Teen mountaineer completes Seven Summits

by Kraig Becker on

15 year old mountaineer Jordan Romero has completed his quest to climb the Seven Summits, the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents, and in the process became the youngest person to achieve that feat. On Christmas Eve, Jordan, along with father Paul and stepmother Karen, reached the top of the 16,050-foot Mt. Vinson in Antarctica, the last of the mountains on his list.

Jordan first dreamed of climbing the Seven Summits after seeing a mural on the iconic peaks in his grade school. He was just ten years old at the time. Later that year, he would bag his first summit, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest peak in Africa. He would follow that up with successful climbs of Kosciuszko (Australia), Elbrus (Europe), Aconcagua (South America), Denali (North America), and Carstensz Pyramid (Oceania).

But it was his successful summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain on the planet, that grabbed headlines around the globe. At the time, Jordan was just 13 years old, and his bold expedition sparked debate in the mountaineering community over how young is too young to climb the world’s biggest mountains.

The logistics and location of climbing in Antarctica forced Jordan to wait another year and a half to climb Mt. Vinson, but now he has claimed that summit too. Last Friday, the teenager, along with his parents, moved up to High Camp on that mountain, and on Saturday – Christmas Eve – they continued on to the summit itself. Weather conditions, as you would expect, were challenging, with high winds and sub-zero temperatures dogging them all the way. But int he end, they topped out at about 1 PM local time. They then safely descended back down the mountain and skied back to Base Camp, where they enjoyed Christmas dinner.

Congratulations to Jordan on completing his quest to climb the Seven Summits. Well done young man!

[Photo courtesy of Jordan Romero]

Mutlu Yillar (Happy Holidays) from Turkey

by Meg Nesterov on



Christmas Day has arrived, and here in Istanbul, it’s just another Sunday but you could be fooled by all the festive decorations. Much of the city is festooned with colorful lights and ornamented trees, but with a Turkish twist. Most of the population is Muslim, while unlike in more conservative countries, many families will roast turkeys, decorate trees, and exchange gifts on New Year’s Eve. Turkey was the birthplace of St. Nicholas, and now Santa Claus (or Noel Baba) can be spotted on many Istanbul streets, selling lottery tickets. The traditional Christmas tree is called a Yılbaşı or Noel Ağacı and can be found (real or fake) at large supermarkets, while holly-like kokina plants with red berries are sold on street corners and in flower shops. No matter what, when, or how you celebrate, you can say Mutlu Yıllar (Happy New Year) and toast Şerefe to a great 2012.

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Lonely Planet releases list of 10 best treks in the world

by Kyle Ellison on

There are more than a handful of reasons why I love hiking as my favorite travel activity.
It’s a great workout, you get to breathe fresh mountain air, and, perhaps the best perk of all,
it’s usually free.

Here at Gadling we are quick to point out epic hikes around the globe, recently highlighting trails such as the newly created Te Araroa in New Zealand and the stunning backcountry of Cantabria, Spain.

Not surprisingly, we’re not the only travel site that is bullish on global hiking. In a nod
to promoting the easiest adventure activity on the planet, Lonely Planet has recently
released their updated list of the ten best treks in the world.

While even attempting to whittle the world down to a mere 10 treks is a daunting task, as someone who has completed a few of these already, I concur with the majority of Lonely Planet’s decisions on this one. Some of the trails making the cut: the Routbourn Track in New Zealand and Pays Dogon in Mali. Some of those perhaps just missing the cut: the W circuit in Chile, the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, or Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Regardless, tackling any trail on this list is a worthwhile way to break a sweat and see some of the most remarkable places on the planet.

Space Tourists: a cinematic journey to the ISS (w/ Audio Interview)

by Stephen Greenwood on

Space Tourists airs tonight on the Documentary Channel at 8pm & 11pm


When Anousheh Ansari boarded the International Space Station on September 20th, 2006, she became the first self-funded female, the first Iranian citizen, and the fourth human overall to enter the Earth’s orbit as a coveted ‘space tourist’.

After building and selling a large telecom business, Ansari had decided that she would pay over $20 million USD to take a ride on the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 and orbit Earth as a crew member of the International Space Station for 8 days. While training as a backup for Daisuke Enomoto, who failed to meet the required medical qualifications, Ansari was notified that her lifelong dream would be fulfilled – with only one month remaining before liftoff.

Meanwhile, without Ansari’s knowledge, a charismatic Swiss filmmaker had begun to collect material for a documentary that explored the peculiar circumstances of the Russian space tourism industry. Gathering footage at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia and at the Baikonur Cosmodrome (the Soyuz’s launch facility), filmmaker Christian Frei began to lay the foundation for what would become the first documentary to uncover a highly exclusive and secretive world.

