Tag Archive for 'Worldwide'

78 Year Old British Skier Breaks the Record Books

Published on Friday, May 30, 2008 in News and Ski. 0 Comments Tags: Adventure, Great Britain, Record, Skiing, Worldwide.

This is a pretty amazing story. Norma Rowlerson took up skiing pretty late, when I say pretty late, I mean at the age of 51. And it may have taken her a while, but in the last 27 years she’s become the first ever female and first ever Brit to ski in all seven continents. Let’s face it, that puts all of us to shame.

Hailing from Crowborough in East Sussex, Rowlerson’s first experience of skiing was in Austria on a family ski holiday at the age of 51. As an aspiring travel writer, she wrote a piece which was later picked up by The Telegraph and kick-started her journalistic career.

Travelling to unusual skiing spots and writing about her experiences there became a great trait for success. Rowlerson skiing repertoire includes Sicily’s Mount Etna, Mauna Kea in Hawaii (!) and Chacaltaya, Bolivia.

Finally managing to ski in all seven continents (and yes that included Antarctica and Australasia), she called the Guinness Book of Records to see if her feat had already been achieved. Amazingly she discovered not only to be the first female to break this record but also to be the first Brit.

Norma Rowlerson now has a book available, entitled ‘Downhill To The Top’ it charts all of her adventures around the world. It’s after hearing about stuff like this that makes you think, hey it’s never too late to do anything.

Her homepage can be found here: http://www.normaskier.com/

World’s Biggest Drawing

Published on Sunday, May 25, 2008 in General. 0 Comments Tags: Art, Flights, Gadgets, Worldwide.

I’m not too sure about this one; is this even possible? Erik Nordenankar created a self-portrait across the entire globe by sending a GPS tracking system through the skies, with a little help from DHL.

The World's Biggest Drawing by Erik Nordenankar

How was it done? By using a GPS tracking system with bespoke software that traced its own movements onto a map. This GPS was then sent around the world, in a briefcase, via DHL’s transport systems to create the image.

The briefcase became my pen and the world became my paper

Nordenankar modestly noted. I can imagine something like this takes an immense amount of planning and an unimaginable amount of co-operation with DHL, which is what makes me suspicious. Nonetheless, the video on the world’s biggest drawing website makes it that much more believable.

There’s even a list of all the directions for DHL to make the drawing possible. It’s all pretty amazing. More here: http://biggestdrawingintheworld.com/

Update: This has indeed now been confirmed as a hoax. Erik Nordenankar has been confirmed as a hoaxer after DHL revealed no such partnership took place and Nordenankar’s filming was allowed on the understanding that it would be for a college project on Stockholm warehouses. I still think it’s amazing to have the idea and to execute the hoax so incredibly. Well done Erik Nordenankar, I say.