Category: alpine

Posted on

controversial new bridge to Machu Picchu

A village near Peru‘s Machu Picchu has built a bridge over a turbulent river to open another route for backpackers trekking to the lofty Inca ruins.

The bridge was inaugurated Saturday in the village of Santa Teresa despite the objections of government cultural experts, who fear increased tourism could threaten the UNESCO World Heritage site as hostels and restaurants spring up to serve travelers.

But authorities in Santa Teresa, less than 10 miles from Machu Picchu, are hoping the bridge over the Vilcanota River will help the local economy get a piece of the tourism pie. …

The new route, involving a daylong bus ride through twisting dirt roads and a seven-mile hike along railroad tracks, targets thrifty backpackers who want to avoid the pricey train tickets.

An average of 2,000 tourists a day visit Machu Picchu, with a maximum set at 2,500. Some archaeologists say the limit should be much lower, arguing that large numbers of visitors trekking over the stone steps will eventually damage the ruins.

White Rock Reviewer

I have mixed feelings. I too worry about degrading the Machu Picchu experience. On the other hand, another option for hikers is a good thing.

Leave a comment if you know more about the new bridge.

The nearest current hike to Santa Teresa is what we call the Salcantay Trek. (information page)

Posted on

Canada’s best outdoor towns

Chris Benway runs Cafe Andino, the hub of hiking activities in Huaraz, Peru. And he’s the man behind La Cima Logistics, the recommended top end guiding company in town.

I always recall Chris telling me that … if he had not settled in Huaraz, he would have chosen Canmore, Alberta.

… published in Explore, March 2007. The winners:

Rossland, BC
Gold River, BC
Jasper, AB
Dauphin, MB
Parry Sound, ON
Whitehorse, YT
Baie-Saint-Paul, PQ
Sussex, NB
Cornerbrook, NL
Lunenburg, NS

In my opinion, missing are: Canmore AB, Squamish BC, and Tofino/Ucluelet BC. These are all famous for their outdoor activities.

Bluepeak: Canada’s best outdoor towns

canm.jpg
Canmore – by ginnia

Canmore – Wikipedia

Posted on

USA loses nuclear material in the Himalayas 1965

This is one of the great stories of the outdoors. And I had never heard of it until today via The Piton.

An award winning new book — An Eye at the Top of the World — details a CIA operation to plant a listening device atop Nandi Devi, one of the highest peaks in the world, in 1965.

That mission was a failure. The device and its nuclear core disappeared!

To get a quick overview of the story, check the trailer for a movie directed by Robert Schaller.

If that peaks your interest, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published an excellent article written by CAROL SMITH: Spy Robert Schaller’s life of secrecy, betrayal and regrets.

Seattle PI also posted an excellent, short audio interview and slide show with Schaller.

I think I need to read the book. This is fascinating.

The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War's Most Daring C.I.A. Operation

An Eye at the Top of the World: The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War’s Most Daring C.I.A. Operation

Also recommended is Spies in the Himalayas: Secret Missions and Perilous Climbs by Kohli & Conboy. (2003)

Posted on

3300 miles around the Alps

We recently posted Andrew Skurka’s audacious 7000mi Great Western Loop. I doubt there are any unbelievers.

In Europe Judy Armstrong has already begun a 3300mi quest she’s calling the Alpine Challenge, the first to attempt to circumambulate the Alps.

alps.jpg

Judy has a fantastic website — AlpineChallenge.info posted in four languages!

Check the brilliant way she shows the map of her intended route.

And her detailed gear list: 7.13kg (15lb 11oz).

You look terrifically well organized Judy. Good luck!

Posted on

with kids on the Routeburn Track, New Zealand

Margaret Pincus posted an entertaining trip report on the Australian website.

We are on day two of New Zealand’s spectacular Routeburn Track, which wanders between the Mt Aspiring and Fjordland national parks in NZ’s Southern Alps through some of the most inspiring wilderness left on earth.

The walk is universally regarded as one of the 10 best in the world. For three days we will hike hut to hut between the Holyford and Dart valleys, through high mountain peaks and deep mossy valleys and alpine lakes.

Not universally regarded, actually. (see our list of the top 10 hikes in the world). But we won’t protest too loudly. Routeburn is fantastic. And much less expensive than the Milford Track.

We (me, my husband, our four children, and one aunty) set off in brilliant sunshine. We start slowly, like a family of snails creeping up the path, stopping every 10 minutes to retie shoes and adjust backpacks.

The Australian

Hiking with children can be challenging. Especially when Margaret’s family ran out of food!

318170494_ad626936b8.jpg
Routeburn Valley, by Justin de Booy (Garion88) – flickr

more Routeburn photos – flickr

Posted on

photo – atop Kilimanjaro

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }



original, uploaded by Bzzzt.

Machame route from Moshi to Uhuru peak. Check out Ringo Expeditions and talk to Adam there if you want a good guide and crew.

more Kili photos – flickr – posted by Christian LøverÃ¥s, Norway.

