“If you chose your college for its close proximity to (insert outdoor activity here) over its course selection, then you’ll definitely be able to sympathize with REI’s new series of half-minute clips.”

Every week, embark with host Boyd Matson on an exploration of the latest discoveries and interviews with some of the most fascinating people on the planet, on National Geographic Weekend.

“In late July, writer-photographer-adventurer Cameron Lawson and a new friend will use fat-tired bikes and packrafts to travel approximately 350 miles along Alaska’s Lost Coast. Getting from Yakutat to Juneau will take 14 to 17 days.”

“Getting over your fears of that rope section for your next adventure race has never been easier. Zip them away at speeds of up to 100 km/h and heights of 600 feet above the ground.”

“On July 14, Sierra Trading Post’s blogger Andy Hawbaker and videographer Chris Martin will begin an incredible challenge: The John Muir Trail.”

“Unlike heat or cold or wind or fatigue, which had all made themselves unpleasantly known in raw physical ways, gravity was more insidious, creeping inside my bones, my brain and deep in my belly. Though I couldn’t see the 45-degree drop over my left shoulder in the predawn blackness, it was as real as a person whispering in my ear as I picked my way through the mixed rock and ice of the Disappointment Cleaver.”

“The National Parks System was founded in 1916, and we are all richer for it. With life in this country seeming smaller and more indoors everyday, trees and wild animals sometimes seem like things that exist in countries people leave America to take vacations to.”

“On July 1st, 2013 four modern-day explorers hope to become the first people to traverse the Northwest Passage solely under human power in a single season – one of the Earth’s last great firsts.”

“Twice a week for over half a century, Baltazar Ushca has hiked up the slopes of Mount Chimborazo, the tallest mountain in Ecuador, to harvest glacial ice that covers the highest altitudes of this dormant volcano. In the past, up to forty ice merchants made the journey up the mountain to mine the ice; today, however, Baltazar works alone. Even his brothers, Gregorio and Juan, both raised as ice merchants, have retired from the mountain to find more steady work.”

“The process of haphazard adventure is detailed in ‘Holes in the Map'”

“Standing on a dock in an old Georgia fishing village with a small sailboat high and dry in the mud and our guide cursing herself because she had packed not a complete pair of shoes, but one of her husband’s Chacos and one of her own, I probably should have been thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?” On the contrary, you couldn’t have slapped the smile off my face!”

“The 2013 film from Alastair Lee is set to be the epic to end all mountain epics set in the stunning mountains of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. The film documents top adventure climber Leo Houlding with his tried and tested team of Jason Pickles and Sean ‘Stanley’ Leary as they attempt to make the first ascent of the NE ridge of the master piece of the range; the majestic Ulvetanna Peak. One of the most technically demanding climbs in one of the world’s harshest environments.”