Category: alpine

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Roof of Yosemite Loop

Leor Pantilat seems to have invented his own high Sierra route:

The Roof of Yosemite Loop travels to the highest point in Yosemite National Park on 13,114 ft Mount Lyell and also includes ascents of 12,900 ft Mount Maclure (5th highest in the park) and 12,561 ft Mount Florence (9th highest in the park).  …

The Roof of Yosemite Loop combines many of the highlights of this region into an aesthetic and highly scenic loop. …

 
lyell02

roof_of_yosmite_loop

Leor Pantilat’s Adventures – The Roof of Yosemite Loop

That looks one wild and challenging adventure. 🙂

I believe I saw this linked from Hiking in Finland.

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climbing Fansipan, Vietnam

Fansipan is a mountain in Vietnam, the highest in Indochina (comprising Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), at 3,143 metres (10,312 ft). …

Update. I’m just about to book my flight. I hope to climb Fancy Pan end of October.

“the Roof of Indochina”

AT A GLANCE

  • map Fansipan3,143 meters (10,312ft), it’s the highest in Indochina
  • Northwest region of Vietnam, near the Chinese border
  • 9km southwest of Sapa (Sa Pa) Township
  • 1-3 days hiking
  • pine forests, bamboo thickets and jungle

I’ll travel to the jumping off tourist town of Sa Pa. Hang out for a day or two looking at guided options. If I feel good, and the weather is reasonable, I’ll try for the one day up-and-down. About 10 hours total.

The best trip report I’ve seen was posted on mymilez:

We did not expect the climb to be so heavy. The trail was very steep and mostly ran in the rain forests and bamboo groves, by wet and slippery roots and rocks. …

Fansipan

summit

Climbing Fansipan – highest peak of Indochina

Fansipan Peak was blocked due to snow fall damage January 2014.

Leave a comment if you have any advice for me. I’ve added Fansipan to our list of the best hikes in Asia.

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Villarrica Volcano, Chile

Villarrica is one of Chile’s most active volcanoes, rising above the lake and town of the same name. …

Villarrica is one of the world’s most climbed stratovolcanoes. Guided hikes to the crater are offered from the town of Pucón by several enterprises, but ascent might be suspended due to cloudiness and in periods of seismic or increased volcanic activity. Helicopter sightseeing services offer flights over the crater as well. In the winter (July–September) a ski resort operates on the northern slopes. In 2007 a service guided helicopter began to offer flights over the crater. …

Check a trip report by DAMIAN HALL posted on the Merrell blog.

Turning up at the guide company office at 7 a.m. for the third morning in a row, my travel buddy Elizabeth and I had quietly given up on ever climbing the 9,340 foot Volcán Villarrica. …

The weather was calmer. We got the green light to climb the volcano. Gulp. …

It’s hard work climbing up the volcano, but the rewards are great. After a couple of hours of climbing, we gaped at the rich woodlands, discreet villages, vast lakes and hills worthy of hobbit habitation below. Indeed, the climb was about to go a bit Mt Doom …

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read more – Epic Trails – VOLCAN VILLARRICA – A HOT HIKE IN THE CHILEAN LAKE DISTRICT

I once traveled to Pucón to climb this beast. My trip was canceled due to weather. It happens a lot.

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Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

ramblin’ boy:

To walk down from the Gateway of the Sun (Inti Punku) to the site of Machu Picchu is one incredible experience.  …

MPThe nice thing about getting to Machu Picchu via the so-called Inca Trail is that walking past a number of other remarkable Inca ruins provides a context as well as a build-up for the ruins of  Machu Picchu.  Here is a graphic that I’ve “borrowed” from the SAS Travel site because it very neatly and quickly encapsulates the entirety of the trek.  …

inca-trail-breakdownWalking The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Click through for his excellent trip report.

… Now the downside. The Inca Trail is packed. Up to 500 hikers start each day. REI charges $3,399 and up for 9 days….

That’s $375 / day! 😦

You could do a lot of better adventuring in Peru for $375.

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best hikes Langtang, Nepal?

I’m headed back to Nepal in November.

