Some runs are for fun. Others are to prove you can do it. The Atacama Crossing falls into the latter category. If you want to run 250 kilometers (about 155 miles) through the driest place on Earth, this race is for you. There’s also spectacular scenery of Chilean sand dunes, salt lakes, and volcanoes — a landscape that’s been compared to Mars. But no guarantee you’ll fully enjoy this grueling experience.
What makes this race so hard? Obviously, the distance. But also an altitude averaging 8,000 feet throughout the race. And did we mention how dry it is?
The race starts at an elevation of 10,500 feet in Chile’s beautiful Rainbow Valley, named for its colorful rocks. The route has ups and downs as it drops to lower elevations, sometimes following narrow valleys that ancient Inca traders used. Runners will traverse a slot canyon and spend a night camping beside a flamingo-filled lake. The race ends in the touristy town of San Pedro de Atacama.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
Atacama Crossing is one of the annual 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series. The other three races are the Gobi March in Mongolia, the Namib Race in Namibia, and The Last Desert in Antarctica. Runners can enter just one or sign up for all four. Talk about bragging rights!
Runner Ash Mokhtari has run the Atacama Crossing eight times! In an interview for the Marathon Handbook, he talked about how he prepares for the race. He starts training six months ahead of time. Since he lives in Canada — not an ideal prepping ground for a hot, dry race — he spends 30 minutes in the sauna after training runs.
San Pedro’s main tourist street. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
“Ideally if you don’t live in a hot place, you want to spend two weeks in the desert to allow your body to acclimatize to the heat,” Mokhtari said. “The Atacama is a high altitude desert so the body needs three weeks to acclimatize to the altitude as well.” He acknowledged that this isn’t possible for most people unless they’re retired or pro ultra runners. He recommends cross-training and practicing running with a backpack.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
The Atacama Desert’s uneven, shoe-chewing terrain “will bring even the most seasoned ultra runner to an eventual walking pace,” Mokhtari said. “At places the salt flats alternate between hard-packed salt sheets, razor sharp crystals growing out of the ground or frozen-cauliflower heads that might crumble into a hole with your foot in it.”
The next Atacama Crossing goes from March 30 to April 5, 2025. Competitors need to arrive by March 28 — or sooner if they can, to acclimatize. Plan to stay afterward to relax and enjoy the Atacama Desert at a more leisurely pace. For a real treat, you can book a luxury stay at Explora Atacama, which offers multiple saunas, pools, and Jacuzzis to ease your sore legs.
Stay and relax after the race. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Disclaimer: While this article was not sponsored, Explora Atacama hosted the writer during her visit to Chile. As always, Outdoors Wire operates independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
Liz Clark logged 20,000 miles in 10 years sailing along the Central American coastline and around the Pacific Islands in the 40-foot sailboat Swell. In her book “Swell: A Sailing Surfer’s Voyage of Awakening,” she pours her heart out about her inner struggles as a lone female set on freedom and outer challenges like navigating the oceans and keeping her craft shipshape. The hardcover edition came out in 2018, but the new paperback (released this month) will expand the story’s audience.
Clark grew up in San Diego, the child of sailing parents. When she was nine, the family took a seven-month sailing trip along the coast of Mexico. She started surfing while earning her environmental studies degree at UC Santa Barbara. In 2001, after graduating, she met Barry Schuyler, who had founded the environmental studies program in 1969. Schuyler wanted to help her live her sailing dreams, so he offered her the use of Swell in exchange for vicariously accompanying her on her voyage.
Captain and author Liz Clark. / Photo by Jianca Lazarus, courtesy of Patagonia
“Swell” is the story of a young woman who prizes self-discovery and freedom above all else. She faces the ambivalence and inner contradictions that most people do, especially the young and those with a lot of time to think. While she is critical of the capitalist priorities of the U.S., she’s also extremely American. What other country so strongly emphasizes the right to the pursuit of happiness?
