With rich history, a flourishing, creative food scene and close proximity to outdoor adventure, Providence, Rhode Island should be at the top of your list for summer getaways this year. Explore what to see, do and eat in this New England city, according to a Rhode Island native.
Bavaria has the world’s most perfect snowflakes. If you hold out your mitten while hiking, you’ll have to do a double-take to make sure you haven’t accidentally collected tiny glass flakes carved by an artist.
Everywhere you look, there is storybook perfection in the shadow of Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain, amid an outdoor culture a bit different from our own. You will, of course, find the stunning vistas you imagine when you think of the Alps: tree branches sagging under the weight of snow, castles jutting out of mountainsides, fog that adds an air of mystery to it all. But, you’ll also often find creature comforts we don’t associate with hiking.
Read the full story, sponsored by Deuter, at Backpacker.com.
One day in July 2017, the shake machine, which tests water resistant properties of hydrophobic down, had been going for 2,000 minutes. Samantha Lee, a then 21-year-old intern at bulk down supplier Sustainable Down Source (SDS), knew she was onto something. So far, the test results indicated that 33 hours of rain wouldn’t rob the feathers, which had been treated with a eco-friendly Durable Water Repellent (DWR), of their insulating properties.
Read the full story at OutsideOnline.com.
On a Thursday night in Boulder, hundreds of outdoor enthusiasts crowd into crooked rows of metal folding chairs amid shelves of shoes, racks of sleeping bags, and a wall modeled after Eldorado Canyon and the Flatirons. They’ve paid $5 to watch a screening of Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey, drink free beer, and get a chance at some Patagonia swag being raffled off.
Three years after the Camber CEO Pledge, outdoor companies still struggle to find and hire female leaders. The gap is slowly closing, but the lack of focus on hiring women of color is clearer than ever.
I have terrible feet. I did not know this until last fall, when I found out that some persistent heel pain was actually plantar fasciitis, which I didn’t even know you could get if you weren’t a runner. Turns out, I’ve also been wearing terrible shoes.
Around this time, I was planning a monthlong trip to Europe, where I knew I’d constantly be on my feet. I started looking at lists of travel shoes and was disappointed to find espadrilles, heels, ballet flats, and sneakers—nothing that was a do-it-all kind of shoe. I wanted to pack one pair, not seven. So I set out to find the best shoes for the traveler who wants to bring one or maybe two pairs on any adventure abroad.
I didn’t quite find the single “unicorn” pair of shoes I was looking for, but I did get pretty darn close. Here are the best, rated on a scale of one to five horns, where one is a one-trick pony and five is a magical, versatile unicorn.
If you’re looking for a place to escape—and I mean truly escape—for Valentine’s Day, this is it.
Budgeting is a bear. It can seem daunting, depressing, and like a lot of hard work. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are five road-tested ways you can save and spend better in 2018.
I was commissioned to write this sponsored piece for Backpacker.com and Climbing.com.
Think about the most important object you own. How old is this thing? Who gave it to you?
It might be a pocketknife with a worn leather sheath, well-loved over years of DIY tent fixes and whittling sticks for marshmallow toasting. It might be a pair of your mom’s old hiking boots that you adopted and resoled after she hiked the AT. Or it might be a wallet your dad passed down to you when you were old enough to start adventuring on your own.
Whatever it is, it’s been durable enough to withstand years of memories. It might even be older than you.
Outdoor heirlooms like that are harder to come by now, in an age of mass production where “more” often beats “better.”
“Products are made to fail these days,” says Mark King, founder of Trayvax, which makes wallets, belts, and lanyards. “Products today are made of plastic, and they’re made to break. They never last long enough to take on meaning.”
When you think "adventure travel," Tuscany, Italy is probably not the first place that comes to mind. It might not even be the last place that comes to mind. Even though it's one of the world's premier destinations for food, wine, art and history, somehow the secret isn't yet out that it's a great place for outdoor adventure, too.
Here's why Tuscany should be your next adventure travel destination.
Read the full story at Travel Channel.
You’ve no doubt heard of all the benefits merino wool has to offer, and you can likely recite them from memory. You’ve probably even have merino socks or baselayers in your closet. But llama wool? That’s not something you see every day.
Cotopaxi’s Libre Sweater has three key features that set it apart from other wool midlayers: First, it’s made entirely of llama wool. Second, it has wide perforations on the back, which open enough that whatever you are (or aren’t) wearing underneath shows through. And third, Cotopaxi actively discourages washing it.
We all know Tuscany, Italy, has great food and wine. But did you know there's great outdoor adventure there, too? Here's just a taste of what you'll find throughout the region.
For someone like me who often lets speed get in the way of planning, easy food options eat up my budget, fast. Sometimes, I end up spending $40 or more on lunch and snacks in a single week. I always feel guilty for it.
So when my editor here at Earnest challenged me to eat for a whole week at Trader Joe’s with $50, I was up for it. It seemed like a good way to keep from spending too much money, and a good way to force me to plan ahead a little better and eat much healthier.
The Blue Lagoon might be the most well-known hot spring in the entire world. But if solitude and nature are what you're looking for, you're not likely to find it there. Check out these other spas and natural springs on and off Iceland's Ring Road for a more serene adventure.
Read the whole story at TravelChannel.com.
It was a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon in Boulder, Colorado, and I wanted two things: a hammock in the shade and ice cream.
But there was a catch. Any bum can laze away a day in the backyard; I wanted those hallmarks of summer in a killer creekside spot tucked away in quiet woods.
At the end of the ninth switchback of Old Rag, I sat on a rock to drink in the view as I nibbled on fruit leather. I talked for a little while with a woman who seemed to be about my age. I don’t remember anything that we said, but I remember being fulfilled by it. We would never see each other again, but the kind pleasantries we exchanged mid-gruel were enough.
We each, on our own, were enough.
If you think of small piles of sand on the beach when you hear “dunes,” you’re missing out. These massive sand mountains around the U.S. are worth taking a few vacation days.
Outside the outdoor industry, in cities where people wear dress shoes to work and their blazers are blazers, not technical jackets in disguise, “dirtbag” is a dirty word. It’s an insult not taken kindly.
But here, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, it’s a badge of honor and authenticity. It’s a word you might use to describe the roots of Big Agnes, which has expanded so quickly since its founding in 2001 that it has outgrown building after building, creating a sprawling campus, of sorts, of commercial spaces and houses converted into shops and offices. Late last year, the brand moved to consolidate into a building that will accommodate the majority of its staff members. People who had typically communicated via phone and email, even though they were working just a few minutes away in the same small town, are now mostly all in the same location, which will increase the efficiency of an already well-run machine.
