Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Teammates Wanted for Papua New Guinea Trek

 EXPEDITION NOTES

 
Berua, one of the local guides you might meet along the Papua New Guinea trek. (Photo taken by Philipp Engelhorn in 2006)
Teammates Wanted for Papua New Guinea Trek
Author and television producer James Campbell is looking for six qualified backpackers to join him on a trek across the Papuan Peninsula of Papua New Guinea in June 2018. This will be Campbell's second trip on the trail.
In 2006, Campbell organized a small team of outside adventurers to retrace, for the first time, the 150-mile WWII route of a battalion of American soldiers. Military historians call the 42-day trek "one of the cruelest in military history." Navigating the same swamps, thick jungles, and 9,000-foot mountains, it took Campbell's team 21 days to cover the distance from a village called Gabagaba on the Peninsula's south coast to the village of Buna on the north coast. 
This June, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Buna, which U.S. Army historians call the first major land victory of the Southwest Pacific, Campbell will repeat the trek. Inspired by Campbell's 2006 journey, the PNG government is now considering setting aside a portion of the territory along the trail as a national wilderness park to protect the remote Highland villages as well as a mountain ecosystem that includes birds of paradise, tree kangaroos, cassowaries, native possums, and rare butterflies and orchids.
Campbell's hope is that this repeat trek will provide the PNG government with the nudge it needs to establish the park.
Campbell's 2006 trek was unsupported. Since then, an Australian company, Getaway Trekking, has set up an operation on the trail. Getaway is committed to preserving and protecting both the ecosystem and the local cultures. Getaway's operating principle is that much of the money paid by future trekkers will go directly back into the villages for labor, food (from local gardens) and accommodation.
For Campbell's three-week, June 2018 trek, Getaway will provide all logistical support. Costs include all in-country accommodation, transport, food on the trail, internal flights, and a personal carrier. Participants will be responsible for getting to and from PNG.
For more information: www.ghostmountainboys.com. Interested trekkers can contact James Campbell at bogmoose@frontier.com, 608 333 1177.
Adventure Canada Partners with the Sedna Epic Expedition
Adventure Canada is partnering with the Sedna Epic Expedition, an international team of women - ocean explorers, scientists, artists, educators and scuba diving professionals -to scout, document, and record disappearing sea ice in the Arctic. The project will combine indigenous and scientific knowledge to document climate change while it empowers Inuit girls and young women in the Arctic.
Team Sedna will mount a snorkel and dive expedition aboard Adventure Canada's vessel, the Ocean Endeavour, from August 6-17, 2018, during the Arctic Safari expedition to Nunavut and western Greenland. Adventure Canada embraces Inuit culture and traditions, and has successfully operated in the Arctic for more than 30 years.
"Sedna's sea women, Inuit advisors, and young Inuit team members look forward to collaborating with Adventure Canada's resource team, and to deliver our signature, hands-on ocean outreach program in Nunavut's Inuit communities," said Susan R. Eaton, the Calgary-based founder and leader of the Sedna Epic Expedition.
 
Route of the Ocean Endeavour in August 2018.
The experiential ocean outreach program for Inuit youth and elders will take place in Qausuittuq (Resolute) and Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) where Sedna's sea women will showcase sea critters in mobile aquariums and lead underwater robot-building workshops and snorkel safaris, bringing the ocean to eye level for Inuit communities and Adventure Canada travelers.
During the Arctic Safari expedition, Sedna's team will engage with passengers aboard the Ocean Endeavour, inviting them to participate in their citizen science ocean programs, including a ship-based marine mammal and seabird survey. The sea women will present lectures on topics ranging from climate change to maritime archaeology and underwater photography and videography.
For information about joining Sedna's team of women explorers during Adventure Canada's Arctic Safari, visit www.sednaepic.com or call Susan R. Eaton at 403 605 0159. Learn more about Adventure Canada at www.adventurecanada.com.
Science Guys

"When you explore, two things happen: you discover things and you have an adventure," says science educator, mechanical engineer, television host, and New York Times bestselling author, William Sanford "Bill" Nye, who closed the 2018 American Library Association conference in Denver last month. He shared the stage with co-author Gregory Mone, a novelist, science journalist, speaker, and children's book author.

 
Bill Nye (left) and Gregory Mone
As creator of the Emmy award-winning, syndicated television show Bill Nye the Science Guy, Nye first became a household name while introducing the millennial generation to science and engineering. He now appears in his much-anticipated return to the screen, in the Netflix series, Bill Nye Saves the World. Nye is on a mission to help foster a scientifically literate society.

