Twenty extreme adventures on the planet

 Such travel under the force not every athlete champion. If you like to receive epinephrine, add these pictures to the list of those things you must do in my life. Still not ready? Well then just enjoy! 1. Himalayas, Nepal, China. Even when Sir Edmund Hillary and Norgay Tentsig in 1953 showed that the highest peak of the world may climb, Everest still remains synonymous with the words "challenge for mountaineers" and "real adventure". Now, every spring, regardless of the storm, the threat of avalanches, frost nipping and technical difficulties lifting, dozens of people - from thirteen to blind and disabled - climb to the summit to set a new record. Despite this excitement, the mountain is still reluctant to have submitted to the person, and those who reached the top, in all senses have reached the summit of the world.

2. Jump from the Eiger with vingsyutom. Translated from the German Eiger means "cannibal". Suitable name for the "monster" almost 4 km in height. Gore, consisting of limestone, shale, gneiss and ice, rising above the resort town of Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps. Its unpredictable weather, shedding stones and steep slopes have already absorbed the lives of more than 60 brave souls who decided to climb up. But the famous among climbers northern slope of the mountain still attracts hundreds of willing to try his luck. But it's worth noting that the last 1800 meters remain intractable to date. Now the adrenalin invented himself a new entertainment - vingsyut. In English the word means "costume with wings." This sport is that you not only climb to the summit, but then again and jump off it. Dean Potter (pictured) survived the most exciting adventure of his life in 2009. Climbing alone on the northern slope of more than 2 miles, he jumped down. The flight took 2 minutes 50 seconds. This extreme sport is among the most dangerous on the planet. But it does have its appeal - is the closest step to fulfill an old dream of human to fly.

 Surfing on the waves Shipsterns Bluff. In the far south coast of Tasmania is washed one of the most unpredictable and stormy seas on Earth. That there is a place that is so hidden from prying eyes, which can get there only by boat or on foot in the wilderness, but the journey will take its course for about an hour. This place is called Shipsterns Bluff. Cold and vicious waves, when they begin to run against, rise to a height of two meters, but when they reach their peak, the ridge can be high and 6 meters. Such treacherous waves can be a real challenge for experienced surfers like Kelly Slater and Ryan Hipwood (pictured). After all, costs a little gape, and a powerful wave of strikes you on the rocky bottom. "The most terrible moment - is when the waves run, and you think you can if you catch it or not - says local surfer Charles Ward. - But once you catch it, you have a sense of unreality. And you forget about everything except what you see in front of him. "

4. Hike in the Triple Crown. The total length of the three longest U.S. trail is about 12,500 km. Enough to embrace a third of the globe. This explains the fact that no more than a hundred people took the route the Triple Crown. In fact, to overcome the Pacific Crest, Appalachian and Continental splitter way, you have to kill a couple of years and not one pair of shoes, but tourists still held some of the longest hiking the Appalachians, for example, Rock and Cascades. And as a reward Daredevils get a chance to get acquainted with distant place-the country that is rich variety of wildlife. Between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans tourists can enjoy the shorelines, which beat the high waves, virgin forests, snow-capped peaks, volcanoes, tropical jungles, deserts and geological huge, immense sky, which varies like the mood of a capricious beauty. This picture of Bishop trails in the Sierra Nevada, California, shows us just one of many landscapes, which will take you on the path.

 5. Ski slope with K-2. After Everest, the second highest point of the world is a K-2 (8611 meters). But in comparison to Everest it is more remote, has a more unpredictable weather, and statistics took more lives. Naturally this is only attracts skiers and climbers making the ascent more desirable. In recent years, an increasing number of people wishing to go upstairs, and then to move down the slopes. But the dangers in your path will be plenty: fierce winds, avalanches and the risk of break down - it's just flowers. American conductor Dave Watson, who managed in 2009 to pass on a skiing elephant K-2 250 meters (see photo) and the Swedish climber Fredrik Eriksson died in 2010, trying to climb to the top. So that the conquest of this peak is still ahead.

 6. Climbing on El Capitan, Yosemite, California, USA. Like a fortress, El Capitan rises above the Yosemite Valley. Highest mountain twice the size of Empaer State Building in New York. It was these impressive size and haunted the early mountaineers and made the top of the cradle of American mountaineering. One of the most legendary routes is the nose - a beautiful sight, and the coveted prize for fans to conquer the summit. The first ascent of this route was made in 1953 by Warren Harding and took 45 days. And in 1993, Lynn Hill has strengthened the reputation of the famed mountain, taking a free ascent, which until then considered impossible. Now the speed climbers manage to go this route just a few hours, but untrained to spend on an ascent of three to five days. In reward you will see one of the most beautiful crevices of the world. Perhaps, for this show and should follow in the footsteps of legends.

