Eiger North Face

Eiger Trail in the Grundenwald Swiss Alps a famous run or hike with a view of the infamous Eiger North Face (for any climbing enthusiasts)

From Lausanne approx 3 hours with several train connections but well worth the trip!

I heard the mild summer has caused extensive areas of glaciers in the Alps to melt, uncovering never previously seen terrain, but in doing so making certain areas dangerous.*

* But probably still safer for an American than hiking in the Afghan mountains!

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Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

Quote
danster
I heard the mild summer has caused extensive areas of glaciers in the Alps to melt, uncovering never previously seen terrain, but in doing so making certain areas dangerous.*

* But probably still safer for an American than hiking in the Afghan mountains!

Or an Englishman strolling thru the Hindu Kush..

(Great book I betcha you'd enjoy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_Walk_in_the_Hindu_Kush

By Eric Newby..


It is "very British" in the manner we grew up thinking about in the days of Empire:
From Wiki:
Kari Herbert notes in The Guardian's list of travel writer's favourite travel books that she inherited her father, English polar explorer Wally Herbert's "well-loved copy" of Newby's book. "Like Newby, I was in a soulless job, desperate for change and adventure. Reading A Short Walk was a revelation. The superbly crafted, eccentric and evocative story of his Afghan travels was like a call to arms."[29] John Gimlette, in the same list, chooses Newby's Love and War in the Apennines. The Telegraph includes it as one of its "20 best travel books of all time", describing Newby and Carless's meeting with the explorer Wilfred Thesiger as a "hilarious segment". It quotes "We started to blow up our air-beds. 'God, you must be a couple of pansies,' said Thesiger."[30] Outside magazine includes A Short Walk among its "25 essential books for the well-read explorer".[31]

Margalit Fox, writing Newby's obituary in the New York Times, notes that the trip was the one that made him famous, and states that "As in all his work, the narrative was marked by genial self-effacement and overwhelming understatement." She cites a 1959 review in the same publication by William O. Douglas, who became a Supreme Court judge, who called the book "a chatty, humorous and perceptive account", adding that "Even the unsanitary hotel accommodations, the infected drinking water, the unpalatable food, the inevitable dysentery are lively, amusing, laughable episodes."

That overwhelming understatement could apply to those Finns in F-cup or to Finns in general...

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

There had been a lot of melting on the Alps! The hiking I did was minimal because I was a little nervous to go alone in an area I didn't know and too proud to hire a guide for courage. Its something that comes from within or not at all. While I enjoyed their grandness and imagining what occurred millions of years ago that created them I found after a few days in Lausanne that I felt claustrophobic. They're so tall, they take away the sky. Beautiful though obviously dangerous a combination that mother nature gives us to remind us how to respect...

What is Afghanistan like?

On the topic of melting snow. Back in February when we had no snow in Seattle I decided on a whim I wanted to visit Fairbanks, certainly there would be snow there was my thinking. Here's my -20C day in the snow but even here (a week before the Iditarod) there had been little new snow and everything was a packed ice. I think anyone who loves fast cars would love dog sledding! It's not as easy as it looks and I fell off the sled multiple times, rolling once in slow motion thinking to myself "oh when am I going to stop rolling, I hope I don't hit a tree"



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2015 10:41PM by Wannabe.

Quote
Wannabe
Here's my -20C day in the snow

Ah, you went during a warm spell!

(UAF Alum)

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KF7RWG
http://www.utahrallygroup.com

Quote
Aaron Luptak

Quote
Wannabe
Here's my -20C day in the snow

Ah, you went during a warm spell!

(UAF Alum)

Yeah that's what everyone was telling me! I didn't plan or really research the trip at all and I went alone. Imagine my surprise when I get to the airport and ask for a car (ideally something that would be good in snow right). The guy at the desk gives me the only car that is left which is a Toyota something (I can't even remember now because I was so upset). Anyway after I get upset at him a bit for having such a pedestrian car when I'm clearly thinking 4-wheel drive should be the only thing allowed to rent tourists, he gives me the keys and tells me ..."Ok here you go, you'll have to unplug and take the cord with you" "Whoa, whoa, wait a second???, You're giving me an electric car after all of that"??? "Um, No Mam, you have to plug in the battery warmer or you'll freeze up"...The rest of the trip I was paranoid about not finding an open charging station at the hotel! I loved the silence of the snow and cold. I became mesmerized by the Northern lights, how lucky you are to have spent time there!

ps, have you ever been to Barrow? I'm thinking about making a trip back to see the bears...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2015 11:31PM by Wannabe.

