Michael Phelps: Nutrition Tips To Fuel An Olympic Legend

Michael Phelps recently attained the honor of becoming the single-most winningest single athlete in Olympic history.   Over the course of two Olympic games, 2004 and 2008, Michael has captured an astonishing 11 gold medals and two bronzes.  He still has three events to go in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Michael is hoping his current string of success will allow him to break the mark for most Olympic gold medals in one Olympics–8.  He currently has 5, setting 5 world records in the process.

11 Gold medals might seem impressive.  If he accomplishes his goal of 8 gold medals in 2008, that will bring his total to 14—plus two bronzes.  Michael Phelps is 23.  In the year 2012, when the Olympics barge in to London, Michael Phelps will be 27.  He has already stated he will be competing in 2012.  Beyond that, he could actually work in one or two more Olympics before calling it a career.  Amazing?  I think most people are finally starting to grasp what is taking place before their eyes–It is truly an amazing time in Olympic history and Michael’s feats may be there for a very…very long time.

What fuels Michael Phelps?  Passion.  Drive.  Determination.  12,000 calories a day.  What?

Read more

The Adventurist Launches a New Column on Topix

I have been very, very busy for the last couple of weeks.  Some of you may have noticed a slight drop-off in the articles put up on here, but I have actually been pretty good about at least getting something up everyday.  I have a few projects going that I would like to take a few minutes to tell you about.

Adventure-X

First off, I announced a week or so ago that I have become an editor over at Topix.  I am in charge of updating the Mountain Climbing, Extreme Sports, and Outdoors Recreation areas over at Topix.  As an Editor over there, I thought it would be nice to add a little personal touch, so I have began a weekly column called Adventure-X in the Outdoor Recreation Area of Topix. 

This column will be a weekly feature over at Topix.  I have a lot of very neat ideas that I am going to try to do with this as we explore the outdoor world and some of the issues of today.  The first column, Adventure-X:  Defining Ourselves Through What We Do, has already been posted.  I will be adding a link at the Top of The Adventurist called “Adventure-X” that will explain a bit more about this project, as well as take you to the weekly column.  At this time, this is a Topix exclusive, with possible syndication in the future to other media outlets.  It will not be a feature on The Adventurist, but I will definately put up the links to the pieces as I put them up.

An Article on Topia Road

Besides the Adventure-X column, I also have an article getting ready to be featured over at Topia Road.  Topia Road is a new online magazine specializing in snowboarding and skiing.  Pat Moore, the Editor, is a two-time National Champion in NASTAR Snowboard Racing and has been ranked Number 1 in the country for his age group.

My article, Skiing the World’s Highest Peak, should be up on their site anytime now.  This article takes a look at the history of skiing and snowboarding on Mt. Everest.

It is a pleasure to be working with these guys and I am wishing them continued success on this project.  Stop on over and check them out.

Adventure Sports Weekly

As if this weren’t enough, I will also have an article in this week’s Adventure Sports Weekly.  The new issue should be out tomorrow.

My article, So You Want to be an Adventure Racer, takes a look at what is expected and what could be done to get yourself involved in these amazing Adventure Races.

If you haven’t checked out Adventure Sports Weekly yet, I highly reccomend this Online Sports Magazine.  Editor Wina Sturgeon is an internationally known sports writer.  She has covered the Olympics for Sports Illustrated as well as worked with many other publications.  It is a pleasure to be working with her on this project and I wish her continued success.

The Adventurist All Over the Place

So now you know what has been going on–I have been busy, but it has been alot of fun.  I have been working with some very talented people and definately moving forward.  Hope you check out my items around the Net, and thanks for your continued support.

Jason A. Hendricks, Editor

Mt. Everest to Close to Climbers in 2008?

It is well known that China is planning on running the Olympic Torch to the summit of Mt. Everest in 2008 leading into the 2008 Olympics being held in Beijing.

This past April and May a Chinese Expedition team made a successful run at the summit proving that it is possible.  17 members successfully summited.  The Chinese were able to prove that the Olympic Torch would burn in the Mt. Everest altitude.