 7. Go through the Sahara Desert, North Africa. The largest sand sea in the world - the Sahara desert - stretches for 8.5 million square miles across North Africa. The territory occupies a strip of desert some 5,000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This place was lured many investigators that, despite the sandstorms, hostile tribes, thirst, and unbearable heat, wanted their eyes to look at this endless sand dunes, sung in a variety of stories and poems. And today, there are the adventurers, which undertake to cross the Sahara on foot, by camel or on the vehicle, picking up with a huge stock of all the basic necessities that will be useful if something suddenly goes wrong. Only a handful of temporary settlements of nomadic tribes in the desert, so that researchers can go to the desert for several days and did not see anything but sand dunes.

 8. Set a new record jump from a waterfall on a kayak. Washington, DC. In order to try to set a new record jump from a waterfall on a kayak, you have to do more intelligence work, and be prepared for what will likely be painful, but still believe in their own immortality. Nevertheless, in recent years, it was proved that most of the waterfalls are intractable and dangerous, and those few Udaltsov who were fortunate enough to stay alive after this fall, there really is an occasion for boasting. "Motivating factor that inspired me all this, was the idea that it is possible - Brandt says Taylor, who in 2009 set a new record by jumping on a kayak with a 57-mimetrovogo Falls Palouse Falls in Eastern Washington (on the photo). - I really wanted to do it, and I thought I'd cope. "

9. To descend into an active volcano. Vanuatu, South Pacific. Typically, the lava is best viewed from a distance. But not for these brave men as a group of cavers led by adventurer Kiwi Geoff Mackley, who have ventured to descend to 195 m in Marum volcano in the mountains of Vanuatu in 2010. The unique video that shows how people in termonepronitsaemom suit drops to 91 meters above the boiling anger lake of lava, spread all over the internet and many TV channels. It is obvious that the behavior of the volcano is unpredictable, and reckless adventurers can wait any trouble: toxic gases, heat, crumbling rocks and sudden explosions. But the fact that this madness does not mean that it's impossible.

10. Climbing, swimming or surfing on the pole. The Arctic, Antarctica. In an era when fewer and fewer places remain unexplored by man, adventurers from all over the world, including Poles, so they decided to go for new sensations literally on the edge of the Earth. In recent years, the expedition group of six people tried many things: Surfing on the icy waves off the coast of the Lofoten Islands, which belong to Norway, in winter (see photo), kilometer swim freestyle Waters North Pole in the performance of Lewis Gordon Pugh, a skier Pugh Devinport led a team of athletes to ride in the mountains of Antarctica, which do not even have names. On these routes, researchers must chart its own course and choose their targets. What drives these people in these remote region? The desire to defy the coldest places in the world, heady feeling that you're one in a thousand kilometers, or innate human desire to do what nobody has done before.

11. Ski racing on the track Hahnenkamm, Austria. These days, lawyers would not be allowed to run the ski trail in a place like the Hahnenkamm. But in 1931, race organizers have not paid attention to details that later would become a cause for many lawsuits, and boldly began to create what is today one of the most dangerous slopes in the world. The route length of about three kilometers has an amplitude of 853 m and contains sections on which the angle reaches 85 degrees, which can puzzle even the most experienced rider. Of course, to qualify for this race is not so easy, and the best racers of the world are willing to break all the bones, just to qualify. But also simply be a spectator at these events - something else too extreme entertainment. About 85 thousand Swiss and Austrian fans come here the night before to take the place better, and during the race, they waved flags, dudyat a horn, beat the bell and, of course, pushing a beer tent. This is truly one of the most legendary winter bacchanalia in Austria.

12. The intersection of the Amazon, South America. Despite the obvious dangers ranging from dengue fever and leeches, and ending with jaguars and tarantulas the size of a small watermelon, Amazon River has attracted many world-famous adventurers. Among them are Percy Fawcett, Theodore Roosevelt and, of course, the legendary Indiana Jones. But today's adventurers continue in the same spirit. Briton Ed Statfford, who completed his journey of 6,437 km on a mighty river in 2010, became the last in this list. Currently, it is unlikely you will go back over the treasures of the Incas, or to find the lost city of El Dorado, which attracted adventurers, but that's the adventure of "pure water" you are guaranteed.

13. Climb the Seven Summits. People, perhaps, the only species on the planet, which responds to their own calls and visited the highest points on each continent. For example, on Mount Elbrus, Russia (pictured), which and asks her to conquer. Such ascents require impressive climbing skills, time, money and nerves. But those who managed to reach the top, got the honor to share the glory of a few hundred other brave souls. And although the first award certainly went to Dick Bass and Pat Morrow in 1985 and 1986, respectively, seven peaks of the world continue to attract climbers of every stripe: from adolescents to elders gray, Japanese, and Latvians, natives of Kuwait and the Chileans. Perhaps the call of the mountains sounds sort of commonly understood language.

