Deathtraps, Hantavirus, and the Other Joys of Caving | Adam Weaver, Caver | Ep. 029

The Worst Possible Way to Cross the Atlantic | Steven Callahan, Adrift | Ep. 032

Steven Callahan should have died at sea. In early 1982, roughly a week out of the Canary Islands, something — he's convinced it was a whale — holed his self-built 21-foot sloop Napoleon Solo in the middle of the night. What followed became one of the most famous survival stories ever told: 76 days adrift in a five-and-a-half-foot inflatable raft, alone, crossing nearly the entire Atlantic before a handful of fishermen found him off Marie Galante. In this conversation, Steven walks us through all of it — diving into the flooded, pitch-black cabin to grab his ditch kit, coaxing a single pint of fresh water a day out of a temperamental solar still, spearfishing the dorado that became both his food and his "spiritual companions," and the Day-43 disaster when his spear gun punctured the raft a thousand miles from land. But this is less a blow-by-blow than a master class in the psychology of survival from a philosophy major who treats reality as something to be accepted exactly as it is. We get into the divided self, the brutal "recoil" of giving up, why denial is the number one enemy, and how an ocean nearly killed him and gave him a life.

Mutiny, Cannibalism & How America Really Began | Peter Mancall, Historian | Ep. 031

Your social studies teacher gave you Henry Hudson in about two sentences: a guy, a river, New York. Dr. Peter Mancall — USC historian and author of Fatal Journey and the new continental history Contested Continent — is here to give you the other 99%. We start with Hudson's doomed final voyage: iced into the bottom of Hudson Bay for a brutal winter, a starving crew, a mutiny, and a captain set adrift in a rowboat never to be seen again. Then we zoom all the way out. This is a two-hour tour through the early America that gets left on the cutting-room floor — the fur trade and the "perfect trade good" of alcohol, John Adams' filthiest joke, the cannibalized girl of Jamestown, Columbus's fall from hero to villain, Cahokia's lost pyramid city, the Vikings who quit North America, and the 1680 Pueblo Revolt that scrubbed an empire off the map. It's bloody, it's funny, and it'll permanently change how you hear the word "Thanksgiving." If you love history that refuses to flatten people into heroes or villains, this one's for you.   CREDITS Hosting by Hayden Sammak Production by Andrew O'Neill “Welcome to the Backcountry” theme song by Logan Roth, Will Brown, Arjun Dube and produced at Treacle Mine Studios, Phila, PA Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025

Free Soloing is Actually Really Easy | Lincoln Knowles ft. Cedar Wright & John Long | Ep. 029

Lincoln Knowles is 21 years old, lives out of his Jeep, and has the climbing internet at war with itself. To half the community he's a reckless idiot free soloing a harder route every day until he falls; to the other half he's the funniest, most self-aware thing to happen to the sport in years. The truth — as Hayden finds out — is that the kid is a genuinely elite climber (a sub-10-hour Nose-in-a-Day, on-sight free solos in Yosemite, V11 on the board) who's running the most committed satire in outdoor media. This one goes everywhere: Lincoln's Yosemite "tear" and a storm-soaked bail off the Nose, a surprise call to climbing legend John Long, the Alex Honnold text and the Climbing magazine hit piece, and an extended phone-in from Cedar Wright, who makes the full punk-rock case for why this stuff matters. It's funny, it's genuinely unsettling when the talk turns to mortality, and it's impossible to look away from. Whether you think he's the future of the sport or a tragedy waiting to happen, you'll understand exactly why everyone's arguing about him. In this episode, we talk about: * The Yosemite Tear: El Cap & the Nose-in-a-Day * Phoning John Long About the Nose Record * Bailing Off the Nose in a Snowstorm * Viral Clips & the Parody of Climbing Ego * How Free Soloing Began * College Dropout to Content Hustle * Courting the Haters * Risk, Death, and Mindset * Family Silence & Attempted Interventions * Honnold's Text & the Climbing Magazine Drama * Climbing Idols: Honnold, Croft & Dean Potter * Teaming Up with Cedar Wright * Lifetime Bucket List: Free Rider to Everest * Free Solo vs. Trad: The Pinnacle Debate   LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE https://www.instagram.com/lincolnclimbs/ https://www.youtube.com/@UCynU0ZTas1hr6HMg-XAnTBA  Our episode with Jamie Leibert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHdEmyKRQw Our episode with John Long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kDnVzaNE7g Climbing Magazine Article: https://www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/lincoln-knowles-going-viral-free-soloing/ Jayme Moye: https://jaymemoye.com/published/ [https://jaymemoye.com/published/]   Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #rockclimbing #freesolo #climbing

Deathtraps, Hantavirus, and the Other Joys of Caving | Adam Weaver, Caver | Ep. 029