Nicknamed the "Shiny Object Man," Nye seems to be interested in everything. "Three things everyone wants," he tells the librarians, "is clean water, electricity and the internet. Electricity is astonishing. It can process all this information and it can make toast."

Mone has covered artificial intelligence, robots, physics, and biology as a magazine writer. In Jack and the Geniuses, inspired by the 100 volumes of Tom Swift books first published in 1910, Nye and Mone take middle-grade readers on a scientific adventure that features real-world science and scientific facts along with action and a mystery that will leave kids guessing until the end, making the books ideal for STEM education. 

"We want Jack and the Geniuses to push back on the anti-science movement," Nye says.

On the subject of alien life, Nye comments, "If we would find evidence of life on Mars or Europa (smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter), it would change the course of human history."

QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"Space travel is the best thing we can do to extend the life of humanity. ... I will go if I can be assured that SpaceX would go on without me . . . I've said I want to die on Mars, just not on impact."

- Elon Musk, PayPal founder, Tesla CEO, and SpaceX CEO/CTO (Source: Vanity Fair, March 10, 2013

EXPEDITION FOCUS 
Adventure Scientists Help Adventurers Add Value
Wherever you travel, there are scientists desperate for data from around the world. You can provide an invaluable service - becoming the eyes and ears of researchers worldwide - by simply collecting data and shipping it back to a non-profit organization based in Bozeman, Montana, called Adventure Scientists.
 
Since its founding in 2011, Adventure Scientists has sent thousands of explorers and adventurers on missions to collect data from remote, difficult-to-access locations for its conservation partners. These partnerships have led to the discovery of more than three dozen new species, provided key information to guide climate change decision-making, and helped protect threatened wildlife habitat around the world.
           
Consider Expedition 196, an attempt to visit all the countries of the world. Without a purpose besides setting a Guinness World Record, it would have been merely an expensive stunt. But Cassandra De Pecol, 27, wanted to achieve more. She added legitimacy to her travel adventure by filling 33 separate liter-sized water sample bottles along her route and shipping them all back to Adventure Scientists for its study of the insidious proliferation of microplastics in the world's oceans.            
           
Microplastics - or plastic particles smaller than five millimeters in size - pose a significant environmental risk when they enter waterways, according to the Adventure Scientists website. The sources of these often microscopic particles can be from washing nylon apparel, cosmetics, even toothpaste, and debris such as plastic bottles and bags.
                       
Sadly, Adventure Scientists found evidence of microplastics in an average 74% of samples received worldwide - 89% for saltwater samples, 51% for freshwater. The data is part of one of the largest microplastics studies on earth.
           
"The numbers are absolutely shocking," Adventure Scientists founder and executive director Gregg Treinish tells the 2017 National Geographic Explorers Festival on June 16, 2017, in Washington, DC. 

Treinish, 36, a wildlife biologist and backcountry guide who has hiked the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail and spent nearly two years hiking 7,800 miles along the Andes, wanted his journeys to make a difference, considering the enormous problems the world faces, from coral bleaching, illegal timber harvests, deforestation, and shark finning, to name a few issues. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpYsvlYH3aw#t=02h25m11s )
             
"It's important that this data is used to influence change," Treinish says.
           
Take roadkill for instance, a sad fact-of-life for millions of animals each year. According to Treinish, researchers need annual data about wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) across the U.S. In 2011-2012, there were 1.23 million deer-vehicle collisions in the U.S., costing more than $4 billion in vehicle damage, according to State Farm.  

With the necessary data, Treinish says they can identify which species are most at risk, whether any "hot spots" exist that are extraordinarily perilous to animals, and where to place wildlife underpasses and overpasses that in some locations have reduced roadkill deaths 80%.
Treinish, named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2013, said he founded Adventure Scientists in 2011 to link adventurers in hard-to-reach places to scientists who needed data from those locations.
           
"I started biological and ecological expeditioning, using my outdoor skill sets to make a difference in the world. I was sure that given the proper tools and a similar skill set, there were others like me.
           
"I have been proven right thousands of times ever since. Explorers come to us to have an adventure with a purpose. We send them on missions worldwide."
           
In addition to the study of roadkill and microplastics, the organization has collected data about animal feces (scat) to study the antibiotic resistance of Enterococcus bacteria which exists within every animal on the planet, including humans; studied pikas in high alpine environments; researched how butterflies can be biodiversity indicators for ecosystem health; and is creating a genetic reference library of endangered trees along the U.S. West Coast.
           
