Outpost Magazine Issue 92 Preview

92OUTPOSTMAGAZINE.COM$4.50 CAN/US. DISPLAY UNTIL MAY 30, 2013

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2013In From theOutpost CONTESTOutpostOutpost Outpost&&Outpost&Outpost & &Outpost&Outpost & &&&Outpost&Outpost & &Outpost&Outpost & &&&&&&&&&&&&&Outpost&Outpost & &&&&Jordan Behindthe Lens

TheSaguenayA Cheese Lover’s Paddle

ITALY Bucolic Life in the

Roman CountrysideBy Rung and By Ladder

in the Dolomites

Coolest 2013 MTB Trails

Just Press • REC & Win!Just Press Just Press Just Press • REC• REC• REC• REC & Win! & Win! & Win! & Win!

Our One DayAdventure Contest

20132013201320132013201320132013Special Photo Edition

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IN TH

IS ISSUE

44 Nepal Contest

©Cover photo: In From the Outpost Photo Contest Runner-up Laura Parry

4 Mailstop How much do you like us?

7 Tripping The camera from emulsion to megapixel.

8 On The Fringe More under-reported, quirky-human, natural-world

stories: how dolphins ask for help, in

celebration of things cycling, the tortoise lives to tell the tale, and almost a foot in every country.

11 Thrillseeker Italy’s Iron Road By Daniel Wickie High along Italy’s northeastern

Dolomites lies a network of rock-imbedded rungs and ladders that this Canadian thrillseeker is determined to climb.

16 New! MEC’s The Traveller’s Edge

19 Shutter Stop From negative to positive—when

empty space is a good thing.

22 2012 In From the Outpost PHOTO Contest Winners

Our top picks and honourable mentions. PLUS+ Details on how to enter this year’s contest!

86 Backpacker Buzz News from Hostelling

International Scotland, My Parents & I. In the

first installment of I s new series, one avid hosteller shares the fun of low-maintenance travel. PLUS+ Why I Love Hostelling, from members of your Board.

92 Outpost Traveller Connecting you

to your next adventure.

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01 TESTING

Obsessive about testing, Ghost puts their frames and

components through tougher, more precise tests than

required by European standards.

31 Camareta Nuova Story and Photos by Simon Vaughan Interpreter Alessia Urbani In the bucolic Sabine Hills

just north of Rome, that most iconic of European cities, sits the quaintest of cobblestoned villages, thriving in a serene but lively countryside. Join Outpost’s senior editor as he wanders and explores, is befriended and feted, in and around a place so cozy it almost feels like he never left home.

46 La Belle Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean

Story by Paul Auerbach, Photos by Sean French

ven in a country defined by geography, the province of Quebec stands out for its raw and rugged wilderness. In this Outpost original mini-expedition, gear editor Paul Auerbach travels up the Saguenay River to the vast la e it ows from and discovers new foods, new friends and new now-favourites along the way.

61 NEW! Outpost presents the Great Canadian One Day Adventure Contest Presented by

65 Adventure Jordan! Story by Simon Vaughan Photos by S. David Spadavecchia In another epic escapade,

Team Outpost heads to Jordan—land of red-rose sand and golden sun—to explore, cycle, trek, snorkel and climb. From desert to canyon to valley, Wadi Rum to the markets of Amman, Petra to the Port of Aqaba, Jordan sparkles with culture, allures with adventure.

92ISSUE

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issue92

Made possible with the support of

Contributor

Can You See It? Contest Winners!

Paul Auerbach

Publisher/Editorial Director MATT [email protected]

Editor DEBORAH [email protected]

Creative/Art Director SERGIO DAVID [email protected]

Senior Editor & Special Travel Advisor SIMON [email protected]

Editor-at-Large (Asia) JEFF FUCHS

Editor-at-Large (Europe) RYAN MURDOCK

Gear Editor PAUL AUERBACH

Hostelling International Editor CERI JONES

Associate/Online Editor DANIEL PUIATTI [email protected]

Contributing Editors FINA SCROPPO, EVAN SOLOMON, IAN WRIGHT

Contributors PAUL AUERBACH, S. DAVID SPADAVECCHIA, SIMON VAUGHAN, SEAN FRENCH, MICHAEL DEFREITAS, JOE SANBORN, ALESSIA URBANI, DANIEL WICKIE, JENNIFER FODEN WILSON

Sales and Marketing Manager GREG [email protected]

Director, Integrated Publishing Programs DAVID FRATTINI

Outpost [ISSN: 1203-7125] is published six times a year by Outpost Incorporated at 250 Augusta Ave., Suite 207Toronto, ON M5T 2L7

Editorial and Business : 416.972.6635Advertising: [email protected] - www.outpostmagazine.com

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Subscriber Services: 416.972.6635. Although Outpost rarely does, subscriber lists may be made available to fully screened companies ororganizations whose products may interest our readers. To be excluded from these mailings email [email protected], or write to the above address.

