It’s not exactly the ‘Where are they now’ VH1 special about The Folksmen, but it’s an interesting read. Ever wonder what pro winter sport athletes do when they’re not soaring over terrain parks or getting towed into secret backcountry pow runs? Andy Anderson filed a story for Backcountry.com on just what the hell all their athletes are doing in the off-season. There’s more wakeboarding and working out than there are hash dens and getting-drunk-in-the-basement-to-avoid-falling-downstairs in case you decided to skip the article.

The short film Border Country is in its final form online. The story follows these two climbers through 70 bolts and 1,800 feet of climbing while putting up a new route in Yosemite. Jeremy Collins and Mikey Schaefer came and went on the route, until they found renewed sense of purpose in the memories of their friends Jonny Copp and Micah Dash’s.

via Adventure Life

A black bear climbed into a high school kid’s unlocked car trying to steal a peanut butter sandwich from the backseat. He honked the horn for a bit waking up the neighborhood before he put the car into neutral and drove it into a tree. The car door slammed shut when it stopped trapping the bear inside. The animal trashed the interior and took a dump on the driver’s seat before police were able to use a rope to open the door so it could escape. The article didn’t report on whether or not it ate the peanut butter sandwich. Hopefully the kid’s parents buy him a new car. Why? They’re the ones who packed a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. That stuff goes straight to the backseat. It’s a miracle that no bears stole his car sooner.

Backcountry.com Athlete Matt Hart just ran the 484-mile Colorado Trail in 9 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes. He covered over 75,000 feet of vert and logged the third fastest time ever. He filed a post on his blog, Tales of Endurance that included the above video of having fun with mosquitoes.

after 3 days i had run 180 miles and was 10 miles ahead of the record pace. but i paid for it the following day where i only logged 38 miles and couldn’t stay awake.

Someone loan this guy a car.

The photojournalist who shot the iconic National Geographic cover of an Afghan woman in a refugee camp says he’s down to his last roll of Kodachrome. The film made famous by Paul Simon was revered by photographers for its bright, bright colors and was known for achieving those greens of summers. You might be thinking, “I have a box of unused Kokachrome! My retirement plan is working!” Well, don’t hold onto it much longer. Dwayne’s photo shop in Kansas is the last place that will process the film, and they’ll cease to do so on December 30. Hopefully they don’t mess up developing the last roll.

That photojournalist, Steve McCurry, also has a fantastic photo blog.

Ultra marathoner Eric Strabel came in third place with a time of 2:59:41 on the mountain-pass marathon over Crow Pass Crossing. He would have done better, but a bear surprised him on-trail, causing him to scramble off the path until he became disoriented and lost. Then he ran into a moose before falling down a hill and cutting up his legs and hands. By most accounts, the pass is a two-day hike. It’s a good thing there isn’t a gentleman’s agreement about waiting out bear attacks during trail marathons. Not that Strabel was in any position to complain - the winner also had a run-in with an unfriendly moose.

In 1845 a team of explorers struck out in search of the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic. Unfortunately, it did not exist. They spent three years on the ice, slowly dying off and resorting to cannibalism by the end. In retrospect, naming one of their ships HMS Terror could have been a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. While the bodies of the 128-person crew were recovered and studied years ago, the ships they embarked have never been recovered. A team of archeologists is on the hunt. While on the search, they’ll also be on the lookout for HMS Investigator, a rescue ship dispatched to find the crew that disappeared. I’m not sure what they hope to find on the boats - maybe a whiskey stash they can sell?

via The Adventure Blog

Being VP is where it’s at. No one gets on your case for making bad decisions. Your only job is to make the president look good, and occasionally go to a function which he (or she) is invited but has no interest in attending. Crafty ol’ Joe Biden just picked up the dream VP junket - he’s heading to the a couple national parks to follow up on the cash they sent along as part of the Recovery Act funds.

More than 1,000 workers have already been part of the 17 Recovery Act projects at Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, according to a park release. Overall, there are 800 Recovery Act projects under way at national parks across the country this summer - eight times as many as there were last summer, the release added.

He’ll hit Yellowstone on Monday and then stop at the Grand Canyon on Tuesday.

Coca-Cola, the makers of Vitaminwater, will be banned from marketing their sugary, non-carbonated snack food as promoting a ‘healthy state of physical or mental being.’ They will also not be able to say that it will keep you ‘healthy as a horse,’ though based on the little knowledge I have of horse racing doping and dog food factories, I think they should be allowed to hold onto the later. The judge said that since the syrupy drink is mostly made of sugar and not actually vitamin-loaded water, their marketing claims are misleading to consumers.