Becoming an Adventure Scientist volunteer could possibly help explorers raise funds for their next project, and certainly provide much-needed data for researchers. It all starts by visiting their website and telling them where and when you plan to travel. There is no cost to participate. Adventure Scientists will even pay shipping costs for samples.
For more information: www.adventurescientists.org

Trip Report: Paddling the African Great Lakes
By Tamsin Venn, publisher, Atlantic Coastal Kayaker Magazine
In January, explorer Ross Exler, 31, set out on a quest to paddle the African Great Lakes. The goal was to paddle across the three largest: Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Victoria. Reportedly, the expedition would be the first unsupported, human powered, solo crossing of those lakes.
 

Ross Exler
The total distance is about 1,000 miles of kayaking and 600 miles of biking from lake to lake through remote regions of Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Good news. On Feb. 20, 2018, he started down Lake Tanganyika, having completed Lake Malawi, dubbed the "Lake of the Stars" by David Livingstone where the hundreds of lanterns fishermen use to attract the lake's sardines, usipa, resembles stars in the sky.
He expects to complete the expedition sometime this month.
Exler, a resident of Manhasset, N.Y., notes, "Almost all of the people are dependent on the lake and the land around it for subsistence fishing and agriculture. Unfortunately, their practices are not sustainable. About half of the population is under 14, so the population is growing quickly and problems will just be exacerbated."
Exler is completely self supported with the use of a folding expedition kayak, designed by Mark Eckhart of Long Haul Folding Kayak in Cedaredge, Colo., and a folding bicycle and trailer. The company's goal is to provide a safe and reliable way to reach the most remote locations in the world.
He will work with The Nature Conservancy's Tuungane Project, on Lake Tanganyika, that addresses the extreme poverty that underpins the region's environmental degradation. TNC's efforts are introducing fisheries education and management, terrestrial conservation, healthcare, women's health services and education, agricultural training, and other efforts to increase the quality of life.
Exler plans to visit some of the project villages and team up on social media to try to get TNC's work and general knowledge of the African Great Lakes in front of a larger audience. 
For more information: 

MEDIA MATTERS
 
Will Steger is on the move again.
There's No Stopping Will Steger
There's no stopping peripatetic explorer Will Steger of Ely, Minn. According to a story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Mar. 1), Steger will take an unprecedented solo trek in Canadian Arctic Barren Lands, a place that, reportedly, no one has considered exploring at this time of year.
Starting March 21, the 73-year-old explorer will travel alone on a 1,000-mile, 70-day journey through the Barren Lands, a remote region in the Canadian Arctic with a nasty reputation for high wind. It will be Steger's longest solo expedition and, he said, it will push him in ways like never before, according to the story by Scott Stowell.
To his knowledge, this trip will be the first time anyone has attempted to cross the Barrens' rivers systems during breakup, that transitional weather period between winter and spring.
"Steger's adventure will begin from the Chipewyan Indian village of Black Lake in northwestern Saskatchewan just east of Lake Athabasca. He plans to reach his final destination at the Caribou Inuit community of Baker Lake in Nunavut near Hudson Bay in early June. It's likely Steger won't encounter other people in the 1,000 miles between the two villages that bookend the expedition. He'll be a minimum of three hours away from the nearest human by bush flight," writes Stowell.
Steger says, "I need these breaks to regenerate. I think every human being should have [them]. Very few people take time out because they're so busy they can't afford it."
Read the story here:
 

Mae Jemison appears in Boulder. (Photo by Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado)
"Space Isn't Just for Rocket Scientists and Billionaires"

More than 1,200 guests - including bright-eyed elementary schoolers who aspire to be astronauts, inspired mid-career female scientists and fellow Star Trek fans - filed into an auditorium on the University of Colorado Boulder campus last month for a sold-out address by former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to go into space.

Her takeaway message: The challenges of space exploration mirror the challenges faced in the world today, and we all have a part to play in its success.

"Space isn't just for rocket scientists and billionaires," Jemison said. "We have to figure out how to make it accessible."

Before flying on the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992, Jemison graduated from Stanford and Cornell universities, worked as a physician and served as a Peace Corps medical officer in West Africa. At 61, she is now principal of the 100 Year Starship, a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -funded project working to make human travel beyond the solar system a reality in the next century.

Future space exploration will be fundamentally different than the current model, she said, and will require all of the same elements - energy, food, medical care, even clothing - needed to sustain life on Earth. Achieving audacious goals in space demands the intelligence of a diverse array of contributors, not just a chosen few, she said.

