SELECTED ARTICLES
“What the Hell is Going on with the Pebble Mine?” — An update on Alaska’s most controversial mega-project, a proposed copper and gold mine whose fortunes have risen and fallen with the political tides. [Outside, October 2020]
“Rent This Shoe: Would you pay for subscription running shoes?” — A profile of Swiss running show brand On, as they embark upon a new paradigm for sustainability: completely recyclable running shoes that you never own. [Outside, September 2020]
“Into the Breach: A New Documentary Explores One Man’s Whale Obsession” — A look at filmmaker Tom Mustill’s PBS/Nature documentary, The Whale Detective, which charts what happened after a humpback nearly landed on his kayak. [Outside, January 2020]
“Attla Tells the Story of Alaska’s Native Mushing Hero” — Review of a new documentary on PBS's 'Independent Lens' that chronicles the incredible life of George Attla, an icon of the dogsled world who dominated the sport while preserving a dying tradition. [Outside, December 2019]
“North America’s First Indoor Ski Hill Comes to New Jersey” — Dispatch from a surreal opening day at the long awaited Big Snow complex, part of the American Dream Mall at New Jersey’s Meadowlands, featuring Lindsey Vonn and lots of New Jersey flair. [Bloomberg, December 2019]
“An Intense Workout to Get You in Shape for Ski Season.” — In a basement in a strip mall in Scarsdale, NY, a unique workout aims to get flatlanders mountain-ready, with an audio segment broadcast on Bloomberg Radio. [Bloomberg, October 2019]
“Laughter is the Best Debt Relief” — Actor and comedian Michael Torpey created the game show Paid Off, on TruTV, as a way of tackling the student debt crisis. He knows that a game show is a ridiculous way to save people from crushing debt, but what’s the alternative? [Bloomberg Businessweek, July 2019]
“Rowing to Alaska: The Sun is a Compass is an Engaging Look at Adventure” — A review of ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert’s book about the epic, self-powered journey she and her husband undertook, rowing, skiing, hiking, and rafting from Bellingham, WA, to Kotzebue, AK. [Outside, May 2019]
“The Ski Pass Locals Love to Hate” — A recap of the big debut year for the new, multi-mountain Ikon Pass, and the backlash from diehard locals who felt crowded out of their home mountains. [Bloomberg Businessweek, April 2019]
“Hostile Planet Takes a Candid Look at Climate Change” — A review of the new National Geographic series, narrated by Bear Grylls, that takes a look at the harsh reality of our changing world. [Outside, April 2019]
“2019 Men’s Journal Travel Awards” — Various entries, from California to Portugal to Iceland to the Catskills, on the best destinations for the coming year. [Men’s Journal, February 2019]
“The Last Whalers Illuminates a Dying Way of Life” — A review of Doug Bock Clark’s deeply reported new book, The Last Whalers, which immerses readers in a society that still relies on whale hunts for sustenance, while adapting to the creeping influences of modernity. [Outside, January 2019]
“The Andaman Misadventure of John Allen Chau” — An inside look at the story of a 26-year-old American missionary killed by bow and arrow on North Sentinel Island, home to one of the most isolated tribes in the world. [Smithsonian, December 2018]
“SpaceX is Launching a Piece of Art into Orbit” — Follow along as artist Trevor Paglen designs and builds the world’s first satellite to exist, in his words, “purely as an artistic gesture,” the Orbital Reflector. [Wired, November 2018]
“What to Wear to the Moon” — An account of a visit to one of the iconic wardrobe pieces in American history: the spacesuit that Neil Armstrong wore when he became the first man to walk on the moon. The suit is currently being restored by conservators at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, and a replica of it will be on display in the upcoming feature film “First Man”. [Smithsonian Magazine, October 2018]
