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.
Cooper's Hill Cheese Bun: Every year, a bizarre competition takes place in the Cotswolds, England. Hundreds of participants race down a steep, uneven slope after a wheel of cheese.
The first written record of the event dates from 1862. Today, it attracts competitors from all over the world. The day consists of four races, but the end goal is always the same: to race down the hill and collect the wheel of Double Gloucester cheese. As competitors hurl themselves down the hill, some sprinting, many falling and rolling, thousands of spectators chant “cheese, cheese, cheese!”
Young woman and the sea: This new Disney film tells audiences the story of Gertrude Erderle, the first woman to swim the English Channel.
Despite Erderle's 29 national or world records before her English Channel crossing, many people believed that a woman was incapable of crossing the English Channel. Erderle faced extreme societal prejudice but became the “Queen of the Waves.”
Dark Retreats
The darkness that blew my mind: Dark retreats are a fairly new concept. You spend several days in total darkness. Some people go there for reflection or to help with anxiety and depression.
As Tim Neville prepares to enter his darkroom, he is terrified. He turns off the lights to see what the darkness looks like, terror rises within him and he goes back outside into the light. Finally, it's time to get started. Three days and four nights in complete darkness, completely disconnected, without any concept of time. What follows are three of the strangest yet most rewarding days of Neville's life.
How the change in angle reveals a new face of the Canadian Rockies: Photographer Paul Zizka has been capturing images of the Canadian Rockies for over a decade. In his new book, he wants to show the range from a new angle: that of air.
Zizka spent years living and working in the northern Rockies, but she was amazed to see the landscape from such a different perspective.
The Malibu surf scene
Malibu, the wave and a woman who made it her own: Programming in Malibu is survival of the fittest (or perhaps the most selfish). Hundreds of surfers take to the water on a day with a south swell. You will see a handful of surfers, largely outnumbered but holding on.
But Malibu hasn't always been a women's wave. In 1947, Darrylin Zanuck didn't just sit on the beach and watch. She asked surfer and board designer Joe Quill to create a shorter, lighter board. She learned to surf and attracted many more women to the sport. For a few summers, until men timidly began ordering similar boards, they ruled Malibu.
Blind climber leads traditional 5.10d route on Devil's Tower: Jesse Dutton is the first blind climber to lead the ascent of El Matador, on Devil's Tower in Wyoming.
Dutton suffers from rod-cone dystrophy. His vision deteriorated during his childhood and he became legally blind in his early 20s. But that didn't stop him from climbing. Dutton is probably the best blind climber in the world. He has climbed over 1,500 commercial routes in the UK.
Dutton heard that some of El Matador's columns look like rocks in the UK, which piqued his interest. Climbing with his tour guide (his wife), he led five of the six pitches of the course.
Planning a huge road trip
Take the long way home: Last year, Elaine Glusac took a family road trip from Alaska to Idaho. The Alaska Highway was the heart of the trip. Over more than 3,500 km, they crossed the Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta.
Gulsac's family managed the trip on a strict budget. Gluscac presents its itinerary, costs and advice for those wishing to take a road trip.
An art of sport climbing threatened with trivialization: This open letter was signed by nearly 100 climbers. The letter concerns the growth of mixed bolting styles. The signatories believe that this method of escalation is ethically questionable.
The letter argues that bolting to the ground has no sporting or historical significance and deprives future generations of new routes and challenges. The authors propose that all guides adopt symbols to designate the style of starting the first ascent.