The award winning photos for this year have been posted.
2009 Banff Mountain Photography Competition
hiking Picos de Europa, Spain – day 2
Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Kraig Adams video
Trip Report – Picos de Europa Circuit – by site editor Rick McCharles
The morning dawned clear. Quickly I climbed up above the valley cloud.
I met one of the alpine hut guards … with his free running dogs.
Here’s the large sign posted at his refugio, Marques de Villaviciosa:
National Park regulations are somewhat flexible in Spain. And they vary wildly from place to place.
The main “story” of this Circuit are the climbs into and out of the huge Canal de Trea, one of the most spectacular canyons in the world.
There are many slippery and unstable sections before you reach, with relief, the Garganta del Cares gorge at the bottom.
…A remarkable engineering feat, the 3m-wide path running the length of the gorge was gouged out of its sheer walls in 1946 …
This relatively flat day hike is the best and most popular in the Park.
I “cheated” and took the Bulnes Funicular (an underground train) part way up the other side of the gorge, avoiding 4.5km distance and about 400m ascending.
My goal for the next day came into view.
A long but fantastic hiking day in perfect weather.
See the rest of my photos from day 2.
moving besthike to Google Sites?
I’m still looking for a good way to move our list of the best hikes in the world to a wiki.
None of the wiki software I’ve looked at appeals.
The best of the bad bunch is Google Sites (video) … At least I know that Google will continue to improve this product into the future.
What stops me?
It would be hundreds of hours work to move the old static pages one-by-one into my personally created Google Sites template pages.
There are no “templates” out there for Google Sites, only “themes”. And I cannot find any IMPORT functions on Google Sites.
Advice?
Hank, you’re our Moses …
This is the second essay of a two-part series about escaping a flash flood while hiking through Buckskin Gulch … Start with the first essay to read the whole story.
PARIA CANYON-VERMILLION CLIFFS WILDERNESS, Utah …
In part 1, Hank Leukart and party were forced to tent up high when caught by a flash flood in the longest slot canyon in the world.
What to do next … ??
… Finally, uncertainly and silence makes the decision for us, as the sun rises and begins to bake us. We reluctantly climb out of the canyon and begin making our way across the trail-less Utah backcountry, in 91-degree heat. We don’t know exactly where we’re going, which, for me, I admit, is my favorite kind of adventure. I use the topographical maps in my GPS device to find our way around The Dive, a stretch of severe, orange and red sandstone cliffs, blocking our route to the closest trailhead. Everyone in the group complains about the sizzling weather, but as I trudge along, I’m find myself enjoying the adventure and extraordinary views of the Utah desert.
“Hank, you’re our Moses,” Suzanne remarks as she watches me lead the caravan across the scorching sand.
I also pray that I’m not like Moses, because, after all, in Exodus, Moses dies before reaching Israel. I hope to stay alive all the way to the White House Trailhead. …
click through to read the END of this tale – Without Baggage – flat stanley survives the utah desert and learns navajo
hiking Picos de Europa, Spain – day 1
Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Kraig Adams video
Trip Report – Picos de Europa Circuit – by site editor Rick McCharles
An unforgettable (91.5km) route covering the … most extaordinary limestone landscapes – river gorges, alpine lakes, depressions, dense beech woods, narrow canals, cliff hanging trails and peaks with breathtaking views
MAGIC …
The rain in Spain
falls mainly
… in the NORTH.
Green Spain, it’s called, home to a wealth of flora and fauna. Including, perhaps, 90 bears.
The weather in Picos de Europa is very atypical for Spain. Happily, September is normally the best month.
Cangas de Onís is the busiest and most easily accessed of the gateway towns. … and can supply all last-minute needs.
Frequent buses deliver you from Cangas to Covadonga, an impressive tourist attraction.
… In 722 AD, Iberian Christians won the battle over the Moors in Covadonga. This was the first significant Christian victory over the occupying Moors; as such, it is often considered to be the start of the Reconquista, the 770-year effort to expel the Moors from Iberia. …
During the summer you can bus all the way from Cangas to the trailhead at Ercina Lake. Unfortunately I arrived the day after those buses stopped running for the season. I hitched the last 12km or so from Covadonga. The Spanish couple who picked me up were also hiking a variation of the circuit staying in refugios, alpine huts providing beds and meals.
Here’s how the lakeside looked to me.
I’d arrived into the frequent, infamous Picos mist. A thick fog bank that often clouds the valleys and lower elvations of this micro climate.
After wandering around blind for 3hrs … I finally set up my tent right at the trailhead. A rotten start to the adventure.
Later I learned the couple that had driven me to the trailhead walked directly to the refugio using GPS.
Note to self: Get me a GPS.
See the rest of my photos from day 1.
The North Face – no sense of humour
In Asia we called illegal The North Face knock-off clothing … The North Farce.
They should go after the Asian companies producing those goods, not a teen in the mid-West.
A Missouri teenager frustrated with his classmates’ sheep-like following of a popular clothing line came up with his own parody apparel and now faces a lawsuit for trademark infringement.
Jimmy Winkelmann, 18, said he’s not intimidated by threats of a lawsuit from The North Face Apparel Company over his 2-year-old company The South Butt, LLC.
Jimmy Winkelmann said he has no intention of complying with the cease and desist request sent last month by lawyers for The North Face Apparel Corp., saying his 2-year-old business — The South Butt LLC — poses no threat to it.
“I was like, ‘How did they even find me?'” …
read the article – ABC News – The North Face vs. The South Butt: Entrepreneurial Teen Undaunted by Lawsuit Threat
The South Butt – Apparel for Kids and Adults
(via The Goat)
snow in the Canadian Rockies
It’s October. The snow has started.
Here’s one of the last days in the mountains near Calgary with the peaks and ridges clear.
Photo courtesy of Kelly Mock. This is Grotto Mountain, Alberta, the peak directly behind his house in Canmore.
Gavin McInnes – Mr. Bean meets Survivorman
This is funny.
Click PLAY or learn how to start a campfire on YouTube.
This is The Naturist, Gavin McInnes, a Canadian-born funnyman here sponsored by Teva.
… the Naturist … is an expert on being in the woods that has no clue what he’s talking about, like Mr. Bean meets Survivorman. …
There are a few more The Naturist videos on the Teva YouTube channel.
Buckskin Gulch – surviving flash flood
Hank Leukart and friends head for one of the 10 most dangerous hikes in the USA, Buckskin Gulch, Utah.
Yup. Worst case scenario. It rained while they were hiking the world’s longest slot canyon:
… I hear the sound of a single thunder clap.
“Did you hear that?!” Rich asks me, nervously.
“Yes,” I say, uncomfortably. “But it sounded like it was very far away. I haven’t felt any raindrops.”
“I think we should turn back now,” says a worried Suzanne. Next to the water-susceptible Flat Stanley, she is the most risk-adverse hiker in our group.
“I am not turning back now,” Wendy says firmly. But our major concern is that there are only two safe places for us to camp: at the confluence of the Paria River and Buckskin Gulch (11.5 miles away) and atop the apparently impossible-to-find Middle Route escape trail (6 miles away). If we choose to continue, we must reach one of these two exits, because camping on the floor of the canyon is a recipe for certain death in the case of a flash flood. …
Part 1 – flat stanley escapes a flash flood in buckskin gulch
It’s a cliff hanger, literally.
Flash flood strikes. But we must wait until Hank posts part 2 of the trip report to see how they survived. Here’s one clue:
Read more superb hiking “essays” on Without Baggage. They are more akin to magazine articles than online trip reports.
power-generating backpack
Click PLAY or watch it on The Adventure Blog.
besthike.com 