Mount Hood in the Winter--A 45-year-old Mt. Hood climber suffered leg injuries after falling ice caused him to fall about 200 feet on Saturday, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. The experienced climber, who is also a Portland Mountain Rescue member, was ascending with two other climbers at 10:30 a.m. near the Hogsback at about the 10,000-foot elevation when the ice hit, said Jim Strovink, sheriff's office spokesman. To read more, click here and here.
--There have been at least five deaths on Aconcagua in the Argentinian Andes this season. One of those who died was northwest local, Arthur DeLisle of Edmonds, Washington. It appears that DeLisle was killed by rockfall while soloing. It is not clear which route the man was on when the accident took place. To read more, click here and here.
Sierra:
--There is not a lot of snow in the Sierra! Midway through January, the snowpack measurement at Mammoth Pass shows the water content of the snow to be about half of what is normal for this time of year. December ended big for Mammoth. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area shows 174” inches, or 14’ 6”, of snow for the year. The storms that brought 123” of snow to Mammoth Mountain in December were relatively cold leading to light powdery snow. While light fluffy snow is fantastic for skiing, it doesn’t pack as much water content as the famous “sierra cement,” type snow. The DWP website lists only 11.3” inches of water content for Mammoth Pass, 52% of long term mean for that important measuring site. Bishop Creek, Big Pine Creek and other sites all check in at about half the normal amount of snow for this time of year. To read more, click here.
Notes from All Over:
--A few weeks ago, an unusual climbing accident rocked the Australian climbing community. Nick Kaczorowski, known locally as Nick Kaz, was killed on Friday, January 2nd in an accident at Pierces Pass in the Blue Mountains. What's unusual about the situation is that the bolt that the victim was clipped to pulled out. What is absolutely terrifying is that local guide Simon Carter was able to pull out a number of other bolts on the route with his fingers! Carter wrote an article about the accident and about the bad bolts. To read the blog, click here.
A massive powder avalanche tears down a slope.--On the evening of Friday, January 16th someone broke into the Harvard Mountaineering Club's clubroom in Cambridge, Massachusetts and stole dozens of their rare books. It appears that several early American Alpine Journals were stolen, along with their entire collection of Die Alpen. If you run across someone selling a large collection of rare mountaineering books, please contact the Harvard Mountaineering Club.
Reinhold Messner--Italy's greatest living mountaineer, Reinhold Messner, came under fire on Monday for allegedly suggesting that climbers should not rope themselves together. Giving a television interview after four Italian climbers fell to their deaths on the French side of Mont Blanc on Saturday, Messner said it was possible to ''learn something from such accidents." To read more, click here.
--Height of Land Publications (HOL), owners of Backcountry and Telemark Skier Magazines, closed on a deal on Friday that lays the groundwork for the resurrection of Alpinist Magazine. Alpinist, a premium quarterly celebrating mountaineering and the climbing life, closed its doors this fall, just prior to the release of Issue 26. The new owners, HOL, plan to release Issue 26 on March 1, and will honor all current subscriptions. To read more, click here and here.
--Ines Papert and Cory Richards climbed a new ice route on the north face of Kwangde (19,721') in Nepal. The team sent the peak in a four and a half-day round trip. To read more, click here.
Uli Steck on his Eiger speed run. Beware, this video is in German,
but it is still well worth watching this world class climber move.
but it is still well worth watching this world class climber move.
--Uli Steck doesn't mess around. Just three weeks ago, he soloed the north face of the Grandes Jorasses in 2 hours and 21 minutes. On February 21st, 2008, he raced up the North Face of the Eiger in 2 hours and 47 minutes. Now the alpinist has climbed the North Face of the Matterhorn in 1 hour and 56 minutes. If there is an animal in the modern world of alpinism, then Uli Steck is surly it. To read more, click here.
--Last week, Climbing magazine announced the 2008 Golden Piton awards. This is the award that the magazine bestows for climbing achievement to individuals in a variety of climbing disciplines. A complete write-up on each of the winners will appear in Climbing #272. Following is a list of the winners.
- --Chris Sharma (sport)
- --Beth Rodden (trad)
- --Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato, and Katsutaka Yokoyama (alpine)
- --Tommy Caldwell (big wall)
- --Paul Robinson (bouldering)
- --Alex Honnold (solo)
- --Malcolm Daly (humanitarian)
- --Alex Johnson (breakaway success)