She admitted she's afraid of heights and had to determine whether she would rather be afraid of heights or be an astronaut.

Read more here:


EXPEDITION INK
Travel With Purpose Book Seeks Stories of Voluntourism
EN editor Jeff Blumenfeld is seeking examples of everyday people who devote a portion of their vacation, business or family travel to volunteer services. The most appropriate case studies will be included in his new book titled, Travel With Purpose (Rowman & Littlefield), expected out this fall. If you or a friend or loved one has given back in some way during travel, please contact him at editor@expeditionnews.com.
WEB WATCH
 
Denali's Raven
One of the stand out short documentaries presented during last month's Boulder International Film Festival is Denali's Raven, an intimate look at a female Alaskan bush pilot who was a former alpinist. Leighan Falley spent years as a ski guide and climber on the Alaskan range. But after becoming a mother, she quit guiding and took to the skies as a mountain pilot, bringing her daughter, named Skye, along for the ride. She works with Talkeetna Air Taxi.

"The transition from being an alpinist and going on expeditions and being a pilot is a good one because I could still go into the Alaskan range every single day and come home to my family every single night." 

A beautiful film, view it here:


 
These two Nepalis had their eyesight restored thanks to Dooley Intermed's 2017 Gift of Sight Expedition.  

Gorkha Gift of Sight Documentary 

A team of leading ophthalmologists traveled last December to a remote region of Nepal to tend to the eye care needs of over 800 remote villagers in the Upper Gorkha region, near the epicenter of the massive earthquakes and aftershocks in 2015. Centered in the roadless town of Machhakola, the region has a population of over 600,000 and is currently without a dedicated eye care facility. Seventy-one sight-restoring surgeries were conducted. Expedition News was proud to be a part of the project.

The new 11-min. documentary was produced by Daniel Byers of Skyship Films. View it here:
ON THE HORIZON
Sailing Stories Return to The Explorers Club HQ, April 14, New York 
On Apr. 14, 2018, The Explorers Club will host its annual Sailing Stories, a day focused on sailing-based exploration and conservation at its global headquarters in New York. Speakers include:
Pen Hadow, one of the world's leading explorers of the Arctic Ocean. He led two, 50-ft. yachts into the North Pole's international waters, the first non-icebreaking vessels in history to do so, to demonstrate the increasing accessibility and emerging threat to wildlife by the reduced sea-ice cover.
Richard Wilson, twice the oldest competitor in Vendée Globe, a single-handed (solo) non-stop yacht race around the world without assistance. Wilson will share how he uses sailing as an educational tool teaching and conveying positive values to children.
 
Sara Hastreiter
Sara Hastreiter, Volvo Ocean Race sailor, will discuss how sailing in this relentless 40,000 mile, nine month race around the planet, known as the Mt. Everest of sailing, inspired her monumental goal to sail all seven seas and climb the Seven Summits.
Carson Crain, skipper and team leader for the United States in the 2017 Red Bull Youth America's Cup, will discuss the competitive dynamics in this extreme international sailing competition for under 25-year-old sailors.
Lincoln Paine, a maritime historian and author, will discuss his award-winning book The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (Vintage, 2015).
Tickets are $75 before Apr. 9. Purchase by emailing  reservations@explorers.org or calling 212 628 8383.
 
EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS
Get Sponsored! 

Hundreds of explorers and adventurers raise money each month to travel on world class expeditions to Mt. Everest, Nepal, Antarctica and elsewhere. Now the techniques they use to pay for their journeys are available to anyone who has a dream adventure project in mind, according to the book from Skyhorse Publishing called: Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers.

Author Jeff Blumenfeld, an adventure marketing specialist who has represented 3M, Coleman, Du Pont, Lands' End and Orvis, among others, shares techniques for securing sponsors for expeditions and adventures.

Buy it here: 

Advertise in Expedition News - For more information: blumassoc@aol.com
EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 1877 Broadway, Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80302 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2018 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com (made payable to blumassoc@aol.com).  Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com. Enjoy the 

$50 Million Sought to Help Save Ocean Giants; $2K Used Parkas, Whole Foods Dishwasher Seeks Everest Summit



EXPEDITION PHOTOGRAPHER'S MULTI-YEAR PROJECT SEEKS 

$50 MILLION TO HELP SAVE THE OCEAN GIANTS  

Amos Nachoum is a wildlife photographer and explorer who is laser-focused on achieving a singular dream: to photograph and videotape the earth's 35 "ocean giants" to inspire people globally to care, and to take action, about protecting the ocean's most magnificent creatures.  

