17) The numbers on Michelle Parker: 19 years old, four ski flicks, 720's over 85-foot jumps. She's one freeskier to watch this winter.

18) Trans-fat-free Oreos!

19) Best charity stunt: Unheralded do-gooder and Mississippi native Sam Thompson ran 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states last summer to raise awareness for the still-Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast.

20) Anheuser-Busch entered the organic-beer fray this year with Wild Hop Lager. We like what that says about the trend, but for taste we recommend Butte Creek Organic IPA. buttecreek.com

21-22) No Prius in the garage? No problem. In San Francisco and New York, you can now flag a hybrid taxi. In L.A. and Hawaii, rent a car that burns 100 percent recycled vegetable oil (bio-beetle.com).

23) Immersion Research has invented an all-new category of adventure travel with its Vacation to Hell contest. The prize? A free kayak trip to an uncharted mystery river. In August, the winners—and location, Peru's Río Huallaga—were announced. The hell begins in July 2007.

24-27) Free Riding
Cool 2006 trend: giving bikes to the young and needy. Our favorite programs:
Bikes 4 Kids: With the help of sponsors such as Costco and MassMutual, this Salt Lake City–based nonprofit recently provided 1,000 kids with new Huffy bikes, helmets, and locks. bikes4kidsutah.org // Project Rwanda: Can bikes help save this war-torn country? "There are 500,000 coffee farmers in Rwanda, and the most efficient way for them to get coffee cherries from the field to washing stations is with bicycles," says Gary Boulanger, who launched the Woodside, California–based program with mountain-bike pioneer Tom Ritchey. Through microloans, Project Rwanda provides farmers with Ritchey-designed bikes that can transport 300-pound loads. projectrwanda.org // Trips for Kids: It's not a new program, but how's this for a milestone? Through its 48 chapters, Trips for Kids took 5,000 inner-city children mountain-biking and road-riding last year. "We provide them with all the equipment. All they have to do is come dressed to ride," says Marilyn Price, founder of the Bay Area nonprofit, which also provides kids with used bikes after they learn how to wrench on them. tripsforkids.org // Wheels 4 Life: As a globe-trotting pro mountain biker, Hans Rey has seen firsthand how a bicycle can change—or even save—a life. "Bikes are used as an essential tool in the Third World instead of as a toy," he says. Rey runs the small program himself, from his Southern California base, with little overhead: He simply buys bikes in-country to support the local economy, then gives them away on the spot. To date he's made donations in Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Madagascar, the Philippines, Rwanda, Mexico, and India. wheels4life.org—Andrew Vontz

28) Goodbye, tour guide; hello, Google Vision. The handheld device, announced this summer (but still in development), uses GPS and image-recognition technology to Google landmarks. Simply point it at the Eiffel Tower, say, and it does the rest.

29-30) Where have they been hiding? Last year scientists discovered cat-size red pandas and jumping "yeti" mice near Mount Everest.

31) Put adventure under the tree with a *Cloud 9 Living gift card. Launched nationwide in September, the company offers everything from driving a dog sled ($75) to diving with great whites ($100,000, private plane, yacht, and nine friends included). cloud9living.com

NOT ON OUR LIST: NORDIC WALKING

32) Two thumbs up! Not long after Jean-Michel Cousteau screened his documentary series Voyage to Kure for President Bush, the White House announced the creation of the nearly 140,000-square-mile, 7,000-species Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument.

33) Finally, a wicking base layer we can embrace. Get her luxurious *Angel Cashmere, from Snow Angel, and find out why. snow-angel.com