🏔️ 7 skiers in a snow cave, and a storm that wouldn’t end
🔥 For people who’d rather be outside! 🌲
Dear readers!
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 Rafael Swell (Happy b-day D.) climbing the quiet sandstone walls surrounded by endless desert horizons. The crack climbs come with extra texture, the campsites are wide open, and you can spend an entire day out there without seeing another party.
It’s only a few hours from Indian Creek, yet the vibe couldn’t be more different. A reminder that some of the best climbing still lives in the quiet corners of the desert.
HEY! Before you embark on the stoked scroll! We want to hear from you: send me a message, a photo, or just a fist bump.
And please pass along this newsletter to your besties and worsties!
Word to you all!
Nico from Moab
❄️ Trapped: an unforgettable survival story
📍 Alaska, USA
Seven skiers set out to complete the 84-mile traverse of Alaska’s Harding Icefield, only to be swallowed by a historic storm packing 100 mph winds and more than seven feet of snow. What follows is a uniquely raw look at expedition life when things go sideways — digging snow caves, managing the slow creep of suffocation, and realizing the storm might never break.
Eventually the team calls for rescue, triggering a complex extraction by the Alaska Air National Guard as the helicopter battles brutal conditions.
A must-see reminder of how quickly big expedition skiing can shift into full survival mode. Film by Gaz Leah.
Length: 10 minutes
🎿 Grand Teton in all-time pow
📍 Grand Teton, Wyoming
You’ve seen the Tetons skied before — but maybe not like this. Cold smoke, stable snow, and clean fall lines stacking up in what looks like once-a-decade conditions.
When the biggest peaks in the Lower 48 go full pillow-soft, you drop everything and go. Madison Rose Ostergren shows us how it’s done!
📸 Watch:
🪂 Revisit the birth of FreeBASE
📍 Yosemite Valley, USA
Let’s throw it back to a time before wingsuit videos flooded the internet, when Dean Potter was redefining what was possible at the intersection of free solo climbing and BASE jumping. This remastered cut revisits his 2008 FreeBASE ascent of The Rostrum with the Alien Roof finish (5.12) — the only “protection”: a wing on his back.
A historic climb from one of Yosemite’s most fearless pioneers.
Length: 7 minutes
🌋 Bucket list: skiing the slopes of an active volcano
📍 Mount Etna, Italy
Last year’s eruption on Mount Etna created one of the wildest ski settings imaginable: glowing rivers of lava cutting through fresh snow.
A skier captures the moment with FPV drone footage while carving turns beside Earth’s raw power. Proof that the planet still writes the craziest adventure stories.
🏂 Rebuilding Jawbreaker
📍 Wyoming backcountry
A crew rebuilds Jawbreaker, a backcountry jump made famous by Travis Rice and Scotty Lago. There are no warm-up laps out here. Riders drop in with only a handful of attempts before the landing gets tracked.
When Lago hit it years ago, the consequences were brutal: stitches in his tongue and chin, broken teeth, and a shattered jaw that had to be wired shut. Big jump, big stakes — exactly the kind of risk that defines backcountry freestyle.
Length: 9 minutes
🧗 Birth of a 9-pitch line in El Salto
📍 El Salto, Nuevo León, Mexico
Diego Canavati and friends from Monterrey head into Mexico’s limestone paradise of El Salto to establish Espíritu Fuego (5.13+). True to Diego’s style, the film breaks down every step of the process — from scouting the wall to the gritty work of bolting and unlocking the line.
The film is well crafted, with great rhythm and storytelling that keeps the viewer hooked with just the right amount of drama — including the moment they recruit their amigo, el pizzero, to deliver the first free ascent.
If you’re not already following Diego’s youtube channel , you should be!
And if you can´t already speak Spanish, what are you waiting for?
Length: 27 minutes (this film is available in Spanish, or with German subtitles)
⚡ Bonus News ⚡
🌨️ Jay Peak still leads the snow game as one of the snowiest spots in North America. The Vermont resort is at the top of the U.S. leaderboard with 350+ inches, proving the East Coast powder machine is real-deal.
🧗 Mirco Grasso and Jernej Kruder establish 750m big wall route (5.12d) in Chile’s Cochamó Valley! First half is technical slabs with spaced protection; second half is “extraordinary cracks and dihedrals”.
🏔️ Nepali adventurers plan an expedition to follow the entire watershed from the summit of Mount Everest to the Bay of Bengal, tracing meltwater path from the world’s highest peak all the way to the ocean.
🌊 Scientists have discovered a “whale highway” in the Indian Ocean after successfully tagging a pygmy blue whale with a drone-deployed satellite tag. The tracking data revealed a previously unknown migration corridor used by the endangered whales.
🌋 Researchers studying volcanic activity found that subglacial volcanoes can trigger sudden floods capable of reshaping entire landscapes. The phenomenon, known as a jökulhlaup, can release enormous volumes of water in minutes.
🧗 French alpinist Charles Dubouloz accidentally dropped his food, stove, and jacket halfway up a winter solo climb in the Pyrenees. Instead of retreating, he continued upward and still managed to summit the 600-meter wall.
📚 Long Reads & Watches
🧗 Rakchham: The Himalayan bouldering Shangri-La
Hidden deep in India’s Kinnaur Valley, the village of Rakchham sits beneath towering Himalayan peaks — and scattered across its alpine meadows are thousands of untouched granite boulders. This piece explores how the remote valley has quietly become one of the most exciting emerging bouldering zones on Earth. The landscape is surreal: glacial rivers, apple orchards, and house-sized blocks sitting beneath 6,000-meter summits. Still off the radar, it might just be the world’s next bouldering mecca.
