Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 7/23/15

Northwest:

--A climber fell 20 feet and broke his ankle when a rock gave way in the Mount Washington Wilderness on Sunday. Linn County Search and Rescue responded Sunday to assist. To read more, click here.

--Technical rescue crews from Vancouver and Fire District 6 were called to Beacon Rock State Park in Skamania County Saturday evening after an injured climber was reported to be stranded 150 feet above the ground. To read more, click here.

--Canadian homicide detectives are treating the death of a teenage Australian skier as suspicious after his body was found in a gravel pit near the ski village of Whistler. Jake Kermond, 19, from Harrietville, Victoria, was last seen about 7.30pm on April 26 when leaving the Adara Hotel. A dirt biker found his body in the pit in an industrial area on the outskirts of Whistler on June 17. To read more, click here.

--Here's an update on the Gold Bar Boulders access situation.

--The U.S. Army wants to create a North Cascades training area for helicopter pilots that would include a high-altitude landing site in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and another within a mile of the Pacific Crest Trail. To read more, click here.

--A new line has gone up in the Picket Range of the Cascades.


Sierra:

--The north face of Peak 11,440+, above Spring Lake in Sequoia National Park has a new route on it, The One That Got Away clocks in at 5.11b C1, 1,500'. To read more, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--Opposition to the Oak Flat land exchange is heating up. Earlier this month, Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva introduced the Save Oak Flat Bill, HR 2811, into Congress. It has bipartisan support with three Republican and eight Democrat cosponsors. This bill would repeal the controversial land exchange legislation that was buried within the 2015 Defense Authorization Act. Attaching the land exchange bill (which was unable to pass on its own) to a piece of must-pass legislation circumvents the democratic process and provides another example of an inequitable federal land giveaway. The Access Fund has been working to protect the Oak Flat region, home to hundreds of roped climbs and thousands of boulder problems, from a foreign mining company for over ten years. The loss of Oak Flat climbing would result in the largest loss of climbing resources in the US. To read more, click here.

Colorado:

--A lightning strike likely killed a man and a boy in their tent Tuesday night or early Wednesday near West Maroon Pass, though two other children camping with them were unhurt, authorities said. The two dead were father and son, while the two survivors were an older daughter about 12 years old and younger son approximately 8 or 9 years old who had been staying in a separate tent, according to a U.S. Forest Service volunteer who spoke with the man who found the bodies, helped report the incident and saw the children come out of the wilderness. To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--Note that if you book an Aconcagua trip with the American Alpine Institute prior to August 1, you will be able to climb for the 2015 rate instead of the 2016 rate!

--A battle is currently looming in Congress over the transfer of a huge swath of America’s public lands in the west—putting millions of acres (and the climbing opportunities they offer) under siege. To read more, click here.

--The official trailer for Meru was finally posted on Tuesday. The film follows climbers Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker, and Renan Ozturk as they attempt to ascend the Shark’s Fin of Mount Meru. The an alpine big wall in India’s Garhwal Himalaya. To see the trailer, click below:

--Is sponsorship commercialization of the wilderness? A ranger in Maine thinks so and cited Scott Jurek after he completed his record breaking trail run. To read more, click here.

--Reel Rock has officially announced their 2015-2016 lineup. To learn more, click here.