Posted on

girls love Paine Circuit, Patagonia, Chile

Recently a friend asked for a “best hike” recommendation for a female hiker, possibly travelling alone. She is very experienced with many serious treks completed in Europe and the States.

Immediately we suggested The Towers of Paine in Chile.

Paine is well policed and maintained. It is safe. No need to speak Spanish, though it helps.

As evidence, we link to a charming and entertaining trip report from two young women who just completed the most demanding itinerary, the Circuit. They LOVED it:

HIGHLIGHTS:

* Ascending John Garner Pass for a devastatingly beautiful view of Glacier Grey below on one side and Lago Paine on the other. I moment I will never forget.

* Eating chocolate surrounded by the Valle de Frances

* Seeing three shooting stars cross the Milky Way and a comet (and I was totally sober), whilst lying on a swing bridge, with a very energetic river flowing below us

* Drinking Pisco with Cowboys in the sunshine

* Making friends with Porters (Sherpas) and sharing our walks with them

* Watching ice bergs float past our tent whilst making a lovely cuppa tea snuggled up in my sleeping bag!

* That Condor moment! Seeing Condors sore majestically above the snowy peaks of Torres del Paine

* That vegetarian sandwich at Camp Chileno!

* The best drinking water in the world on tap! (We drank only the water that flowed through the Parque; no boiling no purification tabs). Ah, agua nectar!

* Realising what we thought may have been a clap of thunder and so the start of a wet day was only another ice berg making a splash into Lago Grey.

* Realising what we thought may have been another clap of thunder was merely another avalanche in the Valle del Frances.

* Meeting the boys from Ecuador at Camp Japonese (a camp only for climbers).

* The satisfaction of completing The Circuit when a lot of the locals thought we may be clinically insane!

Sophs in South America: Torres del Paine Circuit, Southern Patagonia, Chile.

valledefrancesreflection.jpg

vfrances9008.jpg

organize a trip to Paine, Chile – besthike.com

Posted on

source of the Tsangpo, Tibet

Outside Magazine on line selected a trek to remote Nepal and Tibet as the “2007 Trip of the Year” overall winner.

“The best of the best.”

The last time trekking guide Gary McCue set out to explore far-western Tibet, he happened upon an acre-size hot spring that tumbled from a mountainside near Lake Manasarovar. “I’d never seen a boiling creek just come crashing out of a hole in the ground,” he says. But it’s just the sort of surprise the Tasmania-based author of Trekking in Tibet: A Traveler’s Guide has come to expect from this part of the world.

Tourism may be booming—the controversial new Qinghai-Tibet Railway helped bump up visitation to Tibet by 30 percent last year—but much of this mysterious land of Buddhist temples and mist-shrouded peaks remains blissfully unexplored by outsiders.

This spring, McCue will return to the Himalayas on a quest to reach the source of the Tsangpo River, the mightiest of four rivers that flow from the sacred 22,028-foot peak of Kailas. The 42-day exploratory trek is the first commercial expedition to a pilgrimage site very few Westerners have seen since a Swedish explorer hiked nearby in the early 1900s.

After driving across the plains from Lhasa to Darchen, you’ll trek the perimeter of Kailas before camping in the Lha Chu Valley during the annual Saga Dawa full-moon festival. Then you’ll start the weeklong journey through a glacial valley to Tamchok Khabab, the river’s source.

The trip ends with a visit to the temple-strewn Limi Valley, a newly opened region of western Nepal. “It’s hard to find wilderness this wild and remote that doesn’t require Reinhold Messner-level skills to reach,” says McCue. “It’s the closest you can come to what the explorers experienced 150 years ago.”

OUTFITTER: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, wildernesstravel.com; PRICE: $10,560–$13,160; DIFFICULTY: Challenging; WHEN TO GO: May–June

Best Trips 2007 | Outside Online

kailash_south_side.jpg
sacred Mt. Kailas – Wikipedia

Posted on

Chilkoot Trail – Yukon to Alaska

Paul Nickodem posted an entertaining, succinct trip report of his speedy Chilkoot Trail hike on MountainZone.com:

We flew out of Juneau on tiny Skagway air, which is just a Piper Archer four seat aircraft. I was the co-pilot as we flew up the fjords and channels toward Skagway (population 1,500). My pilot was a 21-year-old girl from South Dakota and when she told me her age, I felt like wrenching the controls from her. The landing in Skagway would have made even the most gnarly world traveler cringe.

A major pucker factor as we skimmed a ridge and then stood the plane on its right wing as we banked into the deep corner of the mountains that Skagway is built into. …

Alaska’s Chilkoot Trail

It’s a trip through time. 53kms (33mi). Recommended 5 days, 4 nights. Best months mid-July to mid-Sept.

details on organizing to hike the Chilkoot Trail – besthike.com

stairs.jpg
Klondike gold rush of 1898