I decided to start backpacking this year and with the help of my friend's dad (for supplies and gear) he and I did the west coast trail of pacific rim national park together at the old age of 17. We were definitely the youngest pair of hikers on the trail lol. We did it in 6 days, the last being short.
Mt Rinjani Indonesia was insanity! We had porters to carry our food and tents etc but it was still brutal. Much harder than the west coast trail, even without a proper pack. It's the 39th most topographically prominent mountain in the world, and it showed so. We had to climb from 500m to 3250m in five and a half hours, including lunch break. That's roughly 8000 feet. The next day we made the crater rim and went down into the crater, hit the hot springs while lunch was cooking and climbed up the other side of the crater in one go. I have never seen anything that steep that's actually climbable. It was absurd.
I really want do do some backpacking in Haida Gwaii and the north of Canada. Along with Glacier National Park and maybe something in Europe. Nevermind Nepal and India, they're priority on my next trip.
Has anyone read the book "the places in between" I believe it's by Rory Stewart? I just picked it up, the man's insane! He walked across Nepal, Northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran alone, aside from Afghanistan because he insisted to do it two weeks after the Al Qaeda fell out of power and it was the middle of winter. Absolute maniacal, brilliance.
