Gadling Take FIVE: Week of January 31-February 6

by Jamie Rhein on

Despite all the noise of drunk pilots, celebrities, and credit card scams that can pepper the travel scene, there are gems of places not to be missed and stories worth hearing again. Perhaps you’ve read that our dear Matthew Firestone who has graced us with his Big in Japan series for more than a year is off to Africa. No new entries for Big In Japan, but you can keep reading previous posts.

If you haven’t checked out Gadling’s current series, Bowermaster’s Antarctica,do. The photos of the penguins in the gallery are stunning. Each time I read Jon’s work, I’m reminded of the Danish novel, Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow. The setting is not the same–the novel is set in Greenland, but both are versions of a journey into a world of snow, ice, and mystery.

This month, we’re also continuing with our theme of budget travel. Each day at 11:30 am, there will be a new post on how or where to travel without spending a lot of money.

Here are five other offerings to give you some travel inspiration.

  • Kraig offered up the Guangxi Autonomous Region in Southeast China as a travel destination. As he describes in China’s Hidden Outdoor Wonderland, this is a place to head to for an off the beaten track experience that will not disappoint.
  • In his post Destination on the Edge: Seal training , Tom gives the run-down on how you can get a military training experience without joining the military. For anyone thinking about joining the military, this might not be a bad idea. From his description, being in shape sounds like a must.
  • With movie award season here, check out Jeremy’s post Undiscovered New York: A movie lover’s guide to New York. There are tips for how to find out where films were shot, as well as, the hot spots for movie-watching. The guy knows what he’s talking about.
  • Mike’s post The most disappointing tourist attractions has gathered many hits this week. Read the comment section to find out which places others have loved or hated. I agree with Mike’s take on the Taj Mahal. Simply glorious. Another you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it attraction, for me, is the Grand Canyon.
  • When I read Grant’s post Smithsonian opens Forensic Files of the 17th Century, I thought, that’s an exhibit to see. As he points out the exhibit will be on display for two years, but time has a way of passing fast, so put this one on your things to do list.

And because it’s Bob Marley’s birthday, and I really want you to go into this weekend feeling swell, check out this post. The video will make your heart sing. At least it did mine and Karen’s. Karen, by the way has wowed me each week with photography tips that make me think I ought to carry my camera around more.

Bowermaster’s Antarctica — Marguerite Bay

by Jon Bowermaster on

I spent the afternoon walking on a piece of fast ice the size of a small town – floating on the surface, about six feet thick, still attached to the continent – in a fjord known as Beaujoix. Many of the landmarks in the area bear French names, like the big island of Pourquoi Pas, for example, thanks to the early exploits this far south by Frenchman Jean Charcot.

Surrounded on three sides by breathtaking tall mountains and glaciers and on the other by the black Southern Ocean, this is as far south as I’ve ever been. Further south than all but a few ever get along the Peninsula. The reward was a long walk on new snow-covered ice. A dozen leopard seals play along the ice edge and small squadrons of Adelie penguins walk and scoot on their bellies alongside.

We tried to get here last year by sea kayak, but our attempt to sneak through the Gullet just north – a narrow sliver of sometimes-open water – was for naught, and we only got as far as the bottom of Crystal Sound. Our goal last year was to get exactly to this point, to Blailock Island where, on the northeast corner, an old friend, Giles Kershaw, is buried. I think we may have spotted the sight today, marked by a stone cairn, as we trekked.

%Gallery-40580%
I met Giles in the mid-1980s, when he already had a reputation as the very best Arctic and Antarctic pilot in the business. He had flown for the British Antarctic Survey from 1974 to 1979 and had around the world, over both poles, and provided air support for many major expeditions. In 1983 alone he landed at the North Pole twenty-three times. In 1980 he was awarded a medal from the Queen of England, after he flew across a thousand miles of trackless Antarctic white to rescue three South African scientists who had been marooned on an iceberg for eight days. Even among his adventuring peers, Giles was considered the most adventuresome, the most curious, and the most visionary.

In 1985, after successfully helping a pair of wealthy American climbers scale the tallest peak on the continent, Mt. Vinson, he and two Canadian partners (Martyn Williams and Pat Morrow) started what is still the only private business operating in Antarctica. Then called Adventure Network International, they set up a seasonal base camp at Patriot Hills, near the Thiel Mountains in Antarctica’s interior, and flew in climbers, expeditioners and South Pole-bound tourists. Along the way they helped out a fair amount of international scientists, which is why the Antarctic Treaty and its membership – which bans private enterprise here – looked the other way and allowed them to operate.

