Calling Female Carpenters

by Erik Olsen on

Are you a female who can you hammer nails with the best of them? How are your igloo building skills?

The British Antarctic Survey may
have the
job of your dreams.  The BAS, a scientific research organization, has
launched a recruitment drive to attract tradeswomen. They are in
search of all type of folks who can work with with hands including electricians, plumbers, carpenters, steel erectors,
chefs and boat handlers to work for 6-18 months at its five research stations on and around the Antarctic.

The starting salary is $34,640 plus an Antarctic allowance. Not bad, really. I mean, what are you going to buy there
anyway? That all goes to the bank.

Oh, and all walrus blubber, igloo accommodations and travel are paid for.

In the New Yorker!

by Erik Olsen on

Like Jim Benning over at
Worldhum, I am a New Yorker fan. Wait, this is an understatement. I live for the New Yorker. It is, IMHO, the best
magazine in the world. In fact, I’m not sure what I would do with myself if it ever went defunct, not that I expect it
to, of course. It’s just that in the wide wacky world of publishing, you never know what’s going to happen. The
emergence of all the LCD/ADD lad mags once worried me that long-form journalism was on the way out.

Anyway.

So as a travel writer, I was downright giddy to learn that this
week’s issue is dedicated to travel…or journeys to be more precise. For some reason, my issue, which almost always
arrives on Monday, was not in yesterday’s mailbox. I almost wept, but will rush home today to see if it’s there. But I
did check out the Web today and found several of the peices online (btw: someone PLEASE tell the folks over there that
their site SUCKS. I would LOVE to help them with it, if they need advice.).

There are peices by Jonathan Franzen, Jane Smiley, and a story on back country skiiing (something
we’ve posted about at length) by Nick
Paumgarten. There is also a profile of Brazilian photographer Sebastian Salgado, whose photo essay on whales in a
recent Rolling Stone took my breath away. One of the main pieces is
a wonderful look at Lonely Planet and its
founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler.

Speaking of which, I should also mention that within a day or two, we will post our next
podcast which features an in-depth interview with LP’s Don George. It was
such a treat to talk to Don, who is one of my travel writing heroes. We discussed all sorts of things, including his
new book

Travel Writing, and, in a similar vein to the New Yorker piece, the “Lonely Planet” effect (you’ll see). Anyway, I
know you’ll enjoy it, so tune in again soon when the podcast is up.

Everest Dispatches

by Erik Olsen on

It’s Everest time again, which means someone is paying
exhorbitant peak fees (in the $30,000 range as I understand it from a friend) and making the trek from basecamp to
the peak…and from there doing dispatches from atop the world’s tallest mountain. One of the best happening right
now is coming out of Great Outdoors.

Follow all the Everest action here
in these
dispatches.

Aron Ralston

by Erik Olsen on

Climber, adventurer Aron Ralston, who cut off his own arm in an effort to save his life
talks to CNN about his ordeal. Of course you remember
Ralston? His story, as recounted in
Outside Magazine and then in
a

book, is one of the most intense I’ve heard in years.

In fact, he’s even more amazing in that, as I blogged a
while back, he also finished his goal of soloing all the 14ers in Colorado. An amazing dude.

Peter Potterfield’s Favorite Hikes

by Erik Olsen on

Peter Potterfield, the writer, journalist, hiker
has written a book
about his favorite hikes in the wrold. Potterfield was a co-founder of Mountainzone…the well-done outdoors site that
used to be much better btw, pre-dot com bust.

He is hoping his new book “Classic Hikes of the
World,” a coffee-table-style guide to 23 of what he considers the greatest backpacking trips on the planet, will
catch on with readers who are looking for some great adventures. The book is done in coffee-table style with great
photos and lots of information about the world’s greatest hikes.

I can’t wait to get my hands on this.