Outside

If one is interested in mountaineering, rock climbing, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, sailing, or travel to little known places where one may indulge in these activities, then this magazine will be of interest. It is packed with information that will appeal to those who have an active, adventurous lifestyle, as well as to armchair adventurers, of which I am one.


Reading can be an outdoor adventure   June 15, 2004
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I usually don't subscribe to magazines. Specially in these days, when the Internet can give you a lot of information just searching in Google. However, this magazine is terrific and I will renew my subscription for many years to come.

It has very entertaining articles for the adventurer. Its scope is really wide (Cycling, Sailing, Mointanieering, Water and Snow skiing, Rock Climbing, Trecking, Off-Road Motorcycles, Surfing, Fitness...) so it is very probable that if you practice an outdoor sport or just like a particular type of adventure, you will get a nice article to read that matches your interest. It is for everybody!.

One of the things I really enjoy about this magazine, is all the gearing and high tech equipment they show (and I can't buy). They review GPSs, give you tips on the best beach gear, or even compare different types of binoculars. It is great to have some info, what is wrong with technology for the outdoor life?.

One Suggestion to the editors: More articles oriented to the outdoor adventure of the readers, not just the writer. The majority of the articles, tell you stories about wonderfull trips and journeys from the perspective of the adventurer/author. However, they don't give many guidelines, directions for newbies, or people interested on doing that.


Outside is awesome   April 8, 2004
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Outside is a great magazine, including beautiful photography, fascinating articles, a good dose of enviro-activism, and heavy on gear reviews. (Purists, take note--this magazine loves outdoor gear.)

Frequent articles on extreme sports and travel, and occasionally includes stunning articles that no one else will cover (for instance, the article awhile back on the ongoing mountain war between India and Pakistan).


Great for the Weekend Warrior or Wannabe   July 27, 2007
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Good variety of articles and great photos. I always rush to read it when it arrives.


Informative Mag for the Adventurous   March 3, 2005
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

I've been a subscriber to Outside magazine for several years, and it seems to go through its ups and downs in terms of the strength of its editorial content, especially regarding the political side of environmentalism. It is still easily the most informative magazine out there for lovers of the outdoors, but just note that the focus is on active, not armchair, appreciation of nature. Beyond the occasionally great and always heavily knowledgeable product reviews, the key strength of this magazine is the well-written and strongly researched articles on outdoor issues of concern, not just in America but around the world. An outstanding recent example, among many, concerns the economics of environmentalism in the conservative Western U.S. This is the type of strong conservationist reporting that can usually only be found otherwise in books. Other more whimsical articles are just fun to read for those with off-kilter interests, such as recent pieces on urban rock climbing or sauna fanatics in Finland.

Many other articles could be classified more as travel/tourism than adventure, but the accompanying photography is always top-notch, and the editors have a knack for finding out-of-the-way hidden treasures around the world that are ripe for discovery by the adventurous. (But on the other hand, the magazine could be faulted for contributing to the recent trend of hyping previously unknown outdoor paradises that have since become crowded, such as Molly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia.) Personally, I would like to see a little less focus on expensive vacations that extreme sports fanatics can take in hard-to-reach nations, and more on what folks with more realistic means (and amounts of free time) can do in humble parks and forests near home. But despite its habit of losing its focus at times, I will continue to be a fan of Outside for years to come, and might just travel to some of those hyped exotic adventure locations. [~doomsdayer520~]