The Longest Climb: from the Dead Sea to the summit of Everest

by Kraig Becker on

Many adventurers are driven to go to extremes. They visit remote places and seem to revel in the challenge and suffering that goes along with those expeditions. Back in 2006, a team of climbers from the U.K. took that philosophy to new limits, when they set out on an expedition that began at the Dead Sea and ended on the summit of Everest.

The team began their adventure at 1385 feet below sea level on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan, where they climbed aboard their bikes and proceeded to ride all the way Everest Base Camp on the Tibetan side of the mountain. The journey took more than six months to complete, and they faced about every type of weather imaginable along the way.

Upon reaching Everest, their challenges were just beginning of course. They still had to face the tallest mountain on the planet, and all of the difficulties that that entails. In the end, they reached the summit, located at 29,029 feet, having chalked up 30,414 feet of elevation gain along the way.

To get a taste of their journey, check out the video below, as the team goes from the lowest point on Earth to the highest, completely under their own power.

Nepal’s cabinet to meet at Everest base camp

by Kraig Becker on

Later this week, Nepali Prime Minister Madhav Kumar, along with 26 members of his government, will travel to base camp on Mount Everest, where they’ll hold a cabinet meeting to raise awareness of global climate change and the effects it is having on the mountain. Warming temperatures in the Himalaya are causing glaciers to recede at an alarming rate, as rivers and streams dry up across the region.

On Thursday, Dec. 3rd, the cabinet will fly to Lukla, a small town located at 9383 feet, where they’ll spend the night before boarding a helicopter on Friday that will take them up to base camp at 17,585 feet in elevation. While there, they will survey the direct impact of the dwindling water supply in the Khumbu Valley, where villagers are already having to trek several hours each day to collect the water they’ll need for their day-to-day living.

Recently a similarly high profile cabinet meeting was held in the Maldives, where the president of that island nation, along with 11 cabinet members, held a meeting underwater while wearing scuba gear. Both of these events take place as the U.N. prepares to convene a special conference that is expected to be attended by 190 nations, who will be discussing a plan to replace the Kyoto Protocols by 2012.

The glaciers of the Himalaya are the second largest concentration of frozen freshwater on the planet behind the polar ice caps. The normal melting process of those glaciers feeds some of the longest rivers in the world, including the Ganges in India and Yangtze in China. As those glaciers recede, and the latest estimates have some melting at a rate of 70 meters per year, we can expect long term, and wide reaching consequences throughout Asia and beyond.

Explorer hopes to visit “three poles” in one year

by Kraig Becker on

Polar explorer Eric Larsen has just begun an epic adventure that will literally take him to the ends of the Earth over the course of the next year. Eric has set out on his Save The Poles Expedition, in which he plans to travel to the “three poles” within one calendar year. Those poles include the North and South of course, but also the summit of Everest, which is often referred to as the third pole in adventure circles.

The purpose behind Eric’s Save The Poles campaign is to promote the use of alternative, clean energy sources as a method to reduce our carbon emissions. The environments in which he’ll be traveling are fragile ones, and they are all being dramatically effected by global climate change in some profound ways. Larsen hopes that during his year-long journey he’ll be able to collect data that helps demonstrate just how these places are changing.

The expedition officially got underway this week, when Eric, and two companions, set out from Patriot Hills in Antarctica for the South Pole. This will be the first leg of his journey, which is expected to take roughly 40 days, covering approximately 500 miles on skis. In the spring, he’ll turn his sights north, and go after his second goal, the North Pole, which is another major arctic undertaking, but one that will be quite different from his Antarctic travels in some significant ways. Finally, next fall, he’ll make his bid for the summit of Everest, during the post-monsoon climbing season, hoping to reach the summit of the highest mountain on Earth.

You can join Eric on his expedition by following along on his blog, where he has already made several audio dispatches from Antarctica, and he’ll be keeping us abreast of his progress at every stage of the adventure.

The Catch-22 of Adventure Travel and the Environment

by Kraig Becker on

When it comes to adventure travel, the terms “sustainability” and “eco-friendly” get tossed around a lot these days. In some cases, these are just buzz words in a travel brochure designed to help travelers feel good about themselves before they head off to exotic locations. But for the best travel companies, these are the building blocks of a philosophy that they have followed for years. In some cases, even before eco-tourism was even an accepted term.

