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 own adventure fix, here are some of the best adventure links we’ve discovered this week.
Long Before McCandless, John Hornby Tested Himself in Northern Canada—and Failed: Depending on who is talking, Hornby has gone down in history as either a fool or a superb frontiersman. He’s been accused of arrogance and stupidity, and has been lauded for bravery and skills. Hornby had tried to live off the land in the Canadian North in the mid 1920s.
As Its Population Soars to 40, Rum Isle Glimpses a Future in the Mist: With four new families recently arriving, the remote and rainy island in the Hebrides (Scotland) is experiencing its version of a population surge. Residents new and old concede that living here isn’t easy.
Dog Saves Mountaineer While Awaiting Rescue: After Grga Brkic fell approximately 150m down a steep icy slope, his dog curled up atop his body, keeping the severely injured Brkic warm overnight in subzero temperatures while rescuers coordinated a 13-hour rescue.
North, the savior of his stricken owner. Photo: Antonija Sjaus Brkic
Pop science
How Exercise May Tame Our Anxiety: Decades of research have shown that some types of physical activity may positively influence our mental health. A new piece of work on a large sample of cross-country ski racers in Sweden has reported that the ski racers were less likely to develop anxiety disorders compared to randomly selected non-racers.
The Science of Exercising in Extreme Cold: Continuing the science theme, Alex Hutchinson, a former physicist turned sport science journalist, gives a pop science overview of how the body performs when exercising in extreme cold. His article includes insights into the role of merino base layers and heat-exchanging breathing masks.
Northern culture
Photo: Carsten Egevang
Freeze Frames: Greenland Wilderness In Photos: From Inuit hunters to the vast expanses of snow and ice, Danish photographer Carsten Egevang’s images spring from a three-decade fascination with the planet’s least-populated country.
Polar Priest: The Church In The World’s Northernmost Town: Photojournalist Giuia Besana visits the world’s northernmost priest. Pastor Siv Limstrand runs the Svalbard Church in Longyearbyen, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. He is Longyearbyen’s guiding figure as his community looks to an uncertain future in the face of economic shifts and the effects of climate change.
How A Colossal Block of Ice Became An Obsession: Did you develop an obsession during lockdown? Did those long weeks and months take you down surprising avenues? Swiss-based British artist Kevin Eason found himself thinking about Antarctica and one particularly large chunk of ice. He’d read an article about a 300-billion-tonne iceberg that had recently calved from the east of the continent. It quickly became his artistic inspiration.
