Immersive Hiking Experience over Virtual Mountains in Death Stranding

The journey uphill seems to go on forever. I can still see the town from where I started far away in the distance near the sea level. Using a topographical map I had tried to find an optimal route to avoid the steepest incline by aiming to cross the mountain range through a gap between two peaks. Continuously, I need to hold on to my backpack straps in order to maintain my balance on unsteady boulders. Eventually there will be some scrambling required. Just when I stop for a quick bite and a drink, the unborn fetus in my artificial womb starts to cry, which foreshadows invisible dead spirits somewhere in the vicinity. 

Map of all the hikes listed in this blog

Blogger allows me to set a location to all the blog posts, but there is no standard handy widget of showing posts by geo tag. Therefore I have created a separate map view, which will be kept up to date as and when new posts are being added either from history backlog or from upcoming future hikes.

Quality father-son time - Hiking in Val d'Anniviers in Switzerland

The hiking fun back in 2017 did not stop at Corsica. Towards the end of Summer me and my older son, who was 11 years old at that time, spent an awesome long weekend staying with friends in Switzerland. From Geneva it is only a short drive to magnificent Alps, so we succumbed to the temptation of a 2-day walk in the region of Central Valais. Truth be told, it did not require a whole lot of succumbing from us.

GR20 reprise

As promised I wanted to share one more post-trip summary of the GR20 hike. Clearly this particular journey has been a significant experience for me as there are already four blog entries and now this summary text will be the fifth and final cheese-smelling entry. Next time in this blog there will be something completely different! I promise.

Looking back at the hike across Corsica

Perfect Hell - GR20 in Corsica - Part 3 of 3

Australians to the rescue! I was struggling to explain in my broken French that we would appreciate to have at least some breakfast even before the sun is up, so that we could continue to enjoy rising very early during my holiday hell that they call GR20. It was in fact a team of father and two sons all the way from Australia who managed to get my point across to the guardian of the mountain hut that we didn't necessarily need warm milk in our morning coffee at 4:45 in the morning. This is part three of my blog series covering 6-day hike across Corsica.

Enjoyable Hell - GR20 in Corsica - Part 2 of 3

This is part two of the GR20 expedition in the summer of 2017. I would kindly advise you to read part one first unless already done so and you still need to wait a little for part three to be published. Is this finally the episode where the tingling sensation is upon us and we need to assume a brace position with our walking poles as an extra lightning rods? At least a proper storm was expected in the afternoon of day number three. Well beyond midnight, when I was answering the call of the nature the sky was still cloudless and littered with millions of stars. Night sky is always truly spectacular when hiking in the mountains.

Alleviated Hell - GR20 in Corsica - Part 1 of 3

Instead of reading this three part blog entry, you may want to directly google the words "my holiday hell" and find relatively accurate description of just how enjoyable of an experience it is to hike through GR20-footpath across island of Corsica. I can only share half of the fun in my blog as we decided against the whole 180 kilometer coast to coast trek, but opted for the alpine northern half of what has been dubbed as the toughest trail in Europe.

Gearing up for Mountains of Pain

Super excited. That's how I feel right about now. 5 days and counting before I embark on my next adventure. Finally I will be experiencing the famous GR20 or fra li monti which takes me across island of Corsica - at least across the more mountaneous northern part of the route.

Mountain as a birthday present

What would you give to a close friend who already has everything? The friend, who also happens to be your next door neighbor, is reaching an esteemed age of full 100 years later this year. She already has plenty of material goods, so she doesn't need any more stuff to put on top of the mantelpiece. She has also accumulated a wealth of immaterial possessions over the years. One thing that she doesn't have yet though is a proper mountain.

A visit to highest toilet in South East Asia - Reprise of Mount Kinabalu hike in Borneo

Do I hear the crowd asking for an encore? At least one avid reader was missing a recount of my visit to the highest toilet in South East Asia. This particular blog post was originally featured in my other blog - Frosty the Lion - which captures expatriate experience of living in Singapore. As the only hiking related entry in that particular blog, it is appropriate to be duplicated on this hiking blog as well. The text has been slightly edited to fit this purpose and there are few new pictures even for old readers. Without further ado here is the reprise of my trek to Mount Kinabalu due to overwhelming public demand.