Clark stays determined to see the best in people despite plenty of brushes with creepy guys and a terrifying, drawn-out situation of being stuck on an island with a broken boat and an abusive boyfriend. She is very earnest about her spiritual epiphanies and tries to put them into practice when dealing with other people. She loves ocean creatures and faithfully reports underwater encounters with those she meets while swimming and surfing. She sees up close the horrific human-generated plastic waste floating in the ocean and washed up on islands. And it scares her.
Photo by Tahui Tufaimea, courtesy of Patagonia
Above all, “Swell” is about the quest for freedom. This lovely sample passage is typical of her life at sea when things are going well, and especially resonates for young women raised on the male gaze. “Out here, there is no one to compare myself with—there’s not even a full-length mirror to critique my appearance. I let my hair go wild. I laugh out loud, and break into dance without a second thought. I can fester in my filth or spend half an hour massaging shampoo into my scalp. I wear an odd ensemble from the clothing bin—or nothing at all. Some granny panties that Mom gave me have become my go-to sailing uniform. I can scream, cry, and sing all in one breath with no one to judge me. I want everyone to feel this deep liberation.”
Photo by Tahui Tufaimea, courtesy of Patagonia
The book resembles her unstructured life at sea. But I would have liked a more practical backbone. I constantly found myself disoriented, asking, where is she? How much time has gone by? Who is this person who’s suddenly popped up on the boat and is sailing with her for some unspecified time?
I also wanted more information about her finances. Clark downplays anything to do with money, apparently as part of an anti-capitalist stance. She grumbles about having to do any work without meaning to her, even as she’s visiting places where people are poor and doing whatever they can to subsist. While sailing, she built up a blog popular enough to inspire strangers to send her money. Corporations sponsored her. At one point, she met up with filmmakers documenting her voyage. She’s asked to speak around the world, write articles for magazines, and eventually write this book. All these career accomplishments are mentioned offhandedly, almost as though they’re intrusions into her life at sea.
Patagonia, one of her sponsors, published the book. Photos show Clark sailing, surfing, doing yoga on beaches, and paddling a board with her darling ocean-going cat Amelia on the front. She also includes portraits of people she meets on the island and a fun photo of her and a friend singing backup for Jimmy Buffett when he did a surprise concert at an obscure Bora Bora Bar.
Photo by Jianca Lazarus, courtesy of Patagonia
This thought-provoking book will make readers question their own lives. Are we free enough? Are we too materialistic? How can we be more spiritual and tread more lightly on the earth? Have we chosen the right path?
Near the end of the book, Clark sums it all up. “I am not the best sailor or the best surfer, or the most credentialed at anything, but chasing my dream has taught me that fulfillment and self-love don’t come from being ‘the best.’ They come from pursuing our passions and connecting to our own spirits, communities, and the world.”
Writer received a free copy of the book for review.
The large and hairy Sasquatch has captured people’s imaginations for millennia. In British Columbia’s Harrison River Valley, the newly opened Harrison Visitor Centre and Sasquatch Museum celebrates this famous character. The Harrison River Valley, known for hot springs, mountains, and rivers, is about 90 minutes east of Vancouver and three hours northeast of Seattle.
While many people admire Squatch in his kitschy Bigfoot form, others love the idea that such a wild creature could possibly live so close to modern humans, hidden in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. The Sts’ailes — sovereign Coast Salish First Nation people who have long lived in the Harrison River Valley — take Sasquatch very seriously as a spiritual being who watches over the land and can move between the physical and spiritual realms at will. The Sts’ailes word for the creature is Sa:sq’ets, which means “hairy man.” They have generations of oral stories about Sa:sq’ets, which is probably where the word Sasquatch came from.
Photo by Robyn Bessenger, courtesy of Tourism Harrison
“It is an honor to be a part of the Harrison Visitor Centre & Sasquatch Museum planning committee and to contribute an authentic Sts’ailes perspective on the Sa:sq’ets,” Boyd Peters, rights and title director of Sts’ailes, said in a press release. “The stories, culture, teachings and history of our People with the Sa:sq’ets are to be respected for future generations. The connection to our sacred lands and healing are to be portrayed with a deep sense of pride and reverence with the Sa:sq’ets.”
