We really enjoyed learning more about these great places and hope to cross a few off of the bucket list someday. They really are spectacular.
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A diver explores frozen underwater waterfalls formed by glacier meltwater off the coast of Antarctica.
Photograph by Norbert Wu, Minden Pictures II/Getty Images
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#1 Dream Trip: Dive the Poles
Enric Sala Marine Ecologist and Diver
Most divers gravitate to tropical waters teeming with corals, colorful reef fish, and sharks. Not Enric Sala. The marine ecologist and seasoned diver daydreams of something a little more remote. “I dream of diving in two places where I have not been yet,” he says. “One is Antarctica, because of its crystal clear waters and amazing fauna, in addition to the ice cathedrals. The other is the Arctic, where I'd like to see the northernmost kelp forests.”
Diving in polar regions comes with its dangers, like utterly frigid waters and the possibility of getting trapped under the ice, but Sala is lured by the promise of Antarctica’s wild creatures, like giant crustaceans, and astounding underwater visibility. “It’s like flying,” he says. As for the Arctic, he doesn’t know what to expect, which is a large part of the draw. “It’s a poorly known ecosystem, so it’s pure exploration.”
Next: See Enric Sala's Must-Do Trip: Dive Cocos Island, Costa Rica
See the Ultimate Adventure Bucket List from 2011
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Climber Nalle Hukkataival scales the Taipan Wall in Victoria, Australia.
Photograph by Keith Ladzinski
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#2 Dream Trip: Climbing Odyssey in Southeast Asia, Australia
Alex Honnold Climber
Alex Honnold isn’t much for dreaming. He’d rather be doing. “I don’t want to just dream about trips,” says the steel-nerved solo climber. “I feel like every trip I come up with I just go on it.” Now he has set his sights on a winter-long odyssey through some of the most beloved sport-climbing hot spots of Southeast Asia and Australia. (One of the perks of being a full-time sponsored climber: sponsored trips.)
Spending weeks casing the hardest routes in each locale, he’ll first stop in Krabi, Thailand, a climbing mecca with more than 700 sport-climbing routes on limestone karsts and other perks like gorgeous beaches and plentiful pad thai vendors. Then it’s off to explore up-and-coming climbing areas in Vietnam and Laos and to Yangshuo, China, a trove of hundreds of routes on limestone karsts, surrounded by rice fields and often shrouded in mist. The cherry on top is Taipan’s Wall in Victoria, Australia’s Grampians National Park, a wild 450,000-acre tract of forests, wildflowers, waterfalls, and otherworldly rock formations that draw climbers from across the globe. “It’s the coolest, best sandstone ever with really cool amazing unique holds,” says Honnold. “It’s supposed to be paradise.”
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A mountain biker pedals through a lush forest in Whirinaki in Northland, New Zealand.
Photograph by Graeme Murray
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#3 Dream Trip: Mountain Bike New Zealand
Jill Kintner Mountain Biker
With steep fjords, pristine bays, lush mountains, skyrocketing geysers, boiling mud pools, and wildlife out of a Dr. Seuss book, stories of New Zealand can verge on mythical. Which is why over the last couple of decades it has become a pilgrimage site for the world’s adventurers, Jill Kintner included. “I want to live in New Zealand for a few months and travel around the entire country,” she says. “I’ve been to Rotorua for riding and had the best time.”
From Rotorua, surrounded by geysers, lakes, hot springs, Maori communities, and miles of singletrack, Kintner would hit Queenstown, the country’s adventure hub for trekking, rafting, and skiing. After that, she’d swing over to Christchurch and Nelson, a sunny artist colony and the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park. Of course, much of the appeal of road tripping New Zealand lies in winging it, a concept Kintner embraces. “There are outdoor activities everywhere,” says Kintner, “and the scenery is epic.”
Next: See Jill Kinter's Must-Do Trip: Bike Morzine, France
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A Southern giant petrel flies past a blue iceberg near South Georgia Island.
