Expedition News

EXPEDITION NEWS - December 2011

2011-12-06T05:42:00.000-08:00

December 2011 – Volume Eighteen, Number 12

EXPEDITION NEWS, now in its 17th year, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.

WEBER SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION USES
SKIS AND KITES FOR SOUTH POLE ROUNDTRIP TREK

On November 16, a team of six adventurers flew to Antarctica – Canadian Richard Weber; Briton Chris de Lapuente; Americans Kathy Braegger and Ruth Storm; New Zealander Michael Archer; and South African Howard Fairbank. The entire team started skiing from the Ronne Ice Shelf at a location called the “Messner Start,” 540-mi./900 km from the South Pole. The team plans to pull all supplies in sleds for the 35-day expedition while Fairbank will ski off on his own for a solo attempt.

At the South Pole, it gets interesting: they will receive a re-supply, the skiers will change boots, skis and sleds, Ruth Storm will fly back, and Fairbank will re-join the team. Then the group will kite-ski 660-mi./1100 km back to the edge of the Antarctic continent at Hercules Inlet. The South Pole, at an altitude of almost 10,000 feet, experiences cold air flowing down toward sea level. Using this wind, the team expects to reach Hercules Inlet in about 15 days and hopes to depart for home on January 12, 2012.

According to Weber, despite numerous South Pole expeditions these days, a roundtrip to the bottom of the earth has only been completed twice in history. Once by Amundsen in 1911, and another team in 2004, but never on this route. The expedition will send text and images via satellite telephone, which can be seen at www.WeberArctic.com, Kathy Braegger’s website, www.southpoleroundtrip.com, and Chris de Lapuente’s site, www.south-pole.weebly.com/.

Expedition sponsors are Fischer skis, 7Systems endurance supplements, Brother Labels (see related story), and Recon GPS. Weber considers the Recon his coolest piece of gear. The goggles have a built-in GPS display that provides speed, temperature, latitude and longitude, considered a huge advantage while kite-skiing and navigating in bad light. “No need to look down at the compass or to get out a handheld GPS. The battery can be recharged from one of our mini solar panels,” Weber blogs.

EXPEDITION UPDATE

Mike Horn Pangaea Expedition Conducts First U.S. Study

Last month, South African Mike Horn and seven selected young explorers representing five different nations lead the first and only Pangaea expedition to U.S. territory for dynamic study of the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile aquatic eco-system and exploration of the Everglades – the largest subtropical wilderness in the U.S.
For more than two decades, Horn has undertaken feats of adventure and environmental analysis that have extended the boundaries of human achievement, natural discovery and ecological education (see EN, October 2008). His latest endeavor, the Pangaea Project, is a four-year circumnavigation of the world on a 115-ft. aluminum ketch through a series of 12, tri-annual expeditions each to different climates and biospheres including mountain, desert, ocean, rainforest and tundra.   (For more information: www.mikehorn.com)

Stowe Away (Again)

New York City artist and sailor Reid Stowe, 59, and photographer Soanya Ahmad, 28, the couple who sailed the longest sea voyage in history, departed last month for another adventure, this time to the jungles of Guyana with a crew of six men and three women – most of whom have never been on the ocean before. (See EN, July 2010).

After Stowe’s schooner Anne returned from her record-breaking 1,152-day voyage in June 2010, she was still seaworthy but in dire need of maintenance. One and a half years later the 70-ft. yacht will finally get the attention she needs. The month-long ocean adventure will take the Anne and crew up a jungle river in Guyana where extensive repairs will be made. From there the crew will sail through the Caribbean and back to New York City. The entire voyage will take six months, returning them to Manhattan in May 2012.

The crew will work with the World Water Rescue Foundation (www.wwrf.org) to foster awareness about the sustainable uses of water.
Stowe is in the process of pitching two book deals with a literary agent, one about the three-year voyage, the other called, Survival Food Stockpiling: A Proven Three Year Technique Without Resupply. Meanwhile, Stowe is busy promoting and selling his art at www.reidstoweart.com

He tells EN, “Most people are quite surprised that we are not more famous and celebrated for our unprecedented accomplishments, but none of us have really figured this out. We are still busy trying to promote and share our story.” (For more information: www.1000days.net)

A Toast to The Boss

Turns out Sir Ernest Shackleton left behind a few “necessities” following his expedition to the Magnetic South Pole and that’s the reason over 120 guests gathered at The Explorers Club on Nov. 10 – to toast in his honor, raising high a glass of his very own whisky. Well, almost. In February 2007, a team of archaeologists from the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust discovered two crates of 100-year-old Scotch whisky beneath the floor of a hut built by Shackleton during his 1907-1909 Antarctic Nimrod Expedition. (See EN, December 2009).

