Any avid 国产吃瓜黑料 reader should have The Ten聽Essentials etched into their memory. The venerable list of items that every hiker should take with them into the backcountry pays equal weight to insulation, fire-starters, and, of course tools. There are very few problems you’ll encounter in the wilderness where your tool of choice isn’t a knife. But what鈥檚 the best knife for the outdoors?

While I own dozens of options, the one I reach for most often is simple, small, and relatively affordable. My knife of choice is the Esee-3HM.聽Let鈥檚 talk about how you can find the knife that works for you.

What Kinds of Knives Work Best Outdoors?

Perhaps we should phrase the question like this: What tasks do you need a knife for on your next camping trip or hike? You might need to cut cordage so you can lash a shelter down in high wind. You might need to break down dead wood, to access its dry interior and start a fire. You might need to whittle a stick, to use as an extra tent peg or to roast a hot dog. If you鈥檙e fishing or hunting, you might need to remove聽guts or skin.

For general outdoors use, a knife is a tool for mights and maybes. If you鈥檙e planning to focus on a specific activity鈥攕ay catching a fish鈥攜ou might pack a specific tool like a filet knife. But if you鈥檙e just spending time outside, you鈥檒l want to carry a knife capable of any task you might encounter.

So that鈥檚 what an outdoors knife is鈥攐ne you can use for any task you might encounter outdoors.

What About Survival Knives?

In my opinion, the term “survival” has been co-opted by people trying to sell you a fantasy, rather than a useful tool matched to realistic needs. A good knife should be strong, sharp, and reliable. What you probably don’t need is the added weight and bulk a compass, fishing line storage, or saw teeth.

If you do find yourself in a survival scenario鈥攕ay you鈥檝e gotten lost and night is falling鈥攖he general-purpose nature of an outdoors blade is going to work better at getting a fire going or cutting pine boughs to sleep on than something purpose built for slicing open Those other features just get in the way.

Why Not Carry a Multitool?

I get the appeal of toting a Leatherman or other all-in-one tool. With multiple tools and functions, it鈥檚 easy to think a multitool or Swiss Army knife might be more versatile tool. Here’s why it鈥檚 not.

Away from a Phillips-head screwdriver and can opener, the tool you鈥檙e going to find yourself using most often outdoors is a knife blade. And while yes, multitools and Swiss Army Knives聽do tend to include one of those, they鈥檙e usually small and of poor quality. Even if you do find a multitool with a good blade鈥攍ike the new Leatherman Arc鈥攖hat鈥檚 still going to fall short of most real knives for two reasons: 1) the handle will be uncomfortable and 2) it鈥檒l be subject to failure.

It鈥檚 for those reasons that I carry a small multitool in addition to a real knife.

Can You Carry a Folding Pocket Knife?

Folding knives are far more prone to failure than fixed blades because of the mechanism that allows them to collapse.

That failure can be non-mission critical鈥攖he pivot can fill up with dirt and stop working. Or, should a locking mechanism break or come loose, that failure could cause the blade to slam shut on your hand, leading to significant injury. More commonly, folding knives just break in half if you try to use one to split firewood, leaving you without the tool you need to finish the job.

A fixed-blade, with no moving parts, is the better option as a result.

How Long of a Blade Do You Need?

Longer blades span larger pieces of wood, enabling you to more efficiently split those apart. The additional weight that comes with longer blades may also make them easier to chop with, although a knife is not the best tool for that job. Get a hatchet.

The shorter a knife鈥檚 blade is, the easier it is to carry and control.

My compromise on blade length: while holding the handle, I try to reach the tip of the blade with my index finger. I like that length because I hunt, and being able to cover the blade鈥檚 tip with my finger means I can reach inside a chest cavity, feel for the windpipe, and sever that without poking holes in other organs while I鈥檓 in there. But you’ll find this to be a good rule of thumb鈥攐r index鈥攆or judging a knife to be easy to carry and convenient to employ.

Consider the Handle

As I mentioned at the top, my knife of choice is an . That combines a 3.63-inch blade with a thin handle which terminates at the base of the blade without any obstructions. You can really choke your hand all the way up into the choil (the finger shaped cutout behind the edge) for jobs where you need fine control.

That handle is made from linen micarta, a resin-impregnated fabric layup that leaves the end of the threads exposed. It鈥檚 virtually indestructible, but feels soft to the touch, and provides good grip while wearing gloves or barehanded, wet or dry.

The slim, elongated handle also facilitates comfort and security across all types of grip. The knife feels natural and comfortable any way you hold it.

The Importance of Blade Shape, Thickness, and Grind

Wonky blades that are shaped to cut only in certain directions, to protect their point while penetrating, or to work best while slicing, prioritize performance in those tasks over general utility. Try to split a log with some zanily-shaped knife and you鈥檒l quickly become frustrated. Instead, look for a blade where the edge falls away from the tip in a generous sweep, then continues back toward the handle in a straight line. That shape will be the most versatile.

Recently, I’ve noticed a trend in the market toward very chunky blades, measuring a quarter inch or more in thickness. This is done for looks, not utility. A knife is not a pry bar; it is a cutting tool. The thicker a blade is the harder time it鈥檒l have slicing through whatever it is you want to cut. The Esee-3HM鈥檚 one-eighth-inch thickness is ideal, lending the tool strength without getting in the way of the job at hand.

A blade is thinnest at its edge and thickest at its spine. Getting there in a straight line鈥攆orming a simple wedge shape鈥攊s the strongest arrangement and is very practical for splitting wood. Blades that feature a wide wedge terminating at a point below the spine won鈥檛 slice as well. Ones that use a concave shape from the edge to spine prioritize slicing performance over splitting.

What Makes a Knife Strong?

Look for a knife where the handle material is bolted to the outside of the blade鈥檚 steel, forming a place for your hands only. Knives where the handle continues rearwards beyond the steel can see the handle and blade separate under hard use, or after exposure to weather and chemicals.

What鈥檚 the Best Steel for Knives?

The variety of steel used to construct a knife, and the way in which it is forged, quenched, and treated, determine qualities like edge retention, ease of sharpening, chip and rust resistance, and even how fine of an edge is achievable at a microscopic level.

Because a sharp knife is also the safest and most useful knife, I try to prioritize ease of sharpening in blades I intend to carry outdoors. High carbon steels are generally good at that, even if they do tend to get rusty and tarnished. Esee鈥檚 1095 steel is a proven performer, and also can be found at reasonable prices. The knife I’m using throughout this article retails for about $130.

Spend a little more on fancier blade steels like Magnacut for blades you plan to carry more than use. You鈥檒l appreciate rust-resistance in a folding knife riding in a sweaty pocket.

Don鈥檛 Overlook this Crucial Factor

A knife needs to be sharp. A sharp knife will require less force to use, reducing the odds of an accident. A sharp knife will also cause less damage to the medium being cut, and be easier to use.

I do not carry a field sharpener, instead preferring the ease of use offered by . Keeping knives touched up on that sharpener only takes a few seconds, and bringing a knife back from dull just requires a few minutes. Making sure my Esee has a razor鈥檚 edge before heading into the field has proven vital, as the blade stays useable even on trips lasting two weeks or more.

Wes Siler got his first knife in Cub Scouts, and has carried one nearly every day ever since. , where he explores the intersection of outdoor skills and the politics of the great outdoors.

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The Trump Administration is eliminating a 2024 rule that places environmental protection on par with mining, ranching, and timber cutting on lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.

On April 14 the White House about its intent to rescind the , also called the Public Lands Rule.

The rule, which was formally published on June 12, 2024, requires the BLM to “support ecosystem health and resilience” and “protect landscapes, restore degraded habitat, and make informed management decisions based on science and data.” The rule allows the BLM to lease land to non-profit organizations for the sole purpose of restoration and conservation.

国产吃瓜黑料 reached out to the U.S. Interior Department for comment, and a media representative confirmed that the Bureau of Land Management will rescind the Public Lands Rule.

The move has generated praise from some state officials and harsh criticism from non-profit groups that work in land management and environmental protection.

The Bureau of Land Management oversees 245 million acres of land in the American West, or roughly one tenth of the country’s entire landmass. According to the , which creates the framework for modern public lands management, the BLM should administer public lands “on the basis of multiple use and sustained yield” of resources.

