adventure & storytelling

see inside the grand canyon region’s new monument // high country news (2023)

a weeklong journey through the under-documented region, which now has new protections.

photographer & writer: Len Necefer

the breathtaking glen canyon reveals its secrets // smithsonian magazine (2022)

Water woes threaten America’s second largest reservoir—but leave new vistas in their wake

Photographer & Writer: Peter McBride

the comanagement of bears ears Is an important step in tackling climate change // outside online (2022)

On June 21, the BLM, U.S. Forest Service, and Five Tribes of the Intertribal Coalition signed a cooperative management agreement for Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. It marks a shift in our history at a time when we’ve never needed to collaborate more. This OP-ED dives into the significance of this monumental shift in policy

exploring an epic colorado river during record-breaking drought // national geographic (2021)

Peter Mcbride, National Geographic photographer, and I pack-rafted the Yampa River in record-low water for National Geographic. Our goal was to travel the last 50 miles (80 km) of the river through Dinosaur National Monument to see how even a wild river inside a national park was struggling to stay wet. The trip would foreshadow what might come for western rivers as the climate changes. With only a few small dams and diversions, the 250-mile-long (400 km) Yampa is one of just a few free-flowing rivers in the United States and the longest in Colorado. The journey was eye-opening, even for someone like me who has spent years looking at water shortage. But it was also hopeful, as I learned how creative collaboration can keep a river alive—barely.

Photographer & Writer: Peter McBride

seekseekqua on the line of climate change // patagonia’s cleanest line (2021)

The 2020 wildfire season was one of the most destructive on record in Oregon, resulting in 11 deaths, over a million acres burned, and thousands of homes lost in the state. In April 2021, I joined Patagonia athletes, Josh Dirksen and Forrest Shearer, with photographer Tyler Roemer to summit a Central Oregon volcano officially known as Mt. Jefferson where one of these fires started. A deep April snowpack concealed sharp, porous volcanic rock beneath our skis and snowboards. From this white expanse rose fire-sculpted totems—pine trees blackened by fire. It looked like topographical reliefs had been laser carved into their core with the tree rings as elevation lines. This flow was the southward boundary of the recent Lionshead fire which burned over 200,000 acres in August of 2020.

Photographer: Tyler Roemer

climbing in sacrifice zones with tommy caldwell // patagonia’s cleanest line (2021)

In April 2021, I along with Tommy Caldwell, Tara Kerzhner, and Aaron Mike visited Oak Flat - a sacred place to the local apache tribe and a location slated for a copper mine. In our time here we explored the complexities of copper demand in light of our “green” energy future.

Photographer: Tara Kerzhner

sounds of ceremony: the future of sacred landscapes // alpinist 75 (2021)

“Those sounds of ceremony, of the ceremonial rattle created by the snow, echoing from the couloir walls on Dibe Nitsaa, still fill my ears many years later. The top of the couloir appeared more quickly than I had expected. The rhythmic compression of my ski boots into the snow, the strain of every step, the labor of every breath—these sensations mirrored earlier experiences created in sweat lodges. This mountain, just like those ceremonies, taught me that relegating the pain and tiredness to the background and focusing on the small victories of each movement upward would get me through any obstacle.”

Photographer: Isaiah Branch Boyle

the summit that never melts // patagonia's the cleanest line (2020)

patagonia snow story of the year

Rising from the desert north of Flagstaff, Arizona, the 12,633-foot Dookʼoʼoosłííd (also known as Humphreys Peak) is the highest point in the state and the tallest summit in the San Francisco Peaks mountain range. Over the past few decades, it’s also become a nexus for a whole gamut of controversies, from the impacts of climate change, the ever-increasing pressures on water supplies, the role of the outdoor recreation industry in conservation, and decades-old conflicts between current land managers’ priorities and indigenous peoples’ ancestral rights. As tensions build, these local battles no longer apply to just the Southwest; they’ve come to encapsulate larger issues playing out across the entirety of the North American West.⁠ We partnered with Patagonia Athlete, Forrest Shearer to tell this story.

Photographer: Greg Balkin

national geographic covid-19 storytelling grant (2020)

Tara Kerzhner & Len Necefer partnered on a grant from National Geographic to bring indigenous perspectives on the COVID-19 crisis on the Navajo Nation.

Photographer: Tara Kerzhner

classic climbs: baboquivari // amazon prime video (2020)

A review from Climbing Magazine:

“Classic Climbs is a new video series that follows host Dylan Welter as he climbs some of the most sought-after routes in the United States. Welter is joined on each adventure by notable guests—names like Cedar Wright and Nina Williams—often in a guiding/expert role. The episodes intersperse climbing footage, route history, geology, and interview segments to create an entertaining and informative watch.

…Welter climbs Baboquivari, located in southern Arizona, with Aaron Mike and Len Necefer of Natives Outdoors. The pair provide history related to the Tohono O’odham tribe and emphasize why the outdoors need to be preserved for generations to come.”

desert rustle: cochise stronghold // climbing magazine (2019)

Krista Karlson and I tell the story of Navajo climbing guide Aaron Mike as he explores the intricate web of history, stewardship, and climbing in Cochise Stronghold, Arizona. We were joined by photographer Gabriel Ellison Scowcroft for this story

Photographer: Gabriel Ellison Scowcroft

wired: stories from whiteshell mountain // alpinist 64 (2019)

A Navajo (Diné) climber, Len Necefer, takes a white mountaineer, Brody Leven, on a winter attempt of Sisnaajiní (Blanca Peak), one of the four major sacred peaks of Dinétah, the Diné homeland. In the process, Necefer hopes to discuss a more inclusive and effective approach to the environmental threats that all communities now face.

Photographer: Gabriel Ellison Scowcroft