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.
I Slept in a Tent 300m Above a Lake District Valley: Ben Weeks was looking for an unusual outdoor activity and came across cliff camping at Honsitor in the Lake District. Soon, he was spending a night suspended in a bright orange tent hundreds of meters in the air.
Is Sextant Navigation the New GPS? Tom Cunliffe makes his case for reviving sextant navigation. He argues that modern technology has dulled sailors’ connection to the natural world, and that reading the sun, stars, and moon is not only deeply satisfying but far simpler than most people think. It requires no advanced math and is accessible to anyone.
Photo: Tom Cunliffe
‘Alpine divorce’
Women Are Being Abandoned By Their Partners on Hiking Trails: “Alpine divorce” is a concerning new trend in the outdoor world. Women are being abandoned by their partners in mid‑hike, often on steep, hazardous trails, leaving them to find their own way back to safety.
One woman recalls being left behind on Zion National Park’s Angel’s Landing by a partner, who then descended the mountain with another woman. A number of similar stories have cropped up on social media, suggesting that being deserted outdoors is becoming ever more common.
How Can I Get Over The (Self-Inflicted) Stigma of Calling Mountain Rescue: Juls Stodel responds to a reader’s query on how to handle the shame she feels for calling mountain rescue. Reflecting about the time when she herself had to be rescued, Stodel highlights the compassion and professionalism of rescue teams.
She emphasizes that these services exist without judgment and should be used when safety is at risk. She urges everyone to recognize that mishaps sometimes happen to even the most well‑prepared hikers.
Tanya Houppermans photographs a tiger shark off the coast of Grand Bahama. Photo: Pat Sinclair
Facing Apex Predators: Photographer and marine conservationist Tanya Houppermans is trying to challenge the myths around sharks and other misunderstood predators. She has done over 1,000 dives and had close encounters with several aquatic predators. In reality, sharks have far more to fear from us than we do from them.
Double tragedy
Teen Couple Die After Falling Hundreds of Feet on Hiking Trail: Two 18‑year‑olds have died after a hiking incident on Australia’s Mount Beerwah. Lorielle Georgina and Jack Thatcher fell between 60m and 90m while hiking in slippery, rain‑soaked conditions.
Georgina died at the scene on March 15, while Thatcher was taken to the hospital in a critical condition and succumbed to his injuries three days later. The pair had been hiking with friends when they became separated. Authorities noted that the recent rainfall had made the terrain dangerously slick.
How To Kill a Mermaid: The Linnea Mills Story: A new documentary, How to Kill a Mermaid, revisits the 2020 death of 18-year-old diver Linnea Mills. A cold-water training dive in Glacier National Park led to a fatal chain of errors. It raises a number of questions about instructor oversight, equipment failure, and risks in the adventure world. Using footage from the dive itself and interviews with family and others involved in the dive, the documentary explores the systemic failures in the scuba industry.
We Were 4,000 Feet Up An Alaskan Giant; Then Disaster Struck: Justin Guarino recounts an ascent of Alaska’s Mount Bradley that quickly turned catastrophic. When he and his climbing partner, Ryan, were 1,200m up, a falling block of ice struck Ryan in the head. He was knocked out, and both climbers began plummeting downward, just 15 meters from a 900m drop.
Incredibly, Ryan came to and used his ice axe to arrest their fall. Guarino reflects on his survival, almost leaving climbing forever, and finding his way to the Himalaya.
