February 27th, 2010 by admin

After a week off from the regular release schedule, The Rest of Everest returns this week with another excellent episode chronicling a trek up to Everest Base Camp that took place last spring.

This episode is entitled High Peaks and High Aspirations, and it’s clear to see where that name comes from before the episode credits have even finished rolling. Stunning vistas are everywhere this time, including early shots of climbers going up Everest it self. They’re mostly seen as tiny dots in the distance, but it is beautiful none the less.

The views continue throughout the episode of course, as we continue the trek up the Khumbu Valley. The regular characters that we’ve been following along are continuing to suffer a bit from the altitude, but BC is now so close they can practically see it. Highlights of the episode include snow capped peaks in all directions, the melodic sounds of yak bells going up the trail, and more insights from the trekkers on what it is really like to be there. Considering I’m going myself soon, I don’t know if I should be excited or scared!

Catch all of the Rest of Everest episodes on the website or in iTunes. Week in and week out it is consistently great stuff.

February 27th, 2010 by admin

Speaking of icy adventures, the Siberian Express team of Ray Zahab and Kevin Vallely set off from Vancouver yesterday on their way to Siberia, where they hope to begin their expedition on Monday, March 1st.

You may recall, I wrote about this expedition a month back when Ray and Kevin were deep into their training. They will be making an attempt at a speed record for crossing Lake Baikal, the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world. The lake is frozen this time of the year, making it a perfect opportunity to try to make the 400+ mile journey along its entire length. Despite the fact that they’ll be going in unsupported fashion, pulling their gear behind them on sleds, they still intended to cover roughly 40 miles per day.

The expedition has some larger goals beyond the speed record as well. They hope to raise funds for the Ryan’s Well Foundation and givingwater.org to help complete clean water projects in Africa. They’ll also be connecting with thousands of students across the globe, as part of the impossible2Possible educational outreach programs.

While they’re not heading to the North Pole, this is still a tremendous undertaking in a very harsh climate. The Siberian winters are brutal, and they’ll be completely exposed out on the ice of the lake, which is gigantic in size. Not only does it cover more than 12,200 square miles of area, it actually reaches 5390 feet in depth as well. Those are staggering numbers for any body of water, let alone a freshwater lake.

February 27th, 2010 by admin

Yesterday I posted about several of the expeditions that are either already in Canada, or were on their way. Unfortunately, a blizzard had a number of them stranded in a variety of locations, preventing them from reaching Resolute Bay, a popular starting point for arctic explorers. Flights are not expected to resume today, although I’ve heard that they will begin tomorrow, with several trips planned to make up for the back-log of people and gear waiting to hit the tiny Canadian town.

The teams I spotlighted yesterday aren’t the only ones making the trip up north however, as there will be several others hoping to make the journey too. Take for example, Tessum Weber, who is aiming to get underway next week. At the age of 20, he hopes to become the youngest person to reach the Geographic North Pole, and he couldn’t have picked a better guide to get him there. Tessum will be traveling with polar legend Richard Weber.

British explorers Dan Darley and Amelia Russell have been in Resolute Bay for more than a week, and have been ready to get started, while they patiently waited for a weather window. According to an update posted on their website yesterday, the window opened for them today. Due to the storms preventing anyone from getting into town, there was an open slot on an outgoing plane today. It seems that they quickly putting the finishing touches on their prep work, and should have hit the ice today. Hopefully we’ll get an update from the soon. But for now, you can read more about the pair in this interview over at ExWeb.

Australian husband and wife team Linda Beilharz and Rob Rigato have posted a new dispatch today, and like everyone else, they’re waiting out the weather with flights into Resolute still being cancelled. They also note that satellite images have revealed large leads opening up along the northern coastline of Canada, which may be good or bad depending on the weather. If they freeze over, they’ll make for smooth and easy traveling, but if they don’t freeze, it’ll make for long treks around them. For Linda and Rob however, all they can do at this point is wait, as their gear is packed, and they are ready to go. Just waiting for their turn to be delivered to Ward Hunt Island, their starting point.

