Table of contents for December 2017 in Outside

Major Disconnect This month, contributing editor Aaron Gulley reports on his trip last March to Russian Siberia, where he joined the native Nenets tribe of reindeer herders on its semiannual migration across the Arctic tundra (“Information Freeze,” page 92). As a commercial expedition, the trip, offered by British tour company Secret Compass, is on the fringe of the adventure market, but it’s not necessarily unusual. Our readers have been paying for extremely remote and authentic experiences for as long as we’ve been publishing the magazine. What’s unusual is the motivation: a “digital detox.” For Gulley and some of his fellow travelers, the excursion with the Nenets was a way to forcibly unplug, something that’s increasingly in demand in the adventure-travel business. Operators are now catering to clients looking for ways…

Failure to pack the proper emergency supplies is a fast way to turn adventure into misadventure, and like most people who wander far from Walgreens’ range, I’ve built my first-aid kit through bitter trial and error. But I’ve got it down now, and here’s the best addition I’ve made to my ready-for-anything list: vodka. A flask of 80-proof is wildly useful, wherever you are. Vodka is literally—not just psychologically—good medicine. It’s a disinfectant, an antimicrobial, and an anesthetic, so it can clean a cut, prevent infection, and de-stress the patient all at once. Dab it on poison ivy to stop the itching. Pour it on a jellyfish sting to quell the pain—no need to ask someone to pee on you. Vodka cleans dirty surfaces and can sterilize a needle or…

“It never gets easier, you just go faster.” —GREG LEMOND TRAINING TIP You don’t have to covet 80-meter climbing ropes or be a gram-obsessed through-hiker to understand what makes Eastside Sports in Bishop, California, the greatest mountain shop in America. All you need to know is that the place, open since 1977 and known as Wilson’s (for the former owner), long ago transcended gear-store status to become one of the great community centers and devotional sites for alpine purists and dirtbags. Packed to the ceiling with more obscure and hyper-specialized toys than anyone could use in a lifetime, and staffed by weathered veterans who spend their days off trail-running barefoot and establishing new climbing routes, Wilson’s reassures road-weary adventurers that they have come home. Nestled between Mount Whitney and Yosemite…

RULE 1 FOLLOW THE LEADER Ever show up at a resort with no clue where to start? “Hire a guide,” says skier Cody Townsend. “Spending a little bit extra can ensure that you find the secret powder stashes, get to the resort-accessed backcountry, and enjoy your vacation that much more.” You might also be able to avoid lift lines and get tips on improving your technique along the way. At Park City Mountain Resort, a 7,300-acre paradise of massive bowls that is Utah’s largest ski area, the Peak to Peak Guided Ski Experience is a group excursion, tailored to your preferences, that takes you through the resort’s best advanced and expert terrain ($209; parkcitymountain.com). Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia has 8,171 acres across two glaciated peaks and offers free tours…

Flight delays, lame hotel gyms, and jet lag are enough to kill any traveler’s exercise motivation. But with this kit, you can keep a consistent fitness regimen—and still fit everything in your carry-on. a. PowerBeats3 wireless earphones $200 Bad headphones can ruin any workout. The PowerBeats3 are designed to remain com fortably in place while delivering exceptional sound quality without a tangle of cords. b. Darn Tough Lifestyle socks $20 Making a full wardrobe change in the locker room wastes precious time. That’s not an issue with Darn Tough’s Lifestyle socks, which blend work and play. The merino wool is formfitting, soft, and breathable enough for the gym, while the stylish patterns pair with slacks and dress shoes. c. Elite Surge 2.0 jump rope $30 Stash this speed rope in…

Holiday Gift Guide adventure tools, tested & reviewed nomad’s medicine chest adventurer’s wardrobe women’s men’s give up the good Heart (and Neck) Warmer fitness junkie’s pain cave give up the good Tree Time The gift of a watch says “You’re special.” The gift of the WeWood Laguna timepiece says “You’re one of a kind.” Italian manufacturer WeWood uses remnant hardwoods, so no trees are cut down to get that handsome, grainy bezel and band. For the Laguna, the brand reclaimed oak from old mooring posts used to mark off entrances or tie up boats in the canals of Venice, Italy. That oak is paired with precise Swiss movement, scratchproof glass, and glow-in-the-dark hands. For every watch it sells, WeWood plants a tree—over 500,000, from mangroves to ponderosa pines, across the…