The finished product, Space Tourists, debuted in the US at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Thought it never had an overwhelming reception in North America, it is arguably one of the most fascinating travel-themed documentaries to have been produced in recent years and a must-see for anyone with a sense of adventure or a distant dream of venturing to space.

Frei’s film uncovers many facets of the Russian space tourism program that are especially compelling to watch unfold on the big screen.

From the pre-launch rituals at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, to the group of men that make a living by hunting down and recovering the enormous scrap metal that falls to Earth from every Soyuz launch; Frei’s film captures an incredible spectrum of physical environments, people/cultures, and brilliantly contrasts the magnificence of spaceflight in direct contrast with the trivial hardships of life on Earth.

It’s a film that’s both visually arresting and offers to bring the viewer on a journey with each of the characters that it follows – from training to touchdown and everywhere in between.

Space Tourists is currently being featured on the Documentary Channel airing tonight at 8pm and 11pm, or available on DVD via the Documentary Channel online store.

Click below for an exclusive, uncut interview with Anousheh Ansari & filmmaker Christian Frei:

A step inside the Cambodian Landmine Museum

by Kyle Ellison on

Just because Cambodia has found peace, it doesn’t mean it is peaceful. Just because the war is over, it doesn’t mean there’s no longer death. As thousands of Cambodians move to repopulate their former lands, their land is literally killing them.

From 1975-1999, the nation once known as Kampuchea was engaged in one of the most brutal episodes of warfare experienced in modern times. It was relentlessly bombed by US forces, taken hostage by a genocidal madman by the name of Pol Pot, and caught in the middle of a divisive struggle with Vietnamese forces and rogue Khmer Rouge leaders that lasted the better part of 25 years.

During this era of war, enough landmines were laid throughout the country to render 1 in every 290 Cambodians an amputee. An estimated six million mines are still waiting to be found.

Though some of the nation’s landmines are still discovered in the most grisly, unfortunate way possible, there are people out there committed to cleaning up the lingering shrapnel of the past. People who are driven to giving Cambodian’s back the land that for years has been utterly unusable. People who want to stop the suffering. People, like Aki Ra.

Like many Cambodians his age, Aki Ra has no idea when he was born. People tell him 1970, but he can’t officially be sure. In fact, Aki Ra isn’t even his real name. The name is actually a Japanese name that happened to stick, and from that point on, Mr. Ra has been known as Mr. Ra.

While many foreigners may question why someone would want to adopt an entirely foreign name, it’s understandable why Aki Ra may want to leave the past in the past; as a former child soldier of the Khmer Rouge who was given his first gun at the age of 10, there are many aspects of his past Aki Ra would presumably prefer to forget.On a three-wheeled tuk-tuk ride to Banteay Srei temple, an impeccably carved sandstone ruin that dates back 1200 years, I, for lack of a better term, stumbled upon the Cambodia Land Mine Museum on an unplanned bathroom stop. Located a 30-minute drive from the city of Siem Reap, the museum was actually begun by Aki Ra as a sobering window into the reality of the landmine situation in Cambodia.

And, as he is quick to point out, Aki Ra knows a thing or two about land mines. He used to place them in the field as a child soldier; now he’s defused over 50,000.

For his heroic work over the years and efforts towards cleaning Cambodia of its war-torn past, Aki Ra in 2010 was named one of one CNN’s Heroes of the Year.

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The entrance to the museum itself is lined by massive, unexploded bombs which were dropped by the US military while targeting the elusive Viet Cong. Meandering throughout the small museum, everywhere you turn is an instrument associated with death.

12.7 mm machine guns, A72 anti-aircraft missiles, PMN2 anti-personnel blast mines, TM 62 fuses, nearly all of them deactivated by Aki Ra. When an unexploded device is encountered anywhere in the country, a report is then filed, and professional teams managed by a collection of NGOs are called in to clear the ordnance. It’s unfathomably dangerous work.

At the museum, there is a fenced off section of forest which contains a bevy of landmines still firmly lodged in the Earth. Though a small sign informs the visitor all of the mines have been defused, I am still wary to approach the enclosure with anything but a nimble foot.

Though most museums across the globe provide a window into an intriguing part of the past, the Cambodia Land Mine Museum is unique in that it aims to foster understanding about a harsh reality that is still very much lived in the present.

At an orphanage in the riverside town of Kampot, nearly 300 miles from Aki Ra’s museum outside of Siem Reap, a teenage girl desiring to practice her English was quick to approach the only foreigner in the room.

“You’re English is very good” I genuinely told her.

“How long have you been living here in this orphanage? Where are your parents?”

In her answer lay the reason why the work that Aki Ra does is so important to his country.

“My father went boom” she matter-of-factly stated. “My father went boom.”