Wanna feel your stomach drop to the floor? Watch this clip for the
upcoming 60 Minutes piece on Alex Honnold's free solo of Sentinel in
Yosemite. Free soloing, for the uninitiated, is climbing without a rope.
Or net. Or sanity, if you ask us. Set your DVRs for "60 Minutes,"
Sunday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
A Swedish architecture firm, CF Moller Architects, is going to be building the largest indoor ski facility in the world. Skipark 360 will have a 2,297 foot long run with a 525 feet drop and will be capable of hosting a World Cup event. Standing 443 feet tall, the design is certainly stunning.
Of course, the world's largest indoor ski resort wouldn't be complete without a 2.2 mile cross country skiing tunnel, biathlon, ice hockey, "bandy", and figure skating arenas, a snowboarding park, restaurants, shops, spa, hotel and conference facilities.
I guess the Swedish are truly committed to pointing out that their socialist system has not simply weathered the economic turmoil but they have lots and lots of money to burn. Money to burn on a one-stop shop of socialist, snow-bunny paradise. Work starts in 2013.
Ever wonder what your climbing buddies are talking about? Are you in the dark when hanging out at your local crag and don't want to admit that you don't know what the bros mean when they say things like "dab, choking the cobra, old dad, or au coeval and colonnette?" Well you need Matt Samet's new "The Climbing Dictionary."
The 200 page tome is illustrated and provides definitions and explanations for more than 650 climbing terms used by climbers and mountaineers around the world. According to publisher, The Mountaineers, "each definition includes its part of speech, origin (if known), its meaning, and a humorous but factually sound example of example sentence to demonstrate usage." I would really like to read the usage example for choking the cobra.
There's an opportunity to contribute to the conversation by emailing the author and heading to climbingterms.com. Heck there's even a contest, sponsored by La Sportiva, to create a video that describes a new word or climbing phrase. Get the skinny at http://www.climbingterms.com/sportivacontest. Check out the video that inspired the contest here.
Pretty sick video featuring some of the best kayak clips of the year. It's 11 minutes long, but well worth it. It was put together to garner votes for the "Rider of the Year II" contest by Tribe Rider, a kayak clothing collective. The group identified categories for voters...Best Male, Best Female, Best Trick, Best Drop, etc and solicited votes online from the video clips they put in the the video. Votes closed a few weeks ago, check out the results. Dane Jackson won best male. Mariann Saether won best female. If you like "riding your kayak," you'll love the video.
Now while Double Rainbow meme could technically be
considered outdoor related, there's no doubt that the Joey's OK meme is
100% an outdoor meme. Joey's cycle-cross crash and subsequent fame as
an internet meme makes us proud to work in the same industry. We can now
rest happy that the outdoor industry has found social relevance in
today's interconnected Facebook world. High five! Video below.
We don't normally write about bestiality on this site. Mainly because it's rather gross, illegal in many states, and might attract the wrong viewing demographic to our site via Google. Not to mention piss off a few advertisers. That is until today, when we decided to break our writing embargo and chat about this taboo. Mostly because Huffington Post started it, but also because though it's bizarre and gross, it's kind of an old fashioned love story and we like love stories here at GoBlog headquarters. OK, sure it's a love story between a dolphin and a man, but well, um. Did we mention Huffintong Post wrote about it first? Anyway, according to the book Wet Goddess published by Malcolm Brenner, now 60, he had a 9 month "affair" with a dolphin when he was in college. Not exactly sure what that entailed and we're not going to buy the book to find out, but some of the quotes from the article and story make it clear the relationship wasn't exactly, um, platonic.
The author claims he started his relationship with a dolphin named
Dolly back in 1970, when he was in his early 20s. Brenner was a
sophomore at New College of Florida in Sarasota. A writer hired Brenner
to take photographs for a children's book about the dolphin show at an
amusement park in nearby Nokomis. He was given free access to the park
and introduced to the staff.
If Brenner is to be believed, the dolphin courted him.
Initially, "she became more and more aggressive," said Brenner, who
lives in Punta Gorda, Fla. "She would thrust herself against me."
But over time, Dolly became more gentle, he claimed.
"I found that extraordinarily erotic," Brenner said. "It's like
being with a tiger or a bear. This is an animal that could kill you in
two seconds if it wanted to."
"What is repulsive about a relationship where both partners feel and
express love for each other?" Brenner asked. "I know what I'm talking
about here because after we made love, the dolphin put her snout on my
shoulder, embraced me with her flippers and we stared into each others'
eyes for about a minute."
