National Geographic ADVENTURE

Expedition News: Exploring Gabon's Subterranean Caves

This summer, National Geographic Young Explorer grantee Trevor Frost will lead a six-week expedition to Gabon in search of undocumented caves, archaeological discoveries, amazing photographs, and underground kayaking. In addition to finding clues about life in the cradle of humankind, their efforts could help Gabon’s unexplored subterranean caves receive UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Follow the expedition here and at blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/gabon-caves.

Text and photograph by Trevor Frost

Seven years after National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Mike Fay walked across Gabon on the Megatransect, this small tropical country still has many secrets. Some of those secrets are locked in an area with hundreds of caves that few people have visited or even know about. Over the past 20 years, the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement's Dr. Richard Oslisly and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Dr. Lee White (Mike Fay’s partner in establishing Gabon’s National Park System) have been exploring the caves and have made some incredible discoveries.

In 1994, while deep inside one of the caves, Paouen 1, they found stone tools, stone arrows, and charcoal. Carbon dating placed the tools and arrows to roughly 7,000 BP. In analyzing the charcoal, Dr. Oslisly and Dr. White also found that two of the plant species harbor deadly toxins used to poison arrows, while the third plant species was used for intoxication. They concluded in a 1994 Nature article that these caves held elaborate weapon-making rituals. This discovery, and a host of others, has placed the caves under consideration for Gabon's second UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today, there are still many caves and archaeological sites to be found and explored. Our team will be trekking through dense rain forest, navigating 30-foot waterfalls, and documenting the secrets inside these mysterious caves. Stay tuned for updates.

Arctic Eyewitness: Back From Ellesmere Island

Photographer Ben Horton, 25, reflects on 60 days dogsledding across Ellesmere Island with Will Steger and five other young explorers for Global Warming 101’s second expedition.

Text and photographs by Ben Horton

The contrast of coming home from Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Artic reminds me of a light switch being thrown on in the early morning. The body recoils in sensory overload from the nonstop noise, motion, and the number of unchecked emails. I guess it didn’t help that our first real stop was in New York City. While on the expedition, it was normal to ski alongside the dogsleds for 25 kilometers without seeing a single sign of man for days in a row. Now we are forced to confront our “normal” lives, weaving in and out of people on busy sidewalks, crossing car choked streets, and choking on the smog that churns out of them.

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Video in the News: Do We Really Need a Cougar AND a Jaguar? Alan Rabinowitz on The Colbert Report

Text by Mindy Zacharjasz

Zoologist Alan Rabinowitz did what many a congressman, senator, and presidential hopeful have failed to do before him: (almost) make Stephen Colbert cry.

On Tuesday’s Colbert Report, the now graying action hero who has dedicated his life to big-cat conservation spoke about his new book, Life in the Valley of Death. The book discusses one of his most recent projects: creating a tiger refuge in Myanmar (read about it in an ADVENTURE profile of Rabinowitz). On the show, Rabinowitz told the story about how to he first became inspired to save animals—and not even Colbert could make fun of that one (see it for yourself in the video).

Then on to Cobert's more pressing questions: Do dictators and communist countries have an advantage when it comes to conservation? Does this planet really need a cougar and a jaguar? And, when you die, do you want to be devoured by a big cat?

Looks like Colbert’s Wildcat loyalties (he’s an alum of Northwestern University) have stayed with him.

Urban Climbing Stunt on NYC Tower Ignites Debate

Last Thursday (June 5), renegade urban climber Alain Robert, 45, made the first-ever attempt on the 52-story New York Times building in midtown Manhattan in the name of global warming, only to be trailed by copycat climber Renaldo Clarke. Both men face charges of reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct.

"We can't celebrate it because it is dangerous—and it's illegal," said Joe Iurato, editor of New York-based Urban Climber magazine to the Associated Press this weekend. "But some people have a strong urge to climb—even when there aren't any mountains in their back yards."

To get a better understanding of what motivates French Spider-Man Alain Robert, we've pulled an interview from our the December 2007/January 2008 issue of ADVENTURE.

