When we're not outdoors, we get our adventure fix by exploring social media and the web. Here are some of the best adventure links we discovered this week.
The “Stairway to Heaven” hike will be demolished: The Haiku Stairs in Honolulu, often called the “Stairway to Heaven,” will be demolished. This popular trail has actually been closed to the public since the 1970s. Despite this, hikers flock there.
Thousands of photogenic staircase images populate Instagram. More importantly, over the past 12 years, 118 rescues have taken place. Tourists climb fences and cross local properties in an attempt to reach the forbidden trail. Today, the city has had enough. Over the next six months, they will remove all 4,000 steps to stop trespassers and restore the area's natural beauty.
Photo: Hilary Bradt
The woman who transformed travel: In 1973, Hilary Bradt and her then-husband were traveling in South America in search of a hidden trail they had heard about, one that led to Machu Picchu. Their notes on this became the first published description of the Inca Trail in English. This was the beginning of the Bradt Guides.
A few years later, Bradt and her husband divorced and he left the business. She decided to continue without him, to continue exploring and writing guidebooks to faraway places. Here she explains why she always wanted to explore, how guides came to be, and her love of hitchhiking.
Stormy relationship
Caught in a storm while hiking. Whose fault is it ? Two friends went hiking for three days. On the last day they added an additional trail which should have taken no more than an hour. One of them was looking at her phone to check the time and the weather. She was afraid of lightning and a storm seemed to be brewing.
The second was irritated by the constant use of the phone. Distracted, they missed a turn, ended up on a longer route and got caught in a thunderstorm. Now both want an apology and think the other is at fault.
Climber Alex Moore comes face to face with a fulmar. Photo: Robbie Phillips
Wings and walls: Every cliff you climb is home to other creatures, including birds. In the UK, bird numbers are falling sharply. The population has fallen by 73 million in just 50 years.
Climber and naturalist Robbie Phillips has written a guide to climbing etiquette as it relates to birds. It explains the precautions all climbers should take, bird protection laws in the UK and what to do if you come across a nest.
Alcohol and climbing
Do rock climbing and alcohol go well together? For many, beer is the post-climbing drink of choice, but sometimes it's also a pre-climbing libation. Although there are of course huge downsides to drinking alcohol, some climbers seem to get by regardless.
Some scientific studies have shown that small amounts of alcohol have very little effect on our performance. A big difference between climbing and other sports is the safety aspect. It's a risky sport even for completely sober people. On the other side of the equation is the social aspect that post-climb drinks represent for many people.
Why you shouldn't teach your partner to surf: Brian Sousa tried to teach his fiancée to surf several times. It never worked. They had a few good sessions on the water, but while he views surfing as something that “ignites my soul,” his interest in the sport waned.
He doesn't think he's a bad teacher in general, only when teaching his partner. There are two main reasons. Firstly, the panic that overcomes him when she disappears from his sight, and secondly, his own ego.
The queen of the desert bus rediscovered
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Photo: History Trust of South Australia
The 30-year hunt to find the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert bus: Priscilla is a cinema icon. But after filming finished, the silver bus disappeared in 1994. The History Trust of South Australia was skeptical when a man phoned them in 2019 to say he owned the bus.
They assumed it was a fake, just another person claiming to own the famous vehicle. But this time it turned out to be true. It tells the bizarre story of how the silver bus ended up in a man's garden.
Lost in the forest. The snow was falling. Hurry up : Ranger Robbi Mecus was at home when she received the call. A woman said her son had gone hiking in the Adirondack Mountains that morning. Around 10 p.m., it still hadn't returned and 40 cm of snow was forecast overnight.
What ensued was a life-or-death search and rescue, as 25 searchers raced against time to find the missing hiker.