My plan is to start with Langtang, my first visit. To hike it independently.

Seems the LANGTANG and GOSAINKUND TREK is best in the region. Leave a comment if you have an opinion on that.

Here’s a video preview starting with the very worst part of the adventure, the “bus ride from Hell” to get to the trailhead.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’ll travel light. Decide on my itinerary as I go based on the weather. And how I feel each day. That’s the joy of trekking independently. Certainly I’ll visit Gosaikunda.

Following Langtang, most likely I’ll sign on with a guided trip to somewhere else in the Himalaya. Perhaps Kangchenjunga from the Nepal side. Getting a visa for India isn’t worth the hassle. Nepal is more welcoming.

related – Top 12 Best Treks in Nepal – Snapshot Overview

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Mt Townsend Trail, Washington

trip report by site editor Rick McCharles

8.2 miles round trip

In 1792, as Captain George Vancouver was exploring the Puget Sound, he named a large, protected bay Port Townshend. The h was eventually dropped.

One of the most hiked summits in the Olympics, and it’s easy to see why this peak is so popular. Easy access, a long hiking season, and unparalleled views of Puget Sound and the eastern half of the Olympics give Mount Townsend quite an edge. Of the three trails leading to its summit, Trail No. 839 is the route most taken. …

Most hikers intent on reaching the 6280-foot open summit opt to begin their journey from the upper trailhead. This saves 1.2 miles and 600 feet of elevation gain, but at the expense of missing a beautiful old-growth forest and Sink Lake, a small body of water that causes tumbling Townsend Creek to disappear. …

Washington Trails Association

I did start from the upper trailhead. 4 miles at an angle of about 20 degrees was challenging enough.

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Perfect weather, the only surprise were solo tent caterpillars dangling down across the trail at lower elevations.

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It took longer than expected to clear the tress and get to the gorgeous views.

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Up top, late in the afternoon, it was just me and these guys. 🙂

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I decided to go for a scramble down this ridge, eventually having to retrace my steps.

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Somewhere on that ridge, I left a Summit Stone.

I didn’t get back to the parking lot until 7:30pm, much later than I had expected. My trail running down hill was not all that speedy.

more photos

• map

• another trip report – Mount Townsend Trail #839

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Surviving New Zealand’s Hardest Hike – Dusky Track

Eric Leifer of National Geographic Young Explorers :

Fiordland National Park, tucked away far within New Zealand’s South Island, has the notorious claim to fame as one of the wettest locations in the southern hemisphere; and with a mean annual rainfall of 268 inches …

Throw yourself off the deep end by accepting the challenge of the country’s hardest trail, the infamous Dusky Track, an 84-kilometer route that impossibly forces its way through this impermeable landscape. …

Nat Geo

dusky-track-walk

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Outside magazine – BEST new Trail

Via Dinarica, the Balkans

The Dinaric Alps have 8,000-foot stegosaurus spines, fairy-tale meadows, and stone guesthouses. Decades of conflict made them tough to experience, but the area is amping up its tourist offerings, and access is improving on the new Via Dinarica. Our favorite stretch: the 600-mile White Trail, which stitches together old routes from Slovenia to Albania and follows the highest peaks. …

2014 Travel Awards: Best New Trail

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on Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags

ramblin’ boy:

The Tibetan belief is that  the winds blow the positive energy of the prayers and chants imprinted on the flags into the world- and into all sentient beings they touch.  As a result you’ll usually see the flags strung in high places where they can have maximum effect.

view from the top of Kala Patthar above Everest Base Camp
view from the top of Kala Patthar above Everest Base Camp

… a collection of my pix with prayer flags in them. Most are taken from hikes in the Annapurna and Khumbu region of Nepal, but you’ll also find flags fluttering in Patagonia, near Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, above the heads of chanting monks in Bohd Gaya in India, in the Christiania area of Copenhagen in Denmark, and in my neighbourhood above the eastern banks of the Don River in Toronto. …

ramblin’ boy – Blowin’ In the Wind: An Appreciation of Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags

ramblin’ boy is an excellent hiking blogger. I’m working my way back through all his old posts. 🙂