Best hikes, treks, tramps in the world.
Danny Brown put together an interesting art piece.
A short film that is played entirely in reverse and involves the “reverse destruction” of balanced rock sculptures. There is one character in the movie that appears to magically create these sculptures. Although the film is played in reverse it appears as the man who is doing his magic is going forwards in time.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via The Adventure Channel)
If you hike, you should share your photos and trip report with the world.
Popular blogger Tom Mangan gives the pitch:
… Heck, if John Muir were alive to day, he would have a blog. How do I know? Because the only thing as voluminous as Muir’s backcountry travels was the volume of his writings documenting them. Muir was eloquent, passionate and observant, and obsessive about writing it all down. If you are any or all of these things, why not put ‘em to good use and share with the world? …
Tom followed up with a second post: How to start a hiking blog
Read that. Or jump directly to WordPress.com.
It’s free. It’s easy. You will have your own hiking blog within 10min.
I’d recommend that blogging platform to John Muir too. It’s the same open source software running this site. And the same used by Tom.
Here’s a (somewhat dated) 4min introduction to how to start your own WordPress blog. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Just watched the film. Highly recommended.
The history of extreme skiing.
… The movie, photographed in high-definition video by Erich Roland, is an undeniably impressive visual spectacle that follows the sport from Wyoming to France, British Columbia, Iceland and Alaska. Like that of its sister sport, surfing, extreme skiing has a history of one feat topping another as techniques are developed and challenges devised.
The worldwide search for the highest wave is paralleled by the search for the steepest, wildest, most dangerous slopes and for perfect snow. Perfection is to be found, according to the movie, in the extreme-skiing mecca of Valdez, Alaska, where the white stuff has the texture of velvet.
“Steep†arbitrarily begins its history with a lone descent of Bill Briggs in 1971 on Grand Teton mountain in Wyoming. His accomplishment, witnessed by no one but attested to by aerial photographs of his ski tracks, was all the more remarkable because he was born without a hip joint, and multiple surgeries had left him with a limp.
Since then a widening search for adventure has sparked the popularity of what is called big mountain skiing, two of whose hubs, visited by the movie, are Chamonix, in the French Alps, and Valdez. The sport’s popularity has been spread by video, with Greg Stump’s 1988 film, “The Blizzard of Aahhh’s,†cited as a seminal work. …
Movie Review – Steep (2007) – New York Times
Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.
See more on the official website.
Jason Klass on Gear Talk posted a review of an ultra lightweight camera attachment.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
… Whether I go solo or with others, I’m taking the Stick Pic with me every time. I consider it to be even more versatile than my Joby Gorilla Pod because you can do Les Stroud-style videos of yourself as well as still shots. …
The Stick Pic – official website
The World Is Just Awesome
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Boom De Ya Da! – Discovery Channel
Discovery Boom de ah dah – official home page
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.
Bogley found me through Twitter. And I’m glad they did.
It’s an American social network of outdoor enthusiasts. They love mountain biking, hiking, climbing, kayaking, canyoning. Just about anything outside.
They have a blog, forum, over 10,000 photos on flickr and a Youtube video channel.
They network using MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Digg and LinkedIn.
screen shot
The best jumping off point to check them out is their main website: Bogley.com
I’ve subscribed to several Bogley feeds and will be linking to them in future.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
This is the Via Ferrata Peille, France.
There are many others:
A via ferrata (Italian for “iron road” … is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The use of these allows otherwise isolated routes to be joined to create longer routes which are accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities. Walkers and climbers can follow via ferratas without needing to use their own ropes and belays, and without the risks associated with unprotected scrambling and climbing. They are found in a number of European countries, including Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, Spain and Sweden; and a few places in the United States, Canada and England. The first via ferratas were built in the Dolomite mountain region of Italy during the First World War, to aid the movement of mountain infantry. …
There have been a number of trailers posted for the upcoming documentary Tell it on the Mountain, “tall tales and alluring lore from the Pacific Crest Trail”.
Here is the latest.
Trailer – Tell it on the Mountain from TellitontheMountain on Vimeo.
(via Take a Load Off)
Man on Wire – a documentary looking at Philippe Petit’s incredible 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
(via Scott Bird’s Straight to the Bar strength blog)
besthike.com 