There is an absurd amount of stuff being dumped onto the internet every day—films, edits, trip reports, news, documentaries, podcasts, reels and whatever else the algorithm decides we should see. Somewhere in that firehose is some genuinely incredible stuff. The problem is finding it.

Share

That’s the idea behind StokedAF. Nearly everything in this newsletter—from the Main Sends and Bonus News to most of the Long Reads—was published within the last two weeks. I spend the week digging through it all so you don’t have to, pulling out the sends that are worth your time.

Think of it as a filter for the good stuff: less scrolling, more stoke.

Enjoy.

Nico in Moab

Luna Dog in the La Sals!

🚵 Ze Catch: Squamish gets very steep

📍 British Columbia, Canada

There are double blacks, and then there’s Ze Catch. Rémy Métailler and OG trailbuilder Sylvain dissect one of Squamish’s seriously steep trails feature by feature—massive drops, ugly entrances and lines that look considerably worse once someone stands next to them. The best part is hearing elite riders talk through the nerves and calculations before committing.

Turns out while the pros are better at riding, they are also nervous and frightened.

⏱ 14 minutes

🏔️ Running through the clouds

📍 Dolomites, Italy

If you haven’t heard of skyrunning, consider this your five-minute introduction. Forget mellow trail running: this is racing across steep, technical mountain terrain where scrambling, brutal climbs and precipitous descents are part of the deal. 48km mountain movement at high speeds.

Was this sport designed for you?

⏱ 5 minutes

🏃 The Beast Runner

📍 Taiwan

Trail running with a higher purpose.

Czech athlete Petr Novotny, known as the Beast Runner, searches Taiwan’s rugged mountains for hikers who have disappeared—sometimes taking on cold cases. CNN joins him as he follows tiny clues through unforgiving terrain, trying to give families the answers they have been waiting for (the death certificate is a major motivation).

Don’t miss this one.

⏱ 8 minutes

🧗 Dancing with Doubt

📍 Red Rocks, Nevada, USA

Climbing is about getting to the top, but the stuff that keeps people coming back tends is much harder to quantify. This film follows a conversation between Amity and Rachel Ball about self-doubt, commitment, failure and why they keep choosing hard objectives. Thoughtful moment to reflect on climbing and quite a bit more!

“If I was always choosing easy things, I wouldn’t feel as satisfied” -Amity who got the FFA of the route Dreefeee (5.13d), followed by Rachel with a slight variation.

⏱ 7 minutes

⚡ Bonus News

🧊 Scientists have created a new map of the rock glacier tucked beneath Mt. Timpanogos, explaining how these little-known frozen reservoirs contribute to Utah’s mountain water supply as the climate warms.

🌊 Devastating first-person account from a journalist who helplessly saw the flood sweep away the Himalayan village where he grew up. Captures the disbelief of watching a flood reach a level no one had ever imagined.

🧗 Sintonia, a 800m 22-pitch, route up Pedra Baiana—becomes the first big wall in Brazil opened by an all-women team, led by the courageous Laura Pineau and Brazilian climber girl Gisely Souza. The women spent 15 days establishing the line, which could go free at 5.13+.

🔥 Boxed in by wildfires a group of 60 and 70-year-olds were seven days into a three-week canoe trip in Ontario when wildfires surrounded them. They spent a night dunking themselves in the water trees burned and heavy winds closed in. Hectic!

🎿 A huge snow year in Chile has pushed Valle Nevado, La Parva, Portillo and now El Colorado to extend their seasons into October. El Colorado alone has reportedly received around 285 inches of snow this winter—more than 23 feet.

🧠 Long Reads & Watches

….take your time with these ones…

🎿 What happened to Saudi Arabia’s desert ski resort?

This is all so unbelievable, but then again, this is 2026.

Saudi Arabia set out to build a ski resort in an arid mountain range where temperatures can dip below freezing but almost no snow falls—and somehow host the 2029 Asian Winter Games there. This WSJ investigation looks at how Trojena’s audacious plan to manufacture winter in the desert collided with spiraling costs, engineering challenges and the realities of building one of the strangest ski resorts ever conceived.

⏱ 11 minutes

🚲 Pedaling the never ending Uyuni salt flat

Three years into riding his bike from Alaska to Argentina, British bikepacker Dan Camp reaches one of the most surreal stretches of the entire journey: Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat on Earth. Pedaling toward an impossibly distant horizon across a landscape unlike almost anywhere else on the planet—with a furry new companion joining him for part of the ride.

⏱ 30 minutes

🧗 Remarkable, hard work, and survivable

Earlier this year, Joe Evermore took his two sons Joey, 7, and Sylvan, 11, up El Capitan—prompting plenty of criticism about risk, parenting and whether ascending 3,000 feet on fixed ropes should really count as “climbing” El Cap.

