Posts

Posted on

gear – “kitchen sink” for hiking

Over at Backcountry.com, Rocky Thompson’s making fun of hikers who want to haul the “kitchen sink” with them on the trail.

GRANITE GEAR OUTBACK KITCHEN SINK… But I have friends who would buy this.

Get two of Granite Gear’s Kitchen Sink and you can haul them from the creek to your campsite by balancing them on a stick over your shoulders. Better yet, get your kids to do it. You can tell them it’s “ninja training” after they see Kill Bill. Or you could just get one Kitchen Sink and end up spilling water inside both your shoes while trying to scramble back to camp with an awkward bucket.

Backcountry.com: The Goat » Bringing the Kitchen Sink

GRANITE GEAR OUTBACK KITCHEN SINK – BUY IT NOW (and prove me right)

Posted on

source of the Tsangpo, Tibet

Outside Magazine on line selected a trek to remote Nepal and Tibet as the “2007 Trip of the Year” overall winner.

“The best of the best.”

The last time trekking guide Gary McCue set out to explore far-western Tibet, he happened upon an acre-size hot spring that tumbled from a mountainside near Lake Manasarovar. “I’d never seen a boiling creek just come crashing out of a hole in the ground,” he says. But it’s just the sort of surprise the Tasmania-based author of Trekking in Tibet: A Traveler’s Guide has come to expect from this part of the world.

Tourism may be booming—the controversial new Qinghai-Tibet Railway helped bump up visitation to Tibet by 30 percent last year—but much of this mysterious land of Buddhist temples and mist-shrouded peaks remains blissfully unexplored by outsiders.

This spring, McCue will return to the Himalayas on a quest to reach the source of the Tsangpo River, the mightiest of four rivers that flow from the sacred 22,028-foot peak of Kailas. The 42-day exploratory trek is the first commercial expedition to a pilgrimage site very few Westerners have seen since a Swedish explorer hiked nearby in the early 1900s.

After driving across the plains from Lhasa to Darchen, you’ll trek the perimeter of Kailas before camping in the Lha Chu Valley during the annual Saga Dawa full-moon festival. Then you’ll start the weeklong journey through a glacial valley to Tamchok Khabab, the river’s source.

The trip ends with a visit to the temple-strewn Limi Valley, a newly opened region of western Nepal. “It’s hard to find wilderness this wild and remote that doesn’t require Reinhold Messner-level skills to reach,” says McCue. “It’s the closest you can come to what the explorers experienced 150 years ago.”

OUTFITTER: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, wildernesstravel.com; PRICE: $10,560–$13,160; DIFFICULTY: Challenging; WHEN TO GO: May–June

Best Trips 2007 | Outside Online

kailash_south_side.jpg
sacred Mt. Kailas – Wikipedia

Posted on

leaving comments on blog posts

Bloggers greatly appreciate feedback, positive or negative.

And leaving a comment tells search engines like Google that the post was worthy of your attention, positive or negative.

We got some feedback by email, response form and by comment on a recent post:

the top 10 treks in the world – 5 months?

That discussion (cost, time, difficulty level) will be kept in the comment section of that post.

In fact, we were even inspired to add a new feature. You can now “subscribe” to any comment you leave on this blog. More dialogue is a good thing.

notify-email.jpg

Note that we do not use a CAPTCHA on our commenting system. No need. This blog is 100% protected by amazing anti-spam service called Akismet.

Posted on

“Peru Gets Tough On Tourist Attacks”

Rick McCharles

The Adventure Blog posted on an MSNBC.com report on “Peru cracking town on attacks against tourists”.

This caught my interest as I was on the Huayhuash Circuit in Peru in 2004 when an Israeli trekker was shot and killed by bandits.

A new law passed by the Peruvian congress make the maximum penalty for murder or severely injuring a tourist is now life in prison. The law covers both foreign and Peruvian tourists visiting sites in their own country. Armed robbery against tourists is fairly common in the country and in 2005 there was a fairly well publicized event in which 13 tourists on the Inca Trail were robbed. Since then, the goverment has begun getting tough on crimes against tourists, even taking the step to patrol the Inca Trail and increasing the security presence at Machu Picchu.

The Adventure Blog: Peru Gets Tough On Tourist Attacks

Peru could be the best hiking destination in the world. … Could be.

But we’d recommend you hike New Zealand instead if security is a big concern.

Posted on

Scoutmaster: The World of Spoons and Sporks

spoon.jpgMy only utensil is a metal spoon which I keep handy in my hip pack. (Of course I have the Swiss Army Knife too for slicing.)

Scoutmaster posted a comic round-up of more expensive alternatives if you want to impress others at the campground:

… a spoon is a spoon – one of the few things in life that cannot be substantially improved upon- although we try. Do we really need this many sporks (or over priced specialty camping spoons) in the world?

Scoutmaster: The World of Spoons and Sporks

(via Two-Heel Drive)

Posted on

Roraima, Venezuela

222065443_25547ea853.jpg
Roraima

Originally uploaded by txago.

One day …

You too should climb to the Lost World, Roraima on the border of Venezuela, Brazil & Guyana.

It’s the highest “tepui” (flat-topped, cliff-edged mountain) at 2810m (9219ft). Recommended 6-day, 5-night round trip trek to the summit.

information page – besthike.com

Posted on

Kokoda Trail – Papua New Guinea

Kokoda is one of the great (difficult!) established walks of the world. We got a strong endorsement for the lead guiding company from one of our Aussie contributors who joined one of their tours in 2006.

That company is Kokoda Trail Adventures.

kokoda-url.jpg

The Kokoda Trail is one of the world’s great treks, linking the southern and northern coast of Papua New Guinea, it is a challenge to be enjoyed by the fit bushwalker. …

The 96 km Kokoda trail passes through rugged mountainous country of rainforest, jungles of fern, orchids, birds and clean mountain streams which tumble into steep valleys.

The unspoilt villages throughout the Kokoda Track will welcome you and the Koiari and Orokaiva people will greet you with smiles and tempt you with seasonal fruit and vegetables.

Visit Kokoda and enjoy the adventure of your lifetime.

Kokoda Trail Adventures

It’s tough, even if you have porters carry your packs.

But it’s popular. Kokoda guided only 24 hikers in 2000. But in 2006 they led 850. (more stats)

It may be time to start planning a trip to PNG. No independent hiking is allowed, so far as we know.

kokoda.jpg
hikers and guides at the Isurava Monument

Posted on

Chilkoot Trail – Yukon to Alaska

Paul Nickodem posted an entertaining, succinct trip report of his speedy Chilkoot Trail hike on MountainZone.com:

We flew out of Juneau on tiny Skagway air, which is just a Piper Archer four seat aircraft. I was the co-pilot as we flew up the fjords and channels toward Skagway (population 1,500). My pilot was a 21-year-old girl from South Dakota and when she told me her age, I felt like wrenching the controls from her. The landing in Skagway would have made even the most gnarly world traveler cringe.

A major pucker factor as we skimmed a ridge and then stood the plane on its right wing as we banked into the deep corner of the mountains that Skagway is built into. …

Alaska’s Chilkoot Trail

It’s a trip through time. 53kms (33mi). Recommended 5 days, 4 nights. Best months mid-July to mid-Sept.

details on organizing to hike the Chilkoot Trail – besthike.com

stairs.jpg
Klondike gold rush of 1898