Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 11/2/17

Northwest:

Fred Beckey

--The legendary climber and writer, Fred Beckey, passed away this week at the age of 94. Fred has more first ascents than anyone, anywhere, ever. And his three-volume Cascade Alpine Guide has long provided climbers in the Pacific Northwest with thousands of peaks to climb. To read a piece from Rock and Ice, click here. The New York Times also has a great obituary, here.

--Whatcom Talk is reporting that, "the North Cascades National Park celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2018 and a new book from Washington State University Press, Crown Jewel Wilderness: Creating North Cascades National Park, offers the first comprehensive account of its creation—a narrative that involves more than a decade of grassroots activism and political maneuvering. Widely considered the first wilderness national park in the United States, its most scenic and undisturbed areas were preserved without roads or other accommodations, adding to its crown jewel image. The story includes the unprecedented turn of events that left the National Park Service and United States Forest Service—agencies that often had adversarial viewpoints and objectives—working side by side." To read more, click here.

--A doctoral student at the University of Washington has devised a way to measure glacial recession from anthropogenic climate change by using satellites. To read more, click here.

Sierra:

--Climbing magazine is reporting that, "Yosemite National Park is working to implement several roadway and campground improvements within Yosemite Valley. Extensive work is being conducted on Northside Drive, the road leading from Yosemite Village to Yosemite Falls and toward the park exits. Significant work is also being conducted at Camp 4, a popular campground in Yosemite Valley. The current work is expected to be completed by this winter, and compliments the work that was completed earlier this summer." To read more, click here.

--Rock and Ice has an update on Quinn Brett, the climber who took a massive fall on El Capitan a couple of weeks ago. To read the report, click here.

--Inyo National Forest has released a "State of the Forest." To read the document, click here.

Desert Southwest:

A climber place a bolt on a steep line.

--Is there a new bolt war brewing in Joshua Tree National Park...? There might be.

--And with everything else going on in the world, it makes me happy to see a rattlesnake riding on a tortoise. It will make you happy too...

Colorado:

--The Denver Post is reporting that, "Slippery conditions caused by rain and snow likely were a reason a climber fell to his death from the Flatirons last week, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said. Erik Kleiber, 31, of Boulder died Thursday after he fell while attempting to climb the First Flatiron." To read more, click here.

--CBS Denver is running a story about Melissa Strong, a climber who was electrocuted six months ago, seriously injuring her hands. It appears surgeons were able to repair her hands with an uncommon surgery and she will climb again. To read the story and see a video on it, click here.

--The Aspen Ski Company intends to make some improvements at the Aspen Highlands. The Vail Daily is reporting that, "Skico has submitted an application to the U.S. Forest Service for a handful of ski area improvement projects at Aspen Highlands for next spring and summer. Among them is the selective removal of trees in expert terrain in an area known as Eden. That terrain is to skier's left of the No Name trail in Olympic Bowl." To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--National Parks Fees may go up dramatically this year. Please please please go to the NPS and make a comment on this major change. To read more and to comment, click here. To read about what's happening and why this is happening, click here.
--It is incredibly disturbing to learn that wildland firefighters are committing suicide at an alarming rate. The Atlantic reports that, "Over the past decade, there’s been a quiet acknowledgement within America’s firefighting community that suicide is widespread, and that there are still probably many cases that haven’t been reported. As the numbers grow, so too does the concern that the tough, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps wildland firefighters—the men and women who fight fires in vegetation instead of buildings—are at risk. That’s why St. Clair, a manager for the Bureau of Land Management wildland-fire department’s Critical Incident Stress-Management Program, is keeping track. She believes that quantifying the problem can help people talk about its causes." To read more, click here.

--The Alaska Dispatch is reporting that, "President Donald Trump is unlikely to reverse a 2015 Obama administration decision to formally change the name of Mount McKinley to Denali, as it is now known, according to Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan. Sen. Dan Sullivan offered up the previously unknown bit information about a March meeting between him, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Trump in a speech at the Alaska Federation of Natives' annual conference Saturday." To read more, click here.