Between the Lines

News from the hurrah front
By Larry Burke, Publisher/Editor-In-Chief

One afternoon last spring, outside's deadline-besieged hallways were briefly the scene of popping corks, cheers, and a flurry of high-fives. The reason? On April 23 in New York, the American Society of Magazine Editors presented us with the National Magazine Award for General Excellence among publications with circulations of 400,000 to one million. The Ellie (named for the spiffy Alexander Calder "Elephant" stabile handed out to winners) is magazine publishing's highest honor, and one that represents the happy culmination of our long partnership with a remarkable group of writers, artists, and photographers. Noting Outside's "riveting feature stories," "fresh and stunning" design, and "authoritative and thorough" service, the judges also pointed to qualities that, though more difficult to calibrate, are at the heart of what we've strived to accomplish since launching a new home for outdoor writing and thinking 19 years ago. "Outside is filled with exploration and a sense of wonder," the judges' citation said. "It has a passion for the outdoors, but also is tough and skeptical. It has soul."

As if our good fortune weren't enough, this year marked the 14th in a row that Outside has been nominated for an NMA-a record of consistent recognition that is unmatched in the history of the awards. A hats-off is due to our gifted, committed staff of editors, writers, designers, and photo specialists, who have continuously tested the boundaries of what this magazine can be. But credit also goes to our readers, whose ideas, kudos, and sometimes heated reactions help shape what we do each month. To everyone involved, congratulations and many thanks.

With the twirl of a wheel last march, secretary of the interior Bruce Babbitt opened the floodgates at Glen Canyon Dam, releasing a torrent of water into the Colorado River that in just a week sent a staggering 117 billion gallons through the Grand Canyon. The big wash had a serious purpose. Planned by the government as an environmental measure-among other things, the goal was to raise a ruckus that would scour the over-sedimented waters below the dam and help restore the canyon's depleted beaches. It also meant that for a few brief, splashy days America's greatest river would approach its wild, pre-dam self. Senior editor Hampton Sides floated the canyon with a group of crack river guides and found pretty much what he expected: whitewater nirvana. "The Grand Canyon is a thrill under any circumstances, but this was something else," says Sides, whose next-hairiest raft trip involved tubing down a lazy Virginia creek a few years ago. (See, "Let There Be High Water")

Heard just about enough nasal lecturing from Ross Perot? Same here, so we decided to check in with the other other presidential candidate: Ralph Nader, the standard-bearer for the Green Party, a growing but still-struggling environmental coalition. Though Nader's run seems awfully quixotic, the man who helped persuade automakers to install airbags makes a coherent case as to why it's necessary (and effective) for him to nip at the heels of both major parties on conservation issues. He might even affect the outcome in California, where a large contingent of green-minded voters could ditch Bill for Ralph in a protest vote.(See, "It's the Envrironment, Stupid")

Elsewhere in this issue, contributing editor Michael McRae gnaws some steak fat with Maury Kravitz, a deep-pocketed, big-bellied Chicago commodities broker who has a prodigious dream: to locate the lost tomb of Genghis Khan, a presumed-to-exist pile of artifacts and treasure that, as Kravitz puts it, "would eat the Tut exhibit for breakfast." Kravitz takes off for Mongolia this month on an $800,000 expedition, but as usual with such ventures, there are prodigious hitches. For one thing, quite a few Genghis Khan scholars doubt he was buried in a "tomb" at all. Kravitz, an amateur archaeologist with a vast knowledge of Khaniana, is keeping the faith, figuring that a lot of unaccounted-for Genghis plunder had to wind up somewhere. "These things," he insists, "did not just dissolve into molecular invisibility." (See, "Genghis on My Mind")

Finally, we welcome summer with a bang on the camp kettle, in a package devoted to the simple proposition that outdoor eating can and should rise above the flame-blistered marshmallow. In , "The Backcountry Epicure," a how-to guide for outdoor gourmands, expert field cooks and professional chefs share their recipes, philosophies, and secret tips. Happy gluttonizing, and don't forget to pack the freeze-dried truffles.