Climbing News from Here and Abroad -- March 19, 2009

Northwest:

--This weekend one of the biggest climbing festivals of the year will take place in Red Rock Canyon.  There is still a little bit of space at the sixth annual Red Rock Rendezvous.  American Alpine Institute guides will be teaching clinics throughout the festival.

AAI Guide and Scholarship Winner Dawn Glanc
Photo from the Dawn Glanc Collection

-Last week we announced that AAI Guide Kurt Hicks received an American Mountain Guides Association/North Face scholarship for full tuition to an advanced level guide's training course. This week we discovered that two more of our guides won AMGA Scholarships. Dawn Glanc collected an AMGA scholarship from Mountain Hardware and Forest McBrian collected one from Marmot.

AAI Guide and AMGA Scholarship Winner Forest McBrian
Photo from the Forest McBrian Collection

Sierra:

--The Eastern Sierra Wild Heritage Act, which could create over 400,000 acres of new designated wilderness on local lands, has hit a stumbling block in Washington.  Bundled up into a larger collection of bills known as the Omnibus Land Management Act of 2009, the larger bill has passed the Senate but was two votes shy of passage when the House of Representatives voted on the bill last Wednesday.  To read more, click here.

--With a stormy start to the month of March, snowpack numbers have crept toward normal.  As of March 10th, the LA Department of Water and Power website lists 35.4 inches of water in the snowpack at Mammoth Pass.  That's 90% of normal to date and 81% of normal for the season total.  To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--Sixty-seven year old Curtis "Woody" Stark was killed in Joshua Tree National Park on Sunday.  It appears that dehydration played a role in the fatality at the Great Burrito Rock.  Joe was well-known to the Southern California climbing community and will be missed.  To read more, click here.

--Young Sherpa conservationists are organising a race on June 18 to draw attention to the devastating effects of Global Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) in the Himalayas. The Beat the GLOF Action Run will be the highlight of the Imja Tsho Action Event 2009, and has been initiated by Nepali mountaineer Dawa Steven Sherpa. The race will demonstrate that even the fastest runner cannot escape from a GLOF, a flood which is caused when lakes formed by melting ice burst their natural dams. To read more, click here.

--In 1965, Congress created the Land and Water Conservation Fund to provide a steady source of money for the acquisition of threatened lands, the protection of significant landmarks and the expansion of outdoor recreational opportunities. The money would come from offshore oil and gas leases, giving the program an interesting symmetry: dollars raised from depleting one natural resource would be used to protect others. The program has rescued millions of acres from development. But it has never been allowed to live up to its potential. To read more, click here.

Petzl Pro-Traxion

--It appears that an October 17th fatality in Zion National Park was the result of an improperly closed Pro-Traxion device.  In an attempt the recreate the accident, National Park officials were able to sever a rope with the device and found it very easy to improperly load it.  To read more, click here.