📚 Read it on Summit Journal: https://www.summitjournal.com/blogs/scree/welcome-to-rakchham-a-bouldering-shangri-la-in-the-himalaya
🌿 From student to junglekeeper: the life of Paul Rosolie
Paul Rosolie didn’t set out to become a viral sensation in Amazon conservation, he simply followed a fascination with the rainforest that turned into a lifelong mission. If you haven’t heard his story, yoiu need to. Paul reflects on the path that took him from curious student to boots-on-the-ground protector of the Peruvian Amazon. The conversation dives into the realities of defending the rainforest from loggers and miners, and navigating a complicated world of narcos and uncontacted Indigenous traibes. Adventure story and conservation manifesto: a reminder that protecting wild places often begins with a single person deciding they care enough to stay.
📚 Read it on Mongabay: https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-journey-from-student-to-amazon-junglekeeper-interview-with-paul-rosolie/
🚴 Why I Quit Racing
For years, Neil Beltchenko lived the life many endurance cyclists dream about — chasing podiums, pushing physical limits, and organizing his entire identity around racing bikes. But in this deeply personal reflection, he explains why that high-performance lifestyle eventually stopped making sense. The piece combines a 12-minute film, a photo archive from years on the road, and a written essay unpacking the psychological toll of constant competition. What emerges is a thoughtful meditation on burnout, identity, and the freedom that can come from slowing down. Sometimes the hardest move in endurance sports isn’t pushing harder — it’s choosing a different pace altogether.
📚 Read it on Bikepacking.com: https://bikepacking.com/plog/why-i-quit-racing/ or
Watch it here:
🚲 The dirt that built a BMX community in Austin, TX
In 1992, a single BMX rider shaped a lonely dirt pile in a neglected Austin park into one jump. Three decades later, that jump has grown into 9th Street, a true example of the DIY BMX trail system. This 1-hour documentary tells the story of the jumps and riders who built and maintained the trails through pure stubborn passion — hauling dirt, rebuilding jumps, and keeping the spirit of BMX alive outside the spotlight of big competitions. The film captures the wild characters, the crashes, and the community that formed around these handmade lines.
🌊 Surfing the Edge of the World: The Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are better known for penguins, wind, and remote sheep farms than surf culture — but that’s exactly what makes the waves here so compelling. This 1hr 15m documentary follows two surfers exploring the rugged South Atlantic coastline in search of empty breaks and cold-water adventure. The islands’ isolation means long drives across tundra, unpredictable weather, and waves breaking along cliffs where almost no one surfs. But when the conditions line up, the reward is pristine surf with absolutely no crowds. It’s a reminder that some of the best waves on Earth still sit far beyond the usual surf maps.
🌍 Suffering the FOMO?
(Pssst, this is where you should be right now!)
🧗 Bullet hard sandstone in the tropics
Suesca, Colombia — Climb like a local
Just an hour outside Bogotá, the sandstone cliffs of Suesca stretch for nearly two miles, forming Colombia’s most historic climbing area. The rock is pocketed and cracked with a mix of sport and traditional routes that have shaped generations of Colombian climbers.
Days here often start in the mist, with plenty fo friendly locals and trains rumbling down the tracks nearby. Suesca is known for test pieces, and blends strong local ethics with mixed gear vision of climbing, so bring your rack and your head!
If you want to understand Colombian climbing culture, Suesca is where it all began. Here’s a short film about the people trying to protect it for the future!
🚵 Desert Flow Season
Richfield, Utah — Spinal Tap
March is when the Utah desert riding season quietly kicks into gear, and Richfield’s Spinal Tap trail has become one of the most talked-about mountain bike descents in the region. Starting high on Monroe Mountain, the trail drops thousands of feet through alpine forest, slickrock ribs, and fast desert singletrack. It’s a long, rolling descent that mixes technical rock moves with high-speed flow — the kind of ride where every corner opens into another view of Utah’s red rock landscape. Compared to nearby Moab, Richfield still feels like a local’s secret. If the dirt is dry and the shuttle is running, you’ll understand why riders keep coming back.
Watch this to get the full character of Spinal Tap —18 miles from alpine to desert, descending nearly 5,000 vertical feet. It’s one of Utah’s longest continuous descents and a perfect example of the state’s signature “multiple ecosystems in one ride.
🏞️ The Wilderness at the Edge of the World
Tasmania — Here, you can do it all!
If March has you dreaming of going properly off-grid, Tasmania might be the ultimate southern hemisphere playground. The island’s wild west coast is home to the legendary Franklin River, where multi-day canoe expeditions wind through deep rainforest gorges and remote wilderness rarely touched by roads.
Tasmania also offers huge opportunities for backpacking through alpine plateaus and temperate rainforest in places like the Southwest National Park.
And for rock climbers, the sea cliffs and granite towers of Freycinet and the Tasman Peninsula deliver everything from adventurous trad lines to dramatic coastal routes above the Southern Ocean. Few places pack this much wilderness into such a compact island — and March is right in the heart of the adventure season.
💥 Stay Stoked. Stay Wild.
Before you hit “Next”… Send this newsletter to your outdoor partner and most trusted tent partner!!
See you on the next send!
❤️🔥 The StokedAF fam 🤘
PS: When in need of some serious old man vibes! Or if you just can’t convince your friends to take a day off… You are still getting out on weekdays by yourself and nobody can stop you!
🎿 “I Ski Alone”
Great newsletter!! Love following along on all the adventures!❤️👊👍