When it was published in 2024, the Public Lands Rule drew immediate criticism from some lawmakers. In June, 2024, lawmakers in to repeal the rule, arguing that it “represents a sea change in how the BLM will carry out its mission moving forward.”

“The Public Lands Rule is a classic example of a solution looking for a problem,” Utah governor Spencer Cox said at the time.

In February of 2025, senators in both Utah and Wyoming introduced the Western Economic Security Today Act鈥攁 law that would repeal the Public Lands Rule. Republican senator a “radical rule that threatens our Wyoming way of life.”

On Thursday, April 17, the Utah Attorney General that the Utah is “thrilled” about the Trump Administration’s move to rescind the rule.

“This rule could keep Utahns off public lands and would employ a museum-type management approach,” he said. “You can look, but you can’t touch.”

But several non-profit groups that focus on ecology and environmental protection hit back at the decision. In a public statement, Alison Flint, senior legal director for the nonprofit group The Wilderness Society called the move “a blatant giveaway to industry.”

“Public lands belong to all of us, and they should not be cast off to the highest bidder,” Flint said. “With last week鈥檚 directive, the president is putting himself above the law and planning to slash the safeguards that protect wildlife, clean air and water and the communities that depend on them.”

A statement from the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a nonprofit representing communities that hunt and fish, pointed out that the Public Lands Rule was published after the general public was allowed to submit comments both for and against it. The White House’s did not allow the public to comment prior to its decision to repeal it.

鈥淭he notion that the administration may intend to move forward unilaterally without following any public engagement process is deeply troubling,鈥� said Kaden McArthur, director of policy and government relations for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, in a statement. 鈥淭he Public Lands Rule reflects years of work, including extensive input from stakeholders, to ensure the long-term health of the landscapes we rely on for healthy fish and wildlife habitat.

Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for environmental protection, levied harsh criticism at Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who has spoken publicly about wanting to open public lands up for agriculture, industry, and energy exploration.

“Doug Burgum often invokes President Theodore Roosevelt鈥檚 conservation legacy as a model for his own tenure as Secretary of the Interior,” Bloch said. “Teddy Roosevelt is rolling over in his grave at both the comparison and Burgum鈥檚 ever-darkening legacy over the nation鈥檚 public lands.”

The post This Rule Boosted Public Land Protection. The Feds Are Removing It. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

When I start planning a camping or backpacking trip, I think a lot about risk. What kind of equipment do I need to stay dry? To stay warm or cool? I think about having fun, but I also attempt to mitigate聽disaster. As a bit of an obsessive, I spend a lot of time contemplating聽what could go wrong in the hopes of having my time outdoors go without incident.

So, I took a deep dive into data around accidents in national parks and other public lands nationwide, to figure out where the real risks lie. This data can be hard to track, as many injured people treat themselves, or receive first aid from a friend or family member, or transport themselves for treatment at a hospital. Unlike fatality reports, much data is lost in the process.

What Does the Data Say?

A study conducted in 2003 , who鈥檇 been hiking for at least seven days. They were asked to complete a questionnaire around factors like injuries, and illnesses, along with practical measures they鈥檇 taken to avoid those things. That sounds like the kind of data that should be relevant to any of us going backpacking this summer.

The results? The most common cause of injury was blisters to the feet, followed by sore joints. The most frequent medical complaint was diarrhea. Filtering water, practicing good hygiene, and cleaning cooking implements correlated with avoiding that complaint. 24 percent of respondents reported tick bites.

Here are the myths and facts of water filtration. And tick bites are just as easy to avoid as E. Coli. Wearing appropriate clothing and taking advantage of modern chemical treatments can seriously reduce the odds of picking one up.

Where鈥檚 the juicy stuff, I wondered? I wanted聽to read about grizzly bear maulings and hiking poles being surgically removed from groins. A study from 2007 looked at . Surely Yellowstone, with its large predators and geothermal activity will deliver something gruesome.

In a two-year period, Yellowstone鈥檚 EMS responded to 306 injuries that generated records reviewed by the study. In 59.2 percent of those cases, victims were able to be treated at the scene, and did not require transportation to a medical facility. 77.4 percent of incidents involved soft tissue lacerations鈥攃uts鈥攐nly 8.8 percent involved a broken bone.

But what if you do encounter a grizzly while visiting Yellowstone? It turns out the bear spray that’s become the accepted answer is more of a placebo used to prevent tourists from carrying guns than it is a realistically capable tool. Fortunately there’s some very easy advice that’s statistically proven to deliver better results.

A larger study . It found that EMS responded to 45.9 injuries per million park visits. This is a substantially lower rate than that of, say, annual emergency department visits per-million people in the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But that鈥檚 an imperfect comparison. People exist in the world 365 days out of the year. The average visit duration across the national park system is 7.44 hours.

That study found that 43 percent of EMS activations park service-wide involved simple first aid.聽 29 percent were in response to medical emergencies like heart attacks. Only 28 percent of activations involved traumas.

It seems it鈥檚 hard to find juicy data around gruesome injuries in national parks simply because, relative to the outside world, there just aren鈥檛 that many.

A study published in 2009 by Wilderness and Environmental Medicine studies . It found there were an average of 4,090 each year. The purpose of that study was to compare cost to efficacy, not to tabulate causations. Of all 65,439 SAR operations studied, the rescued victims were neither ill nor injured in 51,541 cases. In those cases, victims were likely lost, unable to return to a trailhead, or feared exposure. Activities requiring rescue correspond to those most likely to result in death in the main park service data set鈥攈iking and boating. The study found that 13,211 people would have died without SAR intervention; these operations are saving more people than the total number of deaths across parks every year.

What About Deaths in National Parks?

If you’re curious about deaths, the most complete set of data comes from the National Park Service. A a single, nationwide agency responsible for the safety of hundreds of millions of annual visitors, NPS collects more data around human behavior in the outdoors than any other entity I know. Its most complete set of data comes from human fatalities, since those are the subject of significant reporting and investigation.

Looking at for causations, we can see data like this:

Out of all deaths in national parks, intentional causes (suicides and homicides), medical causes, and undetermined (which are likely a mix of the first two categories) make up 50 percent of all fatalities. Unintentional causes鈥攁ccidents鈥攎ake up the other half.

This data set runs from 2014 to 2019. Of those accidental deaths, the most common cause was motor vehicle crashes, followed by drowning, next come falls. These causes likely sound a lot less dramatic than you鈥檇 expect for places with mountains and bears. And they get even less dramatic when you dig into them. The largest group likely to drown in national parks are men aged 45-54, and the most common cause of those is boating accidents. The U.S. Coast Guard says alcohol is a factor in . Falls, too, involve fairly mundane circumstances. Many more of those occur while hiking rather than climbing, and most of the locations where people get into trouble are established hiking trails.

Deaths in national parks are also rare. Between 2014 and 2019, a total of 1,080 unintentional deaths occurred across the entire national park system. That鈥檚 out of 1.9 billion visits. You鈥檙e several times less likely to die while visiting a national park than you are to win the Powerball jackpot.

The odds of any particular type of accidental death skew heavily between individual parks, too. Most of those boating deaths occur in National Recreation Areas (which are managed by the park service and involve big bodies of water like Lake Mead). 39 people drowned there between 2014 and 2019. The park with the highest incidents of motor vehicle deaths was Great Smokey Mountains National Park, where people visit to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. Distractions鈥攍ooking at the views鈥攁re a major factor.

Visiting a national park, or recreating outdoors, remains very safe, despite the fact that these activities differ from our normal, daily behavior. Humans tend to experience a normalcy bias, where we perceive rare stuff to be much more dangerous than things much more statistically likely to kill us, so long as we do that more dangerous stuff more regularly. All that鈥檚 to say: If you want to avoid death and injury outdoors this summer, drive safely.

Wes Siler splits time between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. You can read his travel guidance and insights to both places on .

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The mountains are muddy (or still socked in with snow), it鈥檚 raining in the woods, and rivers are about to overflow their banks with runoff. Winter has felt long this year, and you’re probably itching to spend some time in the sun, and maybe go on a camping trip. But where can you find comfort and solitude in this transitional time of year? The desert, of course. Here鈥檚 how to plan your first trip鈥攁nd make it a success.

