Click here
for a selection of archived works by publication
Click here to find all ESPN.com stories from 2009 to now
*Click on the category header to expand or collapse the category pane
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival at 50: An oral history
Inside the country’s premier string band music fete—in the words of the people who’ve made it happen
5280
June 2023
#worthit?
With search and rescue teams strained by record call numbers, are recreationists' pursuit of novel feats crossing a line?
Backcountry
February 2023
The high cost of high country living
Breckenridge has the most short-term rentals of any municipality in the state—more than 4,000 in a town of just 5,100 permanent residents. What does that imbalance mean for those who live and work in this quintessential Rocky Mountain town?
5280
September 2022
*finalist for CRMA award in civic journalism
I reported on avalanches for 15 years. Then I triggered a huge one
After kicking off an enormous slide on a familiar backcountry run in Colorado, I was forced to reconsider my relationship with skiing
Outside
June 2022
Damned canyon
Will climate change doom a 12-mile marvel of highway engineering and upend life for commuters in Eagle and Garfield counties?
Vail-Beaver Creek
Summer 2022
When steel bends
Endurance racer Josh Tostado’s gritty career shifts into a softening afterglow
Beta
Spring 2022
The lesson in Senator Beck Basin
A death in the Colorado backcountry during a Level 2 avalanche course highlights an industry at a crossroads, and raises a crucial question: As safety schools boom, who is responsible for making sure the students come home?
Outside
April 2022
*recommended by NY Times
What it takes and why it's worth it
An essay reckoning with the joys and sacrifices of a life that prioritizes outdoor adventure
Polartec
January 2022
A bond maternal
Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin and her mother, Eileen, press on toward Beijing 2022 despite the tragic death of Eileen’s husband and Mikaela’s dad, Jeff
Vail-Beaver Creek
Winter 2022
The Million Dollar Traverse
Europe has always had something America doesn't: an alpine ski route connecting a network of full-service, premium lodges. That's about to change
Outside
December 2021
Can snowmobiling really go electric?
The beloved winter pastime has long been a massive polluter. Canadian startup Taiga Motors set out to transform the industry into something more environmentally friendly—and the big manufacturers are getting onboard
Outside
December 2021
Life and death in the mountains
After two teen suicides last year and a number of other close calls, how will Summit County address a long simmering mental health crisis?
5280
August 2021
*Longreads selection, finalist for CRMA award in civic journalism
Key to the Kingdom
How unchecked growth complicated access to Vermont's renowned MTB trail network—and threatened a 25-year-old success story in the process
Beta
Summer 2021
The final descent of Dean Cummings
From the outside, things seemed perfect for the former world extreme skiing champion: he had a family, a successful guiding business, and unending adventure out his front door in Valdez, Alaska. But something dark festered beneath the surface
Outside
February 2021
*Longreads Top Pick, recommended by NY Times, nominated for National Magazine Award
The new mountain-town migration
COVID-19 is shifting demographics across the country as people rethink their lives and priorities—and resort towns call to those looking for a new life. Here’s how and why a pair of families made the jump
Elevation Outdoors
October 2020
Survival of the fittest
A two-month-long window into one outdoor brand's attempt to stay afloat during the pandemic
Outside
July 2020
How the pandemic is forcing ski towns to rethink tourism
When once crowded mountain communities like Breckenridge, Colorado, saw visitors vanish this spring, locals scrambled to mitigate the economic damage and plot a return, while keeping their towns' character intact
Outside
June 2020
Promising new COVID-19 drug isn't new to mountaineers
Spanish-speaking guides call dexamethasone "levanta muertos" for the way it "brings life to a dead person"
Outside
June 2020
The quandary of Quandary
What’s to be done about the perennial mob of peak-baggers overwhelming Summit County’s beloved 14,000-foot mountain?
Colorado Summit
June 2020
How a lost pair of skis found their way home
The world isn’t actually going to shit—it just feels that way sometimes
Powder
May 2020
Skiing and the pandemic: New Zealand
The last in a five-part interview series with skiers around the world (links to other installments are in this story)
Powder
April 2020
Deciphering 'essential' during COVID-19
The industry remains open, but how do businesses decide if they should?