“Rites of Summer, One Welcome, One Not” — An update on the latest ups and downs in Alaska’s ongoing Pebble Mine controversy, focusing on the mine’s prospects in the Trump era and some new strategies by weary mine opponents. [Patagonia / Cleanest Line, July 2018]
"Reality is Fantasy in 'The Last Wild Men of Borneo'" -- A review of author Carl Hoffman's new book, which traces the lives of two Westerners, Bruno Manser and Michael Palmieri, drawn to the lush exoticism of Borneo in the 1970s and 1980s. [Outside, March 2018]
"Rock God: How Alex Honnold Climbed El Capitan (Without a Rope)" -- A close-up account for GQ's Men of the Year issue of Honnold's free solo of El Cap's 2,900-foot Freerider route, an astounding feat of mental and physical endurance accomplished in the cradle of American big-wall climbing. [GQ, December 2017]
“Utah’s Newest Backcountry Paradise” — A blissful visit to Whisper Ridge, a new and ambitious cat-skiing operation in the northeastern Utah, with 60,000 acres of terrain and a maximum 60 skiers per day. [Men’s Journal, November 2017]
"Can Technology Bring Heli-Skiing to the Masses?" -- A look at startup Heli, which seeks to streamline bookings of adventure travel, making sports like heli-skiing more accessible. [Bloomberg Businessweek, October 2017]
"Bristol Bay's Pebble Mine is Back in Play" -- As the Trump/Pruitt EPA seeks to unwind protections for Alaska's Bristol Bay, a deep dive look at how we got here, and where Pebble goes now. [Outside, October 2017]
"Q&A: Photographer Matt Hamon on Montana, Authenticity, and Problems of the ‘Exotic’"-- A conversation about Hamon's series The Gleaners, focused on a tribal buffalo hunt and its butchers. [Jungles in Paris, April 2017]
"Alaska's Pebble Mine and the Legend of Trump's Gold" -- Charting the twists and turns in the Pebble Mine saga since Trump's election. [The New Yorker, March 2017]
"How Trump Transition Officials are Privately Explaining the Chaos at the EPA" -- A look at transition chaos at the EPA from the inside, based on leaked internal communications. [Slate, January 2017]
"To Save these Rare Giraffes, Uganda Built an Ark (of Sorts)" -- A journey to Uganda to observe the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and Ugandan Wildlife Authority as they undertook unique effort to save and relocate a population of endangered Rothschild's giraffes. [On Earth, October 2016]
"The EPA Ecologist Who Became a Wanted Man" -- A profile of retired EPA employee Phil North, whose work on Alaska's Pebble Mine, and subsequent disappearance, is at the center of several lawsuits, based on exclusive interviews with North. [The New Yorker, May 2016]
"Rebuilding Roseburg: Life in a town marked by tragedy" -- An essay on the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, the town my father grew up in. [Harper's, October 2015]
"Trevor Paglen Plumbs the Internet" -- A deep dive into the world of undersea data cables--the internet is, in fact, a 'series of tubes'--with artist and author Trevor Paglen. [The New Yorker, September 2015]
"Scoring Obama's Relationship with Alaska" and "What Obama Missed on his Alaska Tour" -- Two looks at the implications of President Obama's historic visit to Alaska. [Outside and Men's Journal, September 2015]
"U.P. Extreme: Skiing Michigan's Upper Peninsula" -- An expedition to Michigan's Mount Bohemia, which advertises 'midwest extreme' skiing, sits amid shuttered copper mines on a peninsula surrounded by Lake Superior, and beloved by a scrappy, dedicated group of regulars. [Skiing, September 2015]
"The Other Man: Remembering Graham Hunt (1986-2015)" -- A profile of the late Graham Hunt, who died with climbing legend Dean Potter during a wingsuit BASE jumping accident in Yosemite. [Outside Online, May 2015]
"The Spectacular Flight and Rough Landing of the Freedom Jumpers" -- Feature about the three men who jumped from the nearly completed Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan in September 2013, investigating the jump, their arrest, and their subsequent legal woes. [Outside Online, April 2015]