Why The Desert?

Isn鈥檛 the desert just sand, rocks, and scrub? Only in movies and TV shows. Deserts support abundant, diverse plant and animal life that can’t be found anywhere else, provide speculator views, and offer a vast landscape free of other people. Deserts are also full of attractions like ghost towns, waterfalls, oases, rivers, hot springs and beaches. In short: all the ingredients necessary for an epic weekend outdoors.

And while deserts are incredibly fragile ecosystems, they鈥檙e also typically managed by the most lenient rules and agencies. So long as you鈥檙e able to be responsible and self-sufficient, you鈥檙e free to visit and enjoy them as you see fit.

But don’t forget: visiting the desert, and doing it well, is typically going to involve driving on unpaved surfaces, hiking or recreating in unforgiving temperatures, and doing all that a long way away from other people, which exponentially increases your consequences should something go wrong.

The solution to safely and responsibly visiting the desert lies in preparation. Let鈥檚 look at some different destinations, then I’ll walk you through how you can best prepare for them.

Somewhere in Idaho. Note the truck serving as a wind break for both the tent and fire. (Photo: Wes Siler)

For First Time Campers: Joshua Tree National Park

Home to many organized campgrounds (you must book ahead), accessible by paved roads, along with the (now somewhat reduced) presence of park rangers to fall back on should you need help, California’s Joshua Tree National Park聽is easy to visit and enjoy.

Things To Do: The park offers incredibly accessible traditional climbing and bouldering. So if you鈥檙e looking to take your ascents out of the gym for the first time, Joshua Tree is a great place to learn the ropes. More experienced climbers will enjoy the slab and steep crack climbing challenges.

J-Tree is home to great hiking. 国产吃瓜黑料‘s聽National Parks columnist, Graham Averill, assembled a list of 11 of the best just last December. The park also offers backcountry camping for backpackers prepared to venture into the desert on foot鈥攋ust make sure you book a permit in advance.

Joshua Tree’s ease of access will allow you to relax and enjoy time outdoors. You can birdwatch, listen to coyotes howl, spot rattlesnakes, and enjoy some of the best stargazing in Southern California.

What To Watch Out For: . Watch out for rattlesnakes, which tend to hide out during the heat of the day, but get more active at night. A lot of visitors get into trouble by venturing off-pavement in inappropriate vehicle or on inadequate tires. Bring at least one gallon of water per-person, per-day.

Make Sure You Bring: WAG bags. Should you encounter reduced bathroom services, prepare聽to poop and pack it out on your own. This can be done simply using hand sanitizer, a roll of toilet paper, and doggie bags combined with a (black!) trash bag to toss them into.

For New Off-Roaders: The Old Mojave Road

Bought聽your first 4×4 and want to test its mettle? Not far from Joshua Tree lies California’s聽Mojave National Preserve, and following old wagon tracks through it will take you far away from other people, but within an easy drive from Los Angeles or Las Vegas.

Things To Do: Make sure your navigation devices work without聽cell reception, then air down your tires and hit the sand. Look for lava tubes and explore the vast emptiness of the Mojave Desert.

What To Watch Out For: Following rain, the water crossing on the route鈥檚 north side can get deep enough to flood your vehicle. Know the height of your truck鈥檚 air intake, make sure all your traction aids are switched on, and proceed with extreme caution. Exercise the care you should any time you鈥檙e off-road, sticking to the trails, avoiding damage to plants, and packing out anything you bring in, including human waste.

Make Sure You Bring: An air compressor, an air down tool, a tire repair kit, and a matching spare should be considered essential. An extra five gallons of gas will be nice to have.

For Hot Springers: Guadalupe Canyon Oasis

A 50-mile drive south of the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Mexicali, is managed by a friendly family that provides private sites, each with its own natural-spring fed tub, plunge, or swimming pool. This is a perfect first destination for the Baja-curious. The drive into the oasis is easy and accessible to vehicles as basic as economy crossovers.

Things To Do: In addition to soaking, check out hikes to view indigenous cave art. See native wildlife like bighorn sheep. Show up prepared to cook your own meals and provide your own drinks, but a little market on-site sells some essentials should you forget anything.

What To Watch Out For: While the dirt road in is pretty simple, you鈥檒l want to make sure you have a full tank of gas when you leave Mexicali, and take care to avoid navigating across the dry lake bed. No matter how capable your truck, the soft mud there will absolutely get you stuck.

Make Sure You Bring: Download the , and plan your crossing back north accordingly. I’d way rather spend four to six hours enjoying tacos and shopping for cheap prescriptions in Mexicali than sitting in a traffic jam.

You鈥檙e going to ask this, so I might as well answer. Yes, it鈥檚 safe to visit. The oasis locks its entry gate after dark and the family is on-site to patiently assist with any problems you might have.

For Backpackers: The Topa Topa Mountains

Just north of Ventura and Ojai, California, the Topa Topas often get passed over for the more glamorous (and still very much snowed in) Sierra Nevada. They offer less crowded trails as a result, and are accessible year-round.

Things Do Do: Park at the Piedra Blanca trailhead, throw on your backpack, and start walking. You’ll find hidden waterfalls, secret swimming holes, backcountry hot springs, and an abundance of rare wildlife, including the California Condor.

What To Watch Out For: While water sources are abundant in the Topa Topas, water levels fall as summer approaches, pools become stagnant, and algae grows. Pollution from human waste is common. That鈥檚 to say: bring a water filter you can rely on. Both black bears and mountain lions are very active in the Topa Topas, and in my experience have lost their fear of us humans. Store food responsibly and keep an eye out around dawn and dusk. If you do see a bear or lion, group tightly, leash your dogs, and make noise.

Make Sure You Bring: A good map. While the main hiking trail from due east tends to lead to crowded destinations, there are many, many lesser-known attractions once you venture off the beaten path. Don’t be afraid to explore.

Gear You Need For Desert Camping Trips

Camping in the desert will ideally be a relaxed, low-effort experience. But as with any activity, there are ways you can improve it.

Shelter: As night begins to fall and temperatures begin to drop, winds will increase. These gusts can聽destroy high-profile tents and shade structures, and even more commonly make those things noisy and nerve wracking to sleep in. I like to bring a low-profile backpacking tent instead. Once you鈥檝e divined the evening wind direction, pitch that behind a vehicle, boulder, or other windbreak.

To state the obvious, it will get hot during the day. Carrying a lightweight tarp for human-powered activities, or some sort of robust shade structure if you have your truck along, is essential. Make sure this a separate item from your tent so you can take it down as the sun begins to set and winds pick up.

Nights are always going to be cooler than you expect, and will feel even chillier with your new sunburn. Make sure you bring an insulated sleeping pad and a good sleeping bag with a comfort rating at least 10 degrees lower than the temperatures you expect to face.

For clothing, wear lightweight layers during the day, then plan to add insulation and wind protection at night. Real hiking boots are a good idea in this rocky and sandy terrain.

Water: If you鈥檙e traveling by vehicle, just bring water along with you. One gallon per-person, per-day is the rule of thumb. Don鈥檛 forget about your dogs. If you鈥檙e going human-powered, map out water sources using recent intel from other hikers who have traveled the area. A pump water filter complete with a lengthened intake hose (just take your filter to the local hardware store) can help you access hard-to-reach puddles and pools hidden in rocks and hillsides, or dip below surface algae for less murky water. An extra foot or two of length should be plenty.

Fire: Deserts are fragile ecosystems. If you鈥檙e not camping in an established campsite with a pre-existing fire-ring, don鈥檛 scar the landscape with a surface burn. Instead pack along a cheap home fire pit, or one powered by propane.

Food: Treating your camping trip like an outdoor dinner party is a sure recipe for good times. But out here, even organic substances can take a long time to degrade, while stuff like baby wipes and toilet paper may stick around for decades. Prepare to pack it all out with you.

Safety: While rare, snakes and scorpions do sometimes like to shelter in or under tents. For that reason, I like to bring along a proper tent to sleep in, rather than just a tarp or ultralight floorless shelter. Keep your zippers closed and tip your boots upside down overnight.