We're probably going to lose a few readers over this post. Which is ok, we usually lose a couple a week anyway. But at least we can finally say we've written about almost everything on this site. Including bestiality. High five!
Had to share this one. Talk about do it yourself adventure. 38-year-old Johnathan Trappe used 54 helium-filled balloons to float across the Alps in a lawn chair. Taking off from Gap, in Southern France, Trappe hit altitudes of 15,000 feet during his 12 hour crossing. He landed in Italy, near a village called Andezeno. Pretty cool. Maybe not the smartest thing anyone's ever done, but pretty damn cool all the same. It wasn't Trappe's first lawn chair adventure, he had floated across the English Channel. It likely won't be his last. But the one after, whatever it is, might be…
I had the fortune of growing up in southern Maine, about 15 minutes from a Patagonia outlet. I still wear the ski pants I got in 7th grade, still have the same ski jacket I got in in college, and I won't even tell you how old some of my long underwear is. The point is, and I'm not just shilling for a brand because I get paid the big bucks, that shit never wears out.
But, how many long underwears do you need? After a dozen or so Christmases, chances are you've probably got a drawer full. Patagonia has long offered a recycling program - Common Threads where folks can send in old clothes and it'll get recycled. Well the company has taken it one step further, by asking customers to take a joint pledge where Patagonia pledges to "build useful things that last, to repair what breaks and recycle what comes to the end of its useful life." The customer agrees to "buy only what they need (and will last), repair what breaks, reuse (share) what they no longer need and recycle everything else." Pretty cool. According to Treehugger, the company has also partnered with eBay to create an exclusive "Patagonia Common Threads Initiative store" where folks that have taken their pledge can sell and buy used Patagonia stuff.
Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia's founder explains the idea,
"The program first asks customers to not buy something if they don't need it. If they do need it, we ask that they buy what will last a long time - and to repair what breaks, reuse or resell whatever they don't wear any more. And, finally, recycle whatever's truly worn out."
In that case, I've got a sweet pair of 20 year old long johns that'll go to the highest bidder!
Check out more at Patagonia.com/us/common-threads/ Via Treehugger
Blue John Canyon is apparently a tough place. You may recall it from Aaron Ralston's little misadventure (he's the guy who cut off his arm after being trapped in the canyon for 3 days, in case you've been trapped in a canyon for the last 3 years). Well just recently, Amos Richards went for a hike in Lower Blue John Canyon, fell about 10 feet, and suffered extensive leg trauma.
The 64-year-old North Carolinian, managed to crawl for three days, while astute rangers pieced together where he might have gone and began an extensive search. Richards was carrying 5 liters of water and a couple of energy bars, which along with his epic will to live, probably saved his life.
I love a good survival story, which if you read the GoBlog you may have noticed. There's always a little something to learn - for example, Richards didn't tell anyone where he was going which is clearly not a good idea when you're hiking alone. He did however pack extra water and extra food which is a good idea, regardless of who you're hiking with or without.
What struck me most about this story was the comment stream on National Parks Traveler. Very few pointed out that Richards is clearly a tough SOB, fewer still lauded the Park Service and the dedicated rangers for noticing an unoccupied campsite miles away from where Richards was found and piecing together his itinerary and initiating a successful search. What many of them did find cause to comment on was that Amos Richards decided to go hiking alone. There was much back and forth. One person suggested solo hikers wear dog tags, so that the body could be identified. Are you serious? Hiking alone is a great. Just leave a note, bring extra food and water, tone it down a bit, and be prepared to break your leg and crawl for three days. Via National Parks Traveler
What happened to nice musicals set in the Austrian alps? Why don't they make those mountaineering musicals anymore? We miss them. Instead we have to see climbers being shot with high powered rifles.
Ever wonder what your climbing buddies are talking about? Are you in the dark when hanging out at your local crag and don't want to admit that you don't know what the bros mean when they say things like "dab, choking the cobra, old dad, or au coeval and colonnette?" Well you need Matt Samet's new 
We don't normally write about bestiality on this site. Mainly because it's rather gross, illegal in many states, and might attract the wrong viewing demographic to our site via Google. Not to mention piss off a few advertisers. That is until today, when we decided to break our writing embargo and chat about this taboo. Mostly because 
I had the fortune of growing up in southern Maine, about 15 minutes from a Patagonia outlet. I still wear the ski pants I got in 7th grade, still have the same ski jacket I got in in college, and I won't even tell you how old some of my long underwear is. The point is, and I'm not just shilling for a brand because I get paid the big bucks, that shit never wears out. 
