Sherpa Work

by Erik Olsen on

Sherpas are really the unsung heroes of mountain climbing. Where would any group heading up Everest be without their
dedicated team of sherpas carrying their crap, showing the way, helping people along? Hillary would not likely have
made it up Everest without Tenzing Norgay, let alone the scores of modern-day Hillary wannabees who pay exorbitant peak
fees to scale the world’s tallest peak.  So who are the sherpas, and why don’t they get more attention?

Well, to answer some of these questions, here’s
a great NYT article about the
Himalayan sherpas. I’ve always thought that an entire documentary ought to be done about sherpas, their life-style,
their beliefs, their stamina. They’re a fascinating group of people who’s contribution to mountaineering needs to be
better recognized.

Kerouac’s Destiny Highway

by Erik Olsen on

On The Road. I’ve read it twice. So far. The last time was when I was coming back from Bangkok on a 24-plus hour
flight and my head felt like someone had whupped me with a bat. But I read every word of that book and committed myself
to a goal of always moving, to live a life always seeing and experiencing and traveling. Kerouac was a big inspiration
for a lot of folks like me.

He was also an inspiration to Matt Miller, who
wrote this excellent piece on Kerouac and his travels. The story is from an excellent Web site that deserves more just
your fleeting attention. There are some great pieces here related to literature and travel. But this Kerouac piece, and
others like it caught my eye in particular this morning because I am feeling the need to travel…to move, to be on the
road.

It’s Spring, Hit the Parks

by Erik Olsen on

Well, we are basically there. It took one helluva long time to get through winter, but unless Mother Nature decides
to hurl another storm at us, we may be in the clear. So it might be time to start looking around for what’s happening
in the nation’s parks…where to go for that first big trip outdoors? To take the mountain bike out after inflating the
tires for the first time in a few months? GORP has got
a piece on the top ten parks to check out. A couple of them are newbies: Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley and Colorado’s
Great Sand Dunes National Parks, both of which were granted new status in the closing days of the Clinton
administration.

Hiking Bali

by Erik Olsen on

Bali is still recovering from the bombings there several years ago, and many visitors are looking for ways to
appreciate this Indonesian gem other than hitting the resort areas. So some, like
this writer, set
out for the hills looking for killer treks and fairly vigorous hikes. The goal of this intrepid hiker was to scale
Mount Rinjani, the highest mountain in Indonesia outside Papua (formerly Irian Jaya). Leave your notions of Bali as a
tropical paradise at home if you’re trying this hike, It is a cold place that wil require you to pack long
johns. 

Happy on the Appy

by Erik Olsen on

Bill Bryson made it famous for those who didn’t already know much
about one of America’s finest trails. Since his book about the Appalachian Trail (which I understand might be made into
a movie with Robert Redford and Paul Newman), there have been lots of stories about the AT, many of them feeble efforts
to recreate the Bryson trek, but many of them providing eye-opening history and first-person experience hiking the
trail. Well, here a story on
CNN about the Appalachian
Trail that focuses exclusively on it’s passage through Massachusetts. The trip takes you through the Berkshires,
past Mount Greylock and through downtown Dalton, Massachusetts.

A nice place to stop for a cheeseburger.