Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 9/10/15

Northwest:

--The North Cascades will have the biggest single year glacial volume loss in fifty-years this year. To read the depressing news, click here.

--On Saturday, September 26th, there will be an event in Tacoma celebrating the life of AAI Guide Liz Daley. Liz was tragically killed in an avalanche last September. This event is a fundraiser to build a climbing park called Liz Rocks at Point Defiance Park. To read more, click here.

--Here's an update on the teenage girl who was involved in a plane crash in the North Cascades, lost her grandparents in the crash, and then walked out alone...

Desert Southwest:

--Zion National Park’s trail crew will be working on two of the bridges along West Rim Trail from Sept. 21 to Oct. 15. Due to the locations of the bridges and the work needing to be done, portions of the West Rim Trail, including the section needed to reach Angels Landing, will be closed intermittently. These closures will affect both day hikers and those wishing to obtain wilderness permits for canyoneering and overnight camping/climbing. To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--It appears that Chris Christy, the Republican Governor of New Jersey, just lost the climber vote. Here are some comments he made as reported by the Adventure Journal:

“You have rocks. Right out there,” Christie said. “What the hell do you need a rock climbing wall for? Tell the kids at UNH, ‘Go outside and climb those rocks.’ Not the rocks inside. Climb the other rocks.

“What have I found as I’ve gone around the country? There’s a rock climbing wall epidemic going on. There’s a rock climbing wall at Notre Dame. Two of them in fact. There’s a rock climbing wall at Princeton. I went to Iowa State. There’s a rock climbing wall there. They’re everywhere. God knows what else they’re building on these campuses that’s costing us a ton of money that we don’t know. Imagine if you saw your bill and then we had one percent of your tuition went to the rock climbing wall. We would march on these places!”

--A psychology student is looking for volunteers to participate in a study on personality traits in climbers. To participate, click here.

--Mt. Malaspina (12,388') in the Yukon has seen only only one documented attempt in 1976. In mid-August, Camilo Rada and Natalia Martinez became the first to summit the peak, the highest named, unclimbed peak in North America. They rated their 6,000-foot line up the peak's East Ridge TD AI2 55-65 degrees. To read more, click here.

--Scott Bennett and Graham Zimmerman completed a new route on K6 West in Pakistan’s Karakoram in late August. It was their second first ascent since arriving in the Nangmah Valley in July. To read more, click here.

--The lawyer for a runner who set a speed record for completing the Appalachian Trail is set to meet with a prosecutor and judge in Maine to see if a settlement can be reached over citations issued for violating rules in Baxter State Park. Scott Jurek of Colorado was cited for drinking Champagne, littering and hiking in an oversize group when he reached the summit of Mount Katahdin in July. To read more, click here.

--Denali is officially 20,310 feet, ten feet shorter than previously thought, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced last week. To read more, click here.