Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2015 i Outside

Outside|March 2015

EXPOSURE

MATT KNIGHTON Last November, while riding with the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team during the nine-month Volvo Ocean Race, Knighton, who lives in Chicago, captured helmsman Adil Khalid as he was hit by an 18-foot wave 1,500 miles west of Cape Town, South Africa. That particular section of the South Atlantic is considered the coldest part of the race, with icy swells that drenched the crew every 20 seconds. “The timing of the shot had to be perfect, since a split second later I got wiped out as well,” Knighton says. “The waves were so cold, they literally took your breath away.” THE TOOLS: Canon 5D Mark III, 8–15 mm f/4 lens, ISO 1,000, f/4, 1/2,000 second CHRIS BURKARD During a two-week RV trip through the Canadian Rockies last September,…

1 min

Outside|March 2015

Cheating Is No Fun

TWIN BROTHERSAdam and Ryan Goldston, owners of Athletic Propulsion Labs, found success for one very simple reason: they’re a couple of cheaters. The NBA banned their Concept basketball shoe in 2010 because its proprietary spring increased vertical leap, providing what the league called “undue competitive advantages.” “It was the best thing that could’ve happened to us as a brand,” says Adam. “We were sold out for months.” Last summer the brothers introduced the Windchill, APL’s first running shoe. That it looks flashy should come as no surprise: the Goldstons’ father, Mark, helped develop the iconic Reebok Pump in 1989. But the shoe is also loaded with technology that the company says will make you faster with less effort. “On average, runners using our shoes were taking nine seconds off their…

1 min

Outside|March 2015

FIVE BOOKS THAT WILL GET YOU THROUGH WINTER

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK The Last Unicorn by William deBuys $27; little, brown DeBuys, a Pulitzer finalist, goes into the jungles of Laos in search of the elusive, deer-like saola—and does some inner searching, too. Meet Me in Atlantis by Mark Adams $28, Dutton A travelogue about the mythic island— and those obsessed with it—from a New York Times bestselling author. Love and Other Ways of Dying by Michael Paterniti $28, Dial Press A great collection of magazine stories about a giant in the Ukraine and suicide jumpers in China. EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE ALL THE TIME Aquarium by David Vann $24, Atlantic Monthly Press A fish-obsessed 12-year-old unwittingly befriends her absent grandfather, upending her life with her mother. All the Wrong Places by Philip Connors $26, W. W.…

1 min

Outside|March 2015

An Illustrated Guide to Ben Lecomte’s Nightmares

THIS SPRING, 47-year-old Frenchman Ben Lecomte will step into the Pacific Ocean in Japa and, over the next five months, attempt to become the first swimmer to cover the 5,500 miles to California. His plan: swim eight hours a day—using flippers and a snorkel but no flotation device—then rest for 16 hours on his support boat. We’d doubt his prospects if he hadn’t become the first person to swim 3,700 miles across the Atlantic in 1998. But just because Lecomte has one ocean under his belt doesn’t mean the voyage is without risks. THE COLD Lecomte could face water temperatures below 60 degrees. To fend off hypo thermia, he’ll wear up to four two-millimeter wetsuits. WAVES “You can swim in big waves as long as they don’t crash on you…

2 min

Outside|March 2015

Viral Fear

IT WAS HARD to miss the “No Ebola” map on social media, which juxtaposes the tiny cluster of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, where more than 8,000 people have died since December 6, 2013, against the rest of Africa, a continent larger than China, Europe, and the U.S. combined. Designed by a British chemist named Anthony England, the map was meant to curb an outbreak of fear that has caused an industry-crushing drop in travel to Africa. Many countries whose economies rely on tourism are suffering huge losses in foreign visitors, despite being completely free of Ebola and thousands of miles from the nearest affected areas . Kenya and Tanzania, two popular safari destinations in East Africa, are more than 3,000 miles from Liberia—farther away than Seattle from Miami. But…

3 min

Outside|March 2015

RETURN TO CENTER

“A LOT OF MY SUCCESS COMES DOWN TO FINDING BALANCE IN MY LIFE. IF THERE’S NO SURF, I’M NOT GOING, OH I SHOULD DO A HUNDRED SIT UPS.’ I’M GOING TO JUST ENJOY EXACTLY WHERE I AM.” Aussie phenom from a small beach town dominates the junior surfing circuit in her home country, qualifies for the ASP World Tour at age 18, cruises to the title her rookie year, then captures three more in a row—all while radiating a perpetually sunny disposition. So went the fairy tale life of Stephanie Gilmore. At five foot ten and 140 pounds, she was a new breed of female competitor when she won her first title, in 2007: tall and powerful, but with an artistic, flowing style. She won events so consistently and projected…

