Gecko & Carinthia

www.geckoclimbing.nl

Gecko Climbing is a small importer of quality brands like Boreal and Carinthia and smaller specialized brands like Trango Bleastone, Elliot ST, Acun & beta stick as well as their own brand Gecko Climbing. Owner Jort veen is a great guy, a strong climber himself and very enthusiastic. He has gone out of his way to make sure all our gear arrived ok and on time, thanks Jort!

Their mission is to make climbing more safe and pleasant for both individual climbers as well as professionals who work on height like arborists. To reach this goal Gecko climbing has the policy to deliver their customers with all the information and service they need.

Boreal (www.e-boreal.com) has given us great discount on our boots, gracias Jesus!

Carinthia (www.carinthia-bags.com) has supplied us with specially made sleeping bags as well as great light downjackets that we have been using a lot. Owner Wolfgang personally has altered some models to make sure we will not be too cold! Vielen dank, Wolfgang!

SLEEPING BAGS

40 years CARINTHIA thermo isolation

Whether in the far north of Canada, the South Pole, the peaks of the Himalayas, the African desert or the Austrian Alps, having the right sleeping bag makes a big difference to the success of an expedition.

We are aware of the responsibility we bear.Our company, CARINTHIA, has been manufacturing synthetic and down fillings for more than 40 years.

CARINTHIA outdoor wear

In this catalogue again we proudly present our newest developments for our new product range CARINTHIA OUTDOOR WEAR and other current products.

SLEEPING BAGS AND OUTDOOR WEAR

ElephantDrive

www.elephantdrive.com

Nowadays a cycle trip is so much more than just a way to go from A-B. We make photos, maintain blogs, and film. All this digital material can get lost, broken or stolen, the nightmare of a photographer/filmer & writer like me.

I do have a small external harddrive, but likely it will get broken or stolen together with the gear it was trying to back-up. If you have sensitive data (who hasn’t?) the first thing to do is to download security software to Lock folders in Windows Vista, XP, NT, ME and 98 – this will prevent stolen data/drives being abused.

But then you still lost it yourself, so you will also need an additional back-up. After searching (and testing a few that did not work very well) I found the easiest and best online back-up solution.

Michael Fisher from ElephantDrive was intrigued with our trip and offered me a free Elephant drive for a year. I love how the system works and how you can just use your online drive as if it was part of your laptop.

I have no problem making some more promotion for it as it is a great solution for everybody and I definitely think that ElephanDrive is the best there is.

ElephantDrive is a simple, secure, and powerful online backup and storage service. Here is how it works:

First – Create an Account

You begin to use ElephantDrive online backup and storage first by creating your
ElephantDrive account

Second – Download the ElephantDesktop

Once you’ve created your account, download the easy-to-install
ElephantDesktop.

Third – Access and Manage Your Data

You can use the ElephantDesktop to quickly, easily, and securely upload or backup your files and folders.

Your uploaded files are protected by strong encryption and stored in hardened, professionally managed datacenters with state of the art security and environmental protections. You can access your files from
anywhere in the world, at anytime.

Learn more about our security policies and practices!

Learn more about the pricing and features of Home users!

Learn more about the pricing and features of Business Users!

My hard drive failed. I freaked. I had all the pictures and video of my
son on that computer. Thank God for ElephantDrive – I was able to get them all back.

– Inge I.
Marina Del Rey, CA
SIMPLE, SAFE AND SECURE BACK UPS

How we keep your data safe and secure

How we keep it moving fast

How sub-accounts work

Do more than store!

Secure 128-bit SSL transferInformation sent from you to ElephantDrive is protected by the same system that banks and financial institutions use to secure their transactions. Advanced 256-bit AES encryptionBefore transfer, your files are encrypted with the preferred algorithm of the U.S. government (approved for “Top Secret” use by the NSA).

Innovative delivery technologyOur engineers have designed an advanced, proprietary system for maximizing your available bandwidth while minimizing the effects on your system Differential backupsElephantDrive recognizes which files are new or have been modified so that after your first backup competes, all future backup will go much faster.

Workgroup Sub-AccountsThe Workgroup sub-accounts are ideal for sharing information among a small team or organization. Each one has its own credentials but all can see the shared data. Independent Sub-AccountsThe Independent sub-accounts are totally private. They draw from the same storage allocation, but only the Independent account holder can see the data.

