Mountains of motivation from inspiring individuals and extraordinary athletes.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard never expected—or even wanted—to be a business leader. He had always used selling gear as a means to spend more time outdoors. As a teenager, Chouinard got his start selling homemade rock climbing pitons out of the back of his car. In the 1970s, his Chouinard Equipment evolved into Patagonia, and [...]

Elite trail runner Clark Zealand steps behind the scenes to direct new race series Meet Clark Zealand, the new face of Southern ultrarunning. In addition to being a professor at Liberty University, where he is developing a master’s program in outdoor recreation management, Zealand runs Eco-X, which produces the region’s biggest ultra series. Born in [...]

Faye Bush does not consider herself an activist. Although she’s been branded with Erin Brockovich-type celebrity, she insists her work is all about love and care for a local community in environmental peril.
In the 1950s Bush helped organize the Newtown Florist Club (NFC), a group of African American housewives who delivered funeral flowers to the bereaved in her hometown of Gainesville, Ga. Over the years, Bush noticed an increase in the number of people dying from similar illnesses, including lupus and cancer. The deaths were clustered in low-income neighborhoods near industrial factories on the south side of Gainesville.

Unlike most professional athletes, Alison Gannett was an environmentalist before she became a world champion freeskier. Gannett has been researching global warming ever since she graduated from the University of Vermont with an environmental science degree 20 years ago. In the 90s she provided the action shots in Warren Miller films and won multiple World [...]

He’s the rookie who put a spark of post-Lance greatness back in American cycling in this year’s Tour de France. Going into stage three, 27-year-old Will Frischkorn, who grew up in Charleston, W.Va., and trained extensively as a high school student in Charlottesville, Va., was in 122nd place. But by the end of the day, Frischkorn was in third, the result of a gutsy performance that found him leading for more than 200 kilometers and just being edged out at the end by veteran French rider Samuel Dumoulin.

by Jedd Ferris This past spring, Daren Wendell walked away from North Georgia College with everything he owns on his back. His plan—non-stop walking for seven years. Wendell embarked of what he’s calling the Earth Expedition, a foot journey around the world with the purpose of raising awareness for the water crisis and AIDS epidemic [...]

Katie Spotz Plans to Row Across the Atlantic to Promote Safe Drinking Water

Collegiate Biking Champ Kylie Krauss