The world of “Mad Men” is so highly styled and hermetically sealed in the early 1960s, when you view the images juxtaposing modern with retro in Rolling Stone’s behind the scenes Mad Men gallery the experience is both jarring and delightful. Most fun is a shot of two actors in costume on set looking at a Mac laptop — it’s as if a time machine transported a miracle device from the future — but for outdoor peeps the one that catches the eye is this back-lot photo of Christina Hendricks carrying a Camelbak bottle.

Come to think of it, most people’s eyes probably don’t get past Hendricks herself even to glimpse that bottle, but that’s me being a gear geek for you. The piece in question looks like the three-quarter liter Camelbak Better Bottle with an identical graphic to the one sitting on my workbench in the garage. Given the promotional value of the most popular actress from the hottest show on TV carrying your product, it’s rather surprising that Camelbak hasn’t been telling the world about this.

To see the entire Mad Men gallery, shot by photographer James Minchin III, go here.

So far, the history of bike handlebars has not been spiced with the tang of sex appeal. On the road side, we got drops, aeros, tape. On mountain, bar ends, no bar ends, bolt grips, and carbon. But now, in a stroke of absolute brilliance, Cinelli has commissioned legendary San Francisco artist and tattoo god Mike Giant to create what’s likely the world’s first handlebar-as-art/art-as-handlebar and the coolest set of drops ever.

Cinelli’s Ram2 bars have played around with illustration — leopards, spiders, bulls — but they’ve had a cheesy Euro vibe, unlike the decidedly American Giant model. They’re made of carbon, of course, and have a stem angle of 85 degrees and fit 1 1/8-inch fork. They’re available to pre-order here and will be shipped in November, but no price was announced. Brace yourself: Plain old Ram2’s are north of $600.

If you’re a fan of Mike Giant but don’t have the budgy for bars that cost twice as much as my first mountain bike, try his bar tape. Info here, pic below.

Via.

Freetown, population 400,000 and the capital of Sierra Leone, has just one hospital and four gynecologists. The country has the highest infant and maternal death rates in the world. But despite the bleakness of the situation, there is hope, as photographer and filmmaker Ami Vitale, good friend of The Adventure Life, reports in “Where Every Pregnancy Is A Gamble”. Following Fatimata Konte through her pregnancy and shadowing the overburdened and underfunded hospital staff, Vitale paints a powerful portrait of the high risks of childbirth in a war-torn country, telling a story that we’re unlikely to see no matter how deep our “adventure travel.”

Vitale and her producing partner, Lauren Malkani, entered the short film in LinkTV’s ViewChange contest, which centers around the theme of progress in meeting United Nations development goals in sustainability, empowerment, overcoming conflict, innovation, leadership & governance, and local/global partnerships. The grand prize winner gets $20,000 and $5,000 goes to the top choice in each of the six categories. (If they win, Vitali and Makani will donate the money to the subjects of their film.) Judges include UN Ambassador Danny Glove, filmmaker Wim Wenders, and others.

Today is the deadline for entries, and voting begins tomorrow. To see the full slate of films, navigate here.

To see more of Ami Vitale’s photography on The Adventure Life, go here.

Derek Hynd, the one-eyed South African surfing savant, shows a back-the-future glimpse of the sport in this fresh clip from Jeffreys Bay, his home break: Surfing in big corduroy on a finless board, Hynd brings a slippery sliding frictionless freedom to wave riding, as much skate and snow as it is surf.

Of course, alaias are all the rage. The classic finless boards are only the latest of ancient Hawaiian techniques to get the full-figured love from modern waterman (standup paddling, though not ancient, is another). But taking finless (or nearly finless, as it were) into the mountains of J-Bay, that’s another thing altogether. Most riders are taking alaias into small to medium surf. You gotta have supreme confidence, intimate wave knowledge, and be on your game to move on waves this size without the stability and tracking of a fin or three. It is, after all, a bit like trying to make a bottom turn on a cafeteria tray.

The video starts out slow — around the 2:00 mark is roughly where things pick up. If you’re a surfer, you’ll understand why this is freaking awesome. If you aren’t, well, put it this way: It’s like taking the training wheels off your snowboard.

Via Chris Mauro at GrindTV via Steven Threndyle.

So, there’s no snow worth reporting in Portillo, Chile, or so I hear from the lamenting cries of ski amigos on the other side of the equatorial divide. Do not lose faith, pilgrims — it can turn in a blink. A few years ago, I arrived in Portillo on the crest of the Andes at midnight on Sunday to find pavement in the parking lot and a few woebegone patches of ice. When I woke up on Monday morning, it was snowing.

It didn’t stop for five days. Unfortunately, the storm was accompanied by mega winds, as is the wont of Andean blizzards, and avie danger was off the charts. It was the week before the ski area was to open, and the lifts were closed, the pass was closed, and we were stuck, just six of us, in the Hotel Portillo. Naturally, we climbed the walls. And just as naturally we jumped off them. So keep the faith, Doc. And make sure you spot the picnic tables first.