"The Bat Man Cometh" -- An account of a New York visit by the "Bat Man of Mexico," renowned bat biologist Rodrigo Medellin, for a screening of a film about his work at the New York WILD Film Festival. [The New Yorker, February 2015]
"Bristol Bay Isn't Safe, Yet" -- Newsy piece covering President Obama's decision to protect the North Aleutian Basin from oil and gas exploration. [Outside Online, December 2014]
"Feds Crack Down on Alaska Mining Co." -- A look at EPA's investigation of XS Platinum--a one-time supplier to jewelry giant Tiffany & Co.--for illegal pollution of Alaska's Salmon River. [Huffpo, November 2014]
"Powder for the Purists" -- Backwoods cat-skiing at southern Oregon's Mount Bailey. Worth the trip. [Skiing Magazine, December 2013]
"What a Catch" -- A family of fishermen take their catch, fresh Alaskan sockeye from Bristol Bay, to the streets and playgrounds of Brooklyn and Portland via a CSA-style salmon share. [On Earth, October 2013]
"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains" -- Skiing powder at Eagle Point, an out of the way and once-doomed ski resort in southern Utah's Tushar Mountains, with the former NYC financier trying to revive it. [Skiing Magazine, December 2012]
"A Wild Civility" -- A profile a profile of filmmaker and designer of an eponymous line of luxury men's accessories, Alexander Olch. [The Aesthete, October 2012]
"Start Your Engines" -- Dropping in on the start of the season at the Accord Speedway, a quarter-mile, dirt racetrack in New York's Catskills region. [The Aesthete, May 2012]
"Operation Hollywood: SEALs in the Spotlight" -- On set during the filming of Act of Valor, the feature action film starring real Navy SEALs and made with the Navy's cooperation. [Businessweek, February 2012]
"Field Trip: Brooklyn Detention Complex Housewarming" -- On a tour of the newly reopened Brooklyn House of Detention, where gentrification bumps up agains the criminal justice system. [Urban Omnibus, February 2012]
"In Brooklyn, St. Cecelia's Grants Artists' Prayers" -- A look at an unlikely arts center at St. Cecelia's Catholic Parish in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and the Pastor behind it. [New York Times, March 2011]
"Shattered Idyll" -- An arts collective reclaims, for a moment, a condemned community of vacation bungalows on the Connecticut shore. [New York Observer, October 2010]
"Graveyard Shift"--A cultural study of midwestern skiing, undertaken at Paoli Peaks, Indiana, where the lifts stay open until 3am. [Skiing, January 2010]
"The Life and Death of Shane McConkey"--A look into the life and untimely death of a skiing and BASE-jumping legend. [Outside, July 2009]
"Gold Fish"--Investigating the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and its possible impact on salmon populations and the fishermen who rely on them. [Outside, June 2009]
"Aconcagua: Everyman's Everest"--An account of my climb of the highest peak in the America's, Argentina's Aconcagua, with an all-star group of guides, including Ed Viesturs, Dave Hahn, and Peter Whittaker. [Men's Journal, May 2009]
"The New Paranoia"--A look at survivalist tendencies among New York's financial elite. [New York Magazine, January 2009]
"Field Notes"--An account of my experience as a first-time adventure TV host, following the last days of vanished heir Michael Rockefeller in the Asmat region of Papua. [Outside, November 2008; The TV show, "Gone Missing," aired on the Travel Channel in November 2008]
"Paddling in Circles"--Competing in a raft race on the Peruvian Amazon sounded like a fantastic adventure; it turned out to be a comedy of adventurous errors. [Outside's Go, September 2008]
"Swim, Bike, Run, Shoot, Kill"--A look at the training and recruiting of Navy SEALS. [Outside, September 2007]
"Huge"--Profile of BASE-jumper Miles Daisher, in which I learn to BASE-jump. [Outside, February 2006]
"Balkan Surprise"--Travels in Croatia. [Outside, July 2005]