Early on in the 2007 season, it was revealed that China may indeed be trying to close down the North side to further climbers and expeditions.  Now it is being revealed that China is also in negotiations with Nepal—looking to close the South Side of Everest as well while the torch is making it’s way to the top.

The China/Tibet Mountaineering Association (CMA/TMA ) are now reportedly also negotiating with Nepal, asking them to help “close” the peak from both sides during the Olympic torch team’s summit push next year.

This information is coming from an article currently on the front page of MountEverest.net.  The article was actually discussing the merits of lowering fees for climbers on Mt. Everest in the fall and winter to promote more expeditions to take place at this time.  It just kind of jumped out at me.

What would this mean to all of the Expeditions that take place in the spring if Everest is essentially cut off from climbers while the chinese are there?

We all know that this previous expedition by the chinese was a “trial” run.  For this Expedition, the chinese Basecamp was enclosed by fencing as well as having armed guards present…

Next year promises to be completely mad–and perhaps on both sides.  Hopefully Nepal won’t fall to intimidation or money factors and rightfully stand their ground.  I am sure we will all be waiting to see how this eventually developes as Expedition companies plan their trips well in advance of the coming trips in 2008..

I was also curious as to why the South Side might need to be closed off as well–could the Chinese be planning a historic North to South Traverse? 

The Adventurist: What Exactly Defines ‘Adventure’?

That is one tough question.  We all know the word.  Many of us say life is an adventure–but what does it mean?  Is it the risk involved?  Going someplace few others have gone, or is it in doing something you fear?

I recently had the opportunity to discuss this topic with a fellow reader.  His idea of Adventure was something that usually involved apparent risk and took place out of doors.  I know this is a very basic definition, but we will get back to that in just a few minutes.

Adventure Sports, Adventure Travel, Adventure Books, Adventure of a Lifetime, I think all of these describe a unique opportunity to take a look at what exactly Adventure means.

In the media, Adventure is the thrilling..something exciting that perhaps you just don’t do everyday.  Is it about the risk involved?  Not neccessarily.  My grandmother use to say that Hurricane Andrew was an Adventure.  I am not sure about that, she obviously didn’t plan on being caught in the middle of a hurricane during her Florida vacation–yet, you can’t deny that there isn’t a fear factor there.

As defined, the noun Adventure is something that is an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature, and the verb: to risk or hazard, to venture.

I would go on to include:  Adventure is something that is an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature that involves apparent risks that may or may not be known at the time of the undertaking.

Quite essentially, in this very broad definition, Adventure can quite easily be anything we take part in.  There is no “Outdoors’ mentioned.  What could be one person’s adventure may very well be someone else’s everyday existence.  Changing a diaper, for me, would be a definate adventure..

Adventure Sports have become a popular term used to describe sports that offer up plenty of risk.   Mountain Climbing, Surfing, Mountain Biking, Sking, Skateboarding, ect.  In essence though, the risk can not be the only factor involved.  Pro Football and Basketball offer up risks as well, yet aren’t listed as an Adventure Sport.  One thing they do have in common though, they are pretty much all solo sports.  One person competing against another rather than a team on team sport.  There is also, if it might be slightly more so, bigger risk for injury.  There is that word “risk” again that ties back into the Adventure definition.

Risk.  Pro Football has risk as well though.  How many times have we seen a talented player carried off the field due to a spinal injury from making direct contact with his head into the gut of another player?  As such though, Pro Football is a team sport.

The Tour de France is considered an Adventure Sports event–yet, there are definately some team dynamics going on even if it is with a bicycle.  The Discovery Channel Team has won 8 of the last 9 tours, respectively.

Now you can begin to see where I am coming from.  I think every individual has an idea of what Adventure is–to them, personally–but I don’t really think it can be defined as a whole.  Everyone’s idea of adventure is different.

