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.
Underwater bones: Free diver Anna von Boetticher spent hours preparing the hole in the ice for her dive in eastern Greenland. As she slipped into the water, she experienced the inevitable moment of engagement. She controlled her breathing, stopped thinking about the temperature, and forced herself through the slush that was forming on the water.
The snow on the ice made swimming dark. As her eyes adjusted, she saw enormous skeletons all around her – bones of whales that had been killed by local communities.
The man who ran to tell the world Everest had been climbed: In May 1953, Tenzing Norway and Edmund Hillary made the first successful ascent of Mount Everest. A journalist from the London Times was waiting for the news in a camp located at an altitude of 6,400 m.
As soon as she heard it, she rushed towards the base camp. The only way to get the news to the rest of the world was through one of the couriers who carried news of the expedition to Kathmandu.
Ten Tsewang Sherpa ran more than 300 km so the world could learn that Everest had finally been climbed. He died a few weeks later; it seems the running killed him. All the official accounts and reports on this historic rise never mention him by name. Peter Frick-Wright delves into his story and speaks to those who remember him.
Hilary Bradt has no plans to stop hitchhiking. Photo: Peter Flude
Cheers to hitchhiking
Confessions of an 82-year-old hitchhiker: Many people think hitchhiking is a thing of the past. Hilary Bradt thinks otherwise.
The co-founder of Bradt Travel Guides has been hitchhiking her whole life. Now in her eighties, she has no intention of stopping. She talks about her passion for hitchhiking and some of the most interesting people she's met.
Death of a hiker: Leyton Cassidy was traveling through Europe with his then partner. While her partner was at a wedding, she decided to go hiking alone for a few days. An inexperienced backpacker, she booked a lodge-to-lodge trip in Slovenia.
Little did she know she was hiking in an area of the country known as the Bohinj Triangle. Over the past 30 years, six hikers have gone missing here.
On the first day, she strayed from the trail and got lost during a severe storm. Frozen to the core and terrified, all she could think about was the hikers who had disappeared.
Confluence of the Smith River, Six Rivers Nationals Forest. Photo: Dillon Seitchik-Reardon
Best Wild Rivers for Swimming in California
Californian dream: Caroline Clements and Dillon Seitchik-Reardon spent six months traveling around California in an RV. They were looking for the best wild swimming spots. Here, they list their five best river swims in the state.
I saved a bear's life by smoking a joint: One of Jason Marks' pleasures is his once-a-year solo camping trip. This year he went to the North Cascades. It began on a busy weekend, amid numerous rumors about the presence of bears.
On his third night, he was sitting on a log near his campsite, a joint in hand, when a bear ran through the nearby woods. He decided to make some noise by singing a folk song he was singing to his daughter. The music and the smell of cannabis worked and the bear disappeared. A few minutes later, a hunter came to pick him up, rifle in hand.
Denis Trent. Photo: Denis Trente
RIP Denis Trento
Denis Trento perishes in the Italian Alps: On May 3, Denis Trento died on the north face of the Testa del Paramount in the Italian Alps. The mountain guide won numerous ski mountaineering competitions in the early 2000s.
Even after retiring from competition, he dedicated his life to the high mountains, both as a guide and as director of the Italian Ski Mountaineering Federation.
Stories from Darjeeling's high altitude climbing community: A new book, Headstrap: Legends and traditions of the climbing Sherpas of Darjeeling, tells the stories of the Sherpa and Bhutanese communities of the Himalayas.
Authors Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balswar spent years interviewing current Sherpas as well as the children and friends of legendary Sherpas from decades ago. This extract from the book presents three of them.