Coyotes should be a concern, especially if you own dogs. Coyotes are known to prey on very small and young dogs, so keep those leashed, especially at night. Coyotes are also prolific thieves of food, so keep anything edible in a cooler or car when it鈥檚 not in use.

And while desert weather may appear pretty stagnant to the uninitiated, it tends to be extreme when it does occur. Assume anything that can flood will flood, and avoid camping in dry washes or arroyos. Flash floods can wipe out seldom-traveled desert routes and render them totally impassible. Keep an eye out, and always have an alternate travel route planned should your way back to civilization suddenly disappear. Beware rock falls and mudslides any time there鈥檚 precipitation.

But the real problems come with exposure, and are most often caused or exacerbated by poor planning. Plan routes carefully and conservatively, don鈥檛 rely on worn out or inadequate equipment. And, when in doubt, travel in groups.

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It had been snowing for over 24 hours, but the storm was set to clear out just in time for first light. My friend Jordi Tenas, who is a professional skier, and I had spent and camping under the towering Cerro Torrecillas near Las Le帽as Ski Resort in Argentina. It had been a dry winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and we were heading back to Spain in a few days. But our luck with the聽weather was about to change, so we extended our trip by an extra day to nail perfect snow conditions.

The plan was to wake up early, climb in the dark, and ski back down to camp at first light. From there, we鈥檇 break down the tent, head back to our apartment in town and pack up a season鈥檚 worth of gear before catching the last bus out of Las Le帽as.

We forced ourselves into sleeping bags and set an alarm for 6 A.M. Little did we know, that alarm would never come.

We woke up to a jolting impact against the tent wall, and we were pushed by a relentless river of snow that tossed and churned us as we struggled to free our arms from our sleeping bags. The roof of the tent caved in聽and squeezed against our bodies as it dragged underneath a massive avalanche. When it all finally stopped and the basin went silent once again, we couldn鈥檛 move our bodies from the waist down. My arms were just loose enough to keep an air pocket open, and I could faintly hear Jordi beside me.

We had known our tent was in a basin and potentially at risk for聽avalanches, but, perched up on a hill of glacial deposit, we thought any slides would have a whole bowl to fill before they reached our doorstep. I had expressed my concern to Jordi, yet in famous Jordi fashion, he confidently defended our safety, and I got lulled into believing it. After all, it would take a an avalanche of historic size聽to get anywhere close to where we were sleeping.

We never anticipated that a cornice would fall above us, or that it would be聽big enough send the whole bowl of snow聽crashing down鈥攑ersistent weak layer and all. I wouldn鈥檛 find out until later, but we were now buried under six feet of snow.

We whispered back and forth, and I could hear Jordi breathing. We both scolded each other for taking up too much air as things started to come in and out of focus. As my breathing got shallower, I realized it was still the middle of the night鈥攖hat no one would even realize we were gone until morning. We were going to die, I thought. That was the last thought that crossed my mind before I lost consciousness.

The next thing I remember is the ambulance door closing. I wasn鈥檛 sure where I was, but I was bundled in blankets instead of my sleeping bag. I was hypoxic and hypothermic, but I was still there. I wouldn鈥檛 find out until later, but Jordi wasn鈥檛 so lucky.

Our Las Le帽as roommate, a freeskier from Idaho, had noticed that we hadn’t聽arrive home that morning,聽and he had climbed up the nearest hill to get eyes on our ski zone. He saw a massive crown just peeking out over the ridge lines and rushed down to tell ski patrol. Equipped with two Pisten Bully snow cats and an avalanche dog, they took off to Cerro Torrecillas and started excavating the zone.

The season was done at the resort, so it鈥檚 a miracle rescuers from the ski area even came out that day. We were buried so deep, only the machines could dig us out. When they struck the tent, they were shocked to find me still breathing. I don鈥檛 remember getting loaded into the cat, and only barely remember pieces of the 125-mile drive to the hospital in San Rafael.聽Somehow I had been able to keep breathing in the same air pocket, yet Jordi had not. I survived being buried for 12 hours underneath and avalanche.

The interview with Txema Trull was conducted in Spanish and translated and edited for brevity and clarity by Kade Krichko鈥擡d.

The post Buried in an Avalanche, I Survived Over 12 Hours Underneath the Snow appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In 1970, six women made the first all-female ascent of Denali. Alaskan mountaineer Grace Hoemen led the team, which included talented climber and chemist Arlene Blum, New Zealand geologist Margaret Clark, and pilot (and Forbes family pariah) Margaret Young.

Last week, the story of this historic achievement came into full focus with the March 4 release of , written by award-winning adventure writer . In her new book, Randall recounts the tale of the Denali climb, as well as the many challenges the female alpinists faced, from extreme winds and storm conditions, to a high-risk self-rescue, to the many insults of their male compatriots, like 鈥渘o way dames could ever make it up that bitch.鈥�

Yet the women succeeded in summiting the West Buttress route. While Hoeman and Blum were skilled enough to take on a more technical line on , they also knew that the stakes were high. 鈥淎n all-women鈥檚 ascent had never been done before,鈥� Randall explains. 鈥淭hey were鈥攁s are many boundary breakers who bear the burden of proving not just their own capability, but the capability of the entire demographic to which they belong鈥攔epresenting all women on this climb.鈥�

Furthermore, Randall emphasizes that this 鈥渓ess technical鈥� line was anything but easy鈥攅specially back in the day, with heavy loads of unwieldy equipment. 鈥淭he route still presented hidden crevasses big enough to swallow a bus, icefall, avalanches, and steep ridges that dropped off thousands of feet,鈥� Randall says.

We caught up with Randall to find out why this story hasn鈥檛 been told until now and what surprised her in her research. Below the Q&A, we also include an excerpt from Thirty Below.聽

Q&A: Thirty Below Author Cassidy Randall

Climbing: What inspired you to tell the story of the first all-female ascent of Denali in book form?

Cassidy Randall: One morning in February of 2022, snow fell outside my window in Montana as I opened an email from my agent with a link to a National Park Service blog post. 鈥淚s there a good story here?鈥� she鈥檇 written. Clicking on it transported me to a different snowy world half a century ago: 1970 on the slopes of Denali. That year, six women made for its wind-hammered summit in the first all-female ascent of North America鈥檚 tallest peak.

This was no small thing. By 1970, we had sent men to the moon, but women had yet to stand on top of the world鈥檚 highest mountains. Popular belief held that they were incapable of withstanding high altitudes, savage elements, and carrying heavy loads up storm-ravaged slopes. I鈥檇 been writing about adventure and women鈥檚 issues in the outdoors for several years by then. Yet I鈥檇 never heard of this audacious, boundary-breaking climb.

Who were these women? And had enough accounts survived to tell the tale? In my research, it became clear that not only was this Denali climb the first all-women鈥檚 summit of any of the world鈥檚 high peaks鈥攊t was an improbable tale of survival. And yet it had escaped widespread notice and thus disappeared from our collective consciousness.

鈥淗istoric firsts are important as they set the bar for what is possible,鈥� the NPS post read. 鈥淭he stories of these firsts sometimes become common knowledge in certain communities, or grow into legend, while some feats fade as time passes.鈥�

I considered it past time this historic first, and the people who were part of it, received their due.

Climbing: Why is this an important story to tell right now?

Randall: Female figures in mainstream adventure and exploration literature, in the vein of Touching the Void and Into Thin Air, are shockingly slim. There remains a void of strong and complex women in the canon: stories of female mettle, bravery, curiosity, and impact鈥攐n how we see the world, what we know of the world, and what we are capable of in it. These six are some of those women that history unjustly forgot, though they deserved a lasting place in the annals of adventure. There are no doubt many more stories like theirs, perhaps waiting for the one that opens the floodgates to all the rest.

Also, we鈥檙e still in an era where women sometimes aren鈥檛 allowed to be complex. Too often, we鈥檙e only meant to play the roles we鈥檝e been historically assigned: lone heroine, damsel in distress, princess, witch. We鈥檙e supposed to be likable, or villainized for being unlikable. Far from a fairy tale exploit with clear-cut saints and sinners, Thirty Below explores the complicated dynamics of real and complex individuals on their own arcs of development: the stakes each were facing, what emotional weight they were carrying up the mountain, the pressures they were under.

