The Outside Blog

Renan Ozturk is Living the Dream, Again

Adventure Lab — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:28:02 -0400

Living The Dream 2 from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo.

This past March, The North Face sponsored climber and videographer Renan Ozturk suffered a skull fracture, partially collapsed lung, and fractured vertebrae when he fell off a cliff while backcountry skiing near Jackson, Wyoming. You can follow his recovery in this video. In short, he's back outside scaling rock again.

The video below shows his initial stay in the hospital.

CLIP Renan in Hospital 3.28.11 from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo.

via: Backcountry.com

--Joe Spring

The Luxembourgers

Outside Online — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 10:29:46 -0400

The last day of following the Tour de France ended in Grenoble with the individual time trial. After a week of chasing the peloton across the mountains of Italy and France, my tour with Boston-based adventure travel guides Ciclismo Classico was coming to an end. We dashed from a morning climb of Le Alpe du Huez in time to see Andy Schleck lose his yellow jersey to Cadel Evans.

Then we came across these luxembourgers. Not too disappointed at the end of the day, I must say, they said they were happy because Andy and brother Frank will be on the podium, even if Cadel is above them.

--Dave Cox

In Grenoble with Andy Schleck

Outside Online — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:27:36 -0400

Although he won the yellow jersey yesterday, Andy Schleck owned it for only a day. Cadel Evans took the lead from the 26-year-old Luxembourg rider. As I stood at the finish of the individual time trial in Grenoble, he approached. The crowd around me turned into a cacophony of fists and smash bats, and a chat of "Maillot Jaune, Maillot Jaune" began. Unlike other sporting events that are strictly partisan, the tour fans are agnostic. A Basque fan clad in orange will cheer as fervently for Schleck as he will for Sammy Sanchez, or at least nearly as much. This is not Red Sox/Yankees. For me, it's a revelation.

--Dave Cox is on a behind the scenes tour of the Tour de France with Boston-based adventure travel guides www.ciclismoclassico.com

Are Trails Bad for You?

Outkicked — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:45:34 -0400

Gina Kolata stirred up a minor controversy when she suggested in Monday's New York Times that running on soft surfaces will not lower runners' risk of injury, and could even raise it:

"Is there a good reason why many runners think a soft surface is gentler on their feet and limbs? Or is this another example of a frequent error we all make, trusting what seems like common sense and never asking if the conventional wisdom is correct?"

There is, Kolata writes, "no evidence that softer surfaces prevent injuries," and "no reason to run on softer ground unless you like to."

Kolata is right—the conventional wisdom is wrong. But you should still run on trails.

The imagined benefit of soft surfaces is based on a flawed assumption about how the human body handles impact forces. In simple terms, when runners land on hard surfaces, they land more softly, just as they land a bit harder on soft surfaces. On net, as Kolata notes, impact forces don't vary with surface, which means a soft surface likely isn't better for your joints than a hard one.

Perhaps more to the point, there's nothing in the scientific literature on surface hardness and injury to suggest that soft-surface running is safer. Plus, Kolata writes, you're more likely to trip over a root or twist your ankle when you run on trails than you are when you run on pavement. Kolata takes both points as evidence against trails.

But she doesn't address a perfectly reasonably theory in support of trails, one that has nothing to do with impact forces: The main benefit of off-road running is variability.

Trails are never perfectly flat. Repetitive-stress injuries, the kind of injuries that most often affect distance runners, are caused when the same tendons, muscles, and ligaments are stressed in the same ways. Even slightly varying those stresses—say, by running on uneven trails—probably reduces the likelihood of injury.

Of course, there's little peer-reviewed evidence to support this view, either. But in the absence of evidence, the "variability of surfaces" theory seems more plausible than Kolata's belief that you'll trip over your feet—that simply isn't how most runners get hurt.

—Peter Vigneron
@petervigneron

You Don't Have To Be A Pro To Ride the Tour

Guest Blogger — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:03:11 -0400

It’s every cyclist’s dream: watch the Tour de France, ride the exact same mountain roads as the pros, then hang out with all the screaming and often scantily-clad fans alongside the course. We didn't make it to France this year, but frequent contributor Dave Cox recently arrived in the Alps as a participant in one of Ciclismo Classico’s Follow the Race in France trips.

Today, for stage 17, the group’s plan was to ride 64 miles, including the final climb at Pramartino, before cheering on the peloton in Pinreolo. The only problem? Police.