The Irish Team of Pat Falvey, Clare O’Leary, and John Dowd finished up their training in Yellowknife, Canada awhile back, and should also be preparing for their departure soon. To date, there has been few updates to the team website, although, as I mentioned yesterday, John has been updating his own blog regularly. Hopefully once they get underway, we’ll hear more about their efforts as well.

Finally, Italian Michele Pontrandolfo is hoping to make a solo expedition to the Pole as well. While my Italian is spotty (At best!), I can tell from his blog that he arrived in Canada on Monday, and I’m guessing he’s waiting, like everyone else, for the weather to clear.

Looks like it’s quite the International contingent heading to 90º North this year. When they all get there, perhaps they can hold a U.N. meeting. Or at the very least, share a stick of butter.

February 27th, 2010 by admin

It has been a more than a month since we checked in with Jake Stachovak and his Portage to Portage Expedition. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll probably remember that Jake is making a journey around the entire Eastern United States, completely by Kayak, beginning and ending in Portage, Wisconsin. He had already paddled down the length of the Mississippi River, and when we last checked in, he was heading out onto the Gulf of Mexico.

It took Jake 37 days to paddle the length of the Gulf Coast, including 30 days in the cockpit and seven days off for bad weather. Now he has turned his kayak north and is beginning to paddle up the Eastern Shore Board. According to his blog, he is currently in the Miami area, where he’s been enjoying some rest and relaxation, while he gears up for the next leg of the journey. He’s also headed over to the Sweetwater Kayaks Symposium being held in St. Petersburg this weekend, which gives him a good excuse to stay on dry land for a bit longer.

The rest of the journey will see him paddling up the East Coast of the U.S. to New York City, where he’ll navigate through canals into Lake Ontario. From there, he’ll paddle across the Great Lakes, to the Fox river, which will allow him to paddle upstream, back to Wisconsin, where he started the entire journey from.

Below, is a video of Jake as he officially leaves the Gulf of Mexico behind, paddling under the Highway 1 bridge in Florida, and entering into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. He pauses long enough to share some thoughts on the journey thus far, but the hilarious captions that his home team put into the video before posting are what really makes it all work. Good stuff and a very cool adventure.

February 27th, 2010 by admin

The 2010 Arctic Season is preparing to get underway within a matter of a few days, as adventurous souls begin the long, cold, and dangerous march to the top of the world. The explorers are all gathering in Canada at the moment, putting the finishing touches on their preparation, and eager to hit the ice.

Eric Larsen, fresh off his recent journey to the South Pole, is in Ottawa, and trying to reach Resolute Bay, where he’ll start his march to the North Pole. A winter storm in Resolute has prevented travel to that remote town for the better part of today, but Eric hopes to arrive there soon, and being the process of organizing his gear and getting putting the finishing touches on his preparations. This will be the second leg of Eric’s Save The Poles Expedition, and if successful here, he’ll head on to Everest in the fall, to claim all three “Poles” in one year. Joining Eric on the journey is Darcy St Laurent and Antony Jinman.

Meanwhile, Christina Franco is back in Canada and preparing for her attempt to become the first woman to go solo and unassisted to the North Pole. She’s currently in Resolute Bay and up to her eyeballs in prep work. Her latest blog post even has photos of her getting her gear and supplies ready for the first 60 days out o the ice. She is expected to be resupplied en route. She does note that the storm is on going, but that hasn’t kept a bear from wandering into town.

Polar explorer John Dowd has completed his prep work in Yelllowknife, located in the Yukon Territory. He notes that he now feels much better on his skies, and isn’t falling nearly as much, which I’m sure comes quite a relief considering he’s about to undertake a 500 mile journey through the arctic. No word yet on when he’ll begin his journey.

Finally, Australian Tom Smitheringale is putting the final preparation together as well, and the countdown clock on his website now reads less than 18 hours to go until he sets out for the Pole. That indicates they’ll be leaving Iqaluit, Canada tomorrow, although his most recent blog update says that he is also stranded due to a blizzard. It is beginning to look like the expedition may not set off tomorrow as scheduled after all. His home team says they feel there is a 50/50 chance he’ll get to go. How ironic is it that a trek to the North Pole is delayed by a blizzard?