Quest through Middle Zealand - Tongariro Alpine Crossing, Abel Tasman Coast Track, Hooker Valley Trail

Every self respecting geek is supposed to perform at least once in their lifetime a holy pilgrimage to the land of hobbits, elves and orcs. While at it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do some hiking as well. Our very own fellowship (retkue in Finnish) ventured through couple of designated hikes in New Zealand while trying to soak it all in from both north and south islands within two measly weeks back in January 2012.

Visited locations with red star on those covered in this blog entry

Rotten Eggs for Four Days - Laugevegur trail in Iceland

GR20 is a footpath that crosses the island of Corsica. It has been dubbed as the most challenging multi day hike in Europe. GR20 has secured its place high up on my bucket list of hikes. Back in 2015 me & group of my friends were eyeing keenly on the possibility to complete if not the full 15 day hike, but at least the reportedly more scenic northern half of the journey. This blog entry is NOT a narration of GR20. Instead of Corsica we went to Iceland!

Feeling Well in Tatras

One of the hidden mountaineering gems within Europe is the High Tatras in Slovakia. I was lead on this little secret during one particularly warm summer night in charming Budapest, Hungary of all the places. I was trading hiking experiences with a Slovakian colleague of mine and during late night spur of enthusiasm I committed to one day come over and witness the mountains myself. I am so glad I lived true to my word on to what turned out to be one of the most memorable mountain hikes ever.

Before, during and after ski

Allowing good ol' Isaac Newton to do all the work while sliding gently downhill from mountains with skiis is pretty much the exact opposite for hiking uphill with hurting knees. I recently visited the Alps for the first time ever during Winter and even if the lifts take me up the mountain and gravity takes me down, I have to admit that I was completely exhausted by evening time, so I would argue that also this trip warrants it's place in this hiking blog. 

Cave with no gold - Hiking in the isle of Skye in Scotland

Me & two of my mates were all expecting to have additional members joining our respective families around the same time in 2010. Given the upcoming miracle of triple birth, what would have been more appropriate than to arrange a pilgrimage to the famous distilleries on the Isle of Islay in Scotland. And to do some hiking on Isle of Skye while in the neighbourhood.

Bears with antlers - Karhunkierros-hike

All the way back in 2000 my then brand new hiking boots required to be broken in prior to putting them to a real test against Africa's highest mountain. Me & my travel companions decided to test a piece of Finland's most favourite hike, Karhunkierros, which was right around the neighbourhood -- at least when comparing to Tanzania.

Meeting with Twelve Gods - Summiting Mount Olympos in Greece

Ever wonder where lightnings are originated from? Apparently they are coming from the Stefani peak on Mount Olympus in Greece, where great old Zeus is hurling thunderbolts during yet another of his characteristics petty scenes of anger management failure. The whole mountain is literally infested with Gods and lesser deities. Pretty much each of the steep gorges, grottoes and 52 separate peaks is littered with one of the Olympiad or their siblings or offspring. Stefani peak is not the highest point on the Olympus however. The famous twelve Gods met and had their less civil moments of discussion on the peak called Mytikas (2917 m), which is also the highest point in Greece. Guess where I was headed to back in July of 2012. 

Boiling in onsen - Summiting Mount Fuji

Symmetrical Mount Fuji (富士山, Fujisan) is a distinctive image of Japan. The mountain has been prominent in many pictures and paintings of Japan ever since from 14th century. For example there is the famous series of 36 Views of Mount Fuji by Japanese woodblock print artist Hokusai. Given that one of my friends was (and is) living in Tokyo, I had a great opportunity to visit this iconic mountain myself back in August 2008.

Snows of Kilimanjaro

Why would anyone living in Finland want to escape the first snow of winter in December to probably only place near equator where there is always snow? I had packed with me a collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, including the famous Snows of Kilimanjaro. I was determined to experience those snows myself.

Going off on an adventure

All good things may come to an end (like the final episode of ST:TNG), yet every ending contains also a new beginning. I rather enjoyed documenting in a blog format my life and times while on an assignment in Singapore. While it was enjoyable to actually see that my ramblings were being viewed by thousands of folks globally, the most important takeaway for myself was twofold: now with hindsight I have realized that I am thoroughly enjoyed reading the old blog posts myself -- apparently the narrative format of documenting my own feelings and initial awe is something that just plain pictures cannot convey. In addition I noticed now that the old blog has finally come to an end, something is missing from my life. I found pleasure in the process of creative writing.