Archive for the ‘other Extreme Threads’ Category

Greece is a country which has far more to offer than one imagines. The land of magical islands and fascinating history and historical sites, is fast becoming a land where extreme sports abound. It is affordable too, which adds to its attractions…

The other day we talked about ski-ing in Greece, and today we will touch on the subject of paragliding, with thanks to left1976 for this great video from Mount Falakro in the Kavala and Drama region. With a height of 800m, wind direction S/SW and good launch and landing areas it is a perfect place to start:

Thessaloniki also has a wide choice of paragliding destinations and several of them have a local club from which you can get advice and guidance.

Edessa in the north, near Yugoslavia, is a gem of a site  with perfect launch and landing sites, although paragliding between November to March is not recommended. There are a lot of cross country possiblities with distances of about 60kms in all directions, apart from North.

Florina is another region with plenty of choice – 8 different sites to my reckoning.

In a nutshell, most paragliding clubs can be found in the Peloponnese, Epirus and Macedonia areas. They offer their members all the equipment they need and the paragliding activities are conducted in safe conditions.

The months when you should not consider going to Greece for a paragliding holiday are July and August – the winds are very strong and it is very very hot; and the weather is generally considered too stable between December and February. Apart from that it’s pretty well perfect. However, it is worth noting that the winds can be strong in June and early September -perhaps more suitable for experienced flyers and not beginners.

At the moment, paragliding in Greece is controlled by the general rules of aviation. Flying on the islands is possible but you wont find any local Greek pilots flying there.

If you want more information or would like to contact some clubs in Greece directly I suggest you follow the link to www.paragliding.gr and continue from there…

This is Cut Across Shorty a VS 4c climb, courtesy of The Jersey Rock Climbing Club:

I was going to tackle the British Isles as a group, but Jersey has so much to offer – great climbing, surfing and scuba diving to name just a few of the recommended activities, that I am going to go no further than this jewel of an island where a weekend full of action is waiting for anyone looking for a variety of extreme sports in one small area.

Climbing is a great way to get a body workout, while at the same time challenging your mind, and Jersey has a wide selection for you. The island has some of the best climbing areas in Europe and the variety of rock and unspoilt scenery make it a spectacular experience for beginners and experienced climbers alike.

It’s an ideal place to visit: perfect days, un-crowded cliffs and great climbing, regular dips in the sea to cool off and great pubs to retire to at the end of the day.

From the impressive 50m tower of The Pinnacle to the extensive and confusing buttresses of Grosnes, through the delightful ‘mini-cliffs’ at Corbiere and out to the north coast, there really is plenty here to keep you busy.  Homesick Angle on The Pinnacle is one the the best HVS (hard very severe) routes you could possibly hope for.

All the routes on the island (there are 1100 listed in the book) are trad and most of them are on high quality granite. The island has long been a bolt-free zone – the local climbing club originally had just two rules for the members – abide by the Country Code, and no fixed protection!

If you want to arm yourself in advance with some useful information, ‘Jersey Climbs’ is the first guidebook to be produced for Jersey in twelve years. It has 188 pages with lists, grades, advice and details of the 1100 routes  to be found there.

And then there’s the surfing…

Jersey’s shores are bombarded by waves and not only are they some of the best waves in the British Isles but they are also some of the warmest… always worth bearing in mind.

And there are great scuba diving opportunities here too, whether you want to investigate an old wreck or float amongst black faced pennies, corals and luminous jewel anemones in pinks, blues, greens and oranges. The summer months are even more interesting when the warm waters bring in  exotic marine wildlife  such as sea horses, dolphins and basking sharks. Jersey’s coastal seawater is of award-winning cleanliness and this is reflected in the abundance of sea life to be found there.

Other things you can do in Jersey besides rock climbing, abseiling and surfing are BloKarting on the beach, Sea Kayaking, Caving, Coasteering, Clay Pigeon Shooting, Cycling, Golf, Powerboat Trips, Fishing Excursions, Horse Riding and Zorbing. I’ve probably missed some out.

Not just a banking paradise then…

One has preconceived notions of countries, witness my surprise yesterday at finding a tropical beach in China. Similarly today I’ve discovered skiing in Greece. Greece, the land of sunshine and islands, blue skies and turquoise seas, antiquity and tourism. But skiing? I’d never heard of it!

