In advance of a trek to K2 Base Camp and Gondogoro Pass, I’m doing some reading about those insane alpinists that dare to climb the second highest peak in the world.

So much tragedy.

The 1954 Italian Karakoram expedition finally succeeded in ascending to the summit of K2 via the Abruzzi Spur on 31 July 1954. …

… 23 years after the Italian expedition, Ichiro Yoshizawa led the second successful ascent, with Ashraf Aman as the first native Pakistani climber. …

The third ascent of K2 was in 1978, via a new route, … by an American team led by James Whittaker …

I recommend K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain. (2010) by Ed Viesturs.

Ed’s the Mount Rainier alpine guide who went on to become the most accomplished American high altitude climber.

Cautious and lucky, Ed survived 30 expeditions to the world’s highest peaks. And he’s climbed Rainier over 200 times.

by BestHike editor Rick McCharles 

Reality Check – You can’t thru hike  the Route of Parks in Chile. Matador and many other normally responsible sites are wrong about this.

For 3 of the past 4 years I’ve been in Patagonia in January. It’s paradise for the outdoor enthusiast.

Much of the international press coverage in recent years promotes the Ruta de los Parques de la Patagonia (Route of Parks),

A chain of 17 National Parks. Fantastic.

Many are connected by the Carretera Austral highway , ideal for cycling. Not great for walking.

Some Parks are quite inaccessible.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

If you are looking for a long thru hike in Patagonia, check the Greater Patagonian Trail route.

It does not connect in any way with the Route of Parks because that’s a road.

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La Ruta de los Parques de la Patagonia va desde Puerto Montt a Cabo de Hornos, 2800 kilómetros de ruta escénica que recorre 17 Parques Nacionales. Ven a conocerla, programa tu viaje. #rutadelosparques #conservation #parquesnacionales #wildlife #conservation

A post shared by Ruta de los Parques (@rutadelosparquesdelapatagonia) on May 22, 2018 at 9:44am PDT

One of our top 10 hiking regions of the world.

The Dolomites are a mountain range located in north-eastern Italy. A tourist mecca, the Dolomites are famous for skiing in the winter months, mountain climbing, hiking and climbing in the summer.

AT A GLANCE

• a wonderful region mostly in Italy
• Italian: Dolomiti; German: Dolomiten
• limestone geology results in fascinating shapes and colour
• named a UNESCO World Heritage site
• highest peak Marmolada 3,343m
• convenient airports include Venice, Munich, Milan, Innsbruck, Verona
• easy access to trails of all all levels of ability and experience
• very good tourist infrastructure
• convenient, efficient public transport. Buses & trains run on time.
• best weather for hiking mid-June to early October

Check our Dolomites information page.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Adventure Blog)

Emma and Trevor — from New Zealand & Australia — conceived ProjectBase8000.

Great idea!

The objective is to be the first non-mountaineering trekkers to hike to all the base camps of the world’s 14 highest mountains by 2020.

They are all over 8,000m, located in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges – Nepal, Pakistan and Tibet, China.

They want to help raise funds & awareness for the Australian Himalayan Foundation.

In 2019 David Brophy and Mathilde Godbout spent 5 months trekking the Great Himalaya Trail.

David plans to post videos on YouTube, 125 episodes – one for each day, one day at a time. Subscribe to his channel if you’d like to see how it went.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

Since then David has been adventuring in Antarctica.

There are certainly fantastic treks and volcano climbs on Kamchatka Peninsula.

Climbing Koryaksky (3456m) close to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is quite doable, for example.

You can find a number of trekking guides with Google.

But are they reliable?

It’s possible to hike Kamchatka independently.

But we’ve not yet talked to anyone who’s hiked there. (Leave a comment below this post if you have more information on Kamchatka.)

In the meantime, check some photos from Dark Roast Blend:

Wilderness without bounds, in a typical Russian style.

There is a place in the world so remote and so wildly beautiful, that very few decide to go there and those who do, carry the enchantment for the rest of their lives. Land of towering volcanos and magnificient Pacific coastline, as boundless and pristine as the Canadian North, but far less known and definitely less travelled. Life is harsh there, and ghosts of communist past are never too far behind.

With the exclusive permission of “Kamtravel” – Kamchatka photography site, we give you some examples of its exhilarating terrain:

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski lies in the shadow of Avacha volcano

Dark Roasted Blend: Kamchatka – Magnificient Russian Far East