Nachoum, 68, an expedition leader for Big Animals Global Expeditions based in Pacific Grove, Calif., has been leading wildlife photography and diving expeditions from the High Arctic to Antarctica for the last 40 years. His work has appeared in hundreds of publications around the globe, including National Geographic, Time, Life, The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Le Figaro, Terra Sauvage, Airone, Mondo Somerso, Der Spiegel, Unterwasser, and many more.

 
Amos Nachoum

"Considering the meteoric advancement in imaging technology, such as virtual reality,
360 degree video, IMAX, 3D and 8K filming quality, and at the same time, the
rapid loss of wildlife and the endangerment of some species, the time is right to fully document the inhabitants of the oceans," he tells EN.

For his Ocean Giants Legacy Project, Nachoum has assembled two multi-national teams of eight of the world's leading photographers and filmmakers who will undertake seven expeditions a year for five years to document wildlife such as whales, sharks, polar bears, leopard seals, anaconda and crocodiles, and package these images for a global audience.

"Each expedition will also include a well-known personality - an artist, actor,
politician, poet, and sportsperson - each from a different nation, who will bring back his personal stories, in his own language, to his followers."

 

Nachoum continues, "This collection of images and footage will be available for free to all education and research facilities' use worldwide; and we will partner with media outlets to distribute six to seven television episodes globally each year."

He also plans to sell a coffee table book, but one that requires a really large piece of furniture. He envisions a book spanning three feet by three feet, containing 365 pages for each day of the year, and available in a limited run of $50,000 per copy, with all proceeds earmarked for an educational endowment. 

Nachoum estimates a multi-year project cost of $50 million and is seeking an executive director, fundraising consultants, a marketing director and webmaster to help him achieve positive results for the planet. That's a big ask, a heavy lift, but as famed explorer Norman D. Vaughan (1905-2005) liked to say, "Dream big and dare to fail."

Or as Nachoum says now, "My belief is that it is not too late to save the wilderness and wildlife that has graced our oceans since before humankind."

For more information:


See his TEDx Conejo appearance here:


EXPEDITION NOTES

Hold Onto That Kit

"Explorabilia" isn't a word that exists in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but it should. The tents, sleeping bags, boots, maps, cookstoves, compasses, GPS, radios, signal flares, first aid kits, and various other flotsam and jetsam of an expedition could very well be worth money in the bank. Just as space memorabilia is worth eminently more once it has "flown" (i.e. used in space and not just for training), so too with expedition gear.

Such is the case with expedition apparel, made evident to us following an inquiry from a Finnish reader looking to purchase a parka from the 1989-90 Trans-Antarctica Expedition. Even we were surprised that a used parka from the expedition was selling on eBay for $959.

 
Even used, this 25-year-old turquoise shell is selling on eBay for $959.

 
More astounding is this orange TAE fleece offered on eBay for $1,999.99.  

These are just asking prices, mind you, but still...... it pays not to throw anything away when it comes to used gear and apparel.

See both listings here:


QUOTE OF THE MONTH 

"All of us are transients here. What endures is our planet and her oceans. From my mid-Pacific vantage point, human artiface and artifacts appeared small and temporary. This is why dreamers will always build boats to voyage into that eternal ocean realm: to gain the perspective that is hidden from those who stay close to the shore."

- Ed Gillet, quoted in The Pacific Alone: The Untold Story of Kayaking's Boldest Voyage(Falcon Guides, 2018), by Dave Shively. In the summer of 1987 Ed Gillet achieved what no person has accomplished before or since, a solo crossing from California to Hawaii by kayak.

 
Gillet, at the age of 36 an accomplished sailor and paddler, navigated by sextant and always knew his position within a few miles. Along the way he endured a broken rudder, among other calamities, but at last reached Maui on his 64th day at sea, four days after his food had run out. Until the book was issued this month, Gillet barely spoke of his crossing for 30 years.

MEDIA MATTERS
 
Front man, composer, and lyricist Jacob Brandt is a huge fan of Buzz Aldrin.

The Second Man Closes at Manhattan's Fourth Street Theater

After he became the second man to walk on the moon, reporters asked Buzz Aldrin if he wished he had been the first. Reportedly, Aldrin replied, "I really didn't want that because of the added heartache." Last month a folk-rock fable for the runner-up in all of us closed at New York's Fourth Street Theatre. The New York Theatre Workshop performance, 1969: The Second Man, explored competition and collective achievement through the story of one small man who became one giant myth. In its review of the show, The New Yorker (Sept. 10) reports that Aldrin was the second man to exit the lunar module, but the first to pee up there.

