Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 3/4/2021

Northwest:

--An 11-year-old girl was struck by a skier, who ran over her face, on a Whistler access trail on February 19th. The skier screamed obscenities at the injured girl before skiing away. To read more, click here.

--There's a new community sourced ice climbing guidebook online for the Cascades. Check it out, here.

Desert Southwest:

Popular Routes on the Angel Food Wall in Red Rock Canyon
(1) Tunnel Vision, 5.7; (2) Group Therapy, 5.7; (3) Purblind Pillar, 5.8

--A climber was injured on the Angel Food Wall in Red Rock Canyon this week. It appears that the individual suffered a 30-foot fall that resulted in a seriously broken ankle. For limited information on this event, click here.

Colorado and Utah:

--A 16-year-old skier died from his injuries after striking a tree at Eldora Mountain in Colorado on Monday. To read more, click here.

--Gephardt Daily is reporting that, "A climber who was injured Saturday in a 20-foot fall in Long Canyon (near Moab) required extrication from a hard-to-reach area, and multiple agencies worked in concert to pull off the difficult rescue. The climber, a 26-year-old woman from Steamboat Springs, Colo., fell in the Deadman’s Buttress climbing area and landed at the base of the Wingate sandstone wall, Grand County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue said in a Facebook post." To read more, click here.

--A ten-year-old boy was seriously injured in a hit-and-run snowboard colliding with skier incident at Vail Mountain. The snowboarder allegedly said, "he's fine," to the screaming child's coach, before riding away. To read more, click here.

--This seems bad. From SnowBrains: "When asked by an employee to pull up his facemask, a man in a lift-line at Vail Resort told the employee ‘I have a gun’, prompting a 911 call, an arrest, and an extra long lift-line." To read more, click here.

--The Colorado Sun is reporting that, "avalanche forecasting has come a long way since the 1950s, when forecasters relied solely on weather to predict when and where snow might slide. But it still requires scientists skiing and digging into the snowpack. That’s changing as satellites, aircraft-mounted sensors and ground-based remote monitoring fast-track the evolution of snow science, giving experts comprehensive insight into the uncanny nature of avalanches." To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--A bill has been introduced to Hawaii's state senate to charge hikers for SAR related incidents. There are a few other places where this happens, but most Search and Rescue/Mountain Rescue is free in the United States. The biggest issue with charging for rescue is that rescue subjects will either wait much longer to call for a rescue, or will actively hide from rescuers. This is bad. To read about it, click here.

--The Guardian and many others are reporting that, "the US House of Representatives has passed a historic public lands preservation bill that pledges to protect nearly 3m acres of federal lands in Colorado, California, Washington and Arizona. The act combines various bills that languished without Senate approval during the Trump administration. Key provisions include permanently banning new uranium mining on land surrounding the Grand Canyon, giving wilderness designation to 1.5m acres of federal land, and preserving 1,000 river miles by adding them to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System." To read more, click here.

--Is it possible that many of those who believe that they've climbed all the 8000-meter peaks in the world, might be mistaken. Damien Gildea thinks so. He believes that it's possible that many of these climbers climbed to false summits on Annapurna, Manaslu, and Dhaulagiri. To read more, click here.

--Gear Junkie is reporting that, "for the first time in recent memory, REI Co-op members will not receive their annual dividend. That’s because, for the first time in a very long time, the co-op failed to turn a profit." To read more, click here.

--SNEWS, the outdoor industry business journal has rebranded itself as -- you guessed it! -- the Outside Business Journal. To read more, click here.