Book Review: Oceans: The Threats to Our Seas and What You Can Do to Turn the Tide

Last week, in celebration of Earth Day, Disney and National Geographic released a ground breaking new film called Oceans. Directed by Jacques Perrin, the visionary filmmaker who brought us the acclaimed nature films Microcosmos and Winged Migration. Oceans has been years in planning and production, and by all accounts, it is stunning to behold on the big screen. I say this, because as of this writing, I have yet to see the film, due to the fact that I couldn't find a cineplex in Kathmandu.

On the other hand, while traveling abroad I did have the opportunity to read Oceans: The Threats to Our Seas and What You Can Do to Turn the Tide. The book, which is edited by Jon Bowermaster, is meant to serve as a companion of sorts to the film. It is a compilation of 31 different essays from as many authors, on a number of different topics centered around our seas, and the threats to their health, which will have wide ranging consequences for the future of the entire planet.

Some of the essays are sentimental in nature, such as Carl Safina's "Caught in the Same Net" and "Remembering the Ocean" by Celine Cousteau. Others offer up warnings about the Oceans' future, such as "Coral Reefs in Crisis", written by Abigail Alling or Richard Ellis' "The Bluefin's Uncertain Future". All of the stories are informative, insightful, and fascinating, especially if you have any level of awareness about the impact of global climate change. Other authors contributing to the book include ocean explorer Sylvia Earle, circumnavigator Liz Clarke, Captain of the Plastiki David de Rothchild, and Adventure Blog favorite Roz Savage. Even actor Leonardo DiCaprio submitted a short piece on how important, yet finite, a resource our water supply is. Bowermaster's own contribution, an essay on the changing state of the ice around Antarctica is also a sobering story about what is happening now, and how it could impact the future.

Whether you've seen the new film or not, Oceans makes for engrossing reading. But if you have seen the film, the book opens with an interview with director Perrin, who discusses what it was like to get this film made. It was a huge undertaking, involving camera crews visiting 54 locations around the globe, and on one particular day there were 26 location managers and 19 cameras in the field. A host of new technology was also created for the movie, including specially modified underwater cameras, a remotely controlled helicopter camera, and even a torpedo cam. Fascinating stuff to be sure, and something that will no doubt be on my mind when I get a chance to watch the movie itself.

So, whether you've seen the movie or not, be sure to grab a copy of this book. It is a great compilation of insights and thoughts on our oceans from some of the foremost experts on the topic.

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The Ten Best Adventure Biographies (According to Outside)

Outside Magazine has posted a new article that lists their choices for the 10 Greatest Adventure Biographies of all time. The list is made up of a host of big name explorers and adventurers who left their mark in a variety of ways.

For anyone looking to fill out their bookshelf, there are some outstanding books on this list. For instance, Outside gives kudos to The Wildest Dream by Peter & Leni Gillman, the biography of George Mallory, who famously disappeared on Everest at the age of 37 back in 1924. But prior to being lost in the Himalaya (only to be found in 1999), Mallory built a reputation as one of the best high altitude climbers in the world, honing his skills in the Alps, before heading to Asia as part of British exploratory teams.

Shackleton by Roland Huntford also makes the list, detailing the life of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, best known for his expeditions to the Antarctica aboard the famous ship the Endurance. Huntford gives a more complete picture of the man than just those epic tales of adventure however, showing a very flawed and complex character.

Other people whose biographies earned a spot in the top ten include African explorer Henry Morton Stanley, co-first summiteer of Everest Tenzing Norgay, and everyone's favorite outdoor schizophrenic Chris McCandless. There are obviously others as well, and I won't spoil all the fun in finding out who they are. But be prepared to have Amazon open in another browser window, you'll want to add these great books to your library as soon as possible.

So did they leave any great biographies off the list? With only ten to choose from, it must have been difficult to narrow it down. What's your favorite and why should it have been added?

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Book Review: K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain

It is known as the "mountaineer's mountain", and unlike the taller, but technically less challenging Everest, it remains off limits for all but the most talented and dedicated of climbers. It is K2, the second highest mountain on Earth, but arguably the most deadly. It also happens to be the subject of a new book by Ed Viesturs which hits bookstores today, entitled K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain.

While the general public remains fixated on Everest, K2 seems to epitomizes the dangers of high altitude climbing unlike any other mountain. For the mountaineering community, both armchair and actual, it is a mountain of mythical proportions, both literally and figuratively. Located in the Karakorum range of Pakistan, K2 stands 28,251 feet in height, some 778 feet shorter than Everest. Despite this difference in height however, K2 remains orders of magnitude more challenging to climb than the Himalayan giant.

Few people know this better than Viesturs, who has climbed both mountains. In fact, Ed is the only American to have reached the summit of all 14 of the 8000 meter peaks, accomplishing this feat without the use of supplemental oxygen. Ed's quest to complete that task was chronicled in his earlier book No Shortcuts To The Top, in which he gave insights into his climb on K2, which was quite possibly the most dangerous climb ever.

Despite the fact that K2 played a prominent role in his first book, Ed still had more to share about his experience on that mountain, and that is at the core of this new book, although it isn't the sole focus. Viesturs says that he learned the most important lesson of his career on K2 when he pressed on to the summit despite terrible weather, when every instinct was telling him to turn back. With conditions worsening, he reached his goal, and turned back down the mountain, knowing full well that many climbers have died on K2 while descending the mountain, and although he lived to climb another day, he promised himself that he would never ignore his instincts again. That lesson would serve him well on future climbs, including several on Annapurna.

As I said earlier, Viestur's K2 climb isn't the only focus of this new book however. He also takes a look at some of the most important historical expeditions to the mountain as well, recounting a number of the legendary tales from the legendary mountain. Some of the other expeditions that Ed shares with readers include the 1938 team, led by Charlie Houston, that paved the way for eventual summit success in 1954. Houston's ill fated 1953 expedition also receives plenty of attention as well, as it gave us one of the most enduring mountain stories in "The Belay", and of course the 2008 season is also examined as one of the most tragic climbs in the history of mountaineering.

Anyone who has read No Shortcuts knows what to expect out of Veistur's writing style. Ed is once again assisted by co-author David Roberts, and their collaboration once again results in a book that is easy and fun to read. At times, it is almost as if you're sitting around the fire with Ed himself, sharing tales of high adventure in the Karakorum, which turns K2 into quite the page turner, especially when reading about the historical expeditions, where you know the gear and apparel were not up to the standards of today, and climbers suffered mightily while high on the mountain.

