Conrad Anker and wife Jennifer Lowe-Anker helped setup the Khumbu Climbing School in Nepal to prepare the local Sherpas for high-altitude expeditions in the Himalaya. This is the third year of the school, which teaches things like alpine climbing skills and avalanche preparedness to kids. It’s funded in large part by the folks at The North Face, who created a Khumbu line of their popular gear. Proceeds from the sale of The North Face KCS Collection go directly to the program. Backcountry.com is selling the full line. North Face has a video on their site about the program; there’s no shortage of North Face jackets in it. If you have a shady enough accountant, I’m sure buying a new jacket here could be some kind of tax write-off.

The University of Wisconsin runs concrete canoe races ever year. All the nerdy engineers form teams and make canoes from concrete and then race them across the lake after ripping a couple two-story beer bongs. These English guys might do better on their next paddling attempt if they ripped a couple beer bongs and went back to the drawing board. For reasons Treehugger doesn’t bother explaining, the men built a boat from sheep excrement, beeswax, and a nautical resin made from soya beans, and they’re going to paddle it across the English Channel. Their first voyage ended in catastrophic failure when water seeped through the lining and the boat turned into soggy paper.

via Treehugger

This is a pretty ho-hum video of body boarders getting pounded into the ground and surfers not quite making the drop on a massive swell a few days ago in Southern California. When you get sick of seeing people going over the falls, skip to 3:40–it’s when a gonzo surfer cranks his standup paddle board onto the wave. The board is massive. It’s like watching a couple guys in a canoe paddling into oblivion. If stand up paddle boards are the Rollerbladers of the ocean, than this is the guy who goes down a rollercoaster on his skates.

Standup paddle boarders are taking their setups down rapids in rivers, too. I still haven’t tried one, but friends say they’re a lot of fun on flat water. Hey, Rollerblades were a lot of fun back in the day, too.

via Adventure Life

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Yesterday I warned that bears were breaking into homes and would soon begin using tools in their quest to retake the top spot on the food chain. It looks like they’ve moved one step closer. A small middle-aged female black bear in the Adirondacks named Yellow-Yellow has figured out how to open the latest BearVault, and it appears she’s also teaching her tricks to other bears. Yellow-Yellow is named for the two yellow tags in her ear, which is odd to begin with. Where there two groups of people in the Adirondacks tagging all the bears? I think one tag would be sufficient, no wonder she’s getting back at mankind. Bear Vault is working on developing a new rig that will keep the smarter-than-the-average bears out. Until it comes out, I’m going to carry one Bear Vault with my food and another full of angry bees. That bear’s going to be taking a hell of a risk if she comes into my camp. I’m just putting it out there in case she reads this blog.

via GetOutdoors

The Caretaker Gazette has been publishing listings of free places to live since 1983. It’s basically want ads for people who are going to be away from their homes for anywhere from a couple weeks to several months, and you can apply to live in their house where you’ll clean pools, mow lawns, or fend off filthy backpackers in exchange free housing and sometimes a stipend. Jane from Cool Tools says she’s used it to live rent free for the past three years, but obviously this rent-free living comes at the expense of having things like dogs, families, and a roomful of cool bikes you ride every day. The Caretaker Gazette is somewhat old fashioned in its delivery, giving you options of a postal subscription you update every time you move or PDFs available online for $30 a year.

via Cool Tools