Remote Irish Island

by Neil Woodburn on

Ever
since visiting Inishmore off the coast of Galway, remote Irish islands have always called out to me like a siren’s
song.  I was therefore very pleased to learn about a new one, even more remote, which I had never heard of before.

Skellig Michael lies off the coast
of County Kerry and across some very rough seas.  It is small and uninhabited but blessed with the honor of being
a World Heritage Site due to an ancient monastery built 1,200 years ago by some extraordinarily reclusive monks. 
To visit their six “beehive-shaped” living quarters, one has to summit 600 stairs built into the side of a
700 foot peak towering over the Atlantic Ocean.  Based upon the photos I’ve seen, it’s positively
Middle-Earth in appearance.  Tolkien would have been proud. 

 

4th annual Adirondack Backcountry Ski Festival

by Erik Olsen on

My, it has been an odd winter here on the East Coast. We went from a long series of delightfully warm days in the
coldest of months (Dec/Jan), to a monster snowstorm that lasted for a mere day and then whose snows disappeared like
the clouds that brought them. Now, while it’s chilly, it is still quite warm given the season.

A sign of
global warming? The apocalypse? That Tom and Katie are definitely through? Who knows?

But here’s the
rub: there is still snow upstate, and that means skiing. In this case, I’m not talking about the downhill kind where
you sit in a comfy chair for the ride up the hill. I’m talking about backcountry. Basically, that means you have to
work for your runs, using randonee gear to haul yourself up the slope. For East Coast backcountry fans, it also means
the start of the Adirondack Backcountry Ski Festival, which starts up
this weekend.

If you’ve never done backcountry before, this is a great event to get you started. The
event is in its fourth year and they hold clinics and events to bring people up to speed on the gear and techniques
you’ll need to leave the lifts behind. There will also be a catered buffet dinner party (say oooh, ahhhh) and a
Backcountry Magazine presentation featuring Naheed
Henderson and Nils Larsen and their trip to discover the roots of skiing in the Chinese Altai Mountains. Nice way to
spend a weekend, I’d say.

Denali Denied?

by Erik Olsen on

A buddy of mine has climbed Mt. McKinley (aka Denali) about a dozen times. He says it’s one of the roughest,
most challenging climbs around, certainly one of the most challenging in the United States. It’s also very popular. So
it might surprise some climbers and would be Hillarys this year to find out that the National Park Service will
be restricting the number of climbers up the big mountain this coming season. Yes, just 1,500 people will be allowed
to attempt the 20,320 summit because there have in the past been too many problems with high-traffic and rescues and all
that stuff. Not to mention the waste that has built up along the trail, from people’s actual garbage to their human
waste.

The good news is that the 1,500 figure isn’t actually that restrictive since fewer than that, some
1300, attempted the summit last year. But the broader issue is all about care and maintenance of the mountain, as you
can read here.

Puerto Williams: At the End of the World

by Erik Olsen on

The little town of Ushuaia in Argentina bills itself as
the town at the end of the world, the fin del mundo. The problem is that this is not quite the case. Yes, the town is
at the very tip of the South American continent, no question about that. But whether it is the furthest town south on
the continent, well, that is a matter of some debate. It turns out that the more likely candidate for this honor is the
town of Puerto Williams on Isla
Navarino.

Now, I am proud to say I have actually been to Puerto Williams, and whether or not is the furthest
southern city is of some consequence, of course. I mean it’s cool to be able to say you’ve been there, right? But more
than that I should tell you that Puerto Williams is rather fascinating. I pulled up there years ago when I was
hitch-hiking aboard a Chilean Navy ship called the Aquiles. We were staying overnight, so I headed out and went for
along, long walk through and out of the town. At one point, I cam upon a little factory where long rows of women were
shucking sea urchins. The place smelled horrible, but it was a fascinating sight to see these long lines of women
plucking the guts out of sea urchins.

Well, Puerto Williams sits below the 54th parallel and truly is the
last slice of civilization before you head into the Straits of Magellan and then into the gnashing maw of Drake’s
Passage. I was tickled so see that the LA
Times had an article on the town. Though short on detail, it brought back a ton of memories of my travels down
there. I love that part of the world, and recommend you check it out if you have the chance, and make sure you drop in
on the folks at Puerto Williams. It is at the end of the world as we know it, and you’ll feel fine. 

GADLING'S TAKE FIVE: Week of February 21

by Erik Olsen on

It’s that time again, time to highlight some of the more
interesting Gadling posts from this last week. And it was a rather rich week, I’d say, especially when you consider
that we put up another podcast for your ear budding pleasure. But let me start at the beginning with this week’s
list:

5. Blimp Travel: This was a post I
found over at Popular Science and it really fired me up. I’ve long been puzzled why we haven’t been able to ply the
skies slowly in a dirigible. I mean, the technology has been around for a while, and yet, no blimp rides. Did the
tragedy of the Hindenburg ruin blimp travel? Well, perhaps not. Looks like someone may be building blimps for us after
all.

4. Tiki Mania: To be honest, I had only
heard of this whole Tiki business through Neil, whose post on Tiki Mania made it clear that the current Tiki revival
(revival? When was the last great Tiki boom, again? Oh, the 60s) is something to pay attention to, at the very least
for the promise of delicious fruity drinks.  But seriously, little did I know that the Tiki craze has its own magazine, blog, and, a band called Ape.

3. Calypso:
Adrienne, you might have read, is spending some fine time in Trinidad, and are we jealous! Well, she’s somehow found a
nice connection down there and is sending some excellent dispatches on life in a place most of us have never been. They
are really superb, and we are grateful. I’d like, in fact, to direct you to this wonderful post on Calypso and Soca
music. I read it last night, and then the daylight come and me wanna go home.

2. Tunisian Star Wars Locations: Sorry, I’m,
about a big a Star Wars geek as they get. I’ll not get into the details, but trust me, I’m out there in a galaxy far far
away. And so that is why I enjoyed Neil’s post on Tunisian Star Wars locations. What can I say? I’d go there just to
stand in the sand and say: These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

1. Gadling Podcast: Joshua Davis: I really
enjoyed chatting with author Josh Davis about his new book Underdog: How I survived the World’s Most Outlandish
Competitions (not to mention the forthcoming film on his sumo exploits). The podcast here is our first since we spoke
with Fabien Cousteau about his shark submarine, and I think you’ll really enjoy it. Josh is a great guy, and his story
will make you shake you head in wonder.