The Red Bulletin US 05/20 by Red Bull Media House

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

U.S. EDITION MAY 2020, $5.99

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

PURE

ADVENTURE Go wild at the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newest national parks

THE RED BULLETIN 05/2020

NOW D E TA I L S

INSIDE

Expand your horizons

FIND ACTION AND SOLITUDE IN California Patagonia Finland Canada the Bahamas New Mexico and more

Mark Jenkins explores how climate change is transforming mountaineering

Kyrgyzstan

Eric Bissell

Patagonia

Ted Hesser

EDITOR’S NOTE

ADVENTURE MATTERS As this issue heads to the printing press, the U.S. is sliding into a public health crisis brought on by the COVID-19 virus. The full scope of the consequences seem beyond comprehension. While this might be one of the worst moments in history to pull the trigger on a life-list vacation, it’s an excellent time to pause and reexamine how much adventure sustains your life. To that end, this issue is anchored by stories that cherish the value of adventure, the search for new experience in the outdoors.

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

MARK JENKINS

The Montana-based writer and veteran mountaineer traveled to the high peaks of Ecuador to examine how climate change is transforming our alpine world. “Many places in the U.S. are seeing only the beginnings of global warming, but this assignment showed me the stark realities that we will all face in the near future,” says Jenkins, whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Outside and The Atlantic. Page 48

In a wry and surprisingly useful take on adventure, pro skater Joey Brezinski and a masked sidekick headline a fun new YouTube series. To learn more see page 9.

Our cover story, “Young and Wild” (page 24), explores the world’s newest national parks, extraordinary places where solitude is easy to find. And on a reflective note, “World Without Ice” (page 48) is a gripping adventure saga and a study of how climate change is transforming our mountains. These tough times offer an opportunity to make sure your priorities are in order. Adventure matters. 04

Among many things the New York City-based writer (and surfer) learned while observing a groundbreaking big-wave-surfing safety class: the perfect musical reference for CPR. “It’s Bruno Mars’ ‘Uptown Funk,’ which is right around 115 beats per minute, the ideal tempo for effective chest compressions,” says Yu, whose work has appeared in Outside, The Washington Post and Runner’s World. Page 36

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DREW SMITH (COVER), SEU TRINH

CHRISTINE YU

CONTENTS May

FEATURES

2 4 Young and Wild

Around the world, countries have created new national parks to preserve the planet’s last pristine bastions—all for you to enjoy.

3 6 Crash Course

When something goes down in the ocean, big-wave surfers often have the chance to save lives. Now they’re training for it.

4 8 World Without Ice

An expedition to Ecuador’s highest peaks illuminates how climate change is profoundly transforming mountaineering.

6 0 The Disaster Artists

If there’s a hurricane or earthquake, these military veterans are ready to drop into the danger zone to help those in need.

7 0 Tricks of the Trade

Photographer Fred Mortagne shows us how the world looks different through the eyes of a talented skateboarder.

EMPTY PROMISE At the spectacular new Patagonia National Park in Chile, pioneering visitors are rewarded with nearly deserted trails and campgrounds.

20 WHITE KNIGHT

Even in the darkest hour, the calming presence of Sir Patrick Stewart in Picard provides escape for viewers.

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THE

DEPARTURE

Taking You to New Heights

9 A new YouTube show reviews SoCal’s skateparks 12 Musician Deb Never finds

her ray of sunshine

14 Taking on Ireland’s Giant’s

Causeway on a BMX bike

16 A journalist explores how

our bodies react to stress 18 A library for the future

19 Altering perceptions about Syria with art—and balloons 20 Patrick Stewart revisits his

iconic role as Captain Picard

2 2 Alicia Keys shares her top

tunes for roller-skating

GUIDE

Get it. Do it. See it. 79 Travel: Seattle 84 Fitness tips from ultrarunner Dylan Bowman 86 Dates for your calendar 88 The best new running gear 96 The Red Bulletin worldwide

DREW SMITH, FRED MORTAGNE, SEBASTIAN KIM/AUGUST

98 Off-roading in Las Vegas

70 MIRROR IMAGE

At the Arab World Institute in Paris, Aussie Sammy Winter shows off an elegant kickflip from multiple angles.

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G E N E R ATI O N S O F TR AD I N G S H OWE R S F O R STO R I ES .

WHAT AR E YO U BU I L D I N G F O R ?

150 years of engineering progress. Check it out at BFGoodrichTires.com/150Years.

LIFE

STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

THE

PARK LIFE

A fun new YouTube show starring pro skater Joey Brezinski and his masked sidekick picks apart the pros and cons of Southern California’s skateparks.

SEU TRINH

Half of the show’s winning combination is its mysterious man in black, known as “Rip.” THE RED BULLETIN

T H E D E PA RT U R E Skatepark Review host Joey Brezinski and his sidekick, Rip.

As the duo works their way through the park, the film crew captures Brezinski’s unfiltered opinions about the space, while Rip—plus a smattering of fellow pros, including Neen Williams— rip. This is the basic structure for Official Skatepark Review, a YouTube show on Red Bull’s skateboarding channel dedicated to critiquing parks across Southern California. Although the concept of a mute sidekick feels willfully absurd, Brezinski doles out genuinely useful feedback, evaluating everything from the park’s features and amenities to the flatground and local scene. “When I started skating, there were no skateparks,” Brezinski says. “I’m old school. We used to get kicked out of everywhere. We didn’t have anywhere to go. It was frowned upon to be a skateboarder. Now kids are going to skateparks and that’s their safe space, but they’re not leaving it to go out and do what skateboarding truly is.”

“THE CANVAS IS OUTSIDE THE PARK. GO PAINT ON THAT.”

SEU TRINH

n a crisp and cerulean February morning in San Diego, a flock of hoodie-clad skateboarders is gliding across a vast concrete playground. Inside the 2-year-old Linda Vista Skatepark—a 34,000-square-foot facility backed by a $4 million grant from the state—novices and masters mingle as they tentatively attempt a heelflip or confidently tackle one of the park’s bowls. One cluster in particular stands out—not only because there’s a small film crew in tow but also because one of the skateboarders is wearing a black spandex bodysuit from head to toe. Leading the charge is Joey Brezinski, a 40-year-old pro street skater who made a name for himself by winning contests and picking up a Red Bull sponsorship in 2006. Brezinski, whose impish visage bears a striking resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman, gives orders to the gangly man in black, tasking his mysterious sidekick to do tricks on the park’s features. For the most part, “Rip,” as the man in black is known, complies in total silence, and if one of Joey’s demands seems too daunting, Rip slowly shakes his head from left to right—a gesture that loosely translates to “nah, dude.”

Brezinski’s passion for skating in the streets colors his commentary, even at an imposing park like Linda Vista. “It’s too complicated,” he says of the design. His cohorts agree that the obstacles are too cramped, not leaving enough room for skaters to breathe and not run into each other. “If there’s too much stuff there, it confuses the brain,” Brezinski adds. It also doesn’t help your brain if, like Rip, you’re wearing a black spandex mask. “Everything is blurry,” the pro skater who plays Rip later admits over tacos. “It looks like you’re looking out of a limo’s tinted window.” Brezinski came up with the idea to add the Rip character to the show and keep his true identity a mystery. “It’s more about entertainment,” he admits. Even though the jokey tone of the show is clear, Brezinski doesn’t want locals to feel offended if he takes a few jabs at their hometown park. “You can take our subjectiveness with a grain of salt,” he says. On a show that is dedicated to reviewing skateparks, Brezinski says the underlying message is that there’s a whole world out there. “You can get good at skating going to a skatepark, but what are you developing those skills for?” he asks. “How do you evolve it to become your art? The canvas is outside the park. You need to go paint on that.” —Nora O’Donnell Season 2 of Official Skatepark Review is now available on YouTube.

Pro skater Neen Williams pops up on the show to demonstrate his daredevil talent.

“I WAS SO SHY BUT I’VE FINALLY COME AROUND.” 12

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Deb Never

NEVER SAY NEVER

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, the musician battled social anxiety, but now she’s finding her voice through her special brand of melancholic pop.

JENN KANG

inger-songwriter Deb Never lives and makes music with her WeDidIt Collective “homies” in Los Angeles, but the gray skies of her lonely youth in Washington state have shaped her dreamy, melancholy music more than the sunshine and palm trees that surround her now. Her music stems from childhood moments—skateboarding under a neighborhood bridge, stealing a guitar from her father’s church, learning to play alone in her bedroom— and borrows elements of ’90s Pacific Northwest grunge and hip-hop to create an emotional sound that can be heard on her latest EP, title forthcoming, and seen live this spring while she’s on tour with Mura Masa.

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the red bulletin: What was it like growing up in Spokane, Washington? deb never: I was super shy growing up and had social anxiety. When I got older, I would go see shows by myself at this coffee shop and listen to emo music. I remember once being locked out of the apartment and it was rainy and cold and damp. I walked out in these old Converse with holes and duct tape all over them. I had to walk up a huge hill looking for a pay phone, and then I had no choice but to just walk around and experience the world, feeling super isolated. The memory of it is kind of funny to me now.

When did music come into the picture? I was watching old Nirvana music videos and I thought, Damn, I wanna play like him [Kurt Cobain]. I started learning by ear and making my own songs—really bad songs—and letting my feelings out. It was more like a secret hobby, alone in my room. I stole the guitar from my dad’s church; I was 11 years old. One string was missing, the high E string. Then I was in bands playing guitar in Spokane and being shy. It’s fucking scary. I’ve always been self-conscious about how my music sounds. You started releasing music in 2018. How did that come about? In 2018, I made a beat at 4 in the morning in my room, with a piano synth and my guitar. I sang really quietly through my iPhone headphones. I played it for a few friends and they were like, “Yo, just release that.” I didn’t put much thought into it. Then I started meeting friends with studios and they would say “Let’s work,” so I made songs with them. Then I thought I wanted to make a project. That became my first EP, House on Wheels. Now that you’re based in L.A., how has that affected you? I was about to stop doing music. I was in Spokane and I was like, “What am I doing? I’m making music in my bedroom. I should go to

college.” My friend said I should move out here and do sessions and play guitar, so I said “Fuck it, what do I have to lose?” I sold a bunch of shit and moved. I got super lucky to find a good group of friends and a great team. It feels like home. Everyone here has something they want to do, and everyone is moving. Back home, I felt really stagnant. In an Instagram post, you jokingly said “Back by no demand.” But that’s not necessarily true. You played the piano on Instagram recently and got more than 20,000 views. I’ve always had a nonchalant, fuck-it-if-it-crumbles, nothingto-lose type of attitude. It’s funny; I’m always surrounded by people now, so my social anxiety kind of disappeared, but when I was 14, I was too shy to even take my jacket off when I walked into class. I couldn’t even order at a McDonald’s drive-through until I was 15 or so. Considering that, do you like performing live now? I like performing, which is funny because the first time I hated it. I was so shy, but finally I’ve come around. My live [set] right now is almost like a punk show. I make people get involved, get in people’s faces and move around a lot. I want people to leave my show and be totally surprised. —Gary Moskowitz 13

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Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland

ROLLING STONES

No matter how spectacular his BMX skills, Croatian-born Austrian rider Senad Grosic would have struggled to outshine the natural wonder known as the Giant’s Causeway. “The story of this image started around 60 million years ago, when lava cooled down in a very slow way, leaving a vast field of hexagonal stones behind,” says German photographer Lorenz Holder, who took this sunset shot at the UNESCO World Heritage site. “There are only a couple of places on earth where we can see these formations nowadays.” lorenzholder.com

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The Wedge

INTERNAL FORCE

In a new book, an investigative journalist explores how the body reacts to stressful situations—and whether we can better reprogram our instincts.

to shiver, Carney wants you to make the choice to relax and start to feel the cold as you would any other sensation. In other words, think of that frigid liquid spewing over your naked body as no big deal. If you master the above, you can start changing your reaction to other everyday situations, he says. Eventually, Carney claims, you’ll be able to not just control your nervous system but reprogram it, which can lead to a range of benefits, from alleviating depression to combating autoimmune diseases. “The most important thing is that it changes the way that you respond to stress in the world. It’s literally controlling your emotions by using environmental inputs,” he says. “You gain more emotional and physical resilience.” Unconvinced? The book’s origins can actually be traced back to Carney’s own cynicism.

SCOTT CARNEY, JAKE HOLSCHUH

f you want to dig into the science behind Scott Carney’s new book, The Wedge, you may encounter a handful of terms you likely haven’t used since high school biology. But Carney suggests a far simpler way to understand the book’s central promise—to learn how to put an intangible “wedge” between an outside stimulus and your body’s typical response—is to do something you were probably going to do anyway today: Take a shower. “Start with your shower warm and then do the hardest thing that any human has ever done in the history of humanity. Turn around and turn the knob to cold,” Carney implores. But here comes an equally difficult ask—at first anyway. Rather than give in to your body’s predictable responses to the stress of that cold water by tensing up your muscles, clenching your jaw or starting

Nearly a decade ago, the investigative journalist set out to debunk the teachings of Dutch fitness guru Wim Hof, who holds a variety of world records for frosty feats like the longest swim under ice, all of which Hof attributes to a method involving, among other things, breathing techniques used to control the immune system. Carney never did expose Hof as a fraud. Instead, he quickly learned Hof’s methods, accompanied him on a bare-chested hike up Mount Kilimanjaro and documented his experiences in his previous book, What Doesn’t Kill Us. Carney came up with the idea of the wedge during his initial days with Hof. “A lot of that time when I was with him, I was just trying to figure out what the method was. What are we doing? How does this work? It was then I came up with the concept of using your intention to resist an urge. I was widening that gap between stimulus and response and my mind was the wedge. It stuck with me.” To take what he’d learned even further, he moved on to other environments. Carney and his wife participated in a five-hour sauna ritual in Latvia that they came away

Colorado-based journalist Scott Carney (left) has written two books about the exploration of a human’s mental and physical limits. Right: Carney hiked to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, without a shirt, with Dutch fitness guru Wim Hof (middle).

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T H E D E PA RT U R E

Trust issues? As part of his book research, Carney tossed around a 25-pound kettlebell—while barefoot.

