- Mount Everest
» 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level
» Located on the border between Nepal and the autonomous region of Tibet (OpenStreetMap / Google Maps)
» First summitted by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 - K2
» Also known as Mount Godwin-Austen or Chhogori
» 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above sea level
» Located on the border between China and Pakistan (OpenStreetMap / Google Maps)
» First summitted gy Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni in 1954 - Kangchenjunga
» Located on the border between Nepal and India, approximately 125 kilometres from Everest (OpenStreetMap / Google Maps)
» At elevation of 8,586 metres (28,169 ft), it is the second highest mountain in the Himalayas
» First summitted by Joe Brown and George Brand in 1955 Continue reading
Category: Pakistan 🇵🇰
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American alpinist Adrian Ballinger climbed K2, the “Savage Mountain” in 2019, reaching the summit of the second tallest mountain in the world without supplemental oxygen.
Via YouTube »
Justin Housman, writing in The Adventure Journal »
In a span of seven years, he paddled a series of 15-foot kayaks more than 30,000 miles from the Danube River in Europe to the tropical shores of far northern Australia. Even better, when he first set out, he was “merely” planning to paddle to Cyprus for work, with no intention of traveling by kayak to the other side of the world. But the paddling proved irresistible and Speck did not stop once he reached Cyprus.
[…]
Speck was 25 years old when he set out on his incredible journey. He was an unemployed electrician living in Hamburg. Work was scarce and prospects were dim after the 1929 stock market crash ripped through Germany, so Speck decided to seek work in the copper mines of Cyprus. With no other means to get there, and as a proud member of a kayaking club since his youth, Speck decided to paddle his way to, hopefully, a job.
In May, 1932, Speck shoved off from banks of the Danube in a collapsible and very much not seaworthy 15-foot kayak, and began paddling south. He arrived in the Balkans several weeks later and, lulled to boredom by the languid waters of the Danube, Speck made for the Vardar River, where soon fierce rapids dashed his boat nearly to splinters. While awaiting repairs, winter set in and the Vardar froze over, locking Speck in place for months.
Read the whole article in The Adventure Journal »
In November 2016, Western Australian woman Sandy Robson (aged 48), recreated Speck’s adventure, completed in some 5 years, having visited 20 countries and paddled some 23,000 kilometres.
History is full of long and legendary highways but none – frankly – come close to the Silk Road. It’s not just the magnitude (at least 4,000 miles, in more than 40 countries) but the mythic potency of the project. The world was cleft into east and west in the Middle Ages.
But long before, the Silk Road – which has existed in one form or another since the fourth century BC – breached any such divide. While trade was its raison d’être – Chinese silk, of course, but also salt, sugar, spices, ivory, jade, fur and other luxury goods – the road forged deep social, cultural and religious links between disparate peoples.
And
The Silk Road was not a road, but a network. The central caravan tract followed the Great Wall, climbed the Pamir Mountains into Afghanistan, and crossed to the Levant. Along the way were spurs branching off to river ports, caravanserai, oases, markets and pilgrimage centres. Journeys demanded meticulous preparation: the Silk Road and its tributaries cut through some of the harshest, highest, wildest places on Earth.
Read More at The Telegraph (paywall)…
There are 14 peaks above 8,000 metres (26,246 feet) in the world. All of them are in the Himalayas. Ibrahimi wants to climb them all by 2023. Through her adventures she hopes people to view life as possibility to reach peaks, no matter the challenge.
Die Morina, writing Balkan Insight:
The first part of her mission, entitled ‘14 Utalaya Himalaya’ is expected to start on April or May this year, and will see her climbing the 8,516-metre Mount Lhotse, located between Nepal and Tibet, the fourth highest mountain on earth.
Later this year, she plans to also climb the world’s second-highest mountain, K2, at the border between China and Pakistan.
“K2 is known as the most dangerous peak in world,” Ibrahimi said.