--The SPOT GPS emergency tracking unit has its place in the outdoors, but it should not take the place of a well thought out emergency plan. A small team of climbers on the Wedge Glacier near Whistler Mountain used a SPOT locater on Monday night to call for help. A member of their team suffered a broken leg. Members of the team activated the locator and then left their partner to catch a good night's sleep down at the hut. When asked why they did this, they asked a question back: "Why should we all be cold?" To read about the rescue, click here. To read a forum discussion on the topic, click here.
--A Portland woman fell to her death last Thursday while approaching the Backbone Ridge on Dragontail Peak. Andrea Basque, 45, suffered a 300 foot fall while climbing a moraine below the route that she'd done just a week before. To read more, click here and here and here.
--The Seattle Times published an interesting article this week about mountain guides on Mount Rainier and their quest to beat each others times to the top. The current record is 4 hours, 49 minutes and 35 seconds. To read more, click here.
Europe:
--Two Colorado based climbers suffered a fatal fall on the the Matterhorn last week. It appears that Vince Bousselaire, 53, of Golden and a 57-year-old woman from Boulder whose name has not been released, became disoriented in a storm and fell. To read more about this, click here.
--Dean Potter -- super-climber, super-slack-liner, and super-BASE jumper -- did a very Dean Potter thing in early August. The 36 year-old climber free-soloed a very difficult overhanging limestone route on the Eiger with nothing more than a BASE jumping rig attached to his back. To read more, click here.
Himalaya:
--The mainstream media -- including the New York Times -- has reported heavily on the horrible accident on K2 that claimed eleven lives. Climbing writer Freddie Wilkinson feels that many contributing factors to this accident have been ignored or misreported. To read his article, click here.
--Italians Herve Barmasse and Simone Moro recently made the first ascent of Beka Brakai Chhok (22,769'). This peak, found in the Karakoram's Batura Group was climbed in a 43 hour push alpine-style. The team encountered extremely difficult terrain that included sections of exposed and poorly protected climbing. To read more, click here.
--The controversy about the Olympic Torch on Mount Everest continues. A Nepalese blog, Blogdai, reports that the footage of the Chinese on the summit of Mount Everest is suspect and might have been faked. They identify a number of factors that lead to this conclusion:- Teams that summitted after the Chinese found no new flags or mementos on the summit.
- The old prayer flags that are commonly seen in photos on top of Mount Everest were absent in the photos and video.
- In the video, people are carrying on a conversation behind the cameraman. They are speaking in long sentences without taking a breath. This would be an incredible feat at 28,000 feet.
- And most compellingly, the footage shows fog-like steam coming from the climbers' mouths. There is no rime-ice present on their collars. And indeed, this phenomenon is categorically uncommon in the high dry air of an 8000 meter peak.
Notes From All Over:
--Chris Pazder, of Helena, Montana, was killed in a fall while traversing the ridge between the South Teton and Cloudvieil Dome in the Grand Teton National Park. Pazder was crossing the south side of Gilkey Tower when he slipped and fell 800 feet to a ledge on the north side of Avalanche Canyon. To read more, click here.
--The Wall Arch on the Devil's Garden Trail in Arches National Park in Utah collapsed this week. The combination of an easy trail and a beautiful vantage point made the Wall Arch one of the most photographed in the park. This is the first major collapse of an arch since parts of the Landscape Arch fell off in 1991. To read more, click here.
--It is now illegal for climbers -- or anyone else for that matter -- to carry their WAG bags or poop tubes or pee bottles or carabiners in Denver. The new city ordinance is designed to keep people from using human waste for nefarious purposes during the Democratic National Convention. This is understandable, but carabiners? Somebody didn't do their homework. To read more, click here.
--Jason Thompson, Seth Waterfall and Tyler Jones recently made the first ski descent of Mount Shkhara (17,063') in the Caucasus mountains of the Republic of Georgia. The small team of skiers was able to make this historic descent in part due to a Hans Saari Memorial Fund grant. To read more, click here.
--Two strong teams knocked off the tallest remaining unclimbed peaks in the Russian Pamir mountains in early August. Korumdy East (20,944') and Peak Chiringyad (19,238') offered difficult and remote terrain to each of the teams. To read more, click here.
--Bigfoot researchers claim to have found the body of a bigfoot in Northern Georgia. They plan on presenting a photo of the body as well as DNA evidence to prove the existence of the creature at a press conference tomorrow. Weird that they're not bringing the body to the press conference...isn't it? To read more, click here.
