.” best things in life are on the other side of fear.’
mourning. Then she turned all her attention Huh? I’m pretty sure Will Smith said it. The Ram-
to riding. “Biking was the thing he loved and “You know, Huckingson’s disease,” she page is a really good measure of your abili-
the thing we shared,” says Brown. “If I could said. “Whiplash.” ties. It tests everything. I want to be pushing
do one thing that made him proud, that was “Can you ride?” I asked. the sport, and this is the next step for me.”
it. I decided to work toward becoming a free- “Oh yeah,” she said. “You’re always recov- Many people seem to agree. Often, when
ride mountain biker.” ering from something in this sport.” women try to break continued on page 81 >

09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 75
it’s not
As the
minimalism
trend enters a
curious new
phase that has
clothing makers
like Mac Bishop
of Wool and
Prince showing
us how to get
through a year
with only a
few pairs of
underwear, one
brave adventurer
that
attempts to
defend his gear
closet
BY TOM
VANDERBILT
simple

PHOTOGRAPH BY HANNAH MCCAUGHEY

76 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
Bishop wearing
one of his signature
merino-wool
button-downs

PHOTOGRAPH BY
IAN ALLEN

09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 77
“What is that,
16 pairs of
cycling bibs?”
This is the question Mac Bishop asks as we
survey the morass of spandex spread across
my bed. “Something like that,” I say sheep-
ishly. “And I think there are a few pairs in
the laundry.”
It’s a weirdly humbling experience to have
another man, a Birkenstock-clad, practic-
ing minimalist from Portland, Oregon—one
you have just met (and who, at 29, is some
twenty years younger)—sift through your
clothes. It’s like sitting naked with a stranger
in a metaphysical Turkish bath of the soul.
I suddenly find myself explaining, too vehe-
mently, why my closet is the way it is. That
blue shirt from Uniqlo? I liked it so much I
bought five. That Breton-striped pullover
with the weird sleeves? I thought, you know,
if I’m ever in Saint-Tropez in summer, I will
so totally fit in. That pair of pants, purchased
on sale, with the strange stitching I thought
no one would notice? I notice every time, so
I never wear them.
There could be a whole psychology text-
book written about the closet. In its con-
fines we find the warm glow of nostalgia
(that ragged half-marathon finisher T-shirt)
and the optimistic projections of our future
selves (the skinny jeans that don’t quite fit);
we grapple with the terrors of decision regret
and loss aversion (it feels worse to lose some-
thing, in the moment at least, than it feels
good to gain something). We are “strangers
to ourselves,” says psychologist Timothy
Wilson, explaining the psychic murk under-
lying much of our behavior—exactly how
I feel when Bishop asks when I last wore a
certain item he’s holding and I can’t fathom
the answer. One expert from California Clos-
78 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
ets recently told The Wall Street Journal that
people regularly wear, on average, about
one-fifth of the clothing they own.
Up until the cycling bibs, my closet audit
was going reasonably well. “This is look-
