Today's Long Read with Outside Magazine Features Editor, Fred Drier, reveals the magnitude and devastating impact of the recent tragedy on Broad Peak, in the Karakoram Range between Pakistan and China. The 26,414-foot mountain is considered one of the challenging in the region, and 10 lives lost make it the deadliest high-alpine avalanche in more than a decade. Outside's Mount Everest correspondent, Ben Ayers, spoke to the people central to the recovery effort, and this is their story.

When Peter Heller moved to the Rocky Mountains, he arrived ready to split his time between paddling rivers and penning stories.  What began with a shot-in-the-dark cold call led to a career in adventure journalism. Peter’s award winning body of work saw him on assignment in some of the most dramatic and extreme locales around the globe. And these stories in turn became the foundation for his New York Times bestselling novels, like "The River" and "Burn." Peter’s books are so compelling because of their lyrical depictions of nature and the dramatic circumstances his characters face. And underneath the adventure is a continued examination of manhood and male friendship—a theme that’s been central to his writing since his very first novel, "The Dog Stars," which recently received the full Hollywood treatment from director Ridley Scott, starring Josh Brolin, Jacob Elordi, and Margaret Qualley. Peter sat down with us just after he returned from the film’s London premiere for a conversation filled with wild tales, the ongoing examination of what it means to be a man, and how time outside forms who we are.

Today's Long Read with Outside Magazine Features Editor, Fred Drier, is for anyone who's done battle with snack-hunting seagulls on a beach trip this summer. Writer Andrew Zaleski tells the tale of how one beach community—Ocean City, NJ—got so fed up with the gulls dive bombing its guests, it decided to respond with the big guns: Birds of prey. Come take a walk on the Jersey Shore, with the falconers keeping everyone's pizza safe.

When it comes to the GOATs of outdoorsy heroes, who do you think of first? Chances are it’s not  Grand Canyon rafting legend Georgie White, groundbreaking author and Adirondack wilderness guide Anne LaBastille, and backcountry powder-skiing trailblazer Dolores LaChapelle. And author Heather Hansman wants to change that. Her new book, “Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America’s Love for the Wild” is a triple biography of the trio’s influence on our understanding of wild places and the odds they faced to earn this influence.  Heather rectifies the sexism that kept their names out of our history in “Fierce Country,” but never pulls a punch when it comes to the grimy parts of life that made these women complicated heroes. In her research and writing, Heather found deep gratitude for the full and messy lives these women led, and a better understanding of why and how to live a life outside.

Today's Long Read with Outside Magazine Features Editor, is Part 2 of one of the most read articles in Outside's history: the story of the only hiker to eve rdie while seeking the summit of central colorado's most famous 14er. Ted Katauskas, a member of the search team that finally recovered her remains 19 years later, investigates who she was and what we can all learn from her death before our own adventures in the high alpine.

When you watch a movie or TV show in which an actor portrays a skier or biker or climber or…whatever-er, do you believe them? Whether or not they can convincingly descend/ascend a mountain or a wall or a tree is often the difference between success and failure for shows set in the wilderness. Luckily for the brand new USA Network show, “Anna Pigeon”, veteran TV actress and outdoorswoman Tracy Spiridakos takes on the title role. In order to portray Anna’s ruggedness as a Glacier National Park ranger and hardboiled detective solving many-a-crime that happens inside the grounds of the park, Tracy called up two things: her lifelong love affair with nature and the same athleticism she’s used throughout her career to perform her own stunts. Wrestling criminals to the ground and into handcuffs is one thing, but it takes a real dirt lover to pull off horseback riding, hanging off cliffs on the side of a mountain, and sitting on a tree branch chatting with bald eagles. That is the type of acting skill that makes a character both believable and beloved.

Today's Long Read with Outside Magazine Features Editor, Fred Drier, is Part 1 of one of the most read articles in Outside's history: the story of the only hiker ever to die while seeing the summit of central Colorado's most famous 14er. Ted Katauskas, a member of the search team that finally recovered her remains 19 years later, investigates who she was and what we can all learn from her death before our own adventures in the high alpine.

Don't miss Part 2, next Saturday.

Surely you know someone who has eaten the most nachos at apres. Maybe you have the fastest Strava segment on your local lunch loop bike ride.  But if you’re aiming for a truly impressive outdoorsy goal, you’ll need more than quad strength to pull it off. Take Brad Ryan for example: Brad’s best known as one half of the viral duo “Grandma Joy’s Road Trip.”  Brad and his grandmother, Joy Ryan, visited all 63 U.S. National Parks, making Joy the oldest person to complete the circuit. What began as a way to show his Grandmother her first mountain became a transformative adventure for Brad and Joy to grapple with long-buried familial secrets and harms. All of this is vividly told in Brad’s new book, “Grandma Joy and Me: a Journey of Healing, One National Park at a Time.” Octogenarian camping and road tripping for a record-setting adventure is outlandish. But our nation’s most beautiful outdoor spaces can create the space for  reconciliation, empathy, and healing.

Today's Long Read with Outside Magazine Features Editor Fred Drier, is about an issue you may have seen on social media or in the news: In Japan, bears have been attacking humans at an alarming rate. They attacked more than 100 people in 2025 alone, prompting the Japanese government to send the military to parts of the country to protect towns and villages.

We first saw news stories pop up about Japan’s bear attacks in 2022 and 2023, and the stories often honed in on the weirdest elements: How rural communities were building robotic wolves with glowing red eyeballs to scare bears away from crops. Or, how bears had entered a grocery store and mauled an elderly woman.
In late 2025 we sent Owen Clarke to the Akita prefecture, which is Ground Zero for Japan’s bear problem, to try and figure out what the heck was going on. How were these bear attacks impacting the community? What were these bears actually like? And what about these rural communities made them so susceptible to bears? Owen came back with answers, and a lot more than that.

It’s August, it’s hot, and everyone is dreaming of some beach time. But it’s not just the dog days of summer that pulls us to the ocean. It has a draw on all of us. Today, to celebrate that draw, we’re replaying one of our favorite episodes. Historian Kevin Dawon, a professor at UC Merced, has been surfing for most of his life and spent his career investigating the rich tradition of African aquatic culture. Dawson is credited with resurfacing the first account of surfing in Africa, from 1640—more than 100 years before Captain Cook’s famed account from Hawaii—and his research centers centuries of oceanic accomplishment by Black communities there and in North America that have been ignored or actively erased. Dawson’s experiences in the waters of Africa, the Caribbean, and his native California bear little resemblance to what many people think of when they hear “surfer,” but they’re drenched in a joy that’s recognizable to anyone who has ever played in the waves.

This week's Long Read, with Outside Magazine Features Editor Fred Drier, follows Owen Clark's journey down the Lower Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon. The trip was notable because it occurred during the river's lowest point of the year. Rather than using traditional rafts, the group used pack rafts—inflatable crafts made to navigate even the lowest streams.

It turns out, that Clark's tour was a harbinger for what a lot of rafting operations faced in the spring and summer months of 2026, when a historically bad snow year led to challenging river conditions across the west.