“WE DON’T HAVE THE PHYSICAL OUTPUT THE WAY WE USED TO AND THAT CREATES ANXIETY.” THE RED BULLETIN

from feeling “awesome, resilient and relaxed.” He also met with the founder of a program called Kettlebell Partner Passing, inserting that “wedge” between the threat of a 25-pound weight landing on his foot and his reaction to seeing it soaring toward him. The claimed result: an instantaneous flow state that comes from laser-like focus. “What you’re actually doing is trying to connect with another person through the medium of the danger between you,” Carney says. “You’re learning to trust someone without language. It’s another way to get emotional engagement with people.” But if our bodies’ typical reactions to stress have worked for a thousand years, why mess with them? Because, says Carney, we were built to deal with varying extreme temperatures and lifethreatening situations that would trigger a rush of adrenaline and cortisol, which we actually needed back in the caveman days to outrun a lurking predator. Today, however, we usually exist in a temperaturecontrolled, technologically advanced cushy cocoon of a world that perhaps has gotten a little too comfortable. We’re getting that same rush when we feel stress, but it’s often in response to mundane things that we process from the safety of an ergonomic desk chair. Subjecting ourselves to controlled stresses like cold showers can train our bodies to react more calmly to other anxiety-inducing situations, whether it’s a blood-boiling Facebook post or gnarly traffic. With practice, Carney says, we can become adept at controlling our emotions and making conscious choices about how to react to nearly any circumstance. “The wedge allows us to create new relationships with stresses and then go out there and take on challenges.” —Lizbeth Scordo 17

Come back in 94 years’ time—there’s not much to read here right now.

Future Library

TURNING LEAVES

From this young forest in southern Norway, a future generation of book lovers will harvest never-beforepublished works by award-winning authors.

n the Norwegian forest of Nordmarka, just six miles north of Oslo, 1,000 young trees are growing. These spruce saplings have a very specific purpose: In the year 2114—100 years after they were planted—their wood will be used to create 100 asyet-unpublished books. The Future Library is the brainchild of Scottish-born visual artist Katie Paterson. “I had this idea of a visual connection, imagining a tree’s rings being like chapters in

From left: Margaret Atwood and Katie Paterson; the Silent Room

a book,” she says. “I imagined these trees growing, but also physically growing chapters over time and becoming a forest full of words.” Each year of the project, Paterson and her team will collect a work of literature from an iconic author, and these will be held in a specially designed chamber— the Silent Room—at Oslo City Library until the date of publishing. Canadian author Margaret Atwood was the first writer to contribute to the Future Library, donating her unread novel Scribbler Moon in 2014. “It was very clear that Margaret Atwood would be the most phenomenal author to begin with, because of her relationship to time, nature, technology and the climate, and the activism in her work,” says Paterson. “We reached out in a letter to invite her, and she said yes very quickly, which was phenomenal.” Since the project’s launch, five others have donated their works: British author David Mitchell; Icelandic writer, poet and lyricist Sjón; Turkish novelist, academic and women’s rights activist Elif Shafak; South Korean author and poet Han Kang; and Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgård. “We don’t read the manuscripts, of course,” says Paterson, “but Margaret Atwood’s and David Mitchell’s were quite weighty, and Han Kang’s felt a little bit like a short story. Of course, this is all speculation.” Most people alive today, however, won’t get the chance to read the books in the Future Library. “It’s not for us, it’s for people who aren’t born yet; we’re thinking ahead to that generation,” says Paterson. “It’s tempting to wonder what has been written, but most of us will never have those words. For now, it’s only the authors who have them in their minds.” futurelibrary.no THE RED BULLETIN

BJØRVIKA UTVIKLING BY KRISTIN VON HIRSCH, GIORGIA POLIZZI, ATELIER OSLO, LUND HAGEM, KATIE PATERSON, 2017. FUTURE LIBRARY

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T H E D E PA RT U R E Burst of color: An installation from the “Stereotype Inversion” project.

ALÝA OLA ABBAS

yria is a country with a rich cultural history. From painting and literature to music and architecture, its artistic contribution to the world stretches back to 9,000 BC. However, conflict in Syria —particularly since the start of the civil war in 2011—has overshadowed the country’s cultural achievements, casting the focus instead on warring factions and bloodshed. Now, young Syrian artists are trying to change this, shining a light on the abundance of new creative talent in a nation currently making headlines for only negative reasons. One such creative is Alýa Ola Abbas of Alya Art Studio. Through her innovative art project “Stereotype Inversion,” Abbas aims to represent Syria as a place of creativity and hope. “As an artist who works

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Alya Art Studio

FLOATING PERSPECTIVE

With her beautiful artwork, Syrian creative Alýa Ola Abbas is challenging the world’s view of her country. and lives in a country that has suffered from war for around 10 years, the negative impact had started to confuse me,” she says. “I aimed to represent those stereotypical scenes of everyday life and then replace them with scenes full of hope, challenging the situation and transforming those places.”

Abbas uses photography, film and installations to capture locations in Syria’s cities. “The photography series contains about seven photos with different stories,” she says. “Balloons represent the creative ideas and advanced inventions made by the people here; to give them the selfconfidence and determination to reach the quality of life they want.” Each image comprises 50 layers of photography, combining shots of locations and balloons to create a new narrative around local spaces. “Our life is our beliefs, so we should make sure to think positively and look for real effective power,” says Abbas of her project. “The final pieces of ‘Stereotype Inversion’ conceptualize my thoughts and artistic views of social issues.” IG: @alya_art_studio 19

How revisiting a character from the future made one of the world’s most iconic actors reflect on the present.

t’s rare in life to get the chance to go back and have another go at our most important moments. For most of us, life goes on and our early endeavors are left behind. Last year, however, acclaimed actor Sir Patrick Stewart was given the opportunity to revisit his own past life and career, as he reprised one of his most celebrated roles, Captain JeanLuc Picard of the USS Enterprise, in the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Picard. For 15 years between 1987 and 2002, Stewart inhabited the role of captain and leader in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four movies, inspiring viewers with a message of fairness, diplomacy and equality. “As our world goes one step forward and two steps back,” says Stewart of this new iteration of the character, “I think there is much of the man we knew in Next Generation: his modesty, his passion for humankind and for the future of the solar system.” The 79-year-old actor tells The Red Bulletin how it feels to reprise this iconic character after 18 years away, and also to return to such a hopeful show in the new alien landscape of 2020.

What can we expect from this new chapter, and from your character in particular? We’re living and working in a different world. Picard has walked away from everything and is living with his dog in his château, growing grapes. He’s discontented, angry and guilty; he feels that he failed. After so many years away from the character of Picard, did it take time to find him again? The man never left; he never left inside me. We overlap in the things we believe in and the way we see leadership. It was an exhausting and exhilarating experience, but I didn’t find it remotely challenging. What I did find challenging was when my old castmates Jonathan [Frakes, who plays Commander Riker] and Brent [Spiner, who plays Lieutenant Commander Data] returned to the set. They teased me quite a lot. Many of the show’s political themes feel more relevant than ever in 2020. Do you feel that subtext is more important now? Definitely, being political is more important now than ever. It was actually suggested to me last year that I should take American citizenship and run for Senate. That really was a serious proposal.

years, although I’m a somewhat doubting one at present. My political history began when I committed my first act of civil disobedience in 1945, however, when I was just 5 years old. I was parading up and down with my father, who was the Regimental Sergeant Major of the Parachute Regiment, with a placard that read “Vote for Mr. Palin” [the Labour candidate for Wentworth, South Yorkshire]. A policeman came and told me to bugger off, because the police could talk to you like that in the working-class neighborhood I grew up in. But I said “No, I won’t,” ignored him and carried on. Star Trek has always championed diplomacy and optimism. How was it making this new chapter while living in a time that, for many, feels less hopeful? I believe there is always hope to be found. While things look very dark right now, certainly as far as Europe is concerned, we have to believe in a better future. We must. We reflect the present day in this new series. It was one of the things that we all believed in way back when I first started on the show: a fairer world, a kinder world, a more modest world. That is also what we’ve tried to bring to this new chapter. Star Trek: Picard is available to stream on CBS All Access.

LOU BOYD

SETTING A COURSE

the red bulletin: When the offer came, did you immediately know you wanted to return? patrick stewart: Not at all. I had never felt so strongly about not doing something in my entire career. When I met with the team of directors and writers, it was just to tell them in person why I wasn’t going to come back. What they pitched to me in that meeting, however, was irresistible.

SEBASTIAN KIM/AUGUST

Patrick Stewart

Have you always been so politically engaged? I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for many, many 20

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”SOMEONE SUGGESTED TO ME THAT I SHOULD RUN FOR SENATE.” THE RED BULLETIN

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Playlist

SKATE OF MIND

When the Grammy-winning musician, actress and activist Alicia Keys needs time out, she puts on her roller skates and a playlist of upbeat tunes.

licia Keys is a powerhouse in the entertainment world. Since breaking through in 2001 with her single “Fallin’,” the New Yorker has had numerous multiplatinum records, won 15 Grammys and established herself as an actress and film producer. In addition to all of this, Keys is a political and social activist and the mother of two boys, ages 9 and 5. During promotion for her upcoming seventh studio album, Alicia, the 39-year-old revealed that roller-skating helps clear her head. “I do it with my family a lot,” says Keys. “It’s a super fun thing. And uplifting music works when you’re skating. You just feel so good.” Here’s a selection of what she listens to at the rink. aliciakeys.com

“Post Malone’s tunes work really well at the rink. I’m a big fan of ‘Congratulations’ [the New York-born rapper’s 2017 single], but I think ‘Circles’ might be even better. This track [which gave Malone his fourth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart] is a good song for skating, because it just makes you want to move.”

“I love to listen to this one when I’m in my roller skates. [Sings] ‘I wanna thank you, Heavenly Father, for shining your light on me . . . I know it couldn’t have happened without you.’ It has this great rhythm—you’re skating and you’re flying. It’s wonderful. That’s such a good one—don’t forget to look it up next time you go roller-skating.”

DR. DRE FEAT. SNOOP DOGG “NUTHIN’ BUT A ‘G’ THANG” (1992) “G-funk puts you on fire at the skate rink. Anything from [classic hip-hop album] The Chronic by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg would be a great choice. I mean, I love all of that record, but especially ‘Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang.’ Stuff that kind of has a bounce, like you’re going to want to move and vibe and dance and have fun.”

ALICIA KEYS “TIME MACHINE” (2019) “Have I tried any of my own stuff? Of course. Alicia Keys works well when you’re skating—definitely ‘Time Machine’ and also ‘No One’ [2007]. When I was a kid, there was a place in the Bronx called the Skate Key that me and my friends used to go to. While everybody else was skating, we would just stand there and look cute. [Laughs.]” THE RED BULLETIN

MARCEL ANDERS

ALICIA MYERS “I WANT TO THANK YOU” (1981)

SONY MUSIC

POST MALONE “CIRCLES” (2019)

Ucluelet, BC, Canada Pro snowboarder and YETI Ambassador Robin Van Gyn sets out for a new challenge.

YOUNG AND WILD

Around the world, countries have created new national parks to preserve the planet’s last pristine bastions. Because these destinations haven’t yet developed a broad fan base, early adopters can experience a kind of solitude that’s impossible to come by at celebrated parks. So get ready to get out there. Words KELLY BASTONE

DREW SMITH

Chile’s Patagonia National Park, created in 2019, is an instant classic.

UNDISCOVERED PATAGONIA

PATAGONIA NATIONAL PARK , CHILE

he Lagunas Altas Trail is one of those ridgeline hikes that makes you feel like an eagle in flight—or in my case, a condor. On my left, the Andes’ sharp summits claw at a cloudless sky. To my right, a pair of black-necked swans glide across a turquoise lake. This well-marked path is the signature day hike in Patagonia National Park, so it should be mobbed with admirers, like Chile’s better-known Torres del Paine National Park. There, hikers on the iconic “W” route shuffle along in a conga line of traffic. But Patagonia National Park was only created in 2019, after the North Face founder Douglas Tompkins and his wife, Kristine, bought massive swaths of ranchland over several years and donated it to the Chilean government. With time, the masses will add this stunning park to their bucket lists, but today I see just six other trekkers along the 14-mile loop. The Visitor Center is just as quiet. Although the park entrance sits right on the Carretera Austral, a popular road for van-lifers, motorcyclists and bikepackers, the headquarters’ parking lot is empty save for two rental RVs. Flagstone sidewalks link stately stone buildings that house a lodge ($280-$800/night) and a museum documenting humans’ environmental exploitation and the importance of landscape conservation. I browse the exhibits in relative solitude. The Tompkins’ environmental zeal is also obvious at the park’s El RincÓn

Gaucho restaurant. Mural-sized photos of predatory pumas and llama-like guanacos (two species that are returning to the park after being exiled by sheep ranching) line the dining room walls beneath a nest of huge wood ceiling beams reminiscent of safari lodges. From my table, I watch guanacos and their young chulengos graze on valley grasses while I feast on fresh greens (sourced from the park’s greenhouse) and grilled lamb. It reminds me of wildlife-spotting sessions at Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain national parks, but with a fraction of the people: Diners at the restaurant occupy just three tables on this night. When I relocate to the West Winds campground, situated some 2 miles southwest of the Visitor Center and restaurant, I hardly have to shoehorn my tent into the mix. There are no dedicated campsites; instead, people simply claim a patch of grass on a vast open meadow rimmed with mountain views. There’s a central bathhouse with flush toilets and showers, with picnic shelters scattered along the perimeter. The setup reminds me of a music festival—if music festivals attracted an audience of 30. But that number is sure to grow, and in years to come, I’ll probably sound like a geezer as I reminisce about visiting Patagonia National Park before its campground ballooned into a city of tents. In short, the “good old days” are now.

BORE AL BE AUT Y

THAIDENE NËNÉ NATIONAL PARK RESERVE, CANADA

I Creature comforts: Expect to see herds of musk ox, bears, wolves and moose in the park.

nstead of evicting the indigenous Łutsel K’e Dene people from the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, this new national park (established last year) taps them to be its resource managers and rangers. Visitor services are still in the planning stages, but the large watershed that’s protected within the new park is largely intact and uncorrupted by mining or other development. There aren’t many of those left on earth, even in Canada, which has more rivers and lakes than anyplace else in the world. And watercraft are the keys to this kingdom: THE RED BULLETIN

The founder of the North Face donated land to the Chilean government over many years to develop Patagonia National Park.

