Category: Features
There’s something I need to get off my chest. You probably started reading this article thanks to the accompanying photos, but they’re a total ruse. OK, yes, that is me in the matching pink ski goggles and jacket. And yes, I did take a snowkiting lesson in a picturesque field. And yes, I did, in […]
EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: The Unlikely Thru-Hiker The following excerpt, about a next-generation trailblazer, comes from Derick Lugo’s new memoir, The Unlikely Thru-Hiker, available now. We’ve been hiking for more than three hours, and I’m still trying to figure out how to swing my poles when we arrive. I see Josh staring at the distant mountains that […]
This story was originally published in the Summer/Fall 2019 issue of Appalachia. Dan McGinness is among the hiker elite in New England, where many of us admire his exploits. Four years ago, he endured a scary, unplanned overnight in mid-December. He agreed to show me where he’d hunkered down that night so that I could […]
As J.R. Harris likes to tell it today, the first time he saw grass, he tried to smoke it. He’s joking, of course, but the rib illustrates how shocking an introduction to the backcountry can be for a 14-year-old city kid. Climbing off the bus at Ten Mile River Scout Camps in Narrowsburg, N.Y., […]
A man stands at the edge of the campfire, illuminated by the orange glow of an ever-growing flame as it licks the rock ring surrounding it. I’m nervous for his safety. He has been drinking for some time now, and one wrong step could result in injury. But he maintains his balance, cupping his hands […]
I’ve long been haunted by the dream of a girl who could shrink mountains down to the size of her palm, slip them into her pockets, and carry them with her wherever she went. It’s a fantastical idea, the kind a child conjures up while lying on her back, looking up at a star-packed sky. […]
In August 2010, AMC Director of Huts and Pinkham James Wrigley received a call that a young hiker was in critical condition after falling hundreds of feet down steep sloping rock. The teen had been hiking on the Huntington Ravine Trail of Mount Washington, one of the most challenging and dangerous trails in the White […]
The number of New Hampshire peaks over 4,000 feet is thought to be 48, but according to AMC cartographer Larry Garland, that count could change. If you’ve hiked in the White Mountains over the last twenty years, there’s a good chance that the maps of Larry Garland were guiding you. For over two decades, this […]
This story was originally published in the Summer/Fall 2018 issue of Appalachia Journal. Pam Bales left the firm pavement of the Base Road and stepped onto the snow-covered Jewell Trail to begin her mid-October climb. She planned a six-hour loop hike by herself. She had packed for almost every contingency and intended to walk alone. […]
Many American families approach the snow and cold of winter as something to be endured, even feared. Scandinavian families, on the other hand, approach the cold as something to be embraced and enjoyed, and they even have vocabulary for it. The Danish word hygge, pronounced hoo-guh, describes the pursuit of joy and coziness, even when […]
Are you ready to try fastpacking? For ultralight backpackers and trail runners, the answer might be a speedy: ‘YES!’ Kristina Folcik didn’t know she was about to have her world rocked. A 40-year-old ultrarunner from Tamworth, N.H., she has been zipping up and down trails in the White Mountains for nearly 20 years. In fact, […]
As a teenager, I struggled with alcohol addiction. I was able to find my healing by going back to what my Nipmuc ancestors called the Original Instructions. These are the teachings that instill our sacred place in the world: the renewal and remembering of our intimate relationship to all the life forces in the universe. […]
It’s a cold, sparklingly clear day in March, and the White Mountains are filled with hikers, skiers, and snowshoers, each leaving distinctive tracks in the piles of late-spring powder. It seems like everyone is chattering about the weather; each group we pass has something to say about the glorious conditions. We’re on our way to […]
Each year the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) compiles stats on how many people attempt and complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. They recently updated their numbers for 2017, which provides an opportunity to look at some overarching trends. More and more hikers are attempting a thru-hike…. Per ATC’s estimates, the number of hikers attempting a northbound […]
I. One of my oldest memories survives from an unknown year in the early 1980s, when I was 6 or 7, and takes place near the top of a long-since-forgotten mountain in Acadia National Park. I had been following my parents as usual when we stepped out from the canopied shelter of the trail onto […]
During years of appointments, my doctor and I have spent as much time talking about our hiking trips as about my age and medical diagnoses. A while ago, he casually said, “People who have the hardest time facing the realities of physical decline are those who have had an active outdoor life.” He offered these […]
Getting to Katahdin is as much of an adventure as being there. Just ask the countless Appalachian Trail thru-hikers who have ended their 2,185-mile journey on the 5,268-foot summit that doubles as the AT’s northern terminus and Maine’s highest peak. For our little crew of four skiers, reaching Katahdin meant delaying our trip twice due […]
I’ve long admired the sinuous grace of telemark skiing. If you’ve ever watched skiers make their way downhill as you rode up a chairlift, you know exactly what I mean. Even the best alpine skiers can look like they’re bullying the mountain, slashing and carving the snow to their will. Good telemarkers, on the other […]
What follows is an excerpt from Desperate Steps: Life, Death, and Choices Made in the Mountains of the Northeast, available now from AMC Books. The screen door on the ranger’s cabin slammed hard in the wind. Baxter State Park Ranger Ralph Heath rose stiffly from the supper table to secure the latch, uneasy over the […]
Dear Mr. Mann— I have in my head a scheme for an attempt at preserving some of the finest bits of Nature near Boston. I want, if possible, to interest you… Charles Eliot, a young Boston landscape architect, wrote those words to Appalachian Mountain Club President George C. Mann on March 5, 1890. Eliot, AMC’s […]