--International Mountain Day is nearly upon us! We have a lot of events planned. Tonight we will be doing a free avalanche awareness talk at Western Washington University in Viking Union Room #552. We will be selling raffle tickets to support the Central Asia Institute and have some great prizes. The rest of our events will take place next week on December 11th. There will be another avalanche awareness talk (this time with beer) and there will be rock rescue clinics. To learn more, click here.
--Prosecutors have filed felony charges against a Mercer Island man accused of threatening to kill two scoutmasters and a Boy Scout. Filing charges earlier in November, King County prosecutors claim Scott D. Wirick accosted the trio in July after they asked for directions on Tinkham Road, east of North Bend. To read more, click here.
--Washington Fish and Wildlife Officers spent part of their Thanksgiving investigating the shooting of four elk near a logging road in Grays Harbor County. Only one was taken for food, the other three were apparently shot for the fun of it and left at the side of the road to rot. "So these people are not hunters. They care less about the environment, they care less about the species and they care less about anyone else ever being able to hunt these things," said Fish and Wildlife Officer Mark James. To read more, click here.
--The public can buy permits to cut Christmas trees on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest beginning Nov. 12 through Dec. 23. Cutting areas are located within national forest lands in the eastern portions of Pierce, King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties. Maps and information about cutting areas are provided where permits are sold at ranger stations and the Verlot and Glacier Public Service Centers. Additionally, permits are sold at REI’s Alderwood Mall and the Outdoor Recreation Information Center located inside the downtown Seattle REI store. Permits cost $10 each, one tree per permit, with a tree height limit of 12 feet. The permits are nonrefundable. To read more, click here.
Sierra:
--A Portland, Oregon man died in the eastern Sierra in the Mt. Whitney region earlier this week. Reports indicate he fell approximately 200 feet to his death. According to the Inyo Sheriff's Department, 37-year-old Christian Meining spent Thursday night at Lower Boy Scout Lake in the Mount Whitney area. Officers said the next morning, Meining told a group of hikers that he was heading back down the trail. That was the last contact with the man. To read more, click here.
--Another amazing story from Eastern Sierra Wildlife Care. Someone found a Golden Eagle north of Bridgeport. The injured bird made it to the wildlife care center south of Bishop at Keough's. Employees set out to save the bird. To read more, click here.
Desert Southwest:
--Forty-two year old Heather Gray of Vancouver, BC was killed in a fall on Solar Slab in Red Rock Canyon on Thanksgiving. Reports indicate that she fell anywhere from sixty to a hundred feet. To read more, click here and here and here.
Graffiti in Willow Springs on Ancient Rock Art
More images of the recent graffiti can be found at Friends of Red Rock Canyon.
Alaska:
-- Denali National Park will be hosting a series of meetings on the change in mountaineering use fees. These meetings will take place in December and January in Talkeetna, Anchorage, Seattle and Golden. To learn more about the fee changes and about the meetings, please click here.
Notes from All Over:
--This year's Bozeman Ice Festival will be held from December 8-12 with the memory of Guy Lacelle and his passion for ice climbing at the fore. Lucelle was killed in an avalanche a year ago. A retrospect of his life will be shown on December 10 in the short film "La Vie de Guy Lacelle" compiled by filmmaker Chris Alstrin of Colorado Springs, Colorado. To read more, click here.
--Evanston, Utah resident Dennis K. Barnes was killed in an avalanche on Friday while snowmobiling in the Moffit Basin area of the High Uinta Wilderness not far from the Utah-Wyoming border, Summit County Sheriff’s officials reported over the weekend. To read more, click here.
--Ubber climber, Colin Haley, made the first solo ascent of Cerro Stanhardt in Patagonia via the Exocet route (V, WI5, 5.9) last weekend. Cerro Stanhardt is the stands right next to Cerro Torre and Cerro Egger. Haley left camp at 4am and reached the summit of the peak right around 4pm. He was able to get back to camp before nightfall. To read more, click here and here.
--Telluride Ski Resort announced today that it is cancelling its backcountry guide program in the Bear Creek drainage, which is located immediately east of the ski area. The resort cited a lack of alignment with private owners of mining claims in the drainage. The Resort was originally encouraged by the U.S. Forest Service to provide a guide service to help manage the growing use of the backcountry area. "Telluride Ski Resort believed it was providing a much needed public service which would help people learn to safely navigate the area," said Resort CEO Dave Riley. "However, certain owners of mining claims, Irene West, Tom Chapman, and Ron Curry, have not accepted our offer to provide insurance and indemnification agreements in return for access privileges across their property." To read more, click here.
--And lastly, Rehinhold Messner was listed as the "Badass of the Week" on the "Badass of the Week" website. This is a very funny, albeit sometimes crass, look at the father of modern Himalayan alpinism. To read the article, click here.