Photo by Robyn Bessenger, courtesy of Tourism Harrison
The Harrison Visitor Centre and Sasquatch Museum (a collaborative effort between Tourism Harrison, the Sts’ailes, and the accessibility-focused Rick Hansen Foundation) offers diverse exhibits. The Land of the Giants is a standout feature, showcasing the region’s indigenous wildlife, such as bald eagles and sturgeon, alongside the iconic Sasquatch. Visitors will also see a recreated Sts’ailes longhouse, castings of suspiciously large feet, interpretive panels, and storyboards about prominent Sasquatch researchers, such as Thomas Steenburg and John Green.
Photo by Robyn Bessenger, courtesy of Tourism Harrison
In “A Light Through the Cracks,” Beth Rodden recounts her amazing climbing accomplishments. She also shares an underlying story of food and weight obsession, sometimes crippling self-doubts, and the traumatic legacy of being kidnapped while climbing in Kyrgyzstan. This book celebrates elite sports while demonstrating their physical and psychological toll.
Rock climbers have probably seen endless documentaries and magazine covers chronicling Rodden’s victories. Some may have even had her poster up in their teenage bedrooms. For those unfamiliar with the sport, Rodden specialized in free climbing, which means she used her gear only for fall protection, not to help her move up the rock. She was best known for her climbs in Yosemite, including establishing a new El Capitan route called Meltdown in 2008. At the time, Meltdown was considered the hardest traditional climb in the world. Nobody repeated it until 2018.
Photo courtesy of Little A
Published by Amazon imprint Little A, “A Light Through the Cracks” opens in Amsterdam in August 2000. Rodden and her three fellow climbers have just escaped from their kidnappers. Her then-boyfriend/climbing partner Tommy Caldwell pushed their captor off a cliff, saving them all. And making Rodden feel extremely indebted. The story goes back and forth in time between several threads — her amazing rock climbing efforts and wins, her mental health struggles, and the kidnapping.
Depending on your interests, one thread will be more gripping than another. Lots of climbing details and lingo went over my head. For example, she frequently uses the verb “sending,” which means to get to the top of the rock in one go without falling. It’s not too hard to pick up the meaning, but non-climbers will feel like they’re peeking into an unfamiliar and very intense world.
Photo by Ryan Moon
Many people will relate to Rodden’s desperate need for control. This was related both to her sport — the heavier you are, the harder it is to pull your body up the rock (plus, many companies didn’t want to sponsor fat girl climbers) — and wanting to prove she had not been broken by the kidnapping. She and Caldwell got married, stayed climbing partners, and helped each other tamp down any mental health issues.
Rodden was only 20 years old and already a professional climber when she was kidnapped. It was a bitter pill to become more famous for surviving a kidnapping than for sending the hardest routes. Throughout the book, she circles back to Kyrgyzstan, revealing more details each time, touching the experience here and there as though it still burns.
Her group’s captors were guerilla soldiers of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Rodden, Caldwell, John Dickey, and Jason Smith endured six days of being held hostage while dodging fire from Kyrgyz soldiers. Her writing expresses the terror that all four felt, but with her added fear of rape.
Photo courtesy of Little A
She describes hiding under a boulder with her captors and fellow climbers. “I was scared to sleep and desperate not to be awake. I needed to be both alert and inured. What if another firefight broke out? What if they killed the boys and I woke up alone? I didn’t even know where I was. I could never get home.”
That’s the kind of experience you don’t get over by sucking it up and continuing to exercise, as Rodden tried for years. Many readers will relate to trying to find ways to overcome trauma and take control in a world that is so beyond our control that our efforts are laughable. This book is a well-written page-turner, even if you’ve never climbed more than a flight of stairs.
Writer received a free copy of the book for review.
Wild Diversity wants to see more members of BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ communities outside, whether hiking a trail, paddling a canoe, or camping in the wilderness. Since its founding in 2017, the Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit has tackled an outstanding number of initiatives and programs, including youth summer camps and group adventures for adults. The organization has also trained guides representative of the communities it serves.
