Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 4/30/15

Himalaya:

--Following are some of the best reports from the tragedy in Nepal and on Everest:

• Raphael Slawinski Reports From Everest After The Earthquake
• The Everest Airlift from Outside Magazine
• Telegraph UK Photos of Basecamp after the Avalanche
• Continuous Coverage from Nepal
• The Quake's Impact on the Langtang Valley
• Everest Helicopters Could Have Been Used Elsewhere

--The following video was taken from Basecamp as the earthquake shakes and then the avalanche blasts down the mountain and into camp. It's a terrifying video...

--If you would like to make a donation to help the Nepali people, consider the American Himalayan Foundation or the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation.

--The north side of Mt. Everest and Tibet are officially closed for the rest of the climbing season. To read more, click here.

--And finally the Washington Post has released an editorial that we totally disagree with. They argue that Mt. Everest should be permanently closed...

Northwest:

--Figuring Mount Baker won’t get a big dump of snow this spring, the state Department of Transportation started plowing the road to Artist Point on Monday, April 20. The popular destination at the end of Mount Baker Highway should be open by early May, DOT officials said. To read more, click here.

--Historically we haven't had to worry about lyme disease in Washington State. But that may be changing.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015/04/23/4257269/road-to-artist-point-to-open-in.html#storylink=cpy

Sierra:

--One of the superheroes of the Dawn Wall in Yosemite --  Kevin Jorgeson -- has a Duracel Battery TV Commercial.

--A California skier wrote an excellent article entitled, The Winter of His Disbelief, about the Sierra, global warming and this year's lack of snow. To read the story, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--An election in the Navajo Nation may have stopped the tourist development of the upper Grand Canyon. To read about it, click here.

--Visitors can now join Zion National Park rangers in an effort to promote clean air and clear skies by taking the wheel behind an electric vehicle to visit the park. Park officials from Zion and Pipe Spring National Monument joined with local elected leaders Saturday to celebrate the opening of two new level-two electric vehicle charging stations at the entrance to the Kolob Canyons Visitor Center, part of a larger project that will eventually include 10 stations located throughout Zion and Pipe Spring. To read more, click here.

--Internationally renowned graffiti artists appear to be tagging the National Parks more and more. To read an article about this phenomenon, click here.

Colorado:

--Despite a 2.8 percent drop in skier visits and a devastating drought in the west, Vail Resorts still reported modest increases in revenue compared to last year. The latest season metrics compared this season to the previous year through April 20, 2014. And while everyone knows that Vail Resorts' is king when it comes to breaking records andmaking money in the ski industry, this spring (especially March) was notoriously bad in many of Vail's nine mountain resorts. To read more, click here.

Alaska:

At 20,320-feet, Denali is the tallest mountain in North America.

--AAI Denali Team 1, lead by Paul Rosser and Quino Gonzalez is prepping to start their Denali climb on Sunday! Follow the action on our dispatches page.

--A wolf killed by a trapper was found inside the boundaries of Denali National Park and Preserve last month, causing renewed interest among wolf advocates in banning trapping outside the park. The wolf was a 1-year-old male, a member of the East Fork Pack, which lives inside the park but spends time outside its boundaries. To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--Outside Online has published an important article on mountain guiding. The piece is entitled, How Much (and why) Should I Tip My Guide.

--Yeah, so...someone stole a whole ski lift.