TMI? Yeah, we think so.

For more information: www.1969thesecondman.com

See 20 minutes of the performance here:


Palin Dreams of Scuba Diving the Erebus

Launched in 1826, the Royal Navy ship HMS Erebus was made famous by two major polar expeditions. From 1839-43 it undertook an Antarctic voyage captained by James Clark Ross. In 1845, with HMS Terror, the ship embarked on the Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage. What exactly transpired on the Arctic voyage remains a mystery, but both ships were abandoned and all 129 crewmembers died. In 2014, the sunken wreck of Erebus was finally rediscovered; two years later, the Terror was found.
 
Michael Palin is serious about someday diving the Erebus 

Former Monty Python funnyman Michael Palin, 75, has written a book on the Franklin Expedition called Erebus: The Story of a Ship (Hutchinson). He tells Ellie Cawthorne of BBC History Magazine (Oct. 4), "During my own Arctic and Antarctic journeys, I was struck by just how vast polar landscapes are and how colossal the scenery is. These enormous empty landscapes must have been quite terrifying for the crew at times.

"On Ross's Antarctic voyage, Erebus came up against a 200-ft.-high ice wall (later termed the Ross Ice Shelf). I've seen icebergs on that scale, but it's always been from the comparative comfort of a ship that has an engine and can move out of the way. Erebus only had a very small auxiliary engine, so the crew had to rely solely on their sailing skills. If they got stuck in ice, it was incredibly difficult to get out."
 
HMS Erebus

Later in the interview, he grapples with what happened to the expedition.

"A whole range of theories have been proposed as to what happened to Franklin's men. People claimed that the local Inuit must have killed them, or that the crew had been stricken by scurvy. Lead poisoning (from food tins contaminated by lead solder) was once thought to be the key reason why everything went wrong, but that theory has now been widely dismissed.

"It's not a very glamorous theory, but ultimately, I believe that Franklin's men were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Palin continues, "I think that the single most important fact is that they chose to make their voyage to the Northwest Passage during one of the coldest periods in modern history. From around 1845 to 1848, the ice in that region didn't melt even over summer, meaning that they were unable to free the ships. That was the primary problem, and it couldn't have been foreseen.
   
"My ultimate dream is to scuba-dive in Erebus's wreck. But if I did get down there I think I'd be a bit overwhelmed. I'd probably just be in tears the whole time, if it's possible to cry underwater."

Read the interview here:

EXPEDITION FUNDING
 
Lhakpa Sherpa is recognized by Guinness Book of World Records for reaching the summit of Everest for the ninth time on May 16, 2018, more times than any other female climber. You'd think that would help generate sponsorship revenue. Not much. 

Woman Sherpa, a Whole Foods Dishwasher, 
Seeks Sponsorship for 10th Everest Summit

It has been said that it's easier to climb Everest than raise the money for an Everest expedition. Despite her women's world record with the most summits (nine), Lhakpa Sherpa, 45, works washing dishes at a West Hartford, Conn., Whole Foods for $11.50 per hour, hoping she can return a tenth time in 2019. Friends have banded together to help search for sponsors. The job pays the bills and helps Sherpa support her two daughters, writes Hilary Brueck, in Business Insider (July 28).

"I feel I'm addicted, in my body," Sherpa told Business Insider, explaining that when she doesn't climb, she feels sick. "I like to go again and again."

The word Sherpa means "easterner" and refers to the place Sherpas originally came from ­-­­ eastern Tibet - though it often functions as a last name, as well as the term for Everest guides.

At least 94 Sherpas have died climbing Everest, according to NPR, accounting for roughly a third of all deaths on the mountain.

Sherpa doesn't do much extra training in Connecticut, aside from hauling the trash at work. But she believes strong women like her make better climbers than men, since they tend to be more careful and deliberate.

"Men only wanna go up, you know?" she said.

For her past climbs, Sherpa has worked for her brother Mingma's company, which usually picks a Tibetan route up Everest. But she recently started her own venture, Cloudscape Climbing, and plans to head to Kathmandu with the inaugural crew in April. Sherpa aims to take her group to the summit from the Nepal side of the mountain, according to Business Insider.

For her ninth summit Black Diamond was provided gear and monetary support. Sherpa is looking for additional sponsors, management help and public relations support for her 10th summit in 2019.

