It's New Year's Day and many outdoor enthusiasts are currently swinging their ice tools, cutting fresh tracks or pulling down on desert rock. The holidays are a good time to be a climber!Northwest:
--Tom Mix of Sequim, Washington, was recently selected as the state winner of the American Trails' National Trail Worker Award for 2008. He was
selected out of more than 200 nominees. The award is presented every two years to volunteers, professionals and other people who have worked to create a national system of trails. One award is given per state. Mix works with North Olympic Peninsula agencies to construct and maintain trails, plan trail work and recommend trail use and policy changes. To read more, click here and here.
--The Backcountry Horsement of Washington recently won more than $75,000 worth of grants for tools and safety equipment to help maintain 1,500 miles of trails in seven of Washington’s national forests. The grant was awarded by the state’s Recreation and Conservation Funding Board with monies from the National Recreation Trails Program, a source of federal funding for public trails in all 50 states. To read more, click here.
Sierra:
Sierra:
--A 21 year-old skier was killed in an avalanche on Christmas Day at the Squaw Valley Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe. This was the second in-bounds ski fatality of the season. Two weeks ago a young woman was killed in-bounds at Snowbird in Utah. To read more, click here.
Notes from All Over:
--The last few weeks have brought unprecidented bad news about the intended sale of the beautiful untouched desert just outside Arches and Canyonlands National Parks to interests in the oil and gas industry. And now we have a New Year's gift and a new hero to thank for it. Tim DeChristopher accessed the BLM auction of the parcels as a private bidder. He subsequently ran up the bids on many parcels by as much as $500,000 and secured the prime parcels around the National Parks for himself. DeChristopher does not have the money to pay for the parcels, but by the time it's all figured out, Barack Obama will be in the White House. The Obama transition team opposes the sale of these parcels. DeChristopher is facing possible federal charges, but he's happy that he disrupted the process...and so are climbers, hikers, mountain bikers, river-runners and hikers from across the country. To read more, click here. To donate to DeChristopher's defense fund, click here.
--The 27th of December was a very bad day for avalanches. Two snowmobilers were killed in Grand County, Colorado. And in a third in-bounds ski incident, a man was killed at Jackson Hole Resort in Wyoming.
