Death Valley National Park on the California Nevada border is the hottest, driest and lowest of all the US national parks.  It is also the largest National Park in the lower 48 with a diverse environment of sand dunes, salt flats, mountains and valleys.  For three years beginning in 2015, Roland Banas tried and failed 4 times to cross the park solo and unsupported.  In December 2018 he began his 5^th attempt.  Starting out with a 85-pound pack of food, water and gear, Roland finally completed the trek in 6 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes covering a distance of 166 miles.  Roland has written about his adventure at explorersweb.com.  Roland Banas, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

In the middle of the Karakorum range in Pakistan is a place called Concordia.  It’s where the Baltoro glacier meets the Godwin-Austen glacier.  It’s a place known as the throne room of the mountain gods because it’s surrounded by four 8,000-meter peaks, one of those being K2 the second highest peak in the world.  In 1994 Alison Young found herself in Islamabad visiting her father who was stationed at the US embassy.  Wanting to trek to Concordia, she was able to tag along on an overland journey with a Dutch and German couple.  It was a difficult and hazardous 25-day trek that you can learn more about at alisonyoungproductions.com.  Alison Young, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

The Great Plains Trail is a recently established long distance hiking trail in the US.  It stretches for 2,200 miles from the desert of west Texas to the Montana Canadian border.  It crosses 3 National Parks, 3 National Monuments, 10 National Forests and Grasslands, 5 State High Points, and 15 State Parks.  Luke Jordan spent 85 days on the trail in 2016, becoming the first person to thru-hike it.  You can learn more about the trail at greatplainstrail.org and more about Luke at stridernct.com.  Luke previously appeared in episode 30 talking about his thru-hike of the North Country Trail.  Luke Jordan, welcome back to the show.

This summer Adam “Chip” Vachon will depart on a thru-hike of the Appalachian trail, one of the 11 US national scenic trails extending 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine.  He will start at Khatadin on June 1st and head southbound, planning to complete the hike in 70 days.  He will accomplish this by going ultralight and by hiking well after sunset.  This will be his second time on the AT, having completed 800 miles in 2010.  In this episode we talk about what it takes to prepare for an ultralight and fast thru-hike adventure and the plan is to have Chip back on the show after his hike to tell the story of how it went.  Chip Vachon, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

Check out Chip’s website at www.achipmunkhikes.com

Mike Summers is an outdoor enthusiast with a passion for hiking. In December 2016 he set out westbound to complete the Ice Age Trail in winter. It’s one of the 11 National Scenic Trails and exists entirely in the state of Wisconsin. It took Mike 58 days to thru-hike the 1,077 miles. You can learn more about the Ice Age Trail at iceagetrail.org and more about Mike at improbablebutpossible.com. Mike Summers welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

Sumatra is the 6th largest island in the world with just over twice the land area of Great Britain. During the summer of 2016, undergraduate Biology students Oli Broadhead and Iris Berger set out to walk across Sumatra to compare the biodiversity of untouched forests vs. deforested ecosystems. They found their way into an unexplored forest that surrounds the 3080 meter Mount Kurik on which they attempted a first ascent. After leaving the forest they had recorded over 60 species then spent the next 3 weeks walking through rural Sumatra to the coast. Oli previously appeared in episode 114 at thepursuitzone.com/tpz114 and you can learn more about Oli’s adventures at his website olibroadhead.com. Oli Broadhead, welcome back to the show.

Iris Berger’s website link.