For fans of Ed or mountaineering in general, picking up this book is a no brainer. It is a very quick read that serves as a perfect introduction to K2 and the lore that surround the mountain. If you've read a lot of other books on the subject, there isn't a ton new here, although it is interesting to get Viesturs' insights on the history of the peak. Personally, I'd still recommend the classic Savage Mountain as the preeminent book on K2, but this book is a worthy heir to that throne, and an excellent read in its own right.

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Book Review: The New Age of Adventure

When it comes to covering the world of adventure, there are few, if any, publications that are as comprehensive and authoratative as National Geographic Adventure, which is currently ten years of amazing writing. In that first decade of its publication, Adventure has covered everything from climbing the world's highest peaks to sailing the oceans and exploring remote jungles, along with much much more. Many of the stories published in the magazine have garnered praise and won awards that go well beyond the adventure community, and the magazine has earned a reputation for top notch journalism.

To further celebrate this first decade of publication, a new books has just hit store shelves entitled The New Age of Adventure. The book compiles some of the very best articles that have graced the pages of Adventure over the past ten years, with such authors as Sebastian Junger, Laurence Gonzales, Peter Matthiessen, Jon Bowermaster and many more.

The book opens with an excellent introduction by John Rasmus, who is the founding editor of Adventure. In this intro, Rasmus looks back at the early days of the magazine, and some of the first stories that they published, as we closed out the 20th Century. He says that we are witnessing a change from an age of exploration to a new age, one of conversation. It is from this changing focus that the book gets its title. Rasmus explains that there are fewer "blank spots" on the map now, and we understand that our planet needs to be preserved and protected, and that is where we're headed in this new century.

Following the introduction, we're on to the stories. 25 of them in fact. These articles span the globe from Afghanistan to the Sahara, on to Alaska, and beyond. The stories range in scope to epic stories of adventure to intimate portraits of the adventurers themselves. The articles are just as engrossing now as they were when they were first published, and a number of them have a brief follow-up at the end to give us a bit of insight as to how things may have changed sine they first appeared in the magazine.

It is difficult to single out any one or two of the articles from the others, as they are all fantastic. As I read the book, I often caught myself falling pray to "just one more" syndrome. As in "I'll read just one more story before calling it a night." I can only imagine how difficult it was to sift through all the back issues of Adventure and narrow down all the great stories to just these 25. But the ones we do get are all of superior quality and they will each leave a lasting impression on you.

Personally, I found Tim Cahill's "The Lure of Impossible Places" to be quite excellent, as it really captured the spirit of adventure and exploration. David Robert's "Out of Thin Air" was also quite interesting as well, chronicling the expedition to Everest that discovered the remains of Mallory. And Philip Caputo's "Among the Man-Eaters" remains a fascinating piece on the lion prides of Kenya nearly ten years since it was first published.

I could go on and on about the outstanding writing and great stories, but you get the picture. Let me make this easy for you. If you're a fan of National Geographic Adventure magazine, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. In some ways it is a bit of a walk down memory lane, and in others it is a reminder of why we love adventure and exploration in all of its forms. While reading this book you'll be inspired, humbled, and fascinated with each page you turn, which is exactly what Adventure has been doing for ten years. Congrats on the first decade, here's to many more to come!

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Best Books To Have in Your Backpack

Here's an interesting list from a website called Bookride, which has compiled their selection of Backpacker Classics, or the best books to have in your pack when you're out on the trail.

There are indeed some classic books of both fiction and non-fiction on their list. Things like On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Snow Leopard by Peter Mathiessen, both of which are well known adventure classics. Other popular works, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Milton's Paradise Lost earn a spot too, and the rest of the books are equally diverse and eclectic.

When defining what makes a good "backpacker classic" Bookride says they "should have an element of profundity, preferably mystical -if not it should have cult status or be a statement about who you really are." Personally, I look for something entertaining, and in paperback form. Hardbacks taking up space and adding weight aren't a lot of fun for your pack. But all in all, this is a good list that is difficult to argue with. Lots of classic books. But I have to argue with the inclusion of Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger's seminal novel. No one outside of a high school classroom should subject themselves to that one. ;)

Fun list. What did they miss? The one that stands out most to me is Into Thin Air. Thanks to Gregory Goes There, the official blog of Gregory Packs, for the link!

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Book Review: Die Trying

In the world of mountaineering and adventure, the Seven Summits is one of the most sought after goals. In order to complete the challenge, a climber must successfully climb the tallest mountains on all seven continents. The list includes Kilimanjaro in Africa (19,340 feet), Aconcagua in South America (22,841 feet), Denali in North America (20,320 feet), Mt. Vinson in Antarctica (16,050 feet), Mt. Elbrus in Europe (18,442 feet), Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia (16,024), Mount Kosciuszko in Australia (7,310 feet), and of course Mt. Everest in Asia, the tallest mountain on the planet at 29,029 feet. Sharp eyed readers will have already noted that that was eight mountains and not seven. When the original list was put together by Dick Bass, the first man to climb all of the Seven Summits, he included just the continental mountains, and thus Kosciuszko in Australia was on the list. Later, the list was amended by Reinhold Messner to to included all of "Oceania" which then added Carstensz Pyramid to the list. Most climbers do both just to cover their bases.

The Seven Summits are the the central theme for the book Die Trying by Bo Parfet and Richard Buskin, which was released earlier this year. The book follows Parfet's quest to climb each of those mountains, as he goes on a journey of self discovery along the way.

Parfet does a competent job of telling his own story, starting as a young man who struggled with a learning disability, but over came that to go on graduate college and get a lucrative job on Wall Street. But in the midst of working many long hours, while constantly eating takeout, and slowly getting out of shape, Parfet decided he needed to put a little excitement into his life. So, he planned a trip to Tanzania to make the trek up Kilimanjaro. While in college he had done some climbing, and caught the bug, but he had never been up as high as he was on Kili, and when he reached the summit, it gave him a sense of accomplishment that ended up changing his life.

From there, Bo decided that he would move on Aconcagua, which other climbers told him was a nice test to see if he could handle even higher altitudes. At that time, he wasn't even considering the Seven Summits, just going on a mountain adventure that would get him out away from his desk and out of his office. Parfet became creative with his approach, even using his corporate ties to do fund raising for a variety of charities that would help get him to the places he wanted to go climbing in. Not only was he getting to climb mountains, he was doing some good along the way too.

Eventually mountaineering began to become a more important part of his life, and by the time he left for Denali, his third peak in the Seven Summits, he was in better shape, carrying more appropriate equipment, and had experience level had risen dramatically. After topping out successfully on that mountain, which is often seen as a warm-up for Everest, he began to think about completing the Seven Summits in earnest.

