Circumnavigating Ellesmere Island

Ellesmere Island is one of the most remote places on Earth, located above the arctic circle, and falling into the chain of the Queen Elizabeth Islands in the  Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is a cold, icy, mountainous place that is seldom visited due to its rugged and challenging nature. It is also the site of a spring expedition in which Jon Turk and Erik Boomer will be attempting to circumnavigate the island by kayak.

The expedition officially got underway a few days back, with Jon and Erik setting out from Resolute Bay last Thursday, and taking a series of short flights on "puddle jumpers" to eventually reach their starting point. The weather forecast had been good for their first week out on the water, but according to Jon's blog,  which was updated two days ago, that has changed some. The blog posts reports heavy snow in the region, and that the duo were holed up in a small cabin at the time of their last check-in.

They also report that the paddling has been hard going through the ice fields that surround the island, but when they move in closer to shore, the fjords have been smooth as glass. They've encountered quite a few polar bear tracks as well and even spotted a mother bear with her cub. The creatures are fairly common on Ellesmere, and of course they would like to avoid them as much as possible.

The journey will cover 1485 miles (2390 km) and is expected to take upwards of 100 days to complete. At the moment, they're just 75 miles into the expedition, and despite the fact that it is spring there, they are experiencing bitterly cold, sub-zero temperatures. Even in the height of summer, the place never really gets all that warm, so this will be a long, slow, challenging journey to complete, to say the least.

To check out the official expedition website, click here and for blog updates click here. This should be another interesting expedition to follow as it unfolds.

World Record Tandem Kayak Drop Caught On Video

I caught this video on The Goat this morning featuring Sam Freihofer and Todd Wells as they go over the 82-foot (25 meter) Metlako Falls, located in Eagle Creek, Oregon, in a tandem kayak. This big drop sets a new record for going over the falls in a tandem boat, and the video catches it all for the rest of us to enjoy.

Is there anyone that you'd go over an 82-foot falls with? Hmm... I'd have to think long and hard on that one!

Jesse Coombs Drops 94-Foot Abiqua Falls In Oregon

Here's a great video for aspiring adventure filmmakers. It shows paddler Jesse Coombs making a descent of Abiqua Falls in Oregon, a drop of 94-feet. But that is just the final portion of the video, which spends a good amount of time showing us how the video was shot and everything that the filmmakers had to go through to capture the drop. That included rigging up a zipline above the water for a cameraman as well. Really interesting stuff.

I found the video at the First Ascent blog earlier, and there is more information about how it was made and the kayak descent as well. Read the article here and enjoy the video below.

National Parks Week Begins Tomorrow!

As an avid traveler and outdoor enthusiast, I'm a big fan of America's National Parks. These amazing wilderness settings are amongst the most beautiful places I've visited on Earth, and that is saying something, as I've been fortunate enough to visit some pretty spectacular places. To celebrate these wonderful places, the Park Service has declared April 16th - 24th as National Parks Week and has scheduled a host of activities to take place during that period. They're also making the parks free to visitors during those days, waiving the entrance fee for all who want to experience the wonders of the parks for themselves.

Over the course of the next nine days, there will be a lot of promotional activities taking place in a number of parks throughout the country. Be sure to check out NPS.gov for more information on those official park events, and drop by the National Parks Promotional Council website to see what some of the affiliated organizations have on tap as well.

As for me, I'm heading out to Joshua Tree for the weekend. The National Parks Conservation Association is holding an event out that way, and I'll be on hand to cover it and take part in the festivities. I've never been to Joshua Tree before, so I'm looking forward to experiencing a new park and kicking of National Parks Week in grand style. I hope you have plans to enjoy a park during the week ahead as well.

Bomb Flow Video Magazine Promises Paddling Fun

I caught this video over at the Outside blog this morning, and wanted to kick off the day by sharing it. It is a teaser for an upcoming series of videos for Bomb Flow Magazine that were shot by kayakers Evan Garcia and Fred Norquist, and as you'll see, it offers plenty of whitewater action. Shot on location in Chile, Washington State, and British Columbia, the video will certainly get you in the mood to hit the water yourself. It is filled with beautiful locations, beautiful water, and beautiful action. Enjoy!

Croatian Adventurer Sends Welcome Message To The World

This is a fun story I shared over at Gadling today, but wanted to post about it here as well. An outdoor enthusiast from Croatia has embarked on an ambitious project which he hopes will send a gigantic "welcome" to the rest of the world from his home country.

