I've been traveling a lot lately, which means, I'm way behind on my blog reading. This week, catching up on my blog reading lead me to the Outside Blog, one of my favorites.

The blog, written by the editors on everything associated with the outdoors, including gear, events, environmental news, and activities, is an excellent way (besides this blog) to keep abreast on outdoor news. This week they featured Daniel Woods, a 17-year old climber, who recently made the first ascent on Jade in Rocky Mountain National Park's Upper Chaos Canyon. The classifed V15 route had never been completed.

Daniel's dad and climbing partner, Steve Woods, describes the victory: "Daniel felt the crux move would be a matter of "luck" to stick. Once the hold was controlled, he still had to climb another section of V11, then it was just a victory sprint to the top of what he referred to as 5.11 climbing. The climb could only be attempted a few times a day before the crux hold punctured the fingertip. The night DW sent the problem, he was on his sixth try. The sun had gone down and he climbed by lantern light.

The blog also featured an interesting interview with Roz Savage, who, in a few weeks, will attempt to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific. And she's more than qualified. In the winter of 2005/2006, she rowed her 24-foot carbon fiber Sedna 3,000 miles across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Antigua.

On your website you say "inspiration struck" to row solo across the Atlantic. Was it slowly cooked or was it an a-ha moment?

It literally was a light bulb moment. I thought, 'Hey this materialistic lifestyle isn't really making me happy,' I was trying to figure out what life was all about. I had already quit my job, left my husband, and my Miata had been stolen, so luckily fate intervened and I didn't have to sell it. I was like a carpenter with no tools or wood. I needed a big project, something to work on. The project needed to have no environmental impact and it needed to be sufficiently unusual so that people would be willing to pay me money so that I wouldn't have to go back to the office.

Check out the Outside blog here and read more of Savage's interview here.