Mikaela Shiffrin slept great. She always sleeps great. Then she ate two fried eggs, plus toast, no coffee, as she does every morning. Now it’s 9 A.M. on this bright June Thursday, the fourth day of the third week of her six-week early-summer training block. Her schedule prescribes a morning strength session, so off we drive from her parents’ house in Avon, Colorado, to the Westin Beaver Creek, where she works out when she’s in town. First: a warm-up on a spin bike. Ten minutes, moving her legs in circles in her Lululemon shorts, much like half the women here are moving their legs in circles in their Lululemon shorts—no big deal. Then we go into a small glass-doored room labeled MIKAELA’S CORNER. The Westin didn’t know what to do…

BY THE TIME Ben Boyer hit 40, he was falling apart. A former college athlete, he spent decades pushing his body in the weight room and felt those years of abuse in his knees. “I was hobbling around,” says Boyer, who lives near Jacksonville, Florida. “On a pain scale of one to ten, I was at four to six every day.” Boyer had already undergone knee surgery to repair tendon and cartilage damage, and he wasn’t interested in repeating the procedure, nor the lengthy recovery time that followed. He also didn’t want to spend the rest of his life on pain medicine. So he turned to stem-cell therapy, in which cells were taken from bone marrow in his pelvis and injected into his knees in hopes of relieving his arthritic…

ISLAMMED the aluminum bat into the laptop. Pieces of the shattered screen bounced on the metal table. Whack! Whack! Whack! The keys popped off. The display detached. Each time the bat landed, a satisfying crack echoed throughout the room like gunfire. I felt a surge of adrenaline. My heart raced and sweat pooled in my gloves. I lunged at a mannequin lying on the table, but one of my feet slipped and my legs splayed out into a split. The view from the floor was one of busted concrete, plastic shards, and broken glass. It was just another Friday night at the Wrecking Club, a “rage room” in Midtown Man hattan, where patrons pay to demolish all sorts of things. My friend Annegret Falkner, a neuroscientist who studies aggression at…

Scott Crady At Michigan’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Bridalveil Falls pours over 150-foot-high sandstone cliffs into Lake Supe rior. In the winter it freezes, attracting climbers willing to risk sketchy ice and a possible plunge into the half-frozen waves below. Crady and fellow Northern Michigan University student Joe Phill decided to brave the conditions last February. They set up anchors and rappelled down the cliff to the base, with a third friend belaying. Then Crady jugged back up his rope, bet ter positioning himself to shoot Phill, who was scaling ice so thin that when his pick went in he was often sprayed by the still flowing falls. “Climbing above Superior, you’re up against the elements and getting battered by snow and ice blowing off the lake,” says the 21-year-old…

It was the oldest play in the book, and I fell for it hard. I’d taken time off from college to travel in Europe and Africa, working my way from Paris to Morocco. Within two hours of getting off the ferry from Spain, I found myself in a rug shop, deep in the city of Tétouan. Apparently, I was there to nego tiate for a rug, whether I liked it or not. I’ve always been horrible at bargaining, and by the time I stumbled out of the shop, I realized that I’d just spent more than half my remaining cash. I liked the rug I bought, a striking red and black kilim, but I didn’t actually possess it. Like a fool, I’d agreed to let them ship it home for…

SOME STEM THERAPIES ARE SAFER—AND MORE EFFECTIVE— THAN OTHERS SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND Leukemia: The first successful stem-cell treatment was a bone-marrow transplant, performed in 1956 on a leukemia patient in New York. In 1986, the National Bone Marrow Registry was created for cancer patients. Heart failure: Several small trials have suggested that stem cells can reduce scar tissue in heartattack patients. In April 2016, results of a massive doubleblind, placebo-controlled trial showed 37 percent fewer cardiac events in such patients over a 12-month period. Advanced clinical trials are ongoing. Arthritic knee pain: A recent study by the Mayo Clinic suggests that stem cells are promising options for sports injuries and chronic pain. But more clinical trials are required. Tumors: U.S. Marshals seized vials of a live smallpox vaccine at a clinic…

IN THE WORLD of competitive running, Mike Wardian, 43, is known for piling up records. Some of them are playful: he’s clocked fastest times dressed as Elvis and Spider-Man. Others are more remarkable: in August, Wardian ran the Lead ville ultra and the Pikes Peak marathon back-to-back, breaking the combo’s FKT by almost five hours. The food in Wardian’s pantry is a similar mix of serious and surprising. He’s been vegetarian for 20 years, and he eats a lot. “Our family’s food budget is exorbitant,” he says. Here’s what he always keeps stocked. “I eat tons of Gerber baby food ($10 for eight). My favorite is bananas with apples and pears. Sometimes I’ll stir one into my oatmeal in the morning, or I’ll put a few in my drop bag…