Hot answers tagged mountains
23
No, there is no way without hiking from base camp at least. I have had extensive talks with three people who went up there either as a tourist or even as a professional Sherpa.
The one and only helicopter landing that is cited on Wikipedia was an extreme stunt and not something that is done in any kind of routine for tourists. The helicopter neither touched ...
11
I am fairly certain that this is Mt. Adams, second-tallest mountain in Washington State. It is neither Mt. Rainier nor Mt. Baker, because both of those are heavier glaciated. The profile looks an awful lot of what I expect of Adams from the air (I climbed it a couple of times from the ground, and so have a reasonable mental picture, though of course ...
10
Short answer: Nothing out of the usual.
The days of bandits roaming the mountains seem to be long gone. According the US State Department, the main risks are pickpocketing and theft from cars, the same as in Romania and the Ukraine (and pretty much anywhere in Europe).
Landmines were laid on the Kosovo-Albania border in the 1990s, but according to the ...
8
That's the kind of gear I'd use when going to hike well into subzero temperatures. Attempting to hike in such a gear at +20°C, especially in humid air, you'll not be comfortable at all. It's a total overkill. Especially the pants.
What I'd use for such a hike:
t-shirt, preferably non-cotton stay-dry kind;
soft shell fleece jacket (Windstopper or ...
7
My first reaction on reading this question was to wonder if it was a joke or an attempt to satirize the concept of "extreme tourism." If so, then well done.
If not, then I would like to correct an apparent misconception stated in the question. "Hiking too far" is not a good description of what it takes to climb a mountain that's over 8000 m high. Climbing ...
6
Here's an estimate:
A 250km ride in a shared taxi or marshrutka costs the equivalent of 5 - 10 euros per person, with a petrol price of about 1 euro per liter, depending on how popular and difficult the route is.
A marshrutka typically seats about 15 people, so a low estimate for renting a marshrutka for a 100km circular (that is, starting and finishing in ...
4
THere are two base camps - North and South.
South is what is usually meant by the term.
North is accessed from China / Tibet and you can, all going well / luck holding / YMMV / ... , drive there. Without using a helicopter (as you specified) that's probably as close as you'd get without "hiking".
4
It is possible to land with an helicopter on top of the mountain, even though this is very uncommon and also a little bit dangerous. Additionally, there are no commercial flights. So you would have to find a suitable helicopter, and adventurous pilot, and obviously also the permissions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HckQcNNoJc
The only other way I could ...
4
I would say that you don't have to negotiate a price - usually driver just tell the price and you accept it :) However, you may get a "bonus" as a foreigner, but I don't expect it to be more then 20-40%.
Regarding sample price for 100 km. According to my latest experience (and google result), MastaBaba is more-or-less right - ~30 euros for bus for 10-15 ...
4
First of all: is it legal?
Well, I have never heard about such problems too. Regarding Chornogora - yep, it is a kind of national park, there are even some official fees at some entrances, but all camping activities are pretty much allowed. The only places you may have legal problems at are country borders (like Marmarosy chain) - usually you have to ...
4
The answer to my own question will not deal with all issues mentioned, but because there are no other answers I'd like to share my experiences.
I wasn't personally camping in Georgia, but I met people that were camping and I saw people camping.
Georgia still has an underdeveloped tourist base, most of the sleeping places are in hotels (big cities) and ...
3
The EHIC card, that offers state-provided health care abroad is applicable only to Economic European Area, which is basically EU plus a couple countries. Georgia is not part of this set so you will not have any standard health care protection there (any form of health care at all actually).
But honestly, I am not sure mountain rescuing is included in any ...
3
Another possibility is meetup.com. Here in Vancouver, at least, there are several travel groups on it, and many of them schedule trips together.
You can also try the Lonely Planet Thorntree forums, and see who else is travelling in the same area, or even put up a post there for people to join you. It's fairly common to see that on there.
3
Because this does not involve providing a service or product, but something that's very much open to personal taste, I would think it much harder to actually maintain a successful platform in comparison to, say, couchsurfing.
That said, these communities or services do exist, though I have no personal experience with them. Here are a few:
...
3
In theory, a mountain hut should never send away a tired tourist, especially if he doesn't have a chance to reach another safe place before sundown. But in summer some of the huts are so full, that tourist need to sleep in dining room on the floor.
In Slovakia, the huts range from small, with capacity of 20 people, to large with capacity of over 100 ...
2
I am not familar with the brand you suggested but I suggest looking at shoes similar to the Asics Gel Odyssey WR, as they are light and durable. If the brand/model you suggested is anything like this, I say, go for it.
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