On this side of the pond, Olympic coverage will no doubt bring cheesy graphics and hype-pounding drumbeats, but across the Atlantic the BBC has served up an arty, dramatic little promo. Filled with a stark winter world designed by artist Jon Klassen, it features a snow-shredding hero who inhabits a dreamscape of threats in post-modern, rocking-the-gnar fashion. You go, curl…
From the monthly archives:
January 2010
It’s been a point of pride for more than 75 years that the world’s wildest weather lives in the Presidentials atop New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington. If you can’t have the deepest snow, at least New England has the biggest blow, the fastest wind gust ever, 231 mph recorded in 1934. Sorry, Yankees, Australia has wrestled away your title after a panel of experts reviewing extreme weather and climate data turned up a 253 mph gust on Australia’s Barrow Island during Cyclone Olivia in 1996…
“My current work is an exploration of the inherent transience and connectedness of all things,” writes artist Danna Ray. In her ethereal paintings, the connectedness is loose and the transience soft. Fields of colors, indefinite edges, implied landscapes…Ray’s outdoor world is one that tugs at the fuzzy edge of imagination, yet is immediately familiar. “Campfire” [...]
The Ridiculously Cute Side of Winter Science
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Too much of the time, science is computers and labs and statistical analysis, but every once in awhile there comes the payoff: field work. Each winter, biologists from Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife snowmobile into the back woods, dig out bear dens, and run health checks on one of the state’s more charismatic [...]
If you’ve seen any of Nike 6.0’s branding, you’ve seen Adam Haynes’s artwork. The skate brand built much of its early identity around Haynes’s detailed, extravagantly imagined scenes. Well, Fuel TV saw the brilliance in his illustrations and commissioned him to put his line-drawn world into motion as a short promo for the channel.>>>
How the French Get to Become French
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God love the French. Without them, we wouldn’t have glisse, ski extreme, and ski running avalanches on Mt. Blanc. If you’ve ever wondered where that complete disregard for personal safety, that joyous embrace of polychromatic ski costumes, well, now, at long last, the mystery is revealed how the French get to be so…French. These mini-flicks come courtesy of the French Olympic committee. Vive!>>>
Parkour Art That Might Be Cooler Than Parkour Itself
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Everybody knows what parkour is, right? The street sport that combines urban gymnastics with the forward motion of a drug dealer being chased by the cops? Well, here’s parkour like you’ve never seen it. Serene Teh is a graphic design student in Singapore who put this clever animation together for a class assignment. It took her four weeks to complete–two weeks of planning, two weeks of execution. If she doesn’t get an A, we’re gonna have to track down the professor…>>>
What if you could take a ski lesson from Bode Miller or Lindsey Vonn? Or get surfing tips from Kelly Slater? Well, if you’re into ski photography, for the first time you can take a workshop with the very best. When I was at Powder, we called Scott Markewitz “The Terminator”. No one we knew worked harder, was more prolific, or had so much success. So far, Markewitz has seen his photos published on the covers of more than 350 ski magazines. Some perspective here, people: 350 published photos would make a career for most ski photographers. We’re talking covers, the toughest page in the magazine. 3. Hundred. Fitty.>>>
Last week, a young mother walked into Haiti’s Hôpital Sacré Coeur with a five-month-old boy in her arms. The baby had a tumor the size of a grapefruit on his head. It was a potentially dicey situation under the best of circumstances, but particularly so in Haiti, where even before the earthquake medical facilities were, by U.S. standards, under-equipped. The doctor, a surgeon from the States named Albert Fleury, wasn’t sure how to operate—it was an unusual case and he wanted a second opinion. Without access to an MRI or CAT scans, he had to improvise, snapping pictures of the baby’s X-rays with his digital camera to email to a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. But this was Haiti—the internet connection was down. Improvisation, level two: He grabbed pictures with his Blackberry and trusted the images to the cell network.>>>
An area of sea ice larger than the state of Rhode Island detached from Antarctica’s Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf this week and broke into many smaller pieces. The long, narrow tongue seen in these satellite images is called fast ice–it’s sea ice held fast to the land. Its breakup is part of the regular cycle of ice formation and disintegration as summer comes to the south. NASA, which captured these very cool images, says that the ice will eventually reattach itself. >>>
The Killing School is Where Orcas Learn to Hunt
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Peninsula Valdez in Argentinian Patagonia is the only place in the world where orcas beach themselves in pursuit of sea lion pups. Now, after years of settling for the smaller animals, the orcas are going for bigger, more dangerous game: elephant seal pups. Captured in a new National Geographic documentary, “Orca Killing School” shows how the orcas pass their unique hunting strategy down to their offspring–and go after the supersize meals.>>>
French freeskier Candide Thovex parachuted into this week’s 2010 Red Bull Linecatcher competition in Vars, France, and once again schooled the field. Unless you speak French and are a Thovex junkie, you won’t want to watch this entire vid, but the first 20 seconds that show his mind-blowing line are sooo worth checking out. And yes, he stomped it, taking the title ahead of Sean Pettit and C.R. Johnson.>>>
Last month, I was invited to speak about accessible adventure to a group of high-level online marketing execs. Judging by the number of people who came up to me afterward to share their adventure dreams and experiences, the hunger for adventure is universal–as is the challenge of finding it in your daily life. On a similar vein, about a year ago Patagonia launched the Backyard Adventure contest for folks to tell how they were welcoming adventure to the neighborhood, and just it few days ago it received a marvelous entry from Jason Albert in Bend, Oregon, in the form of a slideshow.>>>
It’s never to early too think about people will say at your funeral. It’s never too early because once that moment arrives it’s too late to do anything about it. Now is the time to live the life that leaves a mark. And if this sounds like a gloomy way to start a piece of writing–thinking about the end–it’s meant to be just the opposite. Considering what they’re gonna say after you’re gone has a rather acute way of focusing your efforts in the here and now.>>>
A couple months ago, I came across the video of Small Black’s “Despicable Dogs”. It revolves around a late 40s, 50-something surfer named Matt, the uncle of band member Josh Kolenik, and I can’t get it out of my head. Or I should say, I can’t get him out of my head.>>>
Telluride Contest Has a Winner: Home-Made Video Grabs the Loot
8 Days of Climbing + 10 Pounds of Tequila = New 1,100-Foot Tepui Route
The Gallery of the OIdest Living Things in the World
60-Second Expert: How to Make a Skiing Kick Turn
And the Oscar For Best Use of Sheep Goes To…
Clothes Make the Man…And They Make A Difference for Nepal’s Women
Surviving A Massive Earthquake and Tsunami: What It Feels Like
Waves That Will Make You Say ‘Hurry Up, Summer’
The New Snow Test That Could Save Your Life
Earth’s Day Shortened, Axis Tilted By Chile Earthquake
The Greenest Job? Might Be Professional Tree Climber
60-Second Expert: The Right Way to Clean Your Goggles
Before There Was The Hurricane, There Was the Double Daffy
Time Lapse of the Milky Way over Hawaii
Al Gore: The Truth, Even With Mistakes, Is Still Inconvenient