And regardless of the timeliness of gender equality鈥攊t鈥檚 just a damn good story, one that reminds us that it鈥檚 possible to do the things that everyone else believes are impossible.

Climbing: What鈥檚 your own experience on Denali or in the mountains?

Randall: I鈥檓 not an alpinist. For Thirty Below, I didn鈥檛 climb Denali. I already know from other mountain climbing that my body doesn鈥檛 do well at altitude. But I am a backcountry skier who dabbles in ski mountaineering, so I understand the call of the mountains. I鈥檝e been on multi-day expeditions with a small team of people, and I鈥檝e been in wilderness situations where I thought I might die, including in Alaska鈥檚 Brooks Range. I spent several days at the end of the road at Wonder Lake in Denali鈥檚 shadow, flew around it in a bush plane, hung out in Talkeetna with famed bush pilot Don Sheldon鈥檚 daughter Holly, and, obviously, spoke with and spent time with so many people who climbed the mountain in that era.

I have imposter syndrome around not being a true mountaineer myself. But then I think it allows me to hit the sweet spot between carrying the same kind of awe that average people do when they think of accomplishments like this, and the almost blas茅 attitude that those of us who are steeped in these pursuits tend to inevitably adopt.

Climbing: What surprised you about women climbers when researching and writing this story?

Randall: It鈥檚 wild to me that still in 1970, people truly thought women were incapable of climbing mountains without men鈥檚 help. The outrageous things women had to deal with in trying to break into the climbing world are appalling. I wrote about some of those incidents in Thirty Below to illustrate what an audacious idea this Denali ascent was at the time. And stories about the few women who had broken into mountaineering weren鈥檛 widely told, so even women immersed in that world, like Grace and Arlene, knew of few role models who鈥檇 come before them.

Climbing: Is there one unforgettable quote that you found from your research?

Randall: There are some great ones from the insults these women faced leading up to the climb, including 鈥渘o way dames could ever make it up that bitch,鈥� they had 鈥渋llusions and grandeur鈥� and 鈥渓ight experience,鈥� 鈥渨omen climbers either aren鈥檛 good climbers or they aren鈥檛 real women,鈥� and 鈥渨omen should be able to climb McKinley more readily than men鈥攁fter all, they have all that extra insulation.鈥�

Thirty Below Excerpt

Below is an excerpt from Chapter Two of Thirty Below, courtesy of Abrams Press.

In 1967, Alaskan mountaineer and doctor Grace Hoeman was the only woman on an Alaskan expedition to summit Denali. By this time, we were racing to send men to the moon, and women still hadn鈥檛 stood on the highest points on Earth. Popular belief held that they were incapable of withstanding high altitudes, savage elements, and carrying heavy loads without men鈥檚 help. On that expedition, the team leader turned Grace back midway up the mountain claiming he suspected she was suffering from altitude sickness鈥攅ven though a nightmare storm had broken over the summit, several mountaineers from another party above had disappeared in it, and a doctor might be critically needed for those men. That incident, along with the one below to recover the bodies of the climbers who ended up dying in that storm, would help spur Grace to develop a bold idea: to lead the first all-women鈥檚 team up the great mountain.

That fateful summer of 1967, Grace鈥檚 husband Vin returned to civilization from Mount Logan on July 31 to news of the tragedy on Denali鈥攁ll seven climbers at the top dead in a savage storm鈥攁nd the relief that his wife was not among them. She was safe. But the mysteries left as to the decisions that led to those men鈥檚 deaths spurred Vin, a member of the Alaska Rescue Group, to organize a climb to the summit to learn what he could, and try to identify and bury the bodies. He pulled together a six-person expedition that included Grace, who was again the only woman. It was a humanitarian expedition. It was also Grace鈥檚 second chance at Denali.聽

On August 19, after climbers and supplies had been organized and a weather window opened up, Alaskan bush pilot Don Sheldon flew the team straight into the Kahiltna Glacier at 9,800 feet to start climbing鈥攏early three thousand feet above the usual base camp elevation. The group climbed to Windy Corner at over thirteen thousand feet the following day.聽

Grace again felt sick. Her pack was too heavy, she thought. She popped medications to sleep. She went back down to base camp with Vin and another teammate for a gear carry. Vin encouraged her to climb Mount Capps with them as a side trip, a 10,790-foot peak at the head of the Kahiltna Glacier. She did. And then was too weak to accompany the men back up to Windy Corner. In a nightmarish repetition of her ill-fated expedition the month before, the men refused to wait for her to recover enough to continue. Although there was no urgency this time鈥攖he men at the summit had already perished鈥擵in left her in a leaky tent on the glacier at the base camp, alone, with only the wind and heavy snow for company.

鈥淚鈥檒l have to tell the world again of my failure,鈥� she wrote in her journal, shivering in the bleak tent. 鈥淚t would have meant the world to me to go up that mountain again and DO it. And my husband knew it鈥he park will never give me permission to climb again.鈥�

Sheldon flew in the next day to the base camp to collect Grace and the boxes left there for a higher supply drop. As the plane circled above, Grace noted that the team hadn鈥檛, in fact, made much progress without her. She dropped the boxes from the sky for them, and then was flown back to Anchorage, to be alone in her home once more.

So much new snow had fallen over the last month that Vin鈥檚 team could not locate any trace of the men who鈥檇 died. It remains the worst disaster ever to occur on Denali. In the months and years following, the Wilcox expedition would be would be excoriated for its choices, personal dynamics, and infighting as possible contributors to the tragedy, and rescuers and the park service would re-evaluate everything they knew about rescue on the mountain.聽

The incident also no doubt caused many outside the climbing community to question: why would anyone climb mountains at all? Why, through the ache of cold and hunger and exhaustion, when avalanches and storms and falls claim companions and lovers, wreak injury on bodies and sometimes minds from the trauma of disasters like the one Grace lived through, when chances of even making it to the top are slim鈥攚hy leave the comfort of home to risk all that? Why risk their lives at the hands of such a great and powerful wild?

Some would say it鈥檚 because, at its simplest, it鈥檚 in our genes. More specifically, it鈥檚 in one particular variant of a dopamine receptor gene, called DRD4-7R, carried by an estimated twenty percent of all humans. Studies have isolated 7R as the driver behind what makes people more likely to take risks, seek novelty like exploring new places and experiences, and pursue adventure. But if you ask those devoted to mountains鈥攆rom rock climbers to backcountry skiers to mountaineers鈥攎any will tell you it鈥檚 more ephemeral, more foundational, more beatific than some biological mechanism. That it鈥檚 not science.聽

It鈥檚 magic.

Some climb mountains to test themselves, to prove their strength and skill鈥攖o themselves or others. Some, in attempting more dangerous routes, are after the quicksilver rush of adrenaline. With the lungs rinsed with the high clear air and burning with the work of movement, the blood brims with endorphins. Perhaps there鈥檚 a kind of addiction involved in going back, over and over, for the high, the rush, the rapture.聽

Some will say it鈥檚 bigger than that. That the feeling of true awe that mountains provide transcends the self, so that even our perception of time changes and we feel part of something bigger. Absent the distractions of cities and obligations, ringing phones and jobs, when life is pared down to the simplicity of waking, sustaining oneself, and moving forward and upward, the human-made veil between us and the natural world begins, magnificently, to dissolve.聽

Some scale mountains because there鈥檚 a kind of meditation in moving鈥攁nd in the presence of risk. The proximity to the thin line between life and death at the hands of the volatile elements of this Earth demands an ultimate presence: the kind of presence that some meditate for hours and lifetimes to achieve. Walking that teetering edge of mortality鈥攚here our own decisions and will and capability determine our fate鈥攊s where we feel the most alive. And at the end of it all, riding the tail of the experience before inevitable re-entry into the 鈥渞eal鈥� world, is the closest we come to grace.聽

Once we鈥檝e had a taste of it, we often make sacrifices to return to the mountains. What others might see as a kind of madness, true believers see as a quest for an elusive peace in the devotion to the vertical wall, the towering mountain, to the terrible, beautiful wild.