ing fairly minimal already,” Bishop had said
at the outset. For that I largely have the
constraints of my Brooklyn apartment to
thank—no garage or walk-in closets here. (In
a version of Parkinson’s Law, stuff seems to
magically expand to fill the space dedicated
to it.) But then we opened the drawer into
which a couple dozen cycling kits had been
crammed, springing forth like novelty snakes
from a peanut can. “It’s easy to collect and
not throw away soft goods. They seemingly
don’t take up too much space,” Bishop says.
“With hard goods, it’s not like you have two
coffee makers in your kitchen.”
I ride bikes a lot, and I sometimes write
about riding bikes, so it was easy to justify the
nonstop acquisition of cycling stuff—as the
joke goes, the ideal number of bikes is n plus
one. But had I crossed some threshold? Like
most of the world, I knew that Marie Kondo’s
book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying
Up had inspired any number of readers to
“KonMari” their closets and then share their
experience. But the accounts I’d seen didn’t
seem relevant to my situation: in my mind’s
eye, these were primarily women dispensing
with once fashionable shoes and tops that
had lost their ability to “spark joy.”
No, my cycling stuff wasn’t mere cloth-
ing. This was gear. I needed it to do things.
That justification tidily skirted the question
of exactly how many cycling outfits I needed.
If I could make do with just one while travel-
ing (pro tip: take a shower, and drink a beer,
in your kit), did it not seem odd to have sev-
eral dozen at home? Were they enhancing
my life or making it more difficult, expand-
ing my array of choices and thereby increas-
ing the amount of time necessary just to find
what I’d chosen?
Mac Bishop is no professional organizer.
Cleaning out closets isn’t even his side hustle.
But I’d invited him into my home after read-
ing about his provocative “wardrobe experi-
ments,” which raised interesting questions
about how much stuff we really need to get
by. In this he is hardly unique: the internet,
in heady corners like Reddit’s Minimalism
forum, brims with exploded-view images of
“capsule” wardrobes, of the carefully curated
gear bags of digital nomads, of decision-
fatigued Silicon Valley types who’ve pared
their daily wear down to a single uniform—
sartorial Soylent. What makes Bishop’s less-
is-more ethos unusual is that he spends most
of his time trying to sell clothes.
IN 2011, AFTER graduating with a business
degree from Cornell University, Bishop found
himself employed by Unilever, the con-
sumer-product giant, in New York City. Like
many young office workers, he grappled with
the tyranny of professional attire—acquiring
a sufficient variety of costly button-down
shirts, paying the steep dry-cleaning bills,
buying more shirts to wear while the others
were at the cleaners.
On a whim, he began wearing a brown-
wool houndstooth Sir Pendleton button-
down, a dressier version of the ruggedly
iconic shirts made by Pendleton Woolen
We have become inured to the
idea that clothes need to be kept at
near Febreze levels of freshness,
that to arrive at work slightly damp
from a bike ride requires instant
decontamination.

