Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2021 från Outside

Calling All Kooks Last December, I recorded an interview with contributing editor Tom Vanderbilt for the Outside Podcast about his new book, Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning. Tom has written for Outside for more than a decade, so I’m biased, but trust me—this is a book everyone should pick up. It chronicles Vanderbilt’s multiyear quest to learn half a dozen new skills as he approached age 50, including playing chess, singing, surfing, drawing, and juggling, along with what he managed to glean about the learning process itself. These personal narratives are inspiring and hilarious, but the best part of the book is the persuasive argument it makes that, as Vanderbilt writes, “being a beginner can be a wonderful thing.” That’s a thesis the majority of adults…

MOMENTS AFTER a red-tailed hawk lands on an oak tree outside the Steve Jobs Theater, Tim Cook walks up with a smile. It’s a warm fall morning, and the raptor is just one of many birds in the sprawling landscape of restored native habitat that surrounds the massive ring-shaped second headquarters Apple opened in Cupertino in 2017. Having an office here, Cook tells me, “is like working in a national park.” He ticks off a couple of well-known stats: more than 80 percent of the 175-acre campus is greenspace; there are more than 7,000 trees. The design, says Cook, “brings the outside in and the inside out.” Before the pandemic caused most of Apple Park’s 12,000 employees to work remotely, many of them held meetings in the building’s fruit-tree-filled central…

a. Merrell Alpine Sneaker Mid Polar Waterproof boots $120 The waterproof leather-and-canvas upper keeps feet dry and lets them breathe. But the best part is sinking into the cozy fleece lining, paired with 200 grams of low-bulk insulation. Made for slippery, slushy conditions, the thick EVA footbed staves off ground chill, and the washboard rubber outsole provides traction while preventing ice buildup. b. Outdoor Research Flex Tex II gaiters $69 Keeping snow and gravel out of boots is key. The Flex Tex II has a vinyl-coated instep strap and an abrasion-resistant nylon-spandex upper. The cinch cord is threaded through the gaiter in a big X and snugs the top cuff with a single pull. c. Smartwool Merino 150 ¼ Zip base layer $90 Who’d believe that a base layer this…

I’D NEVER MADE ANYTHING IN MY LIFE. THEN MY DAD SENT ME A SAW. For my 30th birthday, my dad got me a DeWalt 6.5-inch circular saw. Before that my woodworking experience had been limited to assembling IKEA furniture and installing prefab shelves—incidentally, with a drill my dad bought me for my 29th birthday. He would appear to be sending me a message. I took the saw out of the box, carefully spun the toothy blade, and decided that I was going to learn how to use this tool. When my dad was my age, he was framing walls and building cabinets. By contrast, I recently had to google simple carpentry terms while editing a story about a couple of guys who raised a cabin in the woods. I wasn’t…

A wheelie is the bicycling equivalent of hanging ten on a surfboard or spinning a basketball on your finger—a skill as profoundly cool as it is functionally irrelevant. Pedaling around with one wheel in the air won’t help you win a race or bomb a gnarly descent. Unlike a front-wheel lift or a bunny hop, it has no business on a trail. What the wheelie lacks in utility it makes up for with pure, unfiltered radness. There’s something thrilling about a skill that isn’t a means to an end but the end itself, whose value in doing it is just doing it, simply because you can. Yet it’s more than showing off. It’s about seeking an elusive, almost mystical state of precarious, dynamic balance. You’re chasing a sweet spot, a moving…

a. Columbia Barrett Spur Black Dot $600 Dark fabrics soak up the sun’s rays, but Columbia supercharged the process with some new tech: nanometers-thick aluminum dots peppering the exterior. The effect is similar to a space blanket, helping to retain heat, while breathable face fabric prevents clamminess. Additional warmth is provided by baffles of synthetic insulation layered over responsibly sourced 700-fill down—perfect for winter side-walk dining. 2.3 lbs (men’s, pictured) / 2.4 lbs (women’s) b. Stio Shot 7 Down $649 When the mercury drops below zero, reach for this jacket. The Gore-Tex shell is equipped with responsibly sourced 800-fill down, and PFC-free DWR coating lets you ski hard without the jacket sucking up moisture, which can cause the insulation to collapse. We love details like twin drop pockets and grippy…