Bike
April 2020
What happens when you need a rescue during a pandemic
Inside a harrowing backcountry rescue at 11,000 feet in the time of COVID-19
Outside
March 2020
Passing on a mountain legacy
My late grandpa served in the Army's vaunted 10th Mountain Division, and every year we ski where he and his comrades trained to remember him
Outside
March 2020
Into the white
The bond uniting the Freaks, Aspen's fastest ski gang, runs deeper than the powder they chase
SKI
January 2020
Winter's last light
Sven Brunso built a life in front of the camera as the most published skier in history. But on Christmas Day 2016, a stunning suicide changed everything forever. This is a story of family, of unconditional love, of silent suffering in a beautiful place. It is also a story of skiing—and how one man found his way out of the dark
SKI
December 2019
Speed miners
Despite conflicting approaches and periodic dustups online, two local human endurance gurus share a singular goal: minting the fastest mountain athletes on the planet
Colorado Summit
Winter 2019
Where's Sunshine?
Twenty-one years after seven environmental extremists set Vail Mountain ablaze, only one is still at large. What happened to Josephine Sunshine Overaker?
Vail-Beaver Creek
Winter 2019
Remembering Davo Karničar
The reclusive Slovenian made two first descents of 8,000-meter peaks, including the only full descent of Everest. He died in a forestry accident near his home village of Jezersko
Outside
September 2019
The shootings that shook Malibu Creek State Park
When a father of two was shot through his tent in the Southern California park last year, the murder revealed a mysterious trail of previously unpublicized incidents that had happened nearby—and sparked a $90 million lawsuit
Outside
September 2019
The future of America's natural treasures
National parks are overcrowded and underfunded. But here’s why there’s reason for hope
Men's Journal
June 2019
Singletrack wars
Since 2011, a venomous battle has been waged over the two-wheeled soul of Nederland, Colorado (population 1,500). On one side: locals who ride the trails every day. On the other: people from down canyon in Boulder (population 107,000) who mostly ride them on weekends
Outside
April 2019
Giving up the gas
Backcountry ski icon Greg Hill's latest goal is even more audacious than his first descents: proving that a hardcore powder hound can go electric
Men's Journal
February 2019
Flight risk
Emergency helicopter crews race crash victims to the ER and pluck adventurers from remote mountaintops. But the most dangerous part of the job may be the choppers themselves
Men's Journal
September 2018
*Nominated for National Magazine Award
From dump to Don
How an urban wasteland in the heart of Toronto became the most unlikely mountain-biking mecca in North America
Bike
September 2018
Chasing a couple of geezers across the San Juans
Wherein I and a friend join weathered adventurers Denny Hogan, 68, and Matt Wells, 70, for a weeklong ski traverse through one of America's king mountain ranges
Outside
May 2018
Irmageddon
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma—one of the strongest storms to ever hit land—battered the Caribbean island of St. John with 200mph winds. This is the story of what it left behind
Outside
April 2018
*Selected for Best American Travel Writing 2019
The man who rode Cathedral Rock
Underground legend Simon Bosman, who grew up in the Rhodesian bush before becoming Sedona's first resident mountain biker, pedals on the brink of peril and potential
Bike
September 2017
Overexposed
When alpinist and photographer Cory Richards dug himself out of an avalanche in 2011, he emerged alive but scarred—an ascendant star in a community that tends to shun the very idea that trauma can have lasting effects. As his profile climbed ever higher, his career and personal life imploded. Six years later, one of the world’s best artist-adventurers comes clean about the panic attacks, PTSD, and alcohol abuse that nearly killed him
Outside
August 2017
*cover story
Taming the Savage Mountain
At age 54, Slovenian grandfather Davo Karnicar, still the only person to ski Mt. Everest, chases another unprecedented objective
The Red Bulletin
September 2017
I survived
Adventurers around the country detail how they lived through a series of near-death experiences
