New Partner Announcement - Aqua Extreme (Kayaks/Packrafts/SUP's)

I'm thrilled to announce that I have been accepted into the Aqua-Xtreme Brand Ambassador Program.

It's pretty amazing, and cool, that I got in, considering they had over 900 applicants.

I will be using one of their packrafts for some of my travel plans over the nexth 12 months or so; so watch this space.

I liked their pitch and it encouraged me to apply:

"Aqua Xtreme 2019 Ambassador Program is seeking committed top athletes ,adventurers and paddlers.
If you're passionate about watersports, exploring, and an adventurous storyteller with a social media following or a rebel who questions everything, we want to work with you."

Announcement: Laxmi is going to Sri Lanka.

We are very proud to be supporting, in partnership with The Yak Attack, Nepal National Champion Laxmi Magar's late entry in to this years "Rumble in the Jungle" mountainbike race in Sri Lanka.

Laxmi is a great friend to all of us and she is a truly inspiring role model to women in Nepal.

Laxmi was hoping to spend some time racing in The USA but for some inexplicable reason she has again been denied an entry visa despite a concerted effort by many supporters, in particular the wonderful ladies at the Soul Sister Cycling group.

Once we heard the news it was a simple decision - Let's get Laxmi out to Sri Lanka.

Laxmi racing at the 2016 "Rumble"

You can see more from Laxmi on her social media pages, please give her your support:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

You will be able to follow her progress every day during the race from June 13th to 16th here:

RITJ2017 Leaderboard

You can also follow Chase The Rainbow here:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Strava

YouTube

Thank you for looking, see you soon.

Please don't forget to Like, Share, and Comment, if you enjoyed it :)

Consume less, live more. Plant more trees.

A Daring Deed indeed.

The stunning Rara Lake in Western Nepal.

Because I have been quite lazy of late I thought I should probably post a little update. I am in the process of writing several pieces for the blog. At least one covering some of my extended visit to Nepal and another one with some very exciting news to share.

Watch this space.

I have written a couple of pieces for Alpkit's Daring Deeds section. The first was a preview of my recent trip to Nepal...

Coffee, Curry, Cake, Beer, and a Bicycle.

...and the second is a travelogue of our time exploring the area around the rarely visited Rara Lake National Park in the Wild West (just click on the links).

Rara Hurrah

A curious couple and a curious cottage - Western Nepal.

It's not much of a blog post but there is plenty to come over the next few weeks as I get caught up.

 You can follow Alpkit here:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

You can also follow Chase The Rainbow here:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Strava

YouTube

Thank you for looking, see you soon.

Please don't forget to Like, Share, and Comment, if you enjoyed it :)

Partner announcement: Osprey Europe.

I'm delighted to be able to announce that Osprey Europe are once again partnering me with some product support.

I will be testing two new products during my Autumn 2016 trip to Nepal.

The Stratos 34 Rucksack and The Talon 6 Lumbar Pack (both due for release in February 2017).

I have been using and recommending Osprey Packs for many years (as a paying customer).

My Atmos 35 Rucksack (review here) has done thousands of miles around the world; sadly this has now been discontinued from their product range. I looked at suitable alternatives and The Stratos 34 is very similar. Likewise my trusted Talon 8 Lumbar Pack (review here), which has also done thousands of miles of trail running and mountain biking, hasn't been available for some time due to a streamlining of the range which saw the Talon 4 and Talon 8 usurped by the current 6 litre model.

Thankfully they were happy to supply me with one of each to test and review so that I can continue to recommend a current product to my readers. If they are up to the job (or not) you will see an in-depth review on my return in December. First impressions and early use suggest that Osprey have hit the ground running as usual. I'm dead impressed so far.

Review: Alpkit Bikepacking Luggage.

Over the last ten years or so there has been a growing trend (or sub-culture) in cycling for Bikepacking.
(I have added a few useful links at the bottom if you are interested).

If you're not familiar with Bikepacking then it's a bit like off-road bicycle touring encompassing anything from an overnight adventure with a bivvy, multi-day (or multi-week) racing like The Tour Divide, right through to global adventure travel. The great thing about Bikepacking is that it can take you as far, or near, from the beaten path as you desire. It has developed alongside the desire to have these adventures.
Pioneering routes like The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route or The Israel Bike Trail have given more mountain bikers a thirst for just such an adventure.

Hand-in- hand with its growing popularity are a bunch of companies innovating solutions to packing gear on a mountain bike. The age old practice of fitting pannier racks on a cycle tourer just doesn't work on a mountain bike.
This is where the likes of Alpkit, and others, have stepped up to the plate and filled in the gaps.

Back on the Horse.

Off the horse; two flat tyres at Antur Stiniog Downhill park in Wales.

