When we’re not outdoors, we get our adventure fix by exploring social media and the web. Here are some of the best adventure links we’ve discovered this week.
Glass-faced Mountain Hut Nests in the Alps: Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled a ground-breaking alpine shelter design for the Italian Alps. The structures will completely veer away from traditional huts with the aim of blending man-made structures with nature.
Built from timber, metal, and aerogel, with a huge glass front that will let users look out at the mountain views, it will be assembled off-site and airlifted into the mountains. The structure will be initially showcased at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, before being later reassembled in the Alps as a lasting refuge for climbers.
An Ode to the Company We Keep on the Water: “If you fly with the crows, you die with the crows,” is a common phrase. Rather than having its normal negative meaning, Scott MacGregor reframes it, thinking about the lifelong bonds he has made with fellow paddlers. He recalls early canoe trips on Ontario’s Madawaska River with his friend James, and how three decades later they’re still paddling together, now with his 20-year-old son. Now they are a pair of “old crows” — still together, and a little bit misunderstood.
Photo: Rob Faubert
A peculiar disappearance
The Missing Kayaker: On August 11, 2024, Ryan Borgwardt went to a church service with his family and then headed to Big Green Lake, Wisconsin. He was going fishing and wanted to see the Perseid meteor shower from the lake. At 5:12 am the next day, his wife raised the alarm. He had not come home.
Jamie Thompson delved into his bizarre disappearance. Rescue teams found his kayak, tackle box, and a life jacket floating on the lake. They searched the waters for months, looking for a body. What began as a presumed tragic drowning soon unraveled into a tale of self-reinvention. He had staged his own death, dumped his belongings into the lake, and fled by inflatable boat and e-bike to Europe, all to start a new life.
What It’s Like to Work at a Luxury Ranch for Celebrities: A full-time wrangler lifts the lid on life working at ultra-luxury dude ranches that host celebrities and influencers in the Wild West. Guests pay up to $5,000 a night for trail rides, mock cattle drives, wine tastings, facials, and sound baths. The guides earn just $25,000 a year, without tips, while working 95-hour weeks in peak season and sleeping in camper homes because they can’t afford rent in the area.
Mt. Whitney. Photo: Shutterstock
Tragedies on Mt. Whitney
Mt. Whitney is Not a Casual Hike: This month, a series of rescue efforts have taken place on Mount Whitney in California. The local search and rescue organization is urging visitors not to underestimate how dangerous the peak can be, even for experienced hikers.
In five days, three hikers had to be airlifted to safety from the Lower 48’s highest peak after two medical emergencies and a fall from the mountain’s “99 Switchbacks” section. This comes just weeks after another climber died in a separate slip on the same section of the trail.
Bothy Bogs — The Art of the Outdoor Toilet: As more people take to the hills around the UK, bothies are becoming more popular, and all their visitors need somewhere to go to the toilet. Sanitation in these remote hill shelters has become a bit of an issue. Most visitors depend on a spade and a bog, but at the more popular shelters, this is creating a minefield of poorly buried toilet paper and poo.
The Mountain Bothies Association is now trying to build simple but carefully engineered toilets, all of which are designed to be low-maintenance, hygienic, and reduce environmental impact.
Loo with a view. Photo: Richard Grummitt
A historic treasure hunt
Cache 23: Inspired by the 1924 voyage of James Critchell-Bullock and John Hornby across the Barren Lands in Canada, Michal Lukaszewicz and his partner, Karolina, set out to retrace their century-old canoe journey. Bullock and Hornby were attempting to capture the first footage of muskoxen. After months, they abandoned a cache containing spools of film and their camera. Lukaszewicz wanted to find the cache left on a small island in the Hanbury River. After weeks of paddling, the pair finally made it to the island. All that was left to do was find the hidden cache.
Go Climb a Rotten Desert Tower With Your Spouse. What Could Go Wrong: Duane Raleigh writes about what it really feels like to climb the crumbly sandstone towers of Arches National Park with your partner — equal parts adventure, misadventure, and relationship stress test. Making it to the top of the soft sandstone spires requires technical effort and patience, both with the wall and your climbing partner.