In 1988 Giles helped lay supply caches between the tip of the Peninsula and the South Pole for my friend Will Steger’s Transantarctica Expedition and, on March 5, 1990, he was killed just near where I walked today. His Antarctica season had just ended and he was on a boat anchored just offshore from here, making experimental flights with a homemade gyrocopter. It crashed into a glacier at the edge of the Jones Ice Shelf. Several years later the mountain that anchors the northeast corner of the island across from where I stand is named for him.

That personal history notwithstanding, this spot on the map is one of the most remarkable places I’ve ever put my feet. Remote, stark, and unrelentingly beautiful. Even turning a full 360, twisting my boots in the soft snow, I can’t take it all in, too enormous to describe or articulate. You’ll have to come see it for yourself one day!

Click HERE for more dispatches from Antarctica!

Want to hike in the nude? Don’t go to Switzerland. It’s now a no no.

by Jamie Rhein on

In Switzerland shedding clothes and hitting the trail used to be fine and dandy. Nude hiking was allowed. Not any more. That fun has ended. In a move to protect children from seeing those body parts usually located in places where the sun doesn’t shine, the Swiss government has made a law, at least in the Appenzell Innerrhoden canton, that nude hiking isn’t allowed.

It sounds like this was a rush job, according to our pals over at Jaunted. From what I read, the Swiss rushed this law through before hiking season starts this year. Nude German hikers, in particular, have had a growing fondness for hiking in this pastoral region in nothing but a pair of good hiking boots. I can just picture the vote.

“Quick, quick, quick, the Germans are coming!” Germans have a history of nudism that dates way back when. There will be some pretty disappointed Germans with this year’s spring thaw, if they’re looking to go to Switzerland for unencumbered exercise.

There was a well known nudist who lived in Albuquerque when I lived there. He used to walk around town in skimpy shorts, slung low, or a Speedo bathing suit. The suit probably wasn’t his preference, but it kept him out of trouble. Maybe someone in Switzerland who wants to make some extra cash could set up a Speedo stand, or sell towels near hiking trails. Sarongs also work nicely in a pinch.

Bowermaster’s Antarctica — Port Lockroy

by Jon Bowermaster on



I spent the afternoon at the small island of Pt. Lockroy, where I’ve been many times before. We stopped in a couple times last January, during our sea kayak exploration, and hung out on the beaches and its protected bay. When we left Antarctica late that month, we actually left our kayaks tied down to big rocks on the island; they were picked up in February by the “National Geographic Endeavour” and carried back to Spain; from there they were shipped in a container to the U.S. and now sit happily in my Hudson Valley backyard.

Rick Atkinson, a Scotsman who first came to Antarctica more than thirty years ago as a 21-year-old dog sled driver for the British Antarctic Survey, greeted us on the penguin-crowded stone beach. The black and red refuge hut on the hill behind is surrounded by Gentoos (and an oddly out of place pair of Adelie penguins). An overpowering whiff of guano fills my nostrils … Aaaaah, Antarctica! Like elsewhere along the Peninsula this season, the hut is surrounded by still-deep snow.

%Gallery-40580%

He’s been coming here for thirteen years and has done and overseen the renovations during that period that have turned the hut into a British historical site. Part museum, part souvenir shop, Pt. Lockroy is today a must-stop along the Peninsula both for its recreation of life and work here fifty years ago, and also to stock up on Antarctica books, t-shirts, stickers and stuffed penguins. It’s an admittedly odd thing to stumble upon here in this remote place. But Rick and his three assistants wear their work with a smile, greeting on average one tourist ship a day, often hosting more than three hundred people in and out of their tiny work/living space.

The boom in tourism is evident everywhere along the Peninsula. Last season more than 46,000 visitors arrived by cruise boat. About 32,000 of them put their feet on land (or ice); the rest arrive aboard giant cruise liners too large to offload anyone. Rick’s experience is the frontline in how tourism is impacting the Peninsula and he’s the first to point out that you cannot come here, no matter how careful you are, and not make an impact. Though he cites a scientific study that shows that penguins, rigged with heart monitors, showed absolutely no change in rate as hundreds of red-coat clad tourists stomped by.

It was with Rick last January that we endured one thing we’d never expected in Antarctica: Horrific rains. We sat inside the hut then and watched the rain pour in buckets off the roof, soaking the penguin chicks still-covered in down. “That was the worst I’ve ever seen it,” he remembers. “But given that we’ve just experienced another very warm winter, I won’t be surprised if we see it again this year. Every year, it seems, there’s more and more rain at Lockroy.”

He and his team have been here a month and will stay until early March. Recording tools left on in the hut over-winter suggest the temperatures only dropped to -12, which for Antarctica, even inside the small, unheated cabin, suggests more warming.