4 min

Outside|March 2015

POD ALMIGHTY

Polly Crawford is in a happy snooze, utterly knocked out, her head lolling, lolling, her mouth an ambiguous smile, her chest rising and falling in slow rhythm as the industrial noise whoosh and whir of a motor pumps air in and out of the enclosed pod she has crawled into—a ridiculous looking contraption straight out of Woody Allen’s Sleeper. Crawford, a petite, blond 44yearold whose body is roped with the sinewy muscle of a triathlete, stepped off her bicycle 20 minutes ago after a long training ride. Now, as she tries to do at least two times a week, she has come to a Temecula, California, business park that serves as the headquarters for a tiny company called CVAC, an acronym for a fitness system called Cyclic Variations in Adaptive…

18 min

Outside|March 2015

Optical Strike

BEST FOR: Athletes GoPro Hero4 Black Edition $499 It’s small, but with 4K video the Hero4 Black punches well above its weight. To handle that kind of power, the 1.2-ounce camera comes with a major software upgrade— you can now control ISO, white balance, and even color profile. More impressive is its ability to capture super-slow-motion footage at 1080p, turning every huck into an epic event. Bonus: GoPro now includes a setting to narrow the field of view, minimizing the distortion typical of action cams. gopro.com BEST FOR: Long Trips Sony a7s $2,499 The a7s is more of a 4K-ready camera—you need to add a third-party recorder to take advantage of its ultra-high-res video capability—but it compensates with a 12-megapixel, full-frame sensor that performs better in low light than the…

2 min

Outside|March 2015

Crash Course

A few weeks ago, I pulled up to a mellow four-way stop I’d driven through probably a hundred times before. There was one car in front of me. I waited for it to proceed, glanced both ways as I approached the stop sign, then slowly rolled through. Half a second later, something flashed in my peripheral vision. I slammed on the brakes just in time to avoid plowing into a cyclist. My front fender missed his frame by inches. The man—who, judging by his speed, had been dutifully waiting at the intersection for his turn to go—glared at me and continued on his way. For an instant, I had been that oblivious driver every self-righteous cyclist rails against. Outside has covered bike culture’s anti-motorist rage extensively. Facebook posts about drivers…

7 min

Outside|March 2015

SELF-HELP

NOW Energy Athletic IonX shirt Negative ions embedded in the fabric allegedly increase muscle power in short bursts of high-intensity activity. $60; wearenergy.com Felt Bicycles Lebowsk-e Felt’s first fat bike with an electric motor makes going uphill easy in any season. Just be ready for the ridicule. $5,799; feltbicycles.com NEXT 4MM Jetpack The code name stands for 4 Minute Mile. Currently in development at Arizona State University, the jet-powered, horizontalpropulsion pack claims to turn anyone who wears it into Roger Bannister. researchmatters.asu.edu Geckskin The University of Massachusetts, with funding from DARPA, the Defense Department’s R&D arm, is working to harness the sticking power of the gecko, which could allow users to scale walls and even glass. geckskin.umass.edu…

1 min

Outside|March 2015

MANEATERS

in the heart of the sea—the March blockbuster starring Chris Hemsworth—is based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s Na tional Book Award– winning account of the true story that inspired moby-Dick. The tale of cetacean revenge is also one of history’s greatest survival epics: When the whaler essex is smashed to bits by an angry sperm whale, the surviving crew must make it 4,500 miles to dry land. How? Gearmaking savvy, solid navigation skills, and cannibalism. Here’s how the ordeal stacks up against, other famous instances of people turning on each other. —AlETA BURCHYSKI…

1 min

Outside|March 2015

Don’t Fence Me In

LAST NOVEMBER, my ten-year-old son and I watched a nature special about killer whales moving into the Arctic as the ice cover shrinks. It was gripping stuff. An orca pod stalked a group of narwhals while marine biologists described the group dynamics of a hunt. My son was glued to the screen and full of questions. Understanding how kinetic and wide-ranging orcas are in the wild—and how compromised their lives are in captivity, a subject I’ve covered extensively over the past five years—is one reason that so many people are now calling for the closing of marine parks. The outcry is a long time coming, and the same logic applies to zoos. Watching my son light up in front of the screen, I wondered: If a nature special can be…

