Ultimate Adventure Bucket List 2011

Making it to the top of Everest requires serious fitness, willpower, good luck, and $60,000 for a guided trek to the summit. For those of us who'd like to witness the mountain but prefer to keep our cash–and our fingers and toes–there's an appealing alternative option: hiking to Everest Base Camp. The trip is still no stroll: Over ten days, trekkers travel more than 60 miles (97 kilometers) at muscle-crippling altitudes of over 17,000 feet (5,182 meters). But walking is the only way to see the legendary backdrop behind the world's greatest climbing feats: Himalayan villages tinkling with temple chimes and yak bells, remote shrines strung with multicolored prayer flags, and cedar and pine forests under the shadow of 20,000-foot (6,096-meter) mountains.

On a 19-day trip with National Geographic Adventures trekkers also ascend 18,100-foot (5,517-meter) Kala Pattar, which offers views of the loftiest peak on the planet illuminated by sunrise alpenglow. In spring, trekkers may also meet mountaineers at Everest Base Camp. Regardless, walking in the footsteps of such greats as Hillary, Reinhold Messner, and Ed Viesturs and personally witnessing the unmistakable hulk of the world's tallest mountain offers an intimate and humbling understanding of its power. Locals believe, after all, that these peaks are the home of the gods. National Geographic Adventures Everest Base Camp trek starts and ends in Kathmandu and includes guides and tent/room accommodations (from $4,295, plus an estimated $240 flight from Kathmandu to Lukla; www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com).

Perhaps it's New Zealand's wild terrain or its isolation at the foot of the world that explains why Kiwis have a disproportionate affinity for adventure. They helped pioneer sports like bungee and BASE jumping, and now offer more concentrated opportunities to try them than any other place on the planet. The epicenter is Queenstown, a small resort in the Southern Alps of the South Island where the menu of activities is pages long. Bungee jump 140 feet (43 meters) off Kawarau Bridge, site of the first commercial bungee operation. Or learn to tandem hang glide, sky dive, or ride a hot-air balloon over some of the green-blanketed mountains, forests, and lakes that served as the backdrop for The Lord of the Rings.

Arguably the ultimate air sport is BASE jumping. To prepare, it takes hundreds of sky dives and the private tutelage of a professional BASE jumper. For those unwilling to devote the time and assume the risk of hurtling through the atmosphere, Queenstown guide service Pure Adventure offers a rare taste of the experience. Pilots helicopter guests up to a remote cliff to watch as pro BASE jumper Chuck Berry prepares for a death-defying leap. Finally, in one mind-bending moment, Berry steps out into nothing and plummets below. "The learning curve in BASE jumping is especially steep, and the consequences of mistakes are dire," says Berry, but "it's a beautiful release from the bond of the Earth."

Bungee jumping with AJ Hackett costs $137 per jump at Kawarau Bridget (www.bungy.co.nz). Sunrise Balloons offers 90-minute hot air balloon flights, including transportation, for $300 (www.ballooningnz.com), and SkyTrek runs tandem hanggliding flights for $168 (www.skytrek.co.nz). Pure Adventure’s BASE jumping experience starts at $2,290 per person (www.pureadventure.co.nz). Queenstown Tourism lists resources and guide services for other sports and activities, such as hiking, mountain biking, rafting, and skiing (www.queenstown-nz.co.nz).

Hawaiians know that riding the ocean requires the rare combination of calm, confidence, and utter respect for the power of the sea. That's how the best surfers in the world ride down the face of waves that, every now and then, reach 40 feet (12 meters) at the mother of big-wave breaks: Waimea Bay (pictured) on the North Shore of Oahu. It's warmer and more predictable than other breaks of its size, which makes it a favorite among pro surfers. But it also forms a perfect stadium for aspirants looking for a glimpse of some of the world's biggest rides.

Surfing was born on these shores, and many of its biggest competitions, like the Triple Crown, still feature here, which is why Oahu is perhaps the one place where surfers of all levels pilgrimage. It has breaks of every shape and size and offshore winds that create perfectly shaped and unusually long rides. Local surfer Bryan Suratt, whose family has ridden these swells for four generations, coaches such greats as Andy Irons but also offers lessons for all levels. Suratt's laid-back aloha vibe helps even first timers feel the high that every surfer, at one point, feels: a humble gratitude for the timeless power of the ocean.