On Tuesday of this week, Daniel Lacko set out on a pre-set course that will take him through some wild Croatian backcountry on foot, kayak, and bike. The journey will cover more than 2500km (1553 miles) and will pass through eight national parks, three nature preserves, and a number of other protected areas. Lacko will climb ten mountains and paddle or swim on six different rivers, not to mention Croatia's legendary sea coast. All the while, a GPS device will be tracking his progress and marking his route, which if he adheres to properly, will end up spelling out the word "Welcome" in giant letters across the map of Croatia.

The entire journey is expected to take two months to complete, and Lacko hopes to arrive in Dubrovnik by June 5th, which is World Environment Day. That means he'll have to make good time through some very challenging terrain, and he must stay on his prescribed course in order for the project to succeed. So, no matter what obstacles are thrown in his way, he must find away to forge ahead.

You can find out more about the project, and read Daniel's blog, on the official website and keep updated on his progress on the Facebook page as well.

Nat Geo Launches "Fringe Elements" Adventure Video Series

National Geographic has launched a new line of adventure sports videos called Fringe Elements that looks to have a ton of great potential. As you can imagine, coming from Nat Geo, the quality is extremely high, and they cover a broad base of outdoor activities. In the first round of videos alone, there is everything from  rock climbing to trail running, with just about everything in between.

Along with the launch of these new videos, there is all a gallery of "expert tips" which offers up some great advice on a number of important topics. For example, there are tips on how to pack lighter (always important and appreciated on my end!) as well as a list of the top gear for aspiring adventure filmmakers.

Check out the full list of a launch videos by clicking here. I've also posted an example below. Great stuff to start the day.

Universal Sports Network Declares April Adventure Month!

The Universal Sports television network, which is owned and operated by NBC, has declared April Adventure Month, and has scheduled a whole host of great outdoor oriented programing to celebrate. If you're luck enough to live in a market that gets the channel, you'll have plenty of great television to enjoy over the next few weeks.

Amongst the great shows that you can enjoy throughout the month of April are a series of documentaries from our friend Jon Bowermaster. In fact, the entire collection of Jon's Oceans 8 project, as well as his Terra Antarctica film, will be available for viewing. Oceans 8 chronicles eight amazing sea kayaking expeditions to a number of unique and diverse locations around the globe, while Terra Antarctica returns Bowermaster and his team to Antarctica, a place he knows very well, where they explored the effects of climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula. Each of these films is excellent, and will give you a great perspective on the environments they explore, from one of the best vantage points possible – the seat of sea kayak.

To find out where you can watch Universal Sports in your market, click here and to see a complete schedule of programming click here.

On a personal note, if you haven't seen Jon's films, you really should grab this opportunity to do so. They are extremely well done, inspiring, and informative. I have all of the DVD's, and thoroughly enjoyed the all of them. They'll make you want to buy a kayak of your own!

Sarah Outen Launches London2London Expedition

Back in December I posted a story about ocean rower Sarah Outen's plans to circumnavigate the globe under her own power. Sarah, who had successfully rowed solo across the Indian Ocean in 2009, had made it known that she would be riding her bike and paddling her way around the planet, an ambitious endeavor to say the least. Last Friday, she kicked off that journey, setting out on what she calls her London2London via The World expedition.

Sarah started this latest adventure by paddling under the London Tower Bridge, which serves as both the starting and finish line. From there, she's now traveling by kayak down the Thames River and then across the English Channel, where she'll get out of the water and hop on her bike. Over the course of the rest of this year, she'll be pedaling across Europe and Asia, where she'll eventually reach the Pacific Ocean. When she does, she'll get back into a boat and row her way across the Northern Pacific to Vancouver. That stage will be followed up with another leg on her bike, which will take her across the U.S. and Canada, eventually ending in New York City, where she'll get in her boat one last time, and row across the Northern Atlantic. If all goes according to plan, she'll be paddling back under the London Tower Bridge sometime in 2013.

It has been an eventful first couple of days for Sarah, mostly due to the media attention surrounding her launch. Examining her expedition tracker however, shows that she has completed the first paddling leg this morning, and has successfully crossed the Channel. She'll now be climbing aboard her bike for the first really long and difficult stage of the trip. It'll be several weeks before she's out of Europe, and once she leaves those friendly confines behind, the real challenges will begin.

You can follow Sarah's progress on her blog, and if you read her updates from the Indian Ocean a few years back, you no doubt recall how interesting her reports can be. I'm sure these updates will be no exception, and I look forward to keeping track of how many Mars bars she consumes along the way. They're her favorite source of fuel on these calorie burning adventures that she keeps finding herself on.

I'll posted updates as Sarah makes progress on what is sure to be a long, yet amazing journey.