Secure SharingUse ElephantDrive to transfer large files securely to your colleagues, friends, and family. Universal accessEvery file you store at ElephantDrive is available in real time, all the time. Unlike other services that archive your data away, you can get anything you need immediately!

1GB Free storage. No credit cards, no monthly payment, no expiration.

Unlimited Online Backup and Storage

For Home Users

Unlimited online storage for your photos, music, video, documents, and all other valuable files you have! Pre-made categories and our simple wizard make sure that all your important data gets automatically backed up!

Plans start at $4.95/month
Learn More

For Business Users
Leading solution for automating the protection and secure access of critical data for businesses. Pro Edition is ideal solution for firms that need to the security of off-site backup or the flexibility of multiple accounts.

Plans start at $34.95/month
Learn More

Jacobsons & Ortlieb

www.jacobsons.nl

Jacobsons is a daughter of AGU. Jacobsons imports great cycling brands like Nalini, GripGrab, Carrera and many more, see below for an overview. When they heard about our plans they worked hard to get us all the gear we needed. Debby van Stiphout and former manager Mario Dominicus moved mountains and set us up with the perfect gear.

• For cyclists there is only one brand of panniers: Ortlieb (www.ortlieb.com). These are proven time after time and are the strongest and most durable panniers around.
• Carrera supplies beautiful and still fucntional eyewear and helmets
• Of course our Santos bikes already came with the only real racks available: Tubus
• I love good gloves and GripGrab delivers.
• For the first cold months, we are being kept warm by Brynje underwear

Lenovo laptops

Lenovo Computers

www.lenovo.nl

Lenovo is part of IBM computers. Their Thinkpad series is well known all over the world. When researching our optimal road warrior’s laptop, we stumbled upon a pressrelease announcing the new X300. It was light (3 pounds/1.5 kgs), had a solid state disk (so no spinning harddisk), but still managed to pack 3 USB ports, a DVD-reader/burner, a 1400x900px screen, 2gb RAM, a core duo processor, a fingerprint reader, an integrated webcam and much more under the hood (go here to see a full list of specifications). Connectivity is important and the combination of a HSDPA modem, WIFI and an Ethernet connection will be vital for us.

We noticed Lenovo also in another positive way. They are leaders in green computing:

Read more about the green program below.

When Bernie Pruissen, head of Marketing Europe, heard of our plans, he immediately supported us as lenovo is dedicated to ‘green computing’. The result: Lenny, our faithful recipient of thoughts and rants and hardworking processor of photograps and videos. This is what others say about Lenny

Beyond thin and light

Lenovo’s amazing new ThinkPad X300 ultraportable notebook is the thinnest ThinkPad ever – less than
19mm at its thinnest. It’s light too, just 1.4 kg.

But the X300 is more than ultra-thin and ultra-light. It’s
ultra-functional, too, thanks for available performance and convenience
features like these:

		Integrated DVD burner – Hard to find in an ultraportable Extended-life batteries – Get up to 10 hours unplugged Easy connectivity – Advanced wireless options plus Gigabit Ethernet Convenience – 3 USB ports, line in/line out, and more

Advanced components on the X300 include Solid State storage drives (with no moving parts, they consume less power and are considered less likely to break down than traditional hard drives). The X300 also offers several wireless connectivity options including integrated Wireless WAN and Wlan. Style-wise, the X300 is closer to the size of an actual paper notebook than a ThinkPad notebook has ever been. And it offers numerous design flourishes including a glossy bottom bezel, select illuminated buttons, and – for the first time in X Series – an integrated camera option and stereo speakers.

‘Greenest’ ThinkPad ever
		In addition, ThinkPad X300 is the first Lenovo notebook rated EPEAT Gold for low energy use and minimal impact on the environment. It also meets the European Union’s Reduction of Hazardous Substances standards. And it is Energy Star 4.0 qualified. The X300 uses 25% less energy than previous X Series models. What else makes the ThinkPad X300 so “green”? Energy-saving low voltage processors, LED backlit displays and solid state storage drives Arsenic-free glass / Mercury-free displays 90% recyclable packaging (by weight) And much more

Why choose energy efficient products

Environmental issues are becoming important to organisations and individuals alike. Energy efficient choices can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy costs for the user, without sacrificing features, style or comfort.

