Connoisseurs of roller coasters know that rides feel wilder at night. In the dark, our brains stop receiving the visual cues that help us stay balanced, so movement feels destabilizing enough that most of us teeter like drunkards whenever we simply close our eyes. But wobbling through life felt like defeat to Brenda Mosby, who…
Jake Lah, the founder of DAC Poles, may dislike camping—but his genius with aluminum has turned him into the wizard behind many of the world’s best outdoor shelters. Walking into Dongah Aluminum Corporation (DAC) feels like stepping inside the lobby of a grand hotel: The soaring two-story ceiling creates plenty of space around the large-scale…
The multi-tool as we know it didn’t exist before Tim Leatherman invented foldable pliers—and that was just the beginning. Like microbreweries and chocolate shops, the Leatherman factory in Portland, Oregon, offers public tours. Visitors come to watch silver ribbons of steel cut into intricate shapes by a massive press that booms like a giant’s footsteps,…
The High Lonesome Ranch in western Colorado is big enough to be a national park, but its owners, led by Paul Vahldiek Jr., don’t take their cues from the government. Instead, they’ve developed a unique approach to land management that could revolutionize the conservation movement for both private and public open spaces. The field looks…
An all-female team takes on the world at the Los Sueños Triple Crown The Pacific Ocean parted obligingly before Geaux Fly on that January afternoon as Amanda Sabin stood at the stern, scanning Costa Rica’s indigo plain for fish that refused to rise. These waters off Los Sueños are famous for their primordial numbers of…
Avalanche forecasting pioneer Art Judson doesn’t just study these powerful snow slides–he worships them. Now that’s a beautiful avalanche path,” said Art Judson as he gazed at the wallpaper on his computer, which depicted Hahns Peak split by a broad white stripe. It was 2007, shortly after I’d first met Jud, as his friends and…
This article was a finalist for a 2016 Maggie Award for Best Feature. A tragic crash during a slopestyle competition last winter left Kailyn Forsberg physically shattered. Now, it’s up to the Eagle teen to rearrange the pieces of her fractured life and figure out who she is—and what she may become. At dawn on…
For Vail skiing prodigy and Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin, success can’t come fast enough. Adulthood, though–that can wait. There’s a section on Vail’s Golden Peak course that even good racers dread. It’s a steep rollover, usually covered with thick ice, that melts into a treacherous dip in the slope. Coach Simon Marsh remembers standing…
This article was a finalist for a 2014 Maggie Award for Best Profile. You may not recognize her face yet, but if this Eagle-Vail teenager slaloms to gold at Sochi, her superstar status will rival Lindsey Vonn’s. Meet Mikaela Shiffrin, the girl next door who just might be America’s best skier. Ever. “Give me some…