Fast, light and gunless in the arctic

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Mind you, I've only hunted squirrel, but...

"...He was wearing purple spandex pants and mirror shades, I am sure his guiding experiance was limited to Aspen or Sun Valley, especially after he looked at my short barrel 12 gauge and asked if I was sheep hunting!"


Superb. Simply superb. :rolleyes:
 
Mister Rabbit: I've always wanted to see one of those with an RMK30 over the shoulder instead of a camera. Bonus points for exoskeletal power-assist (HAL30, maybe?)

Slap a few coats of alternating Superman composite (more by Mr. Troy) and Starlite (French hairdresser... stuff'll supposedly take a nuke hit without burning, but I'm not sure about thermal X-rays within the 18-meter "totally ionized" radius) and a fuel cell to power the beast. :evil:

I call it the Mjolnir Mk.1
 
Update from the site:

That step plunged through the edge of an ice shelf on a small creek and ended with a hard impact on a rock.

The next morning, swelling and discoloration clearly indicated an injury.

But cold river crossings, ibuprofen and the body's own natural splint (i.e. inflammation) kept Ryan walking strong for the next 3 days.
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TRANSLATION: One of us had a bad fall but we had packed bupkus to treat injuries, not even enough for a simple splint

Yesterday however, with inflammation going down, the stress of trekking became extremely painful, shutting down the nerve endings in his foot, causing it to go numb and loose strength.
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TRANSLATION: Ryan realized without even basic treatment available, he might be losing his foot.

We stopped early on an unknown creek, worked with Roman's wife Peggy in Anchorage, and a Bush Pilot in a nearby city and have walked another 10 miles today to a gravel bar on the Utukok River where a Bush plane can land.
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TRANSLATION: We called a woman (always smarter than the men) and she bailed our fast and light rear ends out)

So the mighty RYAN JORDAN, famous for advocating that hikers leave behind all that useless and heavy first aid gear, has proven himself just as vulnerable to gravity and loose scree as the rest of us.

ALASKA: 1
FAST & LIGHT: 0

Let's see if the other two manage to complete this insane trek intact.
 
Anchorage Daily News said:
He didn't take notice until his dog Thelma let out a distinct, low-pitched growl. Gillespie drew his .44 revolver, just as a pair of adult bears burst from dense brush 15 yards away, he said.

The roaring grizzlies, hackles on end, lowered their heads and charged. He said he thumped warning shots into the ground before them, scaring one off.

But the bigger bear, about 400 pounds, kept coming. Gillespie fired three rounds, hitting the grizzly with a death blow to the temple. The animal collapsed with a sigh about 12 feet away, he said.
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Only in Alaska can you get newspapers writing about the use of a firearm that way. Heck, the description of the weapon was even plausible.

If a Maryland paper had covered the same story the article would have read something like:

The Baltimore Sun said:
He didn't realize that he was violating the bear's sacred den-space until his companion animal, Thelma, used a language older than words to inform him of their transgression. Gillespie drew his 44mm automatic revolver assault pistol and cavalierly brandished it at the two adult bears who emerged from the bush to greet him and his canine prisoner.

The grizzlies hailed them, startling the trigger-happy NRA member and causing him fire burst after burst wildly into the ground and air. These uncontrolled vollies frightened off one of the bears, her being unused to man's technology of destruction.

The male of the pair, however, was determined to continue the discussion about Gillespie's reckless incursion into the Ursine-Americans' ancestral lands. Like most white males, the poacher is only capable of speaking English (and a barely intelligible backwoods dialect at that) and thus failed to understand the bear chief's questions. Instead, he pumped three clips into the innocent bear's head. Witnesses say that he continued shooting well after the non-human (yet still deserving of full civil rights) animal's skull was a red pulp. Before dying, the noble creature let out one last cry to the Great Spirit.

Authorities are investigating and word has it that the DA will pursue murder charges.
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Here's a quote from Ryan Jordan's latest update:

"I would consider a big gun however. All rules and behavior that we know about grizzly bears in areas where humans hang out get thrown out the window up there. These bears act weird. I really think they want to eat you. Fortunately, Roman and Jason are now walking into areas more frequented by rafters and trekkers, and hopefully, bears that have seen humans before."

I don't understand the need to throw feces at this guy. Some of the comments implying that it'll be alright if he gets eaten by a bear... those are just distasteful. When I read what he wrote, he doesn't seem like an ideologue to me, but some of us do.

Glass houses, stones, etc.
 
There's a dangerous arrogance in the whole enterprise and the "ultralight" cult. These people are so fixated they will discard wool socks to save an ounce or two. And you'll note that Ryan, even after getting brought up short, is still claiming he made a good choice with rock running shoes instead of proper boots.

I was also rather annoyed to see that these guys who brag about not hunting or living off the land were using brush fires! There's already an enormous wildfire in the interior, and more on the way. I'd much rather they add a few pounds of stove and fuel and not burn up my damn state, thank you very much.
 
Two of the three made it out in one piece. But they were fit enough to do a triathlon. What concerns me is if others who aren't as fit and who may be used to lower 48 hiking conditions try to pull the same stunt or something similar. As people get more and more distant from the wilderness I suspect we'll be seeing more and more of this kind of nonsense.
 
I just read through some of the postings on that site and it does seem to be like a cult. Most critiques are rudely dismissed and the rest of the comments are just adoration and praise.
 
Cosmoline said:
I was also rather annoyed to see that these guys who brag about not hunting or living off the land were using brush fires! There's already an enormous wildfire in the interior, and more on the way. I'd much rather they add a few pounds of stove and fuel and not burn up my damn state, thank you very much.
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What's so bad about them making a campfire? It's not that hard to build a fire in the wilderness and keep it under control. We do it all the time in California, where it's hotter and drier than Alaska.
 
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