Climbing
Fear: what it is doing, and what to do with it
Fear in climbing is usually treated as a weakness to be overcome. It is better understood as a signal with a variable accuracy rating, and the skill is in calibrating it.
Extreme Sports Adventures — Send it. Come home.
Risk & Rescue
After the accident: the hours and days that follow
Everything written about outdoor safety is about prevention and rescue. Almost nothing is written about what happens next, which is the part people are least prepared for.
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Backcountry Snow
How to read an avalanche forecast properly
Most people read the danger rating and stop. The rating is the least useful part of a document that, read properly, tells you exactly which terrain to avoid.
Gear & Kit
Buying used gear: what is fine second-hand and what never is
Outdoor equipment is expensive and much of it lasts far longer than one owner. But some items carry invisible damage, and those you buy new, without exception.
Risk & Rescue
When the GPS dies: navigating with what is left
A dead phone in poor visibility turns a routine day into a genuine problem. The backup is a map, a compass and a set of habits that most people no longer have.
Whitewater
Reading water: eddies, holes, waves and what the surface is telling you
A river surface is a readable map of what is happening underneath. Learning to read it is the difference between reacting to a rapid and moving through it deliberately.
Surf & Ocean
Beach rescues: helping without becoming the second casualty
A depressing share of drowning victims are people who went in to help someone else. There are better ways, and they work.
Climbing
All climbing →Climbing
Fear: what it is doing, and what to do with it
Fear in climbing is usually treated as a weakness to be overcome. It is better understood as a signal with a variable accuracy rating, and the skill is in calibrating it.
Climbing
Choosing partners: the most consequential gear decision you make
People research ropes for weeks and choose the person holding the other end because they were available. That is backwards.
Climbing
Skin care for climbers: the tissue that decides your session
On sharp rock and in dry weather, skin fails before strength does. Managing it is unglamorous and it directly determines how much you can climb.
Whitewater
All whitewater →Whitewater
Reading water: eddies, holes, waves and what the surface is telling you
A river surface is a readable map of what is happening underneath. Learning to read it is the difference between reacting to a rapid and moving through it deliberately.
Whitewater
Portaging without ego
Walking around a rapid is the most consistently underused safety tool on any river, and the reason is entirely social.
Whitewater
River signals: communicating when nobody can hear you
Whitewater is loud enough that shouting is useless at twenty metres. A small set of hand and whistle signals replaces it, and a group that has agreed them moves far better.
Backcountry Snow
All backcountry snow →Backcountry Snow
How to read an avalanche forecast properly
Most people read the danger rating and stop. The rating is the least useful part of a document that, read properly, tells you exactly which terrain to avoid.
Backcountry Snow
Spring snow: wet slides, timing, and the shrinking window
Spring touring runs on the clock rather than the snowpack. Get the timing right and it is the best skiing of the year; get it wrong and the slope you climbed at dawn is moving by noon.
Backcountry Snow
Your first season of ski touring: what nobody warns you about
Resort skiing prepares you for roughly a third of what backcountry touring demands. The other two thirds are uphill technique, snow judgement and self-sufficiency.
Surf & Ocean
All surf & ocean →Surf & Ocean
Beach rescues: helping without becoming the second casualty
A depressing share of drowning victims are people who went in to help someone else. There are better ways, and they work.
Surf & Ocean
Board volume, and why the shortboard is the wrong first surfboard
Almost every beginner buys a board that is too small, learns slowly, and blames themselves. Volume is the number that actually determines whether you catch waves.
Surf & Ocean
Sharks: the actual risk picture, and the behaviours that matter
Shark encounters occupy far more mental space than their frequency justifies, which is a problem in both directions — it produces needless fear and it obscures the few behaviours that genuinely reduce risk.
Gear & Kit
All gear & kit →Gear & Kit
Buying used gear: what is fine second-hand and what never is
Outdoor equipment is expensive and much of it lasts far longer than one owner. But some items carry invisible damage, and those you buy new, without exception.
Gear & Kit
Cutting weight: what actually matters and what is theatre
Weight reduction has a clear hierarchy and most people work at the wrong end of it, sawing handles off toothbrushes while carrying a pack that is a kilogram heavier than it needs to be.
Gear & Kit
Electronics in the cold: keeping the things you depend on alive
Batteries lose a large fraction of their capacity in winter conditions, screens stop responding, and the device you were relying on for navigation goes dark at the worst moment.
Risk & Rescue
All risk & rescue →
Risk & Rescue
After the accident: the hours and days that follow
Everything written about outdoor safety is about prevention and rescue. Almost nothing is written about what happens next, which is the part people are least prepared for.
Risk & Rescue
When the GPS dies: navigating with what is left
A dead phone in poor visibility turns a routine day into a genuine problem. The backup is a map, a compass and a set of habits that most people no longer have.
Risk & Rescue
Debriefing a near miss, without turning it into a trial
The most valuable safety information available to any group is the thing that nearly went wrong last month. Most groups never discuss it, because the conversation is uncomfortable.
About Extreme Sports Adventures
Climbing, whitewater, backcountry, surf and alpine — skills, risk management, gear that earns its weight and the places worth the trip. We publish explanatory articles rather than news, which means an article here is written to still be useful a year from now. Every piece is bylined, sourced and read by an editor before it appears — the full process is set out in our editorial policy.