Battered by both baggage-toting tour groups and climate change, the Himalayan mountains and wetlands struggle to maintain their high altitude identity.

The Green Hiker Campaign simply encourages all involved to help reduce their tourism baggage.

Of course, anything brilliantly named The Green Hiker has to be eco-friendly.

Photo by swamysk

Now Go Outdoors!

• Dream green with Vicki Godal as she glides about the planet detailing some of our world’s eco-tourism paradises. Here’s a taste:  “Hiking into the Patagonia mountains, fjords, volcanoes and ice fields are sure to keep ecotrekkers happy and awed at the beauty that is Patagonia.” Volcanoes and ice fields on a single trek!

Mountain Man

• How to be remembered? How to honor the admirable deeds of a full life that touched so many others? A portrait? Maybe a marble bust or a bronze statue? Surely anything more than just a grave marker.

How about a mountain.

Ira Spring passed away in 2003 at age 84. His legacy includes hiking guides, spectacular photographs, and the Washington Trails Association. And to honor this tireless wilderness advocate, the State Board on Geographic Names will rename Washington State’s Spring Mountain to the Ira Spring Mountain. Susan Gilmore of the Seattle Times details all here.

Now Go Outdoors!

Enjoy the BBC’s Bob Trevelyan’s account of hiking in the swirling turmoil that’s Lebanon. Neither the blazing sun nor the occasional blazing gun discourages the nascent ecotourism industry along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Now Go Outdoors!