Outside Features

Michael Cooper, like most people, has many sides. There’s Michael Cooper, adventuring outdoorsman who’s racked up more than 8,000 miles trailblazing in the desert and backcountry, summitted countless mountains (including the 10 highest peaks in Oregon), run wild rivers, and been on the brink of death more than once. There’s also Michael Cooper, music journalist, […]

Little did 10-year-old Audrey Tehan know, as she furiously shielded her fledgling beet plants from a pounding hail storm on her family’s farm in Sisters, that one day, she’d be helping to grow more than 100,000 pounds of fresh produce in that same spot and helming a nonprofit that distributes the bounty to Central Oregon […]

Jeff Johnston has a ritual during Central Oregon’s winter months. Several times a week, he finds himself, along with Kundi, his Australian Shepherd, standing in the pre-dawn light at Wanoga Sno-Park. As he unlocks a shipping container that houses a utilitarian Ski-Doo Skandic snowmobile, Kundi tears around in the snow, marking his favorite spots. After […]

Put down that beat-up Harry Potter paperback. With the right guidance, the forests of Central Oregon can put a spell on you, no wands or wizard hats required. Just ask Three Sisters Backcountry about the “magic that exists” at their two mountain yurts. They’re located at the base of what the outdoor recreation company calls […]

On a recent late summer afternoon, Nathaniel Perullo, 17, feels right at home at his home away from home, the climbing wall inside the Bend Endurance Academy. The Academy anchors a retail horseshoe of businesses within honking distance of one of Bend’s busiest intersections at Reed Market Road and Third Street. This day, Perullo is […]

  Learning to balance on one ski and shift to the other has taught Neve Gerard more than just how to race — it’s become a metaphor for managing her demanding life. A Bend High School graduate, she is an award-winning skier whose accolades include representing the United States at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics […]

If there’s one thing Central Oregon loves, it’s volleyball. The volleyball community in Central Oregon has been continuously growing, and with it, the opportunities to compete. This past year, members of the community came together to form the High Desert Volleyball Association, one of Central Oregon’s newest 501(c)(3) nonprofits. The nonprofit was born out of […]