Why I'm Launching Hard Travel
Welcome to Hard Travel by me, Ash Routen.
In The Horizontal Everest Canadian Arctic Traveler Jerry Kobalenko coined the phrase ‘hard travel’ to describe difficult human powered journeys in wilderness environments. Think ocean rows, desert walks, exploratory mountaineering and arctic sledding. As adventure media has diversified to cover varied topics such as lifestyle, fitness and general travel, news and literature on hard wilderness travel is harder to come by.
Hard Travel is my attempt to pay homage to the best of both contemporary and historic hard travel, and penetrate through the noise in adventure media generated by the influencer culture, gimmicky records and click bait headlines.
Twice a month I’ll publish Hard Travel reads, which will be a selection of links on expedition news, and quality reads on wilderness travel, adventure writing and associated topics such as photography and equipment. Very occasionally I’ll publish Hard Travel features which will be a feature article from a guest writer on a relevant topic or trip, or in-house reviews of books and equipment.
So to get us started here are four long reads that I think are recent classics, and prime examples of hard wilderness travel. Enjoy!
Hard Travel Reads
The White Darkness: The acclaimed New Yorker essay on the late Antarctic traveler Henry Worsley. A powerful true story of adventure and obsession in the Antarctic. This piece was later turned into a book which I reviewed for ExplorersWeb.
Pacific Epic: Ed Gillet’s solo kayak journey from California to Hawaii over 64 days. It has never been repeated. Unsupported, out of touch for the last portions, out of food… one of those true epics that never happens any more in the modern era of satphones and Spot devices.
Tragedy on Howse Peak: Through the lens of the deaths of climbers David Lama, Jess Roskelley and Hansjorg Auer, Nick Heil examines how top alpinists tread the fine line between life and death.
Out In The Great Alone: The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race pushes participants to the brink on an unforgiving trek to the end of the world. And, as one writer who tracked the race by air discovers, that is exactly the point.
Hard Travel Discounts
Through contacts with a variety of outdoor manufacturers Hard Travel will aim to bring you product discount codes as a thank you for your readership.
The first one comes from Grangers a well-known British company who make waterproofing and outdoor cleaning products. You can claim a 30% discount on Grangers products by using the following code at the checkout: ASHR30*
In the meantime, if you’re all-in, the single most important thing you can do to show your support for Hard Travel is to share this newsletter with others who might be interested.
You can find me on Twitter at @ashrouten or Instagram @ashrouten or contact me via www.ashrouten.com
Thanks for reading,
Ash