3-Minute Video Break: Climber Chris Sharma on the World's Weirdest Rock Formations

Geology regularly blows us away—just check out the crazy rock formations Chris Sharma ascends in this video. Addicted to bouldering, deep-water soloing, and sport climbing, the Santa Cruz native spends 11 months a year in exotic locales, dangling off incredible hunks of rock sculpted by centuries of erosion. "Climbing is about finding beautiful things in nature interacting with them," notes Sharma. Nice work, if you can get it. (Yes, this is longer than three minutes, but we were pretty sure you wouldn't mind.)—Mary Anne Potts

Top 10 Hiking Tips: How to Bag 200 Summits--In Winter

We just learned that 36-year-old New York resident Erik Schlimmer has bagged a first: climbing the 200 highest peaks in the Catskills, in winter. With spring approaching, a time of fresh starts, his accomplishment reminds us that the time is now to figure out your next adventure goal and get cracking.

Ranging from 2,490 feet to 4,190 feet, these peaks hold nothing to the behemoths of the Andes or Himalaya, but many are obscure, 60 are unnamed, and 80 are privately owned.  "Traveling by myself, especially in the high country during winter, it's just me and the mountains," says Schlimmer, an instructor in Oneonta State University's Outdoors Education program. "If I make a poor decision out there, the consequences are serious." We couldn't agree more, so we asked Schlimmer to share some hard-won wisdom from his multi-year quest. See his top ten tips below.—Mary Anne Potts

Copper Canyon Ultramarathon: Secrets of the World's Greatest Runners (Hint: It's Not the Shoes)

How about running 47 miles in shoe-melting heat with just tire rubber strapped to your feet? A top American ultramarathoner ventures deep into Mexico’s Copper Canyons to learn the secrets of the Tarahumara, the world’s greatest runners.

Text and photographs by Will Harlan

Last March, I journeyed deep into the Copper Canyons of northwest Mexico to run with the indigenous Tarahumara, widely regarded as the world’s greatest endurance athletes. Made famous recently by Christopher McDougall’s bestselling book Born to Run, the Tarahumara scratch a living out of barren, rocky soil, growing ancient varieties of corn and beans. Most live in caves and tiny huts scattered throughout four monstrous, river-carved chasms—each deeper than the Grand Canyon. Through steep canyons and blistering heat, they run—wearing hand-made sandals called huaraches, which consist of used tire rubber wrapped to their feet.

How do Tarahumara run for hundreds of miles in such primitive footwear? To Nike-clad runners like myself, the answer was painfully simple: they just do it. Barefoot Tarahumara children build calluses and foot strength from an early age on the rocky, rugged canyon trails. They rarely get injured, thanks to their running lifestyle and efficient biomechanics.

Alaska-Yukon Expedition: 280 Miles Along Alaska's Wild West Coast

Follow adventurer Andrew Skurka as he skis, hikes, and rafts 4,720 miles through eight national parks, two major mountain ranges, and some of North America's wildest rivers in Alaska and the Yukon from March to October. Read his blog updates here.

West Coast Wrap-Up: What I've Seen, posted in Unalakleet, Alaska, on March 24, 2010

Tomorrow morning I head inland via a historic portage route between the Bering Sea (the Unalakleet side) and the Yukon River (at the village of Kaltag). This is a transitional point in the route—moving from the coast to the interior—and a good opportunity for me to wrap up the last 280 miles.

My route has been completely dependent on the network of snomachine trails between rural Alaskan villages. About 100 miles of the route being blazed as the "Iditarod Trail" doesn't change the reality that local snowmachiners represent the bulk of the use—dog mushers are exceptions, and skiers like me are freaks. The tracks are well packed, making for fast skiing since I'm not breaking trail. They're often marked (but not signed), for the safety of users. Following these snowmachine trails has been like following the Appalachian Trail, almost... I've been out for ten days and have seen a person every day thus far; sometimes it's just been a lone snowmachiner while other times there have been waves of two- to four-rider groups.

New Trips 2010: The Perfect Pairing - Hiking and Eating Across Northern Italy

There's nothing like hiking for a couple hours a day—through northern Italy's spectacular Alps and Veneto regions no less—to eliminate any sense of guilt when over-indulging in some of the country's finest carbs. That’s were California-based Wilderness Travel comes in with their new trip centered in Umbria and the Lake District.

In October 2010 Wilderness Travel will be starting the first trip in their new ‘hiking and culinary’ series. On this expedition, guests will trek these two beautiful regions of Italy while coming "home" every night to a great meal. Scratch that, a buonisimo meal. Guests will experience meals from Gualtiero Marchesi, the father of Italian haute cuisine and one of the world's top chefs.

3-Minute Video Break: Banff Mountain Film Festival's Radical Reels

Even if you never attend the Banff Mountain Film Festival, you can still enjoy the winning films in their tour, which is in global mode right now. Our personal favorite is the Radical Reels, a special tour that complements the festival's more cultural films with dynamic, high-adrenaline films featuring skiing, climbing, kayaking, BASE jumping, mountain biking, and more.

