Category: books and magazines

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Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal

My buddy Grant Assenheimer just emailed:

Leaving tomorrow for the Annapurna Base Camp.  Have to get my permits today, pick up a sleeping roll and sleeping bag and some chocolate and I’m good to go.  Haven’t managed to find anyone to go with me yet but I’m not going to let that slow me down.  Should be able to find someone in Pokara and, if not, surely on the trail!  No guide or porter…I agree with you and don’t think it is needed at all!!
 
I’ll send you a pic!

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larger version – flickr – mikemellinger

more interesting photos of Annapurna Base Camp

My own solo trek to ABC in Nepal was one of my personal best hikes.

Here’s an excerpt from my 1998 trip report:

… Access to the Sanctuary is via an intensely scenic gorge; a narrow, winding trail through dense bamboo and huge trees. You scramble over river boulders; gnarled, polished hardwood roots; traverse the most recent avalanche tracks; climb bamboo ladders.

There are no permanent settlements here. This is the only major trekking route in Nepal subject to serious avalanche risk. Occasionally backpackers are trapped at basecamp when tons of snow collapse into the gorge from the unseen. On November 11, 1995 a freak early winter storm resulted in the death of 63 people in Nepal. This caused a bit of unease when it started raining, hailing, and snowing while I ascended to the notch of the Sanctuary gate.

The basecamp itself is bleak. An eerie calm. No wind, though clouds swirl in every direction up on the mountain tops. The scene is dominated by huge, white, vertical Annapurna — one of the most difficult faces ever climbed. On Christmas day 1997 an avalanche here killed Anatoli Boukreev, the Tiger Woods of high altitude, and subject of the best seller, The Climb. …

Annapurna Sanctuary – trip report

annapurna.jpg
original – flickr – Gianni Scopinaro

related: besthike Annapurna Circuit information page

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yet more Autumn photos

Hiking Guide author John Soares has a blog called Northern California Hiking Trails. I’ve recently subscribed.

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I liked John’s post on the Fall Colors in Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon.

One of John’s books:

Sierra Nevada/ Cascade Mountains/ Klamath Mountains/ Coast Range and North Coast/ San Francisco Bay Area (100 Classic Hikes)

100 Classic Hikes in Northern California: Sierra Nevada/ Cascade Mountains/ Klamath Mountains/ Coast Range and North Coast/ San Francisco Bay Area (100 Classic Hikes)

I really can’t get enough Fall photos.

Of all the great photo blogs I know, Batish is the best. Consistently interesting.

A couple of samples:

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A Month of Autumn – Batish

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paving the Annapurna Circuit, Nepal

Fears of road construction ruining our #8 trek in the world have been somewhat exaggerated.

Hikers are concerned when they see articles like this:

… Late last year, the Australian tour operator Peregrine Adventures, which has organised trips to Nepal for more than 30 years, abandoned the “classic” Annapurna Circuit, which stretches for 300 kilometres and reaches altitudes of more than 5000 metres.

“We’ve dropped that trip altogether because of the road,” operations director Tietse Stelma says. “Ten years ago it was such a beautiful trek going up into the mountains with the Annapurnas in front of you. Now you have more and more traffic on the road and building activity – when you go on a trek, you don’t want to hear that.” …

Rocky road for trekkers – The Age

Annapurna is still a wonderful adventure. But you might want to skip the Jomson Trek, the section where a new roadway is under construction.

Here’s a terrific documentary titled Paving Shangri La which paints the worst case scenario:

Click PLAY or watch it (Part 2) on YouTube. (7.29min)

Part 1 = watch it on YouTube. (7.42min)

The narrator is Andrew Stevenson, author of A Nepalese Journey: The Essence of the Annapurna Circuit and Annapurna Circuit – Himalayan Journey.

I have friends trekking Annapurna in October. I’ll report back on just how much the road construction “ruined” the experience.

Not much, I expect.

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Grab-and-Go hikes in Florida

Guidebook author Sandra Friend has done it again. Added another cool online feature.

A new free resource for hikers: head on over to the Florida Trail website to download yourself a set of Grab-and-Go Hikes. … These are mini-guides to popular day hikes (many with opportunities for camping) along the Florida Trail, and include mileages, directions, and a map.

Quality is excellent. Here are screenshots from the Big Oak Trail PDF download:

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Florida Trail Association – Grab-and-Go Hikes

Check out, too, Sandra’s main website: FloridaHikes.com

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Wend – free adventure magazine

Yet another magazine – Wend – is offering a free digital version online to attract attention to their dead tree product.

It’s nicely done.

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Check it out: Summer 2008 – Volume 3, Edition Issue 2

Magazines do not seem to be dying in the way that newspapers are. But rather evolving.

Of course I’m not able to link directly to any article. Wend is unlikely to get much attention from bloggers.

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section hike the Hayduke Trail, Utah

Backpacker magazine recommends a 55mi stretch of the infamous 800+mi Hayduke Trail in the American S.W.

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The otherworldly terrain in southern Utah’s labyrinthine canyon country–slots, hoodoos, mesas, bizarre sandstone formations–is as confusing as it is captivating. Get off-track or miss one of the infrequent water sources, and you have real problems. This 55-mile, roughly eight-day stretch of the Hayduke Trail serves up both extremes. You’ll travel mostly off-trail, with steep, loose scrambles, deep sand slogs, and a paucity of distinctive terrain features. Long stretches are waterless–including the first 25 miles. In return, you get bragging rights for a spectacularly remote and rarely traveled journey.

Tech assist Use ExpertGPS (expertgps.com) to plot routes using topo and aerial photographs, then send data to your GPS. Plan best-case routes and alternates, since the complex terrain may present obstacles you can’t identify on screen. Example: See backpacker.com/hayduke for our custom file with multiple off-trail routes.

Start in Canyonlands’s Needles District, where multicolored sandstone towers stand like 200-foot candles above the desert. You’ll pass under Seldom Seen Bridge and trek by the cliff dwellings and rock art of Fable Valley. Mark water caches (drop one pretrip to avoid carrying three days’ supply at the start) and critical water sources (at miles 24.7, 34.1, and 42).

Tip: Waypoint your vehicle at trip’s end as well. …

read more – Backpacker

I’m currently reading The Monkey Wrench Gang (P.S.), the book that inspired this adventure.

I’m no Brian Frankle. This 55mi section for wimps sounds plenty tough enough for me.

(via The Adventure Blog)

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Tahoe Rim Trail in September

Tom Mangan on Two-Heel Drive posted a great overview on the famed California loop trail.

I’m looking at perhaps a week on the trail finishing Sept. 20th, 2008.

The Tahoe Rim Trail is a 165-mile (266 km) long-distance hiking trail which forms a loop around Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada and Carson ranges of California and Nevada in the United States. The trail ranges in elevation from 6,240 feet (1,900 m) at the outlet of Lake Tahoe to 10,338 feet (3,151 m) at Relay Peak in Nevada. About 50 miles (80 km) of trail above the lake’s west shore are also part of the much longer Pacific Crest Trail. …

The main hiking season is usually from July through September, though lingering snow patches may sometimes be found into August of high snow years. The trail is open year-round, but is not marked for winter use. The climate is typical of the Sierras, with severe storms during the winter and almost no precipitation falling in the summer.

… Hikers must obtain permits before entering the very popular Desolation Wilderness area southwest of the lake.

Wikipedia

Tom recommended this guidebook.

A Complete Guide for Hikers, Mountain Bikers, and Equestrians

Wilderness Press The Tahoe Rim Trail: A Complete Guide for Hikers, Mountain Bikers, and Equestrians

I’ll pick it up to plan my itinerary.