62-year-old has 400 marathons to go
We’re not sure if we should be impressed or appalled by Japan’s Hajime Nishi. Maybe we’re both. We like the idea of setting ambitious goals, and Nishi is certainly unafraid of reaching beyond his grasp. He’s aiming to complete 1,000 different marathons in 250 countries, which would sound ludicrous...
When it comes to sweating the small stuff, Steve Green is our Yoda, our guru, our sensei
If you’re interested in laying down some of your backpacking burden, you can find plenty of advice in bookstores and online. (Type “ultralight backpacking” into the YouTube search box and you’ll get over 3,100 videos.) But no one synthesizes the opposite poles of obsessive-compulsive, shorten-and-drill-out-your-toothbrush hysteria and utterly...
Achieving Backcountry Hero Status Now Virtually Impossible
This is how extraordinarily tough Amos Richards is: the 64-year-old North Carolinian was hiking in Utah’s desert backcountry, around Little Blue John Canyon, when he fell about 10 feet, suffering multiple leg fractures and internal injuries. He was alone and unable to put weight on the injured...
Sorry for the interruption
Apologies to all who visited the site this evening. We’re learning our craft on the job—it’s like an old world apprenticeship program, absent the stingy and abusive master who actually knows the business—and most steps forward are pretty halting. So, for a bit, you might have...
It’s not that unusual: over 60 and radically fit
There’s a condescending “good for you” tone to many profiles of very fit seniors. The implication is that tough old birds are also rare birds. We much prefer articles like this recent overview of senior athletes—runners and bikers and mountain hikers—living in the Los Gatos, California, area. The...
The Silent Generation? Really?
The Pew Center is doing interesting work on how people use the internet. Did you know that the thing people do the most online is search, and second most is get health information? At every age. So teenagers and olds are all preoccupied with their bodies and how they are...
More good beer news
You don’t need more reasons to drink beer in moderation. It is salubrious. This has been established. But it never hurts to have additional validation of this claim, another arrow in the quiver when hectored by stiff-necked puritans. So there is this analysis, which says that people who...
Adventure racers love the thrill of plodding through the wilderness for four days
First, let’s establish that only a small percentage of young people should try this. Second, let’s clarify that it is kind of awesome. If you’ve got the stamina…and some fifty-plus racers do…there are still openings for the Mother Lode 4 Day Expedition Race (September...
Unnamed 95-year-old is tougher than you are
Africanized honey bees attacked a 95-year-old man yesterday, stung him enough times to kill him–but didn’t. The Los Angeles Times reports that the bees, riled up by an exterminator, bit the man 400 times. A police spokesman said the man was actually bitten “thousands of...
Sell gold, buy wood
You don’t need this. You can’t afford this. It’s a museum piece. But look…just look… This is the Baron, from Roy Stuart Surfboards.It’s an old-school 12 feet long. It weighs 45 pounds. It lists at $528K. http://www.olosurfer.com/Baron.html
Long-term relationships are either lethal or preservative
There is no good explanation why scientists can’t figure this out. They have a huge sample size. They have millennia of longitudinal data. We’re pretty sure they haven’t settled this one because it keeps people asking the question and paying out those research dollars to solve it. For those who want to keep...
