World's Best Hikes: Everest Base Camp Trek, Nepal

 
By Peter Potterfield

Today's Featured Hike: Lukla to Everest Base Camp

Round-Trip: 70 miles, 16 days

When to Go: Pre-monsoon (March or April) gives you the rhododendrons in bloom and lots of climber action, but post-monsoon (November) gives you drier weather. Go with guide services that use local Sherpa guides, cooks, and porters—it’s part of the experience.

Arguably the greatest of all high-mountain journeys, this stroll through Nepal’s Khumbu district lets you see three of the highest peaks on Earth (Everest, Lhotse, and Lhotse Sar) in one glance—and dozens more Himalayan giants along the way. A favorite is the view from Thyangboche, called by renowned mountain explorer W.H. Tillman the “greatest view in the world.” But it’s the deep immersion in the Sherpas’ Buddhist culture that will bring you back for the friendly villages, the monasteries, and the polyglot scene of world travelers who come for the high-octane pilgrimage to Everest.

Insider Tip: Go slow on the way up. Healthy hikers could cover 35 miles in two days, but the need to acclimatize means you’ll take ten days on the trek in to Everest, but only three on the trek out. The enforced downtime allows you to savor the experience—and the culture of people who live there.

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Photograph by Alex Treadway, National Geographic

World's Best Hikes: Grand Canyon Hike, Arizona

By Peter Potterfield

Today's Featured Hike: Rim to Rim to Rim

Round-Trip: 44 miles, 4 to 6 days

When to Go: Everybody does this hike in September to October or April to May, so go in March or November for a more contemplative experience.

Any walk in the Grand Canyon is going to rate pretty high on the Richter scale of hikes, but this route shows you both rims and the river, offers different trails in and out, and gives you enough time within one of the greatest features on Earth to actually savor the majesty of the natural architecture. Time travel through the multicolored layer cake of the Colorado Plateau for two billion years' worth of geology, from the Kaibab limestone at the rim to the Vishnu complex at the river, all on good “corridor” trails with known water sources and pleasant camps.

Insider Tip: Bomb down from the South Rim via the uber-direct South Kaibab Trail to cross the Colorado River on the Black Bridge and camp at Bright Angel camp. Then ascend through the Box, the inner heart of the canyon, up to Cottonwood Camp and the remote North Rim. On the return trek, cross the Colorado on the Silver Bridge and ascend to the South Rim through Indian Garden via the Bright Angel Trail, better suited for uphill travel.

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Photograph by Bill Hatcher, National Geographic

World's Best Hikes: Kungsleden, Sweden

By Peter Potterfield

Today's Featured Hike: Abisko Mountain Station to the Saami Village of Nikkaluokta

Round-Trip: 65 miles, 3 to 5 days

When to Go: The Europeans do it in August, when they get holiday time, so be bold and go in early September for authentic solitude and no bugs.

A hundred miles inside the Arctic Circle, Sweden’s legendary 275-mile Kungsleden (the “The King's Trail”) begins its traverse of the last great wilderness in western Europe. This mind-blowing northernmost section penetrates the vast Arctic landscape of Sweden through birch forests, open tundra, and big glaciers before crossing the shoulder of Sweden’s highest peak, 6,926-foot Mount Kebnekaise. Using the comfortable huts placed about a day apart assures you have refuge in bad weather. Sturdy suspension bridges take the danger out of the big rivers. The vibe here is “far north,” with palpable emptiness and low-angled light that stirs the soul.

Insider Tip: The route can be done in either direction, but do it north to south, as that keeps the sun on your face—no small consideration in the Arctic.

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Photograph by Bernd Jonkmanns, laif/Redux

Gear Review: POC Am Sunglasses Could Be Perfect

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our Ultimate Hiking and Camping Gear Guide >>

The Poc Sports Am might be the perfect sunglass. Just this week, two people have stopped me, said, “whoa, who makes those?” Then they grabbed the Ams off my face and tried to abscond with them.

Attention getting doesn’t equal flawless, though. Why these glasses rock is only fractionally about their distinctively happy oversized styling. It’s much more the lens quality, which is excellent all the way to the edges, and the coverage, with seems as ample as that of goggles without looking dorkly. And the photochromic transition from light to dark, so you can rock them in the beach house and stroll out to the sand without switching. And the lens material, NXT, which was developed for the military to be as close to bulletproof as possible and is guaranteed by Poc to be unbreakable (and is far clearer than polycarbonate).

It all adds up to a sunglass so good looking people want to steal it off your face and so functionally excellent that you’ll bust our every ninja move in the book to keep it there ($235).

Photograph courtesy POC

Outdoor Skills + Advice: Bug Bites Begone! - Which Bug Repellent to Use?

By Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin, faculty member and Diversity and Inclusion Manager at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Photograph by NOLS/Juan Queirolo

It’s finally spring in the Rockies, and I’m about to head out on a five-week expedition into the Wind River Range, where I'll find high alpine meadows carpeted with wildflowers and clear lakes teeming with trout. But record snowmelt this year and balmy weather will also bring a more unwelcome prospect—swarms of mosquitoes attempting to infiltrate my orifices.

My eyes are glazing over at the mere thought of standing in front of a store display of bug juice, trying to pick the best ones. So I chat with Tod Schimelpfenig, Curriculum Director of the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS. At NOLS we’ve been observing the effects of a cornucopia of repellants on our backcountry travelers for 45 years, and Tod has been with us for 40 of them. Here’s what Tod has to say:

DEET - Used in moderation and in concentrations of 20 to 30 percent, DEET is the single most effective repellent. Despite the negative media blitz, DEET is actually deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. The Academy of Pediatrics recommends choosing repellants with less than ten percent DEET on children. On adults, anything higher than 30 percent is not any more effective, so don’t buy in to the gimmick of “more is better.”

Picaridin - Picaridin’s manufacturer (Bayer) claims it works well and is odorless, nontoxic, and non-injurious to clothing and tents. I checked out the website (www.picaridin.com). Emblazoned across the top are the words, “an effective alternative to DEET.” But is it? Field testers have given me a resounding “No!”

Lemon Eucalyptus - Still skeptical about “chemical” repellants? I am. A recent study showed lemon eucalyptus-based repellants are the most effective of the natural repellents, protecting skin for 120 minutes (versus only 20 minutes for citronella-based repellants). A fellow NOLS faculty member says he swears by the stuff; he just has to reapply more often. I’m sold.

Body Armor - Besides bug juice, there is a single solution that can protect me from bites and burns alike—a thin long-sleeved shirt. OK, so it’s not like I was going to traipse around in a sports bra (I couldn’t get away with that!), but I was planning on just wearing a hiking t-shirt. Now, I’m thinking of buying something with long sleeves. I’m going to avoid cotton, because it doesn’t dry as easily. But maybe I can look stylish and keep from getting eaten with a cute Western-styled poly-pro long-sleeve hiking top.