Google will soon be mapping your favourite hiking trails with this rig.
(via MSNBC)
Google Street View expanding its reach to include more trails
donate to Nature Conservancy
Alan Parker sends this appeal for donations:
Help Andrew Liveris plant a billion trees by donating $1 to the Nature Conservancy to plant 1 tree.
The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy works in more than 30 countries …
check out peakery.com
Scott announced the cool new site – Peakery.com
Featuring over 150,000 peaks from around the globe. Find peaks by browsing lists, maps, and photos.
Use peakery to envision your next peak objective with photos, trip reports, stats, and maps. Then get out there and bag it.
peakery is the place to log your summits. Add trip details, triumphant summit photos, and get summit badges.
Check it out – Peakery.com
Half Dome sells out in 23min
Yosemite, California.
If you were planning on climbing Half Dome this summer, you’ll have to wait until the next batch of permits (for July climbs) become available on April 1. This year, permits for climbing Half Dome are required on ALL days, not just weekends and holidays like last summer.
The first round of permits (for May and June climbs) went on sale on March 1 and sold out in twenty-three minutes. And that was just the permits for weekdays. Saturday and Sunday permits sold out in only ten minutes. …
original photo on flickr
top 10 hiking blogs
As chosen by Tom Mangan:
What’s a hiking blog need to make my personal top 10? Let’s start with:
Timeliness: Newsy, relevant, plugged in to the latest doings and technology.
Stamina: We’ve all got a few blog posts in us, but the best bloggers keep at it for years.
Trail-tested authority: These folks never come home clean on a Sunday night.
Compelling personal testimony: Full of stories that bear repeating.
read the list on Two-Heel Drive.
… I’m a bit partial to #6.
Hey … Three of those I was not yet subscribed to by RSS in Google Reader. Thanks Tom!
Note: Tom’s got the most complete list of hiking blogs online. (The main reason I don’t keep one.) … But he’s recently moved it to the bottom of Two-Heel Drive.
trekking the ice fields of Patagonia
Following Dan’s terrific 3 days at Fitz Roy, they immediately headed for the Ice Fields:
… At 16,800 square kilometers, the Ice Field is the second largest in the world and I’m completely awe-struck when we arrive at the high point of the ominously named Paso Del Viento (Pass of the wind). The view in every direction is pure ice, with amazing swirls and patterns …
Crossing a glacier-melt river was their biggest challenge.
read the blow-by-blow … Hiking to The Southern Patagonian Ice Field
Photos by SAULIUS DAMULEVICIUS.
GORE-TEX® fabric of deceipt
Super hiker Andrew Skurka:
Least favorite gear piece.
Waterproof/breathable fabrics are not very waterproof, at least in real-world conditions. And they’re not very breathable, either. Unfortunately, the alternatives aren’t any better: Waterproof/non-breathable fabrics cause excessive sweating; a wind-shell with more clothing is not as warm; and ponchos and umbrellas are not good in wind or when bushwhacking.
on Gear Junkie
I’m shopping for a new “Gortex” shell.
Seems to me any of the light weight $100 shells are equally good. Equally water resistant.
Disabuse me in the comments if I’m wrong.
drive the Annapurna Circuit
Last Footfall in Nepal is a NY Times article posted a year ago by Ethan-Todras Whitehill:
… by 2012 a road will have been built on this path, destroying this experience and, according to many, placing the last nail in the coffin of what was once the greatest trek on earth. …
I assumed that was an exaggeration. The tourism industry would not be silly enough to degrade Annapurna, … would they?
So I checked with Andrew Ostrowski on what he saw on their recent trek on the Circuit and up to Base Camp:
… As to the road to Jomson, it’s there and all the way to Muktinath with larger trucks, jeeps, bikes, etc. traveling there every 15 minutes or so.
… We hiked to Jomson and then took a bus to Ghasa … it’s scary ride !!!, and continue walking along the road to Tatopani from where we hiked towards Sanctuary/Base Camp.
This road is in use for quite some time, I guess for some few years now, however it’s often damaged by some mud slides and some sections need to be walked across for a couple of hundred meters over the slides to continue on as was a case with us. Just a week or so before our scary bus ride there was an accident when a jeep with 12 people in it went over the edge and rolled down into the river, all died.
The road on the eastern side of Annapurna trek, leading someday to Manang is still under construction and only some easier sections are semi-complete, we were stopped a couple of times and needed to wait until rock blasting on the opposite side of the valley was completed before being allowed to continue on …
This road leads over extreme and steep terrain and my guess is it will take another 10-20 years to complete, if ever, not to mention constant rock/mud slides in this area. All work seems to be done by manual labour, no heavy equipment seen around, just blasting/scaling crews visible. …
Here’s one of Andrew’s photos from the ‘Circuit’ …
The Annapurna Circuit is one of our top 10 hikes in the world. Should it be taken off the list?
best hikes in Korea
I’m hoping to get back to Korea in November to continue my Jeju Olle hike another couple of hundred kilometers.
Jeju is a semi-tropical island, south of this map.
While there, what other hikes should I do?
What are the best hikes in Korea?
So far I’m leaning towards:
• Seoraksan National Park
• Jirisan National Park
Leave a comment if you’ve hiked Korea.
related – my Jeju Olle trip report (Nov. 2010)
Everest Base Camp – the movie
If you’ve considered making the trip to Namche, Nepal and up to Base Camp, it’s well worth watching this new 1hr documentary produced and directed by Brian and Hank Leukart.
The boys had a fair bit of trouble with illness.
… “Need a helicopter ride to Lukla? For $250, I’ll take you right now,” he says quietly, in perfect English.
Brian and I are apprehensive. We consult Lonely Planet’s Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya, which tells us: “Be aware of the poor safety record of helicopter travel in Nepal — Everest Base Camp is strewn with the wreckage of lost aircraft.” But, then, we also discover a long sidebar in the same book detailing the numerous crashes of Twin Otter airplanes to Lukla, a flight for which we already have tickets. While we’re trying to decide what to do, we meet another waiting trekker, who also happens to be a helicopter pilot.
“Well, the helicopter is probably just as safe as the plane you’re planning to take — which is, to say, not very safe,” he tells us. “I’d probably do it if I had the money.” …
read more – Without Baggage – mission everest: a tale of two brothers.
Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.
besthike.com 