When we’re not outdoors, we get our adventure fix by exploring social media and the web. Sometimes we’re a little too plugged in and browsing adventure reads can turn from minutes to hours. To nourish your own adventure fix, here are some of the best adventure links we’ve discovered this week.
The Last Of The Marsh Arabs: What happens to a community and ecosystem at the nexus of geopolitical tensions and climate change? Travel writer and filmmaker Leon McCarron asks whether 6,000 years of history can help the people of the Mesopotamian marshes survive.
Nick Bullock: How The Alpinist Escaped His Life As A Prison Officer: Apparently, mountaineer Nick Bullock has spent more time in prison than some murderers. His subsequent first ascents around the world were a piece of cake compared to the days of breaking up fights between burly thugs.
Way Down in the Hole: For months, 33 men were stuck deep underground in the stifling confines of a Chilean copper mine. As their rescue unfolded, GQ Magazine reported on the circus at the mine. It also unearthed the deeper stories of men who happily trade their fate for a few dark months below.
The Thinking Man’s Guide to Hitting a Moose: Not with a boxing glove, but with a car. Notes on the flabbergasting climax of an Alaska road trip that changed the life of a twenty-something who wanted to experience life on the open road.
Gone but not forgotten
Climbers Wanda Rutkiewicz and Alan Rouse both made their names in the Greater Ranges. Each later perished on an 8,000m peak. Photo: Bartek Bargiel
Alpinist Wanda Rutkiewicz, the First Woman On K2: When she was 18, Wanda Rutkiewicz was quite a promising volleyball player. But when her old motorbike ran out of gas, one of the men who stopped to help out was a climber. Rutkiewicz accepted his invitation to climb in the nearby hills, and the rest is history.
K2 Triumph and Tragedy: I’ve previously visited a local pub run by the wife and daughter of late climber Alan Rouse. In 1986, Rouse reached the summit of K2 but never returned. This vintage documentary from Chris Bonington and pals charts the history of K2 expeditions, including the death of Rouse.
Hill Bagging Taken to Extremes: Some more ambitious hill baggers combine local lists with international ascents. They’re members of an active worldwide community focused on mapping and climbing peaks as defined by their prominence. The network regularly shares data and occasionally meets to combine resources about trickier summits.
A Mountain of Trouble: The lush peaks of Iraqi Kurdistan are irresistible to a certain breed of bold backpacker. They’re exotic, beautiful, and way off the beaten track. But when three young Americans accidentally crossed the border into Iran in 2009 after straying too far down a waterfall trail, the costs were high.
