Category: video

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video – surviving freezing water

This clip is from a show called Man vs Wild.

Bear Grylls is surviving in the French Alps with only a water bottle, flint, and knife. In this excerpt he jumps into a frozen lake and shows how to deal with it. Hopefully this won’t ever come in handy.

This actually happened to Andrew Skurka during his 7700 mile hike across North America. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with no change of clothes, Skurka stripped down and ran to keep his body heat up.

Think or Thwim

Click PLAY or watch Man vs Wild – Episode 3 European Alps Highlights on YouTube.

This is very much like Les Stroud’s Canadian reality TV show Survivorman.

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Scott Williamson Yo-Yo-ing the PCT, twice

Recommended – A great audio podcast was posted by BackpackingLight.com.

Scott Williamson is best known for his thru-hikes of the Pacific Crest Trail. He has walked the trail nine times in its entirety, including a Yo-Yo from Mexico to Canada and back – twice.

… topics from his 191-day Yo-Yo of the PCT in 2006, including the psychological challenge of touching the Canadian border and having to turn around and go back; on-trail surgery for septic blood poisoning; the use of ultralight footwear (by Inov8) for long-distance hiking; and more.

Scott is featured in an upcoming film about long distance hiking on the PCT entitled Tell It On the Mountain.

Podcast: Scott Williamson and Yo-Yo-ing the Pacific Crest Trail @ Backpacking Light

That same page hosts a trailer of the soon-to-be-released film.

movie – Tell It On The Mountain (official website)

Scott Williamson – official website

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Scott and his new bride will be doing the PCT the summer of 2007. Congratulations and good luck!

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documentary – Ken Burns – The National Parks

Do you have any old home movies of National Parks in the USA?

Ken Burns wants to talk to you.

In the fall of 2009 PBS will air The National Parks, a major documentary film series produced and directed by Ken Burns and written and produced by Dayton Duncan.

But now they are asking for your help. Their film series is not a travelogue or a “nature” film; it will tell the very powerful, human story of how the parks came into being and what they have meant to Americans for more than a hundred years. It will be filled with major historical figures — from John Muir to Theodore Roosevelt to Ansel Adams — but it will also tell the stories of many lesser-known Americans, from cowboys to immigrant artists, wealthy philanthropists to dirt-poor farmers who turned their passion for a part of the American landscape into crusades for their permanent protection. …

To help them tell this story, they would like to collect home movies of visits to National Parks by families and individuals for possible use in the film. They are looking for home movies from the time period of the 1920s through the 1980s and are most interested in footage of families and tourists in the parks.

National Parks Traveler: Help Ken Burns Chronicle the Parks

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documentary – Wonderland Trail in 24hrs

The Wonderland Trail is one of the best hikes in the world. Circling Mt. Ranier in Washington State normally takes 7 days, 6 nights for experienced hikers.

But in a day?

The Wonderland Project is the name two friends gave their shared goal: To run the Wonderland Trail, circumnavigating Washington’s Mt. Rainier, in a single 24 hour push.

Ultramarathon runners Skye Thompson and Zac West forged their friendship into a critical partnership over two years of training, but things took a bitter turn at mile 60, when one runner was forced to drop out.

In a difficult decision, the other decided to push on alone. Join us in watching the story of their partnership in the face of an immense physical and emotional challenge and their record-breaking attempt at the Wonderland Trail.

The DVD is available at LenticularPictures.com.

Click PLAY or watch it on Google Video.

(via the GreatOutdoors.com TV page.)

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gear – Pacific Outdoor ECO THERMO 6 sleeping pad

Hiking is one of the most environmentally friendly activities.

But we can do even better.

Backpacker magazine chose the Pacific Outdoor ECO THERMO 6 sleeping pad as an Editor’s Choice Gear award winner for 2007 in the GREEN category.

A sleeping pad alone won’t save us from climate change. But when a small company pioneers green-manufacturing techniques, uses sustainable materials in a unique way, and offers consumers a feel-good choice, it’s a big step in the right direction, one that we hope other manufacturers follow. Not to mention, this is one damn comfortable pad.

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

More videos from Backpacker Magazine. Kudos for posting videos on YouTube, by the way.

This looks like a worthy competitor to the ExPed sleeping pad.

(via the always entertaining GOblog)

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movie – A Walk in the Woods

Essential reading for all hikers is A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson.

It’s the hilarious, somewhat fictionalized recounting of a failed attempt on the AT. Everyone loves Bryson’s buddy, the anti-hiker Katz (Matt Angerer).

Without question the immense popularity of Bryson brought thru-hiking to the attention of the world and even increased numbers on the AT.

There’s been a bit of buzz about a movie:

In 2005 Robert Redford announced that he was interested in adapting Bryson’s book into a film, and in playing Bryson himself. He also hoped that his erstwhile co-star and friend, Paul Newman, would team up with him to play the role of Katz, although he jokingly expressed doubt as to whether the health-conscious Newman would consider putting on enough weight (and eating enough donuts) to accurately portray the rotund Katz.

Wikipedia

Personally, I would cast John Hodgeman as Bryson, and Jack Black as Katz.

Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

A Walk in the Woods

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hiking New Zealand – North island

new_zealand3.jpgphoto – Mt. Taranaki

We’ve just subscribed to Outdoor Video Magazine, a classy looking blog with quality posts some of which include short video clips.

Most people that go to New Zealand spend most of their time on the South Island, especially if they are outdoor enthusiasts. This is a mistake in my humble opinion. The North Island is almost equally cool, and it actually beats the South Island in terms of it’s variety of scenery and terrain, although it lacks the big mountain ranges obviously. It has spectacular volcanic scenery, crazy coloured lakes and rocks, a Mt Fuji look-alike to summit, beautiful coast, and tropical forest.

I wouldn’t normally recommend a Lonely Planet book, I don’t think they do the best travel guides. However, in this case I will make an exception and say the Lonely Planet’s Tramping in New Zealand is an excellent purchase. Its well written, really easy to follow and find tramps (that’s Kiwi for hikes by the way), and has a range of difficulty from easy to pretty hard (e.g. the 10 day North West Circuit on Stewart Island).

The ‘have to do’ hikes on the North Island in my opinion are: Tongariro Northern Circuit, Mt Taranaki and then something in the East Coast/Hawke’s Bay; either the Lake Waikaremoana Track or if you want something less busy and a bit wilder the Manuoha to Waikareti Track.

Hiking in New Zealand – North Island · Outdoor Video Magazine

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Outdoor Video Magazine

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seen a Tasmanian tiger?

Of all sad extinction stories, one of the saddest is that of the Tasmanian tiger.

The Thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) … is the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. …

The Thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland thousands of years before European settlement of the continent, but survived on the island of Tasmania along with a number of other endemic species such as the Tasmanian Devil. Intensive hunting encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributory factors may have been disease, the introduction of dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat. Despite being officially classified as extinct, sightings are still reported.

The last Thylacine … was captured in 1933 and sent to the Hobart Zoo where it lived for three years. It died on 7 September 1936

Official protection of the species by the Tasmanian government was introduced on 14 July 1936, 59 days before the last known specimen died in captivity.

Thylacine – Wikipedia

To see the last Tasmanian tiger (1933) click PLAY or watch the video clip from 1933 on YouTube.