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Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska is the largest park in the national park service. Also known for having the continent’s largest assemblage of glaciers and the greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet, the park offers extreme adventure for the stout of heart. Mount St. Elias is the second highest peak in the United States at 18,008 feet and presents ample mountaineering opportunities. The park’s remoteness has resulted in little human occupation in the past, preserving its primitiveness.

 

The park is located a days drive east from Anchorage and lies adjacent to Canada’s Kluane National Park. There are three ways to view and get into the interior of the park. The 61-mile McCarthy Road is a dirt and gravel road that can take up to 3 hours to traverse. The Nabesna Road is a 42-mile gravel road from Slana to Nabesna that traverses the headwaters country of the Copper and Tanana drainages. The third way to view the park is by airplane where you can fly past massive peaks, over jagged glaciers, and endless expanses of wild Alaska.

 

The park and preserve encompasses four mountain ranges, the Chugach, the Wrangell, the Saint Elias, and the end of the Alaska Range on the northern borders. This in turn holds some of North America’s most remote wilderness. The terrain runs the gamut of mountains, glaciers, coastal and intertidal communities, rivers and lakes. Mountain climbing and ice climbing are big options to consider.

 

This truly wild Alaska is waiting to be explored by kayak, rafting, hiking, backpacking, mountaineering and mountain biking. Mountain biking can be done on the McCarthy and Nabesna Roads, some dry creek beds and a number of trails in the Glennallen, Copper Center-Chitina area. Sea kayaking can be done in Icy Bay on the coast and along the 150 miles of rugged coastline. Keep in mind that the coastline is for experienced sea kayakers as the coastline is wild and exposed to the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska or Yakutat Bay. Most kayakers are flown into the area to start at Kageet Point on the eastern edge of Icy Bay or Pt. Riou, located on Chugach Alaska Native Corporation land southeast of Icy Bay. Rafting opportunities are available in the rivers.

 

Hiking and backpacking can be done almost anywhere in the park, but conditions can often be muddy. Better hiking is available on the trails and routes that lead into the Mentasta Mountains north of Nabesna Road or past mile 36. You can also charter a plane to drop you off in the more remote interior. The landscape offers tremendous scenery and wildlife viewing. During the summer there are a wide variety of beautiful butterflies to be seen.

 

There are ample opportunities for fishing in the park and preserve. With the numerous lakes and rivers it can be a fly fisherman’s dream. Grayling, whitefish, Dolly Varden, lake trout, rainbow/steelhead trout, cutthroat trout, sculpin, burbot, lamprey, smelts, and suckers are all found in the park. The Gulkana River is a good place to catch salmon.

 

Sport hunting is allowed only in the preserve and in accordance with Alaskan regulations. It probably offers one of the biggest varieties of animals to hunt in the state. There are opportunities to hunt bear, Dall sheep, mountain goat, muskoxen, moose, waterfowl, and caribou. Off-road vehicles (ORV) can be used on established routes.

 

Winter also offers its share of outdoor adventure. Ice climbing, cross country skiing, snow skiing, snowmobiling, and snow shoeing are all options to enjoy if you love the cold weather. Remember that it can get minus 50 degrees F. in the dead of winter.

 

So no matter what your outdoor pleasure is, if you enjoy solitude and ruggedness, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the place for you. With the numerous shorebirds and two passerine migratory routes, the numerous wildlife, dragonflies and unique butterflies along with the rugged beauty of the terrain, you will experience something you won’t get any where else. This is definitely a park that should be on your must-see list.

 

Thursday marks the 40th Anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the spacecraft that first took man to the moon, an event that many people feel is the greatest accomplishment in human history. To commemorate this historic event, a new website has been launched at WeChooseTheMoon.com which will recreate the entire mission from start to finish.

