Welcome back, and welcome to everyone new to StokedAF.
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.
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.
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.”
⏱ 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