DREW SMITH, SOPHIA DAGHER

With time, the masses will add this stunning park to their bucket lists. But not yet. Without a paddle, you’d be hard-pressed to cover much ground, given the density of the roadless boreal forest. Its wilds look stunning from a boat, and Yellowknife paddler Dan Wong (of Jackpine Paddle) leads extended trips into Thaidene Nëné’s remote reaches. One nine-day option uses sea kayaks to explore the remote East Arm of Great Slave Lake, circumnavigating Etthen Island and taking breaks to scale its lakeside cliffs. Wild raspberries, crowberries and strawberries fill its interior, along with antioxidant-rich mushrooms that grow at the bases of birch trees. Wong forages for them all, and cooks up fish fries that no restaurant can match: Great Slave’s lake trout grow THE RED BULLETIN

to gargantuan proportions (a 20pounder will feed the entire group) yet are relatively easy to catch, because in North America’s deepest lake (2,014 feet), the cold water drives them to the surface. Granite cliffs along the lakeshore rise to 900 feet above the water and plunge 2,000 feet below its surface; paddlers can peer down an improbably long distance thanks to the extra-clear waters. And because Great Slave Lake sits directly amid the “auroral belt” where the aurora borealis is especially predictable, trips in August and September feature dazzling night lights. Wong’s other Thaidene Nëné trip is a 12-day canoe cruise through Eileen Lake to the treeless barrens. Hilly, uninhabited

lakeshores make for ever-changing horizons dotted with wildlife. Herds of musk ox, moose, bear and tundra wolves are commonly spotted but nothing else: In all his years of guiding, Wong has never seen another human on this journey; the route sits 180 miles from the nearest settlement. But he has spotted evidence of prehistoric people, since arrowheads, scrapers and spearheads litter the tundra where caribou roam (and were hunted by prehistoric nomads). Campsites occupy the sandy eskers that glaciers shed millennia ago, and views from the tundra feel as expansive as summits— making these northern latitudes feel like a surreal sort of Everest. 27

The brilliant dunes of White Sands National Park will test your Instagram posting restraint to the fullest.

SPECTACUL AR SANDBOX

WHITE SANDS NATIONAL PARK , NE W ME XICO

here’s more to this park than gypsum dunes—which are incredibly cool. Transparent grains of sand form opaline hills that reflect the sunsets’ pink and purple hues. It’s an otherworldly landscape that’s starkly beautiful and undeniably spiritual: We dare you to visit without posting at least one image to Instagram. But in December 2019, the former national monument got upgraded to national park status after researchers discovered that the world’s largest gypsum dune field also contained the world’s largest collection of fossilized footprints, left during the last ice age. Thousands of tracks from woolly mammoths, giant sloths, saber-toothed tigers and, yes, even humans are preserved in the park’s prehistoric lakebeds. At one site, footprints from a full-grown human are sometimes paralleled by much smaller ones—likely a toddler who was carried when she wasn’t walking. Another track indicates that humans may have stalked a sloth by stepping where the animal did. For now, White Sands’ paleontological sites remain off-limits to visitors, but the park plans to transform the existing Playa Trail into an interpretive walk that could open next year. The Alkali Flat Trail roller-coasters across the dunes to a 28

dry lakebed that’s rimmed by dramatic cliffs. And the Backcountry Camping Trail links 10 hike-to sites, each one nestled between dunes that create a sense of seclusion and solitude. Kick back and gaze at stars undimmed by city lights—during the Perseid meteor shower in August, park astronomers hold a skywatch party that often lasts till midnight—and admire the Milky Way. That arm of our galaxy appears brightest during the summer, but the best hiking weather is in January and February, when visitors are scarce and temperatures are cool (the park discourages dune hiking if the air tops 85 degrees). Once a month, rangers guide visitors to Lake Lucero, reached by driving across the neighboring White Sands Missile Range (hence the requirement for an escort). There, the wind exposes thousands of amber-colored selenite crystals averaging 6 to 18 inches long; over time, the wind pulverizes them into the grains of sand that make up the dunes. There are no vehicle-accessible campgrounds or lodges within the park. But 16 miles east in the quirky-cool town of Alamogordo, the new 575 Brewing Company taps a killer citrus ale, and the Airbnb rental above the Tall Pines Beer and Wine Garden exudes colorful southwest charm.

CHRIS BURKARD/MASSIF

It’s an otherworldly landscape that’s starkly beautiful and undeniably spiritual.

NORTHWOODS ESCAPE HOS SA NATIONAL PARK , FINL AND

o celebrate its 100th year of independence in 2017, Finland created Hossa National Park, a glacier-carved parcel of pristine taiga located 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Shockingly clear lakes and streams make the park feel like Eden. Lichens, mosses and other pollution-intolerant plants thrive among pine and spruces, and wild edibles abound: Native son Tarmo Karvonen of Hossa Travel leads hiking and foraging tours on which adventurers can feast on wild blueberries, raspberries, herbs (for delicious brewed teas) and mild-fleshed lake perch. Hikers can circumnavigate Julma-Ölkky Canyon Lake, a cliff-rimmed sliver of water that’s just 30 feet wide in places. More glacial landscaping awaits near Lake Kokalmus, where ice-age kettle ponds hold startlingly blue and green water that’s tinted by ice-age mineral deposits. One gin-clear kettle pond that’s 130 feet deep, Öllöri, is understandably popular with scuba divers. Most hikers, mountain bikers and paddlers log day trips rather than overnights, but Hossa’s network of footpaths and canoe trails can support multiday journeys. Riders on the 32-mile Sininen Saavutus Trail can opt to overnight at free backcountry cabins, which are stocked with firewood and sit beside idyllic swimming holes bordered by sandy beaches. The Peranka-Hossa canoe route along the park’s southern border offers solitude with an asterisk— you’ll have plenty of company from the forest’s resident bear, moose and reindeer. Just 96,000 people visited Hossa last year, and most of them crowded around the Värikallio rock art. Painted by the indigenous Sámi people between 3,500 and 4,500 years ago, these red and yellow ochre sketches depict humans with antlers on their heads, pregnant women and stick-figure elk. A floating boardwalk lets hikers access the waterside cliff that served as the Sámis’ studio/gallery. Afterward, pitch a tent at the park’s Karhunkainalo campground (with a lakeside sauna available for rent) or settle into Camp Norwide, with its 25 glasswalled apartments overlooking Lake Hossanlahti and seven traditional log mökkis equipped with private saunas. The Finns’ steambath/lake-swim sequence is an unbeatable day-ender during July’s midnight sun or winter’s northern lights.

Fewer people visit Hossa in a year than flock to Yosemite in a week.

GEORGE TURNER

Mountain bikers can access free backcountry shelters set near idyllic swimming holes.

Snorkelers and divers can easily view magnificent reefs and aquatic wildlife at Fowl Cays National Park.

32 â&#x20AC;&#x2030;

Currents are gentle and the crystal-clear water makes for HD viewing.

UNDERWATER K ALEIDOSCOPE

FOWL CAYS NATIONAL PARK , BAHAMAS

BAHAMAS NATIONLA TRUST

roving that not every Shangri-La must be remote, this compact, 1,346-acre national park sits just beyond Marsh Harbor, which has an international airport, offering snorkelers and divers easy access. All its riches sit underwater: The park includes some land area, but it was the remarkable diversity of its coral reef and seagrass beds that brought national-park status. Sea turtles and grouper cruise these currents, along with masses of rainbow-hued fish that form cloudlike schools and dart among

anemones. Currents are gentle and the crystal-clear water makes for HD viewing. Last year, Hurricane Dorian destroyed much of Abaco Island, where most boats depart for Fowl Cays. But researchers found that the parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reef remained largely undisturbed by the storm, and only park signage and an on-land cabana were obliterated. The boat moorings remain, however, allowing visitors to tie up while exploring. Afterward, flop on the parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sandy swimming beach for a seaside picnic.

Climbers who come to Pinnacles will find lots of structured holds and little company on the best routes.

Just a few hours from San Francisco, Pinnacles has been beloved by climbers for years. TOWERS AND CAVES PINNACLES NATIONAL PARK , CALIFORNIA

ive the San Andreas Fault free rein to tinker with California’s volcanic rocks and you get Pinnacles—a pincushion of spires and cliffs located a few hours south of San Francisco. These richly colored rock formations earned national monument status back in 1908. But since then, researchers have gained insights into the ecological diversity and seismic activity concentrated here. And because the area’s lack of water restricted farming and development, Pinnacles looks just

like nature made it: sharp and pointy. So in 2013, this former monument graduated to national park status, and climbers felt validated for having gravitated to this destination all along. Let granite snobs sneer at Pinnacles’ lumpy rock, which has a lot in common with the sculpted holds at climbing gyms—lots of obvious cobbles stuck into a smoother, sandpapery stone. But these routes (ranging from 5.0 to 5.12d) can handle big crowds without feeling crowded. On summer weekends at Yosemite you might find 15 groups ahead of you on your chosen route, but it’s unusual to encounter even one traffic jam at Pinnacles. The tradeoff is the lack

of multipitch options—but in return, climbers may get to watch California condors spread their 10-foot wingspan. The most aesthetic lines are on the Monolith, where climbers can gaze across a reservoir’s sapphire-blue water in one direction and admire a panoply of spires in the other. The Sisters is another classic that’s relatively easy but thrillingly exposed. Cliff Hodges of Adventure Out guides those and more during daylong trips that are popular with gym climbers who want to transition to nature’s rock. Early spring and late fall bring ideal temps for hiking—summer days can hit 110 degrees—but the rainy winter THE RED BULLETIN

UNDOMESTICATED ASIA

GIANT PANDA NATIONAL PARK , CHINA

uddly-looking giant pandas may be rebounding—they graduated from “endangered” to “vulnerable” status in 2016—but climate change and a fragmented habitat continue to make life hard for these shy bamboo gobblers. So China resolved to link 67 existing panda reserves into a new national park that eventually will span 10,476 square miles over three provinces (74 percent of the park will be in Sichuan province, with the rest in neighboring Gansu and Shaanxi). Beyond pandas, the new preserve will protect some 8,000 other endangered animals and plants. The park’s legacy will far outlast panic about coronavirus. Although the park’s completion is lagging behind the projected opening in 2020, visitors can go there now with Natural Habitat Adventures, the only Western tour operator to lead people beyond the zoo-like panda research stations and into the wilds where giant pandas forage and breed. The trip begins with Gengda Wolong Panda Center and other captive breeding facilities that are located within the national park’s

boundaries and let visitors ogle pandas at close range. Then, travelers take to the hills. At researchers’ request, Natural Habitat doesn’t disclose the name of the nature reserve that its clients explore on foot, for fear that it’ll become overrun by tourists. But this corner of the mistshrouded Minshan Mountains preserves some of the most biodiverse forests on the planet: Takin (which look like a cross between a sheep and a musk ox), serow (a kind of wild goat) and glossy Asiatic black bears traverse ridiculously steep hillsides covered with dense conifers, rhododendrons and bamboo thickets. The chances of actually spotting a giant panda are not high; the creatures are not only reclusive but their population density is low. (Today only about 2,000 individuals roam an area three times the size of Yellowstone.) Still, it’s thrilling to walk where giant pandas are known to stroll. And the scenery couldn’t be more spectacular, with deep, rugged gorges cut with cascading waterfalls. Here, five hours by car from Chengdu, Beijing’s smog seems as far away as Jupiter’s storms.

COREY RICH, BRAD JOSEPHS

Roughly 2,000 panda bears roam within the vast expanse of this new preserve.

season is the park’s best-kept secret. From December through March, showers intensify the rocks’ rich hues and brighten the colorful mosses and lichens that cling to them. Even the park’s talus caves, formed by boulders that tumbled into narrow canyons, seem enchanting during a rain, when curtains of water sprinkle down through the caves’ cracks. Townsend’s big-eared bats also roost here, though hikers are unlikely to see them (their sleeping areas are closed to visitors). And although Pinnacles Campground isn’t located in the park’s prettiest zone, it does have shade trees and a swimming pool—a nicety that’s hard to beat on a July afternoon. THE RED BULLETIN

Crash Course

Big-wave surfers arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t professional paramedics, but when something goes down in the ocean they often have a chance to save lives. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why the movement to make surfers skilled first responders is gaining momentum. Words CHRISTINE YU

DOMENIC MOSQUEIRA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Pro surfer Jamie O’Brien has the safety training to handle the risks of the sport.

amie O’Brien couldn’t decide whether to surf. It was December 31, 2019, and the North Shore of Oahu was gifted with a long-period swell—a solid 12 to 15 feet. But it looked funky. As he watched the waves from the third floor of his home near the famous surf break Pipeline, he saw a surfer take off and roll-in from second to first reef. As the surfer trimmed across the wave, it clamped and he went up and over. It didn’t strike O’Brien as a bad wipeout, but he caught a glimpse of something that didn’t look right. “He was kind of up and it didn’t look like he was moving. It looked like his board hit him on the head,” he says. The surfer was worked by the next wave and O’Brien heard whistles from next door. “Right then I knew I needed to act,” he says. He cinched his gray sweatpants tight, ran down the stairs and grabbed a soft-top board on his way out the gate. At the beach he saw jet skis and lifeguards bringing the surfer to shore. Only then did O’Brien learn that it was Kohl Christensen, one of the North Shore’s best big-wave surfers. O’Brien says his instinct to do something in a life-or-death 38

Kohl Christensen is one of the best big-wave surfers in the area, but even he isn’t immune to the perils of Oahu’s North Shore.

BRIAN BIELMANN

“We grew up running it pretty loose—before the advent of a safety system.”

situation is in his blood. “I pride myself on living here and being a waterman. If I can help someone in a not-so-good situation and I’m ready to go, I’m going to go. I’ve saved a few lives over the years by acting,” he says. “I would hope someone would do the same for me.” Christensen fractured his skull and was unconscious when he was brought to the beach. He was rushed to The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where surgeons cut a baseball-size hole in his skull to repair his ruptured dura layer and remove blood between his brain and skull. He did not sustain any brain damage or lose motor skills. He is expected to make a full recovery, thanks in large part to the swift response of the North Shore lifeguards and others on the scene. After five days in the hospital, Christensen returned home to his family. Ironically, Christensen’s passion is teaching others the same rescue skills that saved his own life. In 2011, spurred by the death of his good friend Sion Milosky at Mavericks, the famed bigwave spot in California, he and fellow charger Danilo Couto started the Big Wave 39

Risk Assessment Group (BWRAG). Their mission is to educate and train surfers in ocean risk management and safety protocols and to make the lineup safer for everyone. In the early 2010s, surfers like Christensen, Couto and Milosky were scoring gigantic bombs at Cloudbreak, Teahupo’o and Pe’ahi and helped usher in the resurgence of paddle-in big-wave surfing. “We grew up running it pretty loose. Between 2010 and 2012, everyone was pushing it really hard. It was right before the advent of any real safety system and any inflatable vest had come out,” Christensen told me late last year before his accident. In March 2011, a group that included Couto, Milosky and Nathan Fletcher flew to California to catch a lateseason swell at Mavericks. On March 16, Milosky rode some of the best waves of the day,

with faces around 20-feet Hawaiian. Late in the afternoon he took off on a wave, made the drop and bottom-turned before he went down. No one saw him come up. Later, his body was found at the mouth of Half Moon Bay Harbor, roughly a mile from the break. Every sport has risks. In surfing, there are hazards like currents, reefs, sea creatures, rocks and surfboards themselves. To chase the biggest waves on the planet, surfers travel to remote locations miles offshore, potentially hours from lifeguards and medical help. While that’s part of the appeal, the discipline poses unique dangers. It can be hard to keep track of everyone in the turbulent environment, and there’s a small window of time—a few minutes—to rescue a surfer in trouble. “We’re dealing with life risk all the time and we’ve lost

friends,” says big-wave-surfing legend Carlos Burle. “We know every time we go surfing big waves, we will face those risks again.” And if you go down, it can be violent, your body thrashed like a rag doll. In 2003, Burle was surfing perfect 18-foot waves at Pe’ahi on Maui when he had his worst wipeout. “I had just fallen from one wave and as I was trying to cross the next, I was caught and thrown to the bottom of the sea,” he says. He heard his bones fracture. He broke his back, sacrum and femur. While avalanche training and wilderness medicine courses are de rigueur for skiers, snowboarders and others heading into the backcountry, there’s nothing comparable in the world of surfing. There’s no universal language or safety protocols, and surfers traditionally haven’t been methodical about safety. “I remember the THE RED BULLETIN

BRIAN BIELMANN, JUSTIN JAY(4)

December 31, 2019: Kohl Christensen is carried away after fracturing his skull while surfing. Thanks to the quick response and training of his rescuers, he is expected to make a full recovery.