Adam Weaver holds the world record for the farthest anyone has ever traveled from a cave entrance — miles of crawling and climbing into a place no helicopter or rescue team can reach. He edits NSS News, America's only national caving magazine, and was recently tapped by ABC News to break down the Laos cave rescue for the public. In one of the most genuinely unsettling episodes we've recorded (Andrew does NOT like caves), Adam gets into the gear, the 9-inch passages, and the very real ways a cave can kill you — plus the full story of a teenager trapped a mile deep, 24,000-year-old mummified animals, and a quarter-mile traverse with no floor.   In this episode, we talk about: * Becoming a Caver: Beyond "Spelunking" * The Record: The Farthest You Can Get From Rescue * Cave Conservation & the Technical Side of Caving * Mummified Animals & 1890s Newspapers * The Real Hazards: Lost, Stuck, and Hypothermic * A Teenager Trapped a Mile Underground * Surface Chaos, Three Agencies & "Lavender Larry" * The "Atom Smasher" & Making a Cave Passable What Lies Beneath: A Quarter Mile With No Floor * Living Underground: Multi-Day Cave Camps * Who Owns a Cave? Permits & Land Access * Nutty Putty & How Dangerous Caving Really Is * Naming Discoveries: "To Boldly Go" * How You Actually Map a Cave (and the LiDAR Future) * Black Hills Institute: Dinosaurs & a New Plesiosaur * Where to Start Caving & Farewell   CONNECT!  Catch up with Hayden on IG, TikTok, and more: https://linktr.ee/Hayden_Sammak [https://linktr.ee/Hayden_Sammak] Follow TBM on Youtube, IG, and everywhere else: https://linktr.ee/BackcountryManifesto [https://linktr.ee/BackcountryManifesto]   CREDITS Intro and Animations by Barry Thompson Photograph Contributions for Animation by Carver Weeks Additional Graphics by Andrew O’Neill  Production Assistance by John Stock  “Welcome to the Backcountry” theme song by Logan Roth, Will Brown, Arjun Dube and produced at Treacle Mine Studios, Phila, PA   Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #cave #rescue #cavediving #laos

Has Everest become too commercialized? | Thom Pollard, Everest Historian | Ep. 028

Is Everest still a climber's ultimate test, or has it become too crowded and controversial? This week on The Backcountry Manifesto, Everest historian, climber, and 1999 Mallory expedition participant Tom Pollard joins host Hayden Sammak in PART 3 of our discussion to share his gripping firsthand stories. We dive into Tom's four Everest attempts, his 2016 summit triumph, the evolution of guiding from pre-1996 pioneers to today's high-stakes operators, and the raw power of Sherpa climbers. Plus, breakdowns of key landmarks like the Hillary Step and South Col, the perils of avalanches and bottlenecks, debunking myths around "Into Thin Air," and reflections on what Everest truly represents beyond the hype. If you're fascinated by high-altitude adventure, mountaineering history, or the human spirit against nature's extremes, this episode is your summit push. We talk about: * The landmarks on the route of an Everest summit * The DEATH ZONE * Khumbu Icefall * Sherpas * Commercialization of the mountain * Permits in Nepal and China * Minecraft Youtuber turned Everest summiteer Links mentioned in this video * Everest Mystery Youtube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@EverestMystery] * Minecraft Youtuber turned Everest Summiter [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1mJsdeE81Q] Connect * Catch up with Hayden on IG, TikTok, and more: https://linktr.ee/Hayden_Sammak [https://linktr.ee/Hayden_Sammak] * Follow TBM on Youtube, IG, and everywhere else: https://linktr.ee/BackcountryManifesto [https://linktr.ee/BackcountryManifesto] * Get yer limited-run TBM X Out Yonder Co. merch: https://outyondercompany.com/pages/shop-the-out-yonder-x-backcountry-manifesto-collab [https://outyondercompany.com/pages/shop-the-out-yonder-x-backcountry-manifesto-collab] Partners * Special thanks to our partners at Shared Pour! Visit SharedPour.com to purchase the VERY FIRST Backcountry Manifesto barrel pick [https://sharedpour.com/products/the-reveries-9-year-manifesto-single-barrel-barrel-strength-bourbon-the-backcountry-manifesto-podcast-single-barrel-selection?srsltid=AfmBOorGvM44g63ciqDSHmFWqjvD33tywZnkq757odP5AfOQNyInYMvy], available right now! Credits * Intro and Animations by Barry Thompson * Photograph Contributions for Animation by Carver Weeks * Additional Graphics by Andrew O’Neill * Production Assistance by John Stock * “Welcome to the Backcountry” theme song by Logan Roth, Will Brown, Arjun Dube and produced at Treacle Mine Studios, Phila, PA * Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025