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.
Out Of The Sky: Quite a few people will gather to watch a rocket launch into space, but very few come to see astronauts return to Earth. Yet that is exactly what photographer Andrew McConnell did.
Designed in the 1960s, the Soyuz capsule has been ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station for decades. It launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and lands within a few hundred kilometers of it.
The Big Baltic Bomb Cleanup: Across the Baltic and North Sea, abandoned bombs from World War II are corroding. As their casings break apart, carcinogens leach into the sea.
Three companies are trying to remove over 1.5 million tonnes of munitions from the sea floor. The first €100 million stage will only eliminate 80 tonnes of munitions, but the teams hope it will prove their technology works and encourage further funding.
Bombs scattered across the seafloor of Lubeck Bay. Photo: Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research
Mansplaining hiking
Keep Your Unsolicited Adventure Advice to Yourself: Jennifer Malloy was happily hiking when a man stopped to question her. Why was she trying to reach the summit of Little Lougheed with her two-year-old strapped to her back?
This might seem trivial, but Malloy sees this behavior all too regularly. She says men feel the need to stop and mansplain mountain safety to her, even though she is an experienced solo hiker, usually on a trail she knows very well. The advice might be well-intentioned, but it is always unsolicited and infuriating.
Jordan’s New Long Distance Hiking Trail: Walking the Wadi Rum Trail, you might feel like you have been dropped into a Star Wars film. And you would be quite right, its magnificent landscapes have been the backdrop for many movies.
A new trail opened in 2023, stretching 120km from Jebel Umm Ishrin into the region’s protected areas. You can tackle the trail by yourself, but having a Bedouin guide is encouraged.
Lorraine McCall. Photo: Dan Bailey
The Scottish hill triple-crown
Lorraine McCall Completes Continuous Grahams Round: On Thursday, Lorraine McCall completed her continuous Grahams Round. She is the only woman to complete the 231 Grahams in a single journey.
Over four months, McCall walked and biked from hill to hill. She took ferries to access those on the Scottish islands. She has now completed the triple crown of Scottish hill lists: the Grahams, the Munros, and the Corbetts. The Grahams were the hardest of the three.
The Female Travelers Who Shaped the Ancient World: Three women from the 1800s completely changed our understanding of ancient Egypt, but you have probably never heard of them.
Lucie Duff Gordan went to Egypt in 1864. Her work inspired Amelia Edwards to travel there, and Edwards’ book in turn convinced Emma Andrews to visit. All three visited as tourists, but their books had a significant impact on the field of Egyptology.
Tyler Austin Harper and Brandon Sausele. Photo: Peter Fisher
Extreme fishing
The Dangerous, Secretive World of Extreme Fishing: Striped bass are a hugely popular game fish in America. You can catch them in the day, but the largest come close to the shore at night, especially in rough water.
Wetsuiting is an extreme fishing trend in which a small group of fishermen don wetsuits and wade into cold, rough seas at night to try to catch these “stripers.”
Retreat Was Out of the Question: Quentin Roberts writes about his iconic first ascent of Jirishanca’s Southeast Ridge with Alik Berg in 2022. Learning from a previous trip to Peru, they gave themselves longer to acclimatize and attempted to do things the local way. They spent days scouting the East Face of the mountain. Then the snow hit, forcing them to change their planned line.
