Aaron Ralston Completes Winter Colorado 14’ers

by Erik Olsen on

Aron Ralston, the guy who amazingly
cut off his own arm,

just completed his seven-year project to solo the Colorado 14’ers in the winter. According to Ralston, and this was
a goal BEFORE he cut off his arm, he has climbed 59 peaks above 14,000 feet. That said, the official peak count in
Colorado is actually only 54 peaks.

 

Ralston is really an amazing guy. Back when I first read his story, I had a hard time believing he severed his own
arm…after breaking it. I was sure it was a hoax or at least he so doped himself up on something he didn’t feel the
pain. No so. No anesthesia at all.

 

By the way, if you haven’t at least read the
Outside Magazine story about
Ralston, you should. And here’s his own
tale.


 

Country Sites: Virtual Finland

by Erik Olsen on

I’m going to start a series of posts on specific country Web sites, selecting one or two sites that really do a great job selling and explaining a particular country. And today, I am beginning the series today with a post on Finland:

Lots of countries have tourist sites that they use to provide information on the people, the places to see, the food and culture of a place. But few others I’ve seen are quite as well-designed and comprehensive as this site for Finland. Perhaps it’s the sleek, simple Scandinavian sensibilities at work, but I took some time looking around Virtual Finland site and found it wonderfully good. You can always visit Lonely Planet for information on a country, but sometimes it’s a good idea to go to the sites of the country itself. This is a perfect case in point.

From history to culture to food to travel to great photos, the folks at Virtual Finland have done a truly superb job on this site, for visitors and Web-lookie-loos alike.

Scaling Australia’s Mountains

by Erik Olsen on

To be honest, when I think about mountains in Australia, my mind goes a bit blank. Isn’t the land down under just a
broad, flat place without as much as a molehill? Well, no. Not really. But sort of. The top ten peaks in Austrailia are
all in the 7,000 to 10,000 foot range. Not Everest, but perhaps not to be mocked. Turns out, too, that they can all be
climbed in about three days, or so was the case with
writer Andrew Bain
who did them all in that span of time.

Backpacker Gear Awards at REI

by Erik Olsen on


In the spirit of beginning more features on gear, we’re linking to the REI store and the

Backpacker 2005 Gear Awards. As time goes by, we’ll do more gear reviews for sure, but you can’t go wrong checking
the site out for the items that backpacker selects as their best for the year. Good stuff here. Tents, backpacks, GPS
units. A good place to start as you’re gearing up for the season.

Grips and Innovations

by Adrienne Wilson on

Here’s a photo I plucked off the Nissan – Innovations in
Adventure site.  The grip shown in the
photo is intense, tight and even all nails, but that’s only part of what climbers can
endure as the rest is more a mental endeavor.  And it’s like you can feel that mental energy
being exhausted in that hand.  In short I thought the photo was pretty awesome, but there is tons of good
sports adventure topics to be found on this Nissan site.  Subjects range from geocaching, climbing,
heli-skiing, and nordic skating to name a few.