While California skiers are rejoicing over the state’s record-breaking snowfall this year, many wildland firefighters are starting to get nervous. Winter precipitation means spring plant growth—and to a wildfire, plants are nothing more than fuel. Of course, California’s record-breaking precipitation does have some benefits. It’s helped alleviate the state’s longstanding drought. Plentiful rainfall also encourages [...]
If you saw the Jungle Book movie as a kid, you might remember the scene in which Baloo scratches his back against a tree (just before singing the “Bear Necessities,” if memory serves). While scientists have long observed bears doing this in the wild, they weren’t sure why—until recently. A new study suggests that wild [...]
Every January, ski patrol teams from across the country gather in Utah to train their secret weapons: avalanche dogs. And there’s no better place to train than at an elite academy known as the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue International Dog School. Equipped with world-class sniffers and the ability to dig fast—even through hard-packed snow—dogs are rapidly [...]
If you’ve heard about the upcoming horror-comedy film Cocaine Bear, you may have already lumped it together with such classics as Sharknado and Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. (We wouldn’t blame you.) But the new film does have one redeeming quality: unlike Sharknado, it’s actually based on a true story. In the film, a black [...]
When Australian explorer Eddie Gault mistakenly left his video camera out on a glacier, he didn’t expect a pair of penguins to get to it first—let alone start taking selfies. Gault, a polar explorer for the Antarctic Australian Division, had been traveling near the Auster rookery, a penguin colony near Antarctica’s Mawson Research Station. It [...]
“Great things are done when men and mountains meet,” William Blake once wrote. True, but the famous poet might have tweaked this line a little if he’d seen the season finale of HBOMax’s nail-biting reality competition The Climb. If there’s one thing that became clear after watching this series, it’s that this sport offers an [...]
When you stagger off a transAtlantic Flight, running a marathon is probably the last thing you want to do. And yet David Kilgore, a professional runner from Palm Bay, Florida, has done pretty much exactly that—seven times in a row. Not only that, but he won all seven. The 31-year-old was crowned this year’s World [...]
“The best view comes after the hardest climb,” is a fitting mountain mantra for the penultimate leg of The Climb, HBOMax’s competition reality show. The four remaining climbers — Cat, Robyn, Alice, and Dom — head back to Spain and will have to dig deep down to reach their tallest peak yet. Host and climbing icon [...]
If you’ve ever hiked at high altitudes, you may be familiar with one of the more unfortunate side effects of mountain travel: excess wind. And we don’t mean the meteorological kind. There’s no question that high altitudes are associated with increased flatulence. But there are plenty of questions about why. Some mountaineers blame it on [...]
Few people are as dedicated to their regular workout routine as mountain biker Justin Brandenburg. When the New Mexico-based enthusiast rolled up to his favorite trail in 2021 and found it buried in deadfall from a recent storm, he knew he had to do something to enjoy the path once more. And so he started [...]
