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.
Alone on the Ice: In 2015, German explorer Martin Szwed claimed to have shattered the speed record for a solo ski to the South Pole. He revealed no GPS data, no photos — no proof whatsoever that he even attempted the journey. As polar guide Eric Larsen reminds readers in this story, ExWeb investigated at the time and concluded that Szwed was just another of many polar hoaxsters. On his return from the icy continent, Szwed lost his house, job, and sponsors and was the subject of two investigations by the German government.
Murder on the Appalachian Trail: Over three decades ago, a grisly double homicide on America’s most famous hiking route shocked the nation and forever changed our ideas about crime, violence, and safety in the outdoors.
Treasure hunt meets manhunt
A Deadly Hunt for Hidden Treasure Spawns an Online Mystery: An epic riddle. An eccentric storyteller. A missing person. When a man vanishes in the wilderness, his family takes to the internet to find him.
Huaorani Indians in the Yasuni National Park. Photo: Shutterstock
Ecuador: The Hothouse Heart of The Jungle: Stepping into Yasuni National Park isn’t a toe-dip into the wilderness. It’s a full-on dive into the rainforest, where the air is heavy with the scent of wet leaves, and the darkness of night tightens around you like the coils of a python.
Exploring the temples and traditions of Chiapas, Mexico’s Maya heartland: Whether lost in a bat-filled underground labyrinth or caught up in an unexpected sacrificial ritual, you can feel the hand of the Maya on your shoulder in Chiapas, southeast Mexico.
Rebecca Coriam: Lost at Sea: When Rebecca Coriam vanished from the Disney Wonder in March 2011, hers became one of the 171 mysterious cruise ship disappearances in the past decade. So what happened? Jon Ronson booked himself a cabin to find out…
Life on an Arctic oil rig
An offshore rig in the Arctic. Photo: Shutterstock
Empire of Ice: On a $500 million man-made island in the frozen Arctic Ocean, just off the coast of a vast, uninhabitable tundra known as Alaska’s North Slope, a pipeline begins. In temperatures that hover around -45˚C, in perpetual darkness, a tight-knit band of roughnecks spends 12 hours a day, seven days a week, drilling down, down into the earth and pulling up precious crude. If you want to know how badly we need oil, here is your answer.
Finally Seeing the Forest For The Trees: After a spate of trauma and loss, Maura Kelly, who grew up in suburban New Jersey, retreats to the Hudson Valley where she is converted into a “nature person”.