Overall, I enjoyed Die Trying, as it is a good read to familiarize yourself with the mountains that make up the Seven Summits, and learn the basics of mountaineering. Parfet does a good job of describing the conditions that are faced on each of the Summits, and explains the various approaches to climbing each of them as well. He also mixes in plenty of his own personality, giving the story a more accessible, personal approach. He comes across as a likable guy that you wouldn't mind sharing a camp fire with, swapping stories into the night.

But make no mistake, this book isn't amongst the all time great mountaineering books. It is a fun, light read, and if you're looking for something new for your bookshelf, then by all means, give this one a go, just don't expect Into Thin Air or even Dick Bass' own Seven Summits, which I preferred to this book, although it is a bit dated now. For a fun adventure story though, you could do a lot worse.

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Adventure Checks Out Viestur's New Book

National Geographic Adventure got the opportunity to check out Ed Viestur's new book, K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain, and have posted some thoughts on their Adventure Blog. As you can surmise from the title, the book focuses on climbing K2, and the particular skills and mindset needed to summit that especially dangerous mountain.

Viestur's has climbed K2, and in the book he shares his thoughts, as well as those of other mountaineers, on the challenges of making the climb. Evidently, he also shares his favorite stories from the mountain as well, including his insights on the legendary and fateful expedition that was chronicled in Savage Mountain led by Charles Houston.

The book is not scheduled to be released until October 13th, and I haven't received a copy of it yet, but I'm looking forward to reading it when I get the chance. I enjoyed Viestur's first book, No Shortcuts To The Top, very much, and suspect that I'll enjoy this one too. The book seems particularly timely following last year's tragedy, and the fact that teams struggled mightily on K2 again this year. Keep an eye out for this one in a month's time.

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Book Review: The Lost City of Z

The beginning of the 20th Century was a different era when it came to exploration. There were still a lot of blank spaces on the map, many of the world's top peaks remained unclimbed, and neither Pole had been reached yet. It was a time when explorers and adventurers were household names and their exploits made front page news. British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett was one of those men, and David Grann's bestselling book The Lost City of Z tells his story, and how Fawcett's legend continues to inspire exploration today.

Born in 1867 in England, Fawcett would grow up to become one of the British Empire's top explorers. He joined the military at a young age, and was posted abroad, where he was able to feed his natural curiosity about the world, but as his tour began to come to a close, the decidedly middle class Fawcett was unsure of what he wanted to for a living when he was discharged. He did know that he loved a good adventure, and he didn't want to live a life that lacked in excitement. So, he went to the Royal Geographical Society where he was trained to become an explorer. At the RGS, Fawcett learned how to navigate, administer first aid, survive in the wild, and more, and he intended to put those skills to use filling in those empty spaces on the map. But the military had other ideas for him, and for a time, his skills were put to use in the world of espionage.

Eventually, however, Fawcett got his wish, and in 1906 he was sent off to South America, where he would under take his first expedition into the Amazon Jungle, a place he would get to know all too well in the years ahead. His first mission was to explore and map the border between Brazil and Bolivia, and he spent months in the field doing just that. When he returned to civilization, he told tales of giant snakes and strange creatures that inhabited the jungle, and his stories helped to build his reputation and captured the imagination of people around the globe.

Over the next 19 years, Fawcett would return to the Amazon on six more occasions, and each time his legend grew. The man seemed indefatigable, even as his own men went down for the count, he kept pressing on, exploring new territory. He passed through jungle rife with malaria and yellow fever, and yet he seemed to never get sick, and he had an uncanny knack for being able to befriend tribes living in the Amazon. Fawcett's stories thrilled the world, and he too even began to believe that he was immune to all the deadly challenges that the jungle threw at him.

With all that time spent in the Amazon, the explorer began to believe that there was a lost civilization that remained hidden deep inside the "Green Hell". Much like Spanish Conquistadors searching for El Dorado, Fawcett became obsessed with the thought of looking for a great lost city that he dubbed "Z" that he believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, would be found at the heart of the Amazon. To that end, Fawcett began organizing an expedition to search for Z, but when he had difficulty raising money to fund the search, he ended up putting together a small team that consisted of himself, his son Jack, and Jack's best friend.

In 1925 the three men set off into the Amazon, promising to return with evidence of Z. For a time, they sent back dispatches that were sent off to the world, and syndicated in newspapers across the globe. Fawcett's admirers watched with bated breath, waiting for him to reveal his amazing discovery. After months in the jungle, Fawcett sent workd back that they would be out of touch for weeks at a minimum, and more likely several months. With the dispatch released, he set off, along with his two young companions, into the deepest depths of the Amazon, and he was never heard from again.

It took a couple of years before the general public finally believed that Fawcett may have died. He was one of the most experienced Amazon explorers in the wold, and his exploits were well known, so for months people believed that he was alive, somewhere in the jungle, perhaps he was even living in Z. But eventually, the truth began to set in, and the world came to realize that Fawcett either wouldn't or couldn't return. Search parties and rescue attempts were organized, and they continued for years, as the myth of Fawcett drove explorers, both professional and armchair alike, to go looking for the missing man and his lost city.

The Lost City of Z is not only a chronicle of Fawcett's life, but also takes a look at some of the more spectacular attempts to follow in his footsteps, some of which resulted in other people disappearing in the jungle as well or returning home empty handed, and lucky to be alive. The book also happens to be about the author's obsession with the British explorer too. In writing the book, Grann aslo felt compelled to go looking for Fawcett, and he shares his own experiences in the Amazon as a guy who seems much more comfortable in Manhattan than he does hiking in the rainforest.

The book is a compelling read to say the least. I personally knew very little about Fawcett before opening the cover to Z, and yet I was enthralled with his story and his determination to fill in those empty spaces on the map. I was also fascinated with the way he inspired others to go looking for him, sometimes at great consequence. Grann is wonderful at telling this multithreaded story, while sprinkling in his process for researching the story, which eventually led to him coming face to face with the legend of the Lost City itself.

With summer upon us, why not kick it off with a good adventure story that also happens to be true. I definitely recommend picking up The Lost City of Z to fill just those needs. It is a great story of a by gone era when adventurers were still celebrated and acknowedged for their valor, and Percy Harrison Fawcett was considered amongst the best of them. The story of his life and mysterious disappearance, remains an amazing story more than 85 years after he stepped into the Amazon and legend.

