TrekkingPartners on the Nepal disaster

via email …

Dear Trekkers,

It’s been ten days since a large-scale earthquake shook Nepal. It’s been a hard time for everyone, with the loss of family members, homes, entire savings, and historical landmarks. On the other hand, it’s brought the people of Nepal together in the face of adversity and strengthened bonds with those from outside Nepal who offered aid.

Still, with the death toll estimated at 7500, along with 10,000 injured and 1.4 million in need of food assistance, there is still a need for assistance.

We’ve spent the last few days compiling a list of reliable, effective groups working hard to bring support to the people of Nepal. If you’re able, please consider donating time, money, or volunteering via the links below.

What’s Needed Now

  • Remote villages are still in need of relief;
  • Because of sanitation problems, there is a high risk of disease;
  • Lack of electricity and water supply;
  • The monsoon season is a month away, making shelter an urgnet need;
  • Basic necessities like food, water purification tablets, medicine, blankets, and tents are still needed;
  • Support for the long-term rebuilding of homes, villages, and historical landmarks.

Effective Ways To Donate

If you are in a position to donate, here is a list of local, grassroot initiatives working hard to provide relief. By donating to these groups, your money will go directly to the people that need it most via local channels mobilized by local experts:

  • Rebuild Langtang Campaign Langtang village, in particular, will need rebuilding support after the first weeks have passed. After first medical care has been delivered it will take large efforts to re-establish community life back in the valley.
  • Lokesh Todi’s Relief Fund to support and sustain the work of local NGOs and first responders on the ground.
  • Mountain People’s Initiative to provide assistance to those in need around Kathmandu. They’ve set up a temporary relief centre in Thamel functioning as shelter/store/aid post for local Galdunga people.
  • Tsum Nubri Relief & Recovery Program set-up by the local people based in Kathmandu.
  • Sherpa Gear’s CrowdRise Campaign. 100% of your donation will go for immediate relief on the ground through our Paldorje Education Fund network, already set up to benefit the children of Sherpa families in remote villages.
  • Tripureshwor Village Aid Campaign: raising money to distribute rice to 300 families in Dhading Region (close to the epicenter).
  • GlobalGiving’s Campaign to help address the immediate needs for food, fuel, clean water, hygiene products, and shelter. Once initial relif work is complete, remaining funds will transition to support longer-term recovery efforts run by loca, vetted organizations.
  • Karma Foundation is a non-profit branch of socialtours & Karma Coffee working on responsible philanthropy disbursement to projects in Nepal, now for Quake relief.
  • Seva Foundation is working to supply tents to those in need of shelter.
  • To Da Loo Community toilet builders initiative in the wake of the earthquake. Toilets or latrine pits are raised in densely populated communities.
  • Helter Shelter Shelter relief effort for those left homeless.

Other Ways To Help

There will be long-term rebuilding projects that will need volunteer support. If you’re planning a trip to Nepal in the future, consider volunteering as an option. When the media spotlight shifts to another problem in the world, there will still be people in Nepal working to rebuild and regain what was lost.

Continued News, Updates, Photos…

Please share these links with others whom you feel can help. Thanks for your support, and hope to see you back in Nepal someday soon.

Best wishes,
Alex
Founder | TrekkingPartners

Republicans hate hikers

That’s what I assumed after seeing the American Senate vote on this:

Amendment SA 838 was introduced to allow states to take over, transfer and sell public, federal lands, including National Forests, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas.

The vote was purely symbolic — budget amendments carry no weight of law. But senators use the opportunity to bring attention to favored political issues and compel colleagues to take a stance on major debates.

For outdoors enthusiasts, it is a wake-up call. There are many interests trying to get their hands on your public lands, and our elected officials may be willing to sell. …

Gear Junkie – Senate Vote: Amendment Sanctions Sale Of National Forests, Public Land

Democrats voted against.

To be fair, 3 Republicans — Corey Gardner of Colorado, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee crossed the aisle in opposition.

Those 3 are still welcome to sit around my campfire.

Americans who love wilderness should vote against Republicans.

Vote against Republican candidate Taylor Hayes – Fracking Old Faithful? Republicans Want to Tap Our National Parks for Energy

Vote against Rep. Don Young, a Republican from Alaska. He introduced the “No More National Parks” bill.

national_parks_1200x627

Tell Congress: Reject the “No More National Parks” Bill

how to poop in the woods

Good tips.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I like to – when I can – face uphill. Hang on to a log or my backpack for balance. And dig the hole AFTER the deed. Eventually pushing dirt and faeces into the hole.

If possible, I cover the grave with the biggest, flattest rock I can find.

(via Gear Junkie)

Ascent for Alzheimer’s

Kilimanjaro.

Since 1998, the Ascent for Alzheimer’s has seen over 180 committed Canadians go on a journey to hike to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. These dedicated participants fundraise to contribute to research for a cure and to help ensure that those impacted by dementia have access to support services and education resources. …

Introducing the 2015 Ascent for Alzheimer’s Team

Ascent for Alzheimers

(via Dsd Stones)

Eden To Addo Great Corridor Hike

South Africa, Sept 3-23, 2015

400KM. 20 days. US$2060 donation.

Click PLAY or watch the 2014 hike promo on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/93256738

OUR VISION:

To link three mega-reserves, namely the Garden Route National Park, The Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve and the Addo Elephant National Park by means of natural corridors to protect and restore the integrity of bio-diversity and eco-system functioning. …

map

maps

I’ve hiked the Otter Trail on the Garden Route and visited Addo Elephant Park. It would be terrific to connect the two on foot.

