Best hikes, treks, tramps in the world.
Tornado, Rockwell Pass, Sequoia National Park, California, July 7, 2004.
Elevation at Rockwell Pass: ~11,600 feet. Base of tornado at ground level probably at least at 12,000 feet.
Scott Newton, 2004
Scott Newton, 2004
details and more photos
We had hail and lightning on the John Muir trail in 2007 at very high elevations. But certainly nothing like a tornado.
Scary stuff.
Thanks Rocco for forwarding the link.
From National Park Traveler:
Grand Teton National Park … beginning this Saturday, March 15, all backpackers camping below 10,000 feet in the park’s backcountry will be required to use approved, portable bear-proof canisters for food storage—except at certain designated backcountry campsites where food storage facilities are provided.
Although food canisters are not required for areas above 10,000 feet, proper food storage will still be compulsory in those locations. It doesn’t sound as if rangers will allow you to use the Ursack or UrsaLite food storage systems. …
Bear-Proof Food Canisters Mandatory for Most Backcountry Travel in Grand Teton National Park
Steve Sergeant of the Wildebeat is an expert. In a comment on that post:
Bear-resistant food canisters are also required in most of Sequoia/Kings-Canyon National Park as well. In addition, large areas of wilderness on Forest Service land in the Sierra Nevada also require you to use such canisters.
We explored the history and effectiveness of bear cans in a two-part edition of the WildeBeat:
The Story of Bear Cans, part 1
The Story of Bear Cans, part 2
Personally, I have learned to love my canister. I often take it on hikes even when not required. The extra weight is often worth the convenience.
This is the one I use:
Bad news for me.
I’ve been waiting on Bhutan to open up for independent trekking. Planning on being one of the first to get a hiking permit.
It was Rogier Gruys of BluePeak.net who first got me interested in hiking Bhutan.
original – BluePeak on flickr – more photos
Now Kira Salak penned a wonderful Snowman Trek trip report / article for National Geographic.
A small excerpt:
… Then I saw the tiny fortress, Lingshi Dzong, sitting on a hilltop before the great audience of the Himalaya. I stopped. For some reason I never quite understood, I sat down and wept. Maybe it had something to do with the starkness of the distances, with the dramatic vying of sunlight and storm. Or perhaps it was subtler, harder to explain. As if, in that ancient dzong—that speck of human proclamation sitting before the indifferent valleys and rise of the Himalaya—it was my own voice calling out into the void. I found myself making an appeal of grief about my brother, who’d had his own history, his stories. What would happen to them now? Where do they—where do any of our stories—go? …
Lingshi Dzong – larger version – flickr – reddoggirl01
read the entire lengthy, intense travelogue – Trekking Bhutan’s Higher Planes
VISITING BHUTAN: Though there is no cap on the number of annual visitors, the Bhutanese government charges at least $200 a day for any in-country travel, and all tourists must book trips with one of 77 government-approved outfitters. Once you’re there, a guide accompanies you at all times.
National Geographic Bhutan Adventure Guide
In her article, Kira Salak states that she’s heard price will double in the near future. Go from $200 to $400 / day.
Leave a comment if you can confirm that rumour.
(via The Adventure Blog)
Related posts:
Inspiring.
Warren Macdonald became trapped beneath a one tonne slab of rock while climbing Queensland’s
HinchcliffeHinchinbrook Island. Two days later he was rescued only to have both legs were amputated. Ten months later he climbed Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain using a modified wheelchair and the seat of his pants. In 1999 he reached the summit of Federation Peak on an epic 4 week journey using a pair of prosthetic legs. …Warren inspires audiences to believe in themselves, demonstrating through action that “nothing is impossible if we dare to face our fears and believe in ourselves.” That achieving success requires taking positive steps forward, and that each step we take, no matter how small, moves us closer to our goals. His presentation reinforces the importance of recognizing change as an opportunity to transform our lives and turn negatives into positives.
Later Warren wrote this article: ‘Prosthetics helped me beat Kilimanjaro’ – CNN
Need more inspiration?
Check this article: Paradox Holds “Gimps On Ice” March 8-9 in Ouray, Colorado.
(via Trailspace)
I thought the world’s smartest bears were in the Sierra Nevada, California.
But check out these bear auto-wreckers:
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via Get Outdoors blog)
For the first time ever, I made it to Texas for hiking.
Adventure Blogger Kraig Becker, had recommended in 2006 the new Government Canyon State Natural Area which, very close to San Antonio, has 40+ miles of hiking trails, ideal too for mountain biking and trail running.
Unbeknownst to Kraig and my good self, the Park is CLOSED in February except on weekends.
The wilderness closed?
That’s an oxymoron to a besthiker. I parked in a nearby residential development and headed cross-country to intersect with the official trails.
Unfortunately, turned out I was bushwhacking through PRIVATE PROPERTY. This was my first clue:
I had visions of dumb redneck Texans, fiercely protecting their fences with weapons. I kept one eye open for Dick Cheney.
I did manage, finally, without getting shot, to reach the Park and had a great run on Lytle’s Loop Trail.
Tim and Karen Hixon Visitor Center – GreenSource
Recommended – Government Canyon State Natural Area – official website
The Adventure Blogger went to Kilimanjaro, inspired by the 2002 IMAX film by David Breashears.
I finally saw the film myself.
Fantastic.
When can I go?
There’s a terrific, funny review of the film on Amazon posted by Archimedes Tritium:
… The narrator (mountain guide Jacob Kyungai) intones that climbers of Kilimanjaro are “ordinary people people, mostly”, then goes on to introduce a Gilligan’s Island cast of climbers, picked to reflect (or engage) the folk who might go to the science museum IMAX theater on a Saturday afternoon — as compared to those who actually climb Kili.
