Posts

Posted on

Nepal trek in November?

A few years ago, my Canadian hiking buddy Grant Assenheimer and I did an 11-day trek on the infamous Huayhuash Circuit in Peru. It was superb.

huayhuash_iktk.jpg

… the remote, forbidding Huayhuash range was made famous when Joe Simpson & Simon Yates climbed Siula Grande in 1985. The book & film Touching the Void were both hits. …

… Punta Coyoc pass 5490m (18,012ft) …

Grant is in Kathmandu right now deciding on an early November hike. So far he is leaning towards Annapurna Base Camp off the Annapurna Circuit. Alternately, one of the less touristy Everest hikes.

Leave a comment below if you will be in Nepal. October / November are the best months. Grant is looking for trekking partners.

He’s happy to hike independently. Or to hire a guide.

Posted on

Wend – free adventure magazine

Yet another magazine – Wend – is offering a free digital version online to attract attention to their dead tree product.

It’s nicely done.

wend.jpg

Check it out: Summer 2008 – Volume 3, Edition Issue 2

Magazines do not seem to be dying in the way that newspapers are. But rather evolving.

Of course I’m not able to link directly to any article. Wend is unlikely to get much attention from bloggers.

Posted on

trail run the West Coast Trail

Wanetta Beal just ran the West Coast Trail in 19 hours and 13 minutes. … As far as she and Parks Canada staff know, she’s the first woman to do the 75-kilometre route in less than 24 hours — instead of the usual six days.

trail-beal_a1.jpg

“I knocked it off my list of things to do in my thirties,” said Beal, 35, of Whiskey Creek. “I feel like if I can do this, I can do anything.”

(via FART)

The men’s record is Frank Wolf and Kevin Vallely of North Vancouver, 10 hours and 13 minutes. “They set it on 24 July 1997, 10 days after finishing first and second in the North Vancouver Kneeknacker Race. The time measurement is from Bamfield Trailhead to the end of the trail on the west shore of the Gordon River. It includes all stopping time, including the wait for the Nitinat Ferry. This is a good and fair convention for measuring the time of future runs.“

Posted on

how to poo in the woods

From Crow:

Dig a hole. I have found the little plastic orange shovel is useless for digging a hole. When the digging is good, my foot, a stick, or a rock will work just as well and when the digging is hard, the shovel is worthless. When the digging is hard, I look for natural holes like uprooted trees, or turn over rocks that have sunk into the earth.

cabin-835-4.jpgFor toilet paper, I use a stick or rock big enough to keep my hands away from any chance of fecal contamination. There is speculation that it isn’t the water that makes hikers sick but their own feces.

For when I feel a need for toilet paper, I carry a few paper towels in a ziplock sandwich bag. When I’m in a situation were a stick won’t do, paper towels work much better than toilet paper, travel better, and can be wetted for a more thorough cleaning. It is thought of as a good practice to pack out any paper that you use. You can however, bury it if you wish, confident that you won’t be causing any more harm to the environment then encasing it in plastic and carrying it with you. Some people have burnt it and caused huge forest fires. (there is a sign on the PCT that says, “this forest fire started by a PCT thru-hiker burning his toilet paper” ) If there is any chance of fecal contamination to my hands, I bring out my wash kit and wash them.

If I have used the hole from an uprooted tree, there is lots of loose soil to bury my poo in. If I have used the hole from a rock, I rake what surface duff and dead leaves I can find over the poo and put the rock back on top of all of it.

As The Crow Flies» Blog Archive » How to poo in the woods.

I’ve never had to resort to a stick as TP, myself. I burn the toilet paper. Carefully. And cover with the biggest, flattest rock I can find to try to prevent the evidence being dug up by critters. I always keep the TP, lighter and hand sanitizer together in one emergency ziplock. And use the sanitizer before and after.

Recently we had mandatory human waste pack-out bags for climbing Mt. Adams, Washington. Those were a great source of amusement for our group, three of whom had never used them before.

I had. And donated an odor proof, leak proof kayak bag for carrying our “droppings”. For some reason people packed it down in plastic bags, one of which broke.

Oops.

related: How to Shit in the Woods – Amazon

Posted on

meeting a bear on the Juan de Fuca Trail

In preparation for the longer West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island, Matt made a 2-day dash on the adjacent Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. That’s 47km (29mi) of tough hiking.

