The Ice

A journey to the bottom of the world in search of the purest thing.

A dozen or so of us were packed into the beluga-shaped DC-3, snorting oxygen through plastic medical tubes to make up for the thin, 20,000-foot air in the unpressurized cabin. The Antarctic plateau slid beneath us 10,000 feet below, though without the visual reference of trees, mountains, buildings or roads, it appeared to be close enough for a sharp tip of the wing to scratch the surface of the snow. Far off in the distance the horizon hinted at the curvature of the earth.

Sahara Survival

Blazing sun, blowing sand and blistered souls at the 2012 Marathon des Sables

A fatigue haze induced by two days and three continents of travel is my filter for this moment—midnight in an African airport—so I have to focus on doing what it takes to end this day: getting a passport stamp from a border-patrol agent, heaving my duffel onto the roof rack of a taxi cab with a sawed-off back end, greeting the hotel manager in a mixture of Arabic and French and discerning the difference between my room’s toilet and bidet.

French Taper

French Ta · per (noun): To pull an all-nighter crewing the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc before running the World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge

Stage Fright

Running a wild 167 miles from Arizona to Utah in North America’s first self-supported stage race

Don't Fence Me In

La Sportiva Mountain Cup heads to Montana

On Saturday, May 11, nearly 500 runners lined up for the 13th annual Don't Fence Me in Trail Run 30K, 12K and 5K races in Helena, Montana. The 30K race was ...