product endorsements – Page 17

February 23, 2011February 21, 2011

adventure race – Expedition Idaho 2011

I’m one of the volunteers helping to organize this brand new event hosted at Silver Mountain Ski Resort.

600+K, 7 days, an experience of a lifetime.

August 14 – 20, 2011
Coeur d’ Alene

Organizer Dave Adlard has launched a blog. And updated the official website.

Facebook event.

… As of February 13, we have 25 teams committed or who have expressed serious, positive interest …

We’re now wanting to get the word out. Share if you can. 🙂

related – T.C. WORLEY – Patagonian Race Final Report:

… Expedition racing breaks or makes a person. Seeds of doubt on the course can sprout quickly in the fertile soils of pain and fatigue. Allow them to set roots and your race is over. Push back at the agonizing pain, those demoralizing chills and defeating weather, and you are rewarded with a warrior mindset. You can do anything! …

Gear Junkie in Patagonia — GearJunkie finishing Patagonia

February 8, 2011February 3, 2011

best hiking towns in America?

Our list of the top 4 hiking regions in the world includes 3 in the USA:

#1 New Zealand – info page

#2 Southwest USA – info page
#3 The Rockies – info page
#4 USA Sierra Nevada – info page

Yet our list of the top 10 hiking towns in the world includes only one in the States: Moab, Utah. And it’s only 10th.

How can we fix that disconnect?

Should we add the “Switzerland of America” Ouray, Colorado?

Ouray is better known as the “winter ice-climbing capital” of America, but many feel the surrounding San Juan Mountains are the best in the State. Perhaps the best in the Rockies.

Other candidates?

Buzz recommends, in addition to Ouray:

North Conway, NH
Asheville NC
Springdale
Bishop, CA
Nevada City, CA
Leavenworth, CA
Boulder, CO
Crested Butte, CO
Telluride, CO
Jackson, WY

Crested Butte was my favourite Colorado town during my travels last summer. But I went there for mountain biking, not hiking.

The Smoky Mountain Hiking Blog recommends, aside from Ouray:

Damascus, VA
East Glacier, MT
Asheville, NC

Cooke City, MT
Bryson City, NC
Fairplay, CO
Grand Lake, CO

Townsend, TN
Taos, NM
Santa Fe, NM
Leadville, CO

Gatlinburg, CO
Estes Park, CO

The Smoky Mountain Hiking Blog – Top Hiking Towns

Leave a comment if you’ve an opinion on these. Or if we’ve missed your favourite hiking town.

February 3, 2011

TripAdvisor buys EveryTrail

Joost Schreve – Founder & CEO EveryTrail:

It is with great pleasure that I can today announce that EveryTrail has been acquired by TripAdvisor, an operating company of Expedia, the world’s largest travel company. The official press release can be found here …

read more on the EveryTrail blog

I’ve personally not used EveryTrail, but have been keeping up with it via Tom Mangan. Read his take on the acquisition on Two-Heel Drive.

If it brings hiking more into the mainstream, I’m for it.

February 3, 2011February 1, 2011

how to start a WordPress blog

… like this one.

It’s easy. It’s free.

If you have something to say, a blog is the best place to say it. By comparison, Facebook and Twitter are far less permanent.

Click PLAY or watch it on WordPress – Get Started

Here are the next steps. Follow along from the link below.

# Get Focused
# Get Customized
# Get Published
# Get Flashy
# Get Connected
# Get Famous
# Get Mobile
# Get Heroic

WordPress.com is the leading blog platform.

January 27, 2011

Classic Hikes in the Canadian Rockies

… by Graeme Pole.

Classic Hikes in the Canadian Rockies is the ultimate guide to the 63 best backpacking trips and day-hikes in Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Kootenay, Mt. Robson, Mt. Assiniboine, Waterton, Kananaskis Country, and Akamina-Kishenina parks. Detailed trailhead and route descriptions, and a colour map for each hike help get you to the trailhead and keep you on route.

The hike descriptions are packed with comprehensive information on history, geology, wildlife, wildflowers, and side-trip options. Colour photographs depict the principal features. Tips on equipment, food, drinking water, backcountry etiquette, minimum impact travel, hiking with children, preparedness, and bear safety round out this indispensable resource. The new edition includes five “new” hikes and a foreword by Robert Bateman.

Since first publication in 1994, this award-winning guidebook has sold 55,000 copies.

