Best hikes, treks, tramps in the world.
Grand Prize
Revelations — Jerry Moffatt
by Jerry Moffatt and Niall Grimes
Phyllis and Don Munday Award, sponsored by the Alpine Club of Canada
Vertebrate Publishing (UK, 2009) 978-1906148119
Check the rest of the Winners of the 2009 Banff Mountain Book Festival.
Mostly mountaineering titles, as usual.
Why would anyone do 7 New Zealand Great Walks in only 7 days?
Day 1 – November 29th – 42.7km – Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk
Day 2 – November 30th – 41km – Tongariro Northern Circuit
Day 3 – December 1st – 51.9km – Abel Tasman Coast Track
Day 4 – December 2nd – 78.4km – Heaphy Track
Day 5 – December 3rd – 32.1km – Routeburn Track
Day 6 – December 4th – 53.5km – Milford Track
Day 7 – December 5th – 60.1km – The Kepler Challenge*
Total distance – 359.7km
The Runner, 49yr-old Malcolm (Mal) Law.
… My brother Alan died of Leukaemia back in 1969. Ever since then I have harboured the idea of doing something amazing to raise funds for research into a cure for this cruel disease. …
Click through for the details – It’s going to hurt!
(via Adventure Blog)
… We hope to develop a walking trail network of some 2,000 kilometres (about 1,250 miles), which will pass along the Eastern Cape York Peninsula.
This is one of the last pristine tropical regions in the world. It is wild, beautiful and presently largely trackless and inaccessible. The coast has many stunning tropical beaches lapped by the azure blue Coral Sea, with the Great Barrier Reef running the closest it gets to the Queensland Coastline. ….
You can help with this project by filling out a short, fairly painless survey linked from the home page. (click the survey START button)
Eventually the network of trails could be connected into one of the greatest long hikes anywhere.
What?
I’d never before heard of an attack on humans by coyotes, never mind a death.
This tragedy in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.
… Up-and-coming singer-songwriter Taylor Mitchell was “an old soul” despite her young age …
… Mitchell, hiking alone on the Skyline Trail, was attacked by coyotes Tuesday afternoon. According to park officials, other hikers nearby managed to scare off the animals and call 911. The singer was hospitalized in Cheticamp and later airlifted to Halifax, where she died at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. …
One article stated that the “eastern coyote that lives in the Cape Breton park has interbred with wolves and is somewhat larger than its western ancestors”.
Our sympathies to friends and family.
… spotted in the restroom at Maui’s Haleakala National Park visitors center.
Water is a problem for hikers in Maui. But I’ve not yet been driven to treat toilet water.
Madeira is an archipelago in the Atlantic, an Autonomous region of Portugal. Madeira Island and Porto Santo Island are the only inhabited islands.
I’ve just subscribed to Madeira Walking, a quality, impressive site.
The unique attraction of this area are Levada, irrigation channels that double as ideal hiking trails.
Nature Meetings, partners on this site, offers guided half and full day Levada walks or “dramatic Mountain walks”.
home page – Madeira Walking
I feel a little sheepish recommending a book glorifying what some would call industrial terrorists.
But I do.
Amazon.com Review:
Ed Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a “comic extravaganza.”
Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it’s true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief. The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to the desert to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. On a rafting trip down the Colorado River, Hayduke joins forces with feminist saboteur Bonnie Abbzug, wilderness guide Seldom Seen Smith, and billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., and together they wander off to wage war on the big yellow machines, on dam builders and road builders and strip miners. …
–Gregory McNam
It’s offensive in many ways. But I enjoyed it thoroughly as many, many have before me.
Author Edward Abbey is a hero and inspiration to hikers.
The dangerous 800+mi Hayduke Trail in the American S.W. was named after the lead character.
Before I traveled in Europe, I vaguely thought of their gear as … nice. Way overpriced. Gaudy. And sometimes completely goofy. (Especially the tents.)
Then I toured the huge Sportler store in Bolzano, Italy.
Later I was overwhelmed with the even bigger Schuster store in Munich.
Brands like Salewa, Kaikkaalla, Meru, La Sportiva, Mammut, Vaude, Deuter, Hilleberg, Vango, And more appealed. Quality is generally very high.
Also more familiar brands: The North Face, Salomon, Mountain Hardware, MSR, Primus, Therm-a-rest, Marmot, Arc’teryx.
Arc’teryx? How has that Canadian company become so HUGE worldwide? What a success story. They fit right in with the expensive European brands.
Actually, Arc’teryx was bought by Adidas in 2001. Then sold to Amer Sports of Finland in 2005. It’s a multi-national now.
My advice to every European hiker coming to North America: Buy your gear in Canada from Mountain Equipment Co-op. Or check prices on Amazon.com and comparison shop in the USA.
Europeans will get sometimes twices the value for their Euro currency in North America as compared with European prices. Especially on American brands.
My CAD Mountain Hardware Scrambler daypack is always CAD$50 back home. In Europe it’s normally €55. That’s CAD$86.40.
An MSR Hubba tent on Amazon.com is US$250 . At Schuster in Munich it’s €329.95 (US$468.14)
Yet there’s some gear available in Europe that I can’t get at home.
Want to take a Cheeseburger in a can hiking? They are available widely in Germany.
Taste Test: Cheeseburger In A Can
This was one of the most impressive athletic performances I’ve ever seen from a female athlete.
Julie Dibens wins a record breaking 3rd XTERRA World Championships in series.
Wow.
And Julie finished ahead of second place Danelle Kabush Lesley Paterson only by 59 seconds by nearly 8min!
The Men’s competition was a battle, surprisingly won by Spaniard Ruben Ruzafa.
Favourite Conrad Stoltz had a flat tire ??, despite his custom built thick sidewalls. Later I heard he had no flat but rather lost it on the run.
Though it needs more, this Hawaiian Island has only one roadway tunnel.
Before the tunnel was built, an impassible headland forced travelers to either swim or climb over. The 5.5mi Lahaina Pali Trail bypass was built between 1830 and 1850.
Though the trail is well signed, I managed to get lost within the first 10min, scrambling the wrong ridge until I intersected the trail. The vegetation is both itchy and thorny!
As my guidebook recommended, I climbed only high enough to get a good view of the only windmills on Maui. Then backtracked.
Not one of the best hikes in the world, but I enjoyed the vistas during the late afternoon light, returning to my vehicle just in time for sunset.
more photos
besthike.com 