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Congratulations to Rafal Bogowolski of Nevada for winning the Etnies Planet is Your Playground photo contest!

While Etnies received plenty of worthy photos from exotic places around the world, including Fiji, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Kazakhstan, Bogowolski's winning shot was from right here in the good ol' U.S. and A. in Lake Tahoe, which sits on the border of California and Nevada.

"Lake Tahoe is one of the few places in the world where you can do almost every activity..

People climb mountains largely because of the challenge they represent, and many times the challenge is too great, or downright overwhelming.

One needs only to look at the accompanying image (top, right)--which is not for the feint of heart--to realize that the challenge was too great for Kuriki Nobukazu.

The Japanese mountaineer was attempting to become the first person to solo-climb Mt. Everest via the exceedingly dangerous West Ridge/Hornbein Couloir route. He turned..

Adventurer Mark Kalch recently completed a nearly 4,000-mile journey from the "utmost source" of the Missouri-Mississippi river system to the sea, making him the first person to ever do this. The descent was part of Kalch's 7 Rivers 7 Continents project, whereby he hopes to descend the longest rivers on each continent, and Canoe and Kayak magazine recently caught up with him to talk about the project and his most recent trip.

Photo courtesy Canoe and Kayak

In..

As the father of three boys, you might think that Mika Hakkola, marketing and communications manager for British Columbia's Red Mountain Resort, might be a hair too busy to get out and enjoy the region's endless outdoor recreation opportunities on his own. That's far from the case, as he spends quality time outdoors with his family, including his wife, Colleen, as well as finds the time to feed his own rat, which, in summer, means trail running, mountain bike riding, and occasionally..

Chris Landry, 39, has lived in Summit County, Colorado, for the past 13 years, moving from Denver to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. An avid snowboarder, skateboarder, mountain biker, and hiker, he's gone from caterer to liftie to his current seven-year role as lift supervisor. "After one season in Breckenridge I realized how much I missed Copper Mountain," he says. "Not only for the great people, but also the awesome terrain, in both winter and summer." A former BMX and..