Sebastian Junger goes whaling; Jon Krakauer solves the fatal mystery of a lost hiker; David Quammen tracks big, bad wolves in Romania; Ian Frazier profiles the world's wiliest mushroom hunter; Susan Orlean goes native with Maui's surfer girls; Bill McKibben crosses the disappearing finish line; Peter Maass endures free-fire zones in Sudan and Somalia; Mark Jenkins explores the soul of mountaineering; Hampton Sides runs wild with skiing's fastest man; Bill Vaughn skates home backwards; Hodding Carter Jr. adopts a wild manatee; David Rakoff survives survival school; and more.

The editors of Outside bring together 36 stories that comprise some of the finest nonfiction gathered anywhere, works that take us to remote corners of the world and into distant realms of the imagination. By turns comical and sobering, whimsical and nerve-racking, the stories in this collection embody Outside's ability to hone the cutting edge, publishing the innovative, exhilarating, zany, wise voices of sport, travel, and adventure.