The French authorities guarding Wednesday's route weren't cooperating. Dave writes: “They were supposed to let bicyclists through until two hours before the caravan arrived, but they apparently changed their minds. A heated discussion broke out between riders and the police, who were not budging. It was a chaotic scene: more and more riders kept showing up, the number of police continued to swell, and everybody was worked up. Eventually, the police relented, telling us that if we rode politely and courteously, we could continue to the top. A mad dash ensued.”

—Sam Moulton

Ski and snowboard helmet: wear one.

Christopher Van Tilburg — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:38:01 -0400

Do ski helmets affect reaction time to peripheral stimuli? No. At least not according to a study just published in Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. Several reasons not to wear a lid have been floating around: too much weight on the neck for kids, increase level of risky behavior, and impaired hearing and vision. The study showed that ski goggles imparied vision more. In addition to protecting your noggin, an inch of polystyrine and plastic on your head keeps you very, very warm.

Above: on location, Portillo, Chile; this pic, Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, AK

--Christopher Van Tilburg, MD

The Science of Young Crushers

Adam Roy — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:33:57 -0400

Ashima Shiraishi climbing in Hueco Tanks, Texas (Courtesy Reel Rock Film Tour)

Nine-year-old Ashima Shiraishi has a career that a climber three times her age would be proud of. The four-and-a-half-foot-tall New Yorker has sent problems as hard as V11 (until last year, no woman had ever climbed harder than V12). She has a sponsorship with shoe maker Evolv, and she'll be starring in her own short in this year's Reel Rock Film Tour.

Ashima isn't the only climber to push the sport's limits while too young to drive. Chris Sharma was 14 when he made the first ascent of Necessary Evil (5.14c), then the hardest climb in the United States. Enzo Oddo was 15 when he redpointed his first 5.15, Realization, as was Johanna Ernst when she won the women's lead World Cup in 2008. So how do these kids pull as hard as adults?

Hormones. Audry Morrison, a UK-based nutritionist who has co-authored studies on climbing performance and injuries in children, says that young climbers have a window of opportunity for big performance gains during their growth spurt, which usually hits between the ages of 12 and 16. A surge in testosterone and other sex hormones during this period enables adolescents to pack on muscle at an accelerated rate. As a result, they quickly build the grip strength and speed to pull off harder and harder moves on the rock.

"When you have the adolescent growth spurt, you see some serious climbs happening often," Morrison says.

But while young climbers may progress faster than adults, they're also at a much higher risk for injury. As Morrison points out, the connective tissues—ligaments and tendons—in teenagers going through their growth spurts are two to five times weaker and more likely to tear than those of adults. Overly downsized shoes can also wreak havoc on young climbers' feet by effectively "binding" them, leading to serious deformities.

Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou (46) and son Shawn (11) climbing The Turning Point (V9) in 2009

Even climbing's culture may pose a threat to young athletes' health. A study conducted by American researcher Phillip Watts, a professor of exercise science at Northern Michigan University, found that young competitive climbers tended to be shorter and have lower body fat than other athletes. Morrison sees the report as disturbing evidence that youngsters may be starving themselves for the sport.

"There are restrictive eating practices in climbing for sure," she says. "When a coach says 'you want to get better at climbing, you just have to lose weight,' saying that to a young climber can trigger eating disorders [and] it will really have an impact on their health and their development." While children do tend to have a naturally higher strength-to-weight ratio than adults, kids who push it by undereating can delay maturation or even permanently stunt their growth.

Instead of strength training or limiting calories, young climbers are better off focusing on their technique. Pre-pubescent kids have what Morrison calls "an accelerated ability for movement," and by zeroing in on skills like footwork and body positioning, they can set the stage for big gains later.

For those older climbers disheartened by Ashima's early-blooming generation, there's good news: there's still plenty of time to catch up. Despite the popular perception that sport climbers' lives end in their early thirties (see the recent hoopla surrounding Sharma's 30th birthday), there's no biological reason that athletes who take care of themselves can't keep climbing hard. Morrison uses the example of Steve McClure, the British climber who at 37 years old established Overshadow (5.15a), the UK's hardest confirmed sport route. While Morrison admits she and other researchers don't know exactly what factors predispose a child like Ashima to bloom early or an adult like McClure to stay fit late into life, one thing's for sure: climbers aren't born with expiration dates stamped on their heads.

"We would always like a young climber to become an old climber," Morrison says. "Climbing should be for life."