Good luck to everyone. The blizzard will pass soon, and the skies will clear, letting you move forward before you know it. Stay safe out on the ice.

For those of at home following, perhaps we should start a pool on how long it’ll be before someone spots their first polar bear.

February 27th, 2010 by admin

Recon Instruments and Zeal Optics are joining forces to bring us the most high tech ski goggles you’ve ever seen. Dubbed the Transcend GPS Goggle, the new eyewear incorporates a GPS chip with a built in heads-up display to give you on the fly information about your current location, speed, altitude, and a whole lot more. Navigation is handled by a couple of buttons located on the side of the unit, and data can be saved and viewed on your computer, as well as uploaded to the Internet to compare and challenge friends.

According to the promo video below, the goggles will include a camera for capturing photos and video on the mountain, as well as navigational information such as trail maps and resort specific runs, information on traffic on the slopes, queues for the lifts, tracking your buddy’s location, and so much other stuff that even James Bond would be jealous.Reportedly, the goggles will be on sale on October 1st of this year, and you can pre-order now. The regular version will set you back $350, but for $100 more you can order a pair with lowlight and polarized lens.

Reading through the marketing info on the Transcend googles leaves you with a lot of questions. For instance, how does it feed all of that information to the googles themselves? Does it have bluetooth tethering to a smart phone or does it require its own data connection of some type? Obviously the GPS stuff is loaded on a chip, but real time updates on conditions on the mountain require something more. Still, these look really cool, and would be a lot of fun to play with. They certainly seem a lot nicer than those GPS gloves I wrote about last week.

February 27th, 2010 by admin

According to ExWeb, the first attempt at a winter summit on Denali by a woman is currently underway, with climber Christine Feret and Artur Testov making the bid.

According to the expedition’s blog, which is handled through Facebook, the duo was flown from Talkeetna to base camp at 7000 feet on Wednesday, where they’ve been busy setting up camp ever since. They have dug their first snow cave to serve as a shelter, and are busily preparing to begin their assault on the mountain.

ExWeb has the details on the climb, which will be a unique one to say the least. Christine and Artur estimate that it will take a minimum of 4 weeks to reach the summit, as they’ll be climbing in an unusual fashion. The two mountaineers will be heading up the hill, dragging sleds with all of their gear on it behind them. It is estimated that when fully loaded, the sleds weigh more than 250 pounds. According to Christine, they’ll hike each day as long as they can, then stop to dig a snow cave for shelter each night. They didn’t even bother to bring tents with them on the trip. They did, however, pack a couple of steel shovels, and a ladder for crossing over, and escaping from, crevasses they may find along the way.

The weather on Denali can be quite treacherous at just about any time of the year, but especially so in the winter, when temperatures can drop to -40ºF and freak snow storms can batter the mountain. Standing 20,320 feet in height, it is the tallest mountain in North America, and due to its high latitude, it is pretty much cold there all year long. Thankfully, the climbers are familiar with the mountain, as Christine has already climbed it twice. She does hope to stand on the summit in the winter however, and if successful, she’ll become the first woman to do so.

Good luck to her and Artur. Stay warm!

February 27th, 2010 by admin

After three months of voting, during which more than 20,000 ballots were cast, National Geographic Adventure has announced their selection for the Adventurer of the Year, with a tie giving the award to two very deserving winners.

The winners of the award are explorer Albert Yu-Min Lin and soldier/climber Marc Hoffmeister. Lin earned his honors for leading an expedition to a remote part of Mongolia, where he has been searching for the missing tomb of Ghenghis Kahn, which was hidden by the Kahn’s followers upon his death back in 1227. For his part, Hoffmeister was recognized for leading a team of Iraq war vets up the West Buttress Route of Denali. A number of those vets, including Hoffmeister himself, were injured in that conflict, with some even losing limbs.