If there is one type of travel that has a responsibility to go easy on the environment and take care of our natural resources, it is adventure travel. Many of these types of trips take place in remote locations, far from civilization, often in pristine settings that are seldom visited. But those locations also happen to be the most fragile and easily damaged by eager visitors. That is one of the contradictions of this type of journey. You get to visit some of the most amazing places on the planet, but in doing so, you may be causing more harm than good.

There are a number of high profile examples of this Catch-22 situation. One of the most famous is on Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Environmentalists tell us that the famed Snows of Kilimanjaro are receding at a rapid rate, and that they may be gone completely by 2015. I’ve even seen articles suggesting that we should “go before they’re gone”, urging us to make the famous trek to Kili’s summit before the glaciers have completely melted away. This has led to increased traffic on the mountain, which has definitely had an impact on the environment there, with more trash and human refuse on the slopes. In our rush to see the effects of climate change on Kili, are we having an even more direct and profound impact on that environment there?
A similar story is told on Mt. Everest, where climbers have been leaving behind all manner of trash for years, including spent oxygen bottles, abandoned gear, and more. Even the bodies of mountaineers who have died while climbing are often left where they have fallen. But Nepal has recognized that Everest is an important resource that needs to be protected, and because of that, there has been a concerted effort in recent years to clean up the mountain. Teams of Sherpas have worked hard removing tons of trash from the tallest mountain on Earth, and to ensure that Everest stays clean, Nepal has instituted rules that require all climbing teams to carry their trash back off the mountain or face substantial fines and other penalties.

Across the globe countries have taken similar steps to protect their natural resources which often play a big role in their tourist trade. In Peru, the Inca Trail has become so popular that the government was forced to put a cap on the number of hiking permits that it issues each day in an effort to limit the damage to the environments there. Similarly, the Ugandan government has very strict limitations on the number of visitors to its national parks which are home to the last mountain gorillas. The permits to visit those primates are also quite expensive, with fees going directly to funding their care. This program is often cited as being one of the very best examples of sustainable tourism being used effectively and successfully. In fact, the Ugandan approach has become a model for other countries around the globe.

Of course, much of the responsibility for protecting these environments that we travel through falls on the company we elect to travel with. The good ones will have policies in place that demonstrate that their commitment to the environment is more than just lip service. For example, while traveling in the Amazon earlier this year, I went trekking with guides through the rain forest. At one point, we stopped in a small clearing, and each of the members of our group planted a tree in a ceremony that reaffirmed the importance of the Amazon’s role in our global climate. But in strange contrast, upon returning to our river boat, we were handed bottles of water, a product that is known for not being exactly good for the environment. (For the record, I brought my own aluminum bottle and refilled it from the mostly unused water dispensers positioned around the boat.) Lesson learned. Choose your travel company wisely.

Adventure travel can be very exciting and provide an experience that is unlike most any other kind of trip. But it also offers the potential to do substantial damage to fragile ecosystems. Fortunately, the travelers who gravitate to these kinds of trips are generally outdoor enthusiasts who take an active role in protecting the environment, both on a local and global level. Those kinds of travelers understand the concept of visiting remote places and leaving no trace of their passing. They also tend to reward companies that share those philosophies, and together, traveler and tour operator, can work together to ensure that these amazing locations remain accessible and viable for future generations of travelers as well.

Climate change bugs climbers on Everest

by Kraig Becker on

In another ominous sign of global climate change, climbers on Mount Everest are reporting that they are finding house flies in Base Camp for the first time. According to this story from The Guardian, the insects began appearing earlier this year, catching mountaineers, including the Sherpas who call the Himalaya home, completely off guard.

Everest BC sits at 5360 meters (17,585 feet), an altitude that was considered too cold and in hospitable for most bugs in the past. But the appearance of the insects was just another indicator of the impact of global warming on the Khumbu Valley, which has seen its glaciers recede at a rate of 10-20 meters per year. Further evidence can also be found in the mountain villages, where water sources are running dry, forcing inhabitants to hike miles each day for supplies.

These changes are having a direct impact on the tourism to the region as well. Each year, hundreds of climbers come to Everest to make an attempt on the world’s tallest mountain, and hundreds more trekkers make the hike up to Base Camp, taking in the mountain scenery that is unmatched anywhere else in the world. But with water supplies dwindling, there is less for the visitors to the Khumbu to drink as well.

Worse yet, the warming is changing the summit of the mountain itself. In the article above, Dawa Sherpa, a mountain guide who has reached the top of the world twice, says that in years past, as many as 50 people could stand on the summit of Everest. Now, fewer than 18 can be at that point at the same time, thanks to the shrinking of the cornice. Worse yet, it is likely to get smaller still in the years ahead.