Friday Unbound: 27th July 2018

27th July 2018 | Words by Jack Hart @ WildBounds HQ

#1 Alex Honnold - free solo conqueror of El Capitan and climbing extraordinaire -is something of a legend in the adventure industry and, frankly, here at WildBounds HQ we're a bit in awe. So the fact that our favourite outdoor journal, Sidetracked, met and interviewed Honnold at one of our favourite climbing gyms, the Castle Climbing Centre in London, got us pretty stoked. Check it out.

#2 It makes sense that the outdoor and tech worlds are pretty closely intertwined - like with Land Rover's Explore phone - but it always amazes us how epic outdoor tech can get. Take Fatmaps: it's a new app that offers a richly detailed and three-dimensional mapping and GPS service for hikers and backpackers. As Outside Magazine say, it's basically Google Earth for hikers.

#3 Adventuring in the great outdoors only really has one major downside: packing. It's boring, you nearly always forget stuff and keeping it organised is a losing battle. Well, all except that last point - you see, Trakke have developed these neat packing cubes that introduce a semblance of order to your rucksack, whether you're going away on a business trip or a multi-day expedition. The rest of your packing woes will remain, we're afraid.

#4 Environmentalism is something we take pretty seriously - it's why we've just launched our Eco-Friendly Collection, to celebrate brands doing what they can to combat climate change. It's also why we were stoked to discover this analysis of sustainability in the outdoors industry by Adventure Uncovered, featuring experts from Finisterre and Gather Outdoors. It makes a whole lot of sense.

#5 Andrzej Bargiel has successfully completed a ski descent of K2 and we think it's kind of insane. That's a 28,251ft mountain that he's summitted and then skied down. It's his second attempt at the feat and has released GoPro and drone footage as proof. We're in awe.