On clear days from Anchorage, Denali is visible towering impossibly above the horizon: a regular reminder to Grace of her failure, at the same time it was a constant reminder of the mountain鈥檚 spectacular presence. Of a summit that, after everything, still beckoned from its impossible heights.

The post The Untold Story of the First All-Women Team Who Summited Denali 55 Years Ago appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

It’s like the logline for a Hollywood action movie: Deep in the Mojave desert, a team of outlaws boards a freight train and then pulls off a daring heist, making off with millions of dollars worth of limited-edition sneakers.聽

Well, maybe not the last part.

But reality is sometimes weirder than fiction, and that’s the case with the recent story about train robberies in the Southwest. On February 23, the about ten train heists that occurred between March 2024 and January 2025 in California and Arizona. Thieves boarded freight trains operated by BNSF Railways, cut open the locks to shipping containers, and then tossed cargo off the side, where follow vehicles scooped up the loot.

In all but one of the incidents, the criminals stole limited-edition Nike sneakers, and the combined value of the thefts totaled approximately $2 million. During one heist, which occurred on January 13, the crew took 1,985 pairs of unreleased shoes, the Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4, which sneaker website聽

Lawmen eventually caught up with the alleged bad guys. According to the LA Times story, federal agents executed search warrants, raided storage units, and even chased the crooks along dusty dirt roads. that at more than 60 individuals face federal charges related to the train heists. In one heist, , authorities chased down the culprits and found that they were both teenagers.聽According to the LA Times, 11 people were arrested after the January 13 heist. The alleged criminals and are now awaiting trial.

This whole ordeal may sounds familiar. Back in October,聽国产吃瓜黑料 published Scott Yorko’s investigative story The Great Bedrock Clog Heist about the 2023 theft of 5,364 pairs of shoes from outdoor brand Bedrock Sandals. During that heist, robbers stole the truck carrying a new shipment of unreleased shoes and then attempted to sell them online.

Yorko’s piece, and the recent聽LA Times story, both shine a light on the vulnerability of America’s freight transportation industry, which is how our favorite outdoor gear makes its way from factory to retail. It turns out that the items that we all love鈥攜es, including our favorite footwear鈥攁re routinely being stolen from trucks and trains and then sold on the black market. The Times referenced a report from the Association of American Railroads, a trade group representing freight train companies, stating that 65,000 railroad cargo thefts occurred in the U.S. in 2024, up 40 percent from 2023. Verisk CargoNet, a data analytics company that also monitors cargo theft, estimates that the number of cargo thefts in 2023 was up 59 percent from 2022.

“Everyone in this space has said it鈥檚 the worst it鈥檚 ever been in their entire 40-to-50-year careers,鈥� Jimmy Menges, national director at Marine Intelligence and Solutions, a private investigation firm, said in the 国产吃瓜黑料 story. 鈥淭here used to be a lot more dedicated cargo-theft task forces in the FBI and local law enforcement, but they鈥檝e been disbanded.鈥�

I recently phoned up two experts in the world of cargo theft to discuss the LA Times story: Keith Lewis, the vice president of operations for Verisk CargoNet, and Glenn Master, the director of asset protection and security for trucking company McLane. Both men have worked in the business of cargo protection鈥攁nd investigating cargo heists鈥攆or several decades. They shared their thoughts the differences between the Bedrock Sandals and Nike heists, how companies attempt to recoup their lost goods, and how theft like these impact customers like you and me.

A Train Heist Is Different than a Truck Heist

Two years after the Bedrock Sandals heist, there’s still a lingering debate amongst employees and security experts as to whether the specialty shoes were targeted by the thieves, or whether the bad guys simply stole a truck and lucked into the loot.

But my security experts both agree that in the case of the stolen Nikes, the crooks knew what they wanted. Both Master and Lewis said that, based on the by law enforcement, the train thieves were not just breaking into containers at random.

Cargo trains are sometimes a mile or two long, and they can carry hundreds of metal shipping containers, all loaded with different products. But the thieves stole high-dollar Nike sneakers in nine of the ten heists.

“That’s not a coincidence,” Lewis said. “And there are probably a dozen different ways to find out where it’s loaded on the train.”

 

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Lewis said that cargo thieves can learn about the placement of products on a train through savvy online research. Or sometimes, they pay off people working at warehouses or with shipping companies to pass along information about where specific cargo is located. I reached out to BNSF Railway聽about this, and the company sent me the following statement:

“BNSF has robust security protocols, and our police department is focused on preventing these incidents on our network. We work hard to protect our customers’ freight from pickup to delivery and have security measures in place to help ensure these goods arrive safely. We are working with federal, state, local, and tribal police departments to coordinate our approach to disrupting criminal activity and arresting offenders.”

Once thieves know the location of cargo, they board the train when it’s stopped. Due to the size of freight trains, security guards can’t patrol the entire vehicle, Lewis said. And train drivers are unarmed. Once crooks find the shipping containers, they cut the locks off with grinders or bolt cutters. Then, they toss the cargo to the ground, hide it in the underbrush, and wait for a follow car to pick it up.

“This isn’t a situation where the train is going 50 miles per hour,” Master told me. “If you have 10 to 15 people walking along the train with bolt cutters to just cut the latch and start unloading a container, it becomes a numbers game. If you have 30 minutes, you can start searching containers until you find the Nike shoes.”

Big Companies Can Investigate on Their Own

The 2023 clog heist had a major impact on Bedrock Sandals. The Montana-based company had just nine employees when the theft occurred. The new clogs were a hot item, and when the truck was stolen, Bedrock Sandals was unable to immediately fulfill orders for them. The company had to wait several months for the next shipment to arrive.

The company’s director of operations, Matt McAdow, had to deal with the misfortune himself: he texted with a suspect asking to have the cargo returned,聽and also contacted law enforcement and insurance once it was clear that the sandals weren’t coming back. When the stolen clogs began appearing on eBay and other online resellers, McAdow had to reach out directly, asking them to remove the merchandise.

Lewis has seen this situation play out before.聽“At a mom-and-pop company, you’re waiting by the phone for a miracle to happen,” Lewis said.聽 “At a big company, they know that a miracle isn’t going to happen unless they’re part of it.”

Master and Lewis told me the process is far different at a major international company. Big manufacturers regularly deal with theft, and many employ their own security experts who work to prevent robberies and investigate crimes after they happen.

 

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“Big companies may have their own investigations unit鈥攁fter a caper like this they are going to do the heavy lifting from an investigation standpoint to find the bad guys and see who did what,” he said. “Sometimes they can bring the investigation to law enforcement in a white box with a bow on top.”

I reached out to a Nike spokesperson for this story multiple times but did not get a response. According to聽The LA Times聽report and a piece by , the train heists in California and Arizona were foiled by a combination of federal and local police working alongside BNSF security. Authorities hid GPS trackers in the Nike shoes and used the devices to locate a box truck carrying the stolen cargo.

Master said that corporate investigation units have become increasingly important as law enforcement units across the country have shrunk in the post-COVID years. These days, most detectives have enormous case loads, which delay investigations around theft. Corporate investigators can help an investigation move along quickly, even when law enforcement is bogged down.

Master said that McLane’s security unit recently had to investigate a string of cigarette heists. The robberies took place in multiple different municipalities, he said, and the different law enforcement offices struggled with a lack of jurisdictional communication.

“It took us working with these other companies’ security departments to come up with a plan to put GPS trackers in boxes,” he said. “After a year we were able to go to the state police and say ‘here is your investigation’ and they got the warrants to arrest people.”

Where the Stolen Goods End Up

Despite the differences in the heists, Master and Lewis agreed that the stolen cargo was likely headed to the same place: offshore marketplaces.

“When you’re dealing with local thieves doing smash-and-grab jobs, you’ll find the stuff in bodegas and at swap meets, but that’s more general product,” Master said. “When the product is targeted, like the latest iPhones or shoes, a lot of times they already have a buyer overseas.”

Thieves are usually hired by a middle man鈥攁 person called a “fence”鈥攚ho then negotiates a price with the offshore buyer, Master said. Once on foreign soil, the shoes are then sold through the black market to customers around the world.