Sunset Suratt Surf School offers surf lessons on many of Oahu's North Shore breaks ($100 for two hours, including equipment; www.sunsetsurattsurfschool.com).

The Appalachian Trail doesn't just traverse the forests, meadows, swamps, and peaks of 14 eastern states; it's also a window into the cultural and historical heritage of the longest settled part of the country. It is the oldest of the great long-distance hiking trails, traveling through farm country, centuries-old towns, and storied battlefields, and yet it's one of the most rugged, blazing straight up and down ancient mountains as if they were anthills. That's why, for any avid hiker, the Appalachian Trail is the ultimate badge of honor, and some 11,600 people have done the whole thing. A storied trail culture has formed, in which thru-hikers earn trail names and local residents and supporters offer "trail magic"–free food, gifts, and other unexpected kindnesses–at many points.

The challenge of walking, on average, 8 to 25 miles (13 to 40 kilometers) a day and five million footsteps over five to six months isn't for everyone, and, thankfully, it isn't necessary. Many tick off the trail in chunks and others glimpse the most beautiful parts, such as this spot in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, on day hikes. One of the greatest sections is the very last of the 160,000 white blazes that lead up Maine's Mount Katahdin. There, in August, if you're lucky, you might spot a few shaggy-haired, bearded thru-hikers taking the last few steps of their journey from Georgia, glimpsing, for the first time, the signposted terminus of the trail. They're almost always in tears.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy offers information and guidebooks on thru-hiking the trail (www.appalachiantrail.org).

Denali's pedigree as the tallest mountain in North America makes it an obvious target for high-shooting mountaineers, but it also has sheer visual impressiveness: From the surrounding lowlands, it rises more than three vertical miles into a monster of rock, glaciers, and snow. The only novice-friendly route, the West Buttress, becomes an international party of climbers in May and June, but despite the crowds, few ski it.

Skiing, of course, is more technical than walking, and only expert skiers with backcountry experience need apply. A select few bring their planks to the summit to ski 55-degree no-fall zones like the Messner Couloir and the Orient Express. But most leave them at 14,000 feet (4,267 meters), while they tag the summit. After 21 days of approaching the remote peak, acclimatizing, leapfrogging up steep slopes, and finally viewing the sparkling Alaska Range from the summit, the greatest reward is a long, fast, looping ski descent off the roof of North America.

Alpine Ascents offers guided climbs and private ski-descent trips of Denali to qualified clients (from $6,300 from Talkeetna; www.alpineascents.com).

From the grassy valley below, the dark, ragged teeth of the Tetons can seem impenetrable. But climbers are a breed that relishes impossible challenges, and the Tetons have attracted an A-list of mountaineers and climbers. The mountains, as it turns out, have plenty of routes that intermediate climbers can ascend, among them the 13,770-foot (4,197-meter) Grand Teton (pictured) that juts up like a shark fin. For both locals and visiting climbers, an even greater rite of passage is connecting nearby peaks Teewinot and Owen with the Grand Teton in what's called the Cathedral Traverse, one of the country's most classic alpine linkups.

Though some local hot shots bag the Cathedral Traverse in one epically long day, most bivouac overnight and clinch it in two. Climbers must have prior technical climbing experience, but the real challenge lies less in individual moves than in their accumulation. "It is an endurance fest," explains Rob Hess, chief guide and owner of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, which leads very fit clients on the route. Climbers scramble up jagged boulders, scale vertical cliffs, and tiptoe along knife ridges, but topping out on three classic peaks offers a perspective few earthly creatures see.

Jackson Hole Mountain Guides offers two-day guided climbs of the Cathedral Traverse for qualified clients ($1,500 or $670. depending on difficulty; www.jhmg.com).

Morocco may be best known for its ancient cities–Fes, Marrakesh, Tangier–which burst with the colors, smells, sounds, and textures of market life. But arguably Morocco's most impressive landscapes are its vast expanses of desert, and the traditional way to see them is by camel, which offers an unparalleled look at a beautifully monochromatic land.

Outfitter Mountain Travel Sobek has guided tours in Morocco for more than 30 years, and on their 13-day trips, guests camel trek along an ancient caravan route through the desert. The experience is straight out of Lawrence of Arabia: You'll visit giant, crumbling casbahs, see the high snowy peaks of the Atlas Mountains, and wander suqs spilling with pungent smells and colorful wares. In this landscape of coral dunes, cobalt skies, and volcanic mountains, there are few people save the occasional Berber village and group of nomads. At night, trekkers camp in canvas tents and stare up at stars spilled like sugar across the sky, marveling at the profound silence.