09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 79
Mills. (The Beach Boys initially called them-
selves the Pendletones, by way of homage.)
Bishop’s family owns Pendleton, which was
formally established in 1863 by his great-
great-great-grandfather. “It changed the
way I dressed,” he says of the shirt. “I didn’t
have to go to the dry cleaner every day. I
didn’t even have to hang it up. That thing
was a beast.” While it was hardly tradi-
tional wear at Unilever, Bishop says that
the shirt—which he tailored for a slimmer
fit—drew compliments, in particular for its
just-pressed appearance, which belied the
fact that it had never seen an iron.
Inspiration took root. “It got me think-
ing,” says Bishop, “that wool could have
an impact in the business-casual market
and just make guys’ lives easier.” He was, of
course, no stranger to the material. And wool
had come a long way since the days of the
heavy, scratchy Pendleton shirts hanging in
vintage stores. Merino wool, after centuries
of selective breeding, was as soft as cotton,
with a greater capacity to manage moisture
and odor. Bishop watched as brands like Ibex
and Icebreaker brought merino to the out-
door market, doing a lot of the heavy lifting
to educate consumers.
The idea persisted even after Bishop left
Unilever and was dabbling in an online art
startup. As proof-of-concept, he launched
what he dubbed the 100-day challenge. Over
a span of three months, he would outfit his
upper half in nothing but the Sir Pendleton,
neither washing nor ironing it. When it was
over, Bishop—tall, affable, and boyish look-
ing—took to the streets to solicit feedback
(tactile, olfactory, and otherwise) on the shirt.
The resulting video became the centerpiece
of a 2013 Kickstarter campaign for his new
brand, Wool and Prince, which promised a
better button-down, one that was “naturally
anti-wrinkle and odor-fighting.”
A blue oxford hardly seems revolutionary,
and indeed, the Kickstarter goal was mod-
est: $30,000. (Bishop says he was hoping for
$75,000.) But the campaign caught fire. Soon
there were Japanese TV reporters holding
their noses to Bishop’s armpits, while Letter-
man and Leno riffed on the shirts, the latter
cracking jokes about underwear and New
York City cabbies. Bishop found himself
having to do reverse press—tamping down
the assertions made by some media outlets
that he had invented a new wonder mate-
rial. After a little more than a week, as the
campaign approached $300,000 in pledges,
Bishop, fearing he might exceed his capacity
to deliver, shut it down.
On the face of it, the appeal was simple.
As Bishop notes, the men he spoke to wanted
their shirts to be like jeans—easy to care for,
flexible. But there was also something more
subversive going on. We have become inured
to the idea that clothes need to be kept at near
Febreze levels of freshness, that to wear the
same thing two days in a row is a sign of irre-
deemable slovenliness, that to arrive at work
slightly damp from a bike ride requires instant
decontamination. We Yankees, famously,
seem to suffer from a particular obsession
with cleanliness (devastatingly captured by
novelist Graham Greene in The Quiet Amer-
ican, as his cynical British-journalist narrator
eyes two American women, wondering, “Did
they take deodorants to bed with them?”).
But cycles of washing and drying are no-
toriously hard on clothing. And what pre-
cisely are we vanquishing? A Canadian pro-
fessor of textile science, testing a pair of jeans
that a student had worn for more than a year
without washing, found the same level of
bacteria as in two weeks’ worth of wear. In
an Australian study that asked subjects not
to launder their jeans, the researcher con-
cluded that “the expectation of not wash-
ing was more repulsive than the actuality.”
In other words, people were washing their
clothing—and hastening its obsolescence—
more out of habit than necessity.
A CHANGE OF HABIT is often enabled by a
change of context. Two years after launch-
ing Wool and Prince, Bishop relocated to
Portland for personal and business reasons.
He was in the process of moving between
houses in the city one day when he decided
to pack his most crucial wardrobe items into
a single box. An idea began to form. Could
he get by for a year with just this box? His
100-day challenge had opened the door to a
deeper question: If he could wear the same
shirt for that long, how much clothing did
he really need?
Bishop pared his wardrobe to 26 core
items (excluding some athletic apparel and
a suit he wore to a wedding) and stuck to it
for the next 365 days. It helped that he was
working mostly out of his home and liv-
ing in a temperate climate. Still, three pairs
of underwear for an entire year? “Air ’em
out,” he says, “and sleep naked.” He adds: “I
wouldn’t wear them multiple days in a row.”
Still, he says, “I was doing more laundry
than I would’ve liked.”
To document his process and to further
explore what he was experiencing, he set up
Only What Matters, an online community for
aspiring minimalists. It’s mostly made up of
Wool and Prince customers, many of whom
had, in the wake of Bishop’s video, taken up
the challenge of wearing Wool and Prince
shirts for extended periods. (One company

