Cast-iron watertight doors controlled by an electric switch. In 1910, shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff touted this groundbreaking innovation for why its soon-to-be-completed ship, the HMS Titanic, would be the safest oceanliner on the planet. We all know what happened next: during its maiden voyage, Titanic struck an iceberg and the fancy doors did little to […]

If you’ve ever forgotten an important piece of gear on a hike, you probably remember when it hit you—the moment that you went from blithely rummaging in your pack, to seriously digging through it, to finally tearing it apart in search of your puffy, sleeping bag, or stove. Then, when the rest of your gear […]

Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder has died as a result of the injuries he sustained in a crash on stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse on Thursday, his Bahrain-Victorious team confirmed. The race, which crisscrosses Switzerland, is a warmup event for next month’s Tour de France. Mäder crashed on the descent of the final climb […]

Jonny Moses Soto-Altrogge told his story to producer Sarah Fuss Kessler for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity. Here in the city, I was working with students of color and all kinds of backgrounds, who were often experiencing being outdoors for like the first time. And […]

Kim Chambers told her story to producer Tanvi Kumar for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity. You’re literally a ticking time bomb for hypothermia in many of these swims. I didn’t even get halfway across. I was too cold, I was too slow. But I got […]

Residents in California’s Mariposa County will remember the summer wildfires of 2022 for years. Five major blazes swept across the county last summer, ravaging the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. None were as destructive as the Oak Fire, which charred 127 homes, 66 other structures, and nearly 20,000 acres near Yosemite National Park during late July […]

Perry Cohen told his story to producer Caro Rolando for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity. We were on a hot, dusty trail at that point, and I’m just looking around thinking there’s nothing to stop a fire from getting us here. There’s no river, there’s […]

While it seems unlikely news after the winter that California’s ski resorts just enjoyed, a new study reports that some of the state’s ski areas are poised to see a massive amount of its snowpack disappear over the next several decades. The study came out of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and surmises […]

Three memories stand out in Jack Kuenzle’s mind from his recent expedition to 20,310-foot Denali. On June 5, Kuenzle smashed the Fastest Known Time on North America’s highest peak, climbing and then descending the West Buttress round trip route on skis in 10 hours, 14 minutes, 57 seconds. The time beat the previous mark of […]

Ryan Gaglianese-Woody told her story to producer Sarah Fuss Kessler for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity. Going into college, I was just working out, solely for my physical image and no other reason. It was literally the only thing that would be on my mind […]