"Absolutely Knackered"--Young Brits running wild on a ski trip to the Austrian Alps. [Outside, December 2004]
SELECTED INTERVIEWS
"Capturing the Complexity of a Freefalling Obsession" -- Q&A with Marah Strauch, the director of the documentary Sunshine Superman, which traces the life and death of BASE jumping pioneer Carl Boenish. [Outside Online, May 2015]
"The Shane McConkey Story" -- An interview with Sherry McConkey, widow of the skiing and BASE-jumping pioneer, about the documentary film McConkey. [Outside, October 2013]
"The Road Back" -- An essay and Q&A about professional triathlete Jordan Rapp, who battled back from a nearly fatal hit-and-run (he was struck by a van while on his bike on a training ride) to top form. Download PDF here. [Hackley Review, December 2011]
"The Novelist" -- A conversation with the incomparable James Salter. [Outside, July 2011]
"Gus Speth: Environmental Crusader" -- A talk with Gus Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and one of the founders of the NRDC. [Outside, May 2007]
"Impossible to Forget" -- Survivors of the disastrous 1996 Everest season, chronicled in Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" and other books, reflect their experiences for the 10th anniversary. [Outside, May 2006]
SELECTED REVIEWS
"Non-Answers" -- A review of Carl Hoffman's book Savage Harvest, about the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in New Guinea in 1961. [Slate, April 2014]
"When the Road Ends, Keep Pedaling" -- A review of "Road to Karakol," a film by Fitz Cahall and Kyle Dempster. [HuffPo, November 2013]
"One Life to Live: Shane McConkey's Last Great Idea" -- A review of the documentary "McConkey," which looks at the life and death of skiing and BASE-jumping pioneer Shane McConkey through a very personal lens--the filmmakers were some of his closest friends. [Frontier Psychiatrist, October 2013, later republished on HuffPo]
"GQ's Read of the Month: Jame's Salter's All That Is" -- A review of the remarkable new novel from 86-year-old legend and unrivaled prose stylist James Salter. [GQ.com, April 2013]
"Josh Melnick's 8-Train" -- A review of a subterranean film that revels in the anonymous faces encountered while riding New York's subways. [Urban Omnibus, June 2009]
"Taking on the World"--A review of Leonardo DiCaprio's eco-doc, The 11th Hour. [Outside, September 2007]
SELECTED PACKAGE WORK
"Greening the Big Apple" -- A look at future strategies for more responsible city living. [Outside, February 2008]
"Green All Stars 2007"--Mini-profiles of eco-leaders. [Outside, April 2007]
"Global Green CEO Matt Petersen" -- Mini profile of the environmental leader. [Outside, March 2007]
"Best Jobs: 2007"--A glimpse into the lives of the enviably employed. [Outside, May 2007]
"Cold Case: Unsolved Mysteries"--More unsolved mysteries from the great outdoors. [Outside, November 2006]
"The O-Files: Unsolved Mysteries"--Dissapearances, strange phenomena, and other weirdness. [Outside, October 2003]
SELECTED SERVICE STORIES
"Bristol Bay Fishing Lodges" -- The best places to stay while on the hunt for trophy rainbow trout and lunker salmon, in one of the world's legendary fishing destinations, Bristol Bay, Alaska. [Outside, June 2009]
"Thoreau Knows" -- Translating the master's minimalism to the modern world. [Outside, January2007]
"How to do Everything"--Including my entries on surviving a bar fight and playing pickup basketball, among others. [Outside, July 2007]
"Pushing the Boundaries"--A guide to the uncrowded corners of eleven National Parks. [Outside, May 2007]
"The Hole Shebang"--A rundown of the best swimming holes in the National Parks. [Outside, May 2007]
"Adios, Winter Slump"--Eight offbeat activities to pursue in New England in the winter, from falconry to ski-joring. [AMC Outdoors, February 2007]
"Spine of Steel"--How you can get Superman's posture. [Outside, June 2006]
"An Almost-Impossible Trek"--Hiking El Salvador's Parque Nacional El Imposible. [Outside Traveler, 2004]
"Kentucky: Big Holler"--An Appalachian road trip. [Outside, July 2003]