A Brief History of Minimalism

Mid-300s B.C. Mid-1800s 1968 1999 2011 2014 2016

The Greek Henry David Stewart Brand Jay Shafer builds Marie Kondo’s Outside references App devel-
philosopher Thoreau inspires publishes the the first Tumble- The Life-Changing #vanlife some oper Amino
Diogenes, one of generations Whole Earth weed tiny house. Magic of Tidying three years after launches Mini-
the founders of toward self- Catalog. Though The revolution will Up is published in Foster Huntington malism, a digital
cynicism, invents sufficiency and imbued with a reach its zenith Japan. It will go coined the term, community
the original tiny simple living back-to-the- almost two de- on to sell over then goes on a for minimalists
home by living by publishing his land, DIY ethos, cades later in the six million copies, binge, posting to meet other
in a clay wine seminal work it’s made up of form of at least cluttering up a steady stream minimalists
cask and being Walden while reviews of many, six TV shows coffee tables of online stories and discuss
smug about it. having his mom many products. and myriad hip- around the world. that continues minimalism.
do his laundry. ster blogs. to this day.

80 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 09.18
field tester, Jens Rasmussen, reported wear-
ing his gray work shirt for 33 consecutive
days of hard bush living while filming a Na-
tional Geographic show in the Serengeti, even
earning a reputation, as he wrote in a post, as
“the best-dressed guy on our expedition.”)
The site reads like a mashup of efficiency
guru Tim Ferriss and thrift maven Mr. Money
Mustache, with posts on everything from
Swedish death cleaning (don’t leave all that
junk for your heirs to sort through) to de-
claring sock bankruptcy (tossing your mis-
matched collection and bulk-buying a new
supply). It taps into some of the currents of
minimalism already flourishing on the inter-
net. There are scores of wardrobe pursuits—
the ritualistic world of “one bag” travel (i.e.,
don’t pack more than one bag), the almost
Platonic search for the perfect item of cloth-
ing, obviating the need for all others and re-
sisting the tides of fashion and the scourge of
time. For instance, a massively popular ten-
year hoodie that appeared on Kickstarter five
years back was soon followed by a quarter-
century hoodie. (One maker even advertised
a 100-year hoodie for would-be centurions.)
Like the tiny-house movement, minimal-
ism can be one of those things that people
are far more apt to talk about doing than ac-
tually do. But it isn’t hard to understand the
impulse. According to Forbes, the average
number of outfits in an American woman’s
wardrobe has increased more than three-
fold since the 1930s. This is a result of ever
cheaper clothing (even as our wardrobes
have grown, the share of household bud-
get we spend on clothing has plummeted)
and increasing home (and thus closet)
size. Findings from behavioral psychology,
meanwhile, show that however good it feels
to acquire all that stuff, the hedonic payoff
is mostly short-lived. The closet becomes
a reproach, and we sift through increasing
numbers of things we no longer want.
Bishop is cognizant of the various contra-
dictions of minimalism: that its conscious
adoption often reflects privilege (Thoreau
had his family pencil-making business be-
hind him); that it can perversely lead to
status-seeking one-upmanship; that it’s
frequently marketed as just one more pur-
chase away (one minimal-living author has
five minimal-living books listed on Amazon).
Patagonia’s famous Don’t Buy This Jacket
campaign in 2011, however well-intentioned,
coincided with the brand’s robust expan-
sion. (“In short,” noted Businessweek, “the
pitch helped crank out $158 million worth
of new apparel.”) Bishop is even a little leery
of the word minimalism itself, which, like
sustainable, is in danger of being denuded.
“There’s no sustainable clothing purchase,”
he argues. And he is aware that his business,
which has seen average annual growth of
about 50 percent, is predicated on people
adding stuff to their wardrobes. Many of the
Only What Matters posts are, after all, writ-
ten by people looking to buy things. “Start
with what you currently have in your closet,”
he counsels. “Don’t run out and buy all the
minimalist clothing you can find.”
BEFORE BISHOP’S visit to my home, I had
been doing my own little wardrobe experi-
ment, wearing one of his company’s merino-
wool polo shirts (instead of the nine others
