Where Will You Go?

by Erik Olsen on

What will you do this year when summer (finally) rolls around? Well, as you dig around for ideas, check out
America Outdoors. The site is a clearing house for outfitters and has
tons of trip ideas organized very nicely by state and country.

There is also some good information for family travelers and links to equipment makers for pretty much every
adventure sport you can think of. The site is very nicely orgtaznied, but the information is comprehensive, with phone
numbers and Web sites for almost all outfitters. It is an sweet place to start your research.

Photo of the Day: (2/08/05)

by Erik Olsen on

According to his site, Urban Golob is an alpinist and a
photographer. I have been looking around at a lot of photographer’s Web sites, and Urban’s is quite nice. I also
found it impressive that Urban played drums with famous Slovenian rock singer
Vlado Kreslin.

Climbing Pachamama

by Erik Olsen on

Even at 18,000 feet, there isn’t a lot of oxygen to breathe. Sure,
it ain’t Evereset, which tops out at 29,000 feet, but 18K is nothing to sneeze at.
Mountainzone has got a piece about a
hiking trip in Peru, a couple of guys
climbing “the poor man’s Himalayas”, as the Andes are called…probably pretty accurately.

The climber in the piece, Thaddeus Laird, writes a lot about the lead up to the trip and can be pretty funny, but I
was waiting a while for the punchline, which finally came when he summitted Pachamama, and felt the mountain “watching
me, waiting for my next move” It’s not a great piece, but a good inspirational read for a Monday.

2004 Subaru Primal Quest Recap

by Erik Olsen on

In case you didn’t catch it, here is a
nice
dispatch from the Subaru Primal Quest 2004. The Subaru Primal Quest, or SPQ, is an expedition length adventure race
that takes place over 5-10 days and covers approximately 400 miles. Hard, miserable, rough miles. Four member
teams perform all
disciplines and the members may not be more than 100 yards apart for the majority of the race. This ain’t for the
faint, or weak, of heart.

Savage Summit

by Erik Olsen on

Books about women adventurers probably fill about half the shelves of those about men. Maybe
less. Yeah, probably less. But it’s great when a good book comes along about women adventurers, for women adventurers.
Or for whoever. Jennifer Jordan’s account of
the first five women to climb to the top of K2 is called
Savage
Summit, and it appears to be a hit.

 

The Times
reviews the book today and gives it a half-hearted thumbs up, saying the book is compelling but that some of the
biographical sketches are “thin”.

K2 is called the “Savage Mountain” because it kills without mercy. Lower than Everest, it none the less is
far more dangerous. The fact is, K2 has some of the harshest climbing conditions and weather of any place in the world
and at the beginning of the 2004 climbing season, ninety women had successfully summited Everest, but only five female
climbers had reached the peak of K2. Today, all of them are dead.

You can read the first chapter
here.