Lenovo’s role in combating climate changes

Lenovo is committed to providing environmentally responsible, energy-efficient technology choices. In 2007 Lenovo joined the Board of Climate Savers Computing to support the efforts in reducing the IT CO₂ emissions by 50% by 2010¹.

Move your mouse over the arrows to learn more		This is how we do it: All Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks, ThinkVision monitors and many ThinkCentre products launched from 2008 are Energy Star 4.0 compliant and have up to 70% energy efficiency improvement compared to older generation PCs. Lenovo systems that achieved EPEAT Gold rating also contain up to 90% re-usable and recyclable materials and their packaging is 90% recyclable. Lenovo Power Manager and BatteryStretch² technologies provide adjustable power management for better performance and longer battery life. Our end-to-end solution Lenovo in partnership with our alliances offer a complete environmentally responsible solution from buying back and recycling customers’ old PCs to providing them with new energy efficient Lenovo systems that help reduce energy consumption and electricity costs.

Energy efficient products

Lenovo has a range of energy efficient EPEAT Gold systems and monitors to suit the requirements of different types of customers.

Your choice

A small office network of just 2 PCs can use as little as 130 kWh or as much as 1300 kWh annually³. Consider the environmental impact and achievable cost savings by switching older generation PCs to the Lenovo Energy Star 4.0 compliant products.

By choosing to purchase more energy-efficient PCs, consumers and organisations can do their part to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change while also saving money.

De Vakantiefietser

De Vakantiefietser

www..vakantiefietser.nl

Eric Schuit is one of those people that has turned his hobby into work, but in a good way

He is an avid cyclist, has written several books and uses all his accumulated knowledge about bicycles in one of the most fun stores in the Netherlands: De Vakantiefietser.

All types and brands of bicycles can be bought as well as a range of books, maps, Ortlieb bags and other great gear you need for a perfect trip.

But the best Eric has to offer is his knowledge: as he still goes away to cycle in faraway places a few months every year, he definitely knows what he is talking about.

Thanks Eric for the advice and help you gave us!

www.vakantiefietser.nl

From his website:

De Vakantiefietser

De specialist voor je fietsvakantie
uitrusting – fietsen – reizen

English

The Holiday biker

The specialist for your bicycle trekking holiday
equipment, trekkingbicycles, travelinformation

Cycling is fun!

An increasing amount of people choose a sportive holiday under one’s own power. With the wind blowing trough your hair, enjoying the beauty surrounding you, you feel free as a bird on your bicycle. De Vakantiefietser helps you along with enthusiastic stories, a well fitted bike, practical equipment, advice and expertise.

Bicycle trekking equipment

From waterproof panniers to cycle maps, from gasoline burner to
down sleeping bags, from unbreakable carrier racks to self-inflating
mattresses and from breathable rain jackets to puncture proof tires, we
have everything in the house.
What to think of a headlight, waterproof socks, compact tool, bicycle
trailer, synthetic towels, luggage net, water bag, first aid set,
universal bath stop or camera stand for on your handlebar.

Holiday bicycles

What
kind of bicycle is suitable for you not only depends on the duration of your trip and the destination, but also on your budget. It makes quite a difference whether you are going on a world trip, or go on bike holiday to France.
That is why we have bicycles in different qualities and price
categories: idworx, Koga Miyata, Koga Signature, Santos, Snel, Van Nicholas and VSF. Besides that we are the specialist in The Netherlands for a trekking bike with Rohloff speed hub.
Delivery for a new bike is from one to eight weeks.

Cycle guides, maps and travels

In our book cupboards are hundreds of bicycle guides. Apart from Dutch guides, we also have German and English guides and travel stories. Our maps are especially selected for cyclists. So you will not leave our shop with a walking or car map.
On our coffee table there are (next to the ‘negerzoenen’) brochures of a number of cycle travel companies. We do not sell travels, but we can help you finding the most suitable travel organisation for you.

About Eric Schuijt

Eric Schuijt cycled through more than eighty countries and wrote four books about these travels.
In his shop, De Vakantiefietser, you can find your trekking bike, as
well as your complete bike trekking equipment and travels. All the
employees at De Vakantiefieter cycled all over the world. Eric and
his staff can serve you with their expertise because of many years of
experience with bike trekking.

