Some of the oldest stories in the human repertoire are a collection of ancient animal tales, which have traversed the ages, and within which a few of Aesop’s fables offer us a faint and familiar echo. Known centuries ago by Europeans travelling on the Silk Road as The Fables of Bidpai, this tapestry of stories is believed to have first originated (as far as we know) in India over 2,500 years ago in some of the Jataka Tales. That huge Pali collection […]
Category: Books
David Crerar, a Vancouverite, has spent decades exploring the city’s North Shore Mountains—partly as a long-distance trail and adventure runner. As Crerar became better acquainted with that section of backcountry, he found that there was little known about its mountains beyond the more popular hikes and peaks closest to the city. As a result, he […]
Adventure-writer and explorer Robert Twigger has more than a few idiosyncratic pastimes known to his readers: searching for exotic creatures, floating down rivers in inflatable rafts and making perfect omelettes. But if he had to choose one activity that ranks above all others, it would be walking. Non-stop walking. Across great, interminable, distances. He identifies […]
In 1951, British explorer Eric Shipton and his climbing team came across a set of mysterious snow tracks on Menlung Glacier, along the Nepal-Tibet border near Mount Everest. Shipton’s Sherpa colleague, Shen Tensing, told him that the tracks, which resembled a human footprint with a very large toe, belonged to a “Yeti” – a hair-covered […]