I am going to warn you immediately that although there are many places to ski, the resorts are small. However, the fun side of skiing in Greece is that one moment you can be snorkelling or scuba diving in the islands, or enjoying grilled octupus and a view of the Acropolis and the next flying down  a mountain with the quiet swoosh of snow in your ears. How extreme is that?

There’s a fantastic video of telemark skiing in Greece (turningtelemark) which goes to show that there’s some quality snow in the area. Greece is, after all, a land of mountains jsut as much as it is a land of islands, so why shouldn’t it have snow?

Skiers are addicted to the better-known resorts of Switzerland, France, and Italy, but Greece offers low prices and a good variety of slopes and ski centers. In fact, you can ski for just a few dollars a day in Greece. Recent prices at Mt. Parnassos, the best-developed resort run by EOT, include a 7-day pass for about $90. Other prices are just as good.

Mt. Parnassos is just 3 hours away from Athens and has good skiable snow from December to March. With a dozen lifts and a wide selection of slopes it is the skiing mecca of Greece (metallinsam). and just as exotic, Delphi is just around the corner offering great apres-ski life!

We have all experienced a winter of varying degrees of severity. Here in the south of France we have had so much rain over the past few months that the ground is just oozing water. Two days ago a socking great cyprus tree fell over and squashed our car – the ground so saturated with water that there was no support any more for the root system. The whole thing came up … roots and all.

But that’s nothing compared to some of the disasters happening around the world, and Mongolia is one of them. I will copy The Adventurists entire plea for help here. Please click on the links and they’ll take you through. Thank you.

The Adventurists visit every year, and now

Mongolia needs our help.

Thousands of animals have died in Mongolia since the cold set in. The Adventurists have launched an emergency appeal to raise funds for the purchasing and distribution of food to the herders for their horses and other livestock.

Please donate to AVSF through this AFD JustGiving page: our initial target is £5,000, we hope with your help we’ll smash this.

The Current Situation

Mongolia is experiencing extreme weather conditions, which is killing thousands of animals across the country. The herders need food for their animals, but there is very little stock available in Mongolia. Emergency measures are being taken by Agronomes et Veterinaires Sans Frontieres (AVSF) to import feed from China and Russia. Funds are desperately needed to pay for the food and its distribution to save the herders’ animals.

Goats, sheep and horses have been dying every single day of hunger and cold, and even the hardy yaks are suffering and numbers are dwindling, leaving their herders with no livelyhood and no means to feed or support their families.

What is being done

AVSF – an Official Charity for the Mongol Derby 2010 – are already working on the ground t o procure and distribute food to the herders. So far they have implemented the procurement and distribution of two food deliveries, each mission taking two weeks.

During that time they also checked the animals for disease and foot rot, and helped the herders with their own efforts to save the livestock. Locals are rallying round, donating a day’s salary as regularly as possible towards food purchases, and sewing coats and pelts together to shelter the animals from the cold.

AVSF have mobilised exceptional funds from current projects in an effort to help during this emergency and are already responding to the consequences they see occurring by restructuring their 2010/2011 programmes to meet the new needs the local people now face. The charity are realistic about this weather – this is not short term – it’s here until the summer months and the knock on effects will be seen for many more months to come.

How you can help

AVSF have the use of the trucks, access to sources of food and the means to distribute the food. They’re desperately in need of immediate funds to buy the food and the fuel to reach the herders in the Steppe. 100% of the funds you donate will go to help the herders and their livestock right now, and save the lives of hundreds of animals and contribute to the rebuilding of the herds.

Adventures for Development (AFD) is the UK registered charity collecting funds in the UK for AVSF. They will transfer your donation in full to AVSF. If you’re a French tax payer, please donate directly through AVSF’s website www.avsf.org.

Thank you, your donations will make a difference fast and be greatly appreciated.

The Adventurists
http://www.theadventurists.com

The tragic news that 21-year-old luge racer Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed whilst practising for the Olympic luge at Whistler, Vancouver is more than tragedy. Kumaritashvili was injured when he flew off the track and collided with a steel pole, he died as a result of these injuries. He was travelling at 89mph when he crashed.

Inevitably questions have to be asked. Investigations were conducted the same day, concluding that the accident was not caused by deficiencies in the track. As a preventative measure, the walls at the exit of curve 16 were raised and a change in the ice profile was made. To reduce the speed the athletes were reaching the mens’ start was moved to where the ladies were launching and the ladies and mens doubles will now start from the junior start after turn 5.