Friend-of-Eric-card

You don’t want back and neck pains or painful wrists? On our
measuring frame we find your ideal frame size and the most convenient
adjustment of your bicycle. If you’re busy during our opening
hours, we can also serve you at a time that suits you better.
Every customer who buys a bicycle receives the Friend-of-Eric-card.
This entitles you to a discount on your travel equipment. And if you
have problems with your bicycle while you are on holiday, we will send
you the necessary parts.

Activities

Almost every Tuesday-evening we organise an activity in the shop like:

• Bicycle maintenance for when you’re on the way;
• Basic course bicycle maintenance;
• Workshop ‘preparations for a bicycle holiday’;
• Workshop ‘preparations for a long bicycle trip’;
• Readings about bicycle trekking from enthusiastic bicycle travellers

On this website

you can find information on

• Advise about equipment, bicycles and bicycle clothing,
• Tips for buying a trekking bicycle,
• Packing list,
• Agenda of activities,
• Travel impressions,
• Books and maps via internet,
• Links to websites which are interesting for trekking cyclists.

Everything is written in Dutch, but with the help of Babelfish, you can at least understand what I have written.

Address

De Vakantiefietser is located in the centre and is not far from the Central Station.

De Vakantiefietser
Westerstraat 216
1015 MS Amsterdam
Telephone 00-31-(0)20-616 4091
info@vakantiefietser.nl

Opening hours

Tuesday from 10:00 – 18:00 hrs
Wednesday from 10:00 – 18:00 hrs
Thursday from 10:00 – 21:00 hrs
Friday from 10:00 – 18:00 hrs
Saturday from 09:00 -17:00 hrs.

Due to Eric’s continuing cycle trips, the shop has limited opening hours in the months of november en december.

Free parking for cyclists

If you visit us, you can park your (trekking) bicycle save inside!

Route

Public transport from Amsterdam Central Station, tram 17, get off at stop Westerkerk, it’s a 400 m walk to our shop.

On cycling or walking-distance from Amsterdam Central Station.

Adventure Food

Adventure Food
www.adventurefood.nl

You need a real adventurer to tell how food tastes in extreme conditions like high altitude, freezing temperatures, blizzards or all mixed together. Hans van der Meulen is more than just a climber, he scaled Mount Everest & K2, Cho Oyu and Shishapangma as well as many other high peaks. He also went to the North and South Pole (both the long way).

He started his company AdventureFood as there was no tasteful freezedried food available for climbers and other adventurers. He designed new menus, mixes them all himself in his in-house factory and ships them all over Europe. I tested his food on Everest and many other mountains myself and can’t get enough of his easy to prepare but still very tasty meals.

Especially in Northern Alaska his meals are useful as there are no trees there to hang our food in. So we need sealed and relatvely odourless food, while still being tasty and plentoful. Adventurefood is the solution

Adventure Food, powered by Hans van der Meulen

It was my interest in nutrition and my experience of expeditions
which prompted me to put my heart and soul into Adventure Food. I learned the hard way, from first hand experience, about nutritional requirements in such extreme conditions, and I make constant use of this knowledge to make the range the best it can possibly be. You don’t realise how important nutrition is until you find yourself on a 70-day trek to the North Pole (the first Dutch expedition to the North Pole,
in 1997) or climbing an 8000m-high mountain (the first Dutch person to climb Mount Everest without additional oxygen, in 2002). I realise like no other that nutritional value, taste and ease of use are crucial to
completing such challenges. And now ‘everyday’ sportsmen and women can profit from this knowledge too by choosing Adventure Food! For more information about my expeditions go to:

www.hansvandermeulen.nl

• products
• shop finder
• company
• contact

Varied menu

Crunchy Muesli or a warm breakfast with cereals, fruit and nuts?
Would you like for lunch a substantial omelet? How about Walnut Pasta for dinner, or perhaps something more exotic like Rice Satay? For dessert, do you prefer Chocolate mousse?
With Adventure Food you will be able to create a different menu every day. Outdoor adventuring with the benefits of great cuisine!

Diets

Adventure Food also provides a selection of vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free dishes. After indicating your diet preferences an adapted menu will be shown.

You can indicate that you don’t eat:

• meat
• milk
• gluten

• soya
• nuts
• peanuts

All products may contain traces of milk, nuts and peanuts.

