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 adventure fix, here are some of the best adventure links we’ve discovered this week.
Because It’s There (Sort of): GPS units in hand, obsessed adventurers are roaming the world in search of 16,232 places where major lines of latitude and longitude intersect. Sound geeky? Not when your sweet spot is at 17,000 feet up on the side of a remote Bolivian volcano.
Explorer: Sir Ranulph Fiennes, sometimes dubbed ‘the world’s greatest living explorer’, has had a long and varied adventure career. He circumnavigated the world from pole to pole, made an inland crossing of Antarctica, and discovered a lost city in Arabia. In addition, he lost half his fingers to frostbite, raised millions of pounds for charity, and was nearly cast as James Bond. But who is the man who prefers to be known as ‘Ran’? With exclusive access, a new biopic of his life is set to be released in the coming weeks. Here’s the trailer.
Monsterwellen: Every hour of every day, behemoth container ships cruise commercial ocean highways, loaded with stereos and lobster and plastic air fresheners. And during the winter storm season, from out of nowhere, massive waves can wreck these arks of global trade.
Historical badass
Maurice Herzog Led the Brutal First Ascent of an 8,000m Giant: On June 3, 1950, three years before anyone would stand on top of Everest, French mountaineers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal knocked off the first of the 8,000m giants: Annapurna. For three years, Annapurna was the highest anyone had ever climbed. The accomplishment would be overshadowed when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stepped onto the summit of Everest in 1953, but the Annapurna summit was groundbreaking and still commands the respect of mountaineers.
Bear Cams Are Back – We Repeat, Bear Cams Are Back: This is an all-hands-on-deck situation. The Brooks Falls bear cams, in Alaska’s Katmai National Park, are back for another summer. And the bears are big-time out and about. It’s like water therapy right there on your screen.
Postcards to my Climbing Mentors: What hooked you on climbing? Outdoor writer Jessie Leong reflects on the people who first introduced her to climbing outside and the strong partnerships formed during those formative outdoor adventures.
Chasing the Aurora Borealis
The northern lights of Swedish Lapland. Photo: Lola Akinmade Åkerström
A ‘blue hole’ to the Northern Lights: A little-known meteorological phenomenon makes a tiny village in Arctic Sweden one of the best places on Earth to consistently see the Aurora Borealis.
Interview with Sibusiso Vilane: In 2003, Sibusiso Vilane became the first Black African to stand on the summit of Everest. Upon his return from the Himalayas, South Africa awarded him the Order of Ikhamanga and he shook Nelson Mandela’s hand. Since that climb, he’s ticked off the Seven Summits, become the first Black person to complete the Grand Slam challenge, and skied to the North and South poles. Now, at 51, he runs 90km ultra-marathons for fun.