A few weeks before Christmas I was out and about enjoying a training run, and I do actually enjoy them, when I came a bit of a cropper! Firstly whilst running through the woods in the dark, with a head-torch to guide me, I stubbed my toe on a lump of rock on the trail and made like Superman, flying full length down the hill on to my face! I grumbled and swore, dusted myself off, and quickly had a look around to make sure no one saw me, obviously; before carrying on down the path. A very short distance later, and still cursing my throbbing toe, I turned heavily on my ankle in a rut in the path. It was so hard an impact that I not only felt it crunch under my weight but even heard it. Ouch. I was buggered. I had to hobble/jog the three miles back home before I could get a bag of frozen sweetcorn on it to try and reduce the swelling. One of my highly amusing friends, who really should be a comedian, suggested that frozen peas are far more effective and that's where I went wrong. Thanks for that sage piece of wisdom Phil, I'll try it next time.

Announcement! Himalaya Quest 2013!!!

The view of Mount Everest and Lhotse from Tengboche one evening.

 

For some crazy reason my good friend, and fellow "Himalaya Quest'er", Wilco Voulon has invited me along to Nepal once again.  We will be guiding a large party of athletes and repeating our epic trek along the Expedition Route, from Jiri to Mount Everest Base Camp, and then foolishly taking part in The Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon! back to Namche Bazar. (May 2013).

 I think I can manage another month in beautiful Nepal!

Wilco has had a website created specially for this event and anyone wishing to come along can view the details from this link (you will need to use Google Translate if you don't speak Dutch!).

Autisme Sportief - Team Everest

Once again we will be highlighting the Autisme Sportief Foundation and the wonderful work they do helping to build confidence in children and young adults via the medium of sport.

You can follow us on twitter using these links:

@HimalayaQuest

@AutismeSportief

Or on Facebook here: Chase The Rainbow

Look out for more news coming soon!

New sponsor announcement - PicStop.co.uk

http://www.picstop.co.uk/

 What Digital Camera BEST ONLINE RETAILER 3yrs running!

I'm very pleased to announce that PicStop have come on board with an unsolicited offer to supply us with Memory Cards and spare Camera Batteries for the trip.

Dave contacted them to make an order and asked if they could deliver them urgently. He then got chatting to Peter as to why he needed them so quickly and they were so impressed with our endeavour that they offered to supply them free of charge by way of sponsorship; and also very kindly added links to our blog site on their webpage! What a fantastic bunch of guys! :) Thank you very much Peter, we really appreciate your support. Hopefully we'll be able to return the favour with some great images of The Himalaya!

They also have a hugely popular Facebook page that is worth checking out here:  http://www.facebook.com/PicStop

And can be followed on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/#!/PicStop

Neil and Dave visit the Rab factory.

Neil Cottam, Dan Thompson and Dave Slater at the Rab UK Headquarters.

Dave and I called at the Rab UK Headquarters in Alfreton, Derbyshire today to collect the Neutrino Endurance Jackets and Ascent 700 Sleeping Bags for The Himalaya Quest. Many thanks to Dan Thompson for arranging this for us and the generosity of Rab's parent company Equip Technologies for supplying them to us. It's been a great help and has allowed us to focus on the many other things we've had to deal with.

Thanks Guys. You're The Bomb! :)

Tricia Whitt commented  on our Facebook page that "It is all starting to look mighty real now!" OMG I think she's right! Seven months ago it all looked so far away; now with just over seven days to go it's starting to look a bit scary! :D But in a good way ;)

We are really looking forward to it now and I can't wait to see my old friend Wilco Voulon when he arrives in the UK, from The Netherlands, next Saturday to travel with us. :)

Coming soon... :)

Bridge over The Daugava River. Riga, Latvia.

Hi folks.
I hope you have been enjoying my recent posts.
There are a few more to follow in the next week or so.
Asia Fantasia - Part three; should be the final one of that series.
A nice review of my short trip to Riga, Latvia over the weekend Including the Bobsledding! And quite a bit of Mountain Biking stuff - Trails & Tribulations - to write about, oh and a couple of Peak District hikes too. 
I'm also going to try and include a few genuine and honest product/hostel/travel reviews as well, hopefully some of you will find them useful.


Please try and support our charities for the Himalaya Quest if you can spare any change. Just £1/$1/Euro from every reader will add to up to a lot of money! You can use the "Please Sponsor Us" link boxes at the top of the page.

Don't forget that you can follow our progress daily on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/#!/HimalayaQuest

And also view additional stuff and photo's etc on our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/ChaseTheRainbow  
Feel free to click the "Like" botton if you err... like it!

See you soon q:)

Return of the Langkawi Beach Bums.

