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 about what went down a few days before… and it is frightening!

This week’s lineup doesn’t quite go that far… but it gets close. From precision-built mtn bike lines in Germany and a surf playground in Puerto Rico to Connor Herson throwing down in Norway, Alaskan lines and the flow zone, this lineup is all about movement at its sharpest.

🚵 German precision on 2 wheels

📍 Germany

Deep in the woods, Lukas “Sheeper” Schäfer is building lines in the forest and sending them with absurd smoothness. The features are wild: perfectly shaped lips, creative transfers, and heavy woodwork, engineered like a pro! It’s freeride distilled into craft.

Don´t blink or you’ll miss half of the line.

🔗

⏱️ 8 minutes

🏄 A welcome to Crash Boat

📍 Puerto Rico

Dylan Graves brings out his fam on one of Puerto Rico’s most unique waves: Crash Boat. He calls it a “novelty wave” but really it is a surf playground and it’s full of that borricua energy. Dale brodel!

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧗 Connor Herson vs. Norway

📍 Jøssingfjord, Norway

One of climbing’s most incredible athletes, Connor Herson, locks into Pete Whittaker’s Crown Royale (5.14c), then sets his sights on The Recovery Drink—a 35-meter overhanging gear line established by Nico Favresse. No bolts, no shortcuts—just pure power, precision, and one of the wildest trad testpieces on the planet.

⏱️ 14 minutes

🎿 Harmony in the state of Alaska

📍 Valdez, Alaska, USA

Winter is all but over, so take a few minutes and watch Sammy Carlson’s HARMONY, about that feeling when everything clicks and the mountains take over. Big lines, deep exposure, and a reminder that even at the highest level, it’s still about flow. This is the highlight reel that sticks.

⏱️ 6 minutes

🏃 Chasing the flow state

What does the perfect run actually feel like? Jazmine Lowther teams up with a performance psychologist to break down “flow state”—that elusive zone where movement feels effortless and fully locked in.

Short, thoughtful, and surprisingly applicable next time you go out!

⏱️ 4 minutes

⚡ Bonus News ⚡

🚵 A 32” wheel just won its first downhill race. The “mega mullet” setup (32” front, 29” rear) took the top step at Sea Otter proving bigger wheels might not just be for XC anymore.

🏜️ Golf vs. water reality check in the Colorado River Basin. A new study challenges the narrative that golf’s economic value outweighs its impact—especially in arid regions like St. George, Utah where courses consume significant local water while pointing fingers at agriculture.

🧗 Petzl officially stepped into the cam game, taking on legacy players in one of climbing’s most dialed gear categories. Expectations are high for precision engineering and a serious shake-up in trad racks everywhere.

🐎 Riding the Americas—25,000 km, one horse at a time. A solo rider is taking on the full length of the Pan-American route, moving north to south across continents in a months-long expedition. An equine connection to landscapes, cultures, and the rhythm of travel at animal pace.

🏔️ Drones are changing the game on Everest. They ferry loads through the Khumbu Icefall—one of the most dangerous sections of the climb—reducing Sherpa exposure to objective hazards like collapsing seracs.

🧠 Long Reads & Opinions

Heads up, take your time with these ones…

🌨️ One man, one cabin, decades of data

Billy Barr has been quietly recording snowfall and weather patterns from a tiny cabin in Gothic since the 1970s—no models, no satellites, just obsessive daily logs. Decades later, his handwritten data has become some of the most valuable long-term climate records in the Rockies, offering a rare ground-level view of how winters are shifting in real time. It’s part mountain story, part climate archive, and entirely one-of-a-kind.

🔗 https://coloradosun.com/2026/03/15/billy-barr-colorado-gothic-climatologist-winter-weather-reports-climate-change/

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🧗 Grigri, unconfidential, an op-ed

Speaking of Petzl… Andy Kirkpatrick goes deep on the GriGri—and what it’s done to climbing. What starts as a breakdown of one of the sport’s most iconic devices quickly spirals into how convenience shapes habits, how risk tolerance shifts, and how gear quietly rewrites culture. It’s part history, part critique, and very much a wake-up call.

Kirkpatrick's Climbing Notes

GriGri Unconfidential

I’m seeing a lot about the new Petzl GriGri+ this week, which looks very nice. It’s always good to see the kit being Toyota Corolla’d (incrementally improved over decades)—over a disappointing revolution (DeLorean DMC-12). But seeing GriGris everywhere has also been the kick up the arse I needed to finish this short GriGri confessional…

Read more

17 days ago · 55 likes · 2 comments · Andy Kirkpatrick

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🐾 Africa’s most elusive predator, holding on

African wild dog numbers are still dangerously low—just 6,000–7,000 left across the continent—but Zambia remains one of their last strongholds. This piece dives into where and when to actually find them in the wild, unpacking a fragile comeback story shaped by conservation wins, uneven distribution, and the reality that even when populations grow, survival is never guaranteed.

