Kazakhstan: A Lot of Land, Few Beaches

by Jamie Rhein on

When I read about the number of visitors to France equaling the number of people who live there, I also read that Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world. Russia and China take up a good portion of its borders. This map gives details of the geography and also information about some of the cities.

Since the fall is the best time to go there, this is a good time to be firming up those travel plans. If you do go, I found these suggestions from Top Five Things to Do in Almaty from Lonely Planet’s Blue List. Almaty is a good place to start.

  • You can go to Medeo, a valley in the mountains to skate at the highest skating rink in the world.
  • For a 1 day trip, at Talgar Gorge you can go to an ostrich farm, fish for trout and see the burial site of the Golden Man. (See article for description of artifacts.)
  • Khan Tengri is also listed as one of the top ten mountains to see before you die.

The OrexCa.com travel Web site has some intersting tours listed. You can tailor them to your own needs too. I have no idea if they are any good, but they caught my attention.

The photo is of Zenkov Cathedral in Almaty. It’s considered one of the eight most unique wooden structures in the world and has the distinction of surviving the earthquake of 1911. I had no idea there was so much to see in Kazakhstan before I found out about its landlocked distinction.

National Parks Traveler Gets Facelift

by Erik Olsen on

One of my favorite Web sites about the National Parks, National Parks Traveler, has received both a face and content lift, and I highly recommend you give it a spin. It is lovely and they have a much more sensible web address now.

NPT is run by the ever-diligent, park-loving Kurt Repanshek who has done a stellar job over the years bringing to light issues and developments within our nation’s national parks. Seems he has teams up with the folks that do Park Remark to create a fantastic new site dedicated to the parks.

I wax rhapsodic about the parks frequently here because I deeply believe they are the crown jewels of our national heritage. We should all thank Teddy Roosevelt Ulysses Grant for having the foresight all those years ago to set off Yellowstone as a place that would be protected from development and where all Americans (and others) would be welcome3 to enjoy. The parks are in peril…well, there is a large backlog of much-needed repairs, and it is our duty to pay attention to what is happening to them. Now, that said, I am a realist. My first job out of school (my first REAL Job…after being a photographer in Tahoe) was with the Department of the Interior, the government agency that contains the National Park Service. At that time, there was a serious backlog of repairs, a shortage of qualified rangers and various threats to the sanctity of the parks (i.e. snowmobile issues, planes over the Grand Canyon, etc.). So many of these issues are not new. Not that we shouldn’t continue to pay attention, especially during these “difficult” years.

Anyway, I’ve given the new National Park Traveler a once-over and it is loaded with new features and lots of useful, interesting info. So I urge you, as we move swiftly into summer during which time your plans might include a trip here and there to the parks, to check it out.

How Convenient: A Highway to Mount Everest

by Iva Skoch on

As if Mount Everest isn’t getting enough traffic and trash….China announced it would start building a highway right up to the base camp at 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) next week, the Guardian reports. They want to get it completed by next year’s Olympic Games to accommodate the influx of tourists.

Ain’t a “free” market economy grand?

Not only that, in preparation for the Olympics, China has also designed the most far-reaching Olympic torch route in history: 85,000-mile, 130-day relay crossing five continents and scaling the 8,850-meter peak of Mount Everest.

What’s next? A lift up to the top?

The High Cost of Being Rescued

by Erik Olsen on

This is a tough one: is it wrong for someone who goes hiking/climbing/whatever and gets LOST to be charged when they are rescued? My initial answer is yes, absolutely. They are the ones undertaking some risky action and venturing voluntarily into the wilderness.

But then again, as I read this piece, I thought, $5000? Ouch. That seems like a bit of a deterrent to going out on risky ventures, no? First of all, I’d hate for people to stop going outdoors because they fear the cost of rescue. Further, the people that do the rescues, well, that’s what they do. It is a good thing to have folks like this on their toes, continually being trained through rescue missions. I don’t see too big a problem with letting tax payers pick up the tab over all. To spread out the cost of keeping these people around.

Well, the reason I bring this up at all is that this article here discusses how a young hiker named David Seals hurt his ankle and had to be rescued in Colorado. Seals is a 35-year-old Topeka man, and spent one night a week ago on a steep hillside in the mountains. He was rescued by several fire departments, which apparently had to leave their districts or some such thing, and so then presented him with a rather large bill. They’ve backed off a bit, it appears, but the issue is still one worth contemplating. Should people who get lost or hurt in the wilderness pay for being rescued?

A Guy Named Matt and Outdoor Adventure

by Jamie Rhein on

When I was looking for links to Cornstalk Institute for my post,Festival of the Great Unknowns, I came across mattaxling.com. This is a curious place. I think it must be Matt who is featured on the homepage, but don’t know if his last name is axling. Matt is spelled with a double t though. You can see it written on a hard hat in rock climbing picture on the page titled “Work.” Matt does get around. In his play photos you can see him in Argentina, Norway, New Mexico, New York City and Washington State. Wherever he is, he looks like he is having fun. I am curious about what it is that he does since there isn’t a profile about him.

Typing this made me think of Matt Lauer and the Today Show’s”Where in the World is Matt Lauer” segments. Here is a profile of Matt Lauer. I wonder which Matt has a better time? I’d say it’s a toss-up.

Matt of the Web site is an outdoor adventure kind of guy and his work section features many kid’s dreams of what a perfect vacation would look like. For all you Gadling parents who happen to have kids with an adventurous heart, or all you Gadling readers who are enjoying your own adventurous heart, this section is filled with spots where you can get back to nature and get your adrenaline pumping. I assume Matt must be the guy who teaches kids to take risks. I’d love to send my kids his way. Here are the three links Matt lists in addition to the Cornstalk Institute that have outdoor adventure trips and experiences for kids.