--Adam Roy

Raising Rippers Gear Test: Backcountry Travel Cribs

Raising Rippers — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:00:00 -0400

When it comes to outdoor gear, few items are as seductive and covetous as….backcountry cribs. OK, maybe you’d rather be fantasizing about the newest, sleekest 29er mountain bike or a flyweight backpacking tent, but chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve got more pressing priorities on your plate. Such as: how to get the kid to sleep through the night in the wilderness so you can, too.

we pack, they play

We put the following five sleep systems to the test on various recent adventures. None are light enough to take backpacking unless you’re seriously masochistic, but all will do on raft trips, canoe expeditions, car camping, and international adventures—pretty much any scenario where you won’t have to lug the thing on your back for long distances (baggage claim to rental car doesn’t count). They’re designed to accommodate a range of ages, birth to five-ish. Our testers were nearly one and nearly 3 and, for the most part, pretty reliable sleepers. Minimalists will probably opt for sleeping the kid on a ground pad, but if you want to contain those little crawlers in the wilderness, look no further.

Graco Pack n Play

There’s nothing light about this classic stand-by, but we schlepped down the San Juan River for six days anyway because our two-and-a-half year old has been sleeping in one since she was an infant, and to venture out into a remote canyon for six days without it would be akin to forgetting the stash of emergency pacifiers: really living on the edge. This is the burliest of the bunch, able to withstand a serious backcountry beating if you can stomach its size and weight. Our top choice when weight isn’t an issue but durability is.

Pros: With a super-easy push-button folding, you can set it up or break it down in less time than it takes your husband to change the baby’s diaper. It’s sturdy, with a rigid yet comfy mat that elevates the baby off the ground and won’t deflate if you accidentally put it on top of a cactus. It conveniently doubles as a playpen when you get to camp and need to corral the kid—no-brainer safety is a beautiful thing (especially if it allows you to actually sit down for a few minutes and swig a beer).

Cons: Way heavy, at 20+ pounds, and big: 28” x 40”. Taking one into the backcountry might tarnish your hard-core cred: This thing looks more at home in grandma’s guest room than in a desert canyon, but what the hey. No one said having kids would make you cool. So jumbo you'll probably need a bigger tent (our two-bedroom REI Kingdom 6 is almost huge enough for bunk beds).

Deets:models starting at $69, www.gracobaby.com.

Phil & Teds Traveller TR5 Cot Crib

Our littlest river baby, Maisy, slept as advertised on the San Juan in this super-light, ultra-packable crib from nifty New Zealand gear whiz Phil & Teds. We liked it right off the bat for its slim profile—the rugged nylon-and-mesh crib packs discreetly into a black bag about the size of a lightweight backpacking tent that doesn’t scream Baby on Board! Were it not for some minor assembly glitches, this would have been our hands-down favorite of the bunch. Light, small and stylish.

Pros: At just 7 pounds (not including the thermal-insulated mattress) and 23 inches long when folded, it’s small enough to fit into the overhead compartment and you won’t break your back doing it. Their clever motto says it all: It weighs less than the baby, yet it was plenty roomy for our 11-month old, with inches to spare. The zippered top keeps mosquitoes out and climbers in, and the mesh, zip side panel converts the cot to a play space (though our girl’s already standing and wanted out as soon as she woke up). The self-inflating mattress, alpine-tested and as bomber as Daddy’s Thermarest, slides neatly into a zippered panel on the floor and rests right on the ground.

Cons: Fussy assembly. A typo in the manual had us momentarily confused, but luckily assembly is pretty intuitive so we figured it out. But the aluminum frame legs were hard to attach and even harder to detach: It took two of us and some serious muscle power to yank them apart each morning when we broke camp. Hopefully this was a one-off problem.

$180; www.philandteds.com

Phil & Teds Cocoon

Designed for newborns to six months old, this soft-sided baby carry cot was the bomb when Maisy was an infant. We originally purchased it when she was a month old and we were at my parents’ island cottage and needed something to put her in when we went out in the boat. Even swaddled in her Salus infant lifejacket, she could stretch out on her back in the Cocoon; we soon started using it at night, too, and she’d fall asleep in the kitchen and later we’d sling the cot over one arm and carry her undisturbed to her room. Baby in a bag!

Pros: I’m a sucker for functional, cool-but-not-cutesy design, and like the rest of the Phil & Teds line, the Cocoon doesn’t disappoint. A cross between a canvas tote bag and a traditional cradle board, the Cocoon is a cozy nest with padded base soft enough for snoozing yet stiff enough to prevent shaken-baby-syndrome when the boat went over waves. The full-length zippered cover comes with toggles, so you can unfold it up to the baby’s neck to keep her warm or peel back in hotter weather, and the long, soft handles are generous enough to fit over your shoulder. (Even six-foot Steve could sling her like a suitcase.) At 2.7 pounds, it smooshs easily into your duffle and is as light as the price.

