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.
The Director of ‘Apex’ Reveals How He Shot Realistic Climbing Scenes: Baltasar Kormakur, who directed Everest in 2015, has done another climbing film. He set out to avoid making climbing look ridiculous, as Hollywood often does. (Here, Alex Honnold reviews a few of those films.)
Kormakur pushed his cast and crew to replicate everything from free soloing to big-wall techniques as authentically as possible. He describes some scenes as “sickening” to shoot because of how real they were.
He worked closely with climber Beth Rodden to train the stars of the film and prioritized small details such as climbing movements, gear use, and body positioning so that the film’s gripping moments come from realism rather than over-the-top melodrama.
Humans Who Used a Bear Suit to Defraud Car Insurers Jailed: Three California residents have been jailed after engineering an elaborate insurance scam by staging “bear attacks” on their own luxury cars, complete with video evidence of the supposed bear rummaging through the vehicles. The scheme initially worked, garnering $140,000 in payouts, but the illusion unraveled when investigators noticed inconsistencies. They brought in a wildlife expert, who quickly determined the “bear” was just a person in a costume.
The bear suit used for the insurance scam. Photo: California Department of Insurance
Four days, six rescues
Several Hikers Rescued in Four Days From the Same Mountains: Six hikers got into trouble in just four days in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and needed rescue. One became disoriented after worsening weather pushed him off the trail. A group of three needed assistance after icy conditions slowed their progress, and they became lost as night fell. Days later, extreme wind and cold hit two teenagers on Mount Washington. One suffered a leg injury.
A common thread emerged: Relatively routine hikes escalated into emergencies when snow, wind, and freezing temperatures caught unprepared hikers off guard.
Mystery Climber Summits The Sphere in Las Vegas: Videos and images of a climber scaling the massive Las Vegas Sphere in broad daylight have gone viral. Onlookers filmed the surreal climb and wondered whether it was a stunt gone rogue.
It turns out the climb was neither accident nor protest, but part of a film project called From the Edge, which captures elite athletes performing extreme feats for the venue’s immersive screen. While unconfirmed, all signs point to Alex Honnold as the building soloist, given that he’s the only climber involved in the project.
That guy climbing the Sphere the other day (being filmed by a helicopter) was apparently Alex Honnold. pic.twitter.com/25k3CsgoqK
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) April 16, 2026
Training to overcome fear
Training Confidence Without Terrifying Yourself: Building confidence in climbing isn’t about pushing yourself into overwhelming situations. It is managing the tricky balance between risk and control so your head doesn’t sabotage your performance.
Sam Davies breaks this concept into practical mental strategies to help climbers build confidence and progress. He distinguishes between useful fear and the kind that holds you back. He advises using visualization and simple cues to override negative thought spirals. Gradually exposing yourself to scary scenarios, such as taking controlled falls to prove they’re manageable, is another technique. He believes that confidence is something you intentionally train for.
More Than Two Wheels: Adam Gaines and Henna Palosaari set out to bike-and-surf their way across Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. The dream of ferry hopping from island to island, cycling the 300km coastline, and surfing along the way quickly came crashing down.
Relentless winds and storms, and the realities of moving with both boards and bikes, turned the trip into an almost stubborn pursuit of little moments. Waiting out storms, chasing brief windows of rideable surf, and navigating rough terrain hindered progress. It taught them that sometimes the experience is less about distance and destinations than embracing the unpredictability of a place where wind and sea dictate everything.
Close Call: A routine paddle turned into a near-fatal lesson when a sudden capsize plunged Frank Bures into freezing water. An experienced canoeist and swimmer, Bures had never capsized before. The experience quickly revealed to him how small the margin for error is.
The cold shock hit instantly, breathing became difficult, and his strength in the water faded far faster than expected. The only aim became getting out of the water as quickly as possible. Just as he realized he wouldn’t make it to shore, two canoeists appeared out of nowhere and pulled him to safety. The incident haunted all three of them for months.
