This past March, I strapped into my trusty snowboard to compete in my first-ever giant slalom race: the 63rd Governor’s Cup Ski Race, which was held at Timberline Mountain in Canaan Valley. Before the snowboard portion of the show, we were allowed to “side-slip” the course, meaning we could ride down alongside the icy path containing the gates to gauge where the hardest turns would be. I slid down with my friend and longtime local snowboarder Brian Sarfino, listening to his assessment of the course. I pictured myself way up on edge, parallel to the ground in each sharp turn like a seasoned vet ..read more

Highland Profiles is a series highlighting West Virginia’s exemplary outdoor adventurers, business owners, and community innovators. If you’ve got someone in mind worthy of a profile, drop us a line: info@highland-outdoors.com. When I spoke to Dave Saville for this profile, he was sitting in a cozy room in Nairobi, Kenya. He spends months there each year working to restore the beloved mpingo tree, which is used to make clarinets, oboes, violins, and other musical instruments. The high demand for this precious wood has nearly driven the species to extinction. But over the past 10 years, Saville ..read more

Solitude, silence, and stillness await in the splendor of a snow-covered forest. Trekking up the Mountain State’s highest peak in the dead of winter is not for the faint of heart; a four-wheel-drive vehicle is a requisite. It’s a little daunting perhaps, stupid even, but the lure is strong. This blue, cold January day is biting, but the thrill of finding a new way to fish in West Virginia feels warming and enticing. Sitting pretty at 3,840 feet in elevation, Spruce Knob Lake is the highest lake in West Virginia. A prolific year-round fishery, this gemstone of a lake annually ranks near the top ..read more

I am thrilled to share the winning shots from the second rendition of the annual Highland Outdoors Photo Contest. This production was nearly eight months in the making. From promoting the contest and organizing the steady flow of submissions to multiple rounds of judging and coordinating with the winning photographers, running a photography contest is more work than you might think. But, as it often goes with our little publication, the juice is indeed worth the squeeze. And I must say, what visually appealing juice it is! This year’s podium of winning images is filled with color, action, surp ..read more

For Mackinzie Dickman there is nothing better than those moments when a heavy snowfall quiets the mountain with wintery stillness. “It’s just you and the snow,” she says. “Snow for me, is my soul.”  Dickman, who goes by Kinzie in her small mountain town of Snowshoe, is somewhat notorious for her fearless spirit. “That time when Kinzie…” is a common refrain among the local skiers and snowboarders who share stories of her exploits. Though she’s originally from Ohio, her childhood vacations were spent at Snowshoe Mountain, and she moved there full-time with her husband Ted Dickman at the end ..read more

The English language is comprised of a vast lexicon. A standard unabridged dictionary contains anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 entries, but some linguists estimate a total of one million words when counting prefixes, suffixes, slang, and words borrowed from other languages that enjoy regular English usage. A wealth of books written in other languages have been translated to English throughout the centuries, meaning that scholars were able to find the right words to convey the complex ideas and emotions those authors originally crafted in their native tongues. But even with a seven-figure inde ..read more

Highland Profiles is a series highlighting West Virginia’s exemplary outdoor adventurers, business owners, and community innovators. If you’ve got someone in mind worthy of a profile, drop us a line: info@highland-outdoors.com. In the U.S., there are 42.5 million people with physical or cognitive disabilities. Outdoor recreation has the potential to help these individuals improve their quality of life, physical health, social relationships, and self-confidence. However, the logistics, gear, skills, and money required to participate in outdoor recreation can prevent people with disabilities fro ..read more

Breaking News: Scientists Identify Mysterious Force Affecting Hydration Hoses We’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of an outdoor adventure and in need of a snack break. As you take your backpack off and carefully place it on the ground, the bite valve on the hose of your hydration bladder immediately—with a force akin to two powerful rare-earth magnets lining up their poles—springs into contact with whatever nasty surface or substance you very much wanted it to avoid touching. You pause, frown, and move the backpack, only for the valve to defy gravity and flop right against the sweaty ar ..read more

Nate Arndt grew up in Inwood, a small town in the Eastern Panhandle, in an entrepreneurial family that prizes craftsmanship and self-sufficiency. His father, Dan Ardnt, is a carpenter who made fishing a central theme of family time and encouraged Arndt and his brother Danny to create in the woodshop. Like most children, they were tough on their fishing gear. “As a kid I was pretty rough, breaking all kinds of stuff around the house. I had broken cheap nets way too many times,” Arndt says. When Arndt was 13 and his brother was 16, they ventured into the woodshop with their father and “whipped u ..read more

I’ll never forget the first time I caught a sunset from atop Snowshoe Mountain Resort in the heart of West Virginia’s highlands. My friends and I rented out a three-bedroom condominium situated just below the main road that runs along the ridge of the 4,848-foot-tall portion of Cheat Mountain. Our headcount exceeded the bed count by one, and with a clear forecast and cool evening temps on tap for the weekend, I volunteered to take the air mattress. I promptly placed it on the covered deck with plans to fall asleep under a vibrant Milky Way. Our first evening brought with it a staggeringly beau ..read more