🔗 https://www.classiczambiasafaris.com/post/african-wild-dog-in-zambia-where-and-when-to-see-africa-s-most-elusive-predator

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🚵 Burnout, bikes, and starting over

After 15 years of racing, stepping away isn’t failure—it’s recalibration. This self-funded film follows two riders pulling back from the circuit to reconnect with why they started in the first place. No sponsors dictating pace, no pressure to perform—just bikes, waves, friends, and the messy process of finding direction again. One of the most honest pieces in the lineup.

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🌍 Suffering the FOMO?

(Pssst, this is where you should be right now!)

🚣 Skip the rafting permits—a wild canyon is calling!

📍 Pilcomayo River, Bolivia

While the Colorado gets crowded, the Pilcomayo is still wide open. This 14-day, 280-mile expedition drops into a remote canyon system with whitewater, side hikes into slot canyons, and a final push deep into jungle. No dams. No permits. Just unfiltered river travel—and the kind of expedition feel that’s getting harder to find.

Timing is everything here. The window typically lines up with the late rainy season (roughly January–May) when flows are high enough to keep things moving but not completely blown out. Go too early and it’s flood-stage chaos—too late and you’re scraping over rocks.

Hook up with river conservation organization, SierraRios for more info!

🚵 Lima’s desert freeride zone

📍 El Morro, Lima, Peru

Right on the edge of Lima, El Morro delivers something you don’t expect from a capital city—raw desert freeride lines dropping toward the Pacific. Sculpted jumps, fast flow, and big-air features built by a dialed local scene make this one of South America’s most underrated bike zones. Dry, dusty, and rideable year-round, it’s the kind of place where urban meets wild in the best way.

💥 Stay Stoked. Stay Wild.

Before you hit “Next”… Send this newsletter to your outdoor partner and even to that guy who you know shouldn’t be following you into the backcountry!!

❤️‍🔥 The StokedAF fam 🤘

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!

On my last Sunday ride, I saw this beauty in the hills above Moab!

🎬 The Dean Potter myth, unfiltered

Dean Potter was never just a climber—he was something far harder to pin down. The Dark Wizard, dives into the full spectrum: visionary, rebel, partner, and a deeply complex human chasing the edge between obsession and consequence.

Three years in the making, the Sender Films crew assembled a four-part, four-hour deep dive into his life—working closely with Potter’s family, accessing his personal journals, and interviewing those who knew him best to piece together what truly kept his fire burning.

Want more? Check out this podcast with Peter Mortimer on the Nugget, talking about how he sourced materials and the Potter-Honnold rivalry in the Valley.

Click here » https://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/peter-mortimer

🚵 The Portal still abides

📍 Moab, Utah

The Portal isn’t getting any easier…. One of Moab’s most infamous lines, turning already exposed moves into no-fall territory that demands total focus, even from riders who’ve been here for years.

Pro rider, Nate Hills, drops in for a top-to-bottom tour to reminds everyone why this trail still commands respect… and why sometimes walking a move is wise.

Length: 8 minutes

🌊 Surfing against the current

📍 Dakar, Senegal

In Dakar, the ocean isn’t just waves—it’s a crossroads. For Pape Fode and Baye Seydi, it’s also a way out that doesn’t require leaving.

Their surf school is building something deeper than technique: a sense of belonging strong enough to counter the pull of dangerous migration routes, turning the Atlantic into a space for future instead of escape.

This beautiful documentary film captures the drive and optimism that connects Pape and Seydi to the ocean. Don’t miss it.

Length: 9 minutes

🛶 Pinned above the void

📍 Río Claro, Chile

Everything was fine—until it wasn’t. A clean line into La Leona turned into a full-on nightmare: pinned, solo, and staring down an 80-foot waterfall just around the corner.

What follows is pure survival mode—ditch the boat, fight for an eddy, and somehow claw back from the edge. One of those stories where luck, grit, and a friend on a rope are the only reasons it doesn’t end differently.

🧗 Herson in the proving grounds

📍 Norway

Connor Herson had never climbed outside the U.S.—so when he finally did, he went straight to one of the hardest trad arenas on the planet.

Norway’s Profile Wall packs two of the world’s most demanding lines side by side, a place where there’s no soft entry, just raw testing ground. No shortcuts here—just commitment, history, and the kind of climbing that decides if you belong.

Length: 16 minutes

🎿 Ocean miles, life lines

📍 Australia

Fifty-five-year-old Heli Murray doesn’t separate life phases—she stacks them. Motherhood, divorce, menopause, endurance racing… all threaded together by the ocean.

As a birth doula and ultra athlete, she uses the sea as both proving ground and refuge, pushing limits in a way that feels less about performance and more about survival, identity, and staying wildly, stubbornly alive.

