Here at ExWeb, when we’re not outdoors, we get our adventure fix by exploring social media and the wider interweb. Sometimes we’re a little too plugged in, and browsing interesting stories turn from minutes into hours. To nourish your own adventure fix, here are some of the best links we’ve discovered this week.
For Polar Explorer Eric Larsen, A Cancer Diagnosis Was The Toughest Challenge Of His Career: After receiving a difficult diagnosis last year, Larsen drew on his decades of experience as a polar traveler and mountaineer to fight back against serious rectal cancer.
How Women-Only Treks Are Claiming Space on Everest: Mount Everest, an icon in our collective imagination, has historically been a male-dominated arena of competition and endurance. These women are changing that.
Pandora’s Box: The Japanese climber Kei Taniguchi became the first woman to receive the Piolet d’Or (the Oscars of climbing) in 2009. Despite passing well before her time, she made her mark with exploratory new climbing routes worldwide. This is the story of her brief, brilliant life.
The 10 Worst Ways to Die in the Wild: There are countless ways to meet your end in the great outdoors. Outside magazine explores 10 of the most unpleasant, ignominious, and terrifying ways to go.
Waking A Sleeping Giant
Photo: Kaisa Siren/AFP
It’s No Fun to Wake a Sleeping Bear: To live in the small town of Haines, Alaska is to live with bears. The area has roughly one brown bear for every nine human residents. Last winter, a local snowboarder woke one of these hibernating bears in the backcountry and was severely injured, furthering tensions between food-stressed bears and anxious local residents. But in most encounters, it’s the bear that ends up dead, prompting the question of what it means to coexist.
Will Gadd –- “This is Who I Am”: Canadian Will Gadd, has long been known for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in ice climbing — as well as paragliding and kayaking. But the life of a consummate adventurer may not be what you’d expect. In this interview, Gadd talks about the surprising challenges of life on the edge.
Death In The Alpine: Five years ago, Capitol Peak in Colorado experienced a deadly period of five deaths in six weeks. Commentators believe that social media may have been a factor in at least one of those deaths. They argue it is changing our relationship to risk, with deadly consequences.
Charting the Course of Tokyo’s Climbing Walls: The eccentric architects behind the Olympic debut of sport climbing are responsible for putting on a good show, and a fair competition.
