We just returned from an incredible 8 days and 304km on the Yukon River leaving out of Whitehorse and finishing up in Carmacks.
It was an incredible journey through the Yukon that included wildlife, sunsets after 10pm, Northern Lights, sinking a canoe in whitecaps, exploring marooned riverboats, discovering abandoned woodcutting camps, finding old gold dredger parts, and amazing food. Continue reading “Yukon River by Canoe: Route, Outfitters, Planning, Logistics, and More!”
On the northern foot of Volcán Tolimán is a lesser climbed lava dome, Cerro de Oro (“Hill of Gold”). The hike and summit provide gorgeous views of Lago Atitlan, Volcán Tolimán, Volcán San Pedro, and Volcán Atitlán.
And… we discovered a Mayan ceremonial site along the way, and some ancient Mayan stone statues at the summit.
The most popular volcano to climb is San Pedro, but that requires a good 5am departure and a full day to climb. Atitlan and Toliman are even more difficult to get to, require more logistics, and take a full day plus to climb. Continue reading “Hiking Volcan Cerro de Oro, Lake Atitlan, Guatamala”
Last year at InfusionCon, Jon Goldman asked if I wanted to climb Camelback the next morning in time to catch the sun rise from the head.
I blurted out YES before he could finish giving me the details and the next morning we found ourselves heading out of the resort around 5am.
This year at InfusionCon, a group of us planned a Sunset climb up to the hump of the camel and got together quite a group for what proved to be a challenging, fun and gorgeous ascent. Continue reading “Hiking Camelback in Phoenix”
So you wanna build a Snow Cave? Thankfully it’s a lot easier than I thought – easy as in not complicated, that is. Building a snow cave takes a lot of hard physical labor, but is well worth it in the end as you have a comfy, flat, dry, above freezing home for the night.
This weekend, George, Greg and I ventured off to into the great outdoors for two days of snowshoeing and winter backpacking with some big ideas of how we could spend the night.
On Friday afternoon, I had read about the IceBox which unfortunately is only available online from REI and occasionally at their flagship store in Seattle. The IceBox is a brilliant invention which allows for the creation of perfect igloos, even with less than ideal snow. As I would not be able to acquire this in time for our trip, we had to make do with building a snow cave, and hauling in a 3 person tent and tarps in case that didn’t work out.
So where do you learn how to build a snow cave? Continue reading “Building a Snow Cave”
6 years ago for my birthday, Emily and I visited our good friend Charles in München for Oktoberfest. It was a ton of fun with beer to be had, arms to be linked and songs to be sung.
This year, en route to my birthday trip to Italy, we planned our layover to be in München, where we once again met up with Charles.
After meeting us at baggage claim with a Lebkuchen for Emily and a Glückskäfer with chocolate for me, Charles informed us that there was a 40 minute express train to Oktoberfest from the airport and we’d have just enough time to leave the airport, enjoy a beer or two and get back in time for our flight to Pisa. Continue reading “Oktoberfest 2010 – The Best Birthday Layover Ever”
Every year since 1926, Impruneta, a small town in the heart of the Chianti area of Tuscany, has it’s annual “Festa dell’Uva” or “Grape Festival” which I can only think to compare to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.
Before our trip, I poked around online to find out about any events that would be going on during our visit and found a random site that listed the festival, which from the looks of it seemed like just a fun thing to do on a Sunday. I envisioned something like an Italian farmer’s market, with perhaps a heavy focus on grapes. Boy was I in for a surprise…
As we followed a rural side road off of already rural SR 222, we noticed that the sides of the narrow back country twisty road were starting to fill with parked cars. There were no signs for any event, or any indication of what was up ahead.
After we found parking, scaled a grassy hill and took a foot path into town, we hopped a fence and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the event. Continue reading “Festa dell’Uva in Impruneta: The Annual Grape Festival”
Here’s a quick video from day 2 of our climb up Kilimanjaro. We were on our way from Machame Camp when we broke through the cloud layer just above 3,000m.
For the HD version, click on through to facebook. They won’t let me embed the HD. 🙁
