Top Ten Non-Fiction Adventure Travel DVDs

by Erik Olsen on

OK…so yesterday, we listed our top ten fiction DVDs of
all-time, and now here’s our list for top ten NON-fiction adventure DVDs of all time. This was a very tough list to
make, actually, as there really are many fine films out there.

10. The Dream is Alive (one of the earliest, and still best, IMAX films)

9. Endless Summer (the best surfing documentary ever…though I might add Riding Giants here as well.)

8. Steep and Deep (so many Warren Miller films…but this is one of my favorites)

7. Underwaterworld Trilogy (great for underwater film buffs)

6. Everest (the film, and the book Into Thin Air should be consumed together)

5. Touching the Void (even with re-enactmments, this is an incredibly riveting film)

4. Kon Tiki (even if Thor Heyerdahl was wrong, this is still a great film)

3. The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey – The Complete Series (sorry…a compendium, but Cousteau is one of the greatest figures
in non-fiction film-making ever)

2. Pole to Pole (OK, apparently not on DVD yet…at least not on Amazon. But this is my favorite of the Michael Palin
travel series…all of which are amazing)

1. Blue Planet (this is a REMARKABLE film EVERY single school kid should watch)

40 Things to do Before You Die

by Erik Olsen on

Everyone has their life list (or you should), that list of things you want to accomplish before you die. I have one,
which I will post soon (and which includes seeing the caribou migration
in Alaska). The great explorer John Goddard has one
(and we will be interviewing him for a podcast soon, too!). But as I was thinking about my own life list, I came across
this one at Radar. It’s OK. It has its lame
points (#21: Have sex….duh!), but there are some good ones, too, like #28: Travel to Australia. But good and bad, I put
it out there for folks to start thinking about their own life lists. Because very soon, we’ll have a post where we want
people to list the things they consider “MUST DO” experiences. So
here’s something to whet your whistle, as
it were.

thebackpacker.com

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s something. Thebackpacker.com is an elegant, well-designed
site dedicated to, guess what? backpacking. Aside from solid gear and photos sections, the site has tips
& how-to’s, inspirations, anecdotes and detailed trip reports. If you’re looking for a hike this weekend and
need some partners, you can check out the community area and see who’s going where. They list them by state. Quite
nice.

I’ll post more about the contents as I get into them myself, but for know,
give it a whirl.

Best of the Southwest

by Erik Olsen on

I talked in our last podcast about the National Geo  Adventure
story on lake Powell. There are some
incredible photos in the piece that reveal how much Lake Powell has receded since the beginning of the drought in the
Southwest. So I figured I’d post the
pictures when they came up on the Web and, lo, they have. Check them out and marvel at how much the scenery has
changed because of the low water, but how beautiful some of the canyons are that were so recently underwater.

Photo of the Day: (3/01/05)

by Erik Olsen on

Ben Moon shoots some
really great stuff. From adventure
travel like climbing and surfing to some wickedly cool landscapes. This photo is of Katie Brown climbing ‘Weeping
Jesus’ on the Mileski Wall in El Potrero Chico, Mexico.