If you visit the site right now, and as I write this we're still more than 43 hours from "launch", you can see a virtual representation of the Saturn V rocket that would propel Apollo 11 out of the Earth's atmosphere. You'll also be able to hear ground control running through pre-flight checks as they prepare for the mission, which is still two days away. All of the audio feeds are authentic, and once the mission is underway, there will be video as well, as we follow the three astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on their voyage, which will culminate next week on July 24th when they return to Earth with a splashdown. Of course, before that happens we'll get to relive the most significant piece of history when on July 20th, Armstrong and Aldrin pilot the lunar lander to the surface of the moon, and become the first humans to step foot on another world.

From what I understand, the details of the mission have been rebuilt to exacting specifications for this website, so we'll all be able to follow along in realtime. The site also allows you to view the liftoff from a variety of angles, and feeds us information about the speed and distance traveled. Other feeds provide trivia about the day, such as what the best selling books were at the time, and the songs that topped the charts as well.

Of course, once liftoff occurs, that's when the fun really begins. I'm told that there is nearly constant chatter between the astronauts and mission control, which should make for a very interesting way to relive this slice of history. I wasn't around when the moon landing happened, I was actually born a month later, but I have always been a fan of the space program, and have been fascinated with the idea of traveling to other planets. For the next week or so, this is going to be something that I'll be watching very closely. In my mind, it is indeed the greatest human adventure of all time, but if you can think of one better, I'd be happy to re-evaluate.

The inaugural Vuelta Sudamericana is scheduled to get underway in just a few weeks time, with 23 cyclists from around the globe preparing to set out on an epic 12,000km (7456 mile) race and expedition ride across seven South American countries. Along the way they'll experience a range of environments including arid deserts, thick jungles, and mountain passes exceeding 4200 meters (13,780 feet) in height.

Brought to you be the same team that organizes the Tour d'Afrique, this race is scheduled to last 134 days, which will be broken down into 110 stages, 23 rest days, and one travel day. The riders will average more than 110km (68 miels) per day as they peddle through Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. The race will begin in Rio and finish four months later in Quito.

Much like the Tour d'Afrique, this is as much of a competition as the riders want it to be. Some will go all out to win stages and finish first, with the fastest overall time, and others will prefer to take it more leisurely and ride at a more moderate pace, taking in the scenery and soaking up the culture. The race is also broken down into nine sub-sections that will allow other riders to join or withdraw at various points along the way.

Speaking of scenery, the cyclists will be passing some of the most amazing sights that South America has to offer, with the route taking them by Iguazu Falls, Aconcagua, the tallest mountain on the continent, the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, and the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. They'll also peddle along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and cross the Andes mountain range in between.

This sounds like another amazing cycling adventure. I wish I had a 134 vacation days built up so I could join them on this ride. What a way to see South America!

Text by Christian Camerota Take a tumble on a pair of K2 skis and you might twist an ankle. Fall on K2 skiing and it will likely spell disaster. A solemn reminder of the inherent danger on the mountain's stolid slopes, Italian adventurer Michele Fait slid down an ice sheet to his death while skiing the SSE spur from atop an acclimitization camp on June 23. Fait and Frederick Ericsson had planned on scaling K2 and becoming the first people to ever make a complete ski descent of it before the tragic accident occurred. Ericsson had been chronicling the pair's trip on Powder Magazine's website and, a few days before, even went so far as to report that the harrowing car ride through a waterfall to arrive at the mountain "was probably more scary than anything we will face on K2." Their first days on the slopes held great promise,...

I've been hearing about this climbing group for awhile now, but Backpacker has confirmed that eight blind climbers, along with their 17 guides, reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania last week. The team topped out on the 29th of June and in doing so, set two new records on the mountain, the most blind climbers at the summit at once and the youngest blind summitteer ever in the form of 13-year old Max Ashton.

The entire group was climbing as part of the See Kili Our Way organization, which is raising funds and awareness for programs designed to aid visually impaired babies. On the site, you'll find more information about the climbers, photos from the climb and their preparation hikes, and a blog that chronicles their exploits.

The team is back in the states already and were featured in video for Good Morning Arizona just yesterday. To check out their story and learn more about the mountaineers and their cause, click here to watch the video.

Very cool and inspirational story.