Project Manhigh: A long fall into the surf

The first video from Boards Of Canada with some nice surf shots.   It starts with Joseph Kittinger's skydive from 102,800 feet back in 1960.

Check Out: Dayvan Cowboy

Oh, the places we could go.

Yeah, I think the Bob Trailer is great too. Unfortunately I am a poor tightwad and don't have the three hundred ducats to drop on its stylish lines. Guys like me have to 'keep it real' as they say and settle for this DIY $30 version (shall we call it the Bud?).

Check Out: Bicycle cargo trailer — 200 lb capacity, $30 for parts

His World

Except for last weekend's clunker, the NY Times has been putting out some excellent stories in Saturday's Sport Section.

This week, bad-ass Will Gadd writes about climbing icebergs off the coast of Labrador. Despite everyone telling him not to, Will and his climbing partner Ben Firth took the challenge. The best part of the whole climb seemed to be actually getting on the 'berg with the topping out sounding somewhat anti-climatic. Then again, it is about the journey, not the destination.

Check out: Why'd He Climb to the Top? They Told Him Not To (registration required)

Check out: National Geographic Video of Will Climbing Icebergs

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before….

So, a plane load of Republicans fly into Islamabad……

This is not a joke. My dad sent me this 'adventure of a life time' being offered by Dr. Jack Wheeler. Something about this should be throwing up red flags.

Fly into Islamabad. From there it is up to your swank hotel at 8,000ft. You then helicopter to 15,419 ft for lunch. Tool around a few days more in your helicopter and then its back to the first world,"With this incredible part of the world now a part of our lives." You will also be babysitting his 14 year old son.

Dr. Jack Wheeler, who specializing in the field of political and economic freedoms, is taking his road trip to one of the worlds hottest hot spots. Looking at some of the other doozies he has offered up in the past, such as the 'no liberals allowed' "Conservatives on the Nile" and "Conservatives on Safari", I am having a hard time understanding what the point of this vacation adventure would be. Just another notch on your belt? Spreading conservative values?

Check Out: Wheeler Expeditions

Return to sender

These two braved it all to cross the land-sea bridge. To bad the locals on the other side didn't warm to their uninvited guests. I love the Times for mentioning the fact that they had been packing heat and possessed a GPS. Damn right they did. Even better that the UPI described Kieffer as "a 40-year-old runner".

RUSSIA: 2 ADVENTURERS HELD AFTER ICE TREK An American and a British citizen were detained by Russian authorities after walking across the ice on the Bering Strait and making landfall on Russia's Far East coast, Russian officials said. The men were completing one of the more difficult legs of a round-the-world walk by the Briton, Karl Bushby, above, and failed to register with the Russian authorities after coming ashore. The American citizen was identified as Dimitri Kieffer, 40, of Anchorage, Alaska. They also had a Colt magnum pistol and a global positioning system, the authorities said. Russian officials, speaking by telephone, said the men were in the village of Uelen and were being investigated. Mr. Bushby, 36, is halfway through a 12-year, 36,000-mile walk from South America to Britain, according to his Web site, goliath.mail2web.com. C. J. CHIVERS (NYT)

Check out: Dimitri's blog

Check out: Maislen's World has been following this for a while.

What? Are you sure?

Climber/writer/motivational speaker/consultant/blah/blah/blah Arlene Blum had an article in the NY Times yesterday about a recent trip to Mt. Hood where she re-lived one of the more dangerous episode of her life. While there on a photo shoot she spun the tail of her first trip to the top via the Eliot Headwall – "then considered the toughest route on Mount Hood." It was the usual climbing tale of someone with little experience getting in over their head; climbers going to fast and too hard decide to cut corners, fall and almost die.

What amazed me was her conclusion, "I realized for the first time that mountain climbing could be a lethal activity".

It is no secret that when we are young we feel as if we could attend our own funerals. Fortunately the majority of us beat the odds. If you drive a hundred and ten down the main avenue of your home town at 4am, you know that death is right around the corner. I just always assumed it wouldn't be me. To be ignorant to the fact that you can die while climbing, and particularly climbing the 'toughest route' on the mountain is, well, ignorant. Luckily for Blum she figured it out, got to go home to a warm bed and live to tell the tale.

Check Out: "After almost falling off Mt. Hood, a climber comes to one conclusion" (registration required)

Check out: Accidents in North America Mountaineering 

The Krispy Kreme Challenge – Hot Glazed Sweat

Last week I went to see The Books play down on campus and notice one of the hipsters wearing the following shirt.

The Krispy Kreme Challenge

12 Donuts

2400 Calories

4 Miles

1 Hours

Seems like some genius had the foresight of combining the yin of eating donuts with the yang of running. In January of '05 a few brave souls gather at the campus Bell Tower for this gastronomic race requiring participants to run two miles to the local Krispy Kreme, inhale a dozen glazed donuts and then stagger two miles back to the Bell Tower. All proceeds went to the local Children's Hospice.

The winner nailed it in a heart stopping 34 minutes, 27 seconds. All the better that at a 8.5 minute mile he probably only burned about 900 calories. That leaves a remaining 500 sitting in reserves leaving the feeling that you almost never got off the sofa.

I will be signing up for '06.

Check Out: i-run's take on the whole thing

Check Out: Offical Site (I love the picture of the guy leaning on the wall)