One part of his trip report struck home:

…on the trail around 9:00. Sombrio River was quite low, so I opted to wade through it rather than trek up to the suspension bridge. The sun was shining, so I wasn’t too worried about wet feet. After a bit more beach walking, my spidey-sense was tingling. In a field of grey boulders, I saw one furry black boulder that looked out of place. Sure enough, a small bear was eating something, probably a dead seal. Luckily, the tide was out, so I was able to give him a wide berth. I had a chat with him on the way past, and we came to an understanding. I wouldn’t eat his dead seal, and he wouldn’t eat me. …

bear-juan-de-fuca.jpg
larger photo

read the entire trip report with more photos

On my only hike on the JdF I had an encounter, as well. A small black bear decided to climb a tall tree in the middle of the campground. I was the only camper.

A quick exit was prudent.

There are a lot of bears in that part of the world.

I just subscribed to Matt’s blog: Take a Load Off – Lightweight Backpacking

Posted on

… on the High Sierra Trail, California

Very, very high on my list of “next hikes” is this one. The photos on this trip report make me … jealous.

high-sierra.jpg
camp just below Franklin Pass

Last week I spent seven days hiking a loop through Sequoia National Park, going in along the famous High Sierra Trail and looping back into the tucked-away Mineral King from the Kern River Canyon. Our route took us through some incredible scenery (is there any other kind in the Sierra?), including a night of cowboy camping at Precipice Lake, the site of one of my favorite Ansel Adams photographs. It just so happened that the night coincided with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower …

pavla.jpg

trip report – The High Sierra Trail (and more!)

(via Two-Heel Drive)

Posted on

oh Man, I missed Lake O’Hara

… Just browsing some photos from Michael Glaser and Ron Shewchuk on Facebook. Looks like I missed a brilliant weekend at the most gorgeous spot in the Canadian Rockies.

Dang.

yukness.jpg

o-hara-cliff-jump.jpg

waterfall.jpg

This was the annual trip there for my Canadian hiking pals.

Want to go? Check our Lake O’Hara information page.

Posted on

trip report – climbing Mt. Adams, Washington 2008

A die hard hiker, I consider mountaineering the pursuit of egotistic masochists. While climbers are suffering in their tents at base camp, hikers are enjoying every minute of their adventure far below.

So it was with some reluctance that I signed on with my Adventure Racing Team (The FARTs) on a volcano climb. My only previous experience in the Pacific Northwest was an unsuccessful attempt to scramble Mount St. Helens some 10yrs ago.

FARTs climb Mt. Adams, Washington

Our trip report was inked by Chief FART Evangelist Dave Adlard … who had not carried a backpack nor slept on the ground in many years:

… Lisa, Morgen, Rick, Matt and Dave set out for Mt. Adams, which at 12, 272 feet, is the second highest peak in the Cascades, just behind Rainier. …

… Mt. Adams is notoriously windy and cold, but we lucked out with high temps, and essentially no wind on Saturday, and as we went to bed, the full moon was coming up — to quote Matt, it was an epic evening! …

… just after 5:00 am, we headed toward the summit, some 3000 feet and 2 miles up. …

FARTs climb Mt. Adams, Washington

… Overall, it was a great weekend, and we learned a TON! We hope to join the Mountaineers ourselves and take several of the classes, so that we can attack Rainier and some of the other peaks next season. It is an addictive hobby, as there is something really special about reaching the top, with the great efforts required. It was also a heckuva workout! …

Dave Adlard – Funtastics Adventure Racing Team – — and so they pressed on

FARTs climb Mt. Adams, Washington

Dave’s right. It was a fantastic weekend. And I’m tempted to do more peaks. Especially Rainier.

Or … hopefully the urge will subside. And I’ll hike the Wonderland Trail around Rainier, instead. (I assume there must be a mountain called Rainiest, as well.)

And my favourite of Dave’s photos. A basecamp tent shot with rockwall behind.

FARTs climb Mt. Adams, Washington

The highlight of the trip for me was sledding down the mountain on our butts!

FARTs climb Mt. Adams, Washington

FARTs climb Mt. Adams, Washington

FARTs climb Mt. Adams, Washington

MORE photos.