a. Mammut Pro X Removable Airbag 3.0 pack $770 This roomy pack has what you need and nothing more. Colored zippers highlight the shovel and probe compartment, a full-zip back panel accesses buried layers, and a structured front pocket protects goggles and sunglasses. Yet it still feels minimal: at under six pounds with a full CO2 canister, it’s remarkably lightweight. b. Bivy Stick Blue satellite communicator $350 Satellite communication devices are a critical insurance policy in the backcountry. Bivy Stick’s latest, which weighs just three ounces, is simple, streamlined, and durable. Connect it to a smartphone app and choose a data plan (from $18 per month) to send and receive texts via satellite connection or to activate an SOS message. c. Ortovox Kodiak shovel saw $120 The Kodiak crams several…

DODY FUGATE lives in a creaky, low-ceilinged prefab on seven acres of scrub outside Santa Fe. It was dark inside when I visited nearly two years ago. Navajo rugs were thrown over beige carpet matted with woodstove ash and animal feed. Mason jars were tucked into dusty bookshelves packed with cookbooks, novels, and archaeology texts. In the garage sat a Ford pickup, the tires flat, which Dody and her husband, Paul, had driven home from the dealership in 1971. No pictures of Paul were anywhere that I could see, but his presence was all around. There was the old nameplate from his desk: PAUL B. FUGATE, PARK RANGER. And pinned to the wall was a bumper sticker, white letters on a forest green background. WHERE IS PAUL FUGATE, it read.…

One afternoon on a Northern California ranch, as wildfires threatened around the state and the power company shut off electricity to prevent new flare-ups, chef Joshua Skenes woke from a nap and decided he wanted to shoot something. Fair-haired and barrel-chested at 40, and already on the short list of the world’s great chefs, Skenes rubbed his bleary blue eyes, slipped his feet into delicate white sneakers, and walked outside to the enormous truck he jokingly called Rambo. Under the back seat, he had a machete, a samurai sword, and a double-bladed battle-ax—“street-fighting stuff,” he told me with a chuckle, knowing exactly how insane that sounded. Street fighting didn’t appear to be imminent, so Skenes opened Rambo’s camper shell and, between yawns, grabbed a carbon-fiber rifle fitted with a scope,…

a. Salomon ADV 5 Skin pack $145 We like this pack for longer winter efforts when we need a few extra items but don’t want to wear anything bulky. It fits like a hug and accommodates layers, poles, a headlamp, and traction devices when you’re not using them. Included soft flasks are great for warm beverages. b. Dynafit Ultra 100 GTX shoes $170 The Ultra 100 GTX is an agile, lightweight trail runner (10.2 ounces for women, 11.6 for men) made for going long in gnarly conditions. The six-millimeter drop supports the heel and ankle, and a soft midsole provides gentle landings. Rubber soles by backcountry-skin maker Pomoca lends security and precision in slick conditions. c. Black Diamond Distance spikes $100 Black Diamond has been making mountaineering crampons for decades.…

TREND ALERT SUSTAINABILITY IS THE FUTURE We all know that some of the planet’s most beautiful places are being loved to death. COVID-19’s forced pause on tourism has been a wake-up call about just how significant our environmental impact is. Here are three ways the travel industry plans to dial it back going forward. —Jen Murphy Reservations Only: Before the pandemic, the thought of calling ahead to visit a national park or an outdoor mecca seemed preposterous. But reservation systems formerly in place at popular sites like Yosemite and Rocky Mountain have shown that a little planning isn’t all that painful, especially when it means fewer people on the trails. One of Colorado’s most frequented spots—the Maroon Bells, near Aspen—required advance bookings last summer to reduce the impact of its…

“NOW JUST REMEMBER WHAT HUEY LONG SAID—THAT EVERY MAN’S A KING—AND I’M THE KING AROUND HERE AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT.”—A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, 1951 OUR PROP PLANE climbs away from Tahiti and heads north over the whitecapped Pacific. Leveling off at a few thousand feet, the French pilot turns from the cockpit and flashes a thumbs-up to me, my wife, Anne, and the handful of other passengers in the half-empty cabin. Twenty minutes later, we glimpse our destination through the tiny window: a pristine atoll consisting of 12 islets—or motu—arranged in a circle, like a necklace of emeralds laid upon the sea. The effect is jaw-dropping as we dip through the clouds. A bloom of surf breaking along the reef. Then a golden ring of submerged coral; then a…