Founder Mercy M’fon talked to Outdoors Wire about the need for Wild Diversity, its accomplishments so far, and its dreams for the future.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Outdoors Wire: Tell us briefly why you started developing Wild Diversity.
M’fon: We started because we wanted to support the BIPOC and LGBTQ community. They were facing a lot of political actions against them. And we know that outdoors provides healing, helps people reset, helps relax, and brings people joy. And I wanted to really be a part of facilitating that for our community.
So we started in 2017. We did this gear drive to get gear so we can run the adventures. It became such a central part of the work we do in helping get people out accessibly. They don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on gear. They can just join us on one of our activities, see if they like it, and not worry about anything else.
We do adventures in Oregon and Washington. Our organization does a wide variety of adventures because we want people to find their own personal love language in the outdoors.
Photo courtesy of Wild Diversity
Outdoors Wire: What obstacles may discourage people in your communities from getting into outdoor adventure?
M’fon:Similar to a lot of people, the outdoors can just be really scary, first and foremost. There’s the gear, there’s the cost, there’s the community, there’s the knowledge and education about going outside and being safe outdoors. For the communities that we serve, they also face things like intimidation, people threatening them. Assault. They face violence outdoors just for existing sometimes. So, it can be really challenging.
We like to go outside as a community. We definitely provide all the education. We’re not just taking people on adventures. For example, if we went on a backpacking trip, we’re teaching them how to properly pack and fit their backpack. Teaching them how to cook, do the critter hang, and even to use the bathroom outdoors, which makes people nervous, too. So we really like to provide them with enough information that they feel comfortable going out on their own or with friends or family. And that’s our goal as a part of these beautiful community experiences is increasing their confidence and competence outdoors.
Photo courtesy of Wild Diversity
Outdoors Wire: It looks like you’ve gathered a large number of diverse guides. How did you find each other?
M’fon: I really like to believe that all these guides found us. In the outdoor industry, you see many organizations say, “We can’t find anyone, we can’t find anyone.” It was always the reoccurring narrative around why they didn’t have diverse guides and diverse representation in the organization.
We put a call out every year for guides. And, some years, we get close to 100 applications of people wanting to join our program. And I think it’s just like there’s people in the community out there that says like, “Yes, I want to support this community. I want to bring joy and access and comfort to this community.” And really just believing and buying into our mission and the work that we’re doing.
The thing about having a guide development program is that you get people who say, “Hey, I might not be a professional who’s been doing this for years and years, but I’m willing to learn how to show up for our community and be outdoors.” I think that is a big step that creates more openness to it. If we’re looking at an industry that doesn’t have a lot of diversity, and we’re asking for diversity that doesn’t exist — are we creating the stair steps for that diversity to exist and to thrive?
Photo courtesy of Wild Diversity
Outdoors Wire: How do you choose from all those guide applications?
M’fon: We look at the applications as a team. For us, the most important thing is “would I want to be on a trip with this person who’s applying?” It’s a lot about personality. I can teach them the camp craft skills, I can teach them the risk management. But are they going to be the person that spending a weekend with them, you’re like, “I want to get out in the outdoors again? I had such a fulfilling time.” And that is the number one thing we’re looking for with our guide program.
Photo courtesy of Wild Diversity
Outdoors Wire: What can hikers of any background do to try to support other hikers’ comfort outdoors?
M’fon: When we think about creating welcoming spaces in the outdoors, I think a smile and a hello goes a long way. I’ve heard people say, “I go up to every BIPOC person and I shake their hand.” And I’m like, that could kind of be awkward. It’s like targeting in a different way. The person’s very well-meaning, but it can be uncomfortable when somebody’s giving you this attention that you’re not sure about. So I would just say a smile and a hello goes a long way.
And work on being judgment-free. Not everybody who goes outdoors has the high-end gear or even knows what they’re doing out there. But they’re trying their best. If we can show them empathy and compassion for their situation and not judge them that they’re not at the level we’re at, I think that’s really huge.