Was the track too fast? The Whistler luge course includes 16 turns and a 498-foot drop and was considered to be the fastest track that has ever been built. These guys are covering a mile in approximately 50 seconds, attaining speeds in excess of 90mph and enduring a G force more commonly associated with sitting in a rocket.

The president of the ILF, the official governing body of luge, warned that the Whistler Sliding Center track was too fast back in 2008. At the time, he recommended capping maximum track speeds at 85 mph for future tracks. Yet for whatever reason, ILF president Josef Fendt failed to sound the alarm in 2010, even though sliders were clocking well over 90 mph in practice.

What ensued is a tragedy not only for Nodar Kumaritashvili’s family but for the wider Olympic community as a whole and particularly the authorities running the games. But ultimately we suggest that it is in man’s nature to go faster, or to want to go faster, and to put a speed limiter into an event is, in our view, a contradiction of what luge is all about – going flat out. How molly coddled do we want to become or should we keep the extreme element that is at the moment very much part of luge.

We have the deepest sympathy for Nodar Kumaritashvili’s family and send our most sincere condolences. We dedicate this blog to the memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili – he died doing something he loved – RIP.

Bookmark Friday, 26th February, 2 p.m. British time if you are considering taking part in the next great Mototaxi Junket in Peru – courtesy of your kind hosts, The Adventurists…

I always have to repeat at least some of their inimitable words as their author has such a fine turn of phrase that how could you NOT want to take part in at least one of their crazy extreme adventures… the following comment is a report on the 2009 event.

“Bones were broken, a mototaxi plumetted off a cliff into a river (without its drivers), adventurists founder Mr. Tom was run over by his team mate, £65,000 was raised for charity by the teams and to the disbelief of pretty much everyone it was nobly demonstrated that taking rubbish mototaxis across massive mountains, into sweaty jungles and across barren deserty plains really is a splendid idea.”

The Mototaxi Junket is a 3,000 km (or maybe 4,000) adventure starting in Cuzco, Peru on the 1st August 2010 and ending in Asuncion, Paraguay around two-weeks later.

The mototaxi itself is a cross between a moped and a sofa, but as The Adventurists warn: it “handles more like a sofa than a moped.”

Thank you to Team Causitas Perdidas who competed in last year’s events for these great photographs.

The race is enough to challenge the hardiest souls, let alone a poor little mototaxi, as another participator in last year’s event said: “It’s hilarious.I can only describe it as rallybiking on lawnmowers.”

However, the terrain is rugged. It’s mountainous. It’s desert. It’s jungle. It’s rainforest. And one of the roads is the most dangerous road in the world – a thousand metre abyss a few inches from your wheels! 

And as for the weather you can expect – matching the diversity of the extreme terrain, you will experience everything from freezing cold high altitude passes to sweaty rainforests – a stiff test for man and hugely under-powered machine.

As one competitor said:  “We’ve been over countless passes over the last few days each one colder than the last and each one followed by a scorching valley complete with cactus, heat ripples and awesome views.”

There is no set route and no back up of any kind…

It will certainly be an adventure.

Every team taking part has to raise at least £1,000 which will go towards  a charity that The Adventurists’ support. last year the money they raised  provided free re-constructive surgery to children suffering from facial deformities such as Clefts. Over 75% of cleft cases in the developing world go untreated, however they can be treated in as little as 45 minutes at a cost of only £150.  You can find out more about these on their website: http://mototaxijunket.theadventurists.com

Facts, stats and things that happened last time:

• A junketeer continued adventuring with a broken collarbone caused by ’smashing into a cliff’ and only reported into casualty on his return to Northern Ireland.
• One vehicle plumetted off the edge of a cliff and disappeared into a river (the occupants just about stayed on the road)
• The founder of the Junket Tom was run over by his team mate
• The vehicle supplier cancelled the mototaxi order just before the launch so replacements were rafted in from the jungle along the Amazon and other corners of Peru (several days late)
• One team member dressed as a lifesize pink rabbit for every encounter with police or border authorities and didn’t end up in jail
• A mototaxi was stolen in Cuzco but recovered by the police 24 hours later
• One team drove off a cliff and were only saved from rather dangerous freefall by some well placed vegetation and scrub
• £65,000 was raised for the official charities
• 62 teams left from the start point in Huancayo, in the Peruvian Andes
• 8 teams made it to the finish line in Asuncion

If you are wanting to do something unusual this Summer, then this might well be the thing for you…