--The Access Fund announced this week that an option agreement to purchase the 20-acre private inholding at the Lower Index Town Walls of Snohomish County, Washington has been secured. This popular rock climbing area boasts several hundred quality granite climbing routes and is only an hour drive from Seattle. Its proximity to a major metropolitan area and its short 5-minute approach from the trailhead make this cliff line a popular after work or after school climbing destination for the Seattle-Everett area. To read more, click here.
--A small group of advocates are currently trying to expand the North Cascade National Park. Dubbed the American Alps Legacy Project, the effort to grow the park's boundaries is still in development. Maps of proposed areas for protection have been prepared, and now the conservation council and other advocates will begin reaching out to the public to see how the proposal should take final shape before it goes to Congress. To read more, click here.
--A climber suffered severe injuries to his face, arm and leg in a 500-foot fall last week on Mount Hood, sheriff's deputies said.The fall knocked the climber unconscious, but when reached by rescue teams, 54-year-old John Creager was in good spirits, according to Detective Jim Strovink, of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. To read more, click here.
--The mountain lakes in the backcounty of Washington state's North Cascades National Park are still covered in ice. The thaw usually doesn't come until early July. This year, however, a deadline comes along with the thaw. Unless Congress acts, the lakes won't be stocked by volunteers racing the clock through the wilderness with 5-gallon plastic containers of rainbow, cutthroat and golden trout strapped on their backs. To read more, click here.
--The Extreme Resolution project is a project wherein a photography company called xRex is creating high resolution photos of peaks and cities. The front of their website features a photo of Half Dome in Yosemite. The photos have such high resolution that you can zoom in to see the smallest detail. They are currently putting together a project to document the entire face of El Cap. To read about their new project, click here. To see their website, click here.
--A magnitude 4.7 earthquake rattled the area of the southern Owens Valley Saturday. Multiple significant aftershocks have followed since. To read more, click here.
--The decision on which roads on the Inyo National Forest to keep or which could face closure is expected this summer. The public comment period on the Inyo Forest route designation process ended March 31. Forest Supervisor Jim Upchurch is now expected to decide which of six alternatives for a road system to choose, possibly by the end of July. To read more, click here.
Alaska:
--It's been a hard and windy season on Denali this year, but despite that, the American Alpine Institute Denali Team 2 put three climbers on the summit this week. To read more, click here.
Denali from the Southwest--A strong pair of Brits climbed a hard pair of new routes in Alaska's Ruth Gorge. On May 10th, they climbed a line of ice runnels through steep granite slabs on the north face of Mt. Grosvenor. Then on May 14th, they climbed a new route on the north face of Mt. Church. To read more, click here.
Mount Redoubt from Ninilchik, AK, on May 9, 2009Photograph courtesy of Brenda Cruickshank.
The 2009 Redoubt eruption continues. Seismic activity remains above background levels and consists of small, discrete earthquakes in the summit region. The lava dome at the summit appears unstable and could fail with little or no warning. Dome failure would likely cause ash emissions to over 30,000 feet above sea level and possible lahars in the Drift River valley.Himalaya:
Web camera images today reveal cloudy conditions at the summit. No ash emissions have been observed in radar or satellite data.
AVO is monitoring Redoubt volcano closely and the observatory is staffed 24/7. AVO will provide frequent updates of the volcano's status and the earliest possible warning of significant explosive activity and other hazardous phenomena.
--Three men have appeared before magistrates charged with the manslaughter of the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Jonathon Tinker, Henry Todd and Michael Smith are accused of unlawfully killing Londoner Michael Matthews, 22, on the mountain in May, 1999. To read more, click here.
--A Sherpa from Nepal who holds the world's record for scaling Mount Everest 19 times said Monday that the planet's highest peak was littered with trash and warned that its glaciers were melting because of global warming. To read more, click here.
Notes from All Over:
--Firefighters on Monday gained ground on a wildfire in the western reaches of Joshua Tree National Park that forced the airlift rescue of a group of hikers, according to the federal Bureau of Land Management. To read more, click here.
--For a short period of time we thought that the gun ban in National Parks would hold up. That wasn't the case. On May 20th, the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of lifting the ban on concealed weapons in National Parks. To read more, click here. To read what the community is saying about this, click here.
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