ExposedPlanet.com: fine art & posters

ExposedPlanet.com Fine art prints

As some of you know, I run a photoblog, called ExposedPlanet.com, the world exposed in words & Vision. if you have not visited it, do so now

It contains images from all 7 continents, of culture and nature, with some of my thoughts and comments added.

All images are available as stock image or as enlargements for private use. A selection of the images can currently be ordered online on Imagekind as poster prints, with or without frame and in different sizes and paper types. You can scroll through the available categories and images below, click here to buy them:

• Landscapes: Mountains, sunsets, places
• Life: Street scenes, daily life
• Smiles: Children’s portraits, smiling people & funny
• Spirituality: Monks, Prayer flags, Cathedrals, Mosques etc
• Russia: people & places
• Flora & Fauna: Tulips, animals

Contact me if you want others and I will add them.

Here is an overview of the most commented images on ExposedPlanet.com:

ExposedPlanet.com Fine Art Prints

Stock & Limited edition Fine art prints

Please contact me at info-at-exposedplanet.com for any special requests, like stock, book covers etc. All images are rights-managed and fee will depend on the usage, so please let me know: purpose, circulation, geography (country vs worldwide) etc.

Note that all poster and fine art prints do NOT have the URL in the picture as here on the ExposedPlanet.com site. This is just to prevent image theft and illegal copying and distributing of my online versions of the images, the prints will have the URL & image name printed on the coloured border only, not in the image, so if you want you can cut it off or put a matte over it.

Shops

Check out these cool products and show your love for the cyclists! Also for every product shipped, we get a small percentage, which is just a few cents, but it will help us another few miles!

• The cheapest way toi get cycling clothing & gear is to shop online. We have gathered all current online deals at the biggest online stores, see them here and grab your discount (updated constantly).
• For the best cycling books about and for bike travellers (in English or Spanish), DVD’s, cycling parts and even complete bicycles, check out Our Favorite Cycling Books shop
• For art inspired by cycling, visit our Cycling = Art shop, where you can order posters and have them framed to your wishes.
• If you are interested in buying high quality posters of my photos from ExposedPlanet.com (my website about the culture and nature of the 7 continents), you can see some examples here.
• And if you are interested in some cool cycling T-shirts or other wearables, check out the images below, every design can be printed on mugs, stickers t-shirts, babyclothes and much more.

create custom t-shirts at Zazzle
Happy shopping

Sponsors

A trip like ours needs a few basic things: first of all determination, but close second is good gear. It is no use trying to make do, for a good trip, you need good material.

Without the help of the following people and companies the trip would not have been possible. They have not only supplied us with the best gear available, but also have kept us focused on our first goal: to get started! Most if not all of the people are cyclists or sportsmen and -women and they have not just donated their products but also their time and enthusiasm, which is priceless .

• First of all our bicycles. No compromise here, we wanted the best as we will test them to the max. The only suitable solution is Santos Bikes. Our machines are the best and totally custombuilt. Please read more about Santos and its owner Robbert and their custom configuration tool here.
• A great new laptop, almost designed for our wishes was supplied by Lenovo laptops
• Outdoordacht has sponsored all types of gear, with the solarpanel being the ultimate green-travel tool
• There really is only one brand of panniers: Ortlieb. Their importer Jacobsons has worked hard to help us with all gear needed
• Gecko climbing is the importer of Carinthia, together they have supplied us with great sleeping bags and down jackets, to fight the harshweather of Alaska and Canada
• Mario Wolff is the importer of Vertical and has set us up with great and very usable clothing
• WorldNomads has sponsored a year of health insurance, get yours here as well, it really is cheaper and better, we also use it for our Everest expeditions!
• Elephant Drive has sponsored a year of free use of the Elephantdrive solutions, really a weight off our shoulders to know our back-ups are safe.
• AdventureFood has supplied us with great tasty meals to survive the first two weeks in the wild of Alaska
• De VakantieFietser has helped us with advice, gear and a sense of humour to get us started in the right direction

We are still looking for financial support as our trip is very costly, not just our daily cost of living, but also internet access, server hosting etc. any donations are welcome, or if you want us to give special attention to our products (of course only if they are useful for cyclists!) contact us using the form above.

If you are interested in related products and links, check out the Google advertisements that appear on every page as you will help us at the same time

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