The Best Adventure and Survival Stories 2003

The fourth edition of publishing's only adventure annual offers another exhilarating collection of the year's most gripping and entertaining adventure storiesfrom the world's coldest waters to its scariest wildfire. Drawn from the year's most memorable adventure book titles, magazine pieces, and websites, these stories focus on men and women pushing beyond their limitsfrom the woman who swam to Antarctica to the seven snowboarders who tried to ride out an avalanche in British Columbia's untracked Selkirk Mountains, to the biologist trying to survive his search for a new species of bear. Including new work by David Roberts, Sy Montgomery, Peter Leschak, and Tim Cahill, these selections prove once again that today's best adventure literature ranks among the best writing anywhere.

Nate Hardcastle is the editor of Speed: Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel and American Soldier: Stories of Special Forces from Iraq to Afghanistan. He lives in Maine.