Stolen cargo in the United States is first sent to port cities where it sits in warehouses awaiting transport overseas in shipping containers. If investigators can get to it before it’s packed, it can be salvaged.

“The moment the stuff gets put into the cargo container, it’s gone forever,” Master said. “The probability of recovery becomes extremely limited.”

Both Bedrock Sandals and Nike were able to save some inventory before it went overseas. Investigators eventually located the remaining Bedrock Sandals clogs in a warehouse in Los Angeles. In the case of the stolen Nikes, investigators raided several private residences and storage units and found hundreds of pairs of shoes.

How to Avoid Theft

Is there any end in sight to the problem of cargo theft in the United States? Both Master and Lewis expressed doubts. America’s supply chain for retail goods has too many weak points, they said, and crooks will always find ways to break in.

Plus, cost-cutting innovations and the subcontracting out of various jobs within the supply chain means that manufacturers don’t always know who is in charge of their product at various points in the journey from factory to retail location.

“Companies just hand it off to the supply chain and it’s someone else’s problem now,” Master said. “You hope the stuff gets there, and if they’re missing a palette, they know they will be made whole by insurance.”

Companies can pay for added security in the form of armed guards, heavy-duty locks, and specialty transport. But this infrastructure is expensive, and it often slows down the speed at which goods reach their final destination. Most companies, Lewis said, are willing to take the risk.

“If you’re shipping a few million bucks worth of goods it probably makes sense to send it with surface escorts for safety,” Lewis said. “But everything adds cost and slows down the supply chain. People want to move freight at the speed of light.”

Manufacturers pay insurance companies to help defer costs in the case of break-ins and theft. But these crimes are far from victimless. Lewis said the mounting costs of insurance, security measures, and internal investigators all ends up being paid by one group.

“It’s the customer,” he said. “That’s the real victim.”

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Back in 2021, I wrote about the case of Daniel Granberg, a 24-year-old from Colorado who died at the summit of a Bolivian mountain called Illimani of what turned out to be high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). What was notable about the incident was that Illimani is only 21,122 feet above sea level, well below the notorious Death Zone, which starts around 26,000 feet and is where most climbing fatalities in the Himalaya occur. And Granberg hadn鈥檛 seemed notably distressed: the HAPE snuck up on him without obvious warning signs.

That鈥檚 a little scary for anyone venturing to these sorts of high-but-not-extreme altitudes. Ideally, you鈥檇 like to have a better sense of the risk factors and warning signs that signal the difference between run-on-the-hill acute mountain sickness and more severe forms of altitude illness like HAPE.

offers some useful clues. Emergency physicians from the University of Vermont and the medical staff at Aconcagua Provincial Park, led by Vermont鈥檚 Andrew Park, crunched the data on all climbers diagnosed with HAPE during the month of January in 2024 and compared their responses to climbers who didn鈥檛 get HAPE. Sure enough, there were some notable differences in how fast they climbed, how long they acclimatized to various stages of elevation, and what symptoms they displayed.

Aconcagua, in Argentina, is the highest mountain in Americas at 22,838 feet. It鈥檚 also the highest mountain outside Asia, and more significantly is perhaps the highest non-technical summit in the world, meaning that it鈥檚 possible to ascend without specialized climbing skills and equipment. That makes it accessible, but it also means that climbers can hurry up the mountain at a dangerous pace. found that roughly three climbers die each year out of more than 3,000 who attempt it. HAPE was the second-leading cause after trauma, accounting for a fifth of the deaths.

Park medical staff screen climbers at camps at roughly 11,000 feet and 14,000 feet. Crucially, there are no standard sleeping camps between those two elevations, which means you have to make that 3,000-foot jump in one night. Standard guidelines on altitude illness from the Wilderness Medical Society (which I wrote about in detail here) suggest increasing your sleeping elevation by no more than 1,500 feet per night once you鈥檙e above 10,000 feet. If logistics force you to make a bigger jump, you need to add rest days to keep the average rate of climbing below that threshold.

A total of 17 climbers were diagnosed with HAPE in January 2024. The key feature of HAPE is a potentially dangerous build-up of fluid in the lungs that interferes with the delivery of oxygen into the bloodstream. It鈥檚 mainly diagnosed on the basis of shortness of breath, lower than expected blood oxygen levels for a given altitude, and a crackling sound in the lungs. None of the HAPE victims died; all were quickly evacuated by helicopter to lower elevations, which is the main recommendation for treating HAPE.

Overall, the climbers diagnosed with HAPE were very similar to a group of 42 climbers surveyed during the same period who weren鈥檛 diagnosed with HAPE. But a few suggestive differences emerged. The most significant was the number of nights they spent at the 14,000-foot camp, after that 3,000-foot jump in sleeping elevation. The HAPE climbers spent an average of 3.6 nights at that camp, compared to 5.0 nights for the non-HAPE climbers, a statistically significant difference.

Interestingly, both groups had planned a total of 10.4 nights, on average, to reach the summit. The HAPE group actually spent slightly longer getting to 14,000 feet, but they spent less time adjusting to that elevation. Typically the risk of altitude illness starts ramping up beyond about 10,000 feet, so once you get to 14,000 feet you鈥檙e well into the zone where many people will be experiencing altitude-related symptoms.

On a related note, 71 percent of the HAPE patients reported that they had symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS) at 14,000 feet. AMS is the most common and mild form of altitude illness, typically manifesting as a headache plus other symptoms like nausea and lethargy. The typical advice for AMS is that you should stop ascending, and if symptoms don鈥檛 resolve within a few days, descend to a lower elevation. Notably, every single one of the climbers who had AMS at 14,000 feet then went on to develop HAPE (at a median elevation of 18,000 feet) reported that their AMS symptoms hadn鈥檛 resolved before they continued their ascent.

There are a few other observations that raise more questions than answers. Just under half the HAPE climbers reported taking acetazolamide, a diuretic known to climbers under the brand name Diamox that helps ward off AMS. In contrast, only a fifth of the non-HAPE climbers used it. It seems unlikely that Diamox is causing HAPE. Presumably climbers who were struggling to handle altitude were more likely to try Diamox and also more likely to eventually develop HAPE. Still, the researchers suggest that it鈥檚 an observation that鈥檚 worth following up on.

Similarly, 44 percent of the HAPE group reported having a recent upper respiratory tract infection, compared to just 29 percent of the non-HAPE group. This difference wasn鈥檛 statistically significant, but it鈥檚 plausible it might have been significant with a larger sample size. Lingering inflammation in the respiratory tract might contribute to the leaky capillaries associated with HAPE. For now, it鈥檚 another idea to check out in future research.

The strongest conclusions we can draw from the data are also the most familiar ones: ascend slowly, and if AMS strikes, pause your ascent until symptoms resolve. That鈥檚 easy advice to give, but hard to follow, especially because AMS symptoms like headache and fatigue are so vague and commonplace at high elevations. But the data here offers a stark warning: ignoring this advice heightens your risk of progressing to more serious forms of altitude illness that sometimes, with little warning, turn out to be fatal.

For more Sweat Science, join me on and , sign up for the , and check out my forthcoming book .

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When Scott Bauwens鈥檚 sister-in-law was first diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia a few years ago, he set a simple goal. He鈥檇 fundraise for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), but only for a single campaign. Then, duty done, he鈥檇 go back to business as usual. But during that first campaign, something happened that changed his life. He started to meet leukemia survivors. One after another, they shared their stories.

鈥淎s I got more involved,鈥� Bauwens says, 鈥淚 realized how devastating a cancer diagnosis can be.鈥� He also started to realize just how many members of his own community had been affected. Having spent 25 years working in the agricultural industry, Bauwens wrote on his how he鈥檇 鈥渟een this terrible disease tear families apart.鈥� Agricultural workers have a particularly high rate of blood cancer diagnosis due to their constant exposure to synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and fungicides. And, as Bauwens noted, many struggle to afford the high costs of treatment.

The more he learned, the more it seemed like the disease was everywhere. But he didn鈥檛 feel powerless鈥攖hanks to LLS providing a way to do something about it.

Why Endurance Races?

