(scroll down for the list)

I love the outdoors. Running, hiking, climbing, sitting by the fire while there’s an ocean of stars above me. Being outside is a huge part of my life, a huge part of my identity – and a huge part of my strategy to staying sane when everything else is crumbling down.

You can imagine the pang of panic that ran through me the first day they announced a lockdown here in the Bay Area.

And so I thought of some things we outdoors people can occupy ourselves in during those times when we can’t be outdoors as much as we want/need. Here are the lists!

(I’m going to expand on this beyond watching/reading in a future post)

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YOU’RE INTO…

OUTDOORS AND ADVENTURE IN GENERAL

WHAT TO PICK UP:

BOOKS:

• Alstair Humphreys – My Midsummer Morning
  • Alstair’s story of how he hiked across Spain making money by busking
• Brendan Leonard – Bears Don’t Care About Your Problems
  • A humorous collection of Brendan’s essays, stories, how-to’s, and fake reviews for any hiker, climber, weekend warrior and constantly-injured runner

YOUTUBE:

• Beau Miles
  • Bass by Kayak (link)
    • “A short film series (6×10 minute episodes) about a small expedition party crossing from the Australian mainland to Tasmania in sea kayaks.” – Beau
  • Run the Line (link)
    • “Overgrown, farmed, pushed out, sold off and only half there, Beau sets off with shovel in hand, dressed like a 50’s train driver, to re-trace an old train-line. To run the line end to end would be the first human passing in over 60 years. Police, fences, blackberries, runner musings and leftover pasta, map Beau against a warm autumn day as he makes his way across a landscape he’s lived in his whole life.” – from Beau’s video description
  • The North Face
    • Lhotse (link)
      • “In 2018, Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison completed the first ski descent of the 27,940-foot Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain in the world. This is their story” – TNF

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YOU’RE INTO…

RUNNING

WHAT TO PICK UP:

BOOKS:

• Christopher McDougal – Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greates Race the World Has Never Seen
  • An “adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.”

YOUTUBE:

• Beau Miles
  • Trials of Miles (link)
    • Beau’s journey across the Australian Alps, running 650+ kilometers
  • A Mile An Hour – Running a Different Kind of Marathon (link)
    • “A different kind of marathon; running one lap an hour, for 24hrs, around my perfectly mile long block. The rest of the time I do as much as possible; making things, odd jobs, fixing stuff. It’s about running, doing, and thinking.” – Beau
• Brendan Leonard – Semi-Rad
  • How to Run a Hundred Miles (link)
    • A funny and emotional how-to story
• Steven Mortinson
  • Rooted | The Story of HURT (link)
    • A masterfully done documentary about HURT 100
• Billy Yang – Billy Yang Films
  • The Unknown | The Hardrock 100 (link)
    • Timothy Olson’s 2016 Hardrock 100 journey

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YOU’RE INTO…

HIKING/BACKPACKING

WHAT TO PICK UP:

BOOKS:

• Heather “Anish” Anderson – Thirst: 2,600 Miles to Home
  • Anish’s recollection of how she set the fastest known time on the Pacific Crest Trail
• Amy Racina – Angels in the Wilderness
  • Amy’s story about her ordeal getting seriously injured during her hike and her way to recovery and back to the trails

YOUTUBE:

• Wild Confluence – Casey Gannon and Colin Arisman
  • Only the Essential (link)
    • Very beautifully made half-hour documentary about the Pacific Crest Trail
• Dixie – Homemade Wanderlust
  • Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike (link)
    • Dixie’s PCT thru-hike in 35 episodes (~15-minutes each)
  • My Creepiest Night Hiking Experience (link)
  • Embarrassing Backpacking Moments (link)
    • An entertaining recollection of Dixie’s little misadventures
  • Continental Divide Trail Thru-Hike (link)
• Andy Laub – Andy Laub Films
  • As It Happens (link)
    • Another very beautiful documentary about PCT
• Fight for Together
  • To the Treeline (link)
    • A family with six kids hikes the Appalachian Trail

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YOU’RE INTO…

CLIBING

WHAT TO PICK UP:

BOOKS:

• Mark Synnott – The Impossible Climb
  • A very compelling story about Alex Honnold’s free-solo ascent of El Capitan, perfectly combined with the brief history of climbing and personal accounts as well.

YOUTUBE:

• The North Face
  • Land of Maybe (link)
    • “On an island Faroe, Faroe, Faroe way James Pearson, Cedar Wright, and Yuji Hirayama travel to climb the world’s tallest sea cliff, Cape Enniberg.” – TNF
  • Sawanobori (link)
    • “In August 2018, a handful of The North Face climbers travelled into the spectacular Japanese wilderness to dive into the realm of ‘Sawanobori’ – the revered art of scaling mountain streams, despite Mother Nature doing all she can to push them back. Powering through conditions that rendered traditional climbing shoes completely useless, this was unlike any adventure the team had done before.” – TNF
  • Of Choss & Lions (link)
    • “Two of America’s boldest rock climbers and self-proclaimed fashionistas, Alex Honnold & Cedar Wright, travel to Kenya’s Mt. Poi. The guys dodge choss, wild animals and general debauchery to claim ascents of Africa’s biggest big wall. It’s, uh, character building.” – TNF