3 min

Outside|March 2015

Morning Glory

THE MEAL: Green Smoothie THE CHEF: SURFER JOHN JOHN FLORENCE Thanks to his casual approach to big waves and aerial surfing, Florence might be even more popular than Kelly Slater, but he starts his day the way a lot of us do: with a smoothie. His contains plant based protein powder, hemp seeds, chia seeds, frozen mixed berries, celery, kale, half a banana, and maca powder. That breakfast has helped power the 22 year old Hawaii native to a number three world ranking and a win at last year’s Quiksilver Pro in France. WHY IT WORKS: Florence is able to pack lots of energy and nutrients into a quick and easy meal that won’t bog him down. “It’s hydrating,” says dietitian Adam Korzun (see “Our Breakfast Expert,” right), “and hemp…

11 min

Outside|March 2015

UPWARD DOG

I was sitting on a front porch in Helena, Montana, with my 14 year old son on a hot summer afternoon when the smoke of nearby forest fires made the air even hotter. A black Labrador belonging to nobody we knew came walking along in a low, over heated mood. On a neighbor’s lawn, a sprinkler was going. The dog saw it, bounded into the spray, and stayed there for a long while. Then he came out, shook himself a lot, and walked up onto the porch. He sat on his haunches looking at us. This was one happy dog. This dog owned happiness. Regarding us benevolently, his eyes had the fogginess of total bliss. Just sitting there, wet and dripping, he embodied the sound ahhhhhhhhhhh. My son and I…

5 min

Outside|March 2015

Broken Spokes

Concussion or no concussion, Steve Hill wants a new bike. Pronto. “To be honest with you, I feel like I should have it already,” he says to the woman he’s facing, Megan Hottman, a 35 year old personal injury lawyer who’s taking notes on a laptop inside her Golden, Colorado, office. From where I sit, just to the right of Hill*— who is 38 and trim—he looks pretty good, considering that he suffered a concussion and whiplash in a car collision just one week ago. But as I watch him, I have to wonder if he should have even driven himself to this meeting. As a longtime rider, I’ve endured similar injuries: I once went to the ER with a concussion after a crash, and I felt the effects for…

21 min

Outside|March 2015

Eyes in the Sky

BEST FOR: Two-Man Crews DJI Inspire 1 $2,899 The first drone to incorporate a 4K camera is also the most balanced and easy-to-use model we’ve ever tested. Among its many smart features, the Inspire 1 comes with two remotes, so your partner can control the shot while you focus on flying. DJI also made the camera detachable, so you can swap in a third-party unit. Not that you need to: the built-in one has a 94-degree field of view and staggering resolution that’s perfect for aerial photography. The on-board visual positioning system monitors the drone’s distance from the ground, acting as a stabilizing tool—ideal for flying indoors. Our one complaint? Only 18 minutes of flight time means you’ll want to pack a spare set of batteries. dji.com BEST FOR: Hands-Free…

1 min

Outside|March 2015

Pack Man

ON THE FINAL day of the 2014 Iditarod, a fierce blizzard blew in. Winds topped 55 miles per hour, creating blackout conditions along the icy route. Some mushers got lost. Others dropped out, fearing for their lives and those of their dogs. Dallas Seavey, who two years prior at age 25 had become the youngest winner in the event’s 42-year history, lost track of the other teams. “I thought I was still behind Jeff King and Aliy Zirkle,” Seavey says. As he neared the finish line, he watched over his shoulder as another musher—he thought it might be his dad, Mitch—closed in. Seavey got off his sled to ease the load on his dogs and sprinted the final two miles, crossing the finish line after eight days, 13 hours, four…

