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.
How Ukrainian Climbers Traded Mountains for War: Across Ukraine, a community of climbers has morphed into “a network at war.” They raise funds, source equipment, and fight on the front line. Many have used their experience in mountains to survive in wartime. Ed Douglas speaks to a number of them about their experiences.
The Last Iconoclast: A tribute to legendary rock climber and BASE jumper Ammon McNeely. We reported on his death earlier this week. Writer Andrew Bisharat comments, “I’m often struck by how senseless and banal many deaths are of people whom we revere for their risk-taking and bravery. In storybooks, we expect that pirates die walking the plank or getting swallowed by the giant sea monster during an epic battle; not from falling off the side of the ship during a calm stretch of water.”
Ammon McNeely. Photo: Andrew McGarry/Facebook
Not all it’s cracked up to be
The Truth About Being an Adventure Guide: Adventure guides are paid to travel to the world’s most stunning places. It sounds ideal, romantic. But there are two sides to it. Erin Phillips shares the epic highs and the lows that follow. As his 20s crept into his 30s, he realized, “The cycle of relationships coming and going was speeding up more than I could handle. What I really wanted, beyond any grand adventure, was a consistent community.”
Where #VanLife meets #Skibum: Ski resorts across the Pacific Northwest allocate areas for vans and RVs to park overnight. Heather Hansen explores three resorts to savor the crossover between van life and skiing. The no-frills alternative to hotels has become so popular that many places are looking to increase their number of overnight spots. “There’s a community scene for sure. After the lifts close, dogs are running, kids are running, fires are going, and everyone meets up,” said one regular at Mount Hood Meadows.
The Best Adventure Movies on Netflix 2023: Outdoors Magic has compiled a list of the top adventure films currently on Netflix. These tales of human exploration, endurance, and survival feature drama in some of the remotest regions on earth.
Sachi Cunnigham photographs Moana Wong surfing the Pipeline at Oahu, Hawaii. Photo: Sachi Cunningham
Shooting big-wave surfers — and surviving
Being a Big-Wave Photographer: To photograph the surfers at Mavericks, Sachi Cunningham doesn’t use long lenses, she takes to the water. As surfers line up, she perilously swims among them, then waits until they take off. Then she swims into the impact zone. It is all about timing. She gets her shot, then dives deep to get away from the water crashing down on her. “You don’t want to get the same shots as everyone else,” she says.
Ice canoeing in Quebec City: The Annual Winter Carnival in Quebec celebrates the history of using canoes on the St. Lawrence River. They were used to carry produce, mail, and patients needing medical care from one side of the river to the other. Now there is the yearly ice-canoe race, which every February draws teams from all over the world. Robert Escrock tells of his experiences, flitting between paddling and dancing across chunks of loose ice.
The Fault Line: Tim Howell recounts the day he and two friends were ski-touring Switzerland’s Alphubel. He was the point man. Traversing the slope, he suddenly heard a muffled yell. Both his friends had fallen into a crevasse and he was now a one-man rescue team.