I recently drew some criticism for running a piece on BMX racing.  People familiar with this site have grown use to what I am doing.  They expect it—in a sense this site has become something less of an adventure and more of an expectation day to day.  They come because they know what they can expect.  You throw a new curveball in there and suddenly, they don’t know what to do or think, “Where’s the stuff I like?  Where is the climbing?”  It is funny sometimes, how just a small change can get people in an uproar.

“Promoting Education and Exploration Through Adventure”

This thought was developed as a basis in which to keep myself on track with a definate plan.  If you take each item individually, it leaves for a very broad world.  Educate, Explore, Adventure–all three of these items can basically mean anything.

With the BMX story that I mentioned earlier, it was a chance for me to break a cycle of sorts and offer something that I usually don’t offer.  BMX is a risk sport.  BMX is an individual sport.  Those of you that questioned my intentions saying it’s not “Adventure”, and don’t  hold true to my values, think again. 

My overall readers tend to be roughly my age and older.  I am 33.  They have moved on to bigger and better adventures from their childhood.  How many of us got our first beginnings in outdoor “Adventure” sports by riding around our BMX..climbing the trees and the hills around our houses, grabbing that skateboard and trying to bust out our first grind.  Many, many of us came from these simple beginnings–ones that now might not seem like much of an adventure as we grow older, but one that influenced the risks and adventures we take today. 

These events, these sports have been on a continous incline for the past 10-20 years.  This is where our future is and will be the influences for the coming adventures in the days ahead.  Those skateboarding rebels that blow by us on the sidewalks–could very well be that older rebel trying to make his first 8,000 meter peak in the days ahead.

BMX is an adventure.  Perhaps you don’t like it.  Perhaps you don’t like the big press that comes along with the new wave of adventure sports, but my intentions are that perhaps if you don’t know a whole lot about it, perhaps you will at least read it and learn a thing or two.  I am sure many of them don’t know that much about crampons, either.  They will read about your adventures here, and now I am giving you the chance to read about theirs as well.  There is plenty of room and plenty of excitement to go around.  Promoting Education and Exploration through Adventure still holds true.  Now we can all learn something.

China vs. Mother Nature: The Quest for Artificial Weather

Who controls the weather?  This debate, in a round about way, has been taking place for centuries.  When the weather was unbearably dry, ancient Indian nations would come together and perform their “Indian Rain Dance” to try to persuade the Gods to open up the skies–

Step ahead a couple of centuries to the present.  A lengthy article in the Asian Times Online goes into detail about how China has been in the process of manufactoring weather since 1958.  No, this isn’t science fiction.

China has seemingly developed a way to not only make it rain when it wants to, but to also control such things as hail storms. If you are still questioning the validity of all of this, The Chinese Government has stated that their methods have already been used to control the weather for such international events as the 1993 East Asian Games and the 1999 Horti-Expo in Yunnan..and next up on the list?  The 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing.

So How Does This All Work?

It would be alot easier to explain that China just hits a button, but actually it is a rather large scientific process.  To bring it down to scope, the basics of the process involves firing rounds of silver oxide ammunition into the clouds.  The weight of the silver oxide will cling to the water in the clouds and bring it back down to the ground.

This is a pretty interesting and scientifically proven method that just happened to be developed by the United States in the 1940’s and 50’s–but we lost interest in this on the belief that Mother Nature usually wins..

China has went on to take this research and expand significantly on what has been known about weather formation.  Each of the Chinese Provinces now has it’s own Artificial Weather Modification Base.  This is all controlled by the Chinese Government and they say when to enact the weather changing science.

The Artificial Weather Modification Department boasts over 32,000 chinese employees, as well as 7,100 anti-aircraft guns, 4,991 special rocket launchers and 30 specially equipped aircraft to help in this process.  This is a large expenditure, but the thoughts behind it’s development can not be taken lightly.  It was original enacted to help with the issue of drought that plagues a big size chunk of China.

There begs to be a couple of questions asked though…Silver-Oxide is a known polutant and poison in large quantities, how will this affect China in the future?  They do mention that the silver oxide they use is in such small quantities to not have an effect on the environment, yet what happens as it builds up over the years?