Clockwise from top left: Big Wave Risk Assessment Group co-founder Danilo Couto, BWRAG Chief Master Instructor Pat Chong Tim, BWRAG co-founder Kohl Christensen, BWRAG Chief Master Instructor Brian Keaulana, BWRAG Master Instructor Greg Long, BWRAG summit participant Filippo Ermani.

first time I saw someone wearing an impact suit. We all laughed at the guy. It looked like a muscle-man suit,” says Christensen. For Couto, Milosky’s death was a wake-up call. Couto and Milosky were at the top of their careers, both winning XXL Big Wave awards in 2011 (Milosky posthumously). “I was right next to him when he took off on his last ride. It shook me hard. Seeing someone close to me die, I felt like I had to do something and THE RED BULLETIN

honor him,” says Couto. He began asking everyone, “What are we doing about safety? How many more athletes have to be sacrificed because of a lack of organization and mobilization?” That year, a group of roughly 20 surfers gathered at Christensen’s farm on the North Shore and learned CPR. Christensen describes seeing a thirst for more lifesaving knowledge and skills. He and Couto just had to figure out how to quench it.

“We’re dealing with life risk all the time and we’ve lost friends. We know every time we go surfing big waves, we face those risks again.”

Instructor Greg Long demonstrates how to bring an unconscious person onto a surfboard with 12-year-old surfer Erin Brooks. Greg Long demonstrates another surfboard rescue.

wo and a half weeks before Christensen’s New Year’s Eve accident, he and Couto are gathered with a group of 50 people in a conference room at Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu’s North Shore for day one of BWRAG’s Global Training Summit. It’s the day after the Big Wave contest at Pe’ahi and a lay day for the Billabong Pipe Masters contest. At the front of the room stands Brian Keaulana, son of Buffalo Keaulana, a pioneer surfer and iconic Hawaiian waterman. Keaulana recounts surfing Pipeline in the pre-jet-ski days. One day, between catching waves, he rescued three people back-to-back and brought them to shore using his surfboard. “Everyone sitting back in the lineup said, ‘Wow Brian. I feel so safe when you’re around.’ I look around at 42

Jon Hoover, another BWRAG instructor, shows participants how to stabilize a victim’s neck during an accident.

everyone and thought to myself, ‘Who the fuck is going to rescue me?’ ” he says, chuckling. Keaulana is the main reason BWRAG has continued since that first CPR class in Christensen’s barn. He’s largely considered one of the most venerable ocean safety experts. At Mākaha Beach, where Keaulana grew up on the West Side of Oahu, surfing and lifesaving go hand-inhand. If someone goes down in the water, everyone stops and focuses on making sure that person is safe. “We are stewards of the land and

water,” he says. “Making everyone safe is just a byproduct of who we are.” So it makes sense that when Couto and Christensen approached him about creating a safety training program, Keaulana had one request: Share the knowledge. “My whole goal is to make [the surfers] better than me, to plant the seed so they can bear the fruit later,” he says. “We want to make sure husbands, wives, kids, grandpas and grandmas all come back home. To save someone’s life, it’s an amazing gift.”

Keaulana experienced his own tipping point years earlier. He was supposed to be part of the fateful trip to Mavericks in 1994 when legend Mark Foo drowned, and he’s lost other close friends. Keaulana began training people all over the world, from lifeguards to military personnel to government agencies. “When Kohl and Danilo approached me, I was already thinking we need this, that I should focus on surfers and train them to be elite lifesavers,” he says. “We know in big-wave surfing, the first person to get THE RED BULLETIN

Below: Danilo Couto coaches participants on how to stabilize the spine if no backboard is immediately available. Sand can be used to create a cradle for the head and neck.

“We are stewards of the land and water. Making everyone safe is a by-product of who we are.”

JUSTIN JAY

Brian Keaulana is considered one of the most venerable ocean safety experts.

Trainees place a neck brace on a pretend victim to ready him for transport.

THE RED BULLETIN

“In big-wave surfing, the first person to get to the victim is a surfer.”

HUGO SILVA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

to the victim is a surfer,” says Burle, who has attended past BWRAG courses. “You don’t want to see your friend need your help and put their life in your hands,” he says when recalling his 2013 rescue of Maya Gabeira at Nazaré in Portugal. “The better trained you are to avoid these situations and, if they happen, know how to deal with them, the better it is for everyone in your community. We can avoid losing a friend or even getting an injury.” While there are lifeguarding courses, they can be time intensive and expensive. BWRAG offerings are accessible and affordable. With the help of Keaulana and Pat Chong Tim, an ocean risk and safety specialist, the courses have evolved to teach people to become skilled risk technicians who are aware, ready and able to handle the simplest to the most complex situations in the water. They’ve brought on noted bigwave surfers like Greg Long, Mark Healey, Andrea Moller and Jon Hoover to provide hands-on and in-water training. Over the course of two days, they teach surfers how to create risk management and emergency action plans; how to perform medical interventions like CPR, C-spine stabilization and tourniquets; how to

Pro surfer Carlos Burle, seen here surfing at Nazaré, rescued fellow pro Maya Gabeira near this spot in 2013.

communicate in the water via hand signals; and how to perform surfboard and jet-ski rescues. They talk about safety equipment like inflation vests. That’s why Emelia von Saltza signed up for the December summit. The North Shore resident has winged a couple of surf rescues in the past, most recently picking up someone who dislocated his shoulder. “If he was unconscious or a clean-up set came in, I wouldn’t have known what to do,” she says. “I feel like it’s my responsibility. If I’m going to be a part of this crew [who have all completed BWRAG’s course], I should have the same training as them.” Couto says the thirst for BWRAG’s expertise continues to grow. In 2014, they brought the training to Mavericks for the first time. Since then, they’ve taken BWRAG on the road to the Azores, Australia, Ireland, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico and other parts of California. They have 14 trainings on tap for 2020. Christensen’s vision is to eventually create the equivalent of the training courses conducted by the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) but instead for the ocean, complete with different levels.

he program isn’t just about learning lifesaving skills, and it’s not just for big-wave surfers. “We teach about life, respect and culture,” says Keaulana. “We’re not divided by land. We’re connected by water. The land is where I sleep and eat. The water is where I live. All of us—that’s my ocean family. That’s who we’re guiding and protecting. That’s the real movement of BWRAG.” Since BWRAG’s inception, there’s been a shift in the culture in the lineup. “I’ve 100 percent noticed people are more confident and able to react faster,” says pro surfer Eli Olson, who has attended several BWRAG summits and

won last year’s lifesaving award. “It seems like the community is more aware and is looking after each other, whereas a handful of years ago people might have stood around longer or waited for someone else to do something.” Throughout the two-day training summit, instructors keep returning to the idea of kuleana—the Hawaiian value of ownership and accountability. They ask, “What are you going to do? How are you going to respond?” It’s this new level of consciousness that Couto is most proud of. “Train. Go home. Refresh your knowledge. Pass on the knowledge,” he says.

A group shot of instructors and attendees at BWRAG’s 2019 summit in Oahu.

THE RED BULLETIN

JUSTIN JAY

“Groms” Jake Maki (left) and Nalu Deodato practice a cross-chest carry.

Instructors like Andrea Moller provide handson in-water training, plus CPR and more.

“Train. Go home. Refresh your knowledge. Pass on the knowledge.”

Kohl Christensen with his two daughters.

THE RED BULLETIN

They’re planting the seed with the next generation, too. There are 11 “groms” in attendance at the December summit, hard-charging boys and girls. “Just knowing what to do in certain situations is useful. The biggest takeaway is it’s better to do something than nothing at all,” says Ty Simpson-Kane, 15, from Maui. And it’s paying off. Five days after they earned their BWRAG certificate, groms Maikai Burdine and Diesel Butts were in the water when 13-year-old Hayden Rodgers went over the falls at Pipeline and hit his head on the reef. Burdine and Butts used the hand signals they recently learned to alert lifeguards to Rodgers’ location. “We didn’t expect it [to grow into a movement] but we’re overjoyed. I mean, look at this,” says Tim, gesturing to the crowd of people on the lawn behind the Turtle Bay lagoon, who are enjoying some beer and music as the sun sets. “It’s amazing for us to be in the presence of this.” As the light fades, Christensen says he keeps thinking that they’ll reach a saturation point, but the demand hasn’t stopped. “Every year, people come back with stories about how they’ve used the skills they learned at BWRAG and it saved someone’s life. That’s why we keep doing it. It’s been one of the most meaningful things I’ve been a part of,” he says.

When asked his future hope for BWRAG, Couto shakes his head and says, “It’s happening. I don’t need to hope anymore.”

n mid-February, Christensen is still trying to find the words to describe his shift in consciousness since his lifethreatening injury at Pipeline. “I’ve been on the rescuer side but I’ve never been in a position where I would be dead if it weren’t for the action of others. A lot of stars aligned,” he says. Christensen feels even more connected to BWRAG’s mission and plans to redouble his commitment to spread lifesaving knowledge to more people. “A lot of us have the passion because we’ve had friends die. That’s why we’re involved. But it gets taken to another level when you almost die and get rescued,” he says. There’s clarity in Christensen’s voice, a sense of contentment he says he’s never felt before. While he hasn’t lost the desire to surf or chase swells, his mantra is day by day. “Before, I felt like I was living in the future or the past,” he says. “It wasn’t until this injury that it became clear to me on multiple levels that I have a real gift, and my gift is my family, my friends and my life. Every day is a bonus now.” 47

WORLD WITHOUT ICE An expedition to Ecuadorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highest peaks illuminates how climate change is profoundly transforming mountaineering. Words and Photography MARK JENKINS

Cold Comfort Mountaineers Martha Tate (left) and Taylor Pyle walk along the formerly snow-covered rim of Cotopaxi toward the summit ice mound.

â&#x20AC;&#x2030; 49

Refugio The author and his team reached the Nuevos Horizontes hut in dense fog early in their expedition, when they still hoped to find lots of snow and ice to climb.

W 50

e arrived at the refugio in a dense fog. Nuevos Horizontes, a small orange alpine hut, sits in the saddle between two peaks, Illiniza Sur and Illiniza Norte, Ecuador’s sixth- and eighth-highest volcanoes, but we couldn’t see a thing. Straining through the fog was like trying to see through a wool blanket. Inside the little hut there were wooden bunk beds and a poster-size photograph of Illiniza Sur, a towering white pyramid—with snow and glaciers covering the entire mountain. Our plan was to climb Illiniza Norte (16,818 feet) first, for acclimatization, then attempt Illiniza Sur (17,267 feet) via a long ice route up the north face. We were climbing before sunrise the next morning, following the southeast ridge of Illiniza Norte. At this elevation, we expected snow but found none. The whole route was dry as a bone.

With no ice, the one historically tricky part, Paso de la Muerte (“Pass of Death”)—a traverse along the top of a deadly gully—was nothing more than a sideways scramble. At the summit we stopped and stared across the saddle in stunned disbelief at Illiniza Sur. It looked nothing like the photograph in the refugio. It was a black pyramid of volcanic rock, with the once massive north-face glacier shriveled to a third of the size it had been in the hut photograph. The mountain looked as if it had been stripped of its brocaded white dress and left standing naked. When we got back to the hut, the Quechuan caretaker, a very short man with a Roman nose who loved to dance, told us that the photograph was 20 years old. “Todo en las montañas ha cambiado desde entonces,” he said remorsefully—everything in the mountains has changed since that time. THE RED BULLETIN

Peak Views Pyle takes a break on the descent of Illiniza Norte, with Cotopaxi, the team’s next objective, hovering in the distance.

Loaded with climbing gear, the author (left) and Pyle are ready to ascend the Illinizas.

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he following morning the three of us climbed the north face of Illiniza Sur. For ages it was a beautiful, high-angle glacier climb. Now there is only one pitch of hard ice in 2,000 feet of climbing. The most difficult section wasn’t even on the ice—rather, it was traversing a volcanic ridge that had only recently been exposed due to glacial retreat. Without the blanket of ice, it was a loose pile of rubble. The most dangerous section of the climb was passing beneath hanging boulders barely lodged in the melting glacier. The three of us—Wyoming alpinist and immigration attorney Martha Tate, Denali guide and owner of Wind Expeditions Taylor Pyle and I—came to Ecuador to climb its high, glaciated volcanoes. As a mountaineer, I’d had Ecuador on my list since I began climbing in South America almost 30 years ago. But it turns out we had come too late. 51

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Technical Issues The team climbs Illiniza Norte and Illiniza Sur. At right, what’s left of the once mighty glacier on Illiniza Sur.

