Category: video

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need insurance to hike Europe?

What if this happened to you?

What would it cost?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The days of foreigners being “covered” for health costs in nations with socialized medicine are ending. In Switzerland you would pay the full cost of helicopter rescue if you are not a citizen.

Even in the developing world, hospital costs could crush you:

… Aussie tourist took an unlucky fall off a steep mountain track in India and ended up paralyzed in a hospital in New Delhi. And yes, you guessed it, this guy was traveling without any insurance, even though he was 64 years old and should have known better.

The result of this stumble is that his family back in Oz have maxed out their credit cards to pay the hospital bills and so far can’t afford to get him on a plane and home. …

A Traveling Without Insurance Nightmare For Aussie Man In India

You must buy travel insurance if hiking out-of-country. Most policies allow trekking, but do not cover climbing nor mountaineering. Double check your coverage.

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On a related issue, posted in Gadling – Should a medical exam be required before a major trek?

Physicians and politicians in Australia are calling for mandatory physicals for any trekkers preparing to hike the Kokoda Track according to Aussie newspaper The Age. The Kokoda is a difficult and remote trail in Papua New Guinea, which has claimed the lives of three hikers this year alone. …

read more – Should a medical exam be required before a major trek?

My gut feeling is that regulation is going too far. The normal “release” form should be enough.

Adults must be responsible to make their own decisions in so far as adventure sport is concerned.

If a company voluntarily requires a medical, no problem. But a government should not impose this requirement.

Dolpo-Trek

For example, A Sierra Club Upper Dolpo Trek in Nepal requires a full medical and approval by the trip leader, but not because the government requires it.

… I’m personally shopping for travel insurance right now. Leave a comment if you have a recommendation.

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Mt Blanc to Matterhorn – day 4

Hiking trip report by site editor Rick McCharles: Chamonix to Zermatt: The Walker’s Haute Route. Day 4 of 7.

day 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | info

After the rain storms of the previous day, the dawn at Cabine Dix was clear.

Cabane-Dix-vista

This hut is famous with climbers as it’s a perfect jumping off point for crossing the glacier early morning while the snow is still cold and stable.

glacier-walkers

I watched the Yellow-billed Choughs, entertaining mountain birds that are found anywhere hikers might picnic.

birds

I love ladders and had long been looking forward to those at the Pas de Chevre.

I dashed across the glacier below the hut. And rushed up to be first over the ladders.

ladders
ladders

I finished the 3rd ladder much more frightened than when I started at the bottom. These are long and scarifying.

Thank Gods I didn’t try to cross the previous night in the cold and dark.

There’s my goal. The Matterhorn, still many days away.

I was inspired
I was inspired

I was pretty happy making the descent to pretty Arolla, one of those picture postcard swiss villages.

horses-Arolla

flowers-Arolla

I relaxed by the river for a couple of hours. Then caught a bus across the valley, climbing quickly to Le Sage.

Swiss-farm

Near a typical high elevation farm I saw an interesting scene. It looked to me like the Swiss helicopter rescue service was doing some training.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Compared with the previous day, my climb over Col du Tsatse 2868m seemed easy.

mountain-pass

What a great hiking day!

See the rest of my photos from day 4.

Or start reading from the beginning of this 7-day journey, a valuable resource if you MIGHT want to do the Haute Route yourself.

… on to day 5

day 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | info

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no job? … go hiking

Happy 4th of July to all our American readers.

And a special shout out to Fedak who’s hiking out the recession.

Three of 4 of our top 10 hiking regions in the world are in the USA.

#1 New Zealand
#2 Southwest USA
#3 The Rockies
#4 Sierra Nevada

National Public Radio has an interesting podcast called – On The Appalachian, Some Hike Off The Recession:

… For Rusty Towery, taking this much time away isn’t difficult at all. Nicknamed “Wheeler,” he was laid off in November from construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar. He sees this as an amazing opportunity.

“I have no major responsibilities yet in life so [I] might as well do something like this while I can, instead of having to wait like the other half of the population on the trail,” he says.

Wheeler is 26 years old. After being laid off last year, he worked a series of odd jobs to save up a little money. He also ran each day to build his endurance. He says his friends were a little jealous the day he left, even joking that they wished they’d been laid off, too. …

click through to see the audio / video presentation – On The Appalachian, Some Hike Off The Recession

Mount Katahdin - Northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail
Mount Katahdin - Northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail

more interesting photos tagged Appalachian Trail

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TV survivalist Bear Grylls named chief Scout

I’ve criticized Bear Grylls in the past.

Photograph: Sarah Lee
Photograph: Sarah Lee

But it’s with mixed feelings that I link to this mocking News article:

The Scout law begins with a solemn declaration that ‘A Scout is to be trusted’.

So one might expect the figurehead of Britain’s 450,000 Scouts to be one of the most trustworthy men in the country.

But the woggle of Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the youth movement, must be spinning in his grave at the news that his latest successor as Chief Scout is TV presenter Bear Grylls – whose survival programmes were rumbled for containing faked scenes. …

Mail Online – Scouts pick TV’s action man faker Bear Grylls as their chief

In the real world, Grylls is likely to inspire the Scouts. And build that wonderful program.

I wish him luck.

… Perhaps Ray Mears would have been a better choice, though.

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do you understand Cap and Trade?

Not exactly hiking, but an important issue for all of us who want protection for the great outdoors.

Hank Green, the EcoGeek explains Cap and Trade in 3:30sec.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

( via Treehugger – Cap and Trade Explained in Under Four Minutes (Video)

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4646km through China on foot

A brilliant time lapse video of what happens to a trekker in China … who does not shave.

Christoph Rehage from Hanover, Germany, is a cinematographer and student of China Studies.

Click PLAY or watch his China video on YouTube.

November 9th 2007 – November 13th 2008

one year on foot – 4646km through China

unlimited beard & hair growth

– All of the distance from Beijing to Ürümqi has been completed solely on foot, straight good old walking. There are instances where you can see me in the video sitting on a plane or riding a boat, but those are during breaks I had to take from walking, either to sort out bureaucracy issues or to take care of some personal things. …

– The songs I used in the video are 1) Zhu Fengbo – “Olive Tree” and 2) The Kingpins – “L’aventurier” – visit the Kingpins website if you want to know more, they are very cool I think.

– This is not a strict “1 pic a day” video, because I wanted to make it a bit more alive by adding some additional movement. Sometimes during the film you would follow me turn around, or something would happen in the background. I tried to capture these moments to make the video more interesting.

more information on his website – The Longest Way

(via vagabondish on Twitter)

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Ibn Battuta, greatest explorer ever?

I watched the first two episodes of a British TV documentary series where Tim Mackintosh-Smith retraces the footsteps of 14th Century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta, who covered 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents in a 30-year odyssey. He was islam’s and perhaps the world’s greates traveller.

Excellent!

Click PLAY or watch an introduction on YouTube.

Leave a comment if you find those full episodes posted online.

Next I’d like to see this movie.

Journey to Mecca is an IMAX® dramatic and documentary feature that tells the amazing story of Ibn Battuta, the greatest explorer of the Old World, following his first pilgrimage between 1325 and 1326 from Tangier to Mecca.

Narrated by Ben Kingsley.

Click PLAY or watch the movie trailer on YouTube.

official home page – Journey to Mecca Giant Screen

What a story!