Climbing and Outdoor News - 10/6/11

Northwest:

--An overdue climber on Mount St. Helens has been found safe. To read more, click here.

The raffle Box

--Last weekend, the American Alpine Institute had a gear sale and benefit. The benefit was for the North Cascades Institute and the American Safe Climbing Association. People bought raffle tickets to support the two causes.  Matt Hard and Chris Wright both won credits for AAI programs and expeditions. Congrats Matt and Chris!  A number of other people also won prizes, including Scotty Seren, Zachary Winters, Eric Strunke, Eric Page, Leslie Park and Jon Peterson.

--The National Park Service announced last Thursday that it has awarded a 10-year contract to Guest Services Inc. to manage a resort in the remote community of Stehekin. To read more, click here.

Sierra:

--A rock climber whose thumb was severed when he fell and it was caught in a rope has had the digit reattached by surgeons, officials at Yosemite National Park said Wednesday. The two climbers were nearing the summit of 7,569-foot-high El Capitan on last week when the lead climber fell, said park spokeswoman Kari Cobb. To read more, click here.

--Last week, children from Mammoth Lakes found the body of a large bear lying dead in the Rusty Lane area near the golf course.  It appears that the bear was well-known to the community and was not known to be a "problem bear." To read more, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--The American Alpine Club is hiring.  They are looking specifically for someone to develop programs in the Southwest. To learn more, click here.

--The American Alpine Institute received the following note from the Bureau of Land Management, Las Vegas Field Office:

Las Vegas - Wildland fire officials will lift seasonal fire restrictions on public lands in Southern Nevada managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, Nevada Division of Forestry, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service on Monday, October 3, 2011.  

Spring Mountains National Recreation Area will remain in fire restrictions in some areas until November 15.  Those restrictions are as follows:  no campfires within one mile of homes in Kyle and Lee Canyons, Deer Creek, Cold Creek and the communities of Trout Canyon and Mountain Springs.  These areas are signed advising the public of the restrictions.

“We would like to thank the public for their prevention efforts this fire season,” said Chris Delaney, BLM Acting Fire Management Officer.  “We ask that visitors continue to be safe with campfires and other sources of ignition because brush, grass and trees remain dry from the hot summer temperatures.”

Himalaya:

--In early September, Slovenians Nejc Marcic and Luka Strazar climbed a new route on Pakistan's K7 West (22,500'). To read more, click here and here.

--In August, four Russians successfully completed a new line on Trango Tower in Pakistan (20,508').  To read more about this ascent, click here.


Notes from All Over: 


--A student at Binghamton University died Friday morning in a fall in the Trap Dike, a classic mountaineering route on Mount Colden in the Adirondacks.  Matthew Potel, 22, of Croton-on-Hudson was climbing the Trap Dike with seven other members of the school’s outdoors club. Although details are sketchy, sources say he fell on the dike’s second waterfall, the crux section of the climb. To read more, click here.

--A climber whose partner activated his SPOT locator device and triggered what is believed to be the first rescue in Grand Teton National Park activated by the emergency GPS device was fined for disorderly conduct. Dave Shade, 33, of Missoula, Montana, left his climbing partner, Jesse Selwyn, of Florence, Michigan, on the Grand Teton August 19 after Selwyn called for rescue, but before rangers arrived on scene. To read more, click here.



--This is a cool contest. Make a climbing video using as much climbing slang as possible.  To read more, click here.


--How did Sixty Minutes film Alex Honnold free soloing? Check out this page to find out.


--A Pennsylvania man has a new appreciation of the power of nature after a bear followed his dog into his house, then attacked him. The man received injuries that required seventy stitches. To read more, click here.