Outside's long reads email newsletter features our strongest writing, most ambitious reporting, and award-winning storytelling about the outdoors. Sign up today. In 2005, Mystery Ranch received a box of worn-out backpacks from a group of United States Forest Service (USFS) wildland firefighters in Southern California, otherwise known as "hotshots."

Outside's long reads email newsletter features our strongest writing, most ambitious reporting, and award-winning storytelling about the outdoors. Sign up today. Earlier this month, an unidentified 54-year-old-man died in an apparent fall in Death Valley National Park. Leading up to the discovery, a campground host first noticed a tent that remained standing past its due date.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - A man who went missing earlier this week while collecting firewood along the South Dakota and Wyoming state line was rescued Thursday night, according to a post on the Pennington County Search and Rescue Facebook page. The man was taken to the hospital.

Skiers and snowmobilers in the backcountry and at resorts have inadvertently triggered their devices' crash detection feature. As Carrie Tait reports, the system appears to have caused at least four false alarms last weekend alone. The most serious happened in a remote area near Golden, B.C., where an iPhone bouncing around in a snowmobile glovebox detected a collision.

Apple's Emergency SOS via Satellite service got a lot of time in the keynote, with the company proudly announcing that the service is free for the first two years. What Apple hasn't told us is what happens at the end of those two years. There's one obvious answer, of course, but there are other possibilities [...]

IRON COUNTY, Utah () - Iron County Sheriff's Search & Rescue (ICSSAR) volunteers, along with a Sheriff's Deputy, saved a family that was stuck in the snow after their side-by-side was trapped and immobile in freezing weather. At 6:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov.

Utah-based climber River Barry, 30, was standing in a parking lot in Moab's Kane Creek Canyon, prepping her gear for a day of mountain biking, when a BASE jumper crashed into the cliff in front of her. At the time, she never imagined that she'd be the only one able to save him.

Wireless radio was a major breakthrough in communications technology. To send or transmit by wireless telegraphy, electromagnetic waves are used to send and receive information in the form of Morse code messages. Guglielmo Marconi (1847-1937) did not invent the wireless, but he applied certain improvements to the existing devices through experimentation and made the systems practical.

Burke and Perry then moved the body to the freezer. Potter's body was in the basement freezer for more than a week before it was discovered by officers. Burke and Perry are being held without bail. They will appear in court again next week.

I'm new to hiking but I know that you need gear to hike the Appalachian Trail. So I had to figure out what is and isn't worth the weight for me. It is my hope that sharing this information will be a helpful starting point for other aspiring or committed thru-hikers.