Photograph by Momatiuk-Eastcott/Corbis
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#
4 Dream Trip: Ski South Georgia Island
Chris Davenport Big-Mountain Skier
On his legendary quest to rescue the sailors of the Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton undertook one of the hairiest small-boat crossings ever recorded—800 nautical miles across the insane-making conditions of the Southern Ocean. Then he topped it off with an arguably more insane trek across rugged snow-buried South Georgia Island. Since then, the unsettled island hasn’t changed much at all, which is why it remains one of the last great unknown adventure destinations.
“My current dream trip would be to hire a sailboat with five or six of my friends, skiers, photographers, and filmmakers and document a trip to South Georgia Island,” says Chris Davenport. “The goal would be to try and re-create the amazing traverse of Sir Ernest Shackleton.” Along the way, they’d cross glaciers and snowfields, spot penguins and fur seals, and ski descents on peaks that top 9,600 feet. “This would be a monthlong trip to one of the world’s most beautiful and remote islands,” says Davenport.
Next: See Chris Davenport's Must-Do Trip: Ski Mount Rainier, Washington
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Ueli Steck climbs the Khumbu Glacier on Mount Everest, the tallest of the 14 8,000-meter peaks.
Photograph by Robert Bösch
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#5 Dream Trip: Climb 8,000-Meter Peaks in the Himalaya
Ueli Steck Speed Alpinist
Ueli Steck is fixated on a goal that is perhaps more difficult than a summit: testing his personal limits. This is not so simple when it comes to the Swiss Machine, whose limits are preposterously extreme. It has led him to set his sights on scaling 8,000-meter summits—at top speeds.
“You know, 8,000 meters, they’re the highest peaks,” says Steck. “It’s the thinnest air and it’s the biggest challenge.” Steck, naturally, doesn’t want to walk up them—“I’m a bad hiker,” he says. Steck is aiming for the mountains’ bold, highly technical routes, such as the south face of 26,545-foot Annapurna. He already stood on the top of Cho Oyu (with mountaineer Don Bowie) and Shishapangma (in 10.5 hours) in 2011. Perhaps Everest isn’t so far-fetched.
Next: See Ueli Steck's Must-Do Trip: Climb the Swiss Alps
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A kayaker braves the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet.
Photograph by Charlie Munsey
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#6 Dream Trip: Kayak the Entire Yarlung Tsangpo, Tibet:
Ben Stookesberry Whitewater Kayaker
Some might argue that the last frontier of human exploration lies not in mountains or jungles but in the tumultuous uncharted rivers that run through them. And one of the mightiest, hairiest, most remote prizes still left to kayak in full is undoubtedly the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet.
“It’s a massive river,” says expedition paddler Ben Stookesberry. “It essentially drains half of the Tibetan Plateau. It's headwaters lie in Western Tibet near Mount Kailas, which, to Tibetan and Hindu cultures, is the center of the universe." It flows due east past Mount Everest before dropping 9,000 feet through the Tsangpo Gorge to India.
Sky-high permit fees, the river’s remoteness, and the sheer terror of its unknown Class V+ whitewater has kept this river sacred and relatively unexplored. The entire river, which has views of Everest and runs through a 16,000-foot gorge—the deepest on Earth—has yet to be kayaked top to bottom in one expedition. Doug Gordon died trying in 1998 shortly into the trip. In 2002, a team led by Scott Lindgren successfully completed the first descent of the Upper Tsangpo Gorge, one of the last prizes in big water kayaking, but opted to leave the Lower Gorge for another time. Just kayaking and negotiating the Upper Gorge took them 30 days. “It’s the Everest of rivers,” says Stookesberry. “But unlike Everest, it has never been completely accomplished.”
Next: See Ben Stookesberry's Must-Do Trip: Raft the Siang River, India
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A climber rappels 300 feet down into the Greenland ice sheet.
Photograph by Patrick Robert, Corbis
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#7 Dream Trip: Ice Climb Baffin Island and Greenland
Will Gadd Ice Climber
It all started with a rumor. From friends who have flown over Greenland and Canada’s Baffin Island to scout for minerals and tourism, Will Gadd heard about the possibility of ice-climbing gold: huge granite fjords spackled with frozen waterfalls. “I think there is likely more ice in the Baffin Island-Greenland sweep than anyone suspects,” says Gadd. “But it's really, really hard to get there.”
