Great outdoor adventure writing - by Kearns & Holland & Donnellly

Three recent pieces of outdoor adventure writing struck me as noteworthy with each from a writer I haven't linked to previously.

For Field & Stream, Colin Kearns wrote "Life, Death and Steelhead" about Joe Randolph, a fishing guide in Oregon who took his life in November of 2012. Similar to a feature on Randolph in Outside Magazine a few months ago, the story by Kearns is about both the renowned river guide and the writer fishing with him. It's an excellent portrait that Kearns provides and also interesting to me was seeing a feature story by someone who I'd previously known of as an editor rather than longform writer. I haven't looked to see if he's published many other features, but it was really solid work on Randolph.

The second excellent piece to mention here was also written by someone I was familiar with (in this case as a writer for Outside), Eva Holland. Posted to the AOL Weather site, she did "Chasing Alexander Supertramp" and just as in the piece by Kearns, the writer is in the story as Holland went to the interior of Alaska to write about people taking the oftentimes dangerous path to the abandoned bus where Supertramp died in 1992. Born as Christopher McCandless, his story was told in the 1996 Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild that in 2007 was made into a movie. It's such an interesting piece of writing from Holland in it's portrayal of people connecting with an ideal and the ramifications of that on their safety as well as on other people.

The last outdoor story I found of note lately was more of a straight reported piece rather than narrative, but tremendously interesting nonetheless. For the Detroit News, Francis Donnelly wrote "Michigan hunter survives 7 days in Alaska wilds" about Adrian Knopps and his tale of survival in Southeast Alaska. Just amazing that Knopps made it through and the story was definitely compelling reading.

Outdoor adventure writing - by Chivers, Broyles & Rose

Three pieces of excellent outdoor-related writing to note here included two works from Outside Magazine and one from Field & Stream.

From the June issue of Outside was an essay by William Broyles titled "My son and the bear". Broyles is a noted author and screenwriter and his essay was about fathers and sons, hiking in the woods, and memories of dangerous times fighting in Vietnam. The writing is riveting and with an additional part of the story of course being about... a bear, the story reminded me of a great short piece "Pain" that C.J. Chivers (more on him later in this post) wrote for Field & Stream on a Grizzly Bear attack.

The second piece from Outside to mention here was "Escaping the recession by boat" from Sarah Rose. Written for the August issue of Outside, the story from Rose is about three 20-somethings sailing the Pacific. It's an interesting and well done article on Nick and Alex Kleeman and their friend Dave Green in an adventure based not necessarily in foolhardiness, but at least relative inexperience and enthusiasm. In addition to the piece itself, I found myself interested in the "Between the Lines" page at the beginning of the issue where Rose briefly detailed her time in the South Pacific reporting the story. Waiting for four days, sleeping in coffin-like quarters, suffering from seasickness and food poisoning... sounds like quite the glamorous time she had.

The other outdoor piece I found of note was by the aforementioned C.J. Chivers with "Powerless at Sea: How a Spare Fuse Became a Lifesaver" for the July issue of Field & Stream. This story of time fishing with his family is a sort of follow up to his piece "Operation Thresher: Fishing for Monster Sharks off The Shores of Rhode Island" and writing from Chivers strikes me as just so authentic with his experience as a Marine Captain and conflict reporter as well as outdoorsman.

Feature writing by Mooney, Power & Chivers

There's a few pieces of writing to note here that may not share huge connection with one another other than they're all exceptionally well done.

For Field & Stream in Jan, C.J. Chivers wrote the fairly short piece "Pain" about a Grizzly Bear attack on hunter Chris Ott in the British Columbia wilderness. The story was one of eighteen outdoor pieces by different writers for Field & Steam and features absolutely riveting language and tension building from Chivers.

Another exceptionally well done piece of writing I've seen lately then led me to an additional great piece by the same author. Michael Mooney earlier this month wrote "The Legend of Chris Kyle" for D Magazine and I then went and read "When Lois Pearson Started Fighting Back", published May 2012 in D Magazine. I was familiar with Kyle from the Time Magazine story "Killer. Healer. Victim" (which I briefly wrote about) after Kyle's Feb 2 death and Mooney provided additional excellent writing on his life. The Lois Pearson story is very different than that on Kyle in that she not known publicly, but contains one of the things I love to come across in great writing... a story that blends together well pathos with a positive story (with the latter of these coming at the very end of Mooney's feature on Pearson).

Final piece to mention here was a tremendously interesting one by Matthew Power for the March issue of GQ Magazine. "Excuse Us While We Kiss the Sky" chronicles Power's time spent exploring with people who go places they're not allowed (whether those be on top of bridges and buildings or in tunnels under cities) for the experience of it. It was fascinating writing on this concept known at times as urban exploration or place hacking.

Adventure writing - by C.J. Chivers, Steven Rinella and A.G. Sulzberger

There's been some great writing I've come across lately that trafficked in the fairly wide-ranging subject of outdoor adventure.

The most recent piece was "Two Men, One Sky: A Flight to the Finish" for the New York Times. Written by A.G. Sulzberger, it's on the remarkable 10 hour hang gliding solo flights of Jonny Durand and Dustin Martin as they simultaneously went from the border of South Texas to the North Texas Hill Country 438 miles away. It's a well done story of amazing achievement by both men who at the same time were striving to see whose record-breaking flight would be longer.

Additional great writing lately was found in two outdoor focused magazines. I originally saw it last April, but was recently reminded of a Field & Stream piece by frequent war correspondent C.J. Chivers. "Operation Thresher: Fishing for Monster Sharks off The Shores of Rhode Island" was an aptly named story of preparation, adventure and time spent between a father and his sons. Really great writing from Chivers in this story.

The final two pieces to note here were each from Outside Magazine and both written by Steven Rinella. From the Jan 2013 issue was "The Joys of Cabin Living in Alaska" and the essay is one of those works of writing that's just lyrical in it's descriptions and ability to pull the reader in. The other Rinella Outside story that I enjoyed recently was a larger feature from 2009 titled "Me, Myself, and Ribeye" on time the author spent searching out and enjoying what's purported to be some of the best steak in the world, that in Argentina. Perhaps not as profound as the essay on time with family at his Alaska cabin, it's nonetheless an entertaining tale of gastronomic adventure.