This weekend I was back in Amsterdam for the fourth time in a year to run the Amsterdam Marathon. The only problem was that I hadn’t trained. At all. I ran a lot in June, but then I spent the summer on the road. And though I wore out a pair of running shoes walking around stadiums, I hadn’t run more than 5-6 times with friends or just to see some of the towns. I am reasonably active though, so with a little help from my friend willpower (though he abandoned me for a stretch between 35 and 40 km) I pulled it off in a bit under five hours. Not an impressive time, but something I’m happy with considering the amount of preparation I put in.
Returning to work on Monday I was told just how foolhardy I was since three people had dropped dead running the Detroit Marathon the same day that I was pounding the pavement in Amsterdam. Of course at that fatality rate, the last 15 years of the Detroit Marathon has a lower fatality rate than commuting in the UK. The point is that much like you need to commute, you need to go out and enjoy life – which will always come with some risk. And personally, I’d much rather take that small risk than the risk of having a dull life. So if you’re thinking of doing something fairly ridiculous, might I recommend a major physical challenge. That’s adventure.
If watching this doesn’t scare you off of backcountry skiing for a little while then I don’t know what will. I love cruising around off-piste, but damned if I don’t get myself the best avalanche gear money can buy before I get any more adventurous than I am right now.
This was a decent sized avalanche. 1,500 feet the dude fell in a little over 20 seconds. The crown was about 1 – 1.5m. The chute that he got sucked through to the skier’s right was flanked on either side by cliff bands that were about 30m tall. He luckily didn’t break any bones and obviously didn’t hit anything on the run out.
1,500 feet in 20 seconds? Damn. Read the rest of the description for a bit of background on how he got into the situation and a more words of caution on skiing in avalanche zones.
A couple friends understandably got a bit freaked about my post on traveling to Afghanistan. Truth is that I’m not gallivanting off somewhere that dangerous just yet. But as you can see in the video above, there are folks who are doing some risky tourism: Iraq.
Trifter has a good post with even better pictures on some of the amazing sights in Afghanistan under the heading: “Would You Take a Vacation to Afghanistan?” The answer is “yes”, but there are some obvious caveats. There are only certain areas of the country that are reasonably safe for tourists, and I would prefer to go when some of the land mines be removed. However, there are tours of some of the highlights, and all things considered, Afghanistan is one of the places I might consider getting a package guided tour. It’s certainly not my next trip, but something worth considering down the road.
Photo: Flickr user Tracyhunter under creative commons license.