Gadd plans to wait for conditions to ripen during the winter of 2011—12 before he heads up on a private expedition to investigate. He expects to find a host of 2,000- to 3,000-foot waterfalls in places so far north that they don’t see the sun for as much as two months out of the year—perfect conditions for intrepid ice climbers. “It’s like Yosemite Valley but a lot more of it,” says Gadd. “And no, I can’t give you the GPS coordinates.”
Next: See Will Gadd's Must-Do Trip: Ice Climb Rjukan, Norway
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A diver ascends a deep shaft in Dan's Cave on Great Abaco Island, Bahamas.
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles, National Geographic
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#8 Dream Trip: Dive and Surf From Florida to the Bahamas
Kenny Broad Cave Diver
Kenny Broad sees the adventure beneath the surface—literally. The cave diver and cultural anthropologist has explored much of subterranean Florida and the Bahamas through its underworld of watery limestone caves and passageways.
His dream trip is something he dubs the “Caves, Waves, and Babes Expedition,” a water sport odyssey across Florida and the Bahamas with his wife, Amy, and sons Lincoln, four, and Jasper, eight. From Cedar Key and Manatee Springs on the Gulf Coast of Florida, the epicenter of cave diving, the group would “dive our way underground and paddle rivers on surface until we come out in the Atlantic, then cross the Gulf Stream in my trawler, and make our way to the Bahamas,” says Broad. “From there, we’d cave dive all the way down the Caribbean, with breaks to surf when the waves are good.”
Next: See Kenny Broad's Must-Do Trip: Cave Dive in the Yucatán, Mexico
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Pakistan's Shipton Spire looked like this when Steph Davis's team claimed the third ascent in 1998. Part of the route has since fallen away.
Photograph by Kennan Harvey
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#9 Dream Trip: BASE Jump Off Shipton Spire, Pakistan
Steph Davis Climber
The Karakorum Range might as well have a moat around it. A kingdom of the greatest concentration of high mountains on Earth, it holds such fearsome 8,000-meter peaks as K2, Gasherbrum I and II, and Broad Peak. And not only is the range remote and difficult to access, it sits on top of a hotbed of volatile borders between
Tajikistan,
China,
Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and
India, effectively sealing the mountains from the bulk of mountaineers—and leaving many faces unclimbed.
Perhaps that is part of the allure to climber and BASE jumper Steph Davis, who summited Shipton Spire in 1998. “When we climbed that, it was the third ascent of the peak, and I really enjoyed being there,” she says. “Everything there is just really big, which is part of what makes that place really special. If we lived in a fantasy land and nothing’s an obstacle, it would be pretty cool to go back and jump Shipton.”
By jump, she means toss herself off of it—with a parachute, of course. A 19,308-foot tooth with an inconceivably huge granite face, Shipton has attracted many climbers, but it has never—yet—been jumped.
Next: See Steph Davis's Must-Do Trip: Climb the Diamond, Longs Peak, Colorado
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A trail runner traces an alpine ridge on the Continental Divide Trail.
Photograph by Randall Levensaler, Aurora
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#10 Dream Trip: Hike the Continental Divide Trail
Jennifer Pharr Davis Speed Hiker
The average thru-hiker takes some six months to complete the Appalachian Trail. Jennifer Pharr Davis is clearly not average. Hiking up to 17 hours each day, in 2011 Pharr ticked off the 2,181 miles in a mere 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes—the fastest time ever, for men and women.
So accomplishing her dream trip seems well within reach: “I really eventually would like to do the Continental Divide Trail,” says Davis. “When people complete all three [of the country’s longest distance trails] they become triple crowners.” And the CDT is the only trail that stands between her and the coveted title in long-distance hiking.
But even for long-legged phenoms like Davis, the Continental Divide Trail is no breeze. Stretching 3,100 miles from Mexico to Canada, it traces the backbone of the country through Georgia O’Keefe’s haunts in New Mexico, alpine tundra and 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado, the trout streams and meadows of Yellowstone’s backcountry, and remote wildernesses in Montana where Lewis and Clark once passed.
Next: See Jennifer Pharr Davis's Must-Do Trip: Hike the GR 20, Corsica, France