Both of the winners expressed their gratitude for winning the award, but also were quick to note that they are just part of a much bigger team. Each of them also continues their adventures, with Lin continuing his search, while working to maintain the heritage of Mongolia, while Hoffmeister has gotten into whitewater rafting, adventure racing, and more climbing, summiting Kilimanjaro. To read Lin’s reaction to wining, click here and for Hoffmeister’s comments, click here.

The announcement of these awards continues the return to prominence of the Adventure Blog, which I recently noted had sprung back to life in recent days. It’s nice to have it back, and it’s nice to see the tradition of the Adventurer of the Year awards continuing.

February 25th, 2010 by admin

Inline skates are an evolution of roller skates, which resulted in the wheels shifting into a single line formation of 3-5 wheels on each boot.

Like skateboarding, inline skating is a form of extreme sports with skaters referring to their sport as aggressive inline skating, which has seen the addition of tricks and flips into a skaters repertoire.

Aggressive inline skating can involve a number of different locations such as vertical skating in half pipes, skating in specially designed skate parks and street skating. With each different environment comes a different set of skills from the skaters and technical requirements from the inline skates themselves.

Street skaters use their surrounding environment and the features of buildings, parks and street furniture to perform their tricks, and can involve a lot of grinding along railings. Skaters who visit specifically designed skate parks can find all the features that a street skater would look for in one place as well as half pipes and quarter pipes, which have been designed with the demands of their sport in mind and without the risk of hitting pedestrians. Vert skaters focuses on skating within a half pipe and demands the ability to perform complex aerial manoeuvres to become successful within this branch of the extreme sport.

Aggressive inline skating once featured in the X Games but since 2005 it has not been a part of this competition, but the popularity of the sport continues to grow as does the technical abilities and skills of the skaters.

The skates themselves are comprised from a cuff, a shell with an inner liner, a soul plate, which has the frame attached to it. The frame acts as the chassis for the wheels of the skate. Like with the skateboard as the popularity of the sport has increased the skate itself has developed technically, with materials being manufactured which are lightweight but strong enough to support and protect the skater’s feet and ankles. Likewise wheels have developed to result in wheel sets which are optimised for hardness, durability and size.

Inline skating continues to be a popular extreme sport, and as the wheels are fixed to the boot the skater has the ability to perform some tricks which traditional skateboarders struggle to achieve such as some of the more technically demanding aerial tricks.

So strap on a pair of inline skates and take to the streets.

February 25th, 2010 by admin

Over the last few decades the world has watched skateboarding rise from the days of Dogtown and Z-Boys to the modern era of celebrity skateboarders, international competitions, computer games and fashion lines dedicated to skateboarders.

Of all the competitions it is the X Games which draws in the celebrity skaters and the skate-loving crowds. The first X Games was held in 1995 and has proven to be hugely successful with a winter version of the games having its inaugural event in 1997. The 2010 Summer X Games is due to be held in Los Angeles, California.

Skateboarding and the X Games

Just what is it that brings the crowds to the X Games? What about… Extreme sports, sport celebrities and of course NEW TRICKS.

It was at the 1999 X Games that Tony Hawk first landed the “900”, that’s right 900 degrees of aerial spin, they even relaxed the competition rules to allow Tony Hawk to keep trying beyond his permitted time slot and eventually he landed the trick.

Skateboarding and in particular trick skating has risen in popularity across the 1990s and into the new millennium. This rise in popularity has resulted in the evolution of skateboards to match the new demands and needs of riders.

A skateboard comprises of a deck which has two sets of wheels attached to it via trucks. The wheels are mounted to their axles via two bearings. The technology and materials of skateboard design have had to evolve as fast as the rise in popularity, as skaters are looking for light-weight but strong decks and trucks, bearings produced to higher tolerances and wheels which won’t crack on landing.

A skater looking to perform a set of flips and tricks on the streets will often look for a set of smaller wheels to make the tricks easier, but a vertical skater will prefer larger wheels to help generate the necessary speed.

Skateboarding is a great extreme sport to take up, all you need is a board, and you can start off with a cheap one and then you just need to hit the streets and get practicing.