Photo courtesy of Wild Diversity
Outdoors Wire: What have you learned in this work that has surprised you?
M’fon: I don’t know if I was in a pessimistic place or if I was just unsure, but I thought it would be something that would be like some youth in the future will have an easier time in the outdoors because of the work we’re doing today. And then we started programming. And the surprising part was that I and our team and all the guides we worked with over the years, we’re making an impact today. With the events that we do, with the representation that we support, with the opportunities and the access we provide. It is not some far off into the future thing that’s going to be the change maker. It is every single thing that our team is doing today, right now, to bring this joy and access to our community.
Many runners experience a sense of freedom while traversing a quiet trail. The American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) takes freedom further by letting people run in just their shoes.
“The Nude Race Series (NRS) is a series of clothes-optional 5K cross-country runs hosted by AANR clubs throughout the Southwest Region and conducted on the club’s private property,” said Rick Wall, NRS coordinator for the AANR Southwest Region. “The runs are open to the public and while primarily family oriented recreational events, they are also competitive enough for serious runners to compete.”
If you’re unfamiliar with nude recreation, it might sound racy. That’s not the point at all. In its more than 90 years of existence, AANR has promoted nudism as a wholesome, natural experience while staunchly opposing sexual exploitation of the human body.
“Many who did not grow up in a nudist environment find it difficult to fully grasp the concept that regardless of age, nudists are comfortable in their own skin,” according to an AANR statement. “The human body is merely the vessel that carries us through life, and the transition from child to teen to adult for a nudist is comfortably free of much angst that textiles experience.”
Nude Race Series
The Sunbelt states are most popular for nude recreation, Wall said, because they offer year-round opportunities. Some of the upcoming races include the Skinnydipper Sun Run in Decatur, Texas, on April 27; Run, Walk, Crawl in Depew, Oklahoma, on May 11; and Bare as you Dare in Alvord, Texas, on September 16. The 5Ks happen on private nudist club properties. In its 27 years, more than 10,000 runners have participated in the Nude Racing Series.
“Our runs attract dedicated nudists as well as those curious about nude recreation,” Wall said. “A majority of the runners are in the 40 -75 age range and we have one runner that is a regular participant that is 93! Typically, approximately 75% of the runners are male.”
Don’t things get a little, well, floppy? “Many nude runs are actually clothing optional, which allows for runners to wear support if they feel they need it,” Wall said. “In actuality running nude is very natural and a large majority of runners are very comfortable running totally naked. Of course, the use of sunscreen is very important.”
Runners enjoy meeting body-positive people of all ages, creeds, genders, ethnic origins, and sexual orientations. The runs usually end with pool parties on nudist club properties. “Regardless of the reason for participation, almost all the runners enjoy the comradery and sense of community that takes place during and after each run,” Wall said.
“I had always been an outdoor adventurer, from my youth as a whitewater guide to my many wilderness expeditions on mountain bikes and sea kayaks in midlife, to skateboarding and surfing and flying experimental planes into my fifties,” the bestselling author and former firefighter said in an interview released by her publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing. “But I looked around and there really were hardly any women my age out there with me.”
While she saw plenty of men her age and older, she realized that her peers were dialing back their adventure. “So I began to look at the research and also to talk to women who were still doing things outside. And what I found was surprising even to me.”
Photo courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing
Paul takes readers around the country to meet women ages 50 to 90 who are still getting outside to challenge themselves, learn new things, take risks, and chase awe. These women include 80-year-old scuba diver Louise Wholey, who braves the chilly waters of Monterey, California; Kittie Weston-Knauer, a 74-year-old BMX racer and instructor in Des Moine, Iowa; and the Wave Chasers, a group of boogie boarding senior women in San Diego. “Tough Broad” shares Paul’s interviews, research about aging, and experiences joining these women — her role models — in their chosen outdoor adventures.
“We need templates in our life,” Paul writes. “We need to see our possible selves in someone else’s grand exploits.”
