Pack It Out…All Out on Mt. Whitney

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s something interesting:

When hiking Mt. Whitney, you must carry out your own feces. Isn’t that just the thing you wanted to know on this quiet, lovely Sunday?

You see, I know this unpleasant-sounding fact, because I am, literally, headed there now. If luck, weather and good health are with me, I will have summited the lower 48’s tallest peak by Tuesday afternoon.

It’s an exciting prospect, a bit daunting, but I just can’t get it out of my mind that I am going to have to carry around my own, well, waste. This is a new mandatory policy at Whitney, one started earlier this year after they removed the last of the miles-high outhouses at the two big camps on the mountain.

According to various posts over at the Whitney site, these outhouses never worked well anyway and they stunk to, ahem, high-heaven. But rather than build fancy new, high-tech outhouses that say, zap your feces with Higgs Bosons and convert them into recycled cups or something, the Forest Service went decidedly low-tech. They said, from now on, people will have to pack it out. Pack it ALL out. And so now at Whitney (like at various other mountains in CA…ie.e Mt. Shasta) you will now have to get your hands on what is called a WAG bag, and inside, dear friends, is where you will collect and store and carry your previous evening’s fully digested meal. Isn’t nature lovely!?

By the way, if anyone has any advice on doing Whitney, or interesting WAG bag experiences, do share!

Carbon Credits that Reforest America’s National Forests

by Neil Woodburn on

There are a lot of different ways out there to purchase “carbon credits” to offset your carbon footprint. One of the very best, in my opinion, just launched a month ago.

Like most other organizations in this category, The Carbon Capital Fund also helps individuals calculate the amount of emissions they produce on a yearly basis and then sells them credits to offset the damage they have caused the environment. The difference with the Carbon Capital Fund, however, is that the money generated from these credits is used for only one purpose; reforesting America’s National Forests with CO2-absorbing trees.

This is because the Carbon Capital Fund is actually run by the Forest Service itself. The government agency, according to a recent LA Times article, estimates that the forest under their protection absorbs “10% to 15% of the nation’s carbon emissions and that planting through the new initiative will increase that amount.”

That’s a win-win situation in my book. Not only does your carbon credits help clean the air, but they also help reforest some of America’s greatest natural resources. And, it’s not all that expensive to be guilt free. A quick session on the site’s Carbon Calculator revealed that I produce 7.98 metric tons of emissions per year. The cost to offset this is only $47.88. I wonder how many trees that will buy?

Portable Hand Generator Powers your Gadgets on the Road

by Neil Woodburn on

Generating power for all your portable electronic goods can be a challenge when you’re miles away from the nearest power source. When your iPod dies in the middle of a camping trip, for example, what do you do?

Fortunately, an entire industry has sprung up in the last few years catering to those who are terrified of losing power and falling off the grid.

As a result, human powered generators now come in all shapes and sizes. One of the more cool designs I’ve seen recently is the Pull-Cord Generator manufactured by Potenco.

This handy little 14 oz. device is like a miniature outboard motor; simply pull the attached cord and you have power. Pull it repeatedly for a minute straight and it produces enough juice to power:

* 20 minutes on a cell phone
* 1 hour of flashlight use
* 4 hours play time on an iPod Shuffle

Very cool! They should figure out how to attach one of these things to my car.

Where on Earth Week 20: Adršpach-Teplice Rocks – Czech Republic

by Brett Atkinson on

Well done neil_metblogs. You covered absolutely all the bases to give a correct answer. The “Rock Towns” of Adršpach and Teplice in Northern Bohemia aren’t as well known as the similar sandstone formations further west in the Cesky Raj region of the Czech Republic, but for my money they’re actually more spectacular.

While researching the latest edition of Lonely Planet’s Czech & Slovak Republics book I had the chance to check both regions out. Despite it being April, there was still a lot of snow on the ground – especially when I trekked the 3km trail along Wolf Gorge that joins the Adršpach and Teplice regions.

Lucky I could dive into the Pension Skaly for beer and schnitzel. Sometimes the simple things in life are the best.

Life at Latitude 59: On Top of Mt. Alice

by Catherine Bodry on
There are many wonderful things about living in Seward, Alaska. Besides the astounding natural beauty, there’s the small-town camaraderie, the pride residents have in being one of the few that stay for the winter, and the All-American feel of the old downtown. It’s what I consider an authentic town, meaning it’s cute in an unpolished way. Sometimes the wind blows the smell of the fish processing plant downtown, and other times coal dust from rail cars transporting coal to waiting ships blankets the town. It’s not just a tourist town; it’s industrial, and a little bit gritty. Seward is a 2-hour drive south of Anchorage, which is far enough to feel separate from the big city, but close enough that if you need to head to Anchorage for just a day, you can. Cruise ships stop here, and the touristy Alaska Railroad carts tourists to and from Anchorage. But it’s easy to escape the hordes.

Probably my favorite part about being in Seward is its proximity to phenomenal trails. Within a 15-minute drive is the trailhead to Exit Glacier and the Harding Ice Field, the famous Mt. Marathon (hosting an infamous 4th of July race), and the 15-mile Lost Lake traverse. It’s a rare evening when I don’t run or hike a trail. We Sewardites even get on the trails during the winter.

It’s rainy here, so perfect hiking days can be rare. My husband Lael and I took advantage of one such sunny day last week and climbed up Mt. Alice, the tallest mountain in Seward.

The trail up Alice is not maintained and is a bit of a local secret. There’s no trailhead, just an inconspicuous turn-off. As you start your hike, you’re in a forest of mossy Hemlocks, with blueberries scattered around.

The climb is steep, gaining 3000 feet from sea level to the end of the trail, and you emerge from the forest in an alpine meadow with only half of your climb behind you. From there, you follow a sharp ridge sometimes balancing on the edge of the cliff — or so it seems. Dall sheep wander the hillside and leave their wool in tufts on the rocks.

The trail ends when the meadows do, and you’re left to clamber over boulders and snow patches. You can’t get to the actual top of Alice as it becomes too technical for a mere hike. But you do get quite close; you can see the ridges and cracks in the small glaciers below her face.

We found a tarn hidden amongst the rocks; Lael took a quick swim, and I waded to my waist and eventually dunked my head. It was surprisingly cold for being so small, but tiny snow patches still dripped into the water so I guess it doesn’t get as much sun as it seem to on that bright day.

After the swim, with our shorts wet and bodies cooled off, we descended the mountain. We had blisters and sore thighs, but we also saw about 4 people on the mountain the whole day so it was a worthwhile journey. Even though it’s only August, fall is rapidly approaching and there’s a general feeling of “seize the sunny day” around town. Suddenly, it’s dark at night and you have to turn your car headlights on as early as 10p.m. I know that in the dead of winter I’ll cling to this bright day, because it’s so hard to imagine Alice without snow 8 months out of the year.