You can convince yourself that the mountains will always be there, that you can go whenever you have time, but this is no longer true. In the guidebook photographs, the volcanoes in Ecuador were all encased in beautiful white glaciers. But the guidebook was more than a decade old. Since then, global warming had steadily eviscerated the volcanoes of Ecuador. Back in Quito after ascending the Illinizas, Taylor was struck down by a vicious bout of diarrhea. Martha and I decided to do the Pichincha Traverse, just above Quito, to give Taylor a chance to recover. The Pichincha Traverse goes up and over three 15,000-foot peaks. We took a taxi to the village of Lloa, then a pick-up some way up the dirt road. It was late—noon—by the time we started the traverse, and raining hard. On the rocky summit of the first peak, Guagua Pichincha (15,670 feet), the fog was so dense we had no views. We’d been told that it used to snow on Guagua, but that had ended decades ago. Scrambling down the slippery summit rocks of Guagua reminded me of when Swiss American alpinist John Harlin and I had, on three occasions in three different years, gone to the base of the north face of the Eiger in the Alps. Every time we’d been turned back by rainfall and horrific rockfall. Fifty

Climbing guidebooks for the Alps are now useless because they describe routes that no longer exist. 52

years ago, the north face of the Eiger was frequently climbed in summer. But since then the snowfields have all melted, and the only safe time to climb the mountain is under winter conditions. The next peak along the trail was El Padre Encantado, “the Enchanted Father,” at 14,829 feet. Cold rain was blowing sideways, so we hurried over the summit, quickly losing the trail. We wandered around on the wrong side of Encantado getting wet and cold before Martha forced me to admit that I didn’t know where I was going. We retraced our steps over the summit and regained the main trail. To help pass the time hiking to our last peak in a downpour, I told Martha tales of past expeditions. I did my first expedition to Greenland in 1988. Our team made the first ascent of the second- and third-highest peaks in the Arctic Circle. There was so much snow we could almost ski to the summits. On my last expedition to Greenland several years ago the snow was gone, replaced by crumbling blue ice. The Arctic mountains today look nothing like they did in the ’80s. Due to global warming, the Greenland Ice Sheet, which contains enough water to fill the Great Lakes 115 times, has since 1972 lost enough water to fill 16 trillion bathtubs. When I climbed Aconcagua (22,841 feet), the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, in 2000, the route was almost entirely snow and ice. At Nido de Condores, Camp 2, at 17,900 feet, the snow was 5 feet deep. Up high on the mountain, in La Canaleta, there was a thick layer of ice and snow, requiring crampons and ice axes. Now, 20 years later, the entire ascent is nothing more than a dirt hike. All the ice and snow are gone, replaced by slippery scree and rockslide gullies. THE RED BULLETIN

It was late when Martha and I finally summited the last of the three peaks, Rucu Pichincha (15,180 feet). We practically had to run the trail in order to catch the last gondola down into Quito. Mist swirled around our descending cable car, a bubble on a string, and I was again reminded of the Alps. In 2006 a skyscraper-size tower—20 million cubic feet of rock—fell off the Eiger. Ice once glued the Alps together—permafrost sandwiched into the mountains like frosting in a layer cake. There are 2,400 square miles of permafrost beneath the rock, three times the amount of ice in the surface glaciers. Over the last 120 years, temperatures in the Alps have risen almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit, twice the global average (and are predicted to rise another 4 degrees in the next 40 years). The famous jagged ridges of the Alps are just chunks of precarious rock—“the blocks that make up these arêtes are no longer cemented together,” wrote Swiss geomorphologist Ludovic Ravanel in the 2019 American Alpine Journal. Just as in Ecuador, the climbing guidebooks for the Alps are now almost useless because they describe routes that no longer exist. Back in Quito, we spent a day in our hostel reading murder mysteries waiting for Taylor to recover and Cotopaxi, our next peak, to clear up.

According to a report produced by Gabriel Thoumi and Ian Robinson at the ERB Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, the once magnificent glacier on the south face of Cotopaxi, Earth’s second-tallest volcano at 19,347 feet, “lost 45 percent of its mass between 1976 and 2006, enough to fill 132,000 Olympic swimming pools. The glaciers along Ecuador’s eastern cordillera—Chimborazo, Cayambe, Antisana and Cotopaxi—are quickly disappearing; the glaciers along Ecuador’s western cordillera— Cotacachi, Corazon and Sincholagua—have been completely lost in the past 10 years.” Thoumi and Robinson stressed that this is not a trend exclusive to Ecuador; it is continent wide: “In the last 30 years, the Andean glaciers have lost between 30 and 50 percent of their mass.” We caught a bus south to Cotopaxi the next day. With help from Ecuadorean mountain guide Camilo Andrade, we got access to the south face of the mountain, a rare opportunity. A local cowboy carried our packs on his horse up to base camp, his string of six dogs trailing behind. The south face of Cotopaxi used to be the standard route up the mountain, but it is never done now because the glacier has retreated so far there is no water at base camp. We were lucky to find a barrel of rainwater in

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION

Photos of Mount Kilimanjaro from 2012 (left) and 2017 show how dramatically snow and ice have disappeared from the highest mountain in Africa.

The Muir Glacier (shown in 1914 at left), located in Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, has retreated more than 27 miles since the 1890s. THE RED BULLETIN

Scenes from Cotopaxi, including the dogs of a cowboy (above) who helped haul the team’s gear to the mountain’s base camp.

the collapsed remnants of the old refugio; otherwise we would have had to hike over an hour, up the toe of the receding glacier, to get water. It tried to snow that night but ended up just drizzling. Skies were clear at 4 a.m., however, so we were off. We climbed Cotopaxi, straight up over the dying Cotopaxi glacier, in one day. It was moderateangled snow, nothing more, with numerous crevasses to negotiate. Pulling up over the rim of the caldera was fantastic. Here, on the top of a mountain, was a hole a quarter mile across. We could look straight down into the bowels of the earth. Cotopaxi is an active volcano. Since 1738, when records began, it has erupted more than 50 times, most recently in 2015. Crunching along in our crampons through the ash along the rim, passing through streams of sulfurous fog like phantoms, we circumnavigated the enormous hole to reach the icy summit. Along the way, far below us, we could easily recognize the lahars from successive eruptions—slurries of pyroclastic materials that gouge deep ravines in the mountainsides. The summit itself sits on the northern lip of the crater and is composed of a castle of overhanging ice. We arrived before lunch—hugs and selfies—and then peered over the lip down into the caldera. I’ve climbed everything from Everest to Denali to Aconcagua, and I can tell you that the summit of Cotopaxi is one of the most beautiful in the world. Staring down into the caldera you can almost see hell itself. It is transfixing. And when you finally lift your eyes to the horizon, you are rewarded with a vista of volcanoes in all directions.

ountains, as we know them, are being disfigured around the world. Ecuador is a harbinger for the rest of the planet, but swiftly rising temperatures are worst in the North and South Poles.

I was on assignment recently in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska, the largest national park in the U.S. Wrangell-St.Elias contains the most expansive glacial system in the country, with roughly 35 percent of the park covered in glaciers. Nearly every one of them is retreating. “Twentieth century warming was more intense, and accompanied by more extensive glacier retreat, than any time in the last 1,500 years,” Mike Loso, the park’s physical scientist, told me. “Nature is at a tipping point.” Just next door in Alaska, on Denali, the highest peak in North America at 20,300 feet, glacial retreat has caused an estimated 66 tons of human feces left

Ponder the Abyss The crater on the summit of Cotopaxi is massive, beautiful and imposing.

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Cotopaxi is one of the most beautiful summits in the world. It is transfixing. by climbers to start melting out. “The waste will emerge at the surface not very different from when it was buried,” Loso told Smithsonian magazine. “It will be biologically active, so the E. coli that was in the waste when it was buried will be alive and well.” Even the most magnificent mountain range on Earth, the Himalayas, has not escaped the destruction of global warming. I did my first expedition to Everest in 1986 when the mountain was a monstrous, gleaming white mass of snow and ice. I did my second and last expedition there in 2012 and the top 3,000 feet of the peak was black rock. Danuru, a Sherpa on our team, told me that 10 years THE RED BULLETIN

earlier if he had a client falter up high, he could just drag him back down to safety through the snow. This was not possible anymore. “You can’t drag an unconscious climber over rocks,” Danuru said. This lack of snow has made Everest considerably more dangerous, with rockfall and avalanche events increasing every year, often killing Sherpas, who do all the heavy lifting on Everest expeditions. In April of 2014, a massive ice avalanche in the Khumbu icefall on the southeast ridge route of Everest killed 19 Sherpas. Some of the bodies were recovered but not all. The corpses of about 200 climbers who have died on the mountain over the past 70 years are now 55

Higher Ground Pyle (left) and Tate tackle the ascent of the south face of Illiniza Sur.

beginning to melt out. Arms and legs are popping up out of the glaciers like something out of a bad Hollywood movie.

Matterhorn in 1865 (four of his companions died on that climb). Whymper, climbing with his Italian mountain guide, Jean-Antoine Carrel (who would die on the Matterhorn in 1891), was investigating the effects of high altitude on the human body during his extremely productive mountain-climbing tour of South America. He was not only the first to climb Chimborazo but also made the first ascents of Sincholagua, Antisana, Cayambe, Sara Urco and Cotacachi. Whymper, ever intrepid, even spent a night on the summit of Cotopaxi. Because European climbers questioned whether he had actually summited a 20,000-foot peak—the first European to do so—he climbed Chimborazo twice in 1880, once from the north and once from the southwest. Over the following century, the southwest ridge became the standard route to ascend Chimborazo. The Whymper Route once wound up through vast glaciers and was the most direct climb to the summit. But today, due to 50 years of nonstop glacial retreat, the glaciers are almost gone and the route is too dangerous to climb due to rockfall. A mountaineering guide was killed by rockfall on Chimborazo in the spring of 2019, a danger that is becoming more common, proving just how treacherous global warming is making even the easier high peaks. Taylor had to fly home, so Martha and I were again on our own. Instead of staying in the Carrel or Whymper huts, which now sit forlornly at the base of a rotten rock wall with barely any snow in sight, we decided to use a camp at 16,000 feet, just below a rock formation called El Castillo. For an exorbitant fee, we were given a pup tent and a poor meal in the dining tent. There was a team of Russians at the same camp, all decked out in the finest Arc’teryx gear. They had failed on Cotopaxi

himborazo (20,564 feet) was the final goal of our expedition. Geography nerds like to claim that, because the earth bulges at the equator as it spins, Chimborazo is the tallest mountain on the planet—taller than Everest by 6,800 feet in fact—as measured from the center of the earth. This may hold water for geologists and academics, but for mountaineers, who start at the base of a mountain and climb to the top, it’s ridiculous. Chimborazo has a long, rich climbing history. German geographer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt attempted to climb Chimborazo in 1802 but was stopped by ice high on the mountain. Still, Humboldt used his experience on Chimborazo to create the groundbreaking ecological survey he called Tableau Physique, the first time a scientist combined elevation and its corresponding climate to map biogeographic variations in vegetation. The mountain was not climbed until 1880 by none other than Edward Whymper, the pioneering English climber who made the first tragic ascent of the 56

Pyle, an experienced alpinist and guide, takes a breather after the ascent of Los Illinizas. THE RED BULLETIN

the week before and were determined to summit Chimborazo. To this end, they planned on leaving for their summit bid at 11 p.m. Martha and I considered this unnecessary and intended to head out at 4 a.m. Right at dark the winds started to increase dramatically on Chimborazo. Within an hour all the tents were being blown apart. We could hear the Russians cursing through the tempest. Our tent collapsed and we took shelter in a geodesic supply tent. All the Russian tents were also destroyed and they took shelter in the cook tent. The howling was so intense that sleeping was not an option. Around midnight Martha and I staggered to the cook tent for hot water and learned that the Russians had already abandoned their summit attempt. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We vill go down to beach now,â&#x20AC;? said the leader. Undaunted and unable to sleep, Martha and I set off for the summit at 2 a.m. The route wound up through a series of rock ridges and ledges; it was like being in a sandstorm. We had to wear our goggles to keep from going blind from grit in our eyes. We were hoping that the wind would subside as the morning approached, but it was just the opposite. Every step higher, the wind grew worse,

Top Notch Upper left: Pyle, Tate, guide Camilo Andrade and a client celebrate after summiting Illiniza Sur. Lower left: Tate leads up a ridge on Illiniza Sur. Below: Pyle descending Illiniza Sur with Illiniza Norte in the background.

Alpine Scenes Flanked by Tate, Pyle (right) points the way up Cotopaxi. Below (clockwise from top left): The team’s tent inside the destroyed refugio on Cotopaxi; a horsepacker loading up for the haul to the Cotopaxi base camp; the author on the lower slopes of Chimborazo.

often knocking us down. I kept thinking that if we could just get to the glacier, the whirling dirt and pebbles would stop. But the glacier was still far up the mountain. We moved with headlamps and tried to remain calm, but the wind began to blow small rocks off the ridge above us, pinging on our helmets. “I don’t think we should go any further,” Martha shouted at one point, but we kept climbing, as is our way (she just wanted to register her discontent). Without the protective cover of ice or snow to hold the crumbling volcanic rock together, the wind was tearing the mountain apart. Unnervingly, we started hearing rockslides all around us. Martha was in the lead, her crampons scraping on the bare rock, when we both heard a terrible rumbling. We were on a steep rib of rock only recently deglaciated, our headlamps trying to 58

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Lost Horizon The total absence of glaciers and snow at the center of this shot of Chimborazo reveals the line of the classic Whymper Route.

What is happening here will soon be happening in your own mountain range. penetrate the maelstrom in front of us, when a boulder the size of a car tumbled through the cone of light. Martha was not amused. The mountain was falling down all around us. “All right,” I said at last, and we reluctantly turned around. Rocks flew through the air as we descended through the darkness. We made it back to base camp with nothing more than minor bruises on our arms and hands. The Russians were gone and the Educadorean guides were listlessly playing cards in their sleeping bags. They asked if we had summited and we said nope. They nodded knowingly.

ecause rising temperatures have already passed the tipping point in Ecuador, melting the ice faster than in colder climates, the area is an instructive microcosm for the rest of the planet.

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What is happening here will soon be happening in your own mountain range. Burning fossil fuels—from cars to coal-fired power plants—has irrevocably warmed the planet. As a consequence, all mountain ranges, from the Rockies to the Urals, from the Altai to the Atlas, are rapidly losing their snow and ice. The landscape where mountain athletes—climbers, mountain bikers, mountaineers, kayakers, runners, hikers—practice their craft has been transformed. Many routes have disappeared or become too risky to attempt. It is too late to stop this process but not too late to slow it down. A united, global commitment to reducing CO2 emissions could still save some of the world’s ice and snow for future adventurers. The mountains have changed, and now we must find a way to change with them. 59

Team Rubicon Canada member Kyle Kotowick aids the relief effort in Mozambique following Cyclone Idai in March 2019.