Mountain Travel Sobek offers 13-day camel trekking trips through Morocco from $3,995 (www.mtsobek.com).

Famed explorer David Livingstone was certainly impressed by Victoria Falls when he reached it in the 19th century, but the rapids of the Zambezi? He thought British steamers would one day sail smoothly down the river. More than a hundred years later, the waters remain untamed. And the Zambezi's 23 rapids, which roil with waves as high as 30 feet (9 meters), are famed as the best commercially run white water in the world. But they aren't the river's only thrills.

"On our last trip, our group was paddling as fast as possible away from a male hippo only to come around a small island and surprise a 25-foot (8-meter) croc," says Duke Bradford, owner of outfitter Global Descents. "He hit the water three feet off our boat so hard he soaked us all." Most trips travel a 15-mile (24-kilometer) stretch in a day, but Global Descents offers eight-day 70-mile (113-kilometer) trips for rafters and experienced kayakers. From the toes of Victoria Falls, boaters buck through half a dozen rapids larger than the single largest in the Grand Canyon, each mercifully followed by a stretch of calm water. After the first day, few people, except for a handful of fishermen, share this raw, wild corner of Africa, frequented by baboons, vervet monkeys, and eagles. Along the way, dark basalt cliffs soar hundreds of feet into the sky, waterfalls thunder into the gorge, and white-sand beaches beckon kayakers and rafters with the promise of a soft spot to sleep.

Global Descents offers eight-day trips on the Zambezi once or twice each fall ($2,800; www.globaldescents.com). Kayakers who wish to paddle independently should bring all of their own equipment.

More than half of the world's subaerial volcanoes lie within the Ring of Fire, a series of volcanic uprisings that line the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate, and one of the most dramatic hot spots is Indonesia's Java, home to 42 volcanoes that have caused untold damage over the millennia. The only way to really understand the power of a volcano is to witness it in the flesh. That's why Germany-based outfitter Volcano Discovery offers 18-day vulcanologist-guided trips through the heart of Java.

Participants visit more than half a dozen live volcanoes, kicking the trip off by sailing up to Krakatoa, which exploded in 1883 and tore the former island to shreds. During the following weeks, they camp on Rakata Island's shores, soak in hot springs, hike up to peer into craters, and, if they're lucky, watch as an active volcano spews glowing hot lava down its shoulders. They also see the lasting effects of these cataclysmic eruptions, including lunar-like landscapes of ash fields, lava flows, turquoise lakes, steaming craters, and simmering mud pools. It's all a distinct reminder of the Earth's internal, ever present inferno.

Volcano Discovery offers 18-day Volcanoes of Java tours from $2,723, including accommodations, transportation and meals (www.volcanodiscovery.com).

At the cold upper reaches of the Atlantic, Iceland is marked by the fiery wrath of volcanoes and the cool precision of steamrolling glaciers. It's also a spot of remarkable instability, situated right on top of the rift between the North American and European tectonic plates. Dubbed Silfra, the fissure is filled with water that, melted from glaciers and filtered through lava fields, is some of the clearest on the planet, often topping 300 feet (91 meters) of visibility. Though the water barely scrapes above freezing, it's a favorite among divers.

The dive starts on a nondescript platform in the barren tundra of Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. There, divers squeeze into down-lined drysuits and plunge into the water. Few visible creatures live down there other than the occasional trout. Instead, the appeal is the experience of slipping between two of the Earth's great bones, witnessing the fissure's cathedral-like formations, and watching a light show of sunbeams filtering through the rocks and water.

Post-dive, emulate the Icelandic people, who spend much of the 20-plus hours of summer daylight in their wild and sparsely populated wildernesses. Raft the Class III Hvita River, scramble through a kilometer-long cave, hike to remote waterfalls, and discover the perfect accompaniment to cold-water diving in Skaftafell National Park: remote, wilderness hot springs bubbling up from the Earth's internal oven.

Arctic Adventures offers two-tank dives in Silfra for $248, including equipment and transportation from Reykjavik (www.adventures.is) as well as rafting, caving, glacier hiking, mountain biking, whale watching, and canoeing trips. The Iceland Tourism Board can provide information on other activities (www.visiticeland.com).