Krista L. Pich is one of Sherpa's Connecticut friends providing assistance. She tells EN,"Lhakpa would be a terrific corporate ambassador. Her (ongoing) world-record-breaking achievements alone qualify her, and she shines in her ability to connect with and inspire people of all ages and abilities. As an adventurous, hardworking single mom, she's especially relatable to active women, a huge purchasing demographic.

"Her ability to persevere through multiple hardships and traumas shows her iron will and limitless personal strength." 

Read the Business Insider story here:


Reach Lhakpa Sherpa here: http://cloudscapeclimbing.comhttp://cloudscapeclimbing.comcloudscapeclimbing@gmail.com

EXPEDITION MARKETING 

If we owned an Infiniti, sorry but you wouldn't find us on this kind of terrain scratching the finish. 

That's One Small Step for an Infiniti 

For years, in fact since we started EN 24 years ago this month, we've written about companies that sponsor expeditions to demonstrate their products' performance in extreme conditions. The tradition continued last summer for one luxury car company that readers seeking sponsorship might want to pitch. 

Braving the forbidding desert and bandits of Mongolia's Gobi region, Roy Chapman Andrews, said to be the inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark, made history by being the first to find fossilized dinosaur eggs. Nearly 100 years later, Infiniti, Nissan's luxury division, facilitated a new dinosaur fossil hunt in the Gobi using 2018 QX50, QX60 and QX80 SUVs, plus the latest in high-tech, ground mapping technology.

John McCormick, writes in The Detroit News (Aug. 15), "In the Gobi, there are no paved roads, just deeply rutted tracks that the locals carve seemingly at random across the plains. Rugged, powerful vehicles are a must, and the Infiniti SUVs managed well. The newest of the range, the QX50 with its advanced variable-compression engine, provided ample pulling power when needed, but it was the big QX80 with its superior ground clearance and softer suspension that delivered the most comfortable ride."

He continues, "With its unique geological formations, the Gobi is one of the world's best regions for paleontological research. Andrews found some of his most remarkable fossil specimens in the Flaming Cliffs area, so named for its stunning red sandstone hills."

On a visit to the same spot just prior to McCormicks' arrival, Infiniti had teamed up with the Mongolian Institute of Paleontology and Geology and The Explorers Club's Hong Kong chapter. The expedition relied on a fleet of QX50s to explore the area and made the first use of drone-powered multispectral and thermal cameras.

"There is also a pleasure derived from the fact that as an auto writer, I am testing a vehicle in such an unusual and challenging environment, far removed from the trappings of a typical press event luxury resort in the U.S. So, hats off to Infiniti for pushing the envelope and demonstrating the capabilities of its SUVs in such a dramatically different and illuminating fashion."

The 2019 Infiniti QX80 sells for $65,000-plus. Be careful not to scratch it out there. 

Read the story, see photos of the Infiniti's in action here:

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2018/08/15/review-infiniti-qx-50-qx-60-qx-80/976294002/ 

Caroline Gleich Gives Thanks

The ink-stained wretches at Expedition News who attended the Adventure Film Festival in Boulder, Colo., this month were gratified to see how speakers channeled their inner Emily Post to thank their sponsors profusely. Corporate sponsors A-Lodge, Black Diamond, Fjallraven, Google Earth, Hydro Flask, La Sportiva, Meridian Line, RXBAR, Zeal, and others were recognized for their support of adventure.

 
Caroline Gleich

Caroline Gleich, 32, a professional ski mountaineer and adventurer, was particularly adept at giving thanks, crediting Keen, LEKI, Patagonia, and others at the top of her presentation, praising them as brands that are "serious about being socially responsible companies."

Gleich, based in Salt Lake City, uses her voice as an athlete to advocate for social and environmental justice, working on issues such as climate change, clean air and cyber harassment with non-profits such as Protect Our Winters, HEAL Utah, Winter Wildlands Alliance, Wilderness Society, Tree Utah and Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation.

"I climb up mountains and then ski down them," she tells the Adventure Film Festival audience on Oct. 7.

Later she would argue that male climbers talk about mountains the way some of them, regrettably, talk about women, using words like "conquering" summits.

She also rails against history's habit of changing the original indigenous names of mountains to honor white people. "We need to show more respect to indigenous cultures who have stewarded these landscapes for centuries, who view these peaks as sacred."

One photograph of Gleich proposing marriage to her boyfriend on the summit of Cho-Oyu (sixth highest mountain in the world on the China-Nepal border) drew an appreciative sigh from audience members.

Gleich posts online, "I knew you were a keeper when you emptied my pee bottle and carried down the wag bag we shared. Sharing a month long expedition with your significant other is one of the most intimate experiences. There are highs and lows, and you get to see a person's true colors."

