Calling itself “The Grande Dame of women’s adventure travel since 1982” (which is a good
thing, right?) Adventure Women promises great adventure and educational
trips for women of all ages…well, over 30, anyway. Go skiiing, hiking, rafting, visit a Montana guest Ranch,
Trek in Nepal, there are oodles of ideas for the adventuring estrogen crew. The site says that most people who join
trips are doing so solo, but that there are also moms and sisters, friends, etc. Perhaps this is a good gift idea
for mom or daughter?
When Adventure Travel Goes Hard Core
Mike Carter’s tale of
his climbing expedition to
the top of Mera in Nepal is a riveting story of how casual adventure travel all too often crosses the line
into hard core outdoor activity. Carter relates how the group he was with attempted to tackle the summit of Mera –
all 21,250 feet of it. As inexperienced mountaineers, they quickly learned the tricks of the trade necessary to
enjoy, and survive, their trip.
As Carter put it, when he had to snap his socks in the sub zero temperature to put them on, he had truly crossed
that line. After later reaching the summit, he found himself speechless:
I do not have the words to describe what happened next, suffice it to say that, surrounded by five of the planet’s
six highest peaks, celebrating with my fellow summiteers, tears were shed and headaches forgotten.
Words true to any adventurer indeed.
Tommy Caldwell’s Climb
Here’s a piece by climber Tommy
Caldwell on his effort to free climb the
Dihedral Wall of El Capitan, one of the
most grueling rock faces in the world, and widely considered one of the hardest big-wall free climbs in the world. The
story is riveting and the prose quite sharp as Caldwell describes his preparations (endless full days of training) as
well as the agony as he makes the ascent.
My arms were seizing every time I lifted them above my head. Blood was seeping from holes in my fingers, knees,
elbows, shins, and forehead.
The climb he describes is pretty much unimaginable to folks like myself. I’ve been to Yosemite numerous times, have
gazed up the face of El Capitan, and I still have trouble imagining how anyone could possibly the hardest big-wall free
climb in the worldscale the face of that rock, let alone do so solo. It’s an incredible feat.
Anyway, read this. It’s a long piece, but climbing
buffs will find every detail delicious.
Climbing the Seven Summits
Maybe you’ve heard of this guy, but he deserves some Gadling accolades
anyway.
Britton
Keeshan, a 22-year-old Middlebury College student, earlier this year became the youngest person in history to
complete the Seven Summits by climbing
the tallest peak on seven continents.
The grandson of TV’s Captain Kangaroo, Keeshan summited Everest back on May 24. He was one of 17 climbers, guides
and Sherpas in his expedition to summit. The feat broke the 2-year-old record held by Japan’s Atsushi Yamada, who was
23 when he completed the Seven Summits.
Not many have completed the Seven Summit feat (about 80 at last count), but 33 of them are Americans. Among them is
Dick Bass who was the first ever to do so 1985. Keeshan began his quest for the Seven Summits when he was 15 and on
break from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. He became obsessed with the effort after participating in a NOLS
program.
Touching the Void – tonight on PBS
Here’s something to add to your
calendar tonight…or to Tivo. The epic true-life, albeit re-enacted film,
Touching the Void airs tonight on PBS. This is an excruciatingly
well-done film about two climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates who, in 1985, set out to climb the forbidding 21,000-foot
Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. This was the only mountain in the Peruvian range that hadn’t yet been summited.
These two experienced climbers ran into a series of serious problems that should have guaranteed death.
Simpson fell and broke several bones in his right leg. His lower leg pushed through his knee joint, crippling him.
They were without food or water, and becoming hypothermic. Yates tried to lower Simpson down the mountain with the
limited rope they had and at one point, though not knowing it, he had lowered his friend over a crevasse. Simpson hung
in midair over the vertical face of the mountain. Yates held on, but couldn’t do so forever. He had to make a
choice…perhaps the most awful choice any climber can imagine. Die with his friend, or cut the rope and save himself.
Watch the program to find out what happened.