This Earth Day, we shared the first images of Mountain Gazette 205—a fitting way to mark the occasion. A cover has a big job: It has to do a lot with very little—and this one, if we may say so ourselves, delivers. Striking, reflective, and layered, the story behind the image proves just as compelling.
Written by senior writer Ari Schneider (that’s his hand on the front, too) and photographed by Peter Fisher, the cover story for Mountain Gazette 205 draws from his time at last summer’s Telluride Mushroom Festival—an attempt, as Mike put it, to cover “everything you want to know about psychedelic mushroom use… and probably a lot of things you didn’t.”
Ari went into the assignment knowing almost nothing about mushrooms and set out to bring the reader along with him—learning as he went, one question at a time.
The reporting spans everything from Rabbinic references to mushrooms in the Talmud to the science behind psychedelic treatment for depression. Somewhere in the middle of all that are moments like the one on the cover—quieter, more subtle, but just as much a part of the mycological (some might say magical) experience.
Clocking in at over 14,000 words, "Seeking the Boundaries" is one of Ari’s most engaging features yet.
Photographed by Peter Fisher (@pet__fish) on Kodak Portra 400 35mm film.Mountain Gazette 205 is our Spring 2026 issue—192 pages of never-before-told outdoor stories, stunning photography, and original art, essays, and cartoons, shipping to subscribers now.