You have The Professor (Roger Bilham, an expert volcanologist), Ginger/Mary-Ann (Heidi Albertsen, identified on the DVD only as “Trekker: Denmark”, but in reality a New York super-model you have probably seen more often on the cover of women’s magazines at your grocery store check-out line), a couple of precocious 12-going-on-25 year old kids (self-possessed and well-behaved, every Yuppie parent’s dream-child), a writer (Audrey Salkeld), and Rick Thomson, who barely made it out of the editing room, but is the father of the 12 year old girl (and was in a bad car accident shortly before the climb and had a pin in his hip, etc.)
Basically, the film shows a sort of idealized climb. This is not a movie about man against nature, or pushing the limits of human endurance. It’s about a beautiful, diverse mountain and some “ordinary” (*cough*) people who went to the top.
Bottom line: if you are going to experience a Kilimanjaro climb, it’s hard to beat tagging along with an expert volcanologist and a super-model.
The DVD contains a “Making of” feature that is of even more interest to prospective climbers than the main film. Behind-the-scenes shots of the logistics and events provides context to the apparent effortless serenity of the main feature.
The problem with the film is this: having climbed Kilimanjaro (via Lemosho – Shira -Western Breach route), the depiction of the Western Breach is disturbingly glossy. This problem is not unique to this film; it exists in the Nova documentary and virtually all text and sales-pitches advocating the Western Breach. Basically, the pitch is that the Western Breach route is “non-technical” and suitable for anyone in good physical condition who is capable of hiking for 6-8 hours a day.
The reality is there are at least 4 spots where you will find yourself clinging to an ice-covered rock, searching for slight finger & toe-hold indentations as you skitter 20-30 feet sideways. Miss a finger or toe, have a balance problem, or slip more than one hold, and you will fall 1000 feet to the rocks below. And aside from those 4 sections, a misstep or slip on any of the rest of the breach also means falling hundreds of feet. And keep in mind you are likely wearing a 20+ pound pack with several pounds of water. Basically, anything is “non-technical” if you don’t use safety equipment.
The Western Breach is precarious and dangerous. In the film, they show the cast clambering over refrigerator-sized, step-like blocks of stone. This amounts to at most 15% of the climb. The rest is not really shown, probably because it is too precarious to get footage of. A parent allowing a 13-year old on this route is inconceivable to me, unless ropes and support equipment were used to assist.
While clinging to ice-covered rocks and seeing nothing but air beneath my feet, my initial reaction was anger at the public-relations puff-job in this movie and other sources. This was quickly subsumed by the desire to simply stay alive, repeated a couple dozen times that day.
While this movie might lead people in good shape, used to jogging around the park or hiking the local hills, into thinking it’s no big deal to climb Kilimanjaro via WB (“hey, a couple 13 year olds did it”), the reality is inexplicably different than the PR. You have been warned.
By the way, if you read the companion book to this film, there is a note at the end that mentions that a few months after filming, the cast and crew was reassembled and climbed Kilimanjaro AGAIN (a 2nd time) to obtain more shots. …
Still, everyone and everyone will love this film. Highly recommended.
Kili is one of our top 10 hikes in the world. We have a somewhat skimpy information page on the Marangu Route.
(… trying to tie-in a Valentine’s Day theme. Pitiful.)
The “dangers of hiking” are almost always exaggerated in my opinion. Not so the dangers of coastal hiking.
I have a friend who was once caught in a surge channel, lucky to survive.
Uncooped has a good post on the hazards of California coastal hiking including this warning:
Never turn your back on the ocean. I have a good friend who got slammed by a freak wave while hiking on a coastal trail. When she regained consciousness, she needed over a hundred stitches in her face to repair the damage. Now she’s got hella cool scars, but still – that’s no fun. So watch your back.
more tips – Uncooped
Reminds me of the terrible Lost Coast Trail school trip where two students and a parent chaperone drowned in 2000.
Coastal hiking can be VERY dangerous. Experienced hikers need educate the general public. And boneheads like the guy in the photos below:
close-up screenshot
a photographer risking his life at the inland side of the jetty to get a close shot… rogue waves at this time of the year can completely cover the spot where he is standing.
original – flickr – Mike Baird
My favourite travelogue over the past few months has been Erin McKittrick and Bretwood (Hig) Higman’s Journey on the Wild Coast:
“From the Puget Sound to the Bering Sea: Four thousand miles along the edge of the Pacific, by foot, raft, and skis.”
After 8 months, they are only half way finished. (The original plan was 9 months for the entire 4000mi.)
The text and photos are terrific. But it was this video that really brought home to me the difficulty of travelling Alaska in winter.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
It’s well worth checking out Erin’s post: Midway Reflections
We are usually VERY careful with the keys to the vehicle. (It’s best to have two or more sets with you and hide one set close to the get-away vehicle.)
In some cases, it’s the difference between life and death.
… Sandra Ordner, 47, of Daphne, whose body was found last week outside her locked SUV at a North Carolina mountain parking lot, died of hypothermia hours after she told her husband she was going hiking, the local sheriff said Thursday.
Macon County, N.C., Sheriff Robert Holland said that it had been extremely cold and raining in the hours before Ordner’s body was discovered in the parking lot of the Whiteside Mountain Trail.
Ordner’s keys and cellular telephone were locked inside her 2002 Land Rover sport utility vehicle, Holland said. …
besthike.com 