Here, Evermore answers his critics at length and explains the unusual philosophy behind his family’s adventures: year-long preparation, knowing when to turn around, teaching kids to understand rather than ignore fear, and three rules for every mission: “It should be remarkable. It should require daily work. And you can’t die.”

Link: https://gripped.com/profiles/and-you-cant-die-father-of-kids-who-climb-el-capitan-responds-to-critics/

⏱ 12 minute read

Adieu, Auf Wiedersehen!

Before I go, one last hit of inspiration for achieving your mountain goals this weekend, courtesy of Canadian strong man Ethan Flynn-Pitcher

Tryin to keep it simple this week. We have what could be an entire film festival right here in your inbox… grab a tall boy, and dig into the amazing films and sends that are flooding the airwaves.

I pulled down the best for your perusal and joy. Be a good friend, and pass it on.

Here’s a video from a random Tuesday, peak bagging in the La Sals, Moab’s alpine backyard.

Saludos amigos!
Nico

🧗 Brad Gobright only had one hairstyle: BOLD

📍 Eldorado Canyon, Colorado

Cedar Wright just pulled some incredible footage out of the archives: Brad Gobright free soloing Hairstyles and Attitude, the Eldorado Canyon 5.12b/c classic. It’s vintage Brad—casual and terrifyingly comfortable on terrain where falling simply isn’t an option. Gobright died in a rappelling accident in Mexico in 2019, making this newly released footage a good reminder of the brilliant and humble climber the community lost. RIP Brad.

⏱ 5 min

🏔️ 3 days on Ranrapalca

📍 Cordillera Blanca, Peru

The Pou brothers and Peruvian climber Micher Quito spent three days opening Bonus Track (WI7/M6/6c, 1,060m) on Ranrapalca (6162m)—a mixed line the Pous call the hardest and most exposed alpine climb of their careers. After a sketchy bivouac, brutal cold, and serious terrain, they found themselves lost in the fog near 6000m. Then a bird appeared and, improbably, seemed to guide them toward the summit. Awesome little film.

⏱ 10 min

🚵 The wrong direction is the right way

📍 Squamish, British Columbia

Gouranga is a steep, technical, double-black trail that gives plenty of riders the jitters. Braydon Bringhurst decided he wanted to ride up it. The project involves repeated failure, some improbable uphill riding—and Bringhurst getting hurt in the process. A torn muscle is just another data point when your idea of fun is trying something that seems impossible.

⏱ 12 min

🧗 In the bubble of highballing

📍 Bishop, California

We used to have to wait for Reel Rock or the Banff Film Festival to get climbing films like this. Ross Fulkerson takes on some of Bishop’s most committing lines, including A Little Life (v14) and Terminus (v13)—two legendary Keenan Takahashi FAs perched high above the Buttermilks—and gives a raw look at the mentality required to keep climbing when the pads start looking very, very small.

⏱ 9 min

⚡ Bonus News

⚒️ A Colorado father and son say they beat a mining company to 19.88 acres in La Plata Canyon by using the same 1872 mining law that allows companies to stake claims on federal land. They raced to mark and record the “Russell Reserve Claim” first—not to mine it, but to protect it.

🐻 A 300-pound black bear died after getting itself trapped in an unlocked car in Colorado Springs while searching for food. Inside temperatures climbing above 130°F, so the bear tore apart the vehicle trying to escape.

🏔️ Nepal has proposed renaming Annapurna I after Nirmal “Nims” Purja, who recently died on Broad Peak. The 8,091m peak would be called Nimsdai Annapurna, an unusually monumental tribute to one of its most famous and controversial mountaineers.

🏂 Freeride skiing and snowboarding are officially headed to the Winter Olympics in the French Alps. Natural, ungroomed terrain, with riders judged on line choice, control, technique, style and fluidity. What could go wrong?

🪂 Spanish climber and BASE jumper Carlos Suárez, 52, died in a wingsuit accident while performing a stunt for a film about his own life.

Check out Suárez and Leo Houlding on the outrageous conglomerate walls of Riglos in Spain, climbing and jumping La Visera and El Pisón.
!QEPD Fiera!

🧠 Long Reads & Watches

….take your time with these ones…

🚵 Freeride without the circus

Zink International is Cam Zink’s homegrown answer to what a freeride mountain-bike event can look like: huge riding, a grassroots atmosphere and the spotlight pointed at riders who deserve more of it. Catch the highlights from a Nevada weekend built around progression, community and sending very large bicycles through the air.

⏱ 30 min

🎿 Ever dream about becoming this guy?

Ever dream about packing your ski bags, buying a ticket south and showing up in the Andes just as the snow starts dumping? After years of dreaming about skiing Chile, the creator of Rise & Alpine finally pulls the trigger—and lands at Valle Nevado, El Colorado and La Parva at the beginning of a storm cycle. Powder to ski, barely enough Wi-Fi to upload the footage, and apparently nowhere else he needs to be. Funny story, he also melted the insoles of his ski boots. What a hoot!