Subscriptions to Outpost are also available through memberships to Hostelling International in British Columbia and Alberta for just $35 CDN.Contact HI at 800.661.0020

Publications Mail Agreement #0040017920Postmaster send address changes & undeliverable copies to above address.

We ac nowledge the financial su ort of the overnment of anada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF).

Copyright 2013 Outpost Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Printed in Canada. Outpost is a member of Magazines Canada.

Paul Auerbach, Outpost’s gear editor, is a full-time Ottawa-based lawyer whose passion for the outdoors was ignited during his early years as a timber cruiser in British Columbia’s interior. Also a seasoned traveller, he has twice crossed North America by motorbike, hiked the coast of Vancouver Island and Newfoundland, and at one time or another lived in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Tokyo and Paris. He eventually settled in Canada’s cool capital, which is now home base for his frequent treks and paddles. When Paul’s not backpacking, canoeing or kayaking, he can be found snowboarding and, lately, stand-up paddling.

YES, you could! Almost half of you who haz-arded a guess (at what was the logo of the

TKS Co-operative Management Board of Newfoundland and Labrador) got it right—it was indeed a polar bear!

Ten winners were randomly chosen from the pool who answered correctly. Congratulations to Magnus Bjorsvik, Philippe Bussiere, Laura Ferguson, Deirdre Lobb, Dale Mancini, Heather Mart, Paul Regier, Anna Sigurdson, Kaitlin Von Levetzow and Nakita West. Thanks to all who participated!

And introducing ourDo You Like Us? Contest!If you like Outpost Magazine(and how could you not?) go toFacebook.com/Outpostmagazineand just click for a chance to win!

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Saguenay–Lac-Saint-JeanLa Belle

Just two hours north of Quebec City lie a deep lake and a sanguine river and a host of artisanal cheese houses. In this exclusive expedition, Outpost’s gear editor takes to the kayak and goes upriver in search of the region’s culinary and cultural delights

Story by Paul AuerbachPhotos by Sean French


The Saguenay Fjord was at a nasty, rolling boil, a chaotic mess of black and white and silver foam lacking any discernible pattern. Looking over my shoulder, I could see three- and four-foot waves rolling down the

fjord behind us at a 45-degree angle, but our kayaks were getting hit by waves reflecting off the rock wall less than 200 metres to our right.

We had been warned of the dangers of surfing by our guide artin Frédéric erthiaume and it too real concentration not to let the waves sim ly ta e us down

the f ord which was after all where we were heading. While surfing would have re uired much less effort than aya ing we would run the ris of being turned sideways and driven into the frothy mess which is one of the ways an adventure can mor h into an ordeal.

nd this was not su osed to be an ordeal. In fact artisan cheeses and free range heasant and local beers bursting with character and avour were su osed to lay

a big art in our tri to the aguenay and ac aint ean in uebec. he lan was to aya the aguenay F ord e lore its southern shore then head northward to finish

our tri with a three day addle of the northern and eastern shores of ac aint ean. long the way we were ho ing to see some of what ma es aguenay– ac aint ean

so famous stunning scenery great food and eo le who now how to en oy both. s soon as the rough outlines of the tri started to emerge I called my friends ean and

arion ean nows how to addle and can navigate in French and arion will forget more about food than most of us could ever learn about it.

ut now out on the f ord in not winds food was the last thing on my mind. I loo ed at artin Fr d ric ust metres ahead and immediately felt reassured he did not loo concerned. hose who are often afraid li e me are e erts at recogni ing concern in eo le s faces es ecially those of doctors or guides or accountants and I didn t see anything he loo ed li e he was eeling otatoes and listening to s Q on the radio. artin Fr d ric is a level three addler with more than years e erience guiding on the f ord and everything he did re ected a high degree of s ill and rofessionalism. I felt sure he would get us to dinner and when he did it would not be of the raft dinner ind either.

aguenay– ac aint ean


In From the

Rules: • Photo submitted must be UNPUBLISHED and ORIGINAL • Photos must be HIGH RESOLUTION – RAW/ JPG High Quality format • Maximum of 5 photos per person. *For all rules, regulations and contest closing dates go to outpostmagazine.com

A POLAR BEAR

The Moments We Travel ForThe Moments We Travel ForThe Moments We Travel For

2013

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© Photo composition: Rudolpf Hug - polar bear / Jeff Cruz - Long exposure stars background • Thumbnails left to right: Michael Poliza, Robert Postma for Churchill Wild.