I had on deck) for most of a typically warm
late-spring month in New York: on sultry
subway platforms, on five-mile bike com-
mutes, while playing soccer with my daugh-
ter in the park. Dawn to dusk, for weeks, no
washing, no ironing. Does it smell? My wife,
my most reliable witness, reports no. Has
anyone noticed my monotonic wardrobe?
We flatter ourselves. Via the psychological
phenomenon dubbed the spotlight effect,
we overestimate how much the world takes
notice of us. (One of the original experiments
looking at this featured, wonderfully, a sub-
ject wearing a Barry Manilow T-shirt.)
“Don’t pack your fears,” goes the slogan
in the world of ultralight hiking. On the trail,
the lower your base pack weight, the easier
your life will be, the less energy you’ll ex-
pend, and the less you’ll think about what
you’re carrying. I’ve been trying to conceive
my closet as a backpack, my life as an expedi-
tion. To get my base life weight down, off to
eBay went scores of cycling clothes (the pre-
owned market is surprisingly robust) and a
Burberry suit, bought on sale, that I thought
I might want (that future self never arrived).
What didn’t seem saleable went to that near-
est and most effective redistribution chan-
nel: the sidewalk, where, in Brooklyn, things
vanish faster than a New York minute.
I have taken to heart other suggestions
from Bishop, like a one-in, one-out ethos
and organizing things by genre. (Why was
my ratty outdoor-work outfit kept with my
normal clothes, thus adding to the visual
and cognitive noise, rather than in my tool
area?) So far, at least, my efforts at reducing
my base life weight have been a success. My
closet now looks less like the discount bin of
a thrift store and more like the new-arrivals
rack at a spare SoHo boutique. Ironically,
even as I’ve lost things, I feel like I’ve gained
a more appreciative form of materialism. For
the first time in years, I possess a real sense
of what I have. O R126291723. Canada Post International Publications
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TOM
VANDERBILT ( @TOMVANDERBILT)
WROTE ABOUT CITI BIKE’S ANGELS
PROGRAM IN AUGUST.
BROWN continued from page 81
through in a male-dominated sport, they’re
met with online harassment. Brown has re-
ceived nothing but support. In mid-May, she
posted Instagram photos of herself riding on
the Rampage site. The comments, many of
which are from men, include “Casey is seri-
ous competition for the men” and “Maybe
we’ll see you at the Rampage?!”
One of her supporters is none other than
Kurt Sorge. “Casey has progressed so much
in the past ten years, and she’s proven her-
self,” he says. “She could carve a pretty sick
line down that course.”
When we reach the top of the run, Brown
shows me how she makes certain features
less scary. We stare down a 12-foot drop onto
a five-foot-wide spine with a 200-foot free
fall on either side. Brown calls it the Side-
walk of Death.
“I just erase everything except what I need
to ride,” she says, waving her arms as though
she’s wiping the potentially lethal parts from
existence. “When you do that, it’s really not
that bad. Just a 12-foot drop.”
By the time we make our way back to the
bottom, it’s about eight in the evening, and
the wind has died down. I ask Brown what
she’ll do if the Rampage committee decides
to leave her off the list.
“I’ll work harder,” she says firmly. “And
I’ll try again.”
With that, Brown puts on her helmet and
pulls up her kneepads. Then, as the sun fades,
she pushes her bike back up the mountain. O
CORRESPONDENT GORDY MEGROZ
( @GORDYMEGROZ) WROTE ABOUT
WYLDER GOODS IN JULY 2017.
Volume XLIII, Number 8. OUTSIDE (ISSN 0278-1433)
is published monthly, except for the January/February
double issue, by Mariah Media Network LLC, 400
Market St., Santa Fe, NM 87501. Periodical postage
paid at Santa Fe, NM, and additional mailing offices.
Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No.
Mail Sales Agreement No. 40015979. Subscription
rates: U.S. and possessions, $24; Canada, $35 (in-
cludes GST); foreign, $45. Washington residents add
sales tax. POSTMASTER: Send U.S. and international
address changes to OUTSIDE, P.O. Box 6228, Harlan, IA
51593-1728. Send Canadian address changes to OUT-
SIDE, P.O. Box 877 Stn Main, Markham, ON L3P-9Z9.
09.18 O U T S I D E M A G A Z I N E 81
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the Sweet Suite 3 Person Tent
from Sierra Designs.
RETAIL VALUE: $459.95
VISIT FACEBOOK.COM/OUTSIDEGEAR

