Posts

Posted on

Sierra Crest Route, California

Ben Egan sends a link to an Adventure I’ve not heard of before. It parallels these two great hikes:

• John Muir Trail, 211 miles (340 km), our #2 hike in the world.

• Sierra High Route, 195 miles (314 km), is similar, but higher and harder.

Now check out the Sierra Crest Route as documented by Leonard Daughenbaugh.

If the John Muir Trail is for the masses, Roper’s Sierra High Route is more of a mountaineer’s journey. Your Sierra Crest Route takes it to the next level.

—Bob Rockwell, Author and Sierra Mountaineer

I was definitely impressed with the concept and the research.

—Steve Roper, Author and Sierra Mountaineer

read more

The goal is to stay within a mile of the actual Sierra Crest, most often within a half mile.

Be clear. The SCR is not a “hike”:

Leonard Daughenbaugh:

Since the Crest Route is designed to be a mountaineering rather than a rock climbing route, the last requirement is that there be no individual move on the route that is technically more difficult than class 3.

Based on my evaluations, and, where available, ratings in various climbing and mountaineering guidebooks, all moves on the Route meet this requirement. There are, however, two crossings, “Jones Pass” and “Jones Traverse,” that, because of their exposure and route finding difficulties, travelers might feel are more difficult than class 3. …

Sounds great. But the Sierra High Route already is difficult enough for me.

If you are interested, the only place to get more information is SierraCrestRoute.org.

Posted on

Expedition Idaho 2011

I’m right now at an organizational meeting for volunteers. I’ll be manning some of the remote locations. Aug. 14-21, 2011.

… This is an expedition where the journey is at least as important as the race, and where all who commit to the challenge emerge as champions.

Over 6 days, co-ed teams of 4 will undertake a 500 – 700 km expedition over some of the most beautiful, epic and challenging terrain on Earth in a unique format!

Racers will use map, compass and their own wits and skills to navigate their way over an unmarked route by mountain biking, rafting, paddling, trekking, orienteering, trail running, using fixed ropes, and maybe a few other surprises through the wild panhandle of northern Idaho. …

details on the home page

We are trying to avoid the problems of last week’s Raid The North Extreme:

… As if the terrain were not challenging enough on its own, the race logistics broke down early in this event, and they never fully recovered. It was disappointing, and it honestly (unfortunately) destroyed the competitive side of this event. With bags of essential gear regularly missing at transition areas, checkpoints often unmanned and unmarked (we searched for hours for some!), the race forced our team and many others to bond together and switch from “racing mode” to full on survival mode more than once. …

We won’t race this flawed event again. But we learned many lessons in the remote B.C. wilderness, and we’re ready, we think, for even bigger challenges ahead. …

Jason MAGNESS of GearJunkie/YogaSlackers – Finished: RTNX Post-Race Report

Posted on

my new Out There AS-1 backpack

$189 is the cost of the best all-around adventure pack on the market right now.

I got mine yesterday from Mike Kloser himself. He packed it for me. Adjusted it for me. … And then made me chase him around the mountains of north Idaho for 12hrs continuous to test it.

The pack did great. I’m a wee bit exhausted.

AS-1 REVIEW by Nathan Fa’avae

I have spent in excess of 1000-days in the mountains and back country with a pack on my back, either racing, working or just pure adventure.

The AS-1 is by far the most comfortable and functional and pack I have used, a true testament to technology and innovation.

A major requirement I have is any pack I’m going to carry especially through an epic expedition race, needs to be lightweight yet still robust, the AS-1 meets both those needs.

My favourite aspect of the AS-1 is the 5-course menu of features, exceptionally convenient, multiple and productive functionality.

The AS-1 pack performs at the highest level, right where I aim to be when competing.

I used the AS-1 pack at the 2010 Adventure Racing World Championships, after 104-hours with the pack on my back, after it carried my gear, food and liquid for over 500-miles, I couldn’t fault it.

Out There USA

There are too many features to list. Watch the video on the site if you might be interested in getting one for yourself.

