Climbing News from Here and Abroad -- December 25, 2008

The Office Staff at AAI Wishing You a Merry Christmas!
From left to right: Emily, Ruth, Jason, Dunham and Dana

It's Christmas day and climbers all over the country are digging around under the tree for that gift that is just heavy enough to be climbing gear. Hopefully, Santa was good to you and you got that new cam or that new ice axe or that new avalanche transceiver. Hopefully, tomorrow you'll get to go out and play on the rock, the ice or the snow with your new equipment. And hopefully, the weather will cooperate!

A Climber's Christmas Tree
Click on the Photo to see all the Detail
Photo by Gerry Kollmuss

Northwest:

--Mike “Gator” Gauthier, a renowned ranger, member of the local climbing community and guidebook author, is leaving Mount Rainier National Park. Gauthier is leaving his position as the head of the park’s climbing program for a two-year fellowship in Washington D.C. The ranger has accepted a post with the U.S. Senate’s National Parks Sub-committee. To read more, click here and here. To see what the climbing community is saying about this, click here.

--Washington State is in the same mess as the rest of the country, there are significant budget shortfalls. Governor Chris Gregoire proposed a state budget last week that slashed nearly $3.5 billion dollars and avoided tax increases. Among the cuts were the budgets for 13 state parks. The closing of these parks is predicted to save the state $5.2 million dollars. To read more, click here. The Seattle Times listed the following parks as slated for closure:

Osoyoos Lake State Veteran's Memorial Park: 47-acre camping park in Okanogan County.
Brooks Memorial Park: 700-acre camping park between the hills of the south Yakima Valley and the Simcoe Mountains.
Schafer State Park: 119-acre camping park on the Satsop River, between Olympia and Ocean Park.
Bogachiel State Park: 123-acre camping park along the Bogachiel River on the Olympic Peninsula.
Tolmie State Park: 105-acre marine day-use park on Nisqually Beach, near Olympia.
Fay Bainbridge State Park: 17-acre marine camping park on Bainbridge Island.
Fort Okanogan State Park: 45-acre day-use park overlooking the Columbia River.
Wenberg State Park: 46-acre camping park on Lake Goodwin, Snohomish County.
Fort Ward State Park: 137-acre marine park on Rich Passage, Kitsap County.
Joemma Beach: 122-acre marine camping park on southeast Key Peninsula, Pierce County.
Kopachuck State Park: 109-acre marine and camping park on Henderson Bay, Pierce County.Lake
Sylvia State Park: 233-acre camping park in Grays Harbor County.
Old Fort Townsend State Park: 367-acre marine camping park on Port Townsend Bay.
--The road salt and deicer used on the state's roadways is having a seriously detrimental effect on mountain birds. These products tend to disorient finches and other small, seed-eating birds that ingest them as they peck for grit. That, in turn, makes them roadkill when they're hit by snowplows and other vehicles. The best thing that people can do to avoid killing these birds is to avoid assumptions. Don't assume that they will just fly away as you get close. Instead, slow down and allow them to fly away. To read more, click here.

Sierra:

--An avalanche caught a ski patroler last weekend at the Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort. The patroler was in the process of cutting the slope, when the avalanche ripped him off his feet. To read more, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--Last week it snowed in Joshua Tree National Park. This is something that almost never happens. Many comments concerning this and the park's subsequent closure made it to the Internet. An individual who calls himself Frosty the Climber, posted the following photo and poem from Joshua Tree:


Frosty the climber was a jolly happy soul,
With a BD axe and a mushroom nose
And two eyes made out of bolts (hangers).
Frosty the climber is a fairy tale, they say,
He was made of snow but the children Know
how he came to life one day.

There must have been some magic in that
Old petzl helmet they found.
For when they placed it on his head
He began to send some routes.

--There are some great old stories from the yesteryear of Red Rocks on supertopo this week. It is our suspicion that these were developed for Alpinist...but now that the resources is gone, these great stories have been placed on the internet. To read them, click here.

Notes from All Over:

Santa's Expedition Gear

--Rockclimbing.com recently sponsored a photo competition for Sierra Designs sleeping bags. They are now in the process of taking votes on the finalists. Some of the photos are very funny. Others are very naughty. To see them and to vote, click here.

--This is little photo essay has been making its way around the outdoor community. A photographer in Canada got a little careless and allowed a polar bear to get too close. He thought he could duck inside his car, but didn't have time. Instead, the bear chased him around the car repeatedly, trying to catch him. Polar bears are incredibly dangerous animals. This is a young bear. A full grown Polar Bear could peel the door right off a car. It would offer literally no protection. This series of photos is from a hunting website entitled, blackbearheaven.com.