I knew that kitesurfing was huge, but I was unaware that
snow kiting was big. And
apparently it isn’t that new. Matty McNair, the famous explorer who led the first all-women’s trip to the North Pole in
1997, has used kites and skis to speed across open stretches of the frozen Arctic for years. It actually sounds pretty
fun, albeit cold. The site here
at away.com has got some info on winter kiting and how in the heck it came to be.
Hiking Any Direction Good For You
Like to hike?
According
to this study, the direction you go can determine what type of demons you are fighting in your body. Conducted
in the Alps on healthly people who didn’t normally exercise, the findings determined that “going uphill cleared
fats from the blood faster” while “going downhill reduced blood sugar more”. Both also did well on lowering
bad cholesterol.
No word on how this impacted people chowing on cheeseburgers as they hiked.
Explorer’s Club Doc Fest: Alone Across Australia
So I missed a few of the early morning films because I had to interview
Richard Wiese, the President of the
club. He showed me around his office and some pictures of a few of some of the
amazing trips he’s done. Great guy. Really young and enthusiastic and smart as hell. He’s a great face to the world for
the explorer’s club at it seeks to bring in younger people.
Anyway, I did just get out of a great film. I watching the film
ALONE ACROSS AUSTRALIA, produced by Ian Darling and
John Muir. Muir is a well-known explorer and all around hard core dude. An Aussie, Muir in this film goes solo on foot
from the very south of Australia to the very north, a journey of some 2,500 kilometers. He travels at first with his
cute little dog, who, tragically (and I’m sorry to give this away) dies in one of the film’s most poignant moments.
Muir himself is a great character. He’s funny and self-deprecating and he reveals all the miseries and mishaps that are
guaranteed to happen to someone during a trip like his. For example, more than halfway through the walk, he somehow
loses his sleeping bad and must hike back tens of miles to get a spare, but not before freezing his tush off in the
night. He is hassled by dingoes and looked at as if he is a lunatic by numerous fellow Aussies who themselves make a
living in the bush.
So far, this has been my favorite film among the small more indie-type films shown.
Florida Great-Grandmother Going 1,000 Miles Hiking – For Third Time!
If you need a reason to get away from your computer screen
right now and go on a hike, try this…74-year-old Floridian and great-grandmother Joan Hobson is out on a hike
herself right now, walking 1,000 plus miles across her state on the
Florida Trail as a way to celebrate her 75th
birthday this year. The kicker,
according
to the Palm Beach Post, is that she is doing this hike, which she started on Dec. 28 and hopes to finish in
May, for the third time now. Her former two go a rounds were in 1997 and 2000. You go Joan!
UPDATE: Joan is working with the Florida Trail Association, an organization which maintains the Florida Trail,
to tell her tale as she goes. Read about her latest trail travels
here.
Flight-seeing
Man what a great idea: flying over Alaska in a small plane. Flight-seeing is what they call it. I’ve seen parts of
Alaska, too little if you need to know, but have to say landing in Anchorage in a jet offered a sweet view of the
glaciers and gaping glory of the Alaskan country. And so when I found
this site dedicated to small flights over Denali I thought, wow,
that’d be cool. You can always try and hike Denali, but flying isn’t a bad second choice. It’s a hell of a lot
easier.
Flights appear to be from half an hour to almost two. And it’s not too expensive…from $65 to $200 per person.