Nat Geo Covers Nolan's 14 – One of the Toughest Endurance Challenges in the World

We've covered the Nolan's 14 ultra-run on a couple of occasions in the past, thanks in no small part to our friend Ben Clark's attempts to complete the run on a couple of occasions. For those who don't recall, Nolan's 14 is a grueling endurance challenge that sends trail runners on a hundred-mile long traverse of 14 peaks in Colorado, all of which are over 14,000 feet (4267 meters) in height. The endurance athletes who attempt Nolan's can take any route they choose between those mountains, but they do have to summit each of them along the way. Oh, and to be successful in the challenge, they must also finish the entire run in under 60 hours.

Yesterday, National Geographic Adventure also ran a piece on Nolan's 14, bringing this incredible challenge to a much larger audience for the first time. The article spoke to Ben about his most recent attempt at Nolan's back in September of 2014, as well as a number of other notable ultra-runners who have been humbled by the undertaking. That list includes the likes of Anton Krupicka, who had to abandon his attempt back in 2013 after six peaks. A series of physical ailments caught up with Anton, preventing him from going any further.

The article takes a look at the origins of Nolan's 14, which began as a challenge amongst friends Blake Wood and Fred Vance back in 1999. The idea was to combine ultrarunning, mountaineering and orienteering into one very tough event that meant to be a mostly personal challenge for themselves and other endurance athletes that they knew. They consulted with mountaineer Jim Nolan, who tipped them off about the line of 14 peaks in the Sawatch Range that would eventually become known as Nolan's 14.

It took until 2001 for anyone to actually complete the challenge, which is when Wood, and three other runners, finished the route. In the years since then, only 11 other people have complete the challenge in under 60 hours, which has helped to create the legend of Nolan's 14 within the endurance community.

The entire article is well written, and provides some great insights into Nolan's 14 from the athletes who have done it, or are working on completing it. You can also learn more about the event through Ben Clark's Nolan's 14 film, the trailer for which you'll find below. It will give you just a hint at what all the fuss is about, and the incredible dedication it takes to complete this challenge.


Nolan's 14 - Trailer from Pheonix and Ash Productions on Vimeo.

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National Geographic Adventure Announces 2014 Adventurers of the Year

Also while I was away, National Geographic Adventure announced the 2014 Adventurers of the Year, honoring some of the most amazing people who accomplished impressive things over the past 12 months. As usual, the list is filled with inspiring people, many of whom we have followed closely here on The Adventure Blog.

In total, there are 14 people who have earned the distinction of being named Adventurers of the Year. They include mountaineer Ueli Steck for his amazing solo-summit of Annapurna in the fall of 2013, as well as climber Tommy Caldwell, who completed the first traverse of the Fitz Roy massif in Patagonia. They are joined by ski-mountaineer Kit DesLauriers, who led an expedition to Alaska to explore the impact of climate change on glaciers there, and to more accurately measure the height of the mountains in the remote ANWR region. Swimmer Lewis Pugh get the nod for his extreme efforts in the water, but for also examining the health of the world's oceans, while blind adventurers Erik Weihenmayer and Lonnie Bedwell make the list for their successful attempt to kayak the length of the Grand Canyon. You can read about each of these men and women, and see the rest of the list, by clicking here.

Of course, Nat Geo has also opened up the voting for their annual People's Choice Adventurer of the Year as well, giving us the opportunity to vote for the person or persons, who we think made the most impressive and daring feat of the past year. Voting is open through January 31, 2015, with the winner being announced in February of next year. You can vote once a day, so be sure to check back regularly.

This is the tenth year that National Geographic has given out the Adventurer of the Year awards, and I'm proud to say that over the past few years, I've had some input on the nominees. This year, a few my suggestions once again made the cut, and it is an honor to see some of these men and women that I have followed closely since starting the blog get recognition for their efforts.

Congratulations to this year's class of Adventurers of the Year.

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Nat Geo Expedition Goes Peak Bagging in Myanmar

Myanmar isn't exactly a country that leaps to mind when you think about major mountaineering expeditions, but the country is starting to become a hotbed for adventure, in part because it has allowed limited access to outsiders for some time. Now, a team of climbers sponsored by National Geographic and The North Face, has traveled to the Southeast Asian country to not only climb several peaks, but to also chart their true heights in an effort to determine the highest mountain in the region.

