NORTHWEST:
--A massive mudslide washed over the Icicle Creek Road this week. Campgrounds beyond the 15 mile point may be completely inaccessible over the busy Memorial Day weekend. To read more, click here.
--The Paradise Inn on Mount Rainier re-opened on Friday after a two-year renovation. To read about it, click here.
--Hugh Herr is extremely well known here in the Pacific Northwest for being the second person to free climb City Park, a 5.13c finger crack in Index. It was a controversial ascent though. You see, Hugh is a double amputee. Some tried to disparage his ascent. They tried to call it aid because he had special feet made in order to climb the crack. To read his back story, click here. Hugh is in the news again because he is designing special feet for a double amputee who wants to compete in the Olympics. To read about it, click here.
ALASKA:
--AAI Denali Team I summited on May 18th!
--AAI Denali Team II is currently at the 14,000 foot camp.
--The AAI Ice Ager expedition on Denali has reached Camp I. They intend on moving up to a camp between Camp I and Camp II at 10,500 feet today.
--Zoe Hart and Maxime Turgeon just completed the first all female ascent of Mount Hunter's Deprivation. To read about this incredible ascent, click here. A second report written by Turgeon can be found here.
NOTES FROM ALL OVER:
--An online Altitude Simulator was recently launched here. The highly sophisticated medical simulation allows viewers to watch all the changes that take place in the body as one gets higher and higher in the mountains. It's kind of techy, but really cool!
--A pair of strong climbers completed a new route on Ama Dablam in early May. Free Tibet 2065 ascends the face between two Japanese routes, the first put up in 1985 and the second in 1980. The new Grade V+ route climbs a 1500 meter feature with hard M5+ 80 degree climbing throughout. To read about the climb, click here.