Length: 6 minutes

⚡ Bonus News ⚡

🏔️ The Arctic expedition season is delivering close calls, including a fatal crevasse fall and a polar bear encounter in separate incidents. Going solo carries its risk!

🧗 Kalymnos just hit pause on climbing—temporarily closing 10 crags for maintenance and safety work following tragic accident.

🚵 Do you like vintage mountain bikes? The 3rd annual Vintage Mountain Bike Show in Toronto celebrates the bikes and culture that once made the sport. It’s a reminder of what there was before carbon and suspension, and you just might your old bike in the photo gallery! Don’t miss this one.

🛶 Trapped under ice with no clear exit—one Michigan kayaker found himself in a full nightmare scenario after flipping in freezing conditions and got a brutal lesson in cold-water survival.

🎿 Cody Townsend, Tommy Caldwell, and Bjarne Salen scored the first-ever winter ski traverse of Norman’s 13, a link of the highest peaks in California’s Sierra Nevada. Eight days, big terrain, no shortcuts.

🧠 Long Reads & Opinions

Heads up, take your time with these ones…

🧗 Climbing Greece, one crag at a time

The duo behind The Crag Journal are methodical, road-tripping climbers who dig deep into every destination they visit. Their 11-week journey across Greece blends detailed beta, local insight, and a love for the process, painting a full picture of a country where limestone, mountains, and the coastline collide.

https://thecragjournal.com/2026/03/01/climbing-in-greece-a-mediterranean-road-trip/

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🎿 Can freeride stay wild?

Freeride skiing was born as a rejection of rules—built by icons like Shane McConkey on creativity, freedom, and doing it your own way. Now, with the Olympics on the horizon, the sport is evolving fast—bringing bigger exposure, bigger money, and bigger questions about what gets lost along the way.

The question is can it grow this big without losing its soul?

https://www.powder.com/news/can-freeride-stay-wild

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🐊 Face to face with apex predators

Wildlife rangers in Australia’s north are out in the wet season, tracking, trapping, and relocating massive Saltwater crocs in remote, high-risk environments where things can go sideways fast.

The film follows a live operation to move two giants from a fast-moving creek, showing the precision, teamwork, and nerves it takes to manage one of the planet’s most dangerous animals—day in, day out.

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🐒 The forest coming back to life in Nigeria

Deep in the wilderness, rare chimpanzees are being seen on camera traps after years of war and silence. With conservation teams returning and protection ramping up, this is a rare story of a wild place—and a species—getting a second chance.

💥 Stay Stoked. Stay Wild.

Before you hit “Next”… Send this newsletter to your outdoor partner and even to that guy who you know shouldn’t be following you into the backcountry!!

See you on the next send!

❤️‍🔥 The StokedAF fam 🤘

P.S. We’re gonna throw an awesome track your way… check it out!

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…

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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…

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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…

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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 …

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

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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 …

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Still wrapping our heads around the fact that Alex Honnold got paid half a million dollars to free-solo a skyscraper.

In this week’s edition: Pinkbike’s top mountain bike videos of 2025 (what a year), a l…

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New sport alert, for me! This weekend I put in some quiet miles on cross-country skis in Moab’s La Sal Mountains. It felt like the right way to frame this issue.

No rush, no agenda — just forward motion in winter terrain.

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Some mornings, even the smallest snowfall feels like stepping into another world. Cheers to the subscribers who enjoy the Stoke.

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Today’s sends take us from steep mountains in Wyoming and Norway to California and Arizona granite.

Feed yourself the stories and films that keep you dreaming.

But first, a selfie from the mountain islands in the Colorado Plateau… the La Sals!

The season’s first backcountry mission to check on snowbpack: way too thin, but crispy!

❤️ Nico and fr…

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As our StokedAF newsletter grows, we are stoked to announce our goal to bring you the STOKE twice a week!

But first, meet and greet our new crag pup, Luna!

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While most are chilling by the fire, the psychos are still sending.

So grab an eggnog, hide from the relatives, and mainline the STOKE!

Meanwhile, your StokedAF fam is back in the northern Wasatch, scoping routes while praying for SNOW! ❄️

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Hidden SkiMo couloirs in the Dolomites. A forest freeride engineered plank by plank. Moab slackliners finding calm above the void… and much more.

It’s all about people choosing the harder, purer, more meaningful version of their sport!

Speaking of meaningful, my daughter and I got some multi-pitch action ye…

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Check out this week’s 🤯 🤯 🤯 below.

Speaking of sending… how about Falcon Flow above Moab?!

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But first let’s hear from Mr. Stoked himself… from atop a red mesa!

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Grab your coffee, your yerba mate, or both!

But first Nico greets us from up high!

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Bikers bombing pow, grandmas cranking 5.13, hikers crushing 8,500 miles in a year… and much more

But first — greetz from a sandy tower! 🏜️

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