John, I'm not really a reader of books. Always too busy exploring and doing stuff myself than to sit on my ass reading about another person's literal interpretation of their experiences.
I don't doubt I am missing out in some way, but it's just the way I am wired up.

That book and review also appears to be framed in a very "British" manner, which for me in itself I find off putting, after the past few years learning just how the powers that be and their associates over here behave. The more one looks in to what they get up to the more repulsive they become.

Couple of examples out of a myriad of horrors that take the "Great" out of Britain.
This never made the headlines in the UK. (viewer discretion advised)
http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5614/australia-s-60-minutes-makes-special-on-uk-s-vip-paedophiles

http://labour25.com/

---

Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

Quote
danster
John, I'm not really a reader of books. Always too busy exploring and doing stuff myself than to sit on my ass reading about another person's literal interpretation of their experiences.
I don't doubt I am missing out in some way, but it's just the way I am wired up.

That book and review also appears to be framed in a very "British" manner, which for me in itself I find off putting, after the past few years learning just how the powers that be and their associates over here behave. The more one looks in to what they get up to the more repulsive they become.

Couple of examples out of a myriad of horrors that take the "Great" out of Britain.
This never made the headlines in the UK. (viewer discretion advised)
http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5614/australia-s-60-minutes-makes-special-on-uk-s-vip-paedophiles

http://labour25.com/

Well I though we all knew the upper classes have always been a collection of "very probably' warped and perverted and often cruel people? Been my personal experience.

Anyway I look at books--and film---as a 'conversation' with the person who wrote (made),
who because of place or time or age, I wouldn't otherwise have a chance to talk with...
And I like people who have a sense of adventure, so regardless of nationality, some authors are really, for me---amusing and encouraging, and inspiring---often in the midst of folly..or tragedy...

Newby's books are in any case a "light read"....and he sure was in several remarkable adventures in his life: sailing ships to OZ and back--arriving just as WWII began---then in the Commandos and parachuted into Italy, captured, escaped, refuge in a farm where luckily the guy was a Socialist and the next was a nasty Fascist, and falling in love with the "daughter" there--then captured again---then going back after the war and marrying the woman.. man, who can't be intrigued--inspired by stuff like that?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Indeed, but if I spent my time reading I would not have time to have adventures of my own.

Maybe I should scribe some memoirs, such as buying a beat up old Honda Civic and driving 12k miles round America in 6 weeks in tow with bonnie Kiwi and Oz lasses, and a ginger haired English man that frazzled in the sun quicker than a fair haired Scottish loon.
Within weeks of that I was driving across Europe to Romania in a Citroen 2CV to assist with charity work. Tore the arse off the car in Bucharest outside Ceaușescu's palace because someone had removed the manhole covers from the road.... Did manage to limp that 650cc aircooled twin back over the mountains around Sibiou to Arad with sparks flying as the chassis scrubbed the road on every bump. Car was left there as a chicken coup, and I caught the Orient Express train home.

---

Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

Quote
danster
Indeed, but if I spent my time reading I would not have time to have adventures of my own.

Maybe I should scribe some memoirs, such as buying a beat up old Honda Civic and driving 12k miles round America in 6 weeks in tow with bonnie Kiwi and Oz lasses, and a ginger haired English man that frazzled in the sun quicker than a fair haired Scottish loon.
Within weeks of that I was driving across Europe to Romania in a Citroen 2CV to assist with charity work. Tore the arse off the car in Bucharest outside Ceaușescu's palace because someone had removed the manhole covers from the road.... Did manage to limp that 650cc aircooled twin back over the mountains around Sibiou to Arad with sparks flying as the chassis scrubbed the road on every bump. Car was left there as a chicken coup, and I caught the Orient Express train home.

Its sound as though ya should... see encouraging others to dare to try and have some fun is a worthy and honorable thing...and via a book or reading we can bring some hope and optimism to the world that is a mitzvah...a good thing..

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
Aaron Luptak

Quote
Wannabe
Here's my -20C day in the snow

Ah, you went during a warm spell!

(UAF Alum)

Katmai in September! Long range telephoto lens.

Some neat photos there!

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Enablers, All of you.

Thanks

I know there are a bunch of people here who love the outdoors and adventure!

I've truly fallen in love with nature and all of the creatures we share this earth with.

I've been thinking about my next trip to Alaska and for fun I've added 3 different locations on my phone to watch the weather, sadly places that should be maintaining temps well below zero are struggling to reach the minus temps and even when they do they fluctuate back up.

I wish more people would be aware that despite all of the money a person can have, mother nature is priceless.


From last fall: (Share with your Boo, Boos John)