⏱ 38 min

🌊 Watersports, life in Slingshot

There are plenty of ways to get wet in Oregon, and apparently the correct answer is to try as many of them as possible. Twenty-two minutes of cold water and questionable decisions. Oh yeah, and a lot of wind.

⏱ 22 min

😂 The greatest climbing prank ever published

In 1959 and 1960, two climbers successfully tricked Summit Magazine into publishing completely fabricated climbing stories. More than six decades later, people are still citing the hoaxes as real ascents, proving that climbing’s longest-running joke may still be fooling people today.

🔗 https://www.summitjournal.com/blogs/scree/the-rest-of-the-story

⏱️ 8 minute read

Have a great week! 💥 Stay Stoked. Stay Wild.

We leave you with some training inspiration from none other than Sean Villanueva, going at it to a Rocky Balboa soundtrack.

This is what it means when you climb like its your job!

See you on the next send!

Summer is slowly disappearing in the rearview mirror, so my daughters and I squeezed in one more big day in the mountains before school: climbing to the top of Mount Tukuhnikivatz in the La Sals Mountains.

Read more

Throw in some thought-provoking long read…

Read more

StokedA…

Read more

This week’s sends are a reminder that the best adventures and sometimes our favorite athletes are temporary... tying together the loss of the most respected and decorated athletes, Sketchy Andy Lewis, with a life well lived and worth living.

Before you scroll and feast, here’s a few shots fr…

Read more

Out here in the high desert, we are shifting to summer, and most of us will be spending less time in the desert canyons and more time on the river!

This week starts with a trip to the Amazon and then 13.8 billion years of cosmic history stretched across a desert and ends with climbers, surfers, an…

Read more

Greetings from the canyon life!

I was out scrambling with my daughter, and we came across this beauty. A reminder of how lucky we are to see and live among these magnificent creatures!

Before we get to this week’s send, let’s say HI from the canyon rim!!

Read more

Last week I had the opportunity to get my daughter on her first desert tower, the much loved and very solid, Owl Rock, in Arches NP.

Read more

From climbing to paragliding… This week’s send captures big mountain encounters, creative flying, and full-send river laps!

With longer days, the conditions are shifting, and the energy is rising!

For us living in Moab, it means every day is different, climbing, biking, and floating…

Read more

I spent the weekend riding in Richfield, Utah—home of the legendary Spinal Tap Trail. Eighteen miles of pure flow, desert drops, and big features.

Spring temps are firing, and this week’s send is leaning heavy into climbing—everyone’s getting after it!

Read more

I’m sure many of you caught episode 2 from the Dean Potter documentary series (HBO) last night… amiright?

If you remember the 2007 film Sharp End, then you saw Potter free solo a route high up on the Eiger with a BASE rig on his back- the first time the world was introduced to Freebase! Last night, the world also got the story ab…

Read more

You might’ve noticed we went quiet for a few weeks. Spring break hit, we reset, and now we’re back with fresh energy and a stacked lineup of sends.

Dive into this week’s curated mix of stories, lines, and wild moments… but first a message from Nico in Moab!

Read more

Winter has faded… snow season is a distant memory!

Moab’s already feeling like early summer, and we’ve been chasing shade like it’s June, sneaking in climbs on cool mornings. We got on Sorcerer’s Apprentice (right side)—a proper little Navajo sandstone adventure with some magic spice!

Held this one for Sunday. Feels like the moment to flip the…

Read more

Take your time to sample some of the finest sends and stories from the outdoor world… from a solo mission on Eternal Flame to a legendary sport climb proj going down in France.

We bring you the life on the prow, deep in the pow, and skateboarding wow from the streets of Paris, from one of the most creative skaters out there…

Read more

Another week of big sends, wild places, and a few stories that remind us the mountains don’t always play nice. From storm-trapped skiers in Alaska to lava skiing on Mount Etna, here’s what’s been fueling the adventure world lately.

Last weekend I disappeared into Utah’s San Raf…

Read more

Read more

The West finally got hammered. California got buried, and the rest of us scored what might’ve been the best stretch of an otherwise chaotically warm winter.

For Winter Break, we headed back to my hometown hill — Snowbasin Resort. In three days we went from bulletproof groomers to full-on blizzard conditions to bluebird powder laps with …

Read more

This week’s newsletter has epic lines, desert roof cracks, ice climbing, P…

Read more

Did you know that Moab has its own Super Crack? Get on it, it deserves some love!!!

So this week Alex Honnold went on Kimmel to talk about climbing, and full-on Macho Man Jason Momoa dropped into Theo Von’s podcast …

Read more