Paddler Makes First Ever Atlantic Crossing In Sea Kayak

Yesterday our friend Jon Bowermaster, who happens to write for Gadling.com as well, posted a great story on that site about a paddler who completed the first ever crossing of the Atlantic in a sea kayak. The journey took just shy of 99 days to complete and covered 3352 miles.

Way back in October, Polish paddler Aleksander Doba set out from Dakar, Senegal with his sights set on arriving in Fortaleza, Brazil. Jon points out that that is a distance of just 2000 miles or so, if you travel in a straight line, but thanks to high winds, especially in the first two months, and drift from ocean currents, Doba wasn't able to travel in a straight line, or anything close to resembling such. Those high winds and currents helped to tack on the extra 1300+ miles of paddling.

Doba is no stranger to long distance paddle either. Amongst his other achievements in a kayak are a 2,600-mile paddle around the Baltic Sea in 1999, a 3,300 mile journey from Poland to Norway back in 2000 and a 1,200 mile circumnavigation of Lake Baikal that was completed just last year. Jon notes that the Pole paddles a 23-foot long sea kayak "with monster roll bars and a pair of flotation cabins at either end."

As if reading about Doba's accomplishments in a kayak weren't inspiring enough, he also happens to be 64-years old. Pretty impressive accomplishment at any age, and even more so after 60. I hope I can be anywhere close to that active when I'm that age.

Well done Aleksander!

Fun Whitewater Video To Start The Day

I caught this video yesterday on the Outside Blog and thought it was a lot of fun. It features paddler Aniol Sarrasolses on recent whitewater expeditions to Romania, Portugal, France, and Mexico, with some great action shots on the water. The music and tone of the video conveys a great sense of fun out on the water, which is of course the whole point, right? Enjoy the scenery and action. It looks like everyone is having a blast.



Winter Highlights from SB Productions on Vimeo.

Paddling Dipper Creek In British Columbia

Looking for a fast, furious, and beautiful place for your next paddling expedition? Then look no further than Dipper Creek, British Columbia.  But beware, the river isn't for the faint of heart or the beginner, as you'll see in the beautifully shot video below. Paddlers will find a little of everything there, including deep gorges, waterfalls, challenging rapids, and more. Looks like a fantastic place to visit, either in your boat or on foot.

Thanks to Canoe & Kayak Magazine for sharing the video.


Dipper Creek, BC 2010 from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Book Review: Running Dry: A Journey From Source to Sea Down the Colorado River

As global climate change continues to change our planet in ways that we are still struggling to understand, one of the things that has become clear is that our conservation and usage of water is going to play a big role in our long term survival. Weather patterns are clearly changing, and as they do, once reliable sources of water are now struggling to keep up with the demands that we put on them. It seems that man has an unquenchable thirst for water and not just for drinking. We use it to irrigate our farms, water our lawns, clean ourselves and our possessions, and oh so much more. What effect is our usage, and climate change, having on our water supply? And what does it mean for our future?

That is the overriding theme of the book Running Dry: A Journey From Source to Sea Down the Colorado River by Jonathan Waterman. The book follows Waterman has he makes a spectacular 1450-mile journey along the length of the Colorado River, spending five months exploring those waters, while examining the effects of prolonged drought, climate change, and over usage by man on the river. What he found was an environmental catastrophe just waiting to happen, as the flow of the river is shrinking dramatically, leaving the lands surrounding it in desperate need of moisture.

Despite the fact that this is a book about water, it starts out awfully dry. Waterman spends the first chapter filling us in on the history of man's use of the river and explaining some of the complex issues that are facing how that usage is governed. It can be a bit of a slow way to start a book, but it pays off later when the actual adventure begins, as having that deep background helps us to understand and relate to what the author encounters once he starts his epic paddling journey.

That journey does become the core of the book however, and when Waterman begins to share his aquatic adventure with us, the story picks up quickly. Running a massive river like the Colorado is no small accomplishment, but he manages to do it and share tales of the people he met along the way and the things he saw in his weeks upon the river. Where Waterman excels in his writing is weaving those tales so deftly with the history and law of water rights management in the Western United States. He gives you just enough of both to keep you knowledgable about the important issues at hand while still enjoying a grand kayaking adventure at the same time.

Ultimately however this isn't an adventure book, but a call to action for those who live along the Colorado and beyond. The river is being altered dramatically, and in some ways irrevocably, and this book hammers that message home in some important ways. While the author remains hopeful that we can save the river, and there by save ourselves, the message is one of urgency, as precious time, and water, is slipping away.

Running Dry is an excellent read for environmentalists and paddlers alike. It is also an eye opener for those of us who were unaware of how several factors (climate change, drought, over usage) were conspiring to destroy one of the great natural wonders of the American West. Read it for the adventure but never lose sight of the overall message. You'll be glad you did on both accounts.

