Bill Stone's got one thing on his mind these days—going where no one has gone before. For the past four weeks, he and 39 international teammates have been rappelling, hiking, and digging day in and day out in hopes of breaking into Cheve Cave.
Norwegian polar explorer Børge Ousland strives to leave his mark on history, much as his renowned countrymen Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen did a century ago. National Geographic News recently spoke with Ousland about life spent alone on the ice.
Upon rediscovering a classic 19th-century tale of survival in the Sahara, author Dean King embarked on his own arduous crossing of Morocco. National Geographic Adventure recently spoke with King about his epic trek and the shipwrecked American sea captain who inspired it.
Each year, some of the world's most daring rescues at sea are launched from the Chetco River Station, one of dozens of Coast Guard stations that patrol the Pacific Northwest coast. A related story airs Thursday, January 22, on our U.S. cable television program Dangerous Jobs.
To satisfy the 14 million Indians who go to the cinema every day,
the Indian film industry known as Bollywood churns out more than 1,000
movies a year, at least twice as many as Hollywood. Sometimes, films are
made so fast that actors shoot scenes for four different movies
simultaneously.
For six weeks, explorer Jon Bowermaster led an expedition across the high desert of southern Bolivia and northern Chile and Argentina known as the Altiplano. His team traveled with kayaks in search of water—an unusual quest for the driest spot on Earth.
Sharks and mysteries of the universe captured the imaginations of National Geographic News readers in 2003. The ocean's most feared predator, Bigfoot, and other unusual subjects accounted for half of the top ten news stories of the year and vied for the number one slot. Read the full list of the ten most popular reader stories of 2003. Full story and photo gallery:
In California, United States Forest Service law enforcement officers find themselves in an ongoing battle with Mexican drug cartels that have carved networks of marijuana gardens into backcountry forests. Rising gun violence and billion-dollar harvests highlight a problem out-manned agents say has become a crisis. Full story and photo gallery:
When adventure turns life-threatening, why do brash jocks typically die first while nurses survive? National Geographic Adventure interviews contributing editor and Deep Survival author Laurence Gonzales about his new book and the psychology of survival.
When lightning stranded a dozen climbers on Wyoming's Grand Teton, only a bold airborne rescue could save them. Rangers rescued 13 people in three hours, proving just how good the search and rescue safety net can get when a highly competent, well-supported staff stands by waiting to save lives.
Underwater explorers may have hit the mother lode with the discovery of the Civil-War era S.S. Republic. The steamship was wrecked in 1865 with a cargo of gold coins that may be worth as much as 180 million dollars. But that may not be all that's valuable about the wreck.
Each fall, more than 80,000 paddlers descend upon a 28-mile-stretch (48 kilometers) of West Virginia's Gauley River to raft and kayak a river at times sublime and extreme. For insights into this white-water mecca, National Geographic Adventure spoke with veteran guide Blaine Honea. His advice? Bring a wetsuit—and some jokes.
In 1963, a dam plugged the flow of the Colorado River through Glen Canyon, giving rise to Lake Powell. But a severe, five-year drought in the Western United States has starved the reservoir, providing a tantalizing peek at the lost canyon.
Twenty-five years ago, it would have been impossible to find a woman smokejumper in the United States. Today, 27 serve in the elite corps that drops by parachute into the nation's backcountry to fight wildfires.
A 42-year-old record may fall this summer when two British balloonists attempt to shatter the world-altitude mark for manned balloon flight. Andy Elson and Colin Prescot are waiting for a weather window during which they hope to pilot the QuinetiQ 1 to 132,000 feet (40,000 meters)—the very edge of space.
