What are the essential ingredients in a great adventure story? The Latin root of the word, oddly enough, means "an arrival," but adventure almost always entails a going out, and not just any going out but a bold one: Sail the Pacific on a balsa raft; pit your skills against K2; sledge to the South Pole. It is a quest whose outcome is unknown but whose risks are tangible, a challenge someone meets with courage, brains, and effort—and then survives, we hope, to tell the tale.

Ever since ecotourism took off in the early 1990s, European travelers have helped to spread the movement across the savannas of Africa and the jungles of Central America. Today they�re starting to look closer to home, and with good reason. Some of the most sustainable lodges on the planet are rooted in Old World ways. Take, for instance, Hotel Posada del Valle, a 12-bedroom, 19th-century farmhouse in northern Spain. Located on the remote Asturias coast near the steep mountains of Picos de Europa National Park, Posada sits at the center of one of southern Europe�s last wildlife strongholds. Brown bears still roam the forests, wolves hunt in the fields, and golden eagles soar the thermals. More than a dozen treks begin nearby, ranging from countryside strolls to 7,200-foot summits. When not exploring by foot (or canoe, mountain bike, or horseback), you can visit Posada�s rustic stone-and-wood dining room for organic farm fare—grown on the premises, of course (doubles from $90; posadadelvalle.com).

Dive into the world's richest marine resource: the Coral Triangle. Here are our picks in Malaysia, the Solomon Islands, and the Philippines.

Sled dogs, sure. But Quebec's superior cheeses will surprise you. Plus, the world's healthiest wine.

Game-changing remakes of outdoor icons—bikes, tees, and more. Plus: Pro-grade cameras for plebs and the perfect watch for every wrist. Classics reviewed by Greg Melville, Steve Morgenstern & Doug Schnitzspahn. Watches and cameras reviewed by Steve Casimiro.

In our March 2009 issue, writer Mark Jenkins examines how the bloody upheaval in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has affected one of the planet�s largest populations of mountain gorillas. His story focuses on the head ranger of Virunga National Park, Emmanuel de Merode, who brokered a groundbreaking peace accord with rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, allowing his rangers to operate behind enemy lines and monitor the gorillas. Today, General Nkunda, who Jenkins describes as "slick, brutal, and ambitious,� was arrested by Congolese and Rwandan soldiers. It is a remarkable turnabout for Nkunda, who had become one of Congo�s chief power brokers. But the arrest does not assure peace in Congo, nor does it ensure the safety of the mountain gorillas. The man replacing Nkunda, General Bosco Ntaganda, is known as "the butcher" and is also wanted on crimes against humanity. De Merode�s work continues and, as Jenkins explains, he will most likely have to keep rewriting the rules of conservation to ensure the mountain gorillas� survival.

As March Madness kicks off this week, talk around ye old office water-cooler will likely revolve around NCAA basketball. But that doesn't mean college hoops fans should have all the fun. So we decided to give you ADVENTURE crowd your own bracket-like list to debate: a run-down of the best modern rivalries in outdoor sports. And when we say rivalries, we don't mean to imply that these athletes snipe and bicker like Rock of Love contestants. We mean, simply, that they're vying for their sport's top spot—and pushing each to be better in the process. Here, then, are our picks for today's Top 10 Outdoor-Sports Rivalries in climbing, cycling, ski racing, and more

Dodge traffic jams, check gas prices—for a new breed of GPS units, maps are just the beginning.

I first began to write about airline crashes in the early seventies. Ever since then, I've tried to learn about and write about both the joys of aviation and the business of avoiding airplane crashes--or else surviving them when they happen.

As I write this, the crash of US Airways Flight 1549 into New York City�s Hudson River happened just about three hours ago, and this is my first response to it. As a pilot and a journalist who writes about aviation, I know from long experience that it's much too early to be weaving detailed explanations of what happened. No one knows yet. It takes time to gather the facts, interview those involved, and examine the wreckage.

The system of airlines works so well that it sometimes seems miraculous to me that we can move so many people around the world, day and night, and have so few accidents. It's an extremely complex system, designed for safety as well as making money. And as a result, something as complex as the crash of an airliner takes a long time to unravel. Be patient. Don�t jump to conclusions.

National Geographic Adventure presents the 25 best new adventure travel tours in the world.

Dan Buettner knows a little something about longevity. He�s the holder of three separate Guinness World Records for distance biking: a 15,500-mile ride from Alaska to Argentina in 1987, when he was 27; a 12,888-mile journey across the Soviet Union in 1990; and a 12,172-mile jaunt through Africa completed in 1992. But it was research on longevity first published in National Geographic that really established his bona fides on the subject. The Minnesota native traveled to four countries to study the world�s heartiest humans. In Sardinia, Okinawa, Costa Rica, and Loma Linda, California, Buettner partnered with scientists to examine anomalous pockets where the number of centenarians vastly exceeded the statistical average. These areas became the subject of his book The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who�ve Lived the Longest (National Geographic). This spring Buettner continued his research, visiting a fifth zone, the Greek island of Ikar�a in the Aegean Sea.

West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro looks ahead at the 26 most groundbreaking products of 2010. This year's Best of Adventure gear picks were nominated in part by a panel of 34 retailers from across the country.