The top 10 contributions from Atlas & Boots
The top 10 contributions from Atlas & Boots
While we are approaching the end of another difficult year, we reflect on our ups and downs - inside and outside the blog
I thought it would be different this year. We ended the year 2020 with a low but hopeful note, and I really thought that the world would return to normality this year.
Instead, travel continues. Here in Great Britain the Lockdown hangs like a sword of Damocles and threatens our journey into the Antarctic again. Time passes, especially for Peter, who has lost two years climbing in his heyday, which has impaired his lifelong dream to climb Seven Summits.
As always, we try to concentrate on the good things. Peter made it to Switzerland and Greece, and we had our first journey together in almost two years: a beach and diving holiday in Cyprus. He ran twice from the coast to coast and began to concentrate more on writing, with contributions for DKS Outdoor Europe as well as contributions in Independent, Telegraph, Guardian and I.
My novel Next of Kin came out this year and was voted Times Book of the Month. I came into the closer choice at the various Book Awards and ended the first draft of my fourth novel - currently with my editor at Harpercollins.
Our friends and family are healthy - at least physically. I think we all run out of the pandemic. Nevertheless, we do what we can, which means at Atlas & Boots, to continue to present the best outdoor areas of the earth. So, as it is a tradition, our top 10 contributions from 2021 are here.
1. I lost my travel advantage
I lost my travel advantage through Kiaaread
Kia shown in Dallol in Ethiopia
Travel has been part of me for more or less a decade. Whether I sleep with snakes in an outback or rats on an active volcano, I could grit my teeth and continue. On a short trip to London, however, I was put to the test through little things. I felt annoyed and stressed because I always had to unpack and unpack. I didn't like to have the wrong coat, the wrong shoes or the wrong bag for my various obligations. I didn't like to sleep on too soft or too hard pillows or to use a hair dryer that was not mine.
In this post I think about how it was to lose my Traveler advantage and thus part of my identity.
2nd from coast to coast: walk through England twice
From PeterRead from coast to coast: walk through England twice
Atlas & BootsA friendly sheep welcomes Peter
After months of the lockdown restlessly and loosely inspired by Laurie Lees As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning decided to walk across England ... twice.
In Lee's memoirs he leaves his home in the Cotswolds and embarks on an epic journey on foot, which leads him across southland to Spain, where he walks from the north to the south coast for a year. In Peters case, travel restrictions meant that he could not go to Spain, so he took the Coast to Coast Trail, which practically leads past our house. Determined to walk alone, he walked the route on foot - twice.
3. Why I (again) stopped eating fish
From kiaaread why I (again) stopped eating fish
Rudmer Zwerver/ShutterstockKia swore to do without fish
I was a vegetarian for 15 years until I started eating fish at the age of 28, mainly for convenience reasons. Even in developed countries such as France and Argentina, restaurants often had no vegetarian option, in this case I chose fish.
Slowly fish sneaked back into my diet and I sometimes found myself to choose it with a vegetarian alternative. I didn't travel at all in 2020, but I still ate fish once or twice a month. Then, in May of this year, I read an article that forced me to rethink. This post deals with my decision to give up fish again.
4. Virgin Peaks: The undesigned mountains of the world
By PeterRead Virgin Peaks: The undesigned mountains of the world
Gradythedachs; CC BY-SA 2.0Bhutan's highest mountain is probably the highest undisturbed mountain in the world
In January 2021, Nirmal Purja and his climbing team managed the first winter ascent of the K2, the second highest mountain in the world. Some say that this feat was the last major challenge in mountaineering, but this overlooks the undisclosed mountains of the world: peaks that still have to be climbed in every season.
In this article, Peter looks at the most coveted underserted peaks all over the world. There was a nerve with readers who clearly longed for remote places far away from home.
