#adventure-challenges

#adventure-challenges

Wales has a beautiful roughness to it. Its beauty is not immediate and hard-won; visitors will have to trek, drive and withstand the rain in order to find it. But it's worth every step of the journey.

Open's new bike is designed to be both aerodynamic and suitable for loaded bikepacking, achieving a balance between speed and carrying capacity across varied terrains.

One of the most indispensable items for spring tent camping is a rain fly. Your tent probably comes with one, but when that thing gets absolutely drenched, the water will soak through and drip from the ceiling. So, install this tarp above your tent and at an angle, so the rain rolls right off it.

The DLC introduces three new climbing areas and plenty of 'fresh challenges.' There's also a new avatar, as players can now climb as Aava or the game's original sidekick Marco.

The bike I'm borrowing is much lighter than my own, with tyres twice the width, and drop handlebars splayed out to the sides for extra control. The gearing goes much lower than I am used to, meaning even the steepest slopes should be eventually surmountable.

Social anxiety and depression had other plans, leaving me in an ugly cycle of self-isolation and rumination. Terrified of rejection, I'd meet someone interesting during one of my English lectures and invite them out for frozen yogurt in my head.

Valle Nevado, located in the Chilean Andes, is South America's largest ski resort, known for its legendary powder days and cultural immersion experience.

"After walking the future Red Bull Hardline track, I'm pretty intimidated but excited... bringing Red Bull Hardline to Canada is something everyone has wanted."

"It's not exactly a dream vacation to come and be harassed by mosquitoes," says Hervé Bossin, director of the medical entomology laboratory at Tahiti's Institut Louis Malardé.

Enzo attempted a double front flip at Alaska's Hilltop Ski Area. He comes pretty close to landing it, nearly getting his skis all the way around, but he just didn't quite get it.

The early morning sun is bursting around the dark corners of High Dodd and Sleet Fell, sending a flush of light across the golden bracken and on to the hammered silver of the lake.

The goal of this trip isn't perfection, it's survival. At that altitude, your judgment fades as quickly as your lung capacity.

In 2025, travel didn't just return to pre-pandemic levels, it surpassed them, highlighting the growing strain on the world's most visited destinations.

I can still remember my first flight, in 2002. It was magical. I was working as a tour guide in Myanmar. I met a British balloon pilot called Phil, who had a spare place on a flight. He offered to take me, too.

Jornet's well-publicized States of Elevation project in 2025 was a feat in human endurance, mountain running, and planning. Starting on September 3, he linked 72 of the 14ers in the contiguous U.S in a human-powered fashion - on foot and bike - with a support crew following him and helping with logistics. He started with the 14,259-foot Longs Peak in Colorado, then went on to California and north to Washington, finishing on the 14,410-foot Mount Rainier.

When my neighbor Tom celebrated his 65th birthday last month, his kids threw him what they thought was the perfect party: comfortable chair, cozy slippers, and a stack of crossword puzzles. Meanwhile, three doors down, 68-year-old Margaret was booking her first skydiving lesson. The contrast struck me-why do we assume retirement means slowing down when some people are just getting started on their biggest adventures?

On day five of an eight-day, 500-mile mountain bike race in Africa, Piers Constable found himself sprawled in the dirt for the second time. First he'd crashed on his left side, then on his right, until he was, in his own words, "muddied and bloodied," staring at a bike that was very much broken. He remembered a feed station a couple miles away and realized he had two choices: quit or run. He picked up the bike and ran.

The body is a shifting landscape transformed by surfaces and sensations. Each look captures a different tactile world: the heat of blood, the cool weight of metal, the yielding drift of water. The result is a sculptural study of how the elements carve, shield, and release the self. The materials we embody become the emotions we carry, and the body becomes a materialised exhibition of our emotions, from the pulse of Blood to the discipline of Metal to the surrender of Water.

The idea that hiking trails are a tool for conservation is based on a simple premise: people protect what they know. That requires making conservation areas accessible. There's no point telling people you only protect what you know, if you don't give them the tools to know. The trail is this tool. People who hike, people who camp, these people often become defenders of the environment.

AllTrails, a hiking app with trail maps and reviews, dug into insights from their 90 million-plus members and team of trail experts to spotlight lesser-known places where the trail alone is worth planning a trip around. Their guide, Travel-Worthy Trails for 2026, spotlights eight unexpected destinations around the world where the trail is the destination.

I trekked it in December 2023 with plans and a permit to camp at Bright Angel Campground, a scenic cottonwood-shaded hideaway just near the famed Phantom Ranch (the only lodging on the world wonder's floor). Then, two days before my trip, a miracle happened: One last-minute reservation became available for Phantom Ranch. The ranch digs typically book out over a year in advance, but if you're lucky, you can either get in via the lottery or a last-minute opening. This made the grueling but gorgeous hike down and up the steep South Kaibab Trail even more memorable.

In the summer of 2022, I quit my full-time job to spend 10 weeks backpacking through South America with my then-boyfriend (now-husband). Consumed by the travel bug, we packed up all our belongings and moved them from our Miami apartment to a storage unit before hitting the road, visiting 16 cities across eight countries. The whole trip was incredible, but four places hold a special place in my memory.

The terrain is choked with rhododendron and dog hobble, ground cover that makes it easy to get lost and hard to be found. There are eight hundred and forty-eight miles of trail, and countless manways, which masquerade as trails. The many waterfalls are fed by rain on par with that of the Pacific Northwest. The rivers rise and boil with astonishing speed. There's little to no cell service.