Best hikes, treks, tramps in the world.
Jiankou Cliffs is the steepest, most vertiginous, most dangerous section of the entire Great Wall of China. But would we at Walking the Wall let a few sheer hundred-metre dropoffs stop us?
I’m going to miss this blog when the trip is done. It’s one of my favourites.
This somewhat tongue-in-cheek post is well worth the read. As usual, Skyler Baguta’s aim is true.
She doesn’t name Tom of The Trout Underground as specifically destroying the Park. But we get the idea.
(Come to think of it, I seem to recall Tom telling me he doesn’t fish Yellowstone.)
I have a bit of pity & some sympathy for the poor journalists in this part of the country. I just plain pity the journalists in the rest of the country.
When it comes to reporting about Yellowstone National Park they have a long list of topics that they cannot report about. They have, after all, advertising and public sentiment to deal with. The scribes, either through fear or ignorance refuse to address the problems caused by the Sacred Cows of Yellowstone.
Read the rest of this article: The Sacred Cows Of Yellowstone « A Step Apart
Non-hikers assume that what I do is “dangerous”.
I always pooh-pooh the notion: “It’s more dangerous driving to the trailhead than hiking the trail.”
The only time I really got in trouble was in Venezuela. I learned important lessons the HARD way.
From my 1997 photo travelogue:
… Mérida boasts the world’s highest (4765m) and longest (12.5km) cable car. Unfortunately, in the 1980s a car on the top crashed killing an undisclosed number of tourists. The last section of the ride up was never repaired. …
Still, I could ride to 4000m and hike from there. Overnight camping is technically illegal so almost no one knew where I was going as I headed up the mountain.
I climbed a ridge. The vista was magic with clouds blowing in and out. I dropped my pack at the first possible tent site & continued up looking for a better spot. The terrain was steep, exposed & rugged. Not many options for a tent.
I knew that at the top of the mountain was The Virgin of the Snows, a statue of the Virgin Mary. She led me on.
On a whim I decided to kiss the Virgin — once the dayhiking tourists had departed for the day.
I was careful to note landmarks on my way up so I could return to the pack. Unfortunately they all disappeared in the clouds.
Blast.
Lost in the Andes above 4000m. I vainly searched for the ridge back down to my tent, pack and sleeping bag. Finally, as night fell, I resolved to take refuge in a grotto beneath an overhanging rock. I had water but no food.For 10 hours I huddled shivering, calculating the probability of death from hypothermia in just a t-shirt and fleece pants. I’d like to tell you I learned something from this experience — but I didn’t. It was a drag.
At first light I tried another long route down. What a relief when, four hours later, I bumped into an elderly Swiss couple on the trail! They gave me a cookie & directions. I had been hopelessly lost.
To add insult to injury, officials on the cable car wanted to arrest me for camping illegally.
Lesson learned? Never leave your pack.
Click through my annotated photos from that adventure
OK — hypothermia is no joke:
Early warning symptoms include intense shivering, fumbling hands and poor coordination. Shivering is the body’s attempt to generate heat. A simply field test for mild hypothermia is to try touching your thumb to your little finger on the same hand. If you have difficulty doing this, it’s time to seek shelter and warmth.
Later hypothermia symptoms include slurred speech, mental confusion and unconsciousness. Often victims do not recognize the symptoms and fully understand the dangerous situation they face. The victim needs warmth immediately and protection from further body heat loss. Hypothermia is a medical emergency that requires immediate attention.
(via My Outdoor Gear)
Honestly, I estimated that I could survive one more night of hypothermia. But not two.
I’ll never leave my pack again.
You won’t be surprised to learn that I want to return to Mérida, to hike La Travesia Mucuy – Mérida.
I’ve only done it twice — both times to Mt. Assiniboine — and can confirm riding the bird is … GREAT.
Sure I’m polluting the atmosphere. And distracting the teeny tiny hikers below, sweating the 8hr uphill slog with a full pack. (It takes me 8min.)
But on arrival it’s like you landed in Heaven. Fresh. Excited. Already at altitude.
Wow!
A little more thoughtful analysis from John Flinn in the San Francisco Chronicle arrives at the same conclusion:
I’ve known about heli-hiking for years, but stayed away until last fall because of three big concerns: Are the wilderness lodges a burden on the fragile alpine landscape? Do the frequent helicopter sorties spoil the solitude of those who walk into these mountains under their own power? And would I feel the same mountaintop exhilaration if I didn’t “earn” it through sweat equity?
