The landscape of the American southwest is an ethereal place. The cathedral towers, deep canyons, and crushed red dirt produce terrain with endless riding possibilities. One is only limited by his efforts to push further. Pedaling along the sun drenched plateaus and in the shadowed canyons, all while sleeping below the stars in the cool night, you can start to feel displaced from the daily......read more
If you're lucky enough to have the chance to go sledding this winter, you may as well do it properly. Colorado-based Mountain Boy Sledworks has just the answer in the form of this classic toboggan, made by hand using top quality materials. Featuring steam-bent planks of knot-free, flexible basswood and hand-carved willow crosspieces, the toboggan uses stainless-steel screws and genuine leather......read more
"Blue Lanterns on East Oxford," off Mountains' 2011 album Air Museum, is a slow drifter of a tune that gets a literal visual interpretation courtesy of the band's own Koen Holtkamp. The nature-absorbed imagery provides a perfectly hypnotic complement to the band's ambient tones, described by The Wire as, "Infinite sheets of grainy sound build and renew themselves to immensely......read more
From UK photographer Kate Peters' impressive portfolio of work comes Ask The Dust, a collection of images shot during her ramblings through the arid landscapes of California, Utah and Arizona. The series, which takes its name from the masterful novel by John Fante, nicely captures the stark spirituality of the desert. Kate's photographic chops were honed as an assistant......read more
Matthieu Gafsou's interest in the tension between untouched nature and its exploitation by human beings is revealed in Alpes, a photo series of the mountains around his home in Lausanne, Switzerland. Gafsou presents the mountain as a complex subject, one that's torn between its various interpretations: pristine nature, tourist destination, symbol of Swiss national identity.......read more
Aether Apparel, the LA-based purveyors of tech outdoor gear, seem to have a thing for epic, inspirational landscape photos. A quick trip to their site confirms this to be the case. The finalists from the company's Summer Photo Contest, in which photographers were invited to submit photos of summer adventure for a chance to win a bunch of travel essentials, mine much of the same......read more
A pair of industrial designers have dreamed up an alpine hut that can be airdropped into remote mountain zones to provide adventurers with a high-tech, self-sufficient home away from home. The “Huba, a design concept by Malgorzata Blachnicka and Michal Holcer, is designed for high-elevation places (3,280 feet above sea level and higher), where wind speeds can reach 100 feet per second.......read more
Turns out mountains really can be moved. Or rather, removed. Mountaintop removal, as the name implies, involves blasting away the tops of mountains in order to expose the coal seams underneath. The resulting tons of dirt and stone are typically discarded into nearby valleys and streams, with devastating impacts on mountain ecosystems. The process is particularly prevalent in the Appalachians,......read more
As stated in The Energy Manifesto, energy accounts for more than its fair share of greenhouse gas emissions, so it's of paramount importance in the grand scheme of tackling climate change. The answer of course is a massive shift to renewable energy, but I'm fairly certain when I wake up tomorrow morning we will be nowhere near to meeting our energy demands from renewable sources. If, for now,......read more
In terms of energy input vs. output, bikes are the most efficient form of transportation ever invented. In Europe, cycling accounts for more than 20% of all trips taken in urban cities. These numbers blow American cities out of the water, where only 1% of trips are taken via bicycle. Part of this difference is the result of a far superior cycling infrastructure in Europe compared to the United......read more