Outside October 2013

Brave New World Last year, without a press release or much fanfare, we quietly changed the tagline that appears next to our logo on the cover of Outside from Live the Active Life to Live Bravely. Perhaps you didn’t even notice, and we’ll forgive you for that, but it was an important change for us. Why? Informal research concluded that no one at the magazine really knew what the Active Life meant. And if the sole purpose of a tagline is to succinctly define the mission of your brand, this was a pretty solid indication that ours was failing. We think Live Bravely is a big improvement. Not only does it require 50 percent fewer words, but it’s infinitely clearer. I doubt that you, dear reader, could definitively answer whether…

[THE ARCHETYPE] ← ASHIMA SHIRAISHI, 12 NEW YORK CITY Climber, seventh-grader CV: Daughter of Japanese immigrants. Took up bouldering in Central Park at age six. Climbed Crown of Aragorn, in Hueco Tanks, Texas, a V13 bouldering problem that’s one of the most difficult routes ever climbed by a woman, at age ten. Now spends 20 hours per week training at the Brooklyn Boulders climbing gym. Won the American Boulder Series Youth National Championships in March. Excels at woodworking class. Collects stickers. Two: Number of documentaries that have featured her. Up Next: Junior high. But first, a climbing trip in Switzerland. Why Being Young Rules: “You get to go to parks that have age limits and are only for kids. And water-gun fights. It’s humid in New York in the summer,…

6–12AGE RANGE OF AMERICANS WHO CAMP THE MOST. NOW GO LEARN HOW TO START A FIRE IN THE RAIN (PAGE 111). SIX WEEKSITTAKESANAVERAGE 12-YEAROLD TO HEAL FROM A BROKEN COLLARBONE—THE SHORTEST RECOVERY TIME OFYOURLIFE. HUCKAWAY, KIDDO! 240 THE NUMBER OF U.S. HIGH SCHOOLS THAT HAVE FORMED MOUNTAIN-BIKE TEAMS IN THE PAST TEN YEARS (SEE “FAST TIMES AT SINGLETRACK HIGH,” PAGE 34). TAKE UP THE SPORT NOW AND YOU’LL BE DOING IT INTO YOUR SEVENTIES. FOURTEEN AGEWHENYOURMETABOLISMPEAKS. BUTWHILEYOUMAYBEABLETOGETAWAYWITHSTUFFINGYOURFACEWITHTWINKIESANDCHUGGINGSODANOW, REMEMBERTHATMOSTOFTHEHABITSWEESTABLISHBEFOREAGE19WECARRYWITHUSTHROUGHLIFE. SOLISTENTOYOURMOTHER: EATYOURVEGGIES. RICHARD RRANSON started a magazine, Student, at 16, and a record store, called Virgin, five years later. He is now worth $4.6billion. What are you waiting for? 2 PERCENTAGE OF TEENS WHO CAN TEXT BLINDFOLDED. LEARN A MORE MARKETABLE SKILL, AND MAKE MONEY DOING IT, ON PAGE 28. 42 AGE…

NOTHING SAYS you’re the coolest kid in town like a tricked - out treehouse—an adult-free zone that’s the perfect respite from the ’rents. But most treehouses are shoddily constructed and fall apart after a few years. The reason? Amateur architects (thanks, Dad) usually just nail everything to the trunk. Building a structure that can support all the cool stuff you’ll want to include—balconies, rope bridges, trap doors—requires a solid platform that will move with the tree as it grows. "You can’t treat a living tree like a post," says Daryl McDonald, lead foreman at Nelson Treehouse and Supply in Fall City, Washington. "It’s growing, it’s moving in the wind." Of course, unless you’ve been mowing lawns since you were two, you’re probably going to need your parents to chip in.…

Arborist Great outdoor jobs are rare for kids marooned in suburbia. Climbing trees in a harness with a chainsaw? An exception. PREREQS: A willingness to get dirty—think feeding branches into a chipper—and hang out in high places. "There’s lots of rope work, so rock-climbing skills translate well," says Nicholas Dankers, of Seattle’s Tree Cycle. HOW TO BREAK IN: Find a local arborist who needs an assistant and will teach you to use a chainsaw. You’ll do the menial stuff—rake debris, work the chipper—before getting in the harness. "I ran the chipper for three weeks, until my boss realized I wasn’t an idiot," says Calgary, Alberta, arborist Mike Bedard. "But I thought the chipper was awesome!" PAY: Varies from $10 per hour in Ohio to $14 in Seattle. ROMANCE POTENTIAL: Extremely…

RISING STARS JOE BREEZE STARES blankly at the freshman girl for a moment, then looks down at the mountain bike she’s handed him. Breeze, 60, is best known for creating the first purpose-made mountain bikes back in the 1970s, when he and other founders of the sport began riding the dirt trails around Marin County, California. He still develops new bikes for his Breezer brand, which sells 55 different models in 16 countries around the world. He’s also the volunteer race-day mechanic for Sir Francis Drake High School’s mountain-bike team, the Pirates. It’s a warm May morning on Boggs Mountain, a heavily wooded state forest 100 miles northeast of San Francisco. Today’s the day for the NorCal High School Cycling League Championships, the penultimate event of the Pirates’ six-race calendar,…