Adventure Trend

It's a one way ticket. Enjoy the ride!

Norway has some 300 soaring mountain staircases

November 24, 2021 / / 0 Comments

(Source BBC / Credit: Morten Falch Sortland/Getty Images)

  • Preikestolen is among Norway’s most hiked trails, with 331,000 visitors reaching its exposed top in 2019.ย  Its stone stairway was built by Nepalese Sherpas.
  • Around 300 stone mountain stairways have been built in Norway over the past two decades.

Mike MacEacheran / BBC Travel ยป

In many ways, the location and the sublime views from Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock, near Stavanger in south-west Norway are irrelevant, because what is important is the journey to get there. It is a hike up an expertly engineered and well-maintained stone staircase that is as much of a marvel as the finale itself.

There’s an ancient beauty to the stairway and it comes from the fact that Preikestolen โ€“ like nearly 300 other natural stone staircase projects in Norway purpose-built over the past two decades โ€“ has been crafted by teams of Sherpas from Nepalese communities living in the shadows of Mount Everest.

There was a time when Norway’s mountain paths would only see a handful of local visitors. But social media has changed all that, and over the past decade, the country has seen such a dramatic spike in overseas travellers keen to Instagram its viewpoints that something has had to give.

 

Mark Delstanche rows solo from New York City to London

September 20, 2021 /

Rebecca McPhee, Explorersweb ยป

Mark Delstanche, 47, has become the first person to solo row from New York to London. He set off from Battery Park, New York on June 14, and after 97 days he crossed the finish line at Tower Bridge, London. Since the beginning, Delstanche has faced complications. His boat Square Peg was custom-made with a flywheel-powered propeller, which broke early in his journey. He then rowed through some of the worst weather in years. Over the three months, he endured eight major storms and seven capsizes. The storms damaged most of his electronic equipment. During one capsize, he twisted his knee.

On this day ยป British adventurerย Sir Francis Chichester, who sailed around the world alone in 1966โ€“67 on the 55-foot (17-metre) yacht Gipsy Moth IV, was born.

September 17, 2021 /

Sir Francis Chichester (Sep 17, 1901 โ€“ Aug 26, 1972)

Sir Francis Chichester

Sir Francis Chichester

Britannica ยป

On his around-the-world voyage, he left Plymouth August 27, 1966, sailing the 14,100 miles to Sydney in 107 days. Embarking again on Jan. 29, 1967, he returned to Plymouth around Cape Horn in 119 days, the 15,517 miles being the longest passage made by a small sailing vessel without a port of call. He was knighted in May 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II. His last solo voyage in Januaryโ€“February 1971, from Portuguese Guinea to Nicaragua, covered 4,000 miles in 22 days. He died shortly after illness in 1972 prevented him from making the solo transatlantic race. His books include the autobiography The Lonely Sea and the Sky (1964) and The Gipsy Moth Circles the World (1967).

An 80-year-old woman, 1,000 kilometres, 7 weeks, a trusty steed, and her faithful dog

September 12, 2021 /

Sam Anderson, ExplorersWeb ยป

For the 40th time, Jane Dotchin has set out on a seven-week pilgrimage along rural byways from her home in Hexham, England to Inverness, Scotland.

How many 80-year-olds do you know who travel 1,000km overland each year? Age is just a number for Jane Dotchin from Hexham, England, who has done such a trek annually since 1972. This year, her 13-year-old pack pony, her disabled Jack Russell terrier, and a few personal items were all she needed for the trip.

Dotchin puts on her eyepatch and an orange safety vest, packs her kit and Jack Russell terrier Dinky onto her horse, and sends it. From her home in Northumberland, near the Scottish border, sheโ€™ll ride all the way north to Inverness. Itโ€™s a tradition that started decades ago for Dotchin, with a deferred animal care request and an inkling of freedom.

More ยป

Video ยป Noor

August 29, 2021 /

The Noor is a short aerial film by Vadim Sherbakov, of the beautiful winter landscapes of frozen Baikal Lake in the Eastern Siberia region of Russia.

Noor (ะัƒัƒั€) is a Buryat word for lake, and Buryat is ethos people who have populated this area for many years, so it was appropriate to use their beautiful word for this short film.

Nowadays, the region the world’s largest pure water lake is popular with tourists.

Millican Dalton ยป The godfather of ultralight camping

August 29, 2021 /
Millican Dalton, Jean Brown and Mabel Barker having a brew-up in 1935. Photo Mabel Barker Collection

Millican Dalton, Jean Brown and Mabel Barker having a brew-up in 1935. Photo Mabel Barker Collection

Milican Dalton (Apr 20, 1867 โ€“ Feb 5, 1947) the British self-styled “Professor of Adventure”, was never motivated by adrenaline fuelled adventure, by speed, or by winning races. He lived in a cave in Englandโ€™s Lake District and led camping and climbing trips up the local mountains.

Jeff Moag, Adventure Journal ยป

He outfitted himself and his clients in lightweight gear he designed and sewed himself, specializing in tents made of tightly woven Egyptian cotton. In the rain the fibers would swell, tightening the weave and rendering the shelter water resistant, if not exactly dry. He sold handmade rucksacks, advertising them as โ€œhalf the weight and one-third the costโ€ of the Norwegian packs in vogue at the time.

Millican did most of his sewing in the winter, when not climbing trees or, weather permitting, skimming across icy ponds on handmade wooden skates or sliding through the forest on skisโ€”a skill he acquired in the Alps before the First World War. His handmade clothes were habitually left un-finished as frayed testimony that in Millicanโ€™s eyes, hemmed shorts should never stand in the way of a good ramble.

โ€ฆ

Millican didnโ€™t see any reason why Barker or other women shouldnโ€™t climb hard rock, or otherwise do as they pleased. That was only one of his unorthodox beliefs, all of which he espoused freely. He relished a good argument, and though he was sometimes called him the โ€œBorrowdale Hermitโ€ he was as sociable as he was opinionated. He welcomed visitors, occasionally leaving handwritten invitations to take tea with him at โ€œSinbadโ€™s Cave.โ€ Those who obliged would often be goaded into political discussions, which Millican pursued with gusto. He was a socialist and an outspoken pacifist who once wrote Winston Churchill during the height of the Blitz, demanding the Prime Minister make peace with the Germans. It seems the local air raid warden had climbed up to the cave to demand Millican douse his fire, infringing the Cavemanโ€™s liberty and provoking his ire.

More ยป

Wikipedia

« Older posts

© 2021 Adventure Trend

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