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Book Review: National Geographic's Complete Survival Manual

When I started to write this review, I debated on how to open it. I wrote several paragraphs, deleting them all and starting over. Finally, I settled on this: If you're only going to buy one outdoor survival guide, make sure it is the Complete Survival Manual from National Geographic. It's a bit cliched sure, but it also gets directly to the point, and says exactly what I feel.

The Complete Survival Manual is impressive in its scope, covering everything you would ever want to know to survive in the backcountry, and then some. The book, which comes with a water proof cover and durable, tear resistant pages, truly is a comprehensive resource for anyone who ventures into the wilds of the world, offering up tips on everything from how to survive in polar conditions to weathering a sandstorm in the desert, while covering just about everything in between.

The book begins with some survival basics, taking a look at such things as the importance of having an adequate water supply and dealing with basic first aid. From there it moves into sections focusing on different types of environments. You'll find temperate forests, swamps and rain forests, high mountains, the desert, and polar regions all extensively covered. There are even chapters dedicated to survival on open water and at home as well.

Each chapter is full of helpful diagrams, informative side bars, and useful charts. The pages are in full color, and often photos accompany the stories to help better demonstrate the techniques being discussed. Sprinkled throughout the book there are also a number of survival stories told by experts in the field who have dealt with many emergencies, great and small, over the years.

When examining the various environments, the chapters are further broken down into subsections with specific advice that applies to that environment. These subsections tell you how to prepare before setting out, and how to deal with such things as building a fire or a shelter, which can vary dramatically depending on where you are at. The environmental sections also look at how to find drinkable water, deal with specific hazards, and even navigate in a variety of conditions.

Some of the tips will seem like common sense, while others will leave you wondering why you hadn't thought of them before. There is a little of everything in this survival manual, and that is part of what makes it a great resource. There are few books that will tell you how to deal with altitude sickness, survive a hurricane, and get a good night sleep at the North Pole all in one guide. This is one such book, and no matter what I say, I can't convey the impressive amount of information that it contains.

In case you couldn't tell, I am thoroughly impressed with the Complete Survival Manual. It is one of those books that you can pick up, and leaf through at any time, and learn something new, and when you head out to the backcountry, it'll prove an invaluable resource for planning, as well as knowing what to do should trouble arise. The durable book is designed to be tossed into your backpack and carried along, although it may be a bit too heavy for that, particularly with the ultralight crowd.

National Geographic has another winner on their hands with this book. Add it to your collection, and it'll prove to be a great resource for many adventures to come, whether you're a climber, hiker, adventurer, or world traveler. It is a definite must have in your library.

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Book Review: Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time

As I noted last week, traveling is a perfect time for catching up on your reading. Long flights and layovers in spartan airports with little to do, makes you appreciate a good book all the more. And when heading to South America, I just had to take along a book I had received a few days before departing. I mean, it's called Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time by Richard Conniff. How could I possibly leave that behind when I was headed to the Amazon?

Much like Jon Bowermaster's new book, Wildebeest in a Rainstorm, which I reviewed last week, this book is a collection of articles that the author has written over a number of years. Conniff has extensive experiencing traveling the globe and writing about its creatures, both great and small.

The stories in the book range from trailing wild dogs on Botswana's Okavango Delta to the title adventure, in which Conniff decides to take a dip in a tank full of Piranhas at the Dallas aquarium. In between, you'll learn a lot about bugs, including the level of pain they inflict when they bit or sting, as well as far more than you'd ever wanted to know about their sex lives. There are stories about elusive leopards, cheetahs, humming birds, monkeys, and more.

The books is a fast read, as each of the chapters is a self contained story, and Conniff's writing style is not only interesting, but often humorous as well. I often found myself wrapping up one of the stories and plunging headlong into the next, just to see what new topic he would explore next. And while I was fascinated reading about his adventures tracking leopards in Namibia with the !Kung San, perhaps the greatest trackers in the world, I was equally enthralled with his report on Lemurs in Madagascar and his profile of Justin Schmidt, an entomologist who has devised a scale for measure the pain of an insect bit or sting. The scale ranges from one, described as "a tiny spark", to four, which is "absolutely debilitating".

Through it all, it's clear that Conniff loves what he does, and has enjoyed a long, and stored career covering amazing wildlife in every corner of the planet. He has a passion for all of these creatures, not just the big cats and intelligent primates, but the little creepy crawlies as well, and it shows through in his articles, which are fun to read, but also very informative as well. I learned a lot from each of these articles, sometimes to my dismay. For instance, in the chapter on Schmidt's pain scale, I learned that bullet ants, native to South America, get their name from the fact that when they bite you, it feels like you've been shot. As I lay in my bunk that night, aboard the river boat that was my home on the Amazon for my trip, I recalled how many of those ants I had seen that morning, while trekking in the jungle. I double checked my boots to make sure none came home with me.

Anyone who loves, or is even curious about, the animals and insects that we share this planet with will enjoy this book. It'll make you laugh, but it'll also make you marvel at the incredible diversity of life and its amazing resiliency. So many stories to be told, and Conniff is one of the best at telling them.

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Book Review: Wildebeest in a Rainstorm

One of the best things about extended travel is that it allows you to catch up on your back reading. That's just what I did while I was away, and I started with the latest book from Jon Bowermaster entitled Wildebeest in a Rainstorm: Profiles of Our Most Intriguing Adventurers, Conservationists, Shagbags and Wanderers.

The book is a collection of articles that Bowermaster has written over the past twenty years for magazines such as National Geographic Adventure and Outside profiling some of the top environmentalists, activists, and adventurers from around the globe. Peter Beard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Richard Branson, and George Schaller are just a few of the fascinating people in the book.

Wildebeest offers a perfect display of Bowermaster's writing style, which is, as always, excellent, even over these disparate articles written over the course of two decades about individuals who are all unique in their own right, but share some common characteristics, such as an adventurous spirit, focused determination, and a deep seeded concern with the well being of the planet on some level or another.

A perfect example of this is Peter Beard, an artist and activist, who spent much of his life in Africa, lured there at a young age by Karen Blixen's classic book Out of Africa. Beard is the subject of not just one, but two of the articles contained in Wildebeest, and he is also credited with the quote that gives the book its title. The first article is more of a profile of Beard's life working in a variety of countries on the continent sometimes as a hunter or doing wildlife research, and later taking photographs that would eventually make him famous. The second article follows a number of years later, when Bowermaster catches up with Beard in a New York hospital after a female elephant did its best to send Beard out of Africa permanently. Both stories are well done, and give you insights into Beard's character, which is both inspiring and sometimes tragic, at the same time.

