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Archive for 'March 2012'

'Frozen Planet' Documentary Debuts Sunday

Lots of people are looking forward to the arrival of spring on Tuesday, but on Sunday the Discovery Channel will offer viewers a close-up look at earth's coldest frontiers with the premiere of Frozen Planet. Created by the same crew that produced the 2006 Planet Earth documentary series, Frozen Planet includes scenes filmed in every nation within the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The project's website says 2,356 days were spent filming in the field and 1.5 years at sea. More than 6 months were ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on March 16, 2012 5:26 PM & Tagged Discovery and Frozen Planet | permalink | Comments



Top 10 Travel Apps for the iPhone and Android

Once upon a time, travelers carried journals, astrolabes and rolls of paper maps on their journeys. Today, however, we use mobile apps, and they are transforming the way of the traveler. You can discover local highly reviewed restaurants, learn the pronunciation of "where is the restroom?" in a multitude of languages, and store your photos in the cloud or share them with those nearby. And, it all goes down with a simple swipe of the finger. My coworkers at REI Adventures love testing new apps ...

Posted by Liz Bee on March 15, 2012 12:32 PM & Tagged REI Adventures, Travel and mobile apps | permalink | Comments



When Should You Cut an Adventure Short? A Coach Ponders When Enough is Enough

John Colver cut his big bike ride short—about 4,600 miles short. And that's OK, he says; after the first 4,000 miles, he figured the trip was already a success. Have you ever taken on a huge physical challenge and not quite reached your intended finish line? How did you respond? Waves of self-doubt? Gut-churning despair? Logic-defying determination to force yourself to carry on? All those options were available last fall to Colver, author of the book Fit by Nature, in which he advocates the use ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on March 15, 2012 1:52 AM & Tagged AdventX, Climbing, Cycling, John Colver and adventure | permalink | Comments



Ready for Backpacking Season? This New REI Infographic Can Help

Do you know how best to load a backpack? Or how pack capacity is determined? Or, on a more random note, whether or not you should bring along your cat (!) on your next backpacking trip? All of these questions and more are answered in this new backpacking infographic (part of which is shown at right) created by a few of the pack-happy souls on our marketing team. It's a fun mix of practical info, science and whimsy. Take a look, and let us know what you think. Be sure to pass it along to your ...

Posted by Steve T on March 13, 2012 3:16 PM & Tagged backpacking, backpacks, infographic and rei | permalink | Comments



National Park Visitation in 2011: Heavy Spring Snow Probably Had an Impact

Do you see yourself in the chart below? It lists the top 20 of 58 national parks within the National Park Service system that attracted the most "recreational visits" in 2011. The NPS defines recreational visitors as people who enter a park neither to work nor to commute to work. Of the nearly 400 units the National Park Service administers, from national seashores to national military parks, the Blue Ridge Parkway attracted the higest number of visits (15,382,447), followed by the Golden Gate ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on March 12, 2012 8:08 PM & Tagged national parks and visitation | permalink | Comments