A boarded-up shop in Lancashire was found to have been left in exactly the same state as when it stopped trading more than 40 years ago.

Not really a bold adventure, but a very cool find

Extreme ironing: no dumber than extreme knitting

Some feel that even ultra-mundane tasks like ironing can be combined with adventure. According to the Extreme Ironing Board the sport that is 'extreme ironing' is an outdoor activity that combines the danger and excitement of an 'extreme' sport with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt. It involves taking an iron and board (if possible) to remote locations and ironing a few items of laundry. This can involve ironing on a mountainside, preferably on a difficult climb, or taking an iron skiing, snowboarding or canoeing.

[via boingboing]

GOOD creates interactive map of historical adventure routes

It's 'good' but needs more routes. link

unclimbed mountains

Because they're there.

The highest unclimbed mountain in a particular region or in the world is often a matter of controversy. In some parts of the world surveying and mapping are still not reliable, and there are not comprehensive records of the routes of explorers, mountaineers and local inhabitants [via wiki].

Adventures in space

What really happened to Russia's missing cosmonauts? An incredible tale of space hacking, espionage, adventure and death in the lonely reaches of space and on the ground with the KGB.

Might be fiction, but it's awesome nonetheless [via the dailygrail]

10 months alone on an island with only a knife, machete, and solar-powered video camera

That is Xavier Rosset's plan. His objectives are to survive and ultimately produce a documentary film about the experience. More details (in English) over at the Private Islands Blog (there's a private islands blog?!?!).

[via boingboing]

National Geographic's Braving Alaska

This video is only about an hour long, but it tells the compelling stories of families that live totally Walden Pond-style off the grid lives deep in the Alaskan wilderness. I saw this film on television back in the early 1990s when it first came out, and watched without blinking. Because it's a short feature, video rental stores often rent it out at a discount (e.g., 99 cents). It's worth picking up.

Adventure Hannah

No woman has ever made a solo, self-propelled journey to the North Pole. This spring, Hannah McKeand intended to become the first. She had planned to make the journey in the old-school adventure style, carrying all of her food and equipment with her from the start; while taking the most difficult route on foot from Ward Hunt Island. "This journey is one of the last great expeditionary firsts left in the world according" according to adventurehannah.com

Most unfortunately the plan was interrupted en route by a fall into a crevasse on Thursday--necessitating a satellite phone call to summon help in the form of a Canadian Forces rescue helicopter from Canadian Forces Station Alert, a Cold War-era radio eavesdropping and weather station on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island (now there is a life of adventure). Let's hope they don't slap her with an adventure-deterring bill for their services (or that she has adventure insurance), and that she plans to get right back to it as soon as she has mended.

It turns out Hannah has been living an awesome life of adventure . In 2001 she joined a Hungarian-led expedition searching for prehistoric rock art in the mountains bordering Egypt, Libya and the Sudan ('The English Patient' theme adventure?). In 2004 she explored the Wakan Corridor in Afghanistan in search of the source of the River Oxus. She has skied over 1,000 kilometres from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, and owns a Blizzard Expeditions -- an antarctic/sub-antarctic sailing expedition company--with her partner David Pryce.

Dustysensor.ca

Combining his skills as a photographer and web-designer with his current vocation as a pilot working out of Inuvik NWT, Lee Thomas has been documenting his life of pure adventure at Dustysensor.ca

In addition to all kind of wild and wonderful (and well documented) northern and arctic scenes (with many photos taken during flight!) there are abandoned airplane wrecks and the amazing smoking hills--an unusual and little-documented phenomenon caused by the spontaneous burning of bituminous shale--which I first discovered when reading Don Starkell's 'Paddle to the Arctic'. Great stuff!

Wikimapia + Google Earth = !

I just discovered that Wikimapia data could be viewed through Google Earth

Nice!

Canadian Canoe Routes

Canoe trips are always good for adventure. In fact, when is any ride in a canoe not an adventure? This Canadian canoe routes website seems entirely worthwhile. LOTS of routes are documented, many with photos and first-hand accounts from paddlers--even some very remote routes are described, which strike me as particularly interesting. Active discussion forums also.