One of the best elements of this book is that Jon happens to be friends with a number of the people that he had profiled. There is a casual familiarity in the way that he writes about them that makes it seem like we're joining him and a buddy as they go off on an adventure in the wilds of Nicaragua, Chile, or some other far flung place. Those friendships also put him in a unique position of understanding these men and women far better than just any writer who is sent off to cover a story.

It was also interesting to read some of the older articles and realize just how relevant they remain today, not only in the case of the particular person being profiled, but for the various causes or environmental issues that remain concerns years later. Bowermaster closes each of the chapters with a very brief update on what has become of the particular person as well, and there were times when I was reading that I couldn't help but look forward to those short follow-ups to find out how things have changed.

All in all, another good book to add to your bookshelf. It is a very quick and interesting read, and if you're like me, you'll be rushing to the Internet to see if you can find out more about these adventurers, and what has befallen them since Jon originally wrote their story.

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Book Review: Two Climbing Books For Your Collection

Okay, I'm incredibly far behind on writing some book reviews, and I'm going to try to do some catching up as soon as I can. I'll take a couple of books with me when I head out of the country at the end of the week, but I wanted to post a couple of reviews before hand, and these two books go together very well for a number of reasons. Both books come from the same author, Clyde Soles, and both are part of the Mountaineers Outdoor Expert Series from The Mountaineers Books.

Climbing: Training for Peak Performance by Clude Soles
Let me start off by saying unequivocally that this is the best book I've seen in regards to fitness for climbers. The book covers everything you could ever want to know about training for climbing, including diet, aerobic workout, resistance training, flexibility and so much more, and the chapters are filled with so much good information, that you'll constantly be finding new things to add to your preparation for the mountains.

The book begins with a great introduction on the fundamentals of exercise in the general sense, and it's application to climbing specifically. It also touches on a number of other topics, such as how important conditioning can be to the aging climber and the importance of getting everything to work together for you for higher performance on the mountain. The intro sets up a number of themes that run throughout the book, not the least of which is to always have fun in both your training and your climbing. Something we probably all agree with.

The chapters on the workout routines are comprehensive, to say the least, and geared toward climbers of all styles and skill levels. Whether you're a weekend warrior or heading to the Himalaya, you'll find some things in this book that will be of help. Clyde does an excellent job of breaking down the things that work and don't work, and streamlining it for the rest of us. For instance, in the chapter on aerobic exercise, he looks at all the options available to us, including trail running, road running, cycling, and so on, and quickly and easily lays out the pros and cons of each of them. It's a great reference even if you're a non-climber.

While the exercise focused chapters are excellent, there were two others that really caught my attention. The second chapter of the book is focused on nutrition and it's importance to your over all conditioning, and it has some incredibly helpful information on planning for your dietary needs. Many climbers don't make a plan when it comes to their diet, as conventional wisdom has always said that it's important to have plenty of calories, but Clyde notes that it's not just how much you eat, but what you eat as well, and paying attention to those needs can improve performance in a lot of ways. This is a chapter that I highly recommend for anyone who is already a climber, but is looking for ways to improve endurance and performance. Of particular interest would be the section on "fueling the climb".

The other chapter that I found particularly interesting was the third, which focuses on the mental aspects of preparing for a climb. By focusing on mental conditioning, you see the holistic approach that the author is a proponent of, bringing all aspects of body and mind together to make us better prepared for all of our athletic endeavors. Clyde mentions that some of these mental conditioning techniques come from martial arts and yoga, and perhaps that's why I related so well to this chapter. My years of martial arts training made it easy for me to understand what he was trying to achieve. It's another chapter that will likely have something to offer even those that are already in terrific shape.

Other valuable information in the book include the chapter on climbing at altitude, which offers some great advice on helping to improve the acclimatization process, and the chapter on rest and recovery is excellent as well, reminding us why we need to take some time off on occasion as well. The final chapter brings everything together, building synergy on everything we've learned in the previous chapters.

In case you couldn't tell, I was very impressed with this book. Exercise manuals don't tend to be highly interesting to me, but this one is so much more than that. I really enjoyed the whole approach to preparing for climbing, and found valuable information on nearly every page. If you're a climber, and haven't read this book, then I suggest you order it. NOW! Here, I'll even make it simple for you. Click here to go to the Amazon page.

Climbing: Expedition PLanning by Clyde Soles and Phil Powers
Clyde teams up with Phil Powers on this second book that I personally found simply fascinating in so many ways. This book takes a look at every aspect of preparing for an expedition, from the early stages when it is just a dream, to planning and preparing, putting the right team together, researching the mountain, and so much more. No part of an expedition is left undiscussed, and once again we get invaluable information that for many of us, we'd only have considered after years of experience.

Of course, the book doesn't just focus on the preparation for the climb and all the aspects that go into planning the expedition. Several of the most valuable chapters also look at what it's like once you depart on the trip, taking a nicely detailed look at the logistics that go into getting all your gear to the country of your destination, and then on to base camp. The authors look at all manner of important topics, including trekking to BC, communications in the field, and even how to set up the latrine.

As if that wasn't enough, the book then takes a look at the last stage of the expedition, namely getting to the summit, and even what comes afterwards, with some insights on giving post climb speeches and slide shows, ending it all with thoughts of starting it all over again for that next expedition.

Much like Climbing: Training for Peak Performance, this book is also packed cover to cover with really great information, but unlike that book, I think this one will appeal to an even larger audience. There are so many wonderful sidebars and charts that offer up great insights, that even the arm chair mountaineer will be fascinated by the wealth of knowledge contained in the book. And for those planning an expedition of their own, this guide serves as a great resource, whether you're planning your first expedition or your tenth.

Once again, if you read and enjoy mountaineering books, than you should have this one in your collection. While it might not be as action packed as something like Into Thin Air, it will give you a behind the scenes look at what happens before, during, and after a major expedition. Clyde and Phil make the book and its subject matter very interesting, and you'll learn more than you ever thought you would about the logistics of high altitude mountaineering.

Grab this book by clicking here.

On a final note, thanks to Clyde for being patient and understanding with how long it took to get these books read and reviewed. I appreciate you sending these my way and learned a ton from both of them. Great work!

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The 100 Greatest Adventure Books

National Geographic Adventure has posted their selection of the 100 Greatest Adventure Books of all time, making the complete list available online for fans looking to fill out their personal library.

As you would expect, the list is filled with classics from the adventure genre. In the introductory paragraphs that accompany the list, it is revealed that those who compiled it took great pains to stay focused on what is "adventure". They ruled out travel and nature books for the most part, and left out books that didn't involve at least a measure of physical risk and daring. They also admit to leaning towards first person accounts over retellings, preferring to hear the story in the explorer/adventurers own words.

