Outside December 2012

WIKTOR SKUPINSKI “It was absolute sensory overload in there,” says Skupinski of the spray cave behind Helmcken Falls in British Columbia. That’s where the Calgary shooter spent five days with UK climber Tim Emmett last January. “We eventually managed to top out—eight pitches in a single push. This one was the hardest,” says Emmett. “The ice has the texture of a bag of sugar. You don’t know if your tools will hold or you’re going to bring it all down with you.” TOOLS: Canon 5D Mark II, 17–35mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 160, f/2.8, 1/100 second FREDRIK SCHENHOLM It was a crisp January morning when Schenholm captured this image of Swedish freeskier Linus Archibald catching air beside a stand of spruce trees in Switzerland’s Engelberg resort. “The night before, the temperature…

Wilderness Therapy A week ago, as the page proofs for this issue started landing on my desk, I found myself staring at the photo that appears on pages 80 and 81. I wasn’t mesmerized so much as paralyzed: I was so completely drawn in, it almost seemed like I couldn’t move. And as I sat there staring, I began to wonder what exactly was so absorbing about the photo. It’s a simple image of the ocean, equal parts water and sky, stripped of any other elements. Gazing at it placed me on an empty shoreline, and I didn’t want to leave. I could actually feel my neck and shoulders relaxing. I assure you I’m not losing my mind. In fact, the article that accompanies that photo (“Take Two Hours of…

Dean Kuipers, who wrote “Honey Stinger” (page 60), about an FBI ecoactivism informant, isn’t new to environmental reporting. His first article for Outside, in 1993, was about monkeywrench-style sabotage, and his book Operation Bite Back tells the story of radical activist Ron Coronado. In this issue, Kuipers focuses on “Anna,” an informant who infiltrated a group of seemingly innocuous radicals, spying on them but also egging them on. “This guy Eric McDavid was arrested simply for talking, which has become a pattern post–9/11,” says Kuipers, who lives in Los Angeles. “The FBI is using informants to generate a lot of radical chatter and then nailing people for it. Getting 20 years for that is just wrong.”…

To help you prepare for ski season, we assembled a list of North America’s 18 best resorts (“Powder to the People,” page 45) and put it all online with an additional 40 (outsideonline.com/skichannel). So what’s standing between you and your next ski vacation? 1. Budget There’s skiing almost everywhere. Forty states have ski areas, many reasonably priced—like Missouri’s Hidden Valley (see “Elevation: 860,” page 56), where a lift ticket is just $45. 2. Family Ski schools (read: baby sitters) are ubiquitous. And at resorts like Stratton, Vermont, and California’s Squaw Valley, the schools, restaurants, and hotels are all walking distance from world-class corduroy. 3. Location Steamboat Springs, Colorado, has flights from 230 U.S. airports, and Alta and Snowbird are just a 45-minute drive from Salt Lake City. Which is to…

To report “Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call Me in the Morning” (page 78), an investigation into the benefits of being in nature, contributing editor Florence Williams spent a week immersed in Japan’s forests and cities, where scientists measured how time outside—and the lack thereof—changed her brain and body. One discovery: sniffing oil from cypress trees immediately dropped Williams’s blood pressure 12 points. Which made us wonder: could it have the same effect on stressed-out editors?…

“I spent much of my four previous trips to Afghanistan slumped down in the backs of cars for fear of being spotted by kidnappers. Which is why reporting on locals who ski in the mountains near Bamiyan was so thrilling: I could actually see the people and the country like they were before the wars started 30 years ago. I drank tea in people’s homes while children giggled around us. Bamiyan is what a peaceful Afghanistan could look like. It makes the situation in the rest of the country that much sadder.” —Contributor Elliott D. Woods Woods won a National Magazine Award for his work in Afghanistan. He wrote and photographed “War and Piste” (page 102), about the burgeoning ski culture in the Hindu Kush.…