Caroline Paul riding her one wheel. / Photo courtesy of Caroline Paul
My favorite chapter was about wing-walking. Seventy-one-year-old Cynthia Hicks likes to Google “something fun to do here” when she travels. That’s how she discovered Mason Wing Walking Academy in Sequim, Washington. In the 1920s, when there were lots of surplus planes left over from World War I, this daredevil activity became popular as part of aerial shows. Today, people can still learn how to climb out of their seats in a red biplane, attach themselves to a cable on the wing, and stay there while the plane does loop-de-loops.
The author beautifully describes the day that Marilyn Mason taught her to wing walk. “The plane rockets skyward. As it climbs, my mind shuffles around in a state of bewilderment. It ransacks neurons and old memories for a pattern to latch on to. Too late. The horizon curdles, falls away. Spinning earth, buffeting air, iceberg clouds flashing by.”
In the wing walking chapter, Paul talks about how research on the state of awe has exploded recently. “I recognize how perfectly wing walking primes us for awe: there is the majestic view at thirty-five hundred feet that feels almost religious; there is the total disequilibrium of doing something so antithetical to every survival instinct; there is the exhilaration of twirling and ricocheting and falling in a vast sky.”
While less active people often see adventure activities as thrill-seeking, Paul wonders at her underlying drivers, especially as she ages. “Could this be what has really been motivating my outdoor quests these past few years? Instead of adrenaline, have I unwittingly been seeking awe?”
Virginia Rose, avid birdwatcher and one of the women interviewed in Paul’s book. / Photo courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing
“Tough Broad” is an entertaining read. It’s sure to inspire women to continue to enjoy the outdoors, create new neural pathways as they try new things, and enjoy the camaraderie of their sisters in adventure into their later years.
Writer received a free advance copy of the book for review.
Outdoor adventuring can take you all over the world. Today, let’s dive into some of the most incredible whitewater rafting excursions you can go on without ever leaving the United States.
What makes a spot perfect for whitewater rafting? If you’re a passionate rafting enthusiast, you’ll probably prioritize places with reliable local outfitters, gorgeous scenery, and exciting rapids that suit your skill level. Lucky for you, there are plenty of places throughout the U.S. that fit the bill. Start planning your next destination rafting trip with this list of six incredible places for whitewater rafting. You can even explore a first-person account of rafting through the Grand Canyon here.
On sunny January days, Brits, Canadians, and other tourists from cooler climes revel in the warmth of Barbados. It’s a welcoming country for visitors.
While Barbados is known as the easternmost Caribbean island, it’s technically in the Atlantic Ocean. The island country is only 21 miles long by 14 miles wide, but there’s plenty to do there on and off the beach. Plus, there’s a surprising amount of geographical diversity for such a small island. The southern and western shores are best for swimmers and beachgoers, while the wilder, hillier eastern coast attracts surfers and cliff walkers. Plan your adventure with this list of the best outdoorsy things to do in Barbados.
For some people, winter is a slow season for outdoor recreation. Cold temperatures settle in, leaves fall off their trees, and many plants go dormant until warmer weather arrives. Hikers who enjoy lush landscapes may feel like their hobby is on hiatus until spring approaches. Swimmers who aren’t up for polar plunges will pack away their swimsuits until summer. But it doesn’t have to be that way. For determined nature enthusiasts, cold weather is the perfect excuse for indulging in a whole suite of winter outdoor activities.
Even if you’ve never tried winter sports, there are plenty of beginner-friendly options to explore. Does skiing seem too intense for you? Try sledding instead. Prefer to relax and take it slow? Visit a hot springs resort and unwind. Prone to thrill seeking? Maybe it’s time for you to take up snowboarding. Outdoorsy folks from all walks of life can find winter outdoor activities that suit them. All you have to do is get inspired and discover a hobby that motivates you to go outside again.
Make that process easy with this list of seven fun winter outdoor activities. This round-up includes everything from skiing to birdwatching. Peruse your options and gear up for a winter full of outdoor adventures!