5. Diving in Cyprus: Our first dive for two years
From Kiaaread diving in Cyprus: Our first dive for two years
Atlas & BootsA friendly turtle visits us on our dive in Cyprus
On our first trip together for almost two years, Peter and I have been stole away in Cyprus for a week. Diving was not intended at first. After a hard year we wanted to do nothing but eat, drink, read, read and sow in the sun. In the typical outdoor manner, however, we decided to go diving after two days of our trip.
In this post I think about my nervous start to dive and why it was exactly what I needed to go back into the water.
6. Questions and answers: Climb every mountain in the Yorkshire Dales
Ask from PeterRead questions and answers: Climb every mountain in the Yorkshire Dales
Delimating Calf Top after climbing all mountains in the Yorkshire Dales
Similar to his hike above from the coast to coast, another pandemic adventure by Peter was to climb every mountain in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, home to one of the classic outdoor landscapes in England.
The glacier valleys - or valleys - of the park are defined by a unique terrain from Hochheidemoorland, gentle hills and dramatic waterfalls. With 41 mountains and an excellent network of hiking trails, the Dales invite you to hike - and so it started. During the challenge, he received countless questions by email and on social media. He collected his answers in this article, which was shared by many readers and taken up by the Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Life, Living, This Is Y and other local publications.
7. Ice work: 10 first pauses by mountaineers
By Kiaaread Eisarbeit: 10 first edges of mountaineers
Alt = "The Norwegian adventurer Cecilie Skog"Fair useThe Norwegian adventurer Cecilie Skog
In a world dominated by men, a selected group of women broke the ice sheet. In this article I review some daring first inspections from mountaineers.
We pay homage to the first woman who climbed the Everest (after she was told that she should "raise children instead"), as well as Lucy Walker, who, thanks to the social customs of the Victorian Great Britain, climbed the Eiger in a voluminous skirt. It is not surprising that these pioneers hit the nerve of the reader.
8. The 10 (apparently) most dangerous things we did
From Kialese you the 10 most dangerous things we did
Atlas & BootsOur armed guards in the Danakil-Senke
Peter and I have a constant joke that I fell off bike in the most beautiful places in the world-including Bora Bora in French-Polynesia and Isabela on the Galápagos. It is interesting that nobody ever refers to me as "brave" or "daring" when I ride a bike or actually ride a horse, even though these activities are statistically seen (and in my personal experience) are among the most dangerous ones in which I have participated.
Instead, things like skydiving and bungee jumping that others impress the most. In this article I share 10 seemingly dangerous things we did - some of which were a real risk, but most were only fun.
9. The seven second peaks: a harder challenge
By PeterRead the seven second summit: a harder challenge
Atlas & BootsThe fearsome K2 is one of the Seven Second Summits
Peter often spoke of his dream of climbing the Seven Summits. In this article he goes one step further and looks at the Seven Second Summits from a safe distance - the second highest mountains of each continent.
It is said that these mountains are a greater challenge than their higher colleagues, often with higher deaths and lower success rates. In Into Thin Air, his bestseller about the Everest disaster in 1996, Jon Krakauer explains that “more than a critic of the Seven Summits concept has pointed out that it would be a much more difficult challenge than the highest peak on every continent was to climb the second highest peak at every continent, some of which are very demanding standings.”
As Peter explains in the post, he likes to stay with the "simpler" Seven Summits.
10. Cold shoulder: 10 dramatic controversy when climbing
By Kiaaread Kalte shoulder: 10 dramatic climbing controversy
CC BY-SA 4.0The blurred picture of the mountaineer Oh eun-Sun on Kanchenjunga
There was a time when climbing controversy were sporty on the slopes. The small minorities, the violent exchange and the heated arguments were only part of the ups and downs of the mountaineering world.
When the field became more lucrative and summit strikers were equipped with fame and books, these once discrete disputes began to crested beyond the slopes.
In this article I discuss some of the most fascinating climbing controversy in history, from competitive first inspections to violent clashes at great altitude.
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