For pure hiking I’ll stick with my minimalist Granite Gear inflatable frame pack, but for any trip requiring “toys”, I’ll be using the AS-1.

Posted on

Compression socks for hiking

Speed-hiker extraordinaire Jennifer Pharr Davis this weekend set a new overall thru-hike record on the 2,181-mile Appalachian Trail. Her time of 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes, is the quickest recorded completion of the iconic East Coast trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. …

Note that she wore compression socks for some of her (average) 50mi days.

Salomon EXO IV Calf — Salomon’s EXO technology supports calf muscles, improving blood flow for better performance and recovery. …

Gear Junkie – Speed Hiker! Pharr Davis sets Record on Appalachian Trail

Posted on

Sierra High Route 2012

When Andrew Skurka says a trail is tough, it’s tough.

The Sierra High Route (SHR) is a 195-mile trekking route that runs north-south across the heart of the Sierra Nevada Range, through Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, John Muir Wilderness, Ansel Adams Wilderness, and Yosemite National Park.

It is a rugged alternate to the John Muir Trail (JMT)– it boasts about 100 miles of cross-country travel, numerous Class III scrambles, and endless miles of boulder hopping. SHR hikers are rewarded with pristine alpine settings, long stretches of solitude, and a sense of true adventure.

I hiked the SHR in early-July 2008 with famed ultra runner Buzz Burrell, who at 56 years young is still going really strong. We were both taken back by the immensity of the High Sierra — its alpine regions are vaster than any other place we’d been in the Lower 48, in both length and girth, which is not necessarily the impression given by the JMT. I would have to imagine that this trip with Buzz will be just the first of several trips on the SHR. We comfortably did the entire route in 8 days and 4 hours, an average about 23 miles a day. …

AndrewSkurka.com

Skurka’s site links to the best guidebook and Andrew’s personal Mapset & Databook.

I’m going to want GPS coordinates and a SPOT Satellite Messenger device.

Leave a comment if you might be interested in doing this trip summer 2012.

Posted on

Venables – Higher Than the Eagle Soars: A Path to Everest

Stephen Venables is one high altitude mountaineer you’ve heard about, since he didn’t die young.

I really enjoyed his 2008 career retrospective – Higher Than the Eagle Soars: A Path to Everest.

It won Best Book — Mountain Literature at the 2007 Banff Mountain Book Festival.

In 1988, Venables became the first Briton to ascend the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. His ascent, as far as the South Col, was by a new route up the Kangshung Face from Tibet, with just three other climbers, Americans Robert Anderson and Ed Webster, and Canadian Paul Teare.

All four reached the South Col but Teare decided to descend from here, concerned about incipient altitude sickness. The other three continued up the final section of the normal 1953 route, but Anderson and Webster were forced to turn back at the South Summit.

Meanwhile Venables reached the summit alone, at 3.40 pm.[1] Descending late in the day, he decided to bivouac in the open at about 8,600 metres, rather than risk a fall by continuing in the dark. Anderson and Webster spent the night slightly lower in an abandoned Japanese tent. In the morning all three were reunited and continued down to their own tents on the South Col. It took them a further three days to complete an epic retreat down the Kangshung Face. All three climbers suffered some frostbite, with Webster affected worst. …

Venables is a fine writer. A better writer than climber if his autobiography is to be believed.

An early letter of recommendation from one Dr. Buxton:

Dear Sirs,

Stephen Venables shows little aptitude for academic work, so he might as well spend the summer climbing.

He recently injured himself falling off a cliff in Bristol, so I should imagine that some alpine training would be a very good idea.

Yours sincerely,

John Buxton

His life story is one of one underfunded, under-planned, over-enthusiastic misadventure after another. I’m very happy to be a hiker, not a climber after reading the life & death tale of Kangshung.

Venables as a young man hung out at Snell’s Field in Chamonix while his American contemporaries were living on a shoestring budget at Camp 4 in Yosemite.