Click over to edentoaddo.co.za E2A corridor page for more information.

Charity trips: Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro

If you’ve always wanted to get to either of these superb trekking destinations, check this opportunity.

June 2015: Inca Trail to Machu Picchu for Education

July 2015: Kilimanjaro Climb for Education

Make a Difference Now organizes trips to help raise funds and awareness for education in developing nations. 🙂

Mad Charity Kili Machu Picchu

details – gomadnow.org/get-involved

Thanks to Theresa Grant for the link.

Lagunas Altas Loop, Patagonia National Park

Lagunas Altas, the first major trail constructed at the future Patagonia National Park, offer a challenging day hike or overnight. The 23-km route offers spectacular views in all directions, from the Northern Patagonian Ice Field to the Jeinimeni Mountains. …

Lagunas AltaEstablishing the Lagunas Altas Trail

lakesHow to get there.

Nat Park

Arriving from the north (Santiago/Puerto Montt)

The easiest way to reach the park is to fly to Balmaceda Airport (Coyaique); LAN (www.lan.com) and SKY (www.skyairline.cl) both operate flights to Balmaceda from Santiago and Puerto Montt. Buses also arrive in Coyhaique from points north.

To reach the park from Balmaceda or Coyhaique, drive or take a bus south on the Carretera Austral (route 7). You can rent a car at the Balmaceda airport or in Coyhaique, or catch a bus south in Coyhaique. Three bus companies offer service south from Coyhaique: Buses Don Carlos, Acuario 13, and Buses Sao Paulo. Between the three companies, there’s usually one bus leaving every morning during the high season, around 9 am. Tickets cost ~$20 USD. …

how to get there

related:

• Where to Stay

• Conservation Patagonia

Mawson: And the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen

I thought I knew much about the history of Antarctic exploration. Yet I learned much, much more after reading this book.

The incredible story of Australia’s most famous polar explorer and the giants from the heroic age of polar exploration.

Douglas Mawson, born in 1882 and knighted in 1914, was Australia’s greatest Antarctic explorer. This is the incredible account of an expedition he led on December 2, 1911, from Hobart, to explore the virgin frozen coastline below, 2000 miles of which had never felt the tread of a human foot.

… he headed east on an extraordinary sledging trek with his companions, Belgrave Ninnis and Dr Xavier Mertz. After five weeks, tragedy struck—Ninnis was swallowed whole by a snow-covered crevasse, and Mawson and Mertz realized it was too dangerous to go on. Dwindling supplies forced them to kill their dogs to feed the other dogs, at first, and then themselves. Hunger, sickness, and despair eventually got the better of Ninnis, and he succumbed to madness and then to death.

Mawson found himself all alone, 160 miles from safety, with next to no food. This staggering tale of his survival, against all odds, also masterfully interweaves the stories of the other giants from the heroic age of polar exploration, to bring the jaw-dropping events of this bygone era dazzlingly back to life. …

GoodReads

Mawson cover

Mawson: And the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen. (2012)

which of these men would you follow?

Shackletonold

Mawson_(crop)

Scott_of_the_Antarctic_crop

Amundsen_in_fur_skins

If you guessed the last man, you were right. Roald Amundsen not only led his party safely to the South Pole, ahead of Scott, but he managed to gain weight on the adventure.

In 1926, Amundsen was the first expedition leader to be recognized without dispute as having reached the North Pole. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–06). He disappeared in June 1928 while taking part in a rescue mission.

Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott

Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen‘s Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott and his four comrades all died from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

 

Douglas Mawson
Douglas Mawson

Mawson turned down an invitation to join Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition in 1910; Australian geologist Griffith Taylor went with Scott instead. Mawson chose to lead his own expedition, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, to King George V Land and Adelie Land, the sector of the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which at the time was almost entirely unexplored. The objectives were to carry out geographical exploration and scientific studies, including a visit to the South Magnetic Pole. …

Mawson himself was part of a three-man sledging team, the Far Eastern Party, with Xavier Mertz and Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis …

There was a quick deterioration in the men’s physical condition during this journey. …

It was unknown at the time that Husky liver contains extremely high levels of vitamin A. It was also not known that such levels of vitamin A could cause liver damage to humans. …

(Mertz and Ninnis died.) Mawson continued the final 100 miles alone. During his return trip to the Main Base he fell through the lid of a crevasse, and was saved only by his sledge wedging itself into the ice above him. He was forced to climb out using the harness attaching him to the sled. .

When Mawson finally made it back to Cape Denison, the ship Aurora had left only a few hours before. …

Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton

After the race to the South Pole ended in December 1911 with Roald Amundsen‘s conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to what he said was the one remaining great object of Antarctic journeying: the crossing of the continent from sea to sea, via the pole. To this end he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17. Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed. There followed a sequence of exploits, and an ultimate escape with no loss of human life, that would eventually assure Shackleton’s heroic status, although this was not immediately evident. …

RESET the NET

Two choices.

1. You can simply assume there is no privacy. No privacy online. None on phone.

Or …

2. you can try taking some small steps to discourage the NSA and other organizations from collecting data on you.

I’m switching from Google search to DuckDuckGo, for example. That might help. Apple is now offering DuckDuckGo as an alternative web search engine.

On the other hand, Google is responding to criticism, now offering end-to-end mail encryption, to try to make your email private.

reset the net

Watch the RESET the NET VIDEO .

RESET the NET