Publication date: April 2011
Retail price: $27.95

Orders: Alpine Book Peddlers
alpinebk@aeontech.ca, 866-478-2280
Information: Graeme@mountainvision.ca
mountainvision.ca

January 26, 2011January 25, 2011

Out There AS-1 Backpack

The Gear Junkie:

Mike Kloser, a Vail, Colo., athlete and a former world-champion mountain biker, is something of a god in the sport of adventure racing. As the captain of Team Nike, Kloser dominated AR for years, including multiple world-champ titles and victories at banner events like the Eco Challenge and Primal Quest under his belt.

Last year, Kloser launched a gear company, Out There USA, and he designed a backpack. After years of racing — as well as living a consummate outdoors existence working and training in Colorado — Kloser put his knowledge toward making his company’s AS-1 Pack something of an ultimate multi-sport tool. …

Out There USA’s AS-1 Pack

details – Ultimate AR Backpack

January 11, 2011January 11, 2011

GoPro wearable HD cameras

GoPro is the world leader in wearable HD cameras. You can strap a GoPro camera to almost anything, from the top of your ski helmet to the tip of your surfboard. The result is amazingly visceral, high definition video that gives viewers a front seat to the action. …

Sierra Trading Post – GoPro Highlights Video – 2010

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Amazon – GoPro HD Helmet HERO Camera ($299.95 right now)

Yesterday we tried one out cycling in snowy Saskatchewan. Worked well … until the batteries died in the cold.

UPDATE: Frank has tried many different models. He feels right now the best of the best is the Contour GPS Full HD Helmet Camera.

January 6, 2011July 11, 2011

Via Alpina trek 111 days

Do you know the Via Alpina?

After decades of hiking some of the world’s great trails, über-adventurer Brandon Wilson heard about the Via Alpina, paths running the length of the Alps across eight countries. Besides offering immersion into Alpine life and wilderness, it’d be the ultimate physical challenge. It meant climbing nearly 700,000 feet from valley to peak—over 111 days and more than 1200 miles.

Intrigued, he imagined it was a sort-of European Appalachian Trail, only with better wine.

Brandon and his wife in 2009 did 111 days across 8 countries.

Their adventures are chronicled in a new book, Over the Top & Back Again: Hiking X the Alps.

Sounds GREAT.

Read some review excerpts.

Why have I not heard of this author?

Backpacking Light has a new review with terrific photos – Via Alpina: Not Another Walk in the Woods

Brandon’s the award winning author of Along the Templar Trail. I’m adding both to my TO READ list.

Check out his website for photos and info.

UPDATE: “Over the Top & Back Again: Hiking X the Alps” received the 2010 Book of the Year Bronze Award (travel essay category) from ForeWord Reviews at the American Library Association conference in New Orleans.

For everyone who has gone digital, it has also just been released on Amazon Kindle (lighter to pack that way!).

January 5, 2011January 5, 2011

do you want a hiking Kindle?

Andy Howell has been using one for a few months … and gives it quite a favourable review:

… The key to the Kindle is its weight. This is a properly portable machine which can slip into your case or pack quite happily. …

First off, this is a very light way of carrying a lot of books …

With the wifi link usually off I have been able to get three weeks usage without any problems at all. If you are backpacking you should be able to rely on three weeks, maybe four, so long as you keep the machine warm at night, although I must say I’ve not noticed any great degrading of battery performance in the cold.

When backpacking you will want to keep the Kindle in a waterproof sleeve of some kind — I use an Ortlieb map carrier which I know to be watertight. Phil Turner has devised his own protection system details of which he has published here so you can knock one up yourself. …

The really big downside is that you can’t share books or pass them on to someone else. You can register up to 6 Kindles with one Amazon account, which might get around things a little. But this system is still far too inflexible and Amazon need to sort this out quickly, even if it is to let you pass books on a limited number of times. …

read the rest of the review

I’m quite happy with audio books and podcasts on my iPods (normally carrying two) but wouldn’t mind trying a kindle on a longer adventure.

I mostly read in the tent. And it seems a pain that a headlamp is required to read a kindle. In fact, that might even be a deal breaker for me. Perhaps I’d use the built-in audio jack or rear speakers to listen to my audio books via Kindle.

Leave a comment if you’ve tried taking a Kindle on the Trail. Either here or over on Andy’s review.

_____

DAVE PIDGEON will not take his iPad on the Trail.

Compass Points Media via flickr – original photo

But he does review a few Apps on this post – A Backpacker’s iPad

(via Tom Mangan on Facebook)

December 30, 2010December 29, 2010

hiking job in Cusco, Peru

Looking for an excuse to move to the Andes?

In Cusco, all hikers visit the South American Explorers clubhouse.

Guys like me hang out there half the day reading trip reports and hearing the buzz on what’s happening on different trails as members stop by. It’s very welcoming.

Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.