14. Dive into the blue abyss, the Bahamas. When selling divers dip into the upper layers of the Bahamas "blue holes" - flooded limestone caves - they inadvertently encounter one of the most dangerous dives in the world. Indeed, just below lies a whole realm of tunnels and passages, which are composed of fossils and ancient formations. Few manage to pass through a cloud of toxic gas to find the entrance and get to these lower tiers, where the technical failure or wrong turn can lead to death underwater traveler. But those who are able to see this place with my own eyes tell of entire rooms, cluttered stalakticheskimi pillars and littered with prehistoric human remains and fossilized skeletons of now extinct crocodiles and turtles. These caves - a different world in every sense of that expression.

 15. Cyclocross from Alaska to Argentina. Between Prudhoe Bay in Alaska and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina - 32,000 miles of highway, the two coolest in the world of mountain ridges and over a dozen countries. Biking at such a distance would take more than two years that will make such a journey is not so much a trip as a way of life. Problems in the way mass. That there is a puncture in some remote corner of South American wild spaces, or on a deserted highway in Alaska. But as a prize for those who dare to such a trip, get acquainted with the beauties of the entire North and South America, from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia (see photo), as well as meeting with many different people on the road . "I knew it would not be easy, but I wanted to see all these incredible places. I knew that sometimes I can be scary, sad, lonely, and sometimes I'll go crazy with joy - writes Dominic Grillo, who was riding a bicycle and a double on the road would take passengers, so that they filmed a documentary about nm. - But what I did not expect was that trust and friendship from the people. During these two years, my faith in man greatly increased. "

 16. Circumnavigate the globe alone. Magellan did not want to go round the whole planet swimming, he was simply looking for a shortcut to the Spice Islands. But now sailing around the world for a specific purpose, and lately a growing number of teenagers who are fighting for the title of the young sailor, who toured the world alone. Nevertheless, the sea remains as treacherous and dangerous as a few centuries ago, and there is always a threat to get into the storm, during which the 38-mimetrovaya wave break a mast, like a straw. The journey will bring you a true understanding of the world and the insignificance of our existence in it. Maybe so, good luck in such an event - anything less than winning, and something more than just the mercy of water.

 17. Swim with great white shark, South Africa. With the success of the sequel "Jaws", a generation of bold in other situations, people deathly afraid of great white sharks. Only a few brave souls, like Jeb Corliss and his team from Mexico (see photo), dared to swim close to the underwater predator without cells remained intact and unharmed. And these few have realized that even though the shark and are on top of the food chain of the underwater world, a person is not one of their natural prey. "We swam less than two feet from her, and she just swam past - says Naos Nachoum - wildlife photographer of the underwater world. - This is an incredible spiritual experience, it's unbearable lightness of being - to see the beauty of these creatures. "

 18. Take part in a marathon through the Mont Blanc, France, Italy, Switzerland. Any length of 161 km jog might be called superhuman, but still Ultra Trail Mont Blanc via the territory of Italy, France and Switzerland can make anyone go mad. Get ready for the climbing boom in the 9144 meters, hour jog over boulders the size of a washing machine and drain, where the devil himself a leg break. But there are also reasons that lead the runners to move forward: it's amazing views of Mont Blanc and cheers every hamlet, which will fall in your way. "When we approached the finish line and there along the fence lined with six rows of people. They photographed us - told the Seattle Marathon participant Chrissy Moel, which won denskoe competition in 2003 and 2009. - I felt like a star baseball or football. "

 19. Rapids of the river Bashkaus, Siberia, Russia. Even at the expanse of this vast country as Russia, where only what you will not find, Siberian river Bashkaus stands out among others. In remote creeks near the border with Mongolia in an average of one kilometer water level varies by 8 meters. And so 209 km. Needless to say, throws out there, like a churn, so that and look, fall into the whirlpool or naporeshsya on a sharp stone, and even the incomparable shmyakneshsya the wall, but on no more than a soft valley. "It was the most difficult, but at the same time the most rewarding in the sense of gaining experience swim," - says kayaker Sam Sutton, a member of the expedition Adidas - 2010 (see photo). Sam became one of the few who managed to get to the memorial plaque in memory of the six professional kayaker who died here in 1976. Under the slab is Book of Legends with the names of those who have crossed some of the most difficult and dangerous rivers in the world and lived to tell others about his incredible adventures.

20. Pass Wenger Patagonian race-tour, Chile. This event is more like an expedition than a race. Teams will have to spend on the road from four to ten days to overcome 563 km, forced his way through one of the most remote and wild places of Patagonia. There are no topographic maps, so the races are using satellite navigation devices, to find the right direction when they go on foot, climbing mountains, riding, mountain biking, rowing on kayaks. And the route changes every year. Time for a break is not given, so many teams are sleeping just five hours to buy time. But on the way they see such places, which are brought gaze a few: the mountain towers of Torres del Paine, the vast southern continental ice field and turbulent waters of the notorious Cape Horn.