Hi folks.
You'll be pleased to know that Danny and I have arrived home unscathed from our South East Asia trip; and with a few escapades under our belt and a few stories to tell too :) I'll try and blog something later this week when I recover from the jet-lag. Door to door it's taken us 26 hours to get home from Langkawi Island, Malaysia and we are knackered! Plenty of cool photo's to share with you all if nothing else.



I also forgot to mention, before we went away, that I have now posted an introductory blog-post to the OceanRidge website. Please feel free to check it out here http://www.oceanridge.co.uk
Thanks to Chris and Euan for the opportunity to spread the word.


On the good news front Dan Thompson has confirmed his offer to supply us with Rab Jackets and Sleeping bags for the Himalaya Quest which will save us a lot of money each and means we can concentrate on other stuff. Thanks Dan :)


Please try and sponsor our worthwhile causes for The Himalaya Quest if can afford to. Just £1, $1 etc from every reader will make a huge difference to kids that are supported by Rainbows and Whizz Kidz.
And remember that you can follow our regular updates on facebook and twitter if you want to.

Sponsor announcement: OceanRidge

Chris Port and Euan Moir from OceanRidge have been in touch and have generously offered to help us out.
I met Euan at the Cliffhanger Festival in Sheffield a few weeks ago and spent a bit of time chatting to him about what they were doing as a company and about what we are going to do in The Himalaya. Amazingly Euan remembered our chat (from what must have been loads he had that weekend!) and Chris emailed me via Facebook a few days ago and made the offer of assistance. He has also very kindly offered me a section in their blogging pages too, so you will be able to read more of my nonsense on there soon! How lovely for you! :D I've also got to start video blogging some stuff for their YouTube channel too.
These guys are developing some really cool stuff and the OceanRidge brand will be a household name in the marketplace before very long. Feel free to check out their pages and view the kind of stuff that they are up to here:

http://oceanridge.co.uk/index.php

Euan manning the OceanRidge stand at The Cliffhanger.

Sponsor announcement. Equip Outdoor Technologies Ltd.

I'm very pleased to announce that Dan Thompson of Equip Outdoor Technologies Ltd has kindly offered to help us out with some of their gear.
Equip own prestigious outdoor brands Rab, Podsacs, Lowe Alpine, Outdoor Designs and Integral Designs.
I have added a sponsors page here for anyone wishing to view it with links to all the brands.


Please don't forget to sponsor us for our charities from the links at the side of this page.


You can follow our progress on Twitter @HimalayaQuest by clicking on the icon at the top right of the page and you can see more of our antics and photographs on our Facebook page from the link also on the right of this page.

Fame at last! Ugly mugs appear in local newspapers.

My thanks to Paul lynch of The Ripley & Heanor News and The Belper News for featuring The Himalaya Quest 2012 in this weeks editions, although I'm not sure about the bit that says I'm super-fit! Hopefully I'll be just about fit enough to complete the challenges by next February :D I like being called an action man though, unless he was referring to me being not very tall and that I actually resemble a child's toy in which case... Hahaha :)
Robert Butt is mentioned as being one of the participants unfortunately Robert had to decline due to work circumstances, which was a shame because he would have been a great addition to the gang.


Yesterday was a blast, I went down to Cannock Chase in the National Forest and with The Milky Bar Kid - Leigh Townsend - and did a full circuit of The Follow The Dog Trail and The Monkey Trail followed by a second circuit of 'The Dog' just for good measure, about 22 or 23 miles of good riding. We set a decent pace all the way around and I only fell off once and Leigh twice, which is a good result for us! Leigh was pleased to set himself a new personal best time on the first circuit at 2 hours 7 minutes which is pretty respectable for a man who shamelessly enjoys lots of beer and kebabs; although we don't go out with the intention of timing our runs it's nice to know how you are progressing.

http://www.chasetrails.co.uk/ The trails at Cannock are a credit to The Forestry Commission and the local trail pixies, who have done a wicked job over the years establishing and improving the rides. The 2 interlinked trails offer sustained singeltrack pretty much all the way and have several fast and exhilarating downhill sections that are so much fun that you come out at the bottom smiling and whooping! We are regular visitors and love spending a bit of time down there. It's very good training too. The on-site bike shop (Swinnertons Cycles) at Birches Valley is well worth a visit, they even have a bike wash area, and the cafe pulls it out of the bag too with great food and drinks.
There's even a decent 'Go Ape' if you fancy hanging around in the trees for a few hours, the zip-line is great fun.

Some good news to follow soon, hopefully, with a possible sponsor announcement.

Corporate support needed, please!

Himalaya Everest Base Camp Trek and Yak-Attack high altitude mountain bike race in aid of Rainbows Hospice and Whizz-kidz. February/March 2012
If anyone has any contacts or can help us with support for equipment please let me know.