--Rescue crews have reached nine hikers that spent two nights stranded on Mount Index, just over the Snohomish/King County line off Highway 2. Detective Kathleen Decker with the King County Sheriff's Office says all of the hikers are stuck on a ledge and will have to rappel down to the trail. To read more, click here.
--A dog that fell over a cliff along the Pacific Crest Trail in Snoqualmie Thursday was rescued in an effort you normally think would be reserved for humans. But in fact, it's with humans in mind that the elaborate rescue took place. According to the Washington State Animal Response Team (WASART), a couple was hiking along the trail Thursday night. Their German Pointer, named Dosewallips, ran across an ice field and slid about 100 yards over the embankment. The 50-pound dog landed on a ledge below the trail. To read more, click here.
--A 14-year-old Nampa boy is home resting after falling around 200 feet off of a trail at Mount Borah - Idaho's tallest mountain. Colton Garner was hiking with his Boy Scout troop on Friday when he fell. He wasn't found until the next morning. To read more, click here.
Sierra:
--Inyo Search and Rescue crews faced a roller coaster of calls since last Friday - with people in trouble from Mt. Whitney to the Palisades and Rock Creek. Several suffered from high altitude sickness. Corporal Terry Waterbury, Search and Rescue Coordinator for Inyo, said the team responded to five calls - one right after another. These included an altitude related fatality, an injured ankle, a stress fracture in a foot, a broken leg and another case of altitude sickness. On top of all that, rescuers were on the lookout for a man who claimed he was going to commit suicide in Death Valley. To read more, click here.
--The film crews, directors and producers stationed in Mammoth Lakes to shoot three new Bear Whisperer shows for Animal Planet have been treated to what some call magical wildlife footage. Steve Searles' work with bears in Mammoth Lakes attracted the film producers, LMNO, a couple of years ago. Their pilot show, "The Bear Whisperer" garnered a large audience. That success led to a deal to shoot and air three more shows. To read more, click here.
Desert Southwest:
--A French tourist who slipped 75-feet off the South Rim of the Grand Canyon miraculously survived, according to the Associated Press. The 18-year-old man fell over the edge of the Mather Point while taking pictures, park rangers said. To read more, click here.
--A 58-year-old Salt Lake County man was reported to be in poor condition after falling 60-feet down a cliffside in American Fork Canyon. The man was rescued by a helicopter after tense hours of waiting in one the side of a mountain. Utah County Sheriff's deputies said two climbers were putting bolts into a rockface on a new route about 1 1/2 miles up the canyon, when one of those bolts broke free on some loose rock and caused the man to fall about 60-feet. To read more, click here.
--Pinnacles National Monument, a 26,000-acre swath of spectacular volcanic rock formations outside Soledad, Calif., would be elevated to a National Park under legislation introduced Thursday by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Pinnacles is a nesting place for the endangered California condor, North America's largest soaring bird, with wingspans up to 10 feet. And it is a global destination for naturalists and outdoor adventurers attracted by the park's scenic views and unique rock-climbing landscapes. Making Pinnacles a National Park, Boxer said, would "draw even more visitors to this spectacular piece of California's natural and cultural heritage." To read more, click here.
--A rock climber is hospitalized in stable condition at a Tuscson hospital after being stranded on Mount Lemmon for several hours Tuesday by a bee swarm. It's not clear how many times the man was stung. The Pima County Sheriff's Department says search and rescue crews were able to rescue the man after rappelling down to his location and getting him to safety. To read more, click here.
Himalaya:
--Ski mountaineer Fredrik Ericson was killed on Friday after sustaining a fall from K2's infamous Bottleneck. The skier fell over three thousand feet and his body was spotted approximately 12oo feet above and to the side of Camp 3 on the Cesen route. To read more, click here.
--Filmmaker Fredrik Strang, with his cameras rolling, was among a group of mountaineers that converged on K2 two summers ago during the timeframe that eleven climbers were killed. A television news show was able to obtain his exclusive footage as he documented the team's hazardous journey through the walls of ice and rock.Strang's videos show grim warnings of how vicious the mountain can be. Dozens of memorials dot the area around base camp. In places the mountain holds the remains of fallen climbers. To read more, click here.
Andrew Irvine and George Mallorycan be seen in the back row. Irvine is on the left
and Mallory is on the right.
--G.W. Kent Moore, a physicist at the University of Toronto in Canada, decided that he wanted to look at the climate history around the most infamous disappearance in mountaineering history. And when he started digging around, he had a "eureka" moment. The climate data showed that barometric pressure dropped precipitously in the days leading up to June 8, the day that Mallory and Irvine disappeared. To read more, click here.
--The renowned Giri-Giri Boys from Japan have met their match. Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato and Katutaka Yokoyama were forced to turn around half-way up the North Ridge of Latok 1 (23,441'). This was the team's second defeat on the mountain. Earlier it was reported that they were forced to turn back on the mountain's North Face at about the same altitude. To read more, click here.
Notes from All Over:
-- A former Santa Rosa man who made the world his home as he sought high-altitude adventure of all kinds died last weekend while guiding an expedition in Peru's Cordillera Blanca. Tyler Anderson, 37, was leading four clients toward the 17,745-foot summit of Yanapaccha when a snow bridge collapsed and dropped him into a deep crevasse, where he died. To read more, click here. For remembrances of Tyler, click here.
--Authorities in Kananaskis are trying to recover the body of a Calgary man swept away in an avalanche while climbing Mount Kidd over the weekend. The RCMP said the 39-year-old man and a companion were scrambling on the south peak of Mount Kidd on Saturday afternoon when he stepped out onto an outcrop of hardened snow to have his picture taken. The cornice gave way while the man was standing on it, resulting in an avalanche that carried him several hundred feet down the slope. To read more, click here.
Aiden on the top of Dogonomba (19,550')after the peak's solo first ascent
--Two years ago, AAI Guide Aiden Loehr made the first ascent of Dogonomba in China after completing an AAI expedition to the region. Two New Zealand climbers recently made the mountain's second ascent. To read more, click here.
--Quirkology teamed up with fitness expert Sam Murphy to explore the relationship between sport and attraction. Are men more impressed by women who play football or climb mountains? Do women go for body builders or yoga fanatics? The work involved over 6000 people indicating which sporting activities would make a member of the opposite sex more attractive. Results revealed that 57% of women found climbing attractive, making it the sexiest sport from a female perspective. This was closely followed by extreme sports (56%), football (52%), and hiking (51%). Bottom of their list came aerobics and golf, with just 9% and 13% of the vote respectively. To read more, click here and here.
--The widely respected qualification, Diploma in Mountain Medicine, was the focus of a joint meeting on August 8 of the UIAA Medical Commission, the International Society of Mountain Medicine (ISMM) and the International Commission for Alpine Rescue (ICAR). To read more, click here.
--Nicolas and Oliver Favresse, Sean Villanueva and Ben Ditto established the first ascent of The Devil's Brew, a 2,500-foot route on the Seagull Wall in mid-July. The wall is located on the west coast of Greenland and was originally scouted by Bob Shepton, a sailor who discovered the wall. To read more, click here.
--Visitors in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore may want to think twice before exploring isolated places within the park. The Glen Arbor Township Board voted unanimously last week to establish a fee schedule for rescue services provided to park visitors. The schedule is an amendment to the existing cost-recovery program that allows Glen Lake Fire & Rescue to charge for responding to downed power lines (assessed to utility companies) and non-residence personal injury accidents. To read more, click here.
