Viesturs: Adventurer of the year

by Neil Woodburn on

We’re way late in reporting this, but I just came across the January issue of National Geographic Adventure Magazine and a great little podcast featuring the Magazine’s newly nominated, Adventurer of the Year, Ed Viesturs.

Viesturs is perhaps the most famous name in climbing, after Sir Edmund Hillary. The 46-year old climber was nominated after completing a rather ambitious goal of summiting all of the world’s 14 peaks which stand above 8,000 meters. A rather arduous task on its own, but one made infinitely more difficult by Viesturs’ decision to do so without supplemental oxygen.

He has definitely earned the “Adventurer of the Year” title, as well as few other awards which haven’t been created yet-such as the Inhuman Endurance Trophy and the coveted Mountain-Climber-with-all-Ten-Toes award.

Take a moment to listen to this living legend chat about his exploits and adventures with a National Geographic editor. Be warned, however; you’ll feel terribly emasculated after doing so.

A VERY Big Book on Bhutan

by Erik Olsen on

And you thought the last Harry Potter opus was large. Well, guess again.

take a look at the work of Mr. Michael Hawley, Director of Special Projects and founder of MIT’s GO Expeditions program. Hawley is famous in creative/scientific circles (the Ultimate Third Culturean) and through his Friendly Planet program has created numerous educational materials that push the boundaries of technology. Among them is the largest book ever published. Called Bhutan, the book is a “visual odyssey” across the Asian kingdom.

Teams of photographers from MIT and Friendly Planet took over 40,000 photographs on four expeditions across the country. They traveled by helicopter, hoof and foot across the Bhutanese Himalaya, and took life-size pictures that were then compiled into this monstrous, but luscious tome. You really have to see it to believe it. And you can actually own it….the book will set you back $15,000 at Amazon, but just think what all your friends will say! You’ll be the most popular guy on the block.

GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of August 6

by Adrienne Wilson on

End of the week means it’s time for a quick review. Pay close attention as Erik and Neil both part ways with their latest travel installments, but let’s not babble and jump right to it, okay!

5. Balkan Odyssey Part 24: The End:
Looks as if Neil’s Balkan days are numbered and in his farewell blog he still does a damn fine job of highlighting while summing up his incredible fantastic voyage. I’m sad to see it end here, but I’m sure there will be more travels and features like this one headed our way.

4. Mermaids of the Weeki Wachee Springs:
Who here can honestly tell me they’ve never wanted to see a real live mermaid? I’m well past the suggested age of (believing in) fairytales, but I think this show is fabulous for kids and the kid at heart. The mermaids might not be in Florida’s Weeki Wachee Springs much longer, which is why I bring the topic to your attention a second time anyway. Don’t let this attraction swim away before you get there.

3. Gadling Audio Slideshow: Newfoundland Part III:
And yet another so-long, farewell piece from Erik this time as he wraps up his great Newfoundland adventure. Be sure to watch the first two first if you’re just checking in on this last showcase.

2. Alaska’s Seward Highway:
Does Erik have a way of picking up on some good travel pieces or what? This one on Alaska’s Seward highway has you virtually traveling to incredible photo galleries and a guide provided by Alaska.com on the highway itself. So awesome!

1. Top Ten Scenic Routes from the Sky:
If you’re the type that begs and demands window seats on flights you’ll probably want to know where some of the most scenic window seat routes are from 35,000 feet above. Neil points out this Telegraph piece on some of the top 10 and the readers follow right behind by leaving what they think are the best from above. Really cool read if you ask me.

Paradise Lost

by Erik Olsen on

There is a well-known syndrome in travel called the Lonely Planet effect. This is not a syndrome in the sense that someone is afflicted with it…not like, say Asperger’s Syndrome. But what I’m talking about it the matter of how we so often as a traveling species love our places to death. Lonely Planet, the Bible of so many travelers, has always billed itself as the authority of how to get to those far off and away places that others don’t go. But the sheer publication of information, directions, places to eat and stay, about such places, then unleashes the hordes of us that venture to them and, usually, ruin them. By ruin, I mean where lots of tourists go, there will inevitably follow lots of knick-knack salespeople to sell them stuff, lots of cheesy hostels and hotels that want to capture their dollars. You know the problem. It’s everywhere.

This topic actually came up in the conversation I had with LP’s Don George and he rightly defended the guide series. But still, what to do ?

Well, I found a nifty little editorial in the LA Times about this topic. The writer, Bill Stall of the opinion section, discusses mostly the way that Backpacker and Outside Magazines ran certain spots for the best hikes, best [laces to mountain bike, etc., and takes them to task for these rankings and how they inevitably lead to legions of visitors who can spoil them. I’m not sure I totally agree, and I’m also not sure keeping any place safe from tourism is possible. It seems a part of human nature in a crowded, affluent society to want to visit places unvisited by others, and so to visit them….hence a circle of destruction. What to do ?Dunno. Maybe start thinking about visiting the moon.

Alaska’s Seward Highway

by Erik Olsen on


It was a couple of years ago now that I did an epic six-day sea kayaking adventure in Alaska with two of my best friends. That was easily one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. We were some 30+ miles away from anywhere, camping on beaches, paddling through ice fields, gazing up at the face of massive glaciers. Ahhhh, just the thought of that trip makes me smile. And one of the other high points of that trip was making the drive down the Seward highway. We blew into Seward for the famous Fourth of July Mount Marathon race. We kicked back and munched hamburgers while sturdy folks raced up some 3000 feet in a couple of minutes. Gnarly.

Well, all this preamble babble is to send you over to check out a couple of pieces and photo galleries on this marvelous road trip .First ,just fro general info go to Cloud Travel to pick up some general facts and explore other links. It’s just a short reference piece, but it’s a start. Then go look at the little photo gallery here. This site provides a kind of mile by mile…or ten miles by ten miles…road tour of the highway, highlighting things to see and places to stop as you cruise along. And finally, the folks at Alaska.com have put together a nice one-page guide to the highway that you’ll find useful. So that’s my road trip rec for the day.