Arguably some of the most entertaining parts of watching the Winter Olympics are the wipeouts. In 2010, Whistler's famed Dave Murray Downhill, host of the men's alpine skiing events, caused notably spectacular ones. The second longest downhill course in the world, it drops more than 3,000 feet (914 meters) in less than a mile and has hosted World Cup races since the 1970s. To reach the speeds of 75 miles an hour (120 kilometers and hour) that racers routinely hit, skiers have to literally straight-line it, an approach that on any other day risks a slashed ticket. But cruising down it at less than breakneck speed (as most people do) offers a look at some of the storied features, like the Toilet Bowl, a steep rollover that flushes even elite racers down the hill.

Whistler's allure reaches further than its racing prowess, however. Combined with Blackcomb mountain, the resort has one of the greatest vertical drops–a full mile–of any resort in North America, more than 200 trails, 37 lifts, and 400 inches (10 meters) of annual snowfall. The area is so huge, it has something for every flavor of skier, from steep chutes to mellow groomers, thickly treed runs to a wide-open glacier that stays open through the summer. Come evening, what makes Whistler a world-class ski town becomes abundantly clear: The streets and bars fill with snow lovers from as far away as Chile, New Zealand, Korea, and Switzerland.

Lift tickets at Whistler Blackcomb cost $86 per day or less when buying multiple days (www.whistlerblackcomb.com). Tourism Whistler can help arrange accommodations and travel arrangements (www.whistler.com).

The Inca had a knack for pinpointing South America's most dumbfoundingly beautiful places, unlike Western explorers. A case in point: Machu Picchu, a lost city tucked deep in Peru's tropical mountain forests that wasn't "discovered" by Hiram Bingham until 1911. Thousands of trekkers go on pilgrimage along the Inca Trail every year to witness the mountaintop ruins enshrouded in mists, but only a few choose the newer alternative trail: the Salcantay Route. Winding around 20,000-foot (6,096-meter) peaks, along verdant riversides, and through bucolic coffee plantations, orchards, and thatched-hut villages, the 39-mile (63-kilometer) route traverses 15 ecosystems and tops out at over 15,000 feet (4,572 meters). The grand finale is a view of Machu Picchu from the southwest, one that few tourists see. Many backpackers camp along the way, but for those who prefer to travel like Inca royalty, there are remote luxe ecolodges along the trail. There, the answer to sore legs is a hot tub, a goose-down bed, a hearty organic cuisine, and a stupefying view of the Inca's sacred snow-crowned peaks.

Mountain Lodges of Peru runs seven-day trips between four ecolodges along the Salcantay Route, including guides, pack horses, food, and lodging ($2,850; www.mountainlodgesofperu.com).

Aconcagua is the siren of the mountaineering world: The tallest peak in South America at 22,841 feet (6,962 meters), her beauty, height, and two nontechnical routes woo even the inexperienced. But don't be fooled. It's a serious climb that is routinely very windy and very cold and requires calculated acclimatization. But among the seven summits, it is one of the most straightforward ascents, and unlike walk-up Kilimanjaro, its shorter season (December to March) attracts fewer crowds.

From Mendoza, Argentina, the entire trip takes about 20 days and offers a survey of South American landscapes. Muleteers pack in equipment, as trekkers travel through high desert, over rocky alpine areas, and past glaciers. All the while, the gargantuan mountain looms in the distance with the hardest section right before the summit block: an impossibly steep, 800-vertical-foot (244-vertical-meter) lung-buster of a gully, Canaleta. The weather and conditions on Aconcagua are remarkably unpredictable–some climbers encounter ice and wear crampons; others snap glory shots on the summit in T-shirts. But it's arguably Aconcagua's mercurial personality that helps place it among the world's great peaks–and offers those climbers who reach the tallest point in South America the rare feeling of transcendence.

Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. offers 24-day climbing trips from Seattle for $4,200 per person (www.rmiguides.com).

Beyond its white-sand beaches and beneath its lush forests, the Yucatán Peninsula resembles Swiss cheese. That's good news for divers: The area's cave-pocked limestone, filled with fresh blue water, offers a world of subterranean diving. And because the cenotes around Playa del Carmen are warm, wide, and relatively shallow, certified divers without specialized training can explore them, making the area one of the world's foremost cave-diving locales.