Posted on

Nepal – Bringing Progress to PARADISE

The publisher sent me a review copy. Here’s my REVIEW.

In October 2008, climbing expedition leader and attorney, Jeffrey Rasley, led a trek to a village in a remote valley in the Solu region of Nepal named Basa. His group of three adventurers was only the third group of white people ever seen in this village of subsistence farmers. What he found was a people thoroughly unaffected by Western consumer-culture values. They had no running water, electricity, or anything that moves on wheels. Each family lived in a beautiful, hand-chiseled stone house with a flower garden. Beyond what they already had, it seemed all they wanted was education for the children. He helped them finish a school building already in progress, and then they asked for help getting electricity to their village.

Bringing Progress to Paradise describes Rasley’s transformation from adventurer to committed philanthropist.

… offers Rasley’s critical reflection on the tangled relationship between tourists and locals in “exotic” locales and the effect of Western values on some of the most remote locations on earth.

Rasley presents a thoughtful, honest account of his moral struggle with the dilemma. That struggle is framed in the story of a one week guided fund-raising trip to the village in Oct. 2008.

By books end, I’m no more decided than the author on whether or not their good works are a net gain for the village. It has proceeded, in any case. The school was renovated by 2009, two new teachers hired and budget in place for 3yrs. The composting toilet had been delivered (but not installed).

Next step … Electricity and Internet.

As an independent hiker, the plot of the book is a cautionary tale of the many things that can go wrong on a guided Himalayan trek. (In fact, everyone who considers signing on with a group should be required to read this book first.)

The highlight of the trek for me was Chapter 21 – Basa Magnetism. One of the trekkers, Karen, had an intense day, physically and spiritually. It got me thinking about my own tough days in the mountains.

I recommend it. And recommend trading it in a mountain hostel for another outdoor adventure book. 🙂

details on Red Wheel – Bringing Progress to Paradise
What I Got from Giving to a Mountain Village in Nepal

Jeff Rasley
$15.95
238 pages
October 1, 2010

Jeff answers the question: Is Nepal A Safe Place To Visit?

Posted on

Amazon Waterfalls Association hike

Charles Motley sends news of a new trek to some of the highest waterfalls in the world. It’s in northern Peru and could be visited in conjunction with a visit to Machu Picchu north, the fortress of Kuelap.

Gocta Cataracts … Spanish: Catarata del Gocta) is a perennial waterfall with two drops located in Peru’s province of Chachapoyas in Amazonas, approximately 700 kilometres (430 mi) to the northeast of Lima. …

Although the waterfall had been well-known to locals for centuries (it is in full view of a nearby village), its existence was not made known to the world until after an expedition made in 2005 by a German, Stefan Ziemendorff, with a group of Peruvian explorers. …

On 13 March 2006, the Peruvian government announced to the press … that the area surrounding the falls would be developed as a tourist attraction … A small hotel was built 6-miles from the base of the waterfall, with all rooms having views of the waterfall. Tourists can now hike the trails by foot or horse to the misty base of the waterfall. The nearby town of Chachapoyas is located at an altitude of 2235 meters (7657 ft).

There are other waterfalls, one perhaps even higher.

Here’s a link to a guided adventure:

… a 2-day trek of about 10 km with a night half way along the trail. This is limited to no more than 12 people and one group starting daily.

Charles tells that there’s also a one day hike offered. The cost is only about $3. Visit this new attraction as soon as possible, as the north of Peru is bound to become increasingly popular in future.

About the Amazon Waterfalls Association.

Posted on

besthike editor back in the NEW world

Let’s say you’re a hiker in Lausanne, Switzerland. In July. Those mountains look very appealing from Lake Geneva.

Would you go … HIKING? … Or pop in to the nearest Travel Agent to buy an expensive flight home to Canada? (Double the cost of the same plane flying the other direction.)

It’s a long, sad story 😦 … but due to a series of failed computer repairs in inefficient Italy, I cut short my European ramblings and will be hiking the Pacific N.W. in August, instead.