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.
We Are What We Eat: In 2011, Micheal Dammer, his brother, and a close friend concocted a plan to establish an 8,000km backpacking route across the Andes.
Here, they complete a 500km section that joins two sections of the route together. The Bolivian Altiplano is at high altitude, has difficult terrain, and is super remote. Over 14 days, they cover hundreds of kilometers and are touched by the momentary encounters with people they meet.
Karel Sabbe Shatters Pacific Crest Trail FKT: Karel Sabbe, 33, has cut an incredible five days off the speed record for the Pacific Crest Trail. The Belgian ran the trail in 46 days, 12 hours, and 50 minutes. He averaged 58.1 miles and 9,000 feet of elevation per day.
The professional ultra runner faced snow, heat, wildfires, and smoke as he dashed along the trail.
Family hiking
Hiking Across America With Five Kids: Many people aim to complete North America’s trail triple crown: the Appalachian Trail (AT), the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). This couple has gone a step further. They are completing the trails with their five children (aged 2 to 14) in tow.
They first started hiking as a family when their eldest was nine. After a few week-long trips, they threw themselves into the challenge. They have completed the AT and CDT, and are now tackling the PCT.
A family of seven hikes the PCT. Photo: Danae and Olen Netteburg
He Tracks Elusive Amazon Tribes from the Shadows: Jair Candor is one of the best tribe trackers in Brazil. He searches remote corners of the Amazon to find the elusive tribes. But he is not there to make contact, merely to prove that they exist.
Candor wants to help protect the tribes, if he can provide evidence of their presence, then the government will make the land off-limits to outsiders. So far, he has secured legal protection for 18,000 square kilometers of land. Yet it has not been easy. Candor has made dangerous enemies and has caught malaria dozens of times.
Quest to Pick Up the Lost Lifting Stones of Ireland: Stone lifting in Ireland was a test of strength during weddings and funerals. The practice died out by the 19th century but is now making a comeback.
David Keohan has been traveling around Ireland trying to find and lift the lost stones. So far, he has uncovered 30 of them and lifted 28.
Louis Gundolf Frees Project Lama: Project Lama is a route on the south face of Laserz in the Lienz Dolomites, Austria. It is one of the last projects that the late David Lama left behind. He had freed almost all pitches on the route.
Now, Louis Gundolf has made the first free ascent of the route. It is 250m high and eight pitches long. Gundolf thinks Lama’s 8c+ rating on the wall was accurate.
Louis Gundolf makes the first free ascent of ‘Project Lama.’ Photo: Matteo Mocellin
Another Scottish mountain accident
Walker Falls to His Death In Scotland: On Aug. 27, a 66-year-old fell to his death while walking on the Carn Moe Dearg Arete in Scotland. He was visiting from England with his two sons. This is one in a long list of incidents on Scottish mountains this year. On the same day, a helicopter rescued two other hikers. Last month, three hillwalkers died on Aonach Eagach Ridge.
New Yosemite Crack Appears Overnight: A new crack appeared in Yosemite and climbers immediately set about climbing it. They have called the 5.10 route “Super Natural.”
However, rangers have closed the area while they investigate the crack and surrounding rock. The crack has detached a large pillar of rock and they are unsure how safe it is. Rock chips have been falling out of the crack, and it has expanded by two centimeters in just one week.
