Rick Mc

June 14, 2007

PCT – Mountain Hardwear Sponsorship?

Just so you know, Mountain Hardwear, if you kit me out completely, I’ll be happy to do the PCT and report back on the extended field test.

From the Mountain Hardwear blog:

Our industry professionals have compiled a list of recommended gear which should get you through the Pacific Crest Trail in high spirits. …

* Sleeping Bag/Bivy
* Tent
* Baselayer
* Shells
* Backpacks
* Gaiters
What gear should I bring on the Pacific Crest Trail?

If they deny me that sponsorship, I’ll need to try their Mission Project Challenge (video). Post my trip report on their Mission Project blog.

How do you like my chances?

June 13, 2007

wicked outdoorsy: How green is YOUR backpack?

Wicked Outdoorsy – right again:

More and more, I’m beginning to realize that Treehugger is the green-zine equivalent of a politician on the stump.

Regardless of the good intent, regardless of the question, the answer is about an hour too long and meanders down a winding yellow road through fields of poppies.

Oh Toto. My eyes … sleepy …. so sleepy.

wicked outdoorsy: How green is YOUR backpack?

I’d love to cancel my RSS subscription to Treehugger.com â€” it’s too “shotgun”.

Can anyone recommend an environmental blog with more “balance”? One less preachy?

June 13, 2007

unlikely survival on the West Coast Trail

About one in a hundred hikers are evacuated off the WCT on Vancovuer Island in British Colombia. It’s difficult and dangerous.

But this is the strangest WCT evacuation story I’ve heard yet.

Disaster struck the group when they tried to cross a deep surge channel in the sandstone early in the day. …

Peterson’s father, Neil, a veteran hiker, had looked at the width of the surge channel and instructed the others to get their ropes out of their backpacks.

Taking off their packs probably saved their lives.

“The packs would have dragged you down immediately,” said Neil, 63.

As they pulled out their ropes, there was no sign anything was amiss. “There was no water in the area and it was close to low tide,” he said.

Seconds later they were thrashing around in the churning water, buffeted by huge pieces of driftwood.

Death by rogue wave. Death trying to cross a surge channel. Those are old stories on the West Coast.

The amazing part (one I still can’t picture) is that the hikers were left stranded in a “hole”. I assume in the surge channel and surrounded by washed-up logs.

One of their group had crossed the surge channel successfully. He â€” eventually â€” was able to call in the American Coast Guard helicopter. They all survived.

Photograph by : John McKay, Times Colonist

Watery trap was ‘like certain death’

(via Two-Heel Drive)

Safety & Staying Healthy – Are surge channels a problem? – i-NEEDtoKnow

I’d like to update this post with photos of where they were trapped.

West Coast Trail – besthike information page

June 13, 2007

Shackleton Crossing, South Georgia Island

Selected by Outside Magazine as their “2004 Trip of the Year”.

In November 2000 we were the first company to guide travelers across South Georgia Island, following in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s valiant footsteps. …

The Shackleton Crossing is an outing for the adventurous and historically minded. Shackleton’s traverse of the mountainous island was the culmination of one of history’s great survival epics.

Al Read sums up the adventure: “The crossing is straightforward; however, the island can be a real weather factory. We rope up all the way, with glacier travel protocol, pulling sleds and carrying packs. But it is a fantastic adventure, one of which we are very proud.”

South Georgia: The Shackleton Crossing with Dave Hahn – Geographic Expeditions – To the ends of the earth

Many consider Shackleton’s 1914-16 Endurance Expedition hike to be the end of the greatest Explorer survival story of all time.

A DVD The Endurance is fantastic!

$The Endurance - Shackleton\'s Legendary Antarctic Expedition$

June 12, 2007

hiking the granite Tombstone Range, Yukon

My favourite hiking author is Chris Townsend. But I’ve not yet read his 1990 solo Yukon adventure, a route never duplicated. Or again attempted.

The next day, I found that walking into this mountain sanctuary was like walking into paradise.

As befits the way of a pilgrim, the going was rough, leading gradually through dense brush, across willow-thicketed creeks and over moss-covered, half-hidden boulders into the inner sanctum, the magnificent rock amphitheater that is the Tombstone Range, a huge curving ridge of heart-stopping granite walls and spires.

Talus Lake, a boulder-ringed, brooding mountain tam, backed by a towering cliff that looked about to topple into the water, made my fifth night out from Dawson one of the most magnificent wilderness camps I have ever had. Beyond the rippling waters Tombstone Mountain darkened into blackness as the sky deepened from pink into the dark blue of night.

Perfection is not easy to find. Some would say it is an ideal, a goal to seek but never achieve.

Perhaps, most of the time, but I found it at Talus Lake on the morning of August 12, 1990, a morning so beautiful, so faultless that I almost felt guilty for being there, almost wondered what I had done to deserve such rapture. …

Chris Townsend: Walking the Yukon

Andy Howell interviewed Townsend on a recent audiocast. You can listen to it streamed or download it from Podcast Nation. (I subscribe to The Outdoors Station in iTunes and have it automatically downloaded to my computer. Much easier.)

There are very few established hiking trails in the Tombstones. And even fewer hikers. (Leave a comment if you can recommend a route.)

That 1990 book is not available from any of the libraries near me, but you can still get it on-line: Walking the Yukon: A solo trek through the Land of Beyond

Talus Lake – Phil Hammer

I’m pencilled-in myself for a trip to Talus Lake starting Aug. 5th. I’ll be looking for perfection.

June 11, 2007

flooded – Valley of Geysers, Kamchatka

Just today we posted our first hiking recommendation for Kamchatka, Russia â€” having missed completely the news story being reported over the past week:

Scientists mourn devastation of Valley of Geysers

Wildlife in the Valley of Geysers may be threatened by the rubble that has caused flooding (below).

