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Manaslu Circuit the new Annapurna?

Check out a new website edited by Richard Bull – ManasluCircuittrek.com

It’s about 170km hiked over 2-3 weeks.

… the Manaslu Circuit Trek takes you from just 700m altitudes at Arughat (or Gorkha Bazar) up to 5160m on the pass – a tremendous range of altitudes, temperatures and micro-climates. …

Manaslu circuit is now a tea-house trek. Camping is not required unless you go off the beaten track. Here is a rough outline of the route with some information about where the tea-houses and lodges are. …

Robin Boustead (Great Himalayan Trail pioneer) says:

“Many would argue that the Manaslu Circuit trail is the best general trek in the country, with colourful cultures and dramatic valleys against a backdrop of classic Himalayan peaks.”

manaslucircuittrek.com

Richard has mixed feelings about promoting this excellent alternative to Annapurna and Everest Base Camp. But I feel progress is inevitable. Best it be managed for the maximum benefit of the local peoples.

Andy Bryant posted a terrific trip report.

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Bigfoot in my back yard

… wait a minute. It might just be a dog.

But a film crew from Discovery’s Animal Planet show, Finding Bigfoot, is in my back yard:

… Reports of hairy encounters with Bigfoot-like creatures in the Banff area are on the rise.

Earlier this month, crews from Discovery’s Animal Planet show, Finding Bigfoot, visited the mountainous region after seeing photos and video from the Sylvanic group claiming a colony of unidentified primates lives near the border between Banff and Kootenay National Park. …


Banff-area Bigfoot reports ‘credible’

… credible …

We’ll finally learn the TRUTH when Finding Bigfoot premieres Oct. 15th. 🙂

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California through his lens

California Through My Lens is dedicated to the “great state of California and the wonderful beauty it has to offer to the photographer and traveler“.

It’s well done. I’ve just subscribed.

Check out some hiking trip reports. For example, Heart Rock Waterfall in Crestline, CA:

… the true draw of this hike is the fact that the waterfall has an almost perfect cut out of a heart right alongside of it. The heart itself looks small in the photos, but could easily hold two adults in each of its halves. This is a little gem nestled in the San Bernardo mountains that I recently stumbled upon on world of waterfalls but had never heard of even after I had lived in this area of CA for my whole life. …

Heart Waterfall Hike (Seeley Creek Falls) in Crestline, CA

homepage – californiathroughmylens.com

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Glidecam – hiking the Enchantments

Have you hiked the Enchantments in Washington State?

Check this incredible little film by Devin Graham. Stephen Anderson wrote the score.

Over 116,000 views.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

On a technical side, this was all shot on the Canon 5D Mark II. Most of the shots were done with the Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L Series. and a Nikon 70-200 2.8 with Canon/Nikon lens adapter.

The smooth shots were done with a Glidecam HD-4000. You can check out the exact model on their official website here where you can also buy them. I’ve been shooting with there glidecams for the last 5 years, and love them. They do take a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get past that, it’s all smooth!

related – my video and Enchantments trip report from Aug. 2011

Thank Stu of Life Wild for the link.

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Santa Cruz Trek, Peru

The most popular multi-day adventure in the White Mountain range of the Andes.

Cordillera Blanca guides this itinerary:

Day 1: Huaraz – Cashapampa – Llamacorral (3700m)
Day 2: Llamacorral – Jatuncocha – Taullipampa (4250m)
Day 3: Taullipampa – Punta Unión pass (4750m) – Paria (3850m)
Day 4: Paria – Vaqueria – Llanganuco – Huaraz

details – cordillerablanca.pe
_____

Huaraz is our #2 hiking town in the world. An outdoor adventure mecca.

We did Santa Cruz independently in 2005. (PHOTOS)

Altitude sickness is the main risk. You need many days to acclimatize before hiking over 4000m.

Check our besthike Santa Cruz information page.

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Ted Bear – Aussie Bear Grylls

Tom Mangan calls the misnamed Hiking in Finland editor Hendrik Morkel the best hiking blogger we’ve got at the moment.