We've seen lists like these before, and most the usual suspects make Adventure's list as well, but that doesn't mean that they aren't all deserving to be on the list. The top ten in particular are especially great, and if you haven't read anything in that group, then get yourself to a bookstore, or at least Amazon.com, immediately.

The list also includes a place for us to leave our own comments and suggestions. So, if you think that there is something missing, or disagree with a ranking, be sure to let 'em know. Perhaps there has been something released recently that has been overlooked. These kinds of lists are evolving, and fun to talk about. They also tend to be hard on my wallet and free time.

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The 50 Best Adventure Books of All Time!

NileGuide, the same great online personal trip planning service I mentioned last week, have posted an awesome list of the Top 50 Adventure Books of All Time to their excellent NileGuidance Blog.

Their list consists of some amazing books, and they definitely seem to have hit all the classics. There are even a few honorable mentions that just missed the cut. This is a perfect list to use to expand your library and they even made it simple by adding links to the Amazon.com page to order your own copy of any book you don't already own.

The list runs the gamut of true life adventure, travel books, adventure novels, and more. I don't want to spoil the entire list, as part of the fun is the discovery of where your favorite fell, but the top five look like this:

1. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen

2. Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

3. The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

4. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

5. No Picnic on Mount Kenya by Felice Benuzzi

Many more great books on the list. Be sure to check it out!

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New York Times Lists Top Holiday Travel Books

Yesterday the New York Times put together an excellent list of books for their "Sunday Book Review" with recommendations for the holidays. The lists were broken down into categories, such as cookbooks, gardening, etc. The one that caught my eye, as you can imagine, was their list of travel books, which has several excellent titles that would deserve to be on your bookshelf or would make gifts for the holidays.

Making the list is Jon Bowermaster's Descending the Dragon, which I reviewed here. This one follows Jon as he explores the coast of Vietnam by Kayak as part of his Ocean's 8 project, and chronicles his journey and the people he met along the way, all the while battling red tape from the Vietnamese government. The book is excellent, and the accompanying photos are amazing. I highly recommended it in my review, and I would do so again now, and the New York Times agrees with me. :)

Another book on the list, which I haven't read yet but has instantly been upgraded to "must buy" for me, is Blood River: A Journey To Africa's Broken Heart by Tim Butcher, who embarked on an epic journey to retrace the footsteps of Henry Morton Stanley's 19th Century expedition across the heart of Africa. Butcher crosses through the Congo, and encounters a country that is wracked by conflict, with poverty and war causing the country to actually regress in it's development. Not exactly the feel good story of the year, but an important one none the less.

There are several other very interesting books listed as well and with these suggestions, you'll have plenty of reading to do in the weeks ahead.

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Book Review: Red Tape and White Knuckles

Last year I had the distinct pleasure of writing a review of the book Lois on the Loose by Lois Pryce. The book recounted the authors adventures as she rode her motorcycle from Alaska all the way down to Ushuaia, Argentina, encountering many unique characters and surviving all kinds of situations along the way. At the end of that book, I couldn't help but wonder what was next for Lois.

Turns out, she wasn't finished with her long distance journeys by motorcycle just yet, and was looking for even bigger challenges, this time riding from London, England to Cape Town, South Africa. The stories of those adventures are told in her latest book Red Tape and White Knuckles.

The title is fitting once you delve into the book. The ride through Europe is relatively tame and mostly uneventful, as you would expect, and takes up only a chapter or two at the beginning of the book. But once Lois reaches Africa, the real adventure begins. The riding conditions are challenging almost immediately, with the daunting task of crossing the Sahara Desert, where both the heat, and the sand offer challenges. But our intrepid traveler manages to hook up with a crew of rally drivers who show her the ropes early on, before she truly strikes off on her own.

Lois' route through Africa is mainly in the western portions of that continent. She arrived fresh off the ferry boat in Tunisa, and traveled south through Algiers, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Congo, Angola, Namibia, and finally South Africa. Most of those are countries that I am familiar with, but don't know a great deal about, but the book did an excellent job of introducing me to the peoples and cultures of western Africa, and inspiring me to want to visit them myself. I can't think of a higher compliment than that for a book on adventure travel.

In Lois' first book we were treated to a wonderful journey that was, at times, dangerous, but rarely in a life and death sense. The author started that journey with a bit of trepidation, and ended it as a seasoned traveler who could handle nearly any situation that was thrown at her. At the beginning of Red Tape, we see that Lois. The girl that has already conquered North and South America and is looking for her next big adventure. But the tone of this book is a bit different. It's less care-free than Lois on the Loose, and you get a real sense of danger throughout. It quickly become apparent that her first ride was an easy one when compared to the perils of Africa, where a woman traveling alone can face danger around every corner. Throughout it all though, Lois remains upbeat and energetic, even when things around her are not going as well as they should. Clearly she is a "glass-half-full" kind of girl.

That shift in tone doesn't do anything to dampen Lois' spirit however, and her excellent, very witty (and at times very British) writing style makes Red Tape and White Knuckles a joy to read. She'll have you laughing out loud a number of times throughout the book, especially when describing the many characters she encounters along the way. Lois seems to have a knack for finding the most unique, larger than life, people where ever she goes. Perhaps it is her own personality that attracts them.

It seems inevitable that this book will be compared to Long Way Down, the television show that saw actors Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman take a similar journey. Charlie and Ewan rode through East Africa however in their travels, and the program really offers a completely different experience than the one found in this book. It should also be noted that Lois had already went and was home, long before the boys set out on their ride.

Unfortunately, Red Tape and White Knuckles is not available in the U.S. yet, which means that if you live here, you'll have to find alternative ways of getting your hands on a copy. There are occasionally used copies available on Amazon, but hopefully some publisher will see fit to bring this across the pond for all to enjoy soon. No matter what you have to do to get your hands on this book (might I recommend a trip to London?), it'll be worth your while. Once you start reading, it's hard to put it down, and when you do finally reach the last page, you might even start shopping for a motorcycle of your own. ;)

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Book Review: Descending The Dragon

My bookshelf has been over flowing recently with all kinds of great adventure books to review, but unfortunately time has also been a bit of a commodity lately as well, which has left me far behind on the books that I want to share with everyone. I have started to catch-up at long last, and the first book I wanted to talk about is Descending the Dragon: My Journey Down the Coast of Vietnam by Jon Bowermaster.

I've posted on Jon and his Ocean's 8 Project a number of times in the past. He's a National Geographic sponsored explorer who has explored the world in the cockpit of a kayak. Jon has visited some very remote places, including Tasmania, the Aleutian Islands, and Antarctica, in order to gauge the healthy of the world's oceans and the impact of global climate change on the environments there.