Cons: When she was two months old, we turned the Cocoon into Maisy’s whitewater bed on her debut run down the Rio Chama north of Santa Fe. Just as we had at Stony Lake, we put her in her PFD, laid her on her back, and put her on the raft. Ships ahoy! But as the blazing New Mexico sun beat down on us, we found ourselves wishing the Cocoon came rigged with a detachable sun shade. We improvised by draping the sun shade from her car seat over top, making sure we could reach in and grab the safety loop on her lifejacket if we needed to. A minor complaint for a versatile nest for your littlest chick.

Deets: www.philandteds.com; $59.

there's a baby in there

Kid Co Pea Pod Travel Bed P101

More a tiny kiddy tent than a travel bed, the flyweight Pea Pod arrived a few weeks before our San Juan trip and our toddler immediately went to work putting her “babies” to bed inside. She didn’t balk at being zipped in, and even insisted on snoozing in the Pea Pod during one afternoon nap—a major milestone for our crib-obsessed kid. But that was short-lived and the Pod became more of a novelty playpen than a serious place to get some zzzs. We brought it down the San Juan anyway, thinking it’d provide kid-sized shade in a pinch—and it did—but the nights were so sultry, we sidelined it for sleeping: It was far too hot to put her in a tent inside a tent.

Pros: By far the easiest, fastest assembly of all. Just unzip the round carrying pouch and presto! The two-hoop tent pops out, fully-formed, like a Jack-in-the-Box. (Beware of tiny bodies in the immediate vicinity—this thing has some serious spring.) The rubber mattress inflates easily with the plastic hand pump and then slides into the compartment on the bottom, resting directly on the ground. UV protection on the roof save sensitive skin from the sun, mesh window panels keep the kid from feeling cut off, and the nylon fly zips over for darkness and privacy. At 4.75 pounds, light and uber-stowable yet large enough to fit kids up to age six.

Cons: A week in the desert proved too prickly for the flimsy rubber mattress, and ours came home from the river with a small tear. Duct tape sealed the leak, but a patch kid would have been nice. Taco-ing back into the bag takes some practice and deft wrist work.

Deets: $85, www.kidco.com.

pre-trip baby wrestling

Go Crib Portable Crib

This one arrived too late and missed the boat for our raft trip, but we’ve been testing it on adventures here and there ever since, and love the way an entire crib mashes into an old-fashioned rucksack. Inspired by kiteboarding kites to be sturdy and rigid when in use, and small and packable when stowed, the Go Crib doesn’t just have an inflatable mattress: The whole crib inflates. Four soft, curved legs contain independent air chambers that pop up into standing position when filled with air.

Pros: What’s not to love about a bed in a backpack? Set-up was straightforward: Simply fill the valves with air to erect the crib. The dual-action pump attaches easily and removes cleanly without annoying air leakage, and disassembly is just as easy: Open the valves and press and hold the red button until the crib deflates. The baby can go in through the open top, or unzip the front panel for ground-floor access. The whole kit, including pump and mattress, weighs a mere 11 pounds—shockingly light for such a sturdy crib. Attachable mosquito net and rain fly (not included) make this wilderness-ready.

Con: There’s no separate envelope for the insulated mattress pad—you just put it on the bottom of the crib, which made me a little nervous about tiny chewers gnawing at the valve. The thick, suede-like outer layer on the legs and sidewalls is designed to protect the air chambers from thorns and cactus spines, but I’d still think twice about bringing this on an extended backcountry trip with no backup. The small plastic pump attaches neatly to the valves, but it’s light almost to a fault: I got super sweaty trying to keep it from flopping around. And the backpack packs pretty fat: No wiggling through narrow slots or crowded NYC subways with this baby.

Deets: $249, www.guavafamily.com

Cheap Flights

Porter Fox — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:43:21 -0400

Airfares aren’t falling. They’re not going up either. They’re jumping around more erratically than ever. George Hobica, founder of Airfarwatchdog.com puts the trend this way in a recent interview with Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site:

“If I knew [that ticket prices were going up] I wouldn’t be sitting here answering these questions. Seriously, no one can predict because there are so many variables: oil prices, further industry consolidation, geopolitical events, natural and manmade disasters, and so on. Over the long term, yes fares will creep upwards, if only due to inflation. But consumers have a breaking point and they are only willing to pay so much to sit in a tin can on a thinly padded seat, get pawed by TSA, breathe stale air, and deal with cranky babies and passengers of size spilling over into their space. So fares will only go up so much; they’re inelastic.”