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The next day opXpeditions continued south to Petra,

cork-screwing through the mountains on precarious gravel back roads. As we approached the main entrance, David was momentarily sidetracked by a small shop selling Indiana Jones merchandise.

“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!” he stammered, al-most in a haze, as he tried on a reproduction of that iconic brown hat and attempted to crack a whip. “I can’t believe I’m actually in the place where the movie was filmed!” Though I already knew this he was right—it was both familiar and strange simultaneously.

The walk through the Siq—that famous cleft in the rock through which every image of Petra’s iconic and famed Treasury is framed—just increased the suspense, and with each turn we held our collective breaths, awaiting that first glimpse.

No description of the ancient city of Petra can ever prop-erly capture its magnificence, and while the facade of the Treasury may be its face, it is but the tip of this rose-red iceberg. The site covers more

than 264 square kilometres, of which less than 20 percent has been excavated. At its peak it was home to more than 30,000 people, and after having our first initial view from the classic perspective of the Siq, a park warden led us on a hike away from the beaten path and into the surrounding hills.

We climbed the time-smoothed sandstone, pep-pered with caves once home to the Nabateans, and scrambled down into narrow chasms barely an arm’s length wide. All the while our guide kept an eye on the clouds.

“If it rains there,” he said, pointing to the cloud-shrouded mountain tops, “the water will be channelled here and we could have a flash flood.”

Finally, after climbing up ancient steps and scrambling down sheer boulders, we reached a dead end. We ven-tured to the edge and there below us, in stunning view, was the Treasury, possibly even more spectacular at this angle than from ground level.

“Did Harrison Ford come up here?” David asked, almost longingly.

Beyond CulturalPetra

Imagination


Petra at night by candlelight.

�e Siq, iconic gateway to Petra's Treasury.

�e view from above.

�e guards in front of the Treasury.


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HOSTELLING INTERNATIONAL CANADA BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA REGIONS

BACKPACKER BUZZSCOTLAND, MY PARENTS AND I

This is the first in our 2013 series of great travel stories from guest writers who have an interest in backpacker travel and hostelling—we hope you enjoy the series! Heather Cleland is our first featured writer. She is well travelled and a seasoned hosteller—in fact, she used to edit these pages of HI’s Backpacker Buzz in Outpost back when she worked for HI. Here, she writes movingly about her experience hostelling in Scotland with her parents, land of her ancestors.

When I was 25, I told my mom about my plans to travel around the world in an email. I had already worked out where I wanted to go, and when, and for how long. I’d been to a travel agent to get an idea of how much my RTW (round-the-world) ticket would cost. I told her how I’d come up with the money. I explained to her that “it’s become more than some-thing I wanted to do; it’s something I needed to do.” I told her why I wanted to do it alone.

She responded as well as a mom could. She said she was ner-vous. Nervous I’d be unsafe or lonely. We had some conver-sations, and, as is the case every other time I’ve made up my mind, she came to terms with it. “I understand your thought process, you’ve made me happier about the lonely thing, but I am going to worry about the safety thing and we will defi-nitely make plans to meet up with you at some point.” By the time I left nine months later, she admitted that in addition to still being nervous, now she was also a bit envious.

HOSTELLING INTERNATIONAL CANADA BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA REGIONS

BY HEATHER CLELAND

Six months, 21 countries and three continents later, I was waiting in the Edinburgh Airport to greet my mom and dad. They didn’t know I was already there. I told them I was going to arrive later that day but I ew from Vienna to ondon the day before and caught an early morning ight out of ondon to sur rise them. I didn t now what ight they d be on and as I hid behind a ole at the domestic arrivals figuring they d caught a connecting ight in ondon they wal ed out of the airport from international arrivals on the other side and caught a cab downtown I made my own way downtown and finally managed to surprise them in the apartment they’d rented.

Our two-week tour of Scotland began. I’d kept my parents up to date as I travelled, but I think it was a relief for them to see that I was still in one piece so far from home and on my own. I told them stories about my trip so far and went through the highlights from my thousands of photos, and then we got to planning our own trip. They showed me their shiny new HI membership cards, as we’d booked ourselves into a couple of hostels, but they had no idea what to expect.

Their willingness to give hostelling a whirl was fun for me. Hostels had been my life for the six months preceding. I’d worked for Hostelling International for two years before I took off on my trip. But bringing your never-hostelled-before par-

Edinburgh Tattoo.



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