Back in 2001, Bowermaster and a group of five adventurers, along with their government assigned "monitors", set out to explore 800 miles of Vietnamese coastline. Their experiences there form the the basis of Descending The Dragon, which is rich with tales about the people that inhabit more than 800 miles of coastline in a country that remains largely a mystery to the West.

The book is broken into chapters that correspond to geographic regions. The early chapters begin in the northern region and as you advance through the book, the chapters proceed south along with Jon and his crew. In the Introduction, Bowermaster discusses how he wanted to visit Vietnam to shatter the images he had of the country, mostly shaped by pre-1975 images of the American war there. Following that war, the nation was closed off to the west for years, and those old images continued to pervade popular culture and collective thought.

Next, the book proceeds to the Prologue that details some of the many bureaucratic hoops the team had to leap through in order to get the approval for the journey. The first response to their inquiries was that it would be "quite impossible". But perseverance payed off and eventually they had all the permits and documents they would need to proceed, including a visa for Ngan Nguyen, a Vietnamese national who left the country when she was three, but has returned many times. She speaks the language very well, and served as a guide and translator for the expedition.

From there, the book proceeds into the meat of the story, with the chapters based on the various regions taking center stage. The journey beings in Hanoi, a chaotic and lively city that hasn't yet succumbed to the upward growth of many of the modern Asian cities. From there, the team dropped their kayaks in the water at Ha Long Bay, and proceed south, eventually reaching China Beach and Hoi An. Along the way, they had an up close, and very personal, experience with the people who inhabit those coastlines.

The book notes that roughly 85 million people live along Vietnam's coastlines. That's about one third of their total population. During their two month journey, John and his team met literally thousands of those people from all walks of life. Some of the places they visited weren't reachable by land, and seldom saw outsiders at all, and often Jon and the team saw themselves as ambassadors to those remote places, seldom seen by westerners.

As I continued to read the book, I began to see that this wasn't just about a kayaking adventure to remote places, as I had anticipated before I cracked the cover, nor was it just a travelogue about journeying through Vietnam. Make no mistake, those are crucial elements to this book, but even more so, it's about the people of Vietnam. The incredibly diverse, fascinating, and complex people of Vietnam.

Descending the Dragon is an incredibly fast read once you delve in. Bowermaster is a descriptive writer, who is as adept with a pen as he is with a paddle, and his writing really sets a scene. Whether it's describing the crowded and hectic streets of Hanoi or the more sedate settings of a remote village, his words conjure vivid imagery that will have you turning the pages in rapid fashion. The stories of the places he encountered are compelling and the people that he found there even more so. At just 144 pages in length, the book is over far too fast, and leaves you wanting more.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention two other great aspects of the book. First, is the photography, shot by Rob Howard. The book is filled with amazing photos from Vietnam, with stunning shots of the coastline and many of the places the team visited. Many of those shots are "slices of life", capturing a moment in time that gives us a glimpse of what it's like to live and work on those waterways. But even more impressive are the portraits peppered throughout the book of some of the people they met along the way. These portraits are brimming with life and are a perfect accompaniment to the text.

The other element I'd like to point out, is the wonderful quality of the book in general. While it is a trade paperback, it has all the other elements of a great coffee table book. The pages are thick and of a very high quality, which makes the already impressive photos jump off the page even more. Even the cover is not the standard paperback fair, with a slick, textured cover, that will remind you of a leather bound notebook. The kind you might use on your own travels to chronicle your personal adventures.

Descending The Dragon is a wonderful book that manages to not only inspire travel and adventure, but also gives a personal, human element to the journey. Bowermaster manages to deftly weave all of those elements together into a personal tale of discovery, that is both fascinating and enlightening at the same time. Perhaps the greatest compliment that I can give the book, is that it inspires me to want to visit these places and experience them for myself. Should you choose to read the book, I'd be willing to bet that you'd want to join me as well.

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Chris Bonnington To Celebrate Olympic Handover

Sir Chris Bonnington, one of the most accomplished and celebrated British mountaineers of all time, will help commemorate the ceremonial "Olympic Handover" this Sunday, by planting a flag on top of Scafell Pike, in the Lake District, long the climbing epicenter of the U.K.

This Sunday marks the end of the 2008 Olympics, and the beginning of the official countdown to the 2012 games to be held in London. At the end of the closing ceremonies, Chinese officials will pass the Olympic Flag onto British officials, who will carry with them back to their home country.

Scafell Pike, at 3,209 feet, is the tallest mountain in England. Bonnington, who lives near by, will plant a flag as the summit at roughly 2:30 PM local time to coincide with the closing ceremonies in Beijing. Joining him at the summit will be 72-year-old fellrunner Jos Naylor and 16-year-old long-distance runner Laura Park.

To learn more about the event, check out this post over at Grough.co.uk. And to find out more about Bonnington, I'd recommend the excellent book The Boys of Everest, which I reviewed here and can be purchased from Amazon here.

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Book Review: Fatal Tide

Adventure racing is a demanding sport. Competitors know that going in as they challenge themselves against the other racers and the course itself. The traditional AR disciplines of trail running, mountain biking, and padding have inherent dangers, and when you combine them in a sport like adventure race, occasionally people get hurt, and while it doesn't happen often, sometimes people die.

One such incident is the subject of the book Fatal Tide by David Leach. Back in June of 2002, an adventure race called the Fundy Multi-Sport Race was held in Staint John New Brunswick, Canada. It was an event designed for beginners and meant to be an introduction to the sport, with solo racers expecting to compete in a "sprint" race meant to last about eight hours.

Most of the 68 competitors were out for a good time. They were a mix of local triathletes, casual runners, and armchair adventurers, each wanting to give this new sport a try. The course was designed to wind it's way through Saint John, beginning with a 15 km trail run, followed by a 40 km mountain bike ride, with a 12 km paddle capping the day. That last leg of the race was across the famed Bay of Fundy, which is renowned for having some of the biggest tides in the world, matched up with crazy Atlantic storms.

When the racers set off that day, it was a clear and calm morning. The perfect way to start off a day of active, outdoor adventures. By the time the lead racers reached the kayaking segment, the weather was beginning to shift, with the infamous Bay starting to brew up one of it's equally infamous storms. When the rank-and-file racers back in the pack set out onto the water, the fickle weather turned for the worse, catching them in their tiny kayaks far from shore. As a result, a young local racer named Rene Arseneault had his kayak rolled, depositing him in the icy water of the Bay.