Continue reading this story and weigh in with your thoughts on the debate>>

Video in the News: Jennifer Lowe-Anker on Hope, Passion, and Living Life to the Fullest

This morning, The Today Show's Ann Curry interviewed Jennifer Lowe-Anker about her new memoir, Forget Me Not. Jenni's story captivated many after her first husband, Alex Lowe, died in an avalanche on Shishapangma in October 1999. Conrad Anker, his best friend, survived the accident. In their grief, Jenni and Conrad—much to their surprise—fell in love, married, and are now raising Alex's three sons together. This love triangle of sorts has sparked much curiosity over the years. Here, see the couple speak for themselves about building a life together.

Field Reports: ADVENTURE Contributors at Large

Photographer Aaron Huey's Sufi Survival Guide: 11 Essential Dance Moves

Text and video filed by photographer Aaron Huey from Cairo, Egypt

I knew I was in pretty good with the Sufis when they started putting their snakes on my head (see it for yourself in the video posted above). They don't just give their snakes to anyone you know. It was Imam Hussein's birthday, I was in Cairo, Egypt, at the place his head is supposed to be buried. I was ten hours into my second night of dancing.

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The Adventure Life with Steve Casimiro The Saga of the One-Horned Viking

Text by West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro

I personally don’t know anything about poaching powder or ducking a ski area rope without authorization and experiencing the sweet transcendence of five-percent eiderdown snow, which is rumored to transform your life so that all you think about is skiing deep untracked, even at the beginning of May when the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. But I’ve overheard that some people do. One story I’ve heard was about a Viking, or, since Norwegians pronounce “v” as “w," to be culturally more accurate, a "Wiking."

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The Love Test: A Modern Adventure Romance

Text by Mara McFalls   Photograph by Daniel Pepper

There's a real problem for people sparking up romance in their 30s. Had I followed John's schedule, we'd have dated for five years, then gotten engaged for a year, then after a year or so, we would have had kids. Um, hello, I'd be 40 before I put a stretchy waist panel into my Sevens.

He's 37. I'm 32. And while John—a nice guy from the Long Island suburbs that I'd met on a blind date—did acknowledge that time was against us, the fact that he'd just divorced a total psycho and that I'd been engaged three times before made him reluctant to rush into anything with me, a runaway bride and/or a flake.

That's when it hit him: love tests. Instead of dating for years, we'd go away on some month-long oversea adventures and see if our young love could stand up to the pressures of extreme traveling. It's simple—up the pressure to yield in a few months what would otherwise take the standard few years to uncover.

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The Adventure Life with Steve Casimiro The Five Best Things About Returning to Civilization CELEBRITY EDITION!

Nothing says home like a plate of steaming haggis.
—Adventurer Colin Angus

It only takes a couple weeks in the backcountry to make you—well, me—miss steamed milk, unmelted chocolate, and pillows. But what about hard-core adventurers? Maybe they’re so core, they don’t miss a thing. Maybe they make us look like the big, fat wussies we really are ... or do they?

Read on and see what these seasoned vets miss when they're out there.

Featuring: Adventurers Julie and Colin Angus; ice climber Will Gadd; climber Mike Libecki; surfer Kassia Meador; long-distance hiker Andrew Skurka

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The Adventure Life with Steve CasimiroSurf and Ye Shall Be Asked: The Curiously Interrogative World of Gabe Sullivan

Text by West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro. Photographs by Sierra Sullivan, Tom Servais (top, bottom)

Flipping through Surfer Magazine goes something like this: blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, shocking lime green, blue, blue, blue.

There in each issue, jumping out from Surfer’s sea of epic waves and countless board short ads, is a rusty but glowing, chartreuse 1972 VW camper van, the icon and motorized doppleganger of Curious Gabe, Gabe Sullivan, who, every month, poses to ten complete strangers the kind of existential questions you’d expect to be asked in the pages of The Atlantic Monthly or in a dorm room at 1 a.m. Questions like, Does surfing improve with age? Would you rather be an East- or West-Coast surfer? And, a real brain scrambler, What’s worse—being a hoser or a poser?

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