Members of one of the world’s foremost disaster relief organizations drop into danger zones to help society’s most vulnerable. Here’s how a team of military veterans formed TEAM RUBICON. 60

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TEAM RUBICON

The disaster ARTISTS

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Words TOM WARD â&#x20AC;&#x2030; 61

JANUARY 12, 2010. IT WAS 4:53 P.M. WHEN THE EARTHQUAKE HIT THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA. In the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince—15 miles to the northeast of the epicenter— people were going about their business. Suddenly the ground shook, buildings cracked to their foundations and the entire world was turned inside out. By the time the 7.0 magnitude earthquake had subsided, almost 300,000 buildings had collapsed or been severely damaged. It was a disaster that, according to various government estimates, claimed between 230,000 and 316,000 lives. Alongside the many thousands dead were embassy staff, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince and 32 members of the Haitian Football Federation. A further 1.5 million people became homeless, among them then-President René Préval, who found himself dispossessed after both his home and the presidential palace were destroyed. In the nights following the quake, many Haitians slept in cars, doorways and makeshift shantytowns. By January 14, the city’s morgues were full, meaning that many bodies were left in the streets as crews trucked thousands more to mass graves. Meanwhile, the thousands of unrecovered bodies buried in rubble began to decompose in the heat and humidity. With five hospitals in Portau-Prince destroyed or damaged, and roads blocked by debris, the situation in 62

this, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was desperate. While the international community organized relief operations, former U.S. Marine Jake Wood watched events unfold on the news. With a four-year tour in the Middle East under his belt, including counterinsurgency missions in Iraq’s battle-torn Anbar Province and eight months on a sniper team in Afghanistan, he knew he could help. Just 60 days out of the military, he was fit, experienced at operating in destabilized countries and had many transferable skills. Wood, then 27, called a local disaster relief organization to offer his services but was turned down. Determined to get to Haiti on his own, he posted on Facebook, asking if anyone wanted to join him. Former Marine intelligence officer William McNulty, a 33-year-old friend of a friend, answered the call. The pair flew to the Dominican Republic— Haiti’s neighbor on Hispaniola—and met up with another Marine, as well as a friend of Wood’s who happened to be a firefighter. En route, they met a former Special Forces medic and two doctors, one of whom was a Vietnam veteran. The motley group touched down in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, and were transferred to the Haitian border, arriving four days after the quake. “It was total chaos,” remembers Wood. “There was this dust cloud in the air from all the rubble. People were digging for survivors. There weren’t enough aid workers on the planet to adequately address the needs there.” Determined to prove themselves and help as many people as possible, Wood’s team set out to transport doctors and nurses to hard-hit areas, establish mobile triage clinics and get critical patients to hospitals. “Organizations usually focus on hospitals and setting up static clinics,”

ALAMY

Help wanted: The 2010 earthquake in Haiti flattened thousands of buildings, killed as many as 316,000 people and made many more homeless.

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â&#x20AC;&#x2030; 63

Clockwise from top left: Former British soldier Matt Fisher assists rebuilding in Nepal; the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s warehouse of supplies; a Team Rubicon medic in Mozambique last March for Operation Macuti Light; planning relief in the typhoon-hit Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific in 2018.

64 â&#x20AC;&#x2030;

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TEAM RUBICON RESPONDED TO 310 DISASTERS ACROSS THE GLOBE—FROM THE BAHAMAS TO MOZAMBIQUE —IN 2019 ALONE.

Wood says, “but often people’s vehicles are destroyed, or they’ll be hesitant to leave their home because of looters. Half the people we were treating had horrific crush injuries and couldn’t walk to a hospital. We were pushing out into these parts of the city and treating people on sight.” On January 23, just 11 days after the quake, the Haitian government declared the end of the search-and-rescue phase of the relief operation. But Wood’s team would stay 20 days, leaving only when it became clear that other agencies were better equipped to deal with the longerterm fallout.

TEAM RUBICON(3), GETTY IMAGES(1)

KICKING DISASTERS IN THE TEETH

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Wood and McNulty’s experiences had instilled in them a determination to keep helping the vulnerable, so Team Rubicon was formed then and there. If the relief operation had taught them one thing, it was that as military veterans they had much to offer. In the decade since Haiti, Team Rubicon has gone from strength to strength. The organization responded to 310 disasters across the globe—from the Bahamas to Mozambique, Indonesia to California—in 2019 alone. Today, its staff, whom Team Rubicon jokingly urges to “Sign up. Get trained. Kick disasters in the teeth,” has grown to an estimated 105,000 volunteers; 75 percent of these members are either military veterans or still in active duty, and 20 percent are fire, medical or law enforcement professionals. Growing the organization and proving it was worthy of investment—current sponsors include Carhartt, Bank of America and Microsoft—was a long, slow process. Instrumental to Team

Rubicon’s journey was Hurricane Sandy, the 2012 disaster that cost 223 lives and caused more than $70 billion in damage across the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, the U.S. and Canada. The team set to work clearing houses in one of the hardest-hit areas, New York City—an affluent metropolis that was a stark contrast to Haiti. “We slept in a warehouse in Brooklyn,” Wood says. “We could walk up the street, covered in mud, get an icecold beer and it was like the hurricane had never hit.” Despite the home comforts, Team Rubicon was focused on assisting the city’s more exposed citizens. “There was a high population of firefighters and police officers [in the area we were working in],” says Wood. “People who had to put on the uniform every day and go help someone else while their home was rotting.” By cleaning out their homes, Wood’s team was paying back some of this service. Team Rubicon’s desire to help those most in need is innate. “We always direct our aid to the most vulnerable people, and that doesn’t necessarily mean where the most damage is,” says Wood. “We go street by street, documenting the destruction. This is then mapped and combined with data sets like the social vulnerability index, flood plain levels, crime levels—any demographic information we can get. From that, we see who the most vulnerable people are.” If Sandy was the event that put Team Rubicon on the map, 2017’s Hurricane Harvey tested its abilities. When Harvey hit Houston, the team deployed more than 2,000 volunteers from nine forward operating bases covering almost 200 miles. As part of its response, Team Rubicon bought its own boats and sent them down to fish survivors from the water. As a result of the rescue and clean-up operation, it was responsible for putting more than 1,000 families back in their homes. Then, in 2019, Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas, becoming one of the most powerful recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, with winds peaking above 180 mph. Team Rubicon deployed to the islands the day after the storm hit. “It looked like a nuclear wasteland,” Wood says. “All the trees were snapped off 8 feet above the ground and bent back in one direction, like a nuclear blast had hit them. Every power line was down, every building destroyed.” 65

“ALL THE GRATITUDE YOU RECEIVE FROM THE SURVIVORS IS JUST SO POWERFUL.”

Top: A “grayshirt” surveys the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas last September. Above: Volunteers rescue a survivor of Hurricane Harvey, which caused catastrophic flooding in Texas and Louisiana in 2017. Facing page: Providing support and reassurance in the Northern Mariana Islands.

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TEAM RUBICON

REBUILDING HOMES AND LIVES

In the reception area of Team Rubicon’s national operations center in Grand Prairie, Texas, is a cartoon mural of President Theodore Roosevelt in boxing attire, leaning against the ropes after a tough round in the ring. Alongside are headshots of the company’s hardestworking employees of the last quarter, and a quote from Roosevelt’s 1910 speech “The Man in the Arena”: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly . . .” “Our CEO thinks the man in the arena is the one who should get the press and recognition,” says William “TJ” Porter, deputy director of operational support, whose own picture is among those hanging on the wall. After a 13-year career in the military and then as a law enforcement officer, Porter joined Team Rubicon in 2012 and has since been deployed to the aftermaths of multiple tornadoes, wildfires and other crises. “Team Rubicon sets itself apart [from other relief organizations] in two ways,” he says. “We can either be part of the response, doing everything from searchand-rescue to felling trees and opening up roads, or we can provide direct assistance to survivors.” The latter usually involves helping those with no or little insurance to return to their homes. Team Rubicon will gut the entire house, then refit new flooring and dry wall—an initiative that has sparked a long-term rebuilding program in Houston. Assisting in this way is, Porter says, one of the most gratifying parts of the job. “When something like [Hurricane Harvey] happens, people don’t know where to turn. We get them to a point where they have a stable house to live in. All the gratitude you receive from the survivors is so overwhelming. To see someone go from being in shock, with a 20,000-yard stare, to realizing ‘Hey, at least I have something now, and I can build from there’ is really intoxicating.” The team’s Texas office is one of three in the U.S., housing a total of 150 full-time staff. Just a short car ride from Dallas, the base was chosen for its central location and for its proximity to two international airports. Team Rubicon moved here in early 2016 and now has a staff of 29 THE RED BULLETIN

working in the office. There are no fancy flourishes here; it looks like they turned up one day four years ago, dumped their stuff and got to work. It is from this office that all operations are organized, including transportation, logistics, field leadership and mobilization. Team Rubicon operates domestically and internationally, with operations planning associates Adam Martin, Lauren Vatier and Jacqueline Pherigo scrubbing news sources daily to track developing situations. Should a disaster occur, the question is whether Team Rubicon has the capabilities and resources to support another operation alongside those already in progress. “Any time we have volunteers in the field already, our priority is taking care of them, whether it’s smaller localized operations or volunteers heading to an international response,” explains Martin. “What do we need to do to support them? What do they need today?” Part of this involves liaising with other organizations to see what response is being arranged elsewhere and how Team Rubicon can best support this, Vatier explains. Occasionally, the request for help comes from outside agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO). It’s a point of pride that, following a rigorous 18-month process, Team Rubicon was the first NGO in North America to be WHO-certified as a Type 1 mobile emergency medical team—“a tough credential to get,” says Porter. This means that it meets exacting

standards for deploying units to remote or austere environments and remaining self-sufficient for up to seven days. In the back of the office space is a large warehouse area—essentially a survivalist’s wildest dream—filled with everything from chainsaws and foldable cots to tech boxes. Each of the latter contains three laptops, five iPhones, a connector, a router and more, ensuring that each team can remain connected in even the most remote environments. With this equipment, the team is also able to consult a remote doctor who can step in and advise when medical staff on the ground are sparse. Naturally, there is a plentiful supply of medication catering to pre-hospital care including cuts, fractures and tetanus, as well as plastic containers full of medical packs with everything from tents to water purification systems. “The reality of the situation is that the majority of times we go out, we encounter people with a lack of access to health care,” says Porter. “We’ve had to deal with infected lacerations. We need to be prepared to temporarily set a broken bone. There can be malnourishment or no access to clean drinking water, so we carry antibiotics.” The operations center also houses a gym with TRX equipment (which utilizes suspension training), workout benches and pull-up bars; it’s essential that the team members are physically prepared to work in remote locations. “Fitness is important to us,” Porter says. “The areas we work in are typically very hot and

Top: Operation Hard Hustle clears the debris left behind by Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017. Above: A token of gratitude for the medical emergency team saving lives and rebuilding communities. Facing page: Dr. Erin Noste, Team Rubicon’s deputy medical director, treats a patient in Mozambique.

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TEAM RUBICON

“PEOPLE NEED SOMETHING TO RALLY AROUND WHEN THINGS GET CHAOTIC.”

humid. Frequently, you will have to hike between 7 and 10 miles with one of these rucksacks. You have to be able to operate without bringing the team down.” Porter says illnesses among the teams themselves are rare—which is not to say operations are risk free. “We went to Nepal after the 2015 earthquake,” he recalls. “We had a team of 45 on the ground when the second earthquake occurred. They removed themselves from the building, did accountability, let us know that they were safe, then pressed on. In general, we’ve either been pretty safe or pretty lucky.”

A CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM

When The Red Bulletin visits in early December 2019, Team Rubicon has just deployed a unit to the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific to assist with the ongoing dengue fever epidemic and is also searching its volunteer base for medical providers who can fly out to Samoa at the behest of the WHO to help tackle a measles outbreak. The organization has also been on the front line of the Australian wildfires, a crisis that has—as of press THE RED BULLETIN

time—seen more than 42 million acres of bushland razed, around 6,000 buildings destroyed and as many as 32 people (including volunteer firefighters) killed. In 2019, the Australian wildfire season began in late August/early September—a full three months earlier than usual. Since then, the fire threat has been near constant, with Team Rubicon Australia (TRA) first invited by the Office for Emergency Management to respond to fires in Rappville in northern New South Wales back in October. Its work is primarily focused on debris and tree removal at locations across NSW. “In the last four months, we’ve conducted more operations than in the preceding three years,” says TRA CEO Geoff Evans. The team is now awaiting the go-ahead to deploy to Victoria and southern NSW, where fires still rage. “The authorities in Victoria and New South Wales are delaying our deployment to these areas due to the ongoing risk, and, more importantly, so that they may vector us on to the hardest-hit areas, some of which may yet be to come,” Evans says. In Australia, the challenge will be maintaining on-the-ground support

across three areas of operation, as well as managing the psychological toll endured by homeowners, many of whom, Evans says, have “lost all hope.” Despite this, from Australia to Dallas, the company’s ethos is one of optimism, of finding hope in the chaos. Porter recalls being dispatched to Moore, Oklahoma, in the aftermath of an F5 tornado in 2013: “In one of the neighborhoods, there was a tree at the end of a cul-de-sac,” he says. “The tornado came through and ripped all of the leaves off, so all that was left were the trunk and the branches; everything else around it was flattened. But then somebody took an American flag and nailed it to the tree, and that became a central [focus] point. People need something to rally around when things are so chaotic.” For Porter, it’s moments like this that make Team Rubicon’s work so important. “Where there’s a need, we try to fill it. The best thing about the job for me is knowing we’re making a difference,” he says. “One hundred years from now, people will be writing books on the things we’ve done.” teamrubiconglobal.org 69

TRICKS OF THE TRADE The world looks different through the eyes of a skater— the truly gifted can transform the most mundane landscape into a concrete playground. And when this talent is photographed by FRED MORTAGNE, aka French Fred, the results are beautiful. Words ANDREAS WOLLINGER Photography FRED MORTAGNE

PIPE DREAM These steel pipes—left beside a factory near Lyon in east-central France—provide an ideal habitat for skating pro Charles Collet.

SEEING DOUBLE The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum near Rio de Janeiro was designed by famed architect Oscar Niemeyer, and the UFO-shaped building is the perfect backdrop for some photo trickery with Brazilian skater Hernando “ÑaÑo” Ramirez.

MIRROR IMAGE This spot at the Arab World Institute in Paris shows off Aussie Sammy Winter’s elegant switch kickflip from multiple angles.

ROOM TO SPARE French skater JĂŠrĂŠmie Daclin cuts a lone figure in a vacant conference center parking lot in Tokyo. Mortagne shot this from the 17th floor of a hotel close by.

SHADOW ART American skater Brandon Westgate keeps his head down inside an aqueduct in California. “I had to wait three years for the perfect light,” says Mortagne. “You try it again and again and there’s always something that isn’t right. Then suddenly—boom, here we are!”

Unforgettable Adventures.

Feel-Good Savings. Heed the call of adventure with great insurance coverage. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on motorcycle insurance.

geico.com | 1-800-442-9253 | Local Office

Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states, in all GEICO companies, or in all situations. Motorcycle and ATV coverages are underwritten by GEICO Indemnity Company. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, DC 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. ÂŠ 2019 GEICO

guide Get it. Do it. See it.

TOTALLY WIRED

Tech, coffee and live music still keep the dream of the ’90s alive in Seattle.

