Hiking & Camping

A group of women snow camping in the mountains as part of a She Jumps trip. Photo: Re Wikstrom. Lidia Mejia was holding up the other skiers. Perched above a small cliff in Utah’s Alta ski area, she doubted her ability to make the drop.. But her friend, who’d just gone over the edge,...

My friend Charles Sherwood and I were all set to climb the Walker Spur, one of the classic major alpine routes of the French Alps, when the weather changed dramatically.. It was summer, but the temperature dropped from a balmy 86 degrees to 41 degrees in the valley and it snowed down to an altitude...

A mountaineer taking in the scenery of Denali National Park, where the park service proposes to raise climbing fees.. The U.S. National Park Service is proposing to raise mountaineering fees by 150 percent in Denali National Park, Alaska, the location of North America’s tallest mountain, Mt. McKinley.. If approved, the cost for climbing in the...

The meeting of the mist and the ocean has formed one of the most beautiful spots on earth, the collision of ocean and rock that is Point Lobos on California’s Monterey Bay.. Inspiration abounds in the vistas and tides of Point Lobos today as it has before any of us were around. A hike...

I will never forget the first time I went camping with certain very civilized friends of mine.. Even though there were only three of us, we had to take two cars just to fit all the luggage, and setting up our site took hours. For me, a traditionally minimalistic person, this seemed like yet another...

While serving in Iraq two years ago, Troy Yocum used his spare time to devise an epic plan.. Concerned for a friend and fellow veteran who had lost his job, Yocum decided to raise money for veterans who returned home to find themselves jobless and in debt.. For 15 months, he’d walk 7,000 miles across...

Yellow taxi cabs honking in stand-still traffic, intimidating buildings that loom so tall you feel like an ant, after-hours nightclubs and late night pizza stops; This is what people picture when they think of New York. While the state does offer a “big city, bright lights” spot on the map, it has a lot more...

Are your RV fantasies undermined by your small car reality? Same here. One possible solution: the Utilitoy, a simple, lightweight camping trailer that can be pulled by most 4-cylinder cars.. The base model of the trailer weighs 962 pounds and has a tongue weight of 80 pounds (the weight that pushed down on the hitch)....

Here’s another item to add to your wish list for things over 50 . grand. Mario Donovan, of Prescott, Arizona, has developed a camper that . mounts on 4-door Jeep Wranglers. Given the Wrangler’s off-road . capabilities, this means you can reside in style in lots of out-of-the . places.. The 440-pound Action Camper has...

How about a camp stove that cooks food AND charges your smartphone? Please meet the CampStove from BioLite, a company that started out making clean-burning wood stoves for people in developing countries, but has now turned it’s attention to a more affluent, but still resource-constrained population — outdoors enthusiasts.. The $129 CampStove, about the size...

As you walk down a busy street in Boston or Denver on a sweltering summer day, with your cell phone ringing, cars zooming by, and the smell of exhaust permeating the air, have you found yourself wanting to take John Muir’s advice and “climb the mountains” so your “cares will fall off like autumn leaves?”. That desire...

After a close call last summer with getting stuck outdoors in the wilderness, I’ve been slowly but surely piecing together an emergency survival kit. One item on my list of basic survival gear is a simple tarp to provide shelter.. I’ve found a number of options, from simple blue tarps to rain ponchos that unfold...

A first glance, the Monowalker, a “hiking trailer” conceived in Germany, had me snickering. Come on! Man up! Carry it on your back!. But the more I think about…well…maybe it’s cool..?For one thing it can carry up to 100 pounds of gear. Try carrying that kind of weight on your back for a long distance. Ouch.....

Today’s aphorism: You want most what you have least.. For the Dutch, apparently, it’s mountains to climb. Evidence of this:. Excalibur Tower, the world’s largest freestanding climbing wall.. Thrusting up from the otherwise flat landscape surrounding the Dutch city of Groningen, the tower tops out at 121 feet, with a long slab climbing on one...

misC Sport & Leisure has released the price of the Swiss Room Box, a device that adds a sink, bed, shower, table and toilet to nearly any car.. Brace yourself.One of these red boxes of wonderment will cost you $8,230. No, we didn’t accidentally add that last zero.. The box’s website now offers details on compatibility...

And we thought the Swiss couldn’t top their army knife. Next month a Swiss company called misC Sport & Leisure will release the Swiss Room Box, a device that turns small cars into motor homes.. The Room Box mounts into the back of a car with straps and unfolds to reveal everything from a dining table...

There’s nothing like feeling exposed to get you thinking about the basic necessities of survival.. I recently found myself next to a remote Canadian river, my cotton clothing soaked through from a surprise rainstorm, facing the prospect of spending the night with no food, shelter or fire. I knew better – “Be Prepared!” – but...