Empower
The climbers behind the new documentary Finding Michael say the difficulty in searching above 29,000 feet on Everest is why more bodies of lost climbers are not brought home. Released earlier this month, Finding Michael tells the story of Michael Matthews, who summited Everest summit 1999 at the age of 22, becoming the youngest Briton [...]
Most fly fishermen have a hit list of the most difficult fish they want to catch at least once in their lifetimes. Of course, there’s going to be disagreement among anglers on which fish pose the biggest challenge. Factors like size, smarts, strength, the season and obscurity come into play. We asked Harry Ware, a [...]
If you’re lost or in a survival situation, being able to read the weather from nature’s signals helps with many things, such as knowing whether to move or stay put and when to prepare to take shelter or collect rainwater. In his years in the UK Special Forces Reserves, as well as a survivalist, Bear [...]
Bear Grylls knows all about exploring the world’s oceans—he’s undertaken many maritime challenges such as a world-record Atlantic crossing in a RIB—and he’s even been made Honorary Colonel of the Royal Marines. He often talks about how safe drinking water is one of the priorities of survival—higher than finding food—and the irony that survivors of [...]
Blisters. We’ve all had them. You’re just enjoying yourself on the mountain or hiking trail when you feel that nagging little hotspot. Bear Grylls, who has spent most of his life on his feet covering rugged terrain, has come up with some nifty ways of dealing with them—and they must be dealt with. “There’s an [...]
In July 1900, Benton Mackaye climbed a tree at the top of Vermont’s Stratton Mountain. That moment, he would later claim, was the origin of what we now call the Appalachian Trail (A.T.). Decades of planning, trail building, and love for the outdoors have since given us the A.T. in its current form. This singular [...]
As temperatures get warmer around the country, young skiers and boarders dread closing day at their local ski resort. Months of dry-land training, weight lifting and seeing the skis or board collect dust can bring the summer blues for powder hounds of any age. Thankfully around the U.S. and Canada, summer-on-snow ski camps offer young [...]
If Bear Grylls finds himself somewhere remote with a dead vehicle battery, he knows he’s not going to be able to call a 24-hour breakdown service for rescue. That’s why he always brings along a set of jumper cables in any vehicle he uses, and knows how to jump-start a vehicle from another one—including the [...]
We all like to think of camping as an escape to the great outdoors—and it is, of course—but it’s important to not forget that we’re still sharing these spaces with others. That means following a set of rules, both spoken and unspoken, when camping in tents, whether you’re at a popular campground or roughing it [...]
Bear Grylls isn’t only a landlubber when it comes to adventure: He’s crossed the Atlantic Ocean and navigated the Northwest Passage in a tiny inflatable rib, and on Man vs. Wild, he went island-hopping in a small raft in the Pacific Ocean. But of course sea exploration isn’t without risk, and occasionally people end up [...]