Eventually, Arseneault crawled out of the water and onto another racer's kayak. Both men were later pulled from the choppy, heaving water by a lobster boat, where the crew rendered aid, and made way for the harbor as fast as they could. Unfortunately, Arseneault had spent too much time in the cold water, and he would later succumb to hypothermia, becoming one of the first athletes to die as a result of injuries suffered in an adventure race.

Fatal Tide tells the story of that fateful day in a very straight forward, and journalistic manner. The events leading up to, during, and following the race are all laid out in great detail, with the story unfolding in a dramatic and compelling fashion that draws readers in and keeps the pages turning.

The first few chapters of the book are dedicated to introducing the key players in the race, including Jayme Frank and Sara Vlug, the co-directors of the race, several of the competitors, and of course Arseneault himself. These profiles help us to understand these people before we ever get into the heart of the story, and it gives a more personal edge to the events that unfold later. One other early chapter gives a brief history of adventure racing, and it's growth as a sport, giving Mark Burnett of Eco-Challenge fame much of the credit for popularizing it.

The bulk of the rest of the book is dedicated to taking us through the race in a detailed fashion and the controversy that followed it, in which Frank and Vlug came under fire for their planning of the event, and for decisions made while the race ws underway and the bad weather was moving in. An inquest followed the accident, and many people weighed in on the tragedy. Leach also gives a stunningly descriptive explanation on hypothermia and it's effects on the body that will have you chilled to the bone, no matter how warm it is when you're reading.

Fatal Tide is available through Amazon.com, and I recommend it to fans of adventure racing and other endurance sports quite highly. I wasn't aware of this accident before I read the book, but it made me stop and think about dangers of the sport and other activities that we take part in. The book is a classic example of excellent journalistic writing, with Leach conducting extensive research and taking a dispassionate approach to his narrative in order to get the story out. His writing is tight and efficient, and conveys the weight of the story very well. He's weaved together a tale that is equal parts adventure, sports, and investigative journalism that will stay with you long after you've read it.

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Book Review: Riding The Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean

Adventure Travel has become one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry. Veteran travelers are increasingly searching for new and different experiences when they go abroad. More often than not, they're looking to get off the beaten path, and away from the typical tourist crowd, to see their destination in a unique way. These are the travelers who take the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu rather than hopping the train. They sleep in Himalayan teahouses, they visit remote places, and when they come home, they're already planning their next getaway. Usually to some place even more remote and adventurous than the one they just visted.

Riding The Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean is a new book, from National Geographic, written with adventure travelers in mind. The book is a collection of 50 of the best adventures from around the globe. Some of them are tried and true adventure travel classics, while others are new and take place in emerging adventure destinations.

The books is written by Don Mankin and Shannon Stowell (along with a group of contributing travel writers), and comes with a forward penned by Richard Branson. Hulahula is broken down into sections for various regions around the planet. Each region then has several suggestions for a great adventure travel experience somewhere in that area. For instance, when you reference the section on Asia, you'll find such suggestions as trekking in Bhutan or wildlife spotting and cultural exploration in India. Flipping over to the section on Europe offers tips for cycling through Tuscany and hiking the Pyrenees in Spain.

The Introduction to the book is an excellent resource for anyone about to embark on one of these journeys. It offers up all kind of tips for the experienced traveler and newby alike. For instance, it makes suggestions on getting in shape for you adventure, buying travel insurance, and things to bring on your trip. The last section can prove invaluable to someone who hasn't experienced travel in a remote location before. For instance, when traveling to Disney World you generally don't need to worry about bringing your own toilet paper. Making a journey through rural China may be a different story.

Each chapter focuses on one of these adventures, and opens with a brief intro to the location in which it takes place. From there you'll find a trip description which goes into a bit more detail on what the adventure entails, including a first hand account of the author's experiences, which helps to make a more personal impression on the reader.

From there, we find sections on "Why Go" that helps to define, in the most basic terms, what appeals most about the trip. The section labeled "Special Issues and Challenges" offers a few things to keep in mind before heading off on these adventures, which can be quite demanding on a physical and emotional level. The "Variations and Options" portion of the chapter will suggest some additions or changes that will allow you to personalize the adventure to suit your own tastes. "Resources and Information" closes the chapter and lists prices, tour operators and websites for finding more information.

Of course the real highlight of the book are the amazing trips that the authors recommend. These adventures range from active to extremely active. These are not trips for the traveler who prefers to sit on the beach for a week. They're for the person who wants to pack everything they possibly can into their vacation, and come home exhausted and happy.

Adventure travelers will go kayaking, both fresh water and on the sea. They'll go backpacking, trekking, and cycling as they explore every corner of the globe, and along the way they'll have cultural and spiritual adventures to go along with all adrenaline fueled ones that they'll enjoy as well. They'll go on walking safaris in Africa and take in the culture and history of Greenland, while glacier hiking. There are options to visit remote jungle tribes in Papua New Guinea or exploring Copper Canyon in Mexico by Rail. And of course, there is the title adventure. You can always ride the Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean, which in this case refers to kayaking the Hulahula River out of the Brooks Mountains in Northern Alaska. An 11 day adventure that winds it's way through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Once you've worked your way through the initial 50 trips however, the fun isn't done just yet. The latter half of the book offers up another 26 trips, described more briefly than the original batch. There is also an analytical look at where adventure travel is headed, both geographically and philosophically. This section of the book takes a nice look at ecotourism, sustainable travel, and volunteer vacations that allow you to have as much of an impact on the places you visit as they do on you.

Riding the Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean attempts to be a guidebook for adventurer travelers, and for the most part, I'd say it succeeds. It covers a lot of ground in it's 304 pages and serves as a really great reference for the seasoned traveler who is looking for something a little different. There were times when I wished that the book provided a bit more detail on the various trips it describes, but on the other hand it always provided direction to find more info on your own, and part of the theme of the book is exploration. The descriptions are very well written though, and always stir the imagination and serve their purpose of inspiring us to travel to those locations.

One word of warning about this book however. Hulahula will be dangerous to your "Life List". If you thought that you were whittling away at all those things you wanted to accomplish, then you may want to stray away from this one. Hulahula is pretty much guaranteed to add new items to that liast, thus extending it even further. If, on the other hand, you have no problem with the fact that your Life List should be an ever expanding and changing work in progress, than this is the book for you. My personal list certainly grew while reading the book, and that's a alone should earn it a place in your travel library.

Riding the Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean will be available Tuesday, May 20th from National Geographic Books. Cover price for this trade paperback is $18.95.

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