--In mid-September, AAI Director, Dunham Gooding made a joint presentation with the Mount Baker-Sonqualmie National Forest and with a representative from NOLS to obtain the funds in order to have toilets installed on Mount Baker this summer. This week, we were pleased to find out that the Mount Baker Ranger District was awarded $12,000 for toilet installation!
--The Washington National Parks fund recently released a list of projects that were supported in North Cascades National Park by their donors. To see the list, please click here.
--Friends of the Olympic National Park are looking for volunteers to help with some service projects at the foot of the Olympic Mountains this season. To learn more about the opportunities, click here.
The shadow of two climbers hanging at a belay in Smith Rock.
Photo by Jason Martin
Sierra:
--Leo Houlding has successfully free climbed a new line on El Cap in Yosemite National Park. The line shares pitches with Bad to the Bone and The Secret Passage. The new line clocks in at VI, 5.13d R. To read more, click here.
--Yosemite National Park has been selected as the recipient of the Fiscal Year 2010 National Park Service (NPS) National Sustained Park Accessibility Achievement Award. The award, which was presented to the Yosemite National Park Accessibility Program, recognizes an individual park that has made “sustained” efforts to comprehensively identify barriers to equal accessibility for persons with disabilities and to implement consistent, on-going action to resolve those barriers. During the last five years, Yosemite has made steady accessibility improvements to a range of visitor facilities, including parking lots, hiking trails, educational exhibits, and tactile displays. The park created a Yosemite Accessibility Guide that is available in large print and Braille at visitor centers. The guide is also available at park entrance stations and on the web. To read more, click here.
--A crown jewel in the National Park System, Yosemite National Park has seen its fair share of high profile visitors--including the latest, Oprah Winfrey, who taped her travels with best friend Gayle King to share with America. As millions watched their camping adventure in Yosemite, Oprah and Gayle helped bring to light the fact that people of color remain largely absent from our national parks as both visitors and National Park Service staff. She left her "comfort zone" and rode a mule, cooked dinner on a campfire, and went fly-fishing in the Merced River. She also met with Yosemite Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, whose initial invitation to Oprah to visit Yosemite asked her to help in "spreading the word that the national parks really are America's best idea, and that this beauty belongs to every American, including African-Americans." To read more, click here.
--An example of the dysfunctional bear management situation in the Lakes Basin - That's what Mammoth's Wildlife Specialist Steve Searles said about a bear break-in at a cabin near Lake Mary where he is not allowed to employ his bear control techniques. The cabin owner, Lou Capaso of southern California, had nailed boards up on all windows and tried to secure his cabin that bears have invaded six times. His family has rented from the Forest Service since the 1930s. Searles pointed out that this was the same cabin where Blondie the bear had broken in and was shot earlier this summer. To read more, click here.
Desert Southwest:
--There was a serious fall on Red Rock's Crimson Chrysalis (IV, 5.8) last week that required a helicopter evacuation. To read more, click here.
Alaska:
--Denali National Park and Preserve is considering/planning to substantially raise the climbing fee assessed on Denali climbers from $200 to $500, effective in 2012. The public comment period on this issue has begun and you can learn more about how to respond to this, here.
The Alaska Range from the Talkeetna River in October
Photo by Jason Martin
--AAI Director, Dunham Gooding was quoted in an article by the Fairbanks Daily New Miner this week. The issue was that more climbers want to hire guides to scale Mount McKinley and the National Park Service are considering an increase in the number of permits allocated to guiding companies on North America’s tallest peak. To read more, click here.
Himalaya
--Defying an age restriction on Mt. Everest climbers imposed by two countries, a nine-year-old Nepali boy is set to attempt to scale the world's highest peak. If he succeeds, he will break the world record for the youngest climber set this year by a thirteen-year-old American. Tseten Sherpa, a third grader from Dolakha district in northern Nepal, has begun practicing for his ascent next year, his father and well-known Everest climber Pemba Dorjee Sherpa said. To read more, click here.
Notes from All Over:
--A medical student is currently doing research on the types of injuries that ice climbers regularly sustain. She has emailed AAI to find out if we could provide her some test subjects. If you would like to be involved, please see the following letter:
My name is Kathrin, I am a medical student and at the moment I am working on my diploma thesis with the topic, "Ice Climbing." I really need your help to complete my work; in order to successfully conduct the study, I need as many ice climbers as possible.
What is it all about? The aim of the study is to analyze injury patterns which are characteristic for ice climbing. I hope that I can draw some conclusions on how one can make ice climbing a safer sport.
To be a part of this study, or for more information, please email me at: kathrin.lampl@pmu.ac.at
