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Category: Backpacking / Hiking / Tramping / Trekking / Camping (Page 4 of 9)

Updated » Elia Origoni has started a 7,000km solo hike through Italy

2021-06-02 /

Updated 2021.06.02 » Rebecca McPhee of Explorersweb reports »

After walking for 16 weeks, and making his way across 10 regions, the walk has come to an abrupt halt. Origoni is in the hospital with several broken ribs after an avalanche.

Originally published 2021.02.20

Over the next eight months, Elia Origoni plans to hike 7,000 km through his home country, across 20 regions, the Alps, the Apennines, to Italy’s islands. He plans to cover 30 to 40 km per day.

Rebecca McPhee, writing for Explorersweb »

To make the entire journey human-powered, he will row from Sardinia to Sicily, across the Strait of Messina and across Lake Maggiore — 300km in all.

Starting in Santa Teresa di Gallura, a small seaside village on the north coast of Sardinia, he “indulged in one last beer” on February 7 before finding shelter for the night away from the wind. He didn’t bother putting up his tent but came to regret it when it began to pour in the middle of the night.

More » 

Edward Hathway’s epic year of 72 hikes in New Zealand after the pandemic lockdown

2021-06-02 /
Image from Hiking Scenery

Image from Hiking Scenery

Edward Hathway of Hiking Scenery writes »

In the year since the New Zealand Covid-19 lockdown ended in late April 2020 I completed 72 hikes (“tramps” in the NZ vernacular), and fifteen shorter walks. Of the 72 hikes 68 were new to me (I had done one before, and I repeated just three). I will explain how I came to do so many walks in a moment. But first, and in order to show off a bit, I will regale you with a few statistics:

» 68,500m (~225,000ft) of ascent and descent
» Almost 900km (~550mi) of walking
» On 64 of these hikes I climbed to a peak or other high point, ranging between 445m and 2333m high, and averaging 1000m of ascent and descent each time
» 58 of these high points were named peaks over 1000m of elevation, so I incidentally completed the 52 Peaks Challenge
» All of these tramps were on New Zealand’s South Island, and completed as day-walks; I did all but three of them with my wife Sophia (& she did an overnighter I didn’t do)

Read the whole story at Hiking Scenery »

Angela Maxwell, the woman who walked the world for six and one-half years

2021-05-27 /

In May 2, 2014, Angela Maxwell started her walk around the world – alone – with the aim of seeking a deeper connection to the world. On December 16, 2020, six and one-half years and 20,000 miles later, she brought that connection back home.

Florian Sturm, BBC »

As she prepared, Maxwell found a whole world of women explorers to embolden her. She fell in love with the writing and slow travel style of Robyn Davidson, who traversed Australia with camels. She learned about long-distance walker Ffyona Campbell; and read up on Rosie Swale-Pope, who hitchhiked from Europe to Nepal, sailed around the world, crossed Chile on horseback and, at age 59, began jogging around the world.

…

Once she made the decision to go, Maxwell sold all her belongings and organised the necessary gear. She packed a cart with 50kg of camping equipment, dehydrated food, a military-grade water filter and four seasons of clothing. Maxwell left her hometown of Bend, Oregon, on 2 May 2014 and headed into an adventure so grand it was probably best she didn’t know exactly what was waiting for her along the track.

When I first connected with Maxwell over Skype in June 2018, she was already nearly four years into her journey, having walked more than 12,500 miles in 12 countries on three continents. Curious, I asked her what kind of person it takes to walk around the world. Her face gleaming, she quipped, “a stubborn one”. She then added, “It’s probably a combination of ambition, a little stubbornness and a pinch of passion – not for hiking as a sport, but for self-discovery and adventure.”

Watch Angela Maxwell’s inspirational 2018 Tedx talk at Tedx University of Edinburgh. She was still walking at the time of this talk.

Angela’s web site » She Walks The Earth

Behind the Scenes » “Her Way” — Overcoming Women Stereotypes In The Outdoors

2021-05-27 /

Here is a bit of the story and behind the scenes of the making of Her Way. Her Way is released last month and can be viewed here .