The team is made up of an all-star cast of adventurers, including expedition leader Hilaree O'Neill, photographer Cory Richards, adventure filmmaker Renan Ozturk, writer Mark Jenkins, climber Emily Harrington, and video assistant Taylor Rees. The group is in Myanmar now, and has released its first dispatch to the Nat Geo Adventure Blog. Over the next seven weeks, they will continue to share updates from the field, as they travel to parts of the country that have only recently opened up to westerners.

In the weeks to come, the group will focus on climbing to the top of Hkakabo Razi, a remote peak that is roughly 5800 meters (19,140 feet) in height. They'll carry with them a specially calibrated GPS system, that will allow them to take precise measurements of the altitude of the mountain. The hope is that they'll be able to summit, and determine where the peak falls in relation to its height as compared to other mountains in Southeast Asia. If they have time, the team will also attempt to summit Gamlang Razi nearby.

Just getting to these mountains will be quite an adventure. According to the Nat Geo description of the expedition, the team will travel by plane, train, bus, and motorbike, just to reach the start of a trail that will take them on a 300 mile (482 km) round-trip trek through dense jungle, where they can set up Base Camp for their operation. It will be an incredibly demanding journey just to get to their starting point ahead of the start of the climb.

To give you a sense of what they are experiencing, upon setting out on the trail, they immediately encountered a white-lipped pit viper, one of the most venomous snakes in the entire world. A bite from this snake can deliver enough venom to kill a person in just one hour. When you are days away from assistance, that is an incredibly scary animal to come across. Fortunately, the team is carrying anti-venom with them, but I'm sure they would prefer to not have to use it.

Stay tuned to the Nat Geo Adventure Blog for more updates in the days to come.

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Video: Bear Encounters in the Tongass National Forest

Located in Alaska, the Tongass National Forest is a vast wilderness that spreads out across more than 17 million acres. It is a wild, untamed, and temperate rain forest that is home to numerous species of wild animals, including the majestic brown bear. Those creatures lured filmmaker Ben Hamilton to the forest, where he captured some amazing footage of the bears in their natural habitat. The video below, which comes our way courtesy of National Geographic, shares some of those encounters, and as you can probably imagine, they were pretty amazing.

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Video: Swimming with Icebergs

You don't typically think of swimming as an "extreme" sport, but in this video we're introduced to some swimmers who just might change your mind. The clip features Stig Severinsen, a world-class free diver who can stay submerged with just a single breath for minutes at a time. He then uses this ability to go swimming under icebergs, creating a scene that is unlike any you've seen before. The first part of the video, which comes our way courtesy of National Geographic, discusses how Stig, and other swimmers, are able to control their bodies as they prepare for the conditions they'll face in the cold water. But later, it transitions to just watching him swim through these glass-like structures. It is amazingly beautiful to behold.

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Video: Adrenaline Filmmaking

A few days back, I posted a great little video that shared the secrets of how photographers capture those fantastic climbing photos that we often see. Today, I have another cool video that focuses on "adrenaline filmmaking," or the art of making adventure films in remote places. It is nearly a half-hour in length, and follows National Geographic filmmaker Bryan Smith as he offers insight into his craft. If you've ever wanted to make your own adventure films, there will be something interesting to discover in this video.

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National Geographic Pinpoints Location, Size of Everest Avalanche

The spring climbing season on Everest is far behind us at this point, and most climbers have already started looking ahead to 2015. But the shadow of this past season will loom over the mountain for years to come, and continue to be discussed in mountaineering circles for even longer. With that in mind, over the past several months, National Geographic has been using satellite photography to examine the mountain in an attempt to pinpoint the exact location of the avalanche that claimed the lives of 16 Sherpas. That research has not only discovered exactly where the ice serac was located on the mountain, but has allowed Nat Geo to estimate its size as well.

The report on the avalanche was published yesterday on National Geographic's website. It includes a "before and after" satellite photo of Everest, with the first image taken on April 7, and the second on April 26. The avalanche occurred on April 18. The location of the large serac is outlined in yellow on both images, and is clearly missing in the second photo, which gives us a sense of the scale of the avalanche as well.

The research presented in the article comes our way courtesy of National Geographic's senior editor and cartographer Martin Gamache, who says that the surface area of the ice block prior to collapse was roughly the size of an NBA basketball court, and it towered more than 113 feet (34.4 meters) in height. He estimates that it weighed approximately 31.5 million pounds (14.3 million kilograms), which gives you an idea of the amount of force that hit the climbers on the mountain that day in April.

