When we’re not outdoors, we get our adventure fix by exploring social media and the web. Here are some of the best adventure links we’ve discovered this week.
First Highline on Trango Tower: On August 17, Lukas Irmler and Antonia Ruede-Passul of Germany completed the first-ever highline walk on Trango Towers in Pakistan’s Karakoram. They climbed Great Trango Tower to acclimatize before tackling Nameless Tower.
Setting up the 21m highline required fixed ropes and two summit ascents of Nameless Tower. The successful crossing saw Ruede-Passul break her own women’s highline altitude world record, previously set at 5,860m on Ojos de Salado in Chile, while Irmler surpassed 6,000m for the first time.
A last-minute calamity
Following in the footsteps of Norway’s Great Adventurers: Steffen Skjottelvik set out to cross Canada, by foot, dog sled, and canoe, accompanied only by his beloved sled dogs. The Norwegian began his journey in 2023, but when one dog fell ill, he paused in the remote Cree community of Peawanuck. Here he found his home and a way of life that fitted him perfectly. He also fell in love with a local woman and became a second son to the community elders.
His original plan to travel by sled across the Hudson Bay coast changed after wolves killed one of his lead dogs. He decided to canoe the coastline in summer instead.
In 2025, he set off with his malamute Togo and a husky named Bay, facing polar bears, powerful tides, dense bogs, clouds of biting flies, and river crossings. On August 15, exhausted after weeks of difficult travel, Steffen could finally see his endpoint — the town of York Factory across the Hayes River. All he had to do was cross it. Togo survived and made it to shore, but Steffen’s body was found downstream 10 days later.
Photo: Apple TV
No green screens
Where Was ‘Tenzing’ Filmed? Apple TV’s Tenzing recreates the historic 1953 first ascent of Everest, this time with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay at the center of the story. The filmmakers used real alpine environments across Nepal and New Zealand rather than green screens.
Nepal provided locations for Tenzing’s early life in the Lower Mustang, as well as the scenes in Darjeeling, Kathmandu, and Everest Base Camp. New Zealand’s Southern Alps, particularly the Aoraki region, doubled for Everest’s glaciers and icefalls, with the Darwin Icefall standing in for the notorious Khumbu Icefall.
Photographer Encounters Magnificent White Stag: Wildlife photographer Brian Johnston has captured incredible images of a rare white stag, believed to be an albino red deer. Johnston and a friend spotted the stag one windy morning during the rutting season, but it detected them and ran off.
Returning the following day, they found it asleep in a field, apparently exhausted after a night of rutting activity. Eventually, it stood up, giving Johnston the opportunity to photograph it.
Photo: Brian Johnston
Damaged but alive
Shark Attack Survivor Recounts Losing His Leg While Surfing: Australian firefighter and surfer Mel Ismail was surfing at Glenfield Beach on Australia’s west coast on September 14, when he was attacked by a shark. Sitting beyond the breaking waves, watching a pod of dolphins, Ismail initially thought a dolphin had bumped into his leg. Suddenly, he was dragged underwater and realized what was happening.
He desperately tried to push his fingers into the shark’s large black eye, and it released him. Ismail was bleeding heavily but managed to catch a wave toward shore. Another surfer spotted him and helped him onto the beach. Despite losing his leg below the knee, Ismail is determined to return to the water and start bodyboarding as soon as he can.
Canoe Dig It: Sam Dunning discovered freestyle canoeing during the 2020 lockdown after seeing a video of master paddler Marc Ornstein performing an interpretive routine to music. Amazed by the combination of technical skill and on-water choreography, the New York-based actor and filmmaker began writing Canoe Dig It?, a mockumentary inspired by comedies such as This Is Spinal Tap.
Winning the paddling community’s support was not easy, but at a freestyle canoeing symposium in Ohio, Dunning eventually met Ornstein. Ornstein and his wife agreed to be stunt doubles for the film.
More on Kalie McCrystal
Into Thin Air: This is a good background to the stories we’ve done on Kalie McCrystal, the 38-year-old skyrunner who disappeared on the Matterhorn on September 1. She met a Polish climber on her ascent, and theirs is the last footage of her. It shows her climbing towards the 4,478m summit. Shortly afterward, she was spotted descending the Italian side. Then she vanished.
Mountain rescuers believe she fell between 4,100m and 4,250m, but cannot establish exactly where or in which direction she fell. Despite a thorough search, no clothing, blood, or remains have been found. Her mother and sister eventually accepted that she had died on the mountain.
Climber Awarded Carnegie Medal After Rescuing Hang Glider Pilot: Matthew Clark has been awarded the Carnegie Medal for rescuing a hang glider pilot who crashed into a cliff on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Clark, a 24-year-old climber and paraglider, had launched from the same spot minutes apart. Clark had just landed when he heard the crash reported over his radio. Reaching the scene with other pilots, he found Parson suspended in his harness around 15m above the ground.
With no walkable route to him, Clark spotted a narrow chimney nearby and free soloed up it, reaching him in about five minutes. Clark cut Parson free, moved him to safer ground, dressed a gash on his knee, and waited with him until a helicopter team was able to extract him on a long line.