I’ve long subscribed. But on Tom’s recommendation I went straight to the site to see what I could learn. … Unfortunately, I was instantly distracted by this hilarious video linked by Hendrik:

Ted Bear teaches you how to survive, against all odds.

(via Hiking in Finland)

From now on I’ll pay closer attention to Hiking in Finland. Hendrik does have some near poetic content, including this one – Driving In The Mud and Rain

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10 Best Hiking Trails

Extreme-Exercises.com speculates on a list of the 10 Best Hiking Trails In The World each with a video.

Click PLAY or check out Angels Landing on YouTube.

10. Alum Cave Trail To Mount LeConte
Location- Sevier County, Tennessee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

9. Hike Up Mount Pinatubo To Crater Lake
Location- Phillipines

8. Breakneck Ridge Trail
Location- New York

7. Bright Angel Trail
Location- Grand Canyon, Arizona

6. Yosemite Half Dome
Location- California

5. Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Location- Peru

4. Haiku’s Ladder
Location- Oahu, Hawaii

3. Angels Landing
Location- Utah

2. El Camino del Rey
Location- Spain

1. Huashan Hiking Trail
Location- China

See VIDEOS and LINKS on Extreme-Exercises.com

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How Fast & Light Can The Gear Junkie Go?

gearjunkie:

… new micro-site video channel and the premise of a video series we’re launching this fall. The first one, on climbing Kings Peak in Utah, debuted today. See the video below + check out the “Fast & Light” channel in full here. …

Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.

Fantastic editing.

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Corsica’s GR20 the toughest hike in Europe?

by site editor Rick McCharles

I hiked half the GR20 in June — trip report — and can confirm it’s bloody tough.

Guidebook author Kev Reynolds calls the GR20 high-level route across Corsica one of the toughest 3 treks in Western Europe.

GR stands for Grande Randonnée, which means big excursion in French. It is a network of long-distance footpaths in Europe, mostly in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. GR20 is considered to be the most difficult of all the GR routes. Its Corsican name is Fra li monti (sometimes spelled wrong as Fra li monte), what means “across the mountains” in Corsican. …

The trail is well marked with red and white rectangles on rocks, boulders and trees. Feeder paths are marked with one colour. There are also small stone heaps along the path. It’s still easy to get on a feeder path or to lose the way, so having a good map is necessary.

photo from David Nobel’s trip report

Possible side trips

Monte Corona — ascent to the 2144 m high summit at the end of the 1st stage (or the beginning of the 2nd stage).

Monte Cinto — ascent to the highest summit of Corsica (2706 m) at the end of the 3rd stage.

Monte Rotondo (Monte Ritondu) — ascent to the 2nd highest summit of Corsica (2622 m) in the 7th stage.

Monte Renoso — ascent to the 2352 m high summit above the glacial lake of Bastiani (2089 m) in the 11th stage.

All those text grabs are from corsica.forhikers.com

The best section is in the north.

Cirque de la Solitude by uhasemann

Kev Reynolds compares it in difficulty to two other challenging adventures in Western Europe:

• Pyranean Haute Route
• Tour of the Oisans (GR54)

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Darkwoods, British Columbia

My family had a summer home in Crawford Bay, near Nelson B.C. for 30yrs … yet I had had never heard of Darkwoods before Jane handed me a copy of Canadian Geographic magazine, an article written by author Bruce Kirkby:

… larger than Waterton Lakes National Park, 15 separate watersheds, more than 50 alpine lakes, peaks soaring above 2,400 metres, ancient old growth, prime caribou and grizzly habitat …

Saving the Darkwoods

The biggest private conservation land deal in Canadian history reveals a story of German royalty, rugged wilderness, pioneering forestry and a shroud of privacy

It’s a fascinating read.

For decades I’ve hiked and boated nearby, never once wondering what’s on that part of the map. There is an awful lot of wilderness in the Kootenays. Even a tract that large can be overlooked by locals.

The owner has sold the property to the National Conservancy of Canada who are striving to protect the most valuable wilderness sections, while still allowing limited logging and hunting.

Roosevelt hunted here in 1888, coincidentally.