We leave Rick some fresh water, baking soda and peppermint tea, assuming we’ll see him again soon.

Click HERE for more dispatches from Antarctica!

Gadling Gear Review: Arc’teryx Atlas AR Jacket

by Grant Martin on

Nothing is more important in your adventure travel than packing the correct gear for the job. Whether this is the right set of cams for a pitch through Joshua Tree or a comfortable pair of all purpose shoes for exploring Venice, the wrong gear can drastically affect the way you travel and ultimately can make or break a trip.

Skiing, in particular is a sensitive topic for me. Having spent each winter on a different hill for the past dozen years, I’ve always struggled to find the right gear to keep me warm – keep my fingers and toes correctly insulated, my face dry and my head covered, and I’ve constantly been let down by the performance of my gear.

Four years ago I finally found a system that worked well for me in the Salomon Advanced Skin line of jackets, a two part series that is extremely waterproof and just as warm to boot.

Technology has advanced, since then, however, and on a recent ski excursion to Snowbird in Salt Lake City I decided to take a look at the newest state of the art. Arc’teryx’s Atlas AR jacket, their top of the line insulated mountainside system was where I started

Key requirements? It needed to be lightweight, warm and waterproof. But with technology as advanced as it is today, all jackets should have these features, right? So I’ll take a look through some of the finer details of the jacket, what takes the technology above and beyond the competition, what areas I’d like to see improved and explain what justifies the $400 price tag.
Among adventure gear brands, Arc’teryx has long had a reputation as one of the best designers and manufacturers. Zippers are taped and seamed, and zippers are well and thoughtfully built to be waterproof and not invasive. So regardless of how much snow or sleet you splash onto them they won’t let in moisture. The Atlas AR is no exception, with two hip pockets, a left sternum pocket, two inner compartments and a left arm pocket.

Outside, the jacket is large and well styled with smooth Gore Windstopper material on the outer faces. At 6’3″, the Large was almost too long for me, although I suppose that’s important for keeping snow out of your pants when you wipe out. The tall collar has a zippered compartment from which a hood can be extracted, adding an additional layer if conditions are hazardous, but this also limits your side-to-side visibility, so if you’re bombing down the mountainside you probably want to keep this down.

Inside, the waterproof shell is insulated with lightweight, PrimaLoft media. This means that you get the waterproof, lightweight benefits of a regular shell but you also have insulation inside of the jacket so that you don’t need an extra fleece layer. It also means that you’re going to be warm on the mountainside. With the weather at about 30 degrees I wore a base layer, long sleeve t-shirt and sweater underneath my Atlas AR jacket, and by the time I reached the chair lift I was roasting.

It’s misleading in a way, because the jacket is so light and compactable, but that little amount of insulation in the jacket goes a long, long way.

It’s also got a standard powder skirt, draw strings at the waist and nifty sleeve skirts for wrists so that you don’t get snow up your arms.

One interesting feature of the jacket is the Recco avalanche beacon. A small black patch on your upper right arm is where the passive beacon sits, and in case of any emergencies, anyone (presumably, the ski patrol) with a Recco detector should be able to find you under the snow by tracking this beacon. Pretty cool, if you’re skiing in avalanche zones, but probably not necessary if you’re riding on the paltry hills of the Midwest. Unfortunately, I was not able to test the Recco avalanche beacon.

Taking the jacket down the hill, the first thing that you’ll probably notice about the Atlas AR is how windproof it is. If you tuck your face into the tall collar, you can barely feel an external effects on your body, and I took more than one run in this manner.

The tall collar is great for this use, but with it in close proximity to your mouth, it does tend to build up moisture and if your neck is small like mine, it’ll scoop up snow pretty quickly while you’re tomahawking down the hill. Many jackets have a felt or cloth material right at the collar to keep your face warm and dry, but the Atlas AR doesn’t have this. Any resulting moisture around your neck area will therefore just bleed down the inside front of the jacket.

This can be a bit of a concern if you’re carrying your phone or camera on the inside of your jacket. I usually keep my electronics inside of my jacket or well positioned in case (when) I fall, but I found that the outside pockets were in sensitive places and the inside pockets were moist, so I ended up keeping most of my equipment in my jeans. Comparatively, in my Solomon jacket there is an external clavicle pocket where I tend to keep my camera.

Otherwise, the jacket performed well on and off the hill, keeping me warm, away from wind, and providing a wealth of places to store gear. Oh and on top of that, it looks great. Even though my demo model was Oscar-the-Grouch-green, I got a lot of compliments.

Would I buy one? Maybe not for the $400 off the shelf, but if it was a good price at the end of the season I would seriously consider it.