In other words, is heli-hiking cheating?
By the end of my three-day stay, though, I was pretty much won over. Now my biggest concern is the cost: Unless you have the net worth of a CEO — and many guests do — the $700-a-day price puts it into the splurge-of-a-lifetime category.
Heli-hiking keeps high peaks within reach
Happily for the environment I can rarely afford the high fee. You’ll normally find me sweating on the trail, cursing the lazy so-and-sos that chopper past overhead.
Jason Klass put up a beta version of a site dedicated to video.
His most recent video is one of great interest to me personally.
A great slide show of the trip Ben2World, Dusty Boots, and Jason Klass took to Canyonlands National Park. Witness Jason’s dirty Jeep and his heroic leap across an eight-foot canyon! This was a great trip and we saw lots of geological and archaeological wonders.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Salt Creek Canyon, Utah – BackpackingVideos.com
(via Two-Heel Drive)
This is a good start. No doubt hiking videos and photo slideshows will become increasingly popular in the future.
But the best site I know is Outdoor Video Magazine out of Canada. I linked to their Mt. Robson / Berg Lake video.
Here are hikers doing it right.
They posted a blog dedicated to organizing an upcoming trek on our #1 hike in the World. Good luck guys!
Some of their posts:
This can’t be right:
Maximum operating altitude: 3,000 metres (10,000 feet)
My Rio Cali flash drive MP3 player worked perfectly up to 5000m.
Leave a comment if you know of an iPod Nano on Everest or other high peaks.
Likely Apple is being overcautious.
UPDATE: Consensus of opinion is that flash drive Nano iPods should be OK at altitude. But that spinning disk drive iPods are at risk.
Fedak pointed me to a pilot’s blog: He had problems at 19,000ft unpressurized.
Hard drives work by levitating a head a very small distance from the media; unlike floppy or tape, where the media actually touches the head. The distance between the rotating media and the head is regulated using a very small wing on the head. The head literally ‘flys’ above the media.
When the pressure inside the drive is reduced, the wing will need a higher angle of attack, until finally the wing stalls, and the head impacts the media. The term in the industry for this behavior is called a ‘head crash’. Very apropos, no?
Outdoor Video Magazine have posted their best video to date. (That’s one nasty avalanche caught on film.)
A stunning trail featuring close-up glacier action, the Canadian Rockies Highest Peak (a staggering 2.5 vertical kilometres above the trail), blue-blue lakes, and more than one fantastic waterfall.
Berg Lake Trail – Mt Robson Provincial Park (with Video) · Outdoor Video Magazine
Though the trail was officially closed in May, these hikers braved a night walk, a glacier creek water ford in Crocs and snow storm. Snowshoes were needed for some sections.
We’d never recommend this to anyone … but I wish I’d been with them.
Our information page details how to organize a hike to this area in summer. Highlights: Valley of a Thousand Falls, Emperor Falls, Snowbird Pass, Toboggan Falls and the mass of Mt. Robson. One of the best hikes in the world.
Mount Robson: Berg Lake Trail – flickr photo set – Fotos de Canada
I’ll be trying the New Balance Men’s 902LW running shoe for hiking.
(The top ranked trail runner is the adidas Men’s J S3 M Trail Shoe. And adidas always fit narrow.)
Since I have bunions, New Balance and Dunham are my preferred brands as they offer wider versions.
New Balance 902 (10.1 oz)
1. A handful of shoes boast construction this light, but most are minimalist racing flats without much structure. Not so with the 902. Thanks to new-tech, lightweight materials—in the cushioning, foam, and even the breathable mesh of the upper—the 902 supports your foot better than many midweight shoes. …
Outside Online – gear of the year – Road Runners
Guide Aitelkadi Hassan contacted me regarding tours including treks in the Atlas Mountains. He collects you from the airport, makes all arrangements, and delivers you safely back for your return flight.
Get some testimonials from other travelers, of course, before you sign on with any guiding service.
Their website is AtlasWalkers.com (French).
Here’s the home page translated from French to English using Google Translate. (Somewhat amusing, but still useful.)
besthike.com 