Mesh is the best!

t!

4 to 6 times warmer than

any solid knit by weight
Better moisture transport

The lightest, warmest, driest base layer you will ever own!

To advertise in Marketplace, contact Kathleen Chambers / kchambers@outsidemag.com

 Marketplace FIRST GEAR

MAXIMIZE Advanced
YOUR Physical Peak
POTENTIAL Performance
Booster HITTING THE SWEET SPOT
for Men BETWEEN LIVABLE SPACE AND
LIGHTWEIGHT.
The Sierra Designs Sweet Suite is a semi-freestanding
tent with incredible amounts of livable space. 2 doors
and 2 vestibules offer easy access and all the gear
storage you need. Lightweight nylon materials and
featherlight poles allow the Sweet Suite to pack down
light and small, but once set up, you’ll be living large
due to the unique pole geometry.

Packaged Weight:
3lbs 10oz / 1.64kg
Doors: 2 / Vestibules: 2

Available for purchase with coupon in

fine stores everywhere or online at:
www.appliednutrition.com Powerful Pro-Male
Enter Coupon Code: 013591 Testosterone Support Formula
in Fast-Acting liquid soft-gels

Save $2.00 online at:

✁ www.IrwinNaturals.com by entering
MAGNUM BLOOD-FLOW
SEXUAL PEAK PERFORMANCE
FOR MEN
SAVE $3
EXPIRES 11/30/18 MANUFACTURERS COUPON
Consumer: Redeemable at retail locations only. Not valid for online or mail-order purchases. Retailer:
Irwin Naturals will reimburse you for the face value plus 8 (cents) handling provided it is redeemed by
a consumer at the time of purchase on the brand specified. Coupons not properly redeemed will be void
and held. Reproduction by any party by any means is expressly prohibited. Any other use constitutes
fraud. Irwin Naturals reserves the right to deny reimbursement (due to misredemption activity) and/or
request proof of purchase for coupon(s) submitted. Mail to: CMS Dept. 10363, Irwin Naturals, 1 Fawcett
Drive, Del Rio, TX 78840. Cash value: .001 (cents). Void where taxed or restricted. ONE COUPON PER
PURCHASE. Not valid for mail order/websites. Retail only.
✁
WWW.SIERRADESIGNS.COM/OUTSIDE18
coupon code: 013597
TESTOSTERONE UP RED
SAVE $2
EXPIRES: 11 /30/18 MANUFACTURERS COUPON
Consumer: Redeemable at retail locations only. Not valid for online or mail-order purchases.
Retailer: Irwin Naturals will reimburse you for the face value plus 8 (cents) handling provided
it is redeemed by a consumer at the time of purchase on the brand specified. Coupons not
properly redeemed will be void and held. Reproduction by any party by any means is
expressly prohibited. Any other use constitutes fraud. Irwin Naturals reserves the right to deny
reimbursement (due to misredemption activity) and/or request proof of purchase for
coupon(s) submitted. Mail to: CMS Dept. 10363, Irwin Naturals, 1 Fawcett Drive, Del Rio, TX
78840. Cash value: .001 (cents). Void where taxed or restricted. ONE COUPON PER PURCHASE.
Not valid for mail order/websites. Retail only.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

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Marketplace
ACTIVE TRAVELER

To advertise in Marketplace, contact Kathleen Chambers / kchambers@outsidemag.com

 Marketplace ACTIVE TRAVELER
Timberline
Adventures
Fully supported hiking
and biking tours
ON AMERICA’S
WILD & SCENIC RIVERS
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF RIVER
PROTECTION IN 2018

www.timberline-
adventures.com
1-800-417-2453

Guiding Life’s Greatest

Adventures since 1969
www.oars.com

Visit
OutsideOnline.com/
ActiveTraveler
to plan your
next adventure.

VISIT OUTSIDEONLINE.COM/ACTIVETRAVELER TO FIND OUT MORE

Outside Magazine Parting Shot
09.18

Guadalupe Canyon Oasis,

Baja California, Mexico
P H OTO G R A P H B Y
Jakob Schiller

88
 EVERY THING WE EVER

I M A G I NE D
AND THEN SOME

RDX SH-AWD ® with A-Spec ® Package shown.

INTRODU C I N G TH E A L L-N EW 2 0 1 9 R DX
Born from our limitless imagination, the RDX offers powerful acceleration with
a 272-hp turbocharged engine, rail-like cornering through available Super
Handling All-Wheel Drive™, and inspiring versatility via 79.8 cubic feet of cargo
space*. Imagination built the all-new 2019 RDX and evolved not just what’s
possible in an SUV, but also what’s possible at Acura. The future starts now.
The future is the 2019 RDX.

©2018 Acura. Acura, RDX, A-Spec, Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD), and the stylized “A” logo are trademarks of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. *Based on SAE J1100 cargo volume
measurement standard plus floor space between first and second seats and front seats moved forward. This figure compares more accurately with most competitive measurements.
Take nothing with you.

The Micro Puf f ® Hoody

Our lightest, most packable
insulated jacket ever.

Photos: Drew Smith, Oskar Enander, Ryan Craig, Mikey Schaefer, Paris Gore, Jay Beyer, Andrew Burr © 2018 Patagonia, Inc.
Because we know you’re always
asking, Which jacket should I pack?

For cold belays and quick transitions.

Ripping skins and waiting out storms.

Limited space and post-surf reheating.

Desert camping and unexpected

monsoons. Open bivies and casting
flies on icy streams.

Long traverses and after big trail runs.

For never again having to choose
between weight, space and warmth.

We made it easy. The Micro Puff is

the only jacket you need to pack.