Here at ExWeb, when we’re not outdoors, we get our adventure fix by exploring social media and the wider interweb. Sometimes we’re a little too plugged in, and browsing interesting stories turn from minutes into hours. To nourish your own adventure fix, here are some of the best links we’ve discovered this week.
“Paradise exists!”: Sebastiao Salgado’s Stunning Voyage into Amazonia: The voyage wrecked his knee and almost cost an eye, but it took the Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado into a world of shamans, hidden tribes, and infinite rainforests. He relives an extraordinary odyssey in his latest book.
The Off-Roading Astronauts of Apollo: The later moon missions didn’t grab as much attention as the first landing in 1969, but they had something very cool on the gear front: the lunar rover, a lightweight go-kart that gave crews unmatched mobility on another world.
Unclimbable: Three climbers go searching for the line between courage and humility on an expedition to the Cirque of the Unclimbables, a kind of arctic Yosemite in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Settle in for a long read on this one.
A Death at Sea on the “Row of Life”: At 59 years old and with a preexisting condition, Paralympic rower Angela Madsen had plenty to worry about, as the coronavirus spread across the country. So she dipped the oars of her small rowboat in the Pacific and pointed the bow toward Hawaii. She never returned.
Pen Hadow and Simon Murray pondering their next move on the way to the South Pole. Photo: Martin Hartley
Darling, have you ever thought of walking to the South Pole?
My Wife Made Me Walk to the South Pole! Simon Murray, ex-Legionnaire and businessman extraordinaire, became the oldest man to walk 1,200 km to the South Pole in 2004. And it all started with a conversation with his wife over breakfast.
“Big Wall Bev” Changed the Calculus of Women’s Climbing in Yosemite: In 1969, Beverly Johnson left school for a more hands-on education in California granite. It culminated with her historic first female solo of El Capitan in 1978. Johnson spent 10 days on Yosemite’s iconic monolith, just one highlight in her extraordinary life as a climber, skier, and award-winning cinematographer.
Olympic Outfits — Sport Climbing Style at Tokyo 2020: As we near the Tokyo 2020 Games, some are wondering what the climbers will be wearing. The answer — for both on and off the wall — is a mix of body-hugging Lycra, dodgy denim, designer couture, and gaudy graphics. There’ll be no baggy pants and patched-up down jackets in Tokyo.
A Pilot’s Son Takes Flight: Ed Caeser is a New Yorker journalist and author of an excellent new book on Maurice Wilson, Everest’s most peculiar casualty. In this long read, Caeser charts how three journeys from the past century — his own, his fathers, and Maurice Wilson’s — converged in the air.