In April, Radical Reels will have shows in Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Get the full schedule here >>

Radical Reels Shows in April

TEXAS

Austin
April 10, 2010
Whole Earth Provision Company 

COLORADO

Fort Collins
April 17, 2010
Larimer County Search and Rescue

Golden
April 16, 2010
Colorado Mountain Club

Grand Junction
April 20, 2010
Mesa State College

MICHIGAN

Houghton
April 27, 2010
Michigan Technological University

MINNESOTA

Minneapolis
April 24, 2010 Midwest Mountaineering

WISCONSIN

Menomonie
April, 30, 2010
University of Wisconsin - Stout

Alaska-Yukon Expedition: Just 4,600 Miles to Go? How to Stay Motivated

Follow adventurer Andrew Skurka as he skis, hikes, and rafts 4,720 miles through eight national parks, two major mountain ranges, and some of North America's wildest rivers in Alaska and the Yukon from March to October. Read his blog updates here.

The Enormity of the Task - Posted From Koyuk, Alaska, on Saturday, March 20

A few hours out of Buckland things felt like they were really coming together. It was calm, sunny, and in the high-10's—ideal Nordic skiing temps. My kick-and-glide rhythm felt expert-like compared to when I skied out of Kotzebue 100 miles earlier. For the first time on this trip, my mind began to drift, namely to all the challenges ahead: skiing through the Alaska Range in a few weeks, pushing through the Wrangell's early-season, doing successive 300-mile stretches between resupplies in northern Yukon and the Brooks Range. And more.

The enormity of the task at hand quickly became overwhelming, pretty much impossible. What ever made me think this trip was feasible?

Because, when reduced to its smallest increment—a kick and glide, a footstep, a paddle stroke—this trip is feasible. The math works out. If I do about 25 miles a day for 6.5 months, I cover about 4,700 miles, including some rest days in there. If I focus on the short-term challenges—the next hill, the next overflow-covered creek crossing, the nose-numbing crosswind—and keep on plugging away at this trip in those small increments, eventually I will make it. And finally then I can stop and appreciate the true enormity of this experience.

David de Rothschild's Plastiki Sets Sail! - Video

Just in time for World Water Day (today) and after nearly four years of development, eco-adventurer David de Rothschild has launched his most ambitious expedition yet. The Plastiki, an innovative catamaran made from 12,000 post-consumer plastic bottles, set sail on Saturday for a 100-day voyage from San Francisco to Sydney. Their mission is to witness some of the most devastating waste accumulation on our planet, including the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch. According to his twitter feed, David and the crew had eggs for breakfast on their first morning at sea. (Read our previous coverage and see the NG Plastiki site.)

Taking inspiration from Thor Heyerdal's 1947 Kon-tiki expedition, the Plastiki's crew includes of David de Rothschild, accomplished skipper Jo Royle, and Olav Heyerdahl, Thor's grandson. Check back for updates here, or go to http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/plastiki/.

Photographs courtesy of Luca Babini

Alaska-Yukon Expedition: Secrets to Surviving the Bitter Cold

Follow adventurer Andrew Skurka as he skis, hikes, and rafts 4,720 miles through eight national parks, two major mountain ranges, and some of North America's wildest rivers in Alaska and the Yukon from March to October. Read his blog updates here.

Staying in Control - Posted March 18 in Buckland, Alaska

It was -25° F when I started this trip on Sunday. It warmed up some, to -15°, but it was offset (and then some) by the 10 MPH crosswind from the west. Monday wasn't much better -- it was -20° F in the morning and -10 deg F mid-day. The weather finally broke that night: Tuesday morning it was a balmy 0°, though that low pressure center was being ushered in by a 25 MPH southeast wind, just in time for an exposed 12-mile southbound ice crossing.

The bitter temperatures (and my newfound respect for polar travelers who contend with even colder temperatures) was certainly the headline for my first four days, but there is a valuable lesson here: The importance of "staying in control" in such conditions (wording courtesy of Roman Dial). The cold has a way of causing, accelerating, punishing one for—and preventing the reversal of—mistakes and oversights.

Gear Crush: Rock-It Turns Your Water Bottle Into a Speaker

Let's face it: We are music obsessed and addicted, thanks to the relatively recent birth of iPods and other rattle-proof MP3 players that have become part of the fabric of life. And a compact new gadget makes it easy to broadcast your own soundtrack anywhere, even biking, hiking, or camping.

Rock-It ($49.99) is the first ever portable vibration speaker that will turn anything into a speaker. It turns music into vibration sequences and sends them through the Rock-It pod, which you can stick to any object and turn it instantly into a speaker. It also weighs only ½ lb and small enough to fit in your back pocket.

We haven't yet tested how well Rock-It would stick or sound while attached to a tent, but assuming it's not damp, we think it has a shot. The company recommends cardboard boxes, hollow objects, lamp shades, plastic cups, and windows.