JORDAN NICHOLSON

Words CARLY FISHER

Find the indie crowd at Neumos.

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G U I D E

Do it

ere’s a little secret: Seattle doesn’t actually want you to know how cool it is. Locals are happy to stay hidden behind the incessant stereotypes about bad weather, “Easy Like Sunday Morning” dad vibes and all those quintessential, mass-produced relics of the ’90s: Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon, grunge music, the invention of outdoor apparel and Frasier. After all, if everyone knew that it was a city filled with underground tunnels, a ridiculously diverse food scene, incredible local art and music, countless museums and pristine nature, the masses would descend immediately. Whoops—looks like the secret is out.

Rare treasures can be found at BLMF Literary Saloon at Pike Place Market.

Take a selfie at the delightfully disgusting Gum Wall.

Compared with highvolume festival and party destinations like Las Vegas and Miami, the sleeping giant of the Pacific Northwest is essentially the polar opposite: This place is all about the aggro-chill. Pounding the terrain or cycling through three national parks, five national forests, endless mountain ranges, lakes, streams and rivers means plenty of places to veer off the beaten path into nature. It’s safe to say you could live in Seattle your whole life and still not see it all. If you want to leave the outdoorsy stuff as a picturesque backdrop, there’s an abundance of cultural attractions to keep you centered in the city. With access to super-fresh seafood, farm-to-table produce and a diverse immigrant population, Seattle is among the best food cities in the country. Along with its incredible wine, the city is blessed to have a craft brewery around just about every corner, with more than 150 at last count. But beer isn’t the only craft in town. Ditch the round-theblock lines of tourists at the original Starbucks; there’s a whole world of barista culture here that gave rise to it all. This is the place that pioneered latte art, pushed the boundaries of pour-overs and still retains that homegrown attitude of its former punky art-café days. For decades, the Pacific Northwest has been an offthe-radar hub for some of the world’s most iconic musicians. Sordid burlesque goddess Gypsy Rose Lee, folk pioneer Woody Guthrie and guitar god Jimi Hendrix all got their starts here. Notorious grunge kings Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Mudhoney once ruled the streets, alongside indie-rock label Sub Pop, which later

gave birth to acts like Modest Mouse, Sunny Day Real Estate and the Postal Service. (The label has its own record-store outpost right inside the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.) But the scene isn’t dead. Seattle still brings in national headliners and upand-coming acts at venues of all sizes throughout the city, and it’s the best place to tap the undiscovered talent of tomorrow. Sure, visiting the Space Needle, Pike Place Market and Chihuly Garden and Glass are all tourist essentials. But there’s so much more that makes this city effortlessly cool. Here’s how to tackle it all.

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Seattle

Seattle Mountain Bike Tours offers an 8-hour tour through the city’s best nature spots.

BARBIE HULL, SEATTLE MOUNTAIN BIKE TOURS

Take a Hike

If you’re not used to uphill battles, expect to work up a sweat climbing the steeper streets near downtown Seattle. That said, it’s much more rewarding to end with a view, so pack your hiking boots and spend an afternoon trekking the trails at Rattlesnake Ledge, Mount Si or Mount Rainier. Rattlesnake Ledge may be the easiest, a 4-mile round trip ascending to 2,078 feet. Mount Si is considered the most popular, albeit a more challenging 8-mile round trip to 3,900 feet. As far as bucket-list items go, however, Mount Rainer National Park is one you’ll

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have to plan for: There are more than 260 miles of trails amid forests, lakes and a network of glaciers.

Roll with It

Want to live like a local? Grab some wheels. Biking is a way of life in Seattle, so expect to share the road. In fact, Seattle’s Fremont Bridge logged a whopping 1.18 million rides last year, according to the city’s automated bike counters. For an impromptu trip, hop on at one of the area bike-share stops, which have locations conveniently scattered throughout the city. Soak up the best of coastal nature and

city sights via the 8.5-mile Seattle Waterfront Pathway, which offers smooth pavement and endless views of the Elliott Bay shoreline. If you have the stamina for something a little more challenging, sign up for an 8-hour mountain bike tour with Seattle Mountain Bike Tours for a city-nature sampler platter. For a more curated small-group day, explore the region’s most gorgeous outdoor attractions, including Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, Yakima Valley Wine Tasting and Mount St. Helens Volcanic National Monument, via Evergreen Escapes.

Want to live like a local? Grab some wheels. Biking is a way of life in Seattle, so expect to share the road. 81

G U I D E

Do it Skip the Starbucks and enjoy the barista scene at Victrola Coffee Roasters.

that has been holding it down for Seattle’s grungiest hipsters since 1991, still brings a hot lineup that includes GZA, the Reverend Horton Heat and Hot Water Music.

Hone Your Craft

See a Show

Grunge might be dead, but Seattle’s music scene is very much alive. Virtually every genre from national touring acts to folk, punk, hip-hop and indie can be found in this iconic music city that birthed the careers of so many beloved musicians. Stadium headliners like Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters, along with coveted indie bands like Thundercat and Best Coast, have all graced the stage at the Showbox, a stunning historic art deco theater situated right near Pike Place in downtown Seattle. Capitol Hill’s indie crowd can be found at venues like Neumos and Barboza, best known for its dance parties, trivia nights and live shows featuring acts like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Vampire Weekend. The Crocodile, a long-running indie-rock club

Between its endless pourovers and pints, Seattle is a city all about its craft culture. A whole day can be spent hopping among barista- and coffee-snob-approved coffee shops like La Marzocco, a permanent coffee incubator featuring a rotating lineup of

coffee roasters; Victrola Coffee Roasters, a 20-year veteran with multiple locations; and Bauhaus Strong Coffee, a scrappy OG of Seattle’s indie caffeine scene. When you’re ready for a wind-down, plan your own DIY craft-beer crawl at coveted breweries like Cloudburst Brewing, Stoup Brewing, Reuben’s Brews, Elysian Brewing and Fremont Brewing Company—all of which feature brag-worthy hops. If you’ve got a crew, head to the Queen Anne Beerhall, which has 7,000 square feet to spread out with your beer-geek brethren while munching on Bavarian snacks and sipping some of its 60 brews.

Eat Your Heart Out

There’s a reason Pike Place Market remains one of the top attractions for visitors and tourists alike, drawing 10 million visitors annually—it’s

a pilgrimage for any selfrespecting foodie. Anchoring Seattle’s downtown, this sprawling multilevel market is packed with a beautiful array of restaurants, bars and artisan makers hawking produce, meats, specialty foods and arts and crafts. Even the fishmongers are delightful. Pike Place Fish Market is best known for its fish-throwing tradition, dating back to the 1930s; you can even sing a little ditty while they toss the fish back and forth. Or shove some south in your mouth at Biscuit Bitch,

Between its endless pourovers and pints, Seattle is a city all about its craft culture.

The interior of the Showbox, a historic art deco theater in downtown Seattle.

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Seattle The multilevel Pike Place Market is a go-to destination for any foodie.

lovingly dubbed “trailer park to table.” And if you love gourmet cheeses, charcuterie, imported snacks and wine, spend some time shopping DeLaurenti Food & Wine. If you still have room, walk a few blocks down to Pier 55 along the waterfront, where you can pay respect to one of the inventors of Seattle clam chowder at Ivar’s Acre of Clams.

GETTY IMAGES, ALABASTRO PHOTOGRAPHY

Go Deep Underground

Seattle has its own subterranean secret nestled in the heart of its most bustling Pioneer District: the preserved ruins of a city that once was. Winding tunnels interconnect within an underground lair of historic passageways and basements dating back to the 19th century. The tunnels are the entombed street-level walkways of the city from its frontier days before the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which you can explore on foot via Bill Speidel’s Underground Tours, a landmark attraction operating since 1965.

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Get Weird

Outsider art is everywhere in Seattle—from the beautifully repulsive Gum Wall, speckled with a technicolor myriad of wadded-up balls of gum, to the Fremont Troll, an 18foot concrete bridge-troll sculpture erected by four local artists. Brush up on the history of tattoo culture, horror films, Minecraft, indie games and science fiction at MoPop, aka the Museum of Pop Culture, featuring a vast interactive playground for the culturally obsessed. Head to the Seattle Pinball Museum, where you can have unlimited play on restored machines dating back to the 1960s while drinking pints of craft beer. And if you’re really into truly terrible kitsch, there’s even a museum for that. The Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA), located within Cafe Racer, is where you can check out terrible visuals hardly categorized as “art,” grab a bite, then catch a show at this museum/café/event space.

Enjoy unlimited play on restored machines at the Seattle Pinball Museum.

MoPop: The Pearl Jam exhibit includes 200 artefacts from band members.

G U I D E

Do it

TRAIN LIKE A PRO

“IT SOUNDS CRAZIER THAN IT IS”

Ultrarunner Dylan Bowman reveals how he trains to run 100-mile races. Growing up, Dylan Bowman played team sports. He never imagined he’d run a 100-mile race—until he learned about the Leadville Trail 100 Run. “It sounded ridiculous,” Bowman says. “But it made me wonder if I had what it took to do it.” He finished third at Leadville in 2010, in his very first ultra race. He’s been traveling to races all over the world ever since. “It sounds crazier than it is,” Bowman assures. Out on the course for up to 20 hours at a time, the 34-yearold has experienced lots of tough moments. “People who can deal with those dark moments have their best races,” he says. “It’s not all rainbows and butterflies.”

“Ultraracing changes your relationship with yourself and your perspective of what’s doable,” says Bowman.

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Fitness

E N DU R AN C E

“My body thrives on a lower training volume.” “A heavy, focused week of training would be between 80 and 110 miles—about 12 to 15 hours of running—less than many of my competitors put in. I usually do at least two structured workouts each week. I might do four 10-minute repeats uphill at tempo-level intensity. I also focus on super-highintensity stuff sometimes, like six 3-minute, full-gas uphill repeats. I do everything based on perceived intensity rather than heart rate. My natural disposition is to be less focused on numbers. Sunday is my long run day. I go out for 3 to 7 hours, depending on what race I’m preparing for.”

AARON ROGOSIN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, MICHAEL CLARK/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

JEN SEE

STR E N GTH

“The biggest focus of my gym work is improving singleleg stability.” “I’ve had a couple of bad ankle injuries over the course of my career. When you’re running on uneven surfaces, stability in your lower legs is incredibly important. I do a lot of single-leg exercises— like single-leg deadlifts and singleleg presses. I also do agility work, like jumping rope on one foot, to be more confident on my feet. Lately I’m doing stuff that some people wouldn’t associate with running— heavy deadlifts, lots of core work, even some upper-body work. I feel stronger and I notice the benefits when I’m out running. I feel a little more resilient.”

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M E NTAL FOC U S

“I like to simulate the race I’m training for.” “I’m naturally stubborn and predisposed to just pushing through. But you definitely want to train your mental capacity the same way you train your physical capacity. I like to do things to simulate the race I’m training for. For example, if you struggle with the heat, you might want to schedule a big, long training run in the middle of a warm day, for both the physical and mental training. I also do meditation and visualize feeling good during my races. Doing things like that is really important, just to build optimism for what’s ahead of you and to give you more belief in yourself.”

“DURING COMPETITION, I TYPICALLY FUNCTION ON AN ALL-LIQUID DIET.” “I use a high-carbohydrate drink mix that’s 250 calories per 500 ml of liquids. It takes care of hydration and nutrition at the same time. I usually carry at least two of those bottles at a time and I probably drink about one 250-calorie bottle per hour. Sometimes I supplement with a piece of fruit or a gel. For me, the best thing is to keep it as simple as possible.”

R EC OV E RY

“Decoupling from being a Type A athlete for a day is important.” “I take one recovery day a week; usually Monday. That’s a big, important part of my week. It’s something that my coach instilled in me and it’s probably the best thing he brought into my overall training repertoire. At first it was like, ‘Wait, I’m not supposed to run on Monday?’ But it gives me a chance to recover physically and mentally. I catch up on other things, sleep in, relax, spend time with my wife. I think it’s helpful beyond the physical rest. I’m also a big believer in stretching. It just feels so frickin’ good, especially as I’ve gotten older.”

CALENDAR April/May 2020

12 May onward RED BULL MOTO SPY

2 May MEGAN THEE STALLION Since the release of her first full-length project in 2019, this Houston-based artist’s fame has skyrocketed. Her breakout hit, “Hot Girl Summer,” with Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign, became the anthem of the season, and her rise hasn’t slowed since then. As part of Red Bull Music Festival New York, she’ll perform at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Midtown. redbull.com/newyork

Don’t miss the finale of Season 4, which presents a behind-the-scenes look at what some of the top competitors in the 2020 AMA Supercross series go through in the weeks between the races. Download Red Bull TV to your devices; redbull.com

May WINGS FOR LIFE WORLD RUN

April onward THE ORIGINAL SKATEBOARDER In 1975, defunct U.S. publication Skateboarder Magazine relaunched. It ended this run just five years later, but in that time the magazine became a documented history of how the fledgling sport went from shoeless street surfers to the first skateparks and beyond. This film talks to the skaters and photographers involved, chronicling the moment boarding went boom. Download Red Bull TV to your devices; redbull.com 86

Across the globe, in the Wings for Life World Run, all participants start simultaneously and there’s no traditional finish line. Instead, a catcher car pursues you, so the goal is to run as far as you can until you’re caught. Although flagship events have been canceled this year, you can still run on your own using an app. And 100 percent of your entry fee still goes directly to the Wings for Life foundation to help cure spinal cord injury. wingsforlifeworldrun. com THE RED BULLETIN

CALENDAR April/May 2020

May RED BULL 400 This surprisingly intense competition tests the strength and commitment of the fiercest athletes. The steep uphill sprint draws participants from many sporting disciplines and fitness levels. Every year race times get faster, but with this mixture of backgrounds and abilities, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll emerge victorious. This year’s first U.S. event is scheduled to take place at Copper Peak, Colorado. See redbull.com for more dates.