Another question?  If China can do this, why has this idea not been exported to the likes of Countries in Africa that could definately use this technology for both water and food, which they are currently suffering a major crisis with?

In a way though, this all seems pretty much amazing to me.  If the United States would seemingly begin to use this technology, perhaps we could gain control of the massive wildfire outbreaks in the West, or they could broadcast a report of Artificial Rain on the news and we would all be guaranteed of knowing just when to bring the ol’ umbrella…

What are your thoughts?

[contact-form]

The Adventurist: A Call to All Outdoor Writers and Photographers!

I have just put the finishing touches on a new “Submit & Contact” Page here at The Adventurist.  I am hoping that this new feature will be accepted and used by all of my great readers.

This page goes into detail about a few things I am looking for here at The Adventurist–and ways you might be able to get involved.

Do you love Adventure Writing or perhaps Great Outdoors Photography?–Help me share your incredible talents with a much bigger audience!

Head on Over to the “Submit & Contact” Page, found on a tab right up above this article, and Share your Adventures with the World!

Also, if you are looking to put me to work, there is info there as well….

Cheers-

J. Alan Hendricks, Editor

The Adventurist Goes Primitive—Camping That Is..

Well, many of you have probably been wondering where I have been over the past week and a half.

My wife and I recently took a “vacation” to southern Tennessee or “Down in the Hills” as they call it…

We decided to do some “Primitive Camping” at the David Crockett State Park near Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

Now when I say Primitive Camping, I am talking no water, no electricity..we didn’t even bring a watch.  We wanted to get away, do some exploring and lose track of time for a week…and we did.

First off, I need to mention that the place we put up camp was amazing!  We placed our tent at the head of two rivers converging..and right across the river was a 300 foot Rock Cliff straight up!  Beautiful scenery.

Over the course of a week we done a fair share of hiking straight into the wilderness.  As some of you may know, I am based in Indiana–so I was looking forward to seeing th wildlife and scenery around southern Tennessee and experiencing it first hand.  Had some nice animal encounters with probably the best being a large Golden Eagle not 10 feet away from us–some how we snuck up on it without it taking off–but then of course it seen us.

We also followed the river one day and ran across a couple of River Otters eating and playing–another first for me in the wild.  There were plenty of Deer and Wild Tukeys, A Sneaky Raccoon that we played flashlight tag with one night..and even an Armadillo–which I am told is very rare there.  It was definately an Armadillo though, I grew up with them in Texas.

Another day, I strolled the Riverbed for rocks and fossils for my daugher’s collection and began finding Geodes…large rocks filled with crystals..I brought maybe 30 nice sized ones back.  I also found my first arrowheads..a nice Native American Axe Head, some “Indian Money” which is essentially beads that the natives would wear around their necks and use to trade with, and a nice large shard of pottery.  This Riverbed seemed to be an untapped resource for the fossil and rock collector.  I also found a few fossilized shells, a mammal tooth fossil, as well as quite possibly two Dinosaur Teeth–which I am still researching to see if my assumptions stand.

Another item of interest, we ran across 3 different Painted Turtles laying eggs in the woods.  Must have hit the prime time for that.

Overall it was in the 90’s for most of the week…not bad unless you were embarking on a 10 mile hike up and down the big hills of Tennessee…

We made a special trip to the Natchez Trace Scenic Byway, kind of stumbling upon an old pioneer cemetary..that had of all people, Meriweather Lewis, from the Lewis & Clark Expedition, buried there.  I say we stumbled upon the cemetary because my wife seen the first gravestone.  She has an interest in Geneology and wanted to stop.  Her family is from this area many years ago.  We had no idea Lewis had killed himself at this spot and was buried here..we simply found it off of a trail.  On Another cool note, she did find a distant relative’s gravestone there as well..

It was definately a memorable trip.  On the way home we decided to stop in at Mammoth Caves in Kentucky.  This was my second time, her first…but the 50 degree temperaure definately made it a nice pit stop before heading home…even though the 500 steps we descended and then climbed out of the cave was a little harsh.

