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
Antarctic Tourism: Should We Just Say No?: This tourist season (October 2023 to March 2024) the number of visitors to Antarctica will hit 100,000 for the first time. As numbers increase, tourists want to do more than see the penguins, seals, and whales. They want kayaking, submersibles, and helicopters.
Tourists increase biosecurity risk and the ships and planes bringing them are releasing carbon dioxide into the region like never before. Has tourism on the frozen continent now become unethical? Should tourism be allowed at all?
Four-Year-Old Hikes to Everest Base Camp: Zara Sifra is now the youngest person to hike to Everest Base Camp. The four-year-old made the journey with her father and seven-year-old brother. Her dad commented that she had no problem with the long walk or acclimatization and outpaced hundreds of other trekkers.
A four-year-old makes it to Everest Base Camp. Photo: Gripped
A blisteringly fast Pennine Way run
Jack Scott Wins 2024 Montane Spine Race: Jack Scott has won the 2024 Montane Spine Race and beaten the speed record. The 431km ultra-marathon is a non-stop race along the Pennine Way in the middle of winter.
This year, nine previous winners competed. But it was Scott who came out on top. He broke the speed record by over 10 hours and crossed the finish line in 72 hours, 55 minutes, and five seconds.
Nick Offerman Paddles Badass Canoe Down L.A. River: Nick Offerman is known for many things: he’s an actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is also a woodworker and Huckleberry is his handmade cedar-strip canoe.
Offerman writes about paddling his canoe down the concrete-clad L.A. river. After canoeing down a “fun expanse of weird urban river” his only wish is that he had waited until after the trip to apply three new coats of varnish.
Offerman carries his canoe. Photo: Grove Pashley/Outside Magazine
Hikers Cited After Trespassing in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Authorities have cited two hikers for attempting to climb Mauna Loa without a permit. Permits were suspended in the national park and rangers had closed the summit, yet the pair decided to try and climb the mountain anyway.
Severely underestimating the climb, the pair ran into trouble when the temperature dropped. They were running out of food and water, and their phones were about to die. They eventually rang 911. A search and rescue team found them on the mountain.
First-Hand Account of Palisades Tahoe Avalanche: On Jan. 10, an avalanche struck Palisades Tahoe when the mountainside below the KT22 chairlift started to fall away. Jeremy Jones was on the mountain with his son. In a second, it turned from a joyful father-son day out into a nightmare.
James Draven diving with a UV torch. Photo: James Draven
Using UV light to transform diving
I’m Colour Blind, Night Diving Was Nothing Like I Imagined: James Draven is color blind and cannot see reds and greens. So why go on a dive to look at the colors of a coral reef? The solution was a night dive using an ultraviolet torch. The UV lights transform the reef into “a fluorescent fun house.”
Second Ascent of Black Spout Wall: Greg Boswell and Jeff Mercier have made a second winter ascent of the Black Spout Wall (IX 9) in Lochnagar, Scotland.
The pair originally planned to climb in Norway but canceled the trip because of poor conditions. Instead, they went to Scotland with Black Spout Wall as their main target. Though graded at IX 9, Boswell thinks it is more akin to an IX 10.