Men's Health
July 2017
The last days of Ueli Steck
How the world’s best alpinist made a last-second decision that would take his life
Outside
May 2017
Stone walled
How a Massachusetts watershed became the fiercest fat-tire battleground in America. Part 4 in a series
Bike
April 2017
Casualties of Wilderness
The untold story of why Montana remains the controversial epicenter of riding on federal land. Part 3 in a series
Bike
April 2017
Where tradition meets progress
Nowhere is access more polarizing or perplexing than in Northern California, the birthplace of the sport. Part 2 in a series
Bike
March 2017
The vitality of trust
Can land managers trust mountain bikers to play by the rules? Part 1 in a series on MTB access nationwide
Bike
March 2017
The most dangerous ride on snow
Skijoring—being towed on skis by a horse—seems simple enough. But when you add gates, big jumps, hanging rings, and 1,000-pound animals blasting through snow at high speeds, the real action begins. Sometimes, sadly, it's tinged with tragedy
SKI
February 2017
Top to bottom
For decades, some of the biggest stars in skiing have struggled with substance abuse—none more destructively than former big-mountain prodigy Aaron Estrada. As Estrada tells his story for the first time, can a sport that has always been inextricably linked with partying learn where to draw the line?
Mountain
Winter 2016
Something like a phenomenon
How has ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin become the most untouchable force on snow?
The Red Bulletin
December 2016
Hell on two wheels
The best American mountain biker in a generation has had to overcome heartbreaking tragedy to reach his pinnacle
Outside
August 2016
Mind full of risk
The complicated task of living fully, inches away from disaster
Elevation Outdoors
June 2016
Road to nowhere
How a group of mountain bikers in Vernal, Utah, stood up to big oil ... and won
Bike
May 2016
Avalanche rescue needs a revolutionary
Manuel Genswein has spent more than two decades burying himself alive and pushing shovels to their breaking point to determine the best ways to save snow-slide victims. His biggest challenge? Convincing the world’s most experienced rescuers that he’s right
Outside
January 2016
Road trip
Back-page essay reflecting on a near-fatal accident in rural Montana
SKI
December 2015
The cast
An ode to the characters who make your local ski area feel like home
Powder
November 2015
Holy of Holies
Skiing one of the most iconic lines in America
Vail-Beaver Creek
Summer 2015
Life and death on Shishapangma
Lost in the tragic accident that killed two elite skiers in Tibet was Martin Maier's incredible survival story
Backcountry
December 2014
Selling the mystique
Taos Ski Valley has been a purist’s dream—a hardcore skier’s mountain run by a family that hiked the steeps and resisted corporate schlock. But with a new owner and big developments on the horizon, can this sacred space hold on to that authentic soul?
Skiing
November 2014
Life on the Brink
One man's solitary devotion to a grueling trail high in Utah's Wasatch Range
Bike
November 2014
More than talent
Thalente Biyela was beaten, orphaned and addicted to drugs while he was still a child, but skateboarding provided escape from the inescapable
ESPN.com
December 2014
*ran on Page 1
Climbing's little helper
Several near deaths on the world’s highest peaks have shed light on a dangerous trend in mountaineering: rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs, particularly the powerful steroid dexamethasone
Outside
April 2013
The reunion
Some bonds run deeper than the mountains
Elevation Outdoors
October 2011
Hero complex
A brash new company is revolutionizing crisis response. So why all the enemies?
Outside
April 2011
The jewel of Bajhang
Maoists, man-eating bugs, and mysterious peaks in previously unskied Western Nepal
The Ski Journal
January 2010
Lofty goal
Profile of the NHL's first black player, Willie O'Ree, and the secret he kept
Boston Globe Magazine
December 2007
*cover story
Miracle in Moab
World champion adventure racer Danelle Ballengee's improbable survival story
Summit Daily News
December 2006
*cited in the Best American Sports Writing anthology
Searching for Snuffy
How the men of the 10th Mountain Division helped me discover my long-deceased grandfather
5280
December 2006
|