Annals Of Adventure–Around-N-Over: It’s pretty hard to make anyone’s jaw drop these days, when there are so so few firsts, and so many gimmicks and so many pretenders in the world of adventure. But every once in a while, some maniac comes up with an adventure idea that makes you sit back and say: “Holy sh*t! I can’t believe he/she is going to do that!” Well, meet Erden Eruc, a Turkish-born American who plans to climb the six highest summits on six continents. No big deal, you say. Lots of people have done that, and hit the highest summit in Antarctica to boot. True, true. But no one has ever done it…ENTIRELY UNDER HUMAN POWER! What do I mean? I mean Eruc will not just climb the mountains, he will get to them by either bicycling or rowing. No cars, no jets, no nothing with a combustion engine. Just Erden Eruc burning millions of calories as he circles the globe in one of the most ambitious quests I have come across. It is also a poignant one, because Eruc added the mountain climbing wrinkle to this project to honor his great friend and mentor Goran Kropp, who died in a climbing accident in 2002. Eruc, who is based in Seattle, has already bicycled to, and climbed, Denali. Now he’s peddling his way south toward Florida, where he’ll hit the high seas and row his way to Ecuador, so he can bike to Aconcagua. Here’s the full, ridiculous, itinerary:

–leave Florida on an ocean rowing boat at the beginning of 2005, round the east end of Cuba for a clear shot toward the Panama Canal, then arrive at Ecuador where the boat will be stored;

–bicycle to Aconcagua in Argentina, and climb it in Jan 2006, bicycle back to Ecuador;

–row across the Pacific Ocean to reach the summit of Carstenz Pyramid on Irian Jaya, the highest point in Oceania;

–row to India, bicycle to Nepal, climb Everest, then return to the boat by bicycle;

–row to the east coast of Africa, approach and climb Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa;

–row through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal up to Turkey, approach and climb Elbruz in Russia, the highest point in Europe;

–row the length of the Mediterranean Sea, then across the Atlantic Ocean to the east coast of the United States;

–finally bicycle back home to Seattle with an expected return in early 2011.

Whew. I’m exhausted just summarizing this thing. You can follow this monster adventure at Around-N-Over, Erden’s website. He’ll be posting regular dispatches along the way. Can you imagine the blisters this guy is going to get…



Extra-Ambitious Eruc: “Of course I’m insane. But at least it means I won’t have a real job for the next, umm, seven years…”

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