Listen up outdoor adventurers! Are you planning an epic expedition in the near future? Need some extra cash to help get your journey off the ground? Outside magazine is here to help!
Outside is seeking submissions for its 2013 Adventure Grant and is looking for one bold adventurer to give $10,000 to. To enter, all you have to do is click here and fill out the online form. It includes the usual information such as your name, address, and so on. You'll also be asked to write a brief (500 words or less) essay about what kind of adventure you have planned and share a photo of yourself or your team. Finally, you'll need to create a brief video, no longer than two minutes, that expresses your passion for whatever your adventure may be. Upload that video to YouTube or Vimeo, and you're all set to go.
Deadline for submissions is June 1, which means you don't have a lot of time to get everything you need together. Once the deadline passes, Outside editors will pick their finalists and those videos will be posted online where readers can vote for their favorites. Last year, readers selected Daniel Alvarez as their winner. The 31-year old from Tallahassee, Florida went on an amazing kayaking journey that began in Minnesota, followed the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and then continued along the coast until he reached the tip of the Florida Keys.
This is a great opportunity for anyone to find some funding for their big adventure. Be creative, pitch your idea well and who knows, we may just be reading about you in the pages of Outside next year.
Fat bike, meet La Ruta de Los Conquistadores.
Si, the famous Costa Rican race that climbs over 20,000 feet in three
days. That bisects Central America from west to east. That transverses
jungles, crawls up a volcano to 10,000 feet, is more pocked than a WWI
minefield, and that begs for a full suspension 29er, or 27.5. What is
doesn’t beg for is going fully rigid on a fat bike, four-inch-wide
rubber sucking the mojo out of ever freewheel cruise on the flats.
Unless you’re Will Muecke and his buddies at Team CoreCo.
Muecke is an equity investor based in Costa Rica, with his company
closely devoted to Costa Rican causes, from community health concerns to
funding the only bottle-to-bottle PET (plastic) recycling plant in
Central America. And how does that add up to riding a fatty so far from
snow and sand?
The short answer is that it doesn’t.
The long answer is that Muecke, an American, got the desire to race
the Iditadrod Trail Invitational, or ITI. Muecke is fit enough; he’s a
La Ruta veteran and a masters-level rower, but you have to qualify for
the ITI, which meant being in Alaska this past January. No sweat, he did
that, qualified for ITI, and in the process got hooked on fat bikes and
especially training on them so he’s ready to race the 2014 ITI.
And since nothing is better for training to race than racing, Muecke,
who apparently has some influence in the Costa Rican race scene,
managed to convince La Ruta organizer Roman Urbina to open a fat bike
category for this coming October’s event.
You’d guess going fat would be grueling, but Muecke claims otherwise.
“Getting back from Alaska, I rode my typical mountain bike routes on
the fattie as just good training, but as the routes got more technical
and the terrain steeper I discovered a couple of things.”
Muecke says his Alaskan-made Fatback tips the scales at 30 pounds,
nine pounds heavier than his Niner Jet 9. “But the wide footprint
provides tractor-like traction in loose and super-steep climbs. On
pitches where I would normally walk, I had better climbing power and
could spin my way up and through the crux sections of the climb without
ever breaking rhythm.”
La Ruta is well known for its soul-crushing climbs; most racers, even
the pros, find themselves walking, but Muecke says with a 22-tooth
granny in front, he has enough torque for nearly every ascent; the only
adaptation was to switch from a double to triple up front so he has more
power on the molasses-slow flats.
Whether the category will grow is another story. Muecke is
noncommittal, but running a fat bike in La Ruta is drawing a lot of
publicity, both to the idea and to CoreCo’s causes, and that’s
motivation for Muecke and his growing team of six fat-bike riders to
keep at it.
Last week, Sally Jewell—former CEO of REI—took the helm as the new
Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This is great news for
everyone who likes to hike, bike, run, ski, fish, paddle, climb, or
explore the outdoors in any way. Why you should care? I’ll tell you.
The Department of the Interior, or DOI, oversees 500 million
acres—approximately 20 percent of America, including our national parks,
national wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands, and more.
How many times have you enjoyed an adventure on these lands? I bet many!
Secretary Jewell is now in charge of managing these, as well as the
department’s 70,000+ employees. Suffice to say, it’s a pretty big job.
As with any political office, the Secretary of the Interior faces a
delicate balancing act, juggling many interests. This is why we’re so
pleased to have one of our own in this important position. Under
Jewell’s watch, the DOI is poised to recognize outdoor recreation as a
leading use of public lands—one that creates tremendous economic value.
The DOI website summarizes their mission this way: “The U.S.
Department of the Interior protects America’s natural resources and
heritage, honors our cultures and tribal communities, and supplies the
energy to power our future.”
Notice that last part, about supplying energy to power our future.
It’s been a pretty big focus of the DOI over the years, which is all
fine and good. Of course we should harvest our nation’s energy
resources. After all, DOI lands are rich with oil and gas resources that
generate significant revenue for the government while also providing
domestic energy for our growing population.
The trouble is, until recently, no one has given much more than a
passing glance to how important outdoor recreation is to our economy.
But by paying heed to the first part of the mission—protecting America’s
natural resources and heritage—we can support a heck of a lot of jobs,
and good-paying sustainable jobs at that—in technology, product design,
manufacturing, sustainability, retail, global commerce, public land
management, and more.
With Jewell in charge of the DOI, we are better positioned to spread
the message that our nation’s public lands and waters are foundational
to outdoor recreation and the economy.
Jewell brings a plethora of great experience to the table. As CEO of
REI, she managed a $2 billion company that is as committed to protecting
outdoor recreation experiences as it is to making and selling great
products. Before that, she worked as an oil and gas engineer and
financier. Wow. What a combo! It’s not often that we get a DOI official
with such a broad and unique perspective. She has the chops to
understand the opportunities and challenges facing the DOI, particularly
as recreation lands are disproportionately targeted for budget cuts.
Jewell’s appointment is a big deal because it shows that leaders in
Washington are starting to get it. Like Senator Wyden said during
Jewell’s confirmation hearing: “The economics of public lands have
changed. Recreation has become a big business, and it will be good for
the economy if it grows bigger. To do that, the department will need to
give more attention to the opportunities that recreation on public lands
provides for businesses than it has in the past.”
Outdoor recreation resources are renewable and can continue to
sustain economic dividends for years to come. Just what sort of
dividends? I’m talking about the $646 billion in consumer spending
that outdoor recreation generates each year. And 6.1 million
sustainable American jobs (more than twice as many as the oil and gas
industry). And nearly $80 billion in annual tax revenue. These are big
numbers. And they deserve significant consideration when choosing how to
manage our public lands and waters.
When people play outside, their spending goes right back into the economy.