Here, popular holes like Dos Ojos offer a window into the Earth's belly: stalactites formed over millennia hang from the ceiling, fossils hide in the corners, and holes in the rock bring in a laser show of electric blue and green light. Delving deeper into the caves–past the signs with death warnings, skulls, and crossbones–requires an advanced cave diver certification, but no matter. Even within a few hundred feet of the surface, the cenotes offer a glimpse into what the Maya believed were the sacred passageways to the underworld.

Dive Cenotes, based in Playa del Carmen, offers guided two-tank dive tours of cenotes for certified divers ($100; www.divecenotes.com). Divers need special cave diving certification to leave the external cavern to explore the caves.

Stretching about a thousand miles south from San Diego like a delicate thumb, the Baja California peninsula has long beckoned bikers with its pleasant weather, minimal traffic, and remote, undeveloped coastline. Here, long stretches of wild desert are punctuated only by views of the coast, cactus forests, and lanky boojum trees sprouting out of the Earth like Dr. Seuss creations. Every so often, a surf shack, stuck-in-time fishing village, or sleepy artist community crops up.

The route, which largely follows Mexico's Highway 1, is not without its challenges: Seemingly suicidal truckers scream down the highways, dust storms kick up in the winter, and if you're heading anywhere but south, headwinds can cause heartbreak. But the thrill of discovery and the utmost feeling of freedom in this still wild land generally outshine the difficulties. And often, it's what lies beyond the bike that is most rewarding, like catching a glimpse of migrating whales right from shore, finding the perfect beach campsite, or enjoying fish tacos and a Cerveza Pacífico next to the crashing sea.

Cyclists wishing to bike the length of Baja are best advised to read reports from others who have followed the route recently; these can be found on www.trentobike.org and www.crazyguyonabike.com. Baja California's website (www.discoverbajacalifornia.com) and Baja California Sur's website (www.turismobcs.com) offer information for tourists. For those with less time, Backroads, a biking outfitter, offers five-day hiking and biking trips along Baja's Sea of Cortez and Pacific coasts for $1,998 per person (http://www.backroads.com/trips/MBJQ/baja-mexico-biking-hiking-tour).

Most avid sailors share one overarching goal: to skipper their own boat. Beyond that, the similarities end. Some seek to travel an ocean, others along a coast, and still others wish to circumnavigate an archipelago. Meghan Cleary, a former American Sailing Association staffer who is currently sailing from Los Angeles to New York through the Panama Canal, believes every sailor needs to get far enough from shore that she can't see it anymore—at least once. "There's nothing out there–nothing," she says. On the way to the opposite coast, Cleary will encounter migrating blue whales, porpoises, sharks, and ocean sunfish. She'll pass miles of mountainous coast, empty white-sand beaches, and rarely visited fishing villages. She'll stop to visit the Kuna Indians, who live in peaceful cultural isolation on Panama's San Blas Islands, and to see monkeys and iridescent butterflies in Costa Rica. "On a boat, you get to see coastal communities no one ever sees or goes to," she says. "It's the coolest way to see another culture."

A months-long trip requires ample preparation and, likely, a sabbatical, but sailors can get a small taste of such an expedition with a week-long bareboat charter in a windy spot like the Grenadines (pictured). At the helm of one's own boat, the options are limitless: snorkel in glowing turquoise shallows, explore uninhabited islets, stop at deserted beaches, and fall asleep to the gentle rhythm of the swells against the hull.

The American Sailing Association (www.american-sailing.com) lists schools across the country that teach sailors how to skipper their own boats. From St. Vincent in the Grenadines, Barefoot Yacht Charters rents sailboats and catamarans to licensed sailors from $1,050 per week and offers crewed yacht charters from $4,970 per week (www.barefootyachts.com).

If it weren’t for Darwin, the Galápagos Islands might have remained in obscurity with their wealth of odd, indigenous, and fearless wildlife. His evolutionary theories helped land the archipelago on the tourist map, but the great scientist missed out on one of the most stunning landscapes of the Galápagos: its underwater realms. The islands, 600 miles (966 kilometers) from the coast of Ecuador, receive both warm and cold currents, with the Antarctic upswelling, sending a smorgasbord of marine nutrients, attracting a gold mine of marine life.

Here divers see penguins next to tropical reef fish, families of sea lions, and the rare red-lipped batfish in the hundreds. Most divers come, however, to see the preponderance of megafauna. During prime viewing season (July to October), divers swim with hundreds of scalloped hammerhead sharks and spot dozens of bus-size whale sharks. (And yes, they're both harmless.) Live-aboard boats are the best mode of transportation, and the Galápagos Aggressor is one of the few that offers both dives and land-based stops. In the morning, passengers spot blue-footed boobies and prehistoric-looking tortoises on these remote islands; by afternoon, they Zen out amid a panoply of sharks, their jagged bodies silhouetted against the glowing blue of the sea beyond.

