Monthly Archives: April 2013

The Epic Redux

Posted on April 20, 2013 | 1 comment

The first thing we did on the Sergey Vavilov ship before heading south was meet in the bar, don a nametag and mingle. As most people were older, well-traveled folks, I whispered to Harry that I felt like I was geriatric speed dating. Take that comment as lightly as it was delivered because they were a well-educated, inspirational bunch to the man. One of the first people I met was a woman with a thick British accent who kept having to tilt and swing her head to get the hair out of her face. “Alexandra Shackleton’s my name,” she introduced. My lightning-quick mind responded, “What a coincidence!” or something idiotic like that.

After the meet and greet, the expedition leader gave us a trip overview and introduced Alexandra as the granddaughter of THAT Shackleton. (In case you don’t know, Ernest Shackleton is considered one of the greatest leaders and adventurers of all time. Read ‘Endurance’ by Alfred Lansing.) Apparently, Alexandra had commissioned a group of men to recreate the adventures of “grandfather” on a boat identical to the 22 foot Cairn he and his men travelled. We were to meet up with her crew at the conclusion of their trip.

Having read Lansing’s book, I thought a recreation was somewhere between a wee bit indulgent to downright ridiculous as no one could ever mimic the sort of conditions Shackleton and his men endured. I tried to suspend my initial condemnation and remain open to something more. A few weeks later, that something more came bounding into the bar off a Zodiac from the old whaling town of Grytviken, South Georgia in the form of Tim Jarvis. If ever there was a man to walk straight out of a Hemingway novel or adventure on the tall seas, it was this huge man with hands the size of those of Michelangelo’s David. He was dressed in period clothes as was the other gentleman who was the climbing specialist on loan from British Special Forces SAS. (Everyone on the trip was world’s best at some skill necessary for the success of the journey. A Swiss-army knife hodgepodge of men, if you will.) Tim is a modern day adventurer, one of those people who climb mountains because they’re there, does things just because no one else has. I didn’t even know these people still existed..

Shortly after the bar talk, all the passengers were transported to the cemetery where we joined in a 10 am whiskey toast, pouring the last drops on the grave of ‘the Boss’, as is customary.

It didn’t occur to me to write a post about this but when we were sitting around in Cusco, Peru waiting to acclimate to the altitude, I saw that CNN made reference to the journey on their front page online edition. Indeed the Discovery Channel filmed the Epic re-enactment and were with us (since we carried the trip’s benefactor) to the toast at the end of the journey.

Carter

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_tvbx#/video/world/2013/03/22/intv-verjee-shackleton-mission-jarvis.cnn

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Jordan 8 USA 4 – Wadi Rum Bedouin Camp

Posted on April 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

Following a camel trek through the Wadi Rum desert of Jordan, and another day of climbing through canyons, Dune-surfing, and seeing evidence of Lawrence of Arabia…we paused with our three Bedouin guides to watch the sunset.

A soccer ball appeared, and Greer knocked it over to one of the guides. Things slowly inflated until the Bedouins unearthed a patch of rocks and stacked them to make goals. We, the Brigham men, began shaking out our limbs as Harry trashed talked our adversaries…..our chances were made especially slimmer when he mentioned that we were “Team USA” and they were “Team Jordan,” because for some reason that really took everything to a different level. In our defense, we are North Americans who have grown up in a society where taking off your shoes is something of a taboo at times, and while we have padded around in our floppy, comfortable shoes, they have grown up in an unforgiving desert assumedly without shoes for a decent percentage of that time, while wearing simple sandals for the other part of the time.

We fought hard, scoring one goal for every 2 or three Jordanian goals, but we held up our dignity amidst the elbows, spearing rocks, a face-plant(Harry), painful, foot-embedding thorns, (of which you’d be giving quick yanks at whenever the opportunity arose) and the many other hazards of playing soccer in a geographical setting where you’ll find a considerable amount of plant life in the shadier areas, simply because they just can’t survive in the scalding sun.

At one time or another, we each were able to accelerate into a fast break, which really came down to who was willing trash their feet more for their team. Even if we missed the goal, it was always relaxing to watch the ball bound into the distance so we could nurse our feet and feel the painful sting slowly subside–until the ball was kicked back into play.

As the sun gradually sank downwards, the game drew to a close. We estimate that “Team USA” had put in about 3, maybe four goals. “Team Jordan” pulled away with a narrow victory, having scored only 8 or 9 times.

Details aside, it was immensely enjoyable for both sides to have made such an ice-breaking, powerful, yet simple connection to throw both parties off the beaten path and dissolve the many miles and cultures between Wadi Rum and Baltimore.

Greer’s left foot.

Greer’s left foot(continued).

Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Posted on April 6, 2013 | 2 comments

Whoa..that was tougher than expected. Four days of hiking peaking over 13,829 feet in altitude before descending into Machu Picchu.

On one hand, Carter and I looked around and saw the average age of other hikers doing the trail was early twenties and we were quite proud of ourselves… on the other hand, we had just day packs and trekking poles while our Andean porters lugged up to 60 lbs each (one of them being 49 years old) literally jogging past us up the trail to the next campsite while we gasped for air. Gasping for air while hiking, during breaks, during dinner and then at night in our tent while trying to sleep despite three days of acclimatizing in Cusco, Peru beforehand.

The trail is beautiful and steep as it crawls through the mountains and passes through several Inca ruins and spectacular views setting the stage for Machu Picchu.

Our guide, Sabino, was half crazy and left us laughing many times with his off the wall comments. Every time we would round a corner and come upon another spectacular ruin, he would exclaim ‘Jesus Christ!’, as though he were seeing it for the first time despite 150 previous trips up the trail. In the steepest sections where we were in a four point stance (crawling) going up the inca stone stairs and trying not to pitch off into the valleys below, our guide would be running up and down with his hands in his pocket chuckling. When he was thirsty, he would grab a drink from a stream alongside the trail and then remind us that we could not do so because we had ‘baby stomachs’.

The final morning, we woke at 3:30am and hiked to Machu Picchu in the darkness to beat the crowds and greet the sun (it was cloudy).

Machu Picchu – amazing as advertised. But crowded with visitors and we soon missed the solitude of the trail and the opportunities we enjoyed exploring other inca villages by ourselves during the previous four days.

Harry