Note: Clicking the above image will load and play the video from YouTube.

From Solomon TV via YouTube »

Separated by a total of 47,483km plus 19 hours of time difference across 3 different continents during a global pandemic is how the production team of the #SalomonWMN short documentary “Her Way” despite all odds managed to bring this project to life.

Credits
Directed by Caroline Brouckaert and Kirsten Gerber
Executive producers Loïc Bailliard, Sofia Ahnebrink, and Greg Fell
Produced by Kirsten Gerber
Edited by Andrew King and Caroline Brouckaert.

Frances Mills » Why I’m running 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain solo

2021-05-02 /

It has taken four winters so far, but wild beauty, nature and the kindness of strangers en route make this slow journey more than worthwhile.

Frances Mills, writing in The Guardian »

I hope to return to the trails soon: I have 2,000-odd miles still to go around Scotland, on the most isolated and challenging terrain. When the storms broke my tent by snapping its poles, as happened during Storm Fionn in January 2018, I was pretty annoyed. Not annoyed enough for it to get in the way of sleep, though. Sure that nothing too important had blown across the field, I stubbornly wrapped my crumpled tent around me and drifted off. It would take a week to get my tent repaired and in the meantime a few friends of friends reached out and offered me a tent to borrow, a couch to sleep on and a chance to stay in a community-owned bright blue converted bus that was parked in the chalk hills of the South Down national park. Before the day was out, I was sitting round a campfire chatting to new friends, something I would have missed had my tent been in one piece.

Video » “Her Way” — Overcoming Women Stereotypes In The Outdoors

2021-04-27 /

Note: Clicking the above image will load and play the video from YouTube.

From Solomon TV on YouTube »

“Her Way” illustrates how we all have the ability to be and achieve more if assumptions and stereotypes are ignored. the film tells the stories of three women who have chosen to ignore stereotypes as they chart unique life paths—a single mother and member of the first all-female firefighting team in South Africa; a Chinese-born structural engineer and trail runner in New Zealand; and a delivery nurse and mother of four with a love for America’s National Parks.

THE STARS OF “HER WAY” ARE:
Born in the small town of Beaufort West, South Africa, Vuyiseka Arendse began volunteering as a firefighter when she was 19. Now 26, the single mother and family breadwinner works for the NCC in Cape Town as a member of the Juliet Crew, the first-ever all-female firefighting team in the country, protecting local landmarks from wildfires in the Western Cape region.

Chinese-born Nancy Jiang moved with her family from Ma’an Shan to Auckland, New Zealand when she was five. She studied structural engineering and today is the only female engineer in her firm. Small in stature and needing to prove herself in the workplace, she found her release through a love of trail running in the mountains above Queenstown, despite having been told as a kid that “Chinese people do not run.”

A caregiver at heart, Melody Buck Forsyth is a mother of four and a delivery nurse. In 2015, she gave birth to her daughter, Ruby, who was born with Down Syndrome. Despite “sometimes getting looks on the trail” because she might not fit the hiker stereotype, the outdoors has served as an escape for Melody and her family, where they connect and decompress.

Credits
Directed by Caroline Brouckaert and Kirsten Gerber
Executive producers Loïc Bailliard, Sofia Ahnebrink, and Greg Fell
Produced by Kirsten Gerber
Edited by Andrew King and Caroline Brouckaert.

Three Capes Track Walk » Tasmania, Australia

2021-04-13 /

Note: Clicking the above image will load and play the video from YouTube.

The Three Capes Track features some of Tasmania’s best walks taking in breath taking sights of the highest sea cliffs in the Southern Hemisphere and the power of the Southern Ocean. It’s a multi-day walking adventure atop Australia’s highest sea cliffs in the Tasman National Park.

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Do interesting things. Be bold. Respect. Adventure. Explore. Question. Listen. Learn. Try. Fail. Try better. Your mileage may vary. You are unique. Be yourself. Appreciate. Be kind. To others, with an equal measure to yourself. Do good. Do what’s right. It’s a one way ticket. Enjoy the ride. You are limited to one.

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