Exactly what caused the collapse remained a mystery, but Gamache chalks it up to gravity. He says that is the force that is generally the cause of these kinds of accidents. There has been some speculation that climate change may have played a role as well, with warmer temperatures possibly allowing large chunks of ice to become unstable over time.

The results of Camache's study coincide with the release of the November issue of National Geographic Magazine, which contains a number of stories revolving around the Everest tragedy. Amongst them is "Sorrow on the Mountain," which recounts the events of that day in detail. Another article takes an in-depth look at Sherpa culture, and what drives those strong men and women to live and thrive in the harsh Himalayan environments. The issue is on newsstands now and available to download in electronic format as well.

This is more fascinating coverage of what is undoubtedly the adventure story of 2014.

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Video: The Playful Foxes of the Badlands

Here's a wonderful video that comes our way courtesy of National Geographic. It centers around photographer Mike Forsberg's efforts to shoot photos of the elusive foxes that live in the Badlands of South Dakota. These creatures are shy, and difficult to get close to, and capturing them on film tests Mike's patience for sure. But when he finally get a chance to watch them in their natural habitat, the results are definitely worth the wait.

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Largest Cave Chamber in the World Discovered in China

A team of cave explorers funded by the National Geographic Society has located the largest underground chamber in the world in a remote cave system in China. The group of spelunkers traveled to that country last year to measure the massive Miao Room, as the chamber is known in caving circles, using a sophisticated laser mapping system. The findings from that expedition were announced this past weekend, with some surprising results.

First discovered back in 1989, the Miao Room has long been considered the second largest chamber in the world, behind the Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia. Measured using standard methods, the massive room is 852 meters (2795 feet) in length, and 191 meters (627 feet) wide. But the new laser mapping system is able to take into account the full size of the room in three dimensions, and it revealed that Miao is larger than Sarawak in terms of total volume. In fact, the Chinese cave occupies about 10.79 million cubic meters (380.7 million cubic feet), which makes it approximately 10% larger than its Malaysian counter part. Sarawak does cover more surface area however, stretching out across an impressive 1.66 million meters.

Expedition co-leader Tim Allen told Nat Geo that finding out that Miao was bigger than Sarawak was akin to "discovering that K2 is larger than Everest!" It has long been believed that Sarawak held the title for the largest underground chamber, but Miao has now stolen its crown.

In order to reach the massive underground room, the explorers had to first descend more than 100 meters (325 feet) beneath the surface, then navigate an underground river. These obstacle were a hinderance to exploring the cave system in the past, which is why it has taken so long to get a more accurate measurement of Miao itself. In order to properly compare it to Sarawak, the same team used their 3D laser mapping system in the Malaysian cave as well.

It is important to point out that these caves are simply the single largest chambers. In terms of the longest overall cave system in the world, Mammoth Cave in the U.S. still holds that title. It stretches for more than 651.8 km (405 miles) with new chambers and passage still being discovered.

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National Geographic Announces "Expedition Granted" Finalists

Way back in June, I posted about National Geographic's Expedition Granted, a program that asked us – the general public – to submit our best ideas for adventurous projects that we've always dreamed of accomplishing. The goal was to find a worth project that pushed exploration in new directions. Applicants were asked to submit a short two-minute video explaining their expedition, and upload it to the Nat Geo website. This submissions have been collected throughout the summer, and now a team of judges has selected their finalists, and are asking us to vote for our favorites.

You can checkout all the finalists on the Expedition Granted website. They include all kinds of interesting projects, such as a plan to make a documentary about how climate change is creating massive floods in Bhutan, an attempt to end rhino poaching in Africa, and an examination of the health of the reef systems near some of the top surfing destinations in the world. The submissions were extremely varied, with ideas in a wide variety of fields including oceanography, medicine, education, technology, and more.

From here, Nat Geo is asking us to help select the winner. Between now, and September 29, we can all visit the Expedition Granted website to vote for our selection for the most deserving project. On September 30, the winner will be announced, and awarded the $50,000 prize to help fund the expedition.

The website has a leaderboard of which projects are currently getting the most votes, and as of this writing, it is a submission by a photo journalist named Josh Garcia to examine the most unique bioluminescent creatures on our planet. This includes things like blue squid, giant fireflies, glowing termite mounds, and so on. Josh's video is quite entertaining, so it is easy to see why he is out in front at this stage.

But there is still plenty of time for everyone to cast their votes, with more than ten days left until the winner is decided. So, drop on by the website, take a look at the different projects, and help decide who will get the funds to launch their adventure.

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