Bruce Barcott of Outside interviews Ted Conover–the author of Newjack, Rolling Nowhere, and Whiteout–about his latest act of “immersion journalism”: The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today (Knopf, $27), where he explores the history and odyssey of the world’s growing and connected road systems.

Conover on the allure of the great wide open: “The road contains the excitement of the unexpected. There’s a quote from Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring that I love: ‘You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.’ When you hit the road, you’re worried about leaving comfort behind; you don’t know if you’re going to come back. There are monsters out there.”

James R. Holland of Basil & Spice adds his recent review to the pile for Matt Labash’s book of satirical essays Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys.

“Labash hoped to use his mutual love of fly fishing to discover how the legendary closed mouth and secretive Vice-President reached his political decisions. He got his day long, eight-hour interview while floating lazily along the river with Cheney, who catches twenty-two fish to his two, but all he discovered is that Cheney is not only an expert fly fisherman who gets really excited about the sport, but that he loves the natural beauty of the Snake River and the wilds of Wyoming…”

Read the WSJ review.

Utah writer Maximilian Werner, author of the recent released book of fly fishing essays: Black River Dreams (Barclay Creek Press), is interviewd by Fly Rod and Reel.

“The reader will detect multiple themes running throughout the book: the value of friendship, the pain of loss, the importance of love, the contemplation of death, but the central theme is how fly fishing helps me recognize the extraordinary beauty of this life of ours and how deeply we are connected to the Earth and all its inhabitants, human, piscine, and otherwise.”

“In 1968, Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins set out to surf, ski and climb their way to Patagonia. The wild places they found later motivated them to protect the environment. Inspired by this journey, Jeff Johnson and Woodshed Films set sail on a voyage to South America to climb a mythical peak called Corcovado with Chouindard and Tompkins,” as told by Fletcher Chouinard.

The film is entitled 180° South: Conquerors of the Useless and also is a behind the scenes book of the same name, written by Yvon Chouinard and Chris Malloy and photographed Jeff Johnson.

Parts of the book were recently excerpted by the Wall Street Journal and are worth the read:

“It had taken us three days to get high enough to see a possible approach to Cerro Corcovado: a 10-mile Zodiac ride up a river that ruined three outboard props, an all-day rock-hop up a labyrinth of winding rivers, and miles of horrible bushwhacking. Half the time we thought we were lost. Yvon commented more than once, ‘I’m getting too old for this s—.’ Eventually, we made high camp at the last of four pristine lakes where we thought no one had been before – unless they’d dropped in by helicopter or airplane.”

Produced by Woodshed Films

Royal Robbins, rock-climbing pioneer from Modesto, California and founder of the outdoor apparel company of the same name, recently released the first in a series of autobiographies entitled To Be Brave.

Focusing less on the climbing and more on Royal’s “tumultuous” upbringing, the author says the first volume will relay messages of hope and determination:

“‘I think we are what we dream about,’ Robbins said, choosing his words carefully. ‘If you dream about things going well and things turning out well, they tend to. There’s no guarantee, but it tends to work that way. If you take a negative view of life, negative things will come your way. If you take a positive view of life, positive things will come your way,’” writes Lisa Millegan of The Modesto Bee.

Matt Labash, senior writer for The Weekly Standard and author of the recently released Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys, is interviewed by Mark Warren of Esquire:

“My favorite story in Fly Fishing with Darth Vader, you ask? Why not just ask me to pick a favorite child? I can’t really do that. Each of them means something different, each experience left me with indelible memories. The stories in this collection saw me beaning elementary schoolgirls in the face with a dodgeball, plotting dirty tricks with Roger Stone, slogging through forced funtivities in corporate America, and trying to bribe my way into Iraq with Christopher Hitchens.”

photo credit: LJWhitmire

Wall Street Journal columnist Mark Lasswell reviews the new Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys by Matt Labash, whom he calls one of the U.S.’s most underappreciated journalists. As evidence: Labash’s ability to find entree with Dick Cheney on the subject of catfish flies.

“To Mr. Labash’s surprise, the vice president seemed interested in his venture into fly-rod debasement. ‘Perhaps he sensed a kindred spirit,’ the writer muses. ‘Remaking the Middle East as a Western democracy versus chasing catfish on a fly—each of us is addicted to some pet implausibility.’”

photo credit: dibaer

Inspired by the book of the same name, The Edge of Never is a documentary about 15-year-old freeskier Kye Petersen, who travels to Chamonix, France, to ski the same challenging runs that took the life of his big-mountain skiing father, Trevor Petersen.

Glen Plake, a longtime fixture in American freestyle skiing and a friend of Petersen’s before his death, talks to the CBS Early Show about his role in the film and what lead Kye to shoulder this enormous physical and mental challenge at such a young age:

“It wasn’t a destiny that I felt [Kye] should ski [Chamonix], but I knew the path he was taking was ultimately going to lead him there. I wanted to be able to maybe help him along the way there.”

Salt Lake Tribune feature on the documentary’s filmmaker and director Bill Kerig.

photo credit: Globetrotting Camera

Alexandra Alter of The Wall Street Journal visits with writer Jim Harrison at his farmhouse in Livingston, MT.

“’When I write, I don’t like to be around any humans,’ says Mr. Harrison, a pot-bellied 71-year-old with a tanned, creased face, bushy white goatee, wild eyebrows and long earlobes.”

Finding out that he still writes long hand and faxes finished pages to his 30-year secretary in Michigan only adds to the read.

You might also watch this New York Times interview while you’re at it.

photo credit: carolynconner

In the Wall Street Journal, Alexandra Alter writes about veteran travel writer Tim Cahill, focusing on his chosen escape—a cabin near Gallatin National Forest in Montana.

“‘It’s often hilarious to me that I’m writing about Tonga or some tropical place and there’s a blizzard outside and the cows are on their backs with their hooves in the air,’ said Mr. Cahill, a founding editor of Outside magazine and author of nine books, including ‘A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg’ and ‘Jaguars Ripped My Flesh.’ Mr. Cahill, whose wife died in a traffic accident last year, often stays at the cabin for week-long stretches, and all told spends a couple of months out of the year there.”