May KENTUCKY DERBY It’s time to dust off your seersuckers for the most exciting 2 minutes in sports. If Churchill Downs ends up closing the event to spectators, you can watch the action from home while sipping a mint julep. kentuckyderby.com

GREG NOIR/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GARTH MILAN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, RYAN TAYLOR/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GETTY IMAGES(2), CHRIS BURKHARD

14 April onward UNDER AN ARCTIC SKY In 2015, filmmaker Ben Weiland and adventure photographer Chris Burkard set sail to the north coast of Iceland with six surfers in search of a legendary swell. What they found was the worst Icelandic storm in a quarter of a century, which near-shipwrecked them and turned their quest into a road trip through a brutal Arctic winter. A surf film unlike any other. Download Red Bull TV to your devices; redbull.com THE RED BULLETIN

April DAVID ATTENBOROUGH —A LIFE ON OUR PLANET Since presenting his first BBC nature show, Zoo Quest, in 1954, British broadcasting legend David Attenborough has visited more of our natural world than almost anyone in history and, at the age of 94, witnessed firsthand the devastating changes wrought on it in a single human lifetime. This personal film, made with the World Wildlife Fund, is a chance for him both to reflect on his life’s work and to deliver a message about the challenges humanity faces to save the fragile blue orb that we and all other lifeforms live on. Showing in theaters for one day only, it will be launched at the Royal Albert Hall by Sir David himself, discussing with guests the issues raised by the documentary and broadcasting the onstage action live to screens around the globe. The film will be available to stream on Netflix later this spring. Theaters worldwide; attenborough.film 87

CRUISE CONTROL Expert picks for the best new running shoes for road and trail, cool tech and the most comfortable and ingenious apparel. Words TISH HAMILTON

GPS FOR EPIC TRAIL ADVENTURES Mountain goats rejoice: The multifeature Coros Apex Pro promises a best-in-class 40 hours of battery life. The touchscreen, which works reliably even in downpours, displays grade, ascent, descent, route profile, breadcrumb navigation, barometric pressure, temperature, run efficiency, heart rateâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and time, distance and pace. Bonus points: Its handsome fulltitanium bezel makes it respectable for all-day, everyday use. $500; coros.com

G U I D E

R U N N I N G

AC C E S S O R I E S

LIGHT, BRIGHT HEADLAMP

EARBUDS FOR LONG ADVENTURES

HEAR MUSIC—AND THE ROAD

GENIUS REHAB TOOL

MUSIC AND DATA ON THE RUN

MAKE ANY TREADMILL “SMART”

Yes, it’s a bit pricey, and 900 lumens may be overkill for early morning jogs around the neighborhood. On the other hand, no car will ever miss seeing you and there’s zero risk of twisting an ankle in a pothole. Weighing just 100 grams on a comfortable head strap, the Petzl Swift RL has a rechargeable battery that lasts from 2.5 to nearly 11 hours, depending on which of the four levels of brightness you use. $120; petzl.com

A former competitive rower turned coach, Mark DeNitto, created a multipurpose self-massage/ trigger-point recovery tool in his garage after trying nearly every foam roller and therapy ball on the market. The odd shape of the resulting T-PiN! Vector Muscle Roller lets sore runners target inner and outer calf muscles, glutes, hips, quads, hamstrings, lower back and soles. Plus, at just 1.5 pounds, it’s a cinch to toss in a duffel. $60; tpinmuscletherapy.com

Designed by and for endurance athletes, the wireless Jaybird Sport Vista earbuds are like AirPods for runners: sweat-, water-, shock- and dustproof, they deliver quality sound for 6 hours on one charge. Three included eargels let you tailor fit so the bud sits comfortably in the ear canal. Sealed-in crisp sound lets in little ambient noise, but if busy roads or crowded races demand situational awareness, you can run with one bud for the best of both worlds. $180; jaybird.com

The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music watch delivers accurate GPS, step, sleep and heart-rate tracking, customizable workouts and alerts and smartphone notifications. Nifty upgrades include a pulse oximeter to measure your VO2 max and on-the-go sound sans phone. The 245 Music can store up to 500 songs and sync directly with streaming services like Spotify. Be warned, though: Continuous streaming can drain battery life. $350; garmin.com

For runners whose miles cover city streets, active rail trails or megamarathons, the Plantronics BackBeat Fit 3150 deliver a satisfying range of sound through an “Always Aware” tip that hovers over the ear canal on a behind-the-ear hook, meaning you can appreciate your music or podcast without losing sense of cars or people around you. Durable and waterproof, these buds last 8 hours when used together. $150; plantronics.com

Runners logging miles on sturdy, reliable if prePeloton-era treadmills can make any machine “smart” with North Pole Engineering’s Runn sensor. It anchors to the mill’s side rail, reads sensors that you place at points along the belt and pairs with your watch to report accurate pace data and separately with Zwift for virtual running fun. At under a hundred bucks, this genius workaround buys you a few more years on your trusty old mill. $99; npe-inc.com

A former competitive rower turned coach created the Vector Muscle Roller in his garage. THE RED BULLETIN

G U I D E

R OA D

S H O E S

A GREENER LIGHTWEIGHT GLIDER

FLASHY NEW RACER

In her debut marathon at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Molly Seidel (who finished second) wore the Endorphin Pro, Saucony’s superfoam challenger to Nike’s Vaporfly series. In practice it’s just as speedy as the behemoth brand’s sonic jet (and cheaper); lightweight beaded foam provides soft midsole cushioning, and the graphite polymer plate underfoot curves up at the toe to add snap to push-off, all in a minimal 7.5-ounce package. $200; saucony.com

Earlier models of the Brooks Levitate offered plenty of bounce but brought runners back to earth with its weight. The brand has solved that problem with a slimmed-down version of its DNA AMP polyurethane midsole foam that is still cushy but 20 percent lighter. With its striped, ribbed ankle collar, heel pull tab and airy Fit Knit upper, the reimagined Levitate is a bouncy neutral trainer perfect for energetic summer runs. $150; brooksrunning.com

RACE 26.2 LIKE AN OLYMPIAN

POWER THE URBAN RUN

FAST, CUSHIONED—AND IT MAPS

The Asics Gel-Nimbus Lite, a bouncy update to the brand’s popular neutral cushioned trainer, is modern in all the best ways: sleek, light and ecologically minded, with a recycled polyester upper and FlyteFoam midsole partially fabricated from cellulose nanofiber, a by-product of sugarcane production. The ride preserves the cloudlike cushy feel you expect from a Nimbus, but at 2 ounces lighter is more energetic, flexible and simply fun. $150; asics.com

A marathon racer designed for Tokyo, the Adidas AdiZero Pro is all about speedy performance. The upper is fabricated from Adidas’ nearly paper-thin Celermesh to lock in the foot. Underfoot, Lightstrike midsole foam and Boost cushioning in the heel provide maximum pop and stability with minimal weight. And the Carbitex carbon-fiber plate propels the foot from heel strike to toe-off for economically swift striding. $190; adidas.com

With its neon heel counter, pebbly midsole and engineered, well-ventilated mesh upper, Puma’s Speed 600 2 is a standout urban trainer. Its firm, full-length midsole cushions heel strikes and rebounds well whether you’re pounding out miles over sidewalks, down hills on a long run or on a treadmill. Though it’s a bit heavy, the Speed 600 2 runs remarkably light thanks to the Proplate underfoot, which lends an extra push. $130; puma.com

PLUSH AND AIRY RIDE

Under Armour’s Hovr Machina—the brand’s first go-fast daily-trainer—has a one-piece upper that ventilates well; Hovr midsole foam that provides deceptively light and durable cushioning; and a forefoot Pebax propulsion plate that pushes the foot through a peppy toe-off. But the star of the show is a Bluetooth-enabled sensor embedded in the midsole that sends data to UA’s Map My Run app for instant post-run analysis—no satellite connection required. $150; underarmour.com

The Hovr Machina has a Bluetooth-enabled sensor that allows instant post-run analysis. 90

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UPDATED CLASSIC TRAINER

Now in its 10th iteration, the New Balance 1080v10 is a reimagined shoe—and it looks it, from the Achilles-relieving swept-back ankle collar to the chunky full-length rockered Fresh Foam X midsole, which delivers a soft yet responsive ride. The new stretchy Hypoknit upper hugs the foot without constriction and snugs in the heel. Light, smooth and soft, it’s a go-to daily trainer that’ll make your miles feel faster. $150; newbalance.com

PARED DOWN FOR EASY TRAILS

These minimal zero-drop trainers are ideal for easygoing off-road adventures. With a wideenough toe box, the mesh upper of the Topo Athletic Runventure 3 protects your toes with a wraparound rand and sturdy bumper. Cushioned ankle cuffs secure the heel on all but the steepest or most technical trails. Widely spaced, relatively shallow lugs and a durable Vibram XS Trek sole provide excellent traction on most surfaces. $120; topoathletic.com

G U I D E

T R A I L

S H O E S

TACKLE THE GNARLIEST TRAILS

COMFY, GRIPPY DAILY TRAINER

FAST AND FLASHY

THRU-HIKER FAVORITE

ULTRA MOUNTAIN TRACTION

FAST ROAD-TO-TRAIL

La Sportiva’s Bushido II applies the brand’s climbing-shoe expertise to produce a dirt and vert mountain runner with gecko-grippy traction and solid foot protection in all conditions. Toothy, aggressive multidirectional lugs claw up ascents, brake reliably on descents and prevent sideways scrabbling. A rubber toe cap shields toes against inevitable root and rock stubbings, while dual-density midsole foam makes the ride comfortable for hours. $130; sportiva.com

The Altra Lone Peak is consistently popular among Appalachian Trail thru-hikers (and runners). It’s comfortable out of the box, with a distinctive toe box that allows for long-distance swelling and splay, minus the black toenails. The seamless upper doesn’t chafe, and a rock plate protects against bumps and grinds. And the shoe’s sole really shines: The sticky MaxTrac rubber combined with a canted lug pattern offer best-in-class traction. $120; altrarunning.com

Stable and solid, the Salomon Sense Ride 3 is a smart choice if long-range protection matters more than speed. Raised midsole sidewalls improve support and a taller toe box offers extra wiggle room. Deep lugs provide excellent traction on wet, steep terrain; a segmented Profeel rock plate protects the sole without hindering flexibility; and the double-layered Optivibe midsole improves vibration dampening and shock absorption. $120; salomon.com

Merrell mined the expertise of Hardrock 100 winner Anna Frost to design the MTL Long Sky, a rugged shoe for runners tackling long-distance terrain. That collaboration yielded a tearresistant upper, an internal bootie to snug the foot and debris-proof lace closures. Midsole foam keeps the ride comfy, and a secure heel counter locks in fit. Widely spaced, deep lugs and a sticky Vibram Megagrip rubber sole claw over mud, gravel or rock. $130; merrell.com

Skechers’ Go Run Speed TRL Hyper is definitely a statement speedster. With a bold Mondrian-inspired colorway, this responsive, agile dirt skimmer combines excellent cushioning, protection and traction in a lightweight package. Hyper Burst foam in the heel cushions landings, a rock plate protects the forefoot, and the Goodyear rubber outsole is dependably grippy. That’s a lot of protection in an 8-ounce package. $135; skechers.com

The lightweight North Face Ultra Swift has an airy mesh upper that keeps feet from overheating on hot days and an internal arch sleeve that dials in fit and support. Dual-density XtraFoam in the heel softens landings, while FastFoam in the forefoot provides cushion and propulsion. And for runners who traverse roads en route to trailheads, grippy 3 mm lugs prevent slippage on gravel and debris and seamlessly transition to dirt. $120; thenorthface.com

With best-in-class traction, the Lone Peak is a consistent favorite with long-trail runners. THE RED BULLETIN

G U I D E

R U N N I N G

A P PA R E L

VEST-LIKE PACK FOR LONG DAYS

LIGHTWEIGHT TREASURE

ON-TREND SHADES

LIGHTWEIGHT WARMTH

RETRO COOL WARMUP JACKET

COMFORTABLE SUPPORT

The Salomon Advanced Skin 5 Set, a barelythere vest, fits more like clothing than a classic hydration pack and holds your stuff close to your body to eliminate bouncing. So many pockets! In front, four for soft flasks and gels, two deep for all your gear, a zippered side phone pocket and in back, a large divided kangaroo pocket for a 1.5L or 2L bladder. Cinch it across your chest with the adjustable three-point bungee-cord system, forget about it and go. $145; salomon.com

Midweight merino-blend gloves are perfect for spring runs that are chilly and trail adventures that call for a little stumble protection. The Icebreaker Quantum Gloves keep hands warm between 30 and 50 degrees, and the wool breathes so they don’t get sweaty. Silicone grip on the palms keeps a carried phone in place or comfortably grips trekking poles. Touchscreen pads on the thumb and fingertips allow texting with the gloves still on. $45; icebreaker.com

Form meets function in the handsome, slimfitting, featherweight On Weather Vest from the running-gear company founded in 2010 by a detail-obsessed former Ironman champion. A combo of stretchy polyamide, ventilated ultralight ripstop and water-repellent coating keeps you dry and shields wind in sketchy weather. Waterproof zippered pockets secure phone, keys and snacks—and it packs neatly down into a built-in pocket. $140; on-running.com

Throw it back to the first running boom with this 1970s-inspired track jacket from New Balance. The loose fit, classic color blocking and vintage NB logo on the Athletics Archive Jacket harken back to the days when Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter ruled the roads, while the zip pockets, neck zipper tab and lightweight fabric add welcome, understated modern upgrades. A good piece to wear for workout warm-ups or streetside anytime. $100; newbalance.com

For folks who don’t want to spend a ton on running sunglasses, and to keep their shades on after their workout, the Tifosi Swank is a compelling option. Shatterproof, shock-resistant lenses block harmful UV rays (an extra $25 buys a polarized model), a rubber nose pad keeps them from sliding down on hot, sweaty runs and snug temple arms banish bounce. Available in an array of frame and lens colors, or fashion your own combo online. $25; tifosioptics.com

Good-looking enough to wear on its own and comfortable enough to wear all day, the fully adjustable Brooks Run It All Adjustable Bra supports without flattening thanks to wireless built-in contour cups (no removable “cookies” to get lost in the wash!). Adjustable straps and a back closure allow for a dialed-in fit; breathable nylon/spandex blended fabric that effortlessly wicks sweat along with carefully placed seams mean no chafing. $70; brooksrunning.com

The Athletics Archive jacket is a vintage throwback to the 1970s running boom. 94

THE RED BULLETIN

AFTER-RUN AHHH

Before and after events, marathoners and triathletes tromp around in distinctive-looking waterproof, washable Oofos sandals for good reason: Unlike many athletic slides, the comfortably ergonomic sandals offer arch support and thick, cushiony foam that the company claims absorbs 37 percent more impact than traditional post-run sandals. The new Velcro version—the Sport Flex Velcro— won’t slide off like other sandals. You might never wear a flip-flop again. $80; oofos.com

GLOBAL TEAM

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

The Red Bulletin is published in six countries. This month’s French edition features big-wave surfer Justine Dupont. For more stories beyond the ordinary, go to redbulletin.com.

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THE RED BULLETIN

CHRIS TEDESCO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

The Mint 400—a legendary off-road race made famous by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas—was brought back to life in 2008 for a new generation of adrenaline chasers. Today it’s one of the largest races of its kind, with more than 550 teams competing at this year’s race in March. Luke McMillin—whose father, Mark, won the race 32 years ago—took the top prize, while Red Bull racer Bryce Menzies nabbed second place. themint400.com

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