25th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL REPORT THE BIG IDEA
Meet the visionaries, gear gurus, scientists, risk-taking adventure entrepreneurs, and blessed masters of bigthink and hype who created the new world of adventureand are taking it places we never knew it could go.
BIT
When death came for herpetologist Joe Slowinski, he was in Myanmar, doing the thing he loved most: tracking down and studying the world's most poisonous snakes. A colleague recalls the final days of a scientific explorer who believed in risk. By Mark W. Moffett
NASTY, BRUTISH, AND LOUD
As the backcountry echoes with the din of motorized fun vehicles (and the howls of their critics), we follow the noise to West Virginia's Hatfield-McCoy Recreation Areaa newly created off-road Disneyland where ATV mud hogs run wild and free. Yee-haw! By Bill Donahue
THE WILD FILE
Is it ever too cold to snow? Why are there no fireflies in the West? Does drinking hot tea in hot weather cool you down? By Brad Wetzler
DESTINATIONS
Exploring pristine backcountry doesn't have to mean restless sleep and dehydrated camp food. Our guide to the TEN BEST WILDERNESS LODGES in North America proves you can have your remote adventure and live in grand style to boot.
THE HARD WAY
As downpours wash away his shot at a New Zealand summit bid, a lifelong mountaineer wrestles with the sport's toughest question: Is turning back an act of courage, or the ultimate failure? By Mark Jenkins
OUT THERE
On a scuba tour in New Jersey's murky waters, the author pays homage to the sunken S.S. Mohawkthe looted wreck where his family's bad luck began. By Patrick Symmes