She tells the women in the Boulder crowd, "It's 2018. Do we still have to wait?"

Boyfriend Rob Lea accepted.

Learn more about Gleich at https://carolinegleich.comhttps://carolinegleich.com

EXPEDITION INK

 
I think that I shall never see. A poem lovely as a tree.

Making the rounds of the book circuit is British-born American biologist, author, and professor of biology David George Haskell whose work integrates scientific, literary, and contemplative studies of nature. His first book, The Forest Unseen, was finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction and received numerous honors including the National Academies' Best Book Award. In Haskell's latest book, The Songs of Trees (Penguin USA, 2018), he examines biological networks through the lives of a dozen trees around the world. 

He unabashedly tells his book talk audience, "I sit around watching the forest do stuff." 

Haskell takes readers on an expedition to trees in cities (from Manhattan to Jerusalem), forests (Amazonian, North American, and boreal) and areas on the front lines of environmental change (eroding coastlines, burned mountainsides, and war zones). In each place he shows how human history, ecology, and well-being are intimately intertwined with the lives of trees.

Of particular note is a Bradford (Callery) pear tree he studied in New York at 82nd and Broadway, watching how it intersects with the lives of passersby in Manhattan. He had high praise for the way trees grab pollutants from the air that would otherwise enter human lungs, and estimates trees save New York City $10 million per year in reduced air conditioning costs. Haskell believes, "Trees are fundamental to the rise and fall of human civilization." 

Learn more about Haskell at: https://dghaskell.com 

WEB WATCH

Keeping it to Themselves 

The world's cartographers reportedly are living their secret lives of luxury on the idyllic, never-disclosed eighth continent they call home. Or so says The Onion. We have our friend GOTUS to thank for this amusing link: that would be the Geographer of the U.S. Director Lee R. Schwartz, Office of the Geographer and Global Issues at the U.S. State Department.

Good to see the folks at Foggy Bottom are maintaining their sense of humor.

Get in on the joke here:


EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS

Climb the Southernmost Mountain in the World - Explorers Club member Ken Zerbst and storied mountaineer Vernon Tejas are seeking up to three expedition members to climb Antarctica's 9,600-ft. Mount Howe, the southernmost mountain in the world. Assuming Antarctic weather cooperates, this looks to be a straightforward climb suitable for most intermediate climbers. Afterwards the team will explore the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. Early December 2019. Ken Zerbst FN'98, 303 506 5272, topofworld@earthlink.net

 

How "KUHL" Was Your Last Expedition or Adventure? Tell Us in 50 Words or Less

In honor of our 24th anniversary this month, Expedition News is partnering with KUHL, the well-known mountain culture apparel company, on a "KUHLest Moment in the Wild" contest. In 50 words or less, tells us what your "KUHLest" moment was on an expedition or adventure.

Entries will be judged by our panel, and three winners will receive their choice of the following:

*            Women's long sleeve LYRIK Sweater https://www.kuhl.com/kuhl/womens/long-sleeve/lyrik-sweater/https://www.kuhl.com/kuhl/womens/long-sleeve/lyrik-sweater/  $79 sug. ret.

*            Men's long sleeve INVOKE shirt https://www.kuhl.com/kuhl/mens/long-sleeve/invoke-ls/  $85 sug. ret.

 

*            Men's long sleeve JOYRYDR shirt https://www.kuhl.com/kuhl/mens/long-sleeve/joyrydr/  $120 sug. ret.

Winning entries will also be published in an upcoming issue of EN. Deadline for entries is November 1, 2018, submitted to Editor@expeditionnews.com. Decision of judges are final.  


Get Sponsored! - Hundreds of explorers and adventurers raise money each month to travel on world class expeditions to Mt. Everest, Nepal, Antarctica and elsewhere. Now the techniques they use to pay for their journeys are available to anyone who has a dream adventure project in mind, according to the book from Skyhorse Publishing called:
Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers.

Author Jeff Blumenfeld, an adventure marketing specialist who has represented 3M, Coleman, Du Pont, Lands' End and Orvis, among others, shares techniques for securing sponsors for expeditions and adventures.

Buy it here: 

 
Coming in Spring 2019 –  Travel With Purpose, A Field Guide to Voluntourism (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jeff Blumenfeld

Advertise in Expedition News - For more information: blumassoc@aol.com.

EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 1877 Broadway, Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80302 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2018 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com (made payable to blumassoc@aol.com).  Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com. Enjoy the EN blog at www.expeditionnews.blogspot.com