The Adventure Blog |
- Video: The Green Mansions Of The Amazon
- Video: Training For One Of The Hardest Races In The World - The Iditarod Trail Invitational
- Video: Escape - Why We Climb
- National Geographic Presents 50 Tours Of A Lifetime For 2014
- 3000 Cups Of Tea: Revisiting The Greg Mortenson Story
| Video: The Green Mansions Of The Amazon Posted: 17 Apr 2014 02:00 PM PDT The Amazon is an amazing place that few of us ever get the opportunity to see. It is an incredibly diverse biosphere unlike any on our planet, and quite frankly it is an awe inspiring place that I've been fortunate enough to visit. The video below takes us on location to that visually striking place, offering up a glimpse of the Amazon from Colombia, Peru and Brazil. |
| Video: Training For One Of The Hardest Races In The World - The Iditarod Trail Invitational Posted: 17 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT The Iditarod Trail Invitational is quite possibly the hardest race in the world. It features athletes who run, ski, and mountain bike along the same 1000-mile (1600 km) long trail that the famous sled dog race follows on its way from Anchorage to Nome. The IDI takes place in the dead of winter as well, which adds just another challenge to this tough ultra-endurance event. Many try to complete it each year, few succeed. Just how do you train for such an event? Check out the video below, which comes our way via EpicTV, and marks the start of a new series entitled Sport & Survival. |
| Posted: 17 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT Here's a beautiful and inspiring short film that I think you'll love. It's entitled Escape and it features a rock climber who shares his thoughts on why he loves to climb. It isn't for glory or recognition. It is to escape the trapping of daily life, and find some time to commune with nature. The cinematography on this 4+ minute video is stunning, and I'm sure there is a little something that we can all relate to here. |
| National Geographic Presents 50 Tours Of A Lifetime For 2014 Posted: 17 Apr 2014 07:30 AM PDT  As usual, Nat Geo has broken down their selections by geographic categories. That means you'll find options for travel in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe, North America, and the South Pacific and Oceania. This makes it incredibly easy to find new options for travel in a favorite region, or look for options for some place you've never been before. Each of the regions have a plethora of unique trips to choose from, offering up a wide range of choices that any world traveler will appreciate. The editors of the magazine look for unique offerings that also align nicely with the organization's mission of immersing us in diverse cultures and delivering experiences that can't necessarily be found anywhere else. For instance, for those wanting to visit Africa, one of the suggestions is a trip to Namibia, offered by a company called Adventures in Africa, that sends you off to the Namib Desert to track endangered black rhinos and elephants that have adapted to living in that incredibly dry place. In Asia, there is an excursion from Wild Frontier Travel that takes you along the Trans-Himalaya Highway in India and another from Explore! that take travelers into Iraq (don't ask me why the Middle East falls under the Asia category). Have dreams of South America instead? How about going on a Jaguar safari in Brazil with Wild Planet Adventures? There truly is something here for everyone, no matter what your style of travel or how you define "adventure." It is certainly fun to read this list and dream about all the possibilities. Of course, not all of them fall into the affordable category, at least not for most of us. Make no mistake, there are certainly some inexpensive trips to be had on this list, but others are quite expensive, putting them well out of there reach of the average traveler. Still, these suggestions are also a good launching point for hatching ideas for our own travels. While Nat Geo's specific suggestions may not always be friendly to our bank accounts, they do allow us to seek other options that are. |
| 3000 Cups Of Tea: Revisiting The Greg Mortenson Story Posted: 17 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT  But then, in 2011 Mortenson became the subject of a hard-hitting 60 Minutes piece that called into question the stories he wrote about in his books, how the money CAI was raising was being spent, and whether or not schools were being built at all. That followed on the heels of an article written by John Krakauer entitled Three Cups of Deceit, which further blasted Mortenson, essentially calling him a liar and a fraud. In a matter of a few months, Mortenson's world crumbled around him, and CAI's funding dropped dramatically. Civil lawsuits were raised against him, although most were quickly dismissed, and for his part Mortenson disappeared from the limelight, with not much more to be told. That is, until now. Two filmmakers, Jennifer Jordan and Jeff Roads, are working on a documentary that delves back into the Greg Mortenson story. Their film is called 3000 Cups of Tea (see trailer below), and it is nearing completion. They say they have a very different side of the story to tell, and that their experience with CAI, and Mortenson's work, does not resemble what 60 Minutes reported. They have visited many of the schools that were the result of Greg's work, and they say that aside from a few that aren't up and running, most of them are serving the purpose that their founder intended. Recently, Jennifer and Jeff gave ExWeb an interview about their work, and what they had to say was quite interesting. While they don't address all of the issues raised against Mortenson – they'll save that for the film – they certainly do offer a different view from what has been the public story over the past few years. The filmmakers are seeking $40,000 to complete their documentary so they can get it out to the public to see. To that end, they've set up a donation page for anyone who would like to contribute. They hope to wrap up production soon and have the film released sometime this year. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the final product. When the 60 Minutes and Krakauer story broke, it was big news in the adventure and mountaineering community. It seems only fitting that we report on the other side of the story too. It is also important to point out that Mortenson and CAI continue to press ahead with their work, despite funding dropping off by 80%. Apparently, the author was able to build up a sustainable fund to keep his efforts going, even when hard times set in. That's a far cry from the financial mismanagement that was reported in 2011. Hopefully we'll hear more about this soon. |
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