Outside's Top 10 Adventures of 2015

Our end of the year review and wrap-up continues today, this time with a list from Outside magazine of the 10 most badass adventures of 2015. As you can tell from the title, the list is made up of some of the most daring and audacious expeditions from the past 12 months, some of which you may have forgotten about, or slipped under your radar altogether.

The first entry should come as no surprise to anyone. It is Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson's ascent of the Dawn Wall, which tops my list of the best adventures of 2015 for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it was an incredible climb up one of the hardest routes on the planet, but going beyond that it also managed to captivate an audience that went well beyond the normal climbing crowd. It will be difficult for anyone to match this climb in 2016, or for years to come.

Other expeditions that got the nod from Outside include an attempt at the first ski descent of Makalu, Lonnie Dupre's solo summit of Denali in January, and Will Gadd's climb of the frozen Niagara Falls, which was also a first.

I won't spoil the entire list, as obviously part of the fun is finding out what Outside deemed worthy of sharing, as well as being reminded of the interesting adventures from the year that has passed. But it is safe to say however, that each of the entries in the article are certainly deserving of the "badass" label, and will inspire you to think about some of your own adventures for 2016.

Start the slideshow by clicking here.

Outside Predicts the Trends of 2016

We sill have a couple more weeks to go before we drop the curtain on another year, but it is never too early to start looking ahead to 2016. With that in mind, Outside magazine has published an interesting article, in which the editors look into their crystal ball and make some bold predictions on the trends that will leave their mark next year.
Some of these predictions are fairly easy to make. For instance, Outside says Cuba will live up to the hype amongst travelers, and fitness trackers will continue to grow in popularity. Other items on the list are bit more of a stretch. I'm not sure that anyone will be able to run a marathon from their living room for example, and while bike-packing is on the rise, it won't supplant backpacking just yet. Outside also says that 2016 will be the year that private space travel finally comes into its own, but considering how long such a thing has been promised, I'll believe it when I see it.

Still, it is fun to take a peek over the horizon and think about the people, places, and things we'll be watching closely next year. The Olympics will take place in Rio, which will bring us a host of new athletes to admire, and there has definitely been a trend towards outdoor adventure showing up in popular media – including movies, books, and even virtual reality. All of those options will give us something to keep us occupied when we're not pursuing adventures of our own.

I won't go out on a limb and make too many predictions. I'll leave that to the experts at Outside. But I will say that I expect things to finally get back to normal on Everest after two seasons of disruptions. I also expect that there will be some bold new adventures to report on, many coming from sources we don't even know about yet, and I'm sure we'll see even better gear and equipment to get us through our personal explorations of the world around us. In short, 2016 will be like most other years. Lets all embrace it and make the most of it.