Fundraising for any cause, no matter how noble, is tough work. But LLS鈥攖he nationwide organization leading blood cancer research, treatment, and advocacy in the U.S.鈥攕eems to have cracked the code. For decades, LLS has approached fundraising much like training for an endurance challenge: embracing how it takes a village, how it can be as grueling as it is rewarding, and how you must play the long game for meaningful results.

It turns out that endurance training is an excellent complement for extended engagement in a deeply meaningful and impactful cause that goes beyond fundraising. The physical effort and visible progress of a training cycle keep the fundraising team motivated to keep drumming up donations. And the philanthropic component keeps the athlete accountable to their training. It鈥檚 a potent combination鈥攁nd it works.

Over the last 37 years, LLS鈥檚 athletic events and peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns have provided critical levels of funding for new FDA-approved blood cancer treatments. And since 1949, the organization has funded $1.8 billion in medical research. That鈥檚 been enough to move the needle on treatment and legislation鈥攁nd to radically change, improve, and lengthen a lot of lives.

Racing for a Cure聽

Unfortunately, blood cancers still account for about 60,000 deaths every year in the U.S. alone. And after Bauwens鈥檚 first campaign ended, he redoubled his efforts. He started pouring himself into his volunteer work at LLS. He, his wife, and his kids all got involved, fundraising and participating in endurance events for the cause. Today, Bauwens is part of his local LLS board of trustees. In spring 2024, he signed up to participate as a Rookie Challenger in one of LLS鈥檚 biggest fundraising events: , an annual distance ride around Lake Tahoe with 100-, 72-, and 35-mile options. In 2024 alone, his team raised more than $302,000.

For the father of two, participating in the ride was enormously satisfying. It felt good to complete a challenge that was far outside his comfort zone. And it felt even better to give back to a cause he cares about. Bauwens points out that everyone he鈥檚 met who has received support from LLS, all resoundingly state the same thing: 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be here without the assistance from LLS.鈥�

Found Family

Over the past few decades, the community around LLS鈥檚 has ballooned. Today, thousands of attendees fundraise, spectate, and participate in LLS cycling events like , South Carolina鈥檚 , and Wisconsin鈥檚 鈥攁s well as in ski events like . International climbs and destination hikes add to the adventure offerings while run/walk opportunities cover the globe from Disney events to landmark .

The community is fun and supportive, says longtime fundraiser Kevin Shannahan. But it鈥檚 also more than that: It鈥檚 a family. Shannahan has deeper ties to LLS than most. For one thing, he鈥檚 been fundraising for the organization for decades. For another, he wouldn鈥檛 be alive today if it weren鈥檛 for scientific breakthroughs in blood cancer research. Shannahan, a retired Chicago private equity executive, was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin鈥檚 lymphoma more than 20 years ago. Cutting-edge treatments saved his life. Determined to pay it forward, he pledged to support an organization that funds research for such treatments: LLS. Over the last two decades, he鈥檚 helped raise millions of dollars from the saddle of his bike.

Last year, Shannahan was the top individual fundraiser at the , a two-day ride that traces the coast of Lake Michigan. But it鈥檚 his team he鈥檚 most proud of鈥攁nd that he loves like family. The group, dubbed Riders of the Storm, has been participating in the ride every year since 2001鈥攁nd has raised more than $7 million for blood cancer research in that time, tallying $612,000 in 2024 alone.

But for Shannahan, the benefits extend well beyond the money.

鈥淥ver the course of 23 years,鈥� he says. 鈥淥ur team has become members of our extended family.鈥� Together, they鈥檝e experienced joy and sorrow, sprained muscles and even broken bones. The team has celebrated as members have gone into remission. They鈥檝e also mourned and never forgotten loved ones who lost their lives to blood cancer and other forms of cancer. But they keep riding and will never forget those whose lives were cut short. Collectively, the Riders have pedaled enough miles to circumnavigate the globe three times over. And every time the team members get in the saddle, they celebrate all those memories鈥攖he good and the bad alike.

The Future聽

When asked about what鈥檚 next for blood-cancer treatments, Shannahan quickly notes how he鈥檚 filled with 鈥渦nrestrained optimism.鈥� He鈥檚 confident that the next 25 years will see medical advancements that 鈥渇ew people imagined possible just five to ten years ago.鈥�

Shannahan plans to keep giving back until that future is realized. Not only does he continue to cycle each year; he and his cycling teammates, Michelle Nani and Abby O鈥橰ourke, also launched an annual golf tournament designed to benefit LLS. He gets involved any way he can鈥攁nd he encourages everyone he meets to do the same. Shannahan only sees positives in the ripple effect of more engagement and a larger donor pool that sees blood cancer research as, 鈥渙ne of the most efficient scientific means to solve many forms of cancer.鈥�

So, if you鈥檝e got a race coming up, consider tying it to the . Go beyond raising funds and support the greater cause by joining Team In Training for your event, or participating in any . Move with purpose. Push your limits. Make an impact. Learn how to become a team member, advocate for patients and their families, or volunteer at .

The (LLS) is the world’s largest nonprofit dedicated to creating a world without blood cancers. The LLS mission: Cure blood cancer and improve the quality of life of all patients and their families. LLS funds lifesaving blood cancer research around the world, provides free information and support services, and advocates for all blood cancer patients seeking access to quality, affordable, coordinated care.

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On a Sunday afternoon in October, I snuck out for a run. It was tank-top weather when I left my house in downtown Durango, Colorado, and I expected it to hold. I drove north into the mountains, and as I crested a hill 15 minutes in, the sky turned gray and cracked with lightning. The temperature reading in my car dropped 20 degrees, and the rain hitting the windshield was so thick I could hardly see the road. My phone buzzed in the cupholder. It was a text from the friend I was meeting: 鈥淲TF, DWG.鈥�

DWG stands for , the nom de plume of Jeff Givens, a local real estate agent turned amateur meteorologist who has much more power over my life than anyone running a WordPress blog should. His website offers weather forecasts, blow-by-blows of storms, and roundups of precipitation totals鈥攚ith a heavy dose of personal opinion. Sometimes the posts are excited updates: 鈥淪aturday 4:30 am: It鈥檚 not over yet! The closed low-pressure is spinning over Arizona early this morning.鈥� Sometimes he鈥檒l take a deep dive into the variability of La Nina, the cooling pattern in the Pacific Ocean that tends to bring dry winters to the Southwest, or the difference between Canadian and European forecasting models. Sometimes he鈥檒l answer requests from fans who ask for specific forecasts within their individual microclimate. In the forecast the day after my Sunday soaking, Givens walked back what he鈥檇 posted the day before, responding to the razzing he鈥檇 received from readers. You don鈥檛 get that from the Weather Channel.

Followers who subscribe to his email list might get three updates a day when storms are firing, sometimes time-stamped 3 A.M., 9 A.M., then noon. I read every one. And I鈥檓 not alone. Givens has 19,100 subscribers. The local population is about 19,500, and that includes children.

Givens is more accurate than any other weather source around here, and that makes him arguably the biggest celebrity in my smallish town. Our collective excitement crescendos with his forecasts, and whether they lead to joyful or disappointing experiences outside, we piece together a postmortem in the days that follow. Sometimes he sends the whole town into a spiral. Like any forecaster, occasionally he鈥檚 wrong. I鈥檓 on multiple ski-planning text chains that dissect his accuracy. 鈥淗e never admits when he鈥檚 wrong,鈥� one friend complained. 鈥淚 just don鈥檛 like his syntax,鈥� another told me, while her husband admitted to obsessively reading every post. 鈥淭oo many emails!鈥� several others said. 鈥淗ow can you get mad at him, he鈥檚 doing it for free,鈥� someone countered.

He is a common denominator: a folk hero and a prophet and the person to blame when your plans go to shit. Everyone I know has an opinion about his forecasts. And I mean literally everyone.

Yesterday at the doctor, as I shivered in my gown, the nurse asked me how the weather had been on the way over. 鈥淒urango Weather Guy says it鈥檚 supposed to get bad this weekend,鈥� she said, unprompted.

I needed to understand how this faceless man had become a ubiquitous and mercurial guru鈥攁nd wormed his way into the brains and hearts of my community. So I emailed Givens and asked him to meet up.

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