5 min

Outside|March 2015

Falling Down Laughing

BEGINNING WITH The sporting club in 1969, Thomas McGuane has charted the laughably tragic downfall of his characters over eight novels and two short-story collections. The stories in crow fair ($26, Knopf), McGuane’s first book in four years, follow the usual set of drunks, bums, and middling businessmen living in rundown Montana towns. That doesn’t mean the 75-year-old is treading entirely familiar ground. Gone are the paranoid plots of his early novels. In their place are problems truer to life: failed relationships, lost jobs, aging family. In the title story, two brothers try to determine the secret identity of their demented mother’s former lover. In “Grandma and Me,” an alcoholic takes his grandmother for a riverside picnic but bails after a corpse floats by. And in “Motherlode,” the collection’s best…

1 min

Outside|March 2015

Color Us Impressed

I’M OF THE opinion that all things paddling should be made of wood. Aluminum is durable, but it can be lethal when temperatures soar; plastics are lightweight, but no one wants to row placidly through a mist-shrouded lake holding something that feels like a Wiffle Ball bat. Wood, on the other hand, is the perfect material. It has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, and it feels like it’s part of the landscape. A wood and canvas canoe may be out of reach—new or restored models cost several thousand dollars, and those in need of repairs tend to take up permanent residence in backyards— but wooden paddles are eminently affordable. Plenty of companies make them, but none do it as beautifully as Sanborn. The six-year-old business, based in Winona, Minnesota (home of…

1 min

Outside|March 2015

The Spring Breakaway

BETTER THAN BALI Raja Ampat, Indonesia It’s hard not to love Bali, with its abundance of surf breaks and colorful culture. But there are 17,507 other islands in Indonesia with fiery volcanoes, vast underwater landscapes, and a lot fewer visitors. For diving, head to Raja Ampat, a 15,000-square-mile wilderness of islets and reefs with some of the richest marine biodiversity on the planet. Misool Eco Resort has eight stilted, grass-roofed cottages and seven beach villas, and it provides diving gear and guides (from $2,778 for seven nights; misoolecoresort.com). Within an hour’s boat ride, there are dozens of dive sites alive with coral gardens, huge sea fans, and wildlife, from pygmy seahorses to the newly discovered walking epaulette shark. For legendary surfing, Nihiwatu, a tiny resort on the small island of…

11 min

Outside|March 2015

THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

HYPOTHESIS: HUGGING MAKES YOU HAPPIER. TEST SUBJECT: JONAH OGLES CHANCE OF SUCCESS: UNLIKELY We live in a touchy feely world. Virtually everyone is in on it: the folks over at FreeHugsCampaign.org, the thousands of people who make a pilgrimage each year to Santa Fe , where I live, to be embraced by Amma, the “hugging saint.” Cuddling meet ups—where individuals get together in their pajamas, turn off the lights, and embrace each other— have become so popular that they’re now found in 32 U.S. cities and five countries. As a guy who lives in near constant fear of human contact, this concerns me. I love my friends and family; I just don’t necessarily want to embrace them. Touching, according to my Midwestern upbringing, should be limited to the bed room,…

29 min

Outside|March 2015

A LIAR STANDING NEXT TO A HOLE IN THE GROUND

THE OLD PROSPECTOR WAS CONVINCED IT WAS GOLD, BUT THE GEOLOGIST COULDN ’T SAY FOR SURE . VERY SMALL KNUCKLES OF AYELLOW MINERAL ATTACHE D TO CUBES OF PYRITE WERE IN QUESTION. six of us stood around the rusty iron door that served as our camp table and was now piled high with ore and canvas sample bags inked with GPs coordinates. Flint Carter, the prospector, tipped back his cowboy hat, pulled a thin brown cigarillo from the chest pocket of his overalls, and lit it as the sun set over Arizona’s storied Cañada del Oro. “That right there would make any miner happy,” he said, nodding at the table. he picked up one of the samples and held it to the dusky light. he moved his hand over the…

21 min

Outside|March 2015

Reinventing the Wheel

WANTED WHEN ASSAF Biderman, associate director of MiT’s urban-design- focused Sense able city lab, partnered with the city of copenhagen to help sell people around the world on pedal- powered commuting, his team learned that one of the biggest deterrents was sprawl—you can only go so far on two wheels. Their solution: a candy-colored hub they christened the copenhagen Wheel. The 13-pound unit can be installed on almost any bicycle, transforming it into an electricassist ride. like most other e-bike motors, it harnesses kinetic energy while you brake to charge the battery. Unlike other motors, it measures things like power output, elevation gain, and the bumpiness of the road. The system also learns your habits, adapting over time to give you more of a boost when you need it. riders…

1 min