Some people think snow helmets don’t do any good. Of course, some people still think the earth is flat. Despite their widespread adoption, holdouts argue that helmets cut your ability to hear and see — as well as encourage you to take more chances — even though studies show that wearing one can reduce the [ more... ]

When the editors at Alpinist stumbled upon this amazing shot of Clint Eastwood from the filming of the Eiger Sanction they were immediately struck with the idea of putting it on the magazine’s cover. But it wasn’t going to be that easy. They had to research who shot it, and then, finding out that it [ more... ]

The Boy Scouts of America will meet next week in Irving, Texas, in part to discuss a proposed policy shift that would allow “the religious, civic, or educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to determine how to address” the issue of openly gay scouts or scout leaders. “The Boy Scouts would not, under any [ more... ]

The beauty of technology is that as it ages and gets more widely adopted, it gets so much cheaper. A few years ago the only helicopter camera drones were bought in abstruse kits online for extraordinary amount of money and required massive amounts of know-how and programming to run. Now DJI Innovations is selling the [ more... ]

While Ang Nima Sherpa didn’t guide climbers to the tops of the world’s highest peaks, what he did made it possible for thousands of them to reach those summits. Nima Sherpa was an icefall “doctor,” one of many Sherpas who set fixed ropes and aluminum ladders across icefall crevasses that would otherwise be unnavigable. It [ more... ]

Outdoor sage and proponent of civil disobedience Edward Abbey penned several personal letters that were run a few years ago in Orion Magazine. This one, posted recently on Adventure Journal, was sent to the University of Georgia responding to criticism of Earth First! and Abbey’s novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang. The work is pure Abbey, [ more... ]

Following the debacle of the recall of their electronically heated Omni-Heat jackets, Columbia Sportswear has accounted that they’ve decided to cut the line. They left the door open, saying they might release more in 2014. While electric gear is useless to a lot of backcountry skiers, there are a lot of people out there who [ more... ]

While Colorado ski resorts managed to rebuff a recent decision by the U.S. Forest Service to curtail some of their water rights, you might say the courts sided with the resorts on a technicality. The USFS says it will now begin taking public comments this spring on a new directive, which would clarify ownership of [ more... ]

The crew that shot the excellent Sunchaser Star Trails video packed up and headed to the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley National Park to shoot a new video that’s also very good: Death Valley Dreamlapse. It offers you the Jim Morrison wandering-the-desert feeling without the necessary peyote. The footage includes a UFO, in this case a flying object that they were unable to identify, but it’s not necessarily from outer space. You can see it around 1:30-1:35.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, a.k.a., the guy who caught Lance, has called a decision by the UCI to kill its very own Independent Commission to report on allegations of corruption and doping in the sport nakedly self-protective. “The UCI blindfolded and handcuffed its Independent Commission and now hopes the world will [ more... ]