Teams of scientists have been sent to the Valley of Geysers, on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia, to report on the condition of the World Heritage site after a massive landslide in the Kronotsky national reserve.

The slide, which lasted only seconds on 3 June, loosed an estimated 4.5 million cubic metres of rock, gravel, snow and ice. A deluge of material into the Geyser River created a dam the size of 30 football fields, officials estimated. This has since been breached by waters building up behind the dam, clearing some of the valley and allowing at least some of the geysers to spout again.

The extent of damage to the region is unclear, including to scientists contacted by Nature who have study sites in the area.

news @ nature.com – Scientists mourn devastation of Valley of Geysers …

See a sobering series of before-and-after photos.

Igor Shpilenok

No humans were injured.

Volcanic disruptions like this happen over and over, geologically speaking.

It may be attractive for hikers to see how the landscape recovers as they do at Mt. Saint Helens in Washington State.

June 11, 2007

Wonderland in August?

UPDATE: Mount Rainier National Park is not issuing permits for the entire length of the Wonderland Trail in 2007. Only sections. Check the website: WTA.org

Wonderland Trail, Mt. Ranier, Washington, is one of the best hikes in the world.

However, it’s taken a lot of storm damage over the past winter. Not all trails will be open for 2008, I believe.

On the other hand, this adds interest and challenge to an already unbelievable hike.

I would like to do the wonderland trail 9-12 days. preferably have other married woman like myself. husband doesnâ€™t like to hike.

The responder should be a strong hiker. (lot of ground to cover but would be life altering experience.) I plan to do the hike in august 24-sept 2 if you think you can do this e-mail me

sgiglenda @ yahoo.com

Wonderland Trail – besthike information page

bridge photo – Washington Trails Association

June 10, 2007

Walking Inn to Inn – Swiss Alps

An editor, Shana Hoch, sent me a review copy of a new hiking guidebook.

Walking Inn to Inn: A Self-Guided Hike in the Swiss Alps

The small, easy-to-pack guide by Linda Jean Titus reads like an extended trip report.

First of all, I am a sucker for personalized guidebooks. Linda’s reminds me of the (also excellent) The West Coast Trail – One Step at a Time by Robert J. Bannon.

This is a great trend. All hikers should write a guidebook on their favourite trail!

This guide describes an “inn to inn” hiking route in the Berner Oberland (Bernese Alps).

The trek begins in Engelberg and travels in a southwestern direction before sweeping in an arc through the dramatically beautiful Jungfrau region.

details

If your looking to do one of the best hikes in Europe, this book would be a great starting point. It is very specific, detailing the choices you have to make in planning, including best airport. (Zurich)

I always picture Swiss hiking as very posh. Lovely accommodation. Fantastic food. Short, easy days.

But I learned that on this route you can sleep in barns and campgrounds, inexpensively. Rush past the French coffee and chocolatiers to put in long, physically challenging days. It is endlessly flexibly in terms of itinerary.

The risk of putting together such detailed recommendations is that they might quickly become out-of-date. (That’s why so many guidebooks are vague on details.)

Fortunately, this guide has good website support with a user forum. Or you can get up-to-date information personally from the author herself on their contact page.

Buy it directly from the SwissHikes.com.

Engelberg monastery – flickr

Like all review copies, I’ll be donating Linda’s book to the wonderful Alpine Club of Canada Library in Canmore, Alberta on behalf of the author. I stay at the inexpensive Alpine Club residences whenever I get the chance, an excuse to look over their unique collection.

(Good news â€” the ACC library received a donation for C$100,000 in 2007 from long-time member Bev Bendell.)

June 9, 2007

Mont-Bell lightweight gear

It’s been years since I heard the name Mont-Bell.

The company withdrew from the U.S. market for a long while.

Then I heard Dr. Ryan Jordan of BackpackingLight.com call Mont-Bell one of the top 3 manufacturers of interest to ultra-light hikers. (He did not name the other two.)

I’d love to get to their mothership store in Boulder, Colorado to try the high end gear for myself. It’s difficult to shop over the internet.

Mont-Bell America – official website

June 8, 2007

meaningless lists – National Geographic

Whoopee. National Geographic posted 5 US National Parks “best hikes of 2007”.

Mount LeConte – Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina

Halemauu Trail – Haleakala National Park, Hawaii

Tomales Point Trail – Point Reyes National Eashore, California

Highland Creek Trail – Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

Half Dome – Yosemite National Park, California

National Parks: Hiking – National Geographic Adventure Magazine

Hmm. Who chose these five??

They should check our list of the best hikes in North America for next year. Only Half Dome is on our list.

Whenever I see nonsensical articles like this I laugh anew at the meaningless list category on the Goblog site. They are SO right.

People will read anything so long as it’s titled TOP 10 Hikes in the World.

The GetOutdoors blog also has categories for meaningless awards and meaningless records.

Now … I supposed I should check out the National Geographic list. A couple of these look pretty good. Perhaps they should be on our list.

Point Reyes National Seashore – NPS

Haleakala National Park – NPS

(via Modern Hiker)

=====

Much better is another less meaningless list posted by National Geographic in 2005:

1. The Colorado Trail
2. Buckskin Gulch, Utah
3. John Muir Trail, California
4. Kalalau Trail, Kaua’i, Hawai’i
5. McGonagall Pass, Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska
6. Fitz Roy Grand Tour, Patagonia, Argentina
7. Kungsleden, Sweden
8. Mount Everest Base Camp Trek, Nepal
9. Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
10. Routeburn Track, New Zealand
11. Shackleton Crossing, South Georgia Island

National Geographic Classic Hikes of the World