Inside the Quidditch World Cup.

From prison, a member of the Earth Liberation Front tells her story.

The search for a missing soldier.

The breathable outerwear industry is at war with Bob Gore—the inventor of Gore-Tex.

A report from the freediving word championships.

On stolen bicycles, “a solvent in America’s underground economy, a currency in the world of drug addicts and petty thieves.”

How shrunken heads ended up in downtown Chicago.

On the recovery of snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who suffered a massive brain injury five days before the 2010 Olympics.

A profile of environmental activist Tim DeChristopher.

You know this one: German guy heads into tribal jungle deep upriver, sends the company crazy reports full of radical ideas—and then goes totally rogue. Only this time it's not ivory he's after. It's a secret lost for centuries: the finest cacao on earth.

Tourism in Burma? A journey through Asia’s most anesthetized state.

A visit with the novelist Jim Harrison.

Skyrocketing prices for yarchagumba, a rare fungus prized as an aphrodisiac, has led to Nepali villagers to turf wars—and possibly murder.

Twenty-five years later, inside the Exclusion Zone.

A profile of the late Jack LaLanne, “the greatest gym teacher of all time,” who was as responsible as anyone for America’s fitness craze in the latter half of the 20th century.

On the psychology of a rescue worker after years of responding to disaster.

Anatomy of an international incident; how three idealistic young American hikers wandered across the Kurdistan-Iran border and ended up in Iranian prison charged with spying.

At tourism’s wildest frontier; guided tours of Afghanistan.

Nobody knows the full story of why legendary surfer Andy Irons died in a Dallas hotel room earlier this month. But some who knew him have come forward to discuss the demons he’d battled for years.

When a boulder shifts and pins his hand, a climber on a solo trip is forced to do the unthinkable: amputate his own arm. A first-person account of the six-day ordeal, excerpted from Ralston’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

Fifty-four days after his group’s Everest climb turned tragic, Krakauer first told the story of what had gone wrong.

The original story of Christopher McCandless’ fateful trip into the Alaskan wilderness.

In the British sport of “ferret legging,” underwear-less competitors tie their trousers at the ankles, stuff a pair of the carnivores down there, and hold on for as long as possible. Reg Mellor is the world’s best.

Before embarking on dangerous rock climbs, Matt Samet would use whiskey to wash down powerful prescription tranquilizers. A first-person account of extreme addiction.