There are a few tricks that can help you find a good deal—one in particular. I flew from New York City to Marrakesh last winter. Round trip airfare never dropped below $1,200 during the two months I looked for a ticket. Then a friend told me that Ryanair flew from Europe to Marrakesh, so I checked their rates. $75 each way from Paris. After a half hour I found a $365 round trip flight to Paris, matched it with a Ryanair flight and booked my trip for a grand total of $565, including fees.

It takes a lot of work to find a good price price. (The average consumer checks three airline web sites before buying a ticket.) Here are a few tips you might not know:

Fly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Saturdays. Most flight sales start on Tuesdays. Airlines typically release seating Tuesday night as well.

Not all search sites include budget airlines. (Budget airlines won’t pay their commission.) Skyscanner includes just about everything, though on a recent search I didn’t find anything I hadn’t already seen.

Airfarewatchdog is a great site, powered by humans. Checking multiple sites these days doesn’t help as much as it used to. Having a human looking for low fares for you does.

Airlines like Alaska, JetBlue and Southwest will give you a voucher if the fare drops after you buy it—and Yapta.com will track those refunds for you. Orbitz also offers a "Price Assurance" program.

Secondary airports—like Long Beach instead of LAX—are often cheaper to fly into. (I had to transfer from Charles de Gaulle to Orly airport in Paris on my Morocco trip. I booked enough of a layover to have breakfast in Montmartre and sleep for two hours in the Jardin du Luxembourg on the way…)

The Fast and Fabulous: Specialized 2012 S-Works Amira

Guest Blogger — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:18:49 -0400

Two days of riding 150 kilometers through Spain’s Basque country on Specialized’s 2012 S-Works Amira high-performance racing bike has convinced me that when a company invests almost ten years of R&D into developing a line of women’s-specific bikes, women might want to pay attention.

The most common misconception about the design of women's road bikes is that a company starts with a men’s frame, shortens the top tube, makes a few other minor adjustments and passes off their new creation as “women’s specific.” That’s not the case with Specialized.

Using a database of statistical and anecdotal information from hundreds of women—at least 100 of whom are pro cyclists—Specialized builds women’s frames starting with women’s physical attributes and riding preferences—not men’s. They start with the average female height, which is 5’4”, then build frames in both incrementally smaller and larger sizes to fit women who range in height from 4’10” to 5’11”.

Each of Specialized’s four road bikes are engineered as an entirely separate product, meaning they all use unique molds and tubing to accommodate different riding styles: For fitness riding and commuting there’s the Vita; for comfort endurance riding there’s the Dolce; for high-performance endurance riding there’s the Ruby; and for podium-topping racing there’s the Amira, ridden by top pros like Ina Teutenberg, Judith Arndt, Evelyn Stevens, and Amber Neben.

I have never been a pro racer and never will be, but there are few bikes (the titanium Moots Vamoots RSL being one of them) that I’ve had as much fun riding as the new S-Works Amira.

“It’s easy to make a stiff frame and it’s easy to make a light frame,” says Kyle Chubbuck, the engineer behind all of Specialized’s women’s road bikes. “But it’s hard to do both.”

With the new S-Works Amira he set out to do exactly that. Chubbuck designed a massive head tube with special shaping that eliminates flat surfaces. This prevents local deflection in the frame and significantly improves torsional stiffness without adding weight. He also added hollow carbon dropouts, beefed up the S-S in the brake bridge area to prevent brake chatter, and added internal cable routing that is compatible with electronic shifting systems. The end result is a sleek, functional piece of art that's 55 grams lighter and 20 percent stiffer in torsion than the 2011 S-W Amira.

I noticed the changes the most on the climbs. Rather than the usual grind, I felt like I was floating—and that couldn’t just be due to the rolling hills and picturesque Basque scenery. Even on the subsequent rainy downhill the bike was so smooth and solid underneath that it felt more like an appendage than a separate entity. My only trouble spot was getting used to the Sram Red components, but that was rider error. Plus, components can be swapped out. The aspect I appreciated most about the new S-Works was post ride: Even after a 15-hour flight and 150k of riding, my body felt no worse for the wear.

Unless you’re a pro cyclist, chances are you won’t need as much bike as the 2012 Amira S-Works. Be forewarned, however, that if you ride it, you’ll want it. And you’ll be happy to know that it comes in four other models—the Base, Elite, Comp, and Pro. Prices range from $2,000 to $8,000. All will be available in stores starting August.

—Stephanie Pearson

Photo: Courtesy of Specialized