Outside Investigates The Death Of Hendri Coetzee

Back in December, the outdoor adventure community was stunned by the news that paddling guide Hendri Coetzee was killed while guiding a team of professional kayakers down the Lukuga River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Coetzee, along with American paddlers Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic, had just completed a tough section of whitewater, when a large crocodile approached them from behind. In an instant, the croc attacked, pulling Coetzee from his boat, and pulling him under the water, never to be seen again. It was a shocking and brutal reminder of how deadly Africa can be, but it still came as quite a shock.

In the latest issue of Outside magazine, the entire incident is explored in detail, and the article is quite a story to read. What we didn't know back in December was that Coetzee was planning on hanging up his paddle and bring an end to his very productive career as a guide and professional paddler with some very impressive first descents under his belt. But as the story says, a predator in the water had a different ending to the story.

The article is entitled Monster in the River, and the entire thing can be read online here. The story is more than just about the tragic end of Hendri's life, but it also about the way he lived it with a passion for what he did, exploring Africa's most spectacular rivers and finding adventure in many different ways. He was truly an inspirational person who just happened to have met an untimely end in a most unexpected way. I highly recommend this story, as it is well told and offers a lot of insight into the man himself.

Another great job from the staff at Outside.

Halo Effect Trailer Offers More Beautiful Kayaking Goodness

As another very busy week comes to an end, I thought we'd go out on a high note with the trailer for a kayaking film that is currently making the rounds. The film is called Halo Effect and it follows three paddlers who traveled to Iceland and Norway in search of the best white water they could find. Judging from the video below, they not only found some spectacular rapids to run, they had a heck of a time doing. This video is extremely well done and simply beautiful to watch. Enjoy!

Kayaking From Vancouver to Alaska: No Experience Required

I came across this video earlier while perusing the Canoe & Kayak Magazine website. The short film chronicles a group of friends who set out to kayak from Vancouver to Alaska along the Inside Passage without any paddling experience at all. Over the five weeks they were on the water, they covered 500 miles and found plenty of great scenery and adventure along the way. Enjoy!



No Experience Required_Full HQ from StuntBeaver Productions on Vimeo.

Kayker Drops 128-Feet Over Falls In Mexico

Paddler Rafa Ortiz made the second highest drop over a waterfall ever last month when he went down the 128-foot tall Big Banana Falls in Mexico. Fortunately for all of us, someone was on hand to shoot photos and video of it, from multiple angles no less. Ortiz also went on NBC a few days back to talk about the experience. Check out all the craziness in the video below, and remember kids, don't try this at home.

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Paddler Makes First Solo Descent of Australia's Fitzroy River

Aussie paddler Lachie Carracher has completed the first solo descent of his country's largest volume river, the 733km (455 mile) Fitzroy located in the remote West Kimberly region of Western Australia. The entire journey took six days to complete, with a number of obstacles to overcome, including raging Class V rapids, precipitous waterfalls, and crocodile infested waters.

According to Outer Edge Magazine, who named Lachie their Young Adventurer of the Year, the paddler  completed the expedition on Wednesday of this week. Once off the water, he immediately contacted his father and began to consider making another run on the Fitzroy, which is one amongst the top whitewater challenges in the world.

Making a solo descent of the river is no small feat. According to Outer Edge, the Fitzroy has an astounding water flow that measures 21 times that of the Colorado River as it passes through the Grand Canyon. That flow generates plenty of dangerously rough waters and lots of speed as well.

This is certainly an impressive first descent for any kayaker, and I want to join my friends at Outer Edge in extending a hardy congratulations to Lachie on a job well done. To read more about the paddler and his adventures on the Fitzroy, check out his website at Follow-The-River.com.

More Whitewater, Water Fall Dropping Fun

If yesterday's first descents in Costa Rica weren't enough to quench your thirst for whitewater action, check out another entry today. This time it comes to us from Norway, where Matze Brustmann was successful in his attempt at a first descent of the Bruresløret waterfall at the Store Ula.

Both videos come to us courtesy of Canoe & Kayak magazine by the way.



First descent of the Bruresløret waterfall from Pascal Schaffner on Vimeo.

First Descents of Costa Rican White Water Caught on Video

Awhile back, paddlers Chris Baer and Todd Wells traveled to Costa Rica to make the first descent on a couple of water falls along the Rio Chirripo Pacifico. The captured their results on video and compiled them together to share with us all. As usual with these kinds of great kayaking vids, there is plenty to enjoy, but you have to love the cockpit view caught on helmet cam that shows the drop over the falls. Crazy!



First Descents, Rio Chirripo Pacifico, Cateratas from Chris Baer on Vimeo.