The Galápagos Aggressor offers seven-night live-aboard boat trips that stop for land visits on three islands and dives off five islands (from $4,495 per person; aggressor.com).

A fair warning: While trekking the 100-mile (161-kilometer) circuit around Mont Blanc, it's almost impossible not to break out in The Sound of Music tunes. The scenery is postcard perfect: between gingerbread Alpine villages lie sprawling meadows surrendered to wildflowers, some of Europe's last glaciers, and iconic vistas of one of the continent's most storied mountains and the birthplace of Western mountaineering. It's also one of the few places where trekkers can walk between countries–France, Switzerland, and Italy (pictured)–and through both rugged wilderness and world-class ski towns such as Chamonix and Courmayeur. Do as the European trekkers do; their approach to mountain travel strikes a perfect balance between challenge and comfort. At the end of a day of 4,000 vertical feet (1,219 vertical meters) of hiking, stream crossings, and rampant photo snapping, stay in a mountain hut and relive the adventures with friends over hearty soups, homemade bread, and a spot of Chianti.

Gap Adventures offers ten-day accompanied treks for strong hikers on the Mont Blanc circuit ($1,349; www.gapadventures.com).

In the Grand Canyon, rafters hear rapids long before they see them. It starts as a low hum, turns into a rumble, and finally grows into a heart-stopping roar echoing off the canyon walls. The sheer ferocity of the rapids, which often hide waves nearly 20 feet (6 meters) high and hydraulics that flip boats like burgers, is just one reason why the Grand Canyon is unanimously the country's top rafting trip. It's also one of the longest commercially run wilderness river trips, winding 226 miles (364 kilometers) without crossing even a dirt road. And it's one of the most spectacular, slicing through two billion years of geology, color-coded in thousand-foot cliffs.

A little known fact is that the rapids are big but forgiving–over three-quarters of rafters' injuries occur on shore–and many experienced rowers propel themselves down the river. Private trips afford the luxury of time–up to three weeks–and choosing one's own company and pace. But they also offer something less tangible: the transformative power of charting your own line down the West's greatest waterway. On these long human-powered trips, rafters discover that the river's real magic is found in the quietest of moments: the discovery of centuries-old Anasazi ruins and rare cactus blooms, the comfort of a campfire flickering off the cliffs, and, when the river calms to glass, the echo of even a whisper off the canyon walls.

It can take weeks or years to secure a permit to self-run the Grand Canyon through the Park Service's weighted lottery permitting system. Sign up at the national park's website (www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/weightedlottery.htm) and keep trying–the system favors the persistent. In the meantime, take a whitewater rowing course such as O.A.R.S.' seven-day clinic on the Rogue River ($1,177; www.oars.com). To help plan a Grand Canyon trip, enlist a river outfitter like Moenkopi Riverworks, which rents rafts and equipment, buys and packs food, and runs shuttles (pricing varies; www.moenkopiriverworks.com).

Sweden makes an ideal adventure-racing venue for many reasons, chief of which is its preponderance of summer daylight. For racers tackling Explore Sweden in July, that translates to nearly 24 hours of nonstop action that can stretch as long as 670 miles (1,078 kilometers) and take between four and seven days. Though Sweden's terrain is mellower than that of other locales, the race attracts a flock of strong international teams, who, in the last six years, have transformed it into something rare: a world-class competition open to anyone.

What levels the playing field is that racers never know what to expect. Each year, the race organizers get creative, coming up with a new route and a new set of activities. In 2010, racers traveled 520 miles (837 kilometers) from Norway's high peaks, down through Sweden's river valleys, and to the Baltic coast, trekking, mountaineering, kayaking, mountain biking, and rappelling along the way. Past races have taken participants canoeing, sailing, and what the Swedes call "coasteering," or traveling sections of dramatic coastline by any human-powered means, such as swimming, paddling, and climbing. The diversity ensures that those who complete all disciplines and limp across the finish line after days of nonstop movement will have some serious bragging rights.

Explore Sweden is open to any four-person team willing to pony up the $3,500 entry fee (www.exploresweden.se).