Upon leaving the Caves, there were a few billboards advertising Mike’s Rock Shop, the Biggest in the Midwest.  I told her I wanted to see what this guy had and try to figure out what I had brought back with me.  All I could say was Wow…

Most of you will not find Rocks to interesting, but Mike’s had some great Geodes, standing close to 4 feet tall and selling for $3900 per half…(these rocks are split in half to show the crystal detail, some of nature’s own Bling-bling).  The ones I had found were priced from $20-$40 each, not bad, but I am not planning on getting rid of my finds..haha.

We had a great time, everything went well..didn’t see no Rattle Snakes or Bears, but we did get to fall asleep in our tents to the Who’s of a large Owl and wake up to the rushing of the River for 7 days straight.  I would like to say I am refreshed and ready to go back to work, but you know how that is…we are already planning our next excursion.

Sir Edmund Hillary: Your Thoughts, Your Prayers

It is being widely reported today that Sir Edmund Hillary has been injured in a fall.  Sir Hillary was the first person, along with his climbing sherpa Tenzing Norgay, to summit Mt. Everest.  It has been noted that Hillary is not suffering “Life-Threatening” injuries and that his progress is going well.

Hillary is 87 years old and has recently taken up walking with a cane.  It is also being reported that Sir Edmund Hillary has been suffering from High Altitude Sickness for a number of years now.

In due respect for what Sir Edmund Hillary has come to mean and represent in the climbing community, I thought that it would be a good time for all of my loyal readers here at The Adventurist to wish Sir Edmund Hillary the best.  Today we keep you in all of our thoughts and prayers! 

You, the reader, may post your thoughts, prayers, and good wishes upon Sir Edmund Hillary here, as we all come together to wish him a fast recovery

The Complete Coverage! Everest 2007!

The Complete Coverage!  Everest 2007!  Click here!

As many of you might know, a couple of months back I mentioned that I would be setting up a Page on The Adventurist for the Everest 2007 Climbing season.

This page will be similar to the page covering the Mt. Hood Tragedy I covered in 2006 offering up all the links and stories as we publish them in one easily located space.

What this does is it allows all of my loyal readers an easier way to follow along with the Everest 2007 season as it happens, as well as lets you keep track of what HAS happened up to the latest story.  At the top of this site, you will now see a headline that reads “The Complete Coverage!  Everest 2007!  Click Here!”, by clicking this, you will now have access to every story concerning the 2007 Everest Climbing season.

I hope you enjoy this convenient way of staying on track with the happenings on Everest this season.  It is really shaping up to be a great season with many stories breaking daily.  You will now find them all here!

North Side Base Camp: The Great Chinese Takeover?

ExplorersWeb is reporting that the Chinese have single-handedly taken over the North Side Everest Basecamp.  The Chinese are preparing for what looks like a “Top Secret” assault on Everest in preparing for the torch ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The Chinese have been hard at work to figure out a way to get the Olympic Torch to the top of Everest enroute to the Chinese Olympics scheduled next year.  They have even went so far as to develope a specially designed torch that will block out the wind and elements, in hopes of keeping the flame alive during the ascent and return from Everest’s Summit.

With the size and sheer magnitude of the Chinese climbing team at North Side Everest basecamp, it has all but forced everyone out of the general area.  Most other expeditions making an attempt on the North Side are being forced to reevaluate where their “new” camp will be placed, with a likely spot about 3 km away.

Alex Abramov’s 7Summits Expedition decided to check in at the Chinese camp on the North side today with all of the excitement running around.  Abramov exclaimed that the “Olympic Flag of Beijing 2008 flutters in the centre.”

It will be interesting to see how this latest controversy takes shape as more and more people are heading to what they think is basecamp, only to discover that there is no room.  There will definately have to be some readjustments as far as camp goes and where the other expeditions will be placing themselves for their attempts on Everest in the coming months.