The Outside Blog has a great entry today that takes a look at the Top 5 Adventure Hoaxes of All Time. The entry was written by Erin Beresini, who says she was inspired by Christian Stangl’s fake summit of K2 from earlier this year. While Christian did come clean on his own, the perpetrators of these fakes weren’t so forthcoming.
The list includes the great Mountain McKinley hoax of 1906, during which Frederick Cook claimed he, and fellow climber Ed Barrill summitted the mountain for the first time. Also making the list was Rosie Ruiz’s Boston Marathon win and Jennifer Figge’s false claims of swimming across the Atlantic Ocean. Rounding out the list are Cesare Maestri’s claims of climbing Cerro Torre in Patagonia and Donal Crowhurst’s attempt to win a round the world sailing race back in in 1968 that ended in his own death.
To get the true gist of the stories, you’ll have to read the full post, but my short summary above gives you the big picture. Is Outside missing any other big ones? What would you add to the list?
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Hey Kraig. A few weeks ago I read "Great Exploration Hoaxes" by David Roberts (originally published in 1982; my copy is 2001 with an intro by Jon Krakauer. Roberts covers the McKinley hoax as well as the suposed firt running of the Colorado River, finding of the Northwest Passage, Peary and the North Pole, Defoe in Madagascar, solo sailing of the Atlantic and other tales (10 in total). It's a good read. Lisa
Sounds great Lisa! I"ll have to see if I can find it!
How was Abu Dhabi? I trust you had a great time?
Read this too + all links below.
http://www.coolrunning.com.au/ultra/treseder.shtml
By the way Kraig, if you wanna go do a good easy Mountain+culture, I just did a 5 day trek+climb of Mount Jbel Toubkal, highest summit of Northern Afrika, in the Moroccan high Atlas, off of Marrakech. Summit is at 4167m. Crampons were needed as a lot of snow/ice (but easy, was my first time with crampons). No need for a guide. no fee.
views are excellent on the range + desert. 2 days for a climb, trek can be done in 4 days. combine it all in 5-6 days depending on time/effort/weather.
Sounds like a great time Lou-Phi! I've been considering that one for some time, and will have to add it to my list to do soon.