In 2010, one crate, labeled Mackinlay's whisky, was brought to the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, where it was thawed under precise laboratory conditions.
Whyte & Mackay, the Scottish distillery that now owns the Mackinlay's brand, launched the recovery effort to carefully analyze samples they could use to relaunch the defunct Scotch. As the original recipe for the blend no longer exists, famed Whyte & Mackay Master Blender Richard “The Nose” Paterson was enlisted to replicate the historic old brand. He calls it, quite unabashedly, “A gift from heaven for whisky lovers.”

Paterson, who is said to have a nose insured for more money than Lady Gaga’s legs, has since successfully reopened this window of history by carefully and meticulously reconstructing the whisky’s formula – a whopping 47.3 percent alcohol (94.6 proof), presumably making it necessary to employ a designated musher).

“The reformulated whisky we’re having tonight contains malts 10 to 30 years old and if I see you putting ice in it, I’ll kill you,” Paterson joked.

The tasting also commemorated Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky becoming a corporate sponsor of The Explorers Club, the very same organization that bestowed upon Shackleton honorary membership.

Following the relaunch, 50,000 bottles of the long-lost malt will go on sale for $175, with a percentage of each sale being donated to the Antarctic Heritage Trust. (For more information: www.enduringspirit.com)

EXPEDITION NOTES

SD Card Takes a Licking and Keeps on Clicking

Just how tough is your average DSLR memory card? Apparently tough enough to survive a year at the bottom of the ocean. Naturalist and aspiring photographer Markus Thompson was scuba diving in Deep Bay near Vancouver, British Columbia, when he found a Canon EOS 1000D. Curious, he brought it to the surface and took out the SD card, and was able to recover about 50 photos.

With a bounty of pictures and a desire to find the camera's owner, Thompson logged onto social networking sites for help. He posted his find to Google+, including pictures of the camera itself as well as the photos he was able to recover from the SD card. He eventually tracked it down to a firefighter in British Columbia.

Read the story here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/camera-lost-sea-returned-help-social-networking-174129626.html

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“We live in a society that tends to glorify risk, blithely airbrushing away the potential consequences. We laud risk when it succeeds and denigrate it as reckless when it does not. By definition, some risky ventures are going to fail. Managing risk is a balancing act between a desired outcome and the probability of achieving it. Knowing your goal is key because it is your ‘yardstick for success’ and helps determine how much you are willing to put at risk.”

– Jill A. Fredston. With 25 years experience predicting avalanches, Fredston has made a specialty of speaking about decision-making, and strategies for dealing with uncertainty and change. She is author of Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches (Harcourt, 2005)

EXPEDITION FOCUS

The Last Tango in Norwalk

Pedaling past the Wilson Cove Marina in Norwalk, Conn., this past summer we noticed a forlorn and strange-looking white and orange boat in dry-dock. The 850-lb. self-righting carbon fiber and cedar craft today bears little testimony to its history setting the fastest west to east human-powered crossing of the Atlantic.
After capturing the imaginations of young and old alike at the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium where she was prominently displayed for almost two decades, the 24-ft. pedal-powered boat is now ready to capture the imaginations of adventurous souls in a new yet to be determined location.

Back in 1991, we were approached by its owner, Dwight T. Collins, then age 34, for help in promoting his planned Atlantic crossing. Collins, who logged some 4,000 hours on a recumbent stationary bicycle in his living room to train, received $35,000 in seed money from beverage importer Schieffelin & Somerset to support the trial run on behalf of Moet & Chandon champagne. Breitling Watches stepped up later and Virgin Atlantic contributed at the end when Collins was 200 miles from completion.

Why does champagne make sense as a sponsor? Champagne is quaffed by the gallons during ocean crossings (think Noel Coward sloshing across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary). And to celebrate a sailboat race, as much champagne is spilled as it is consumed. So there was indeed logic in securing a bubbly sponsor. The boat was christened Tango after Collins’ first wedding dance with wife Corrine. Collins crammed the whole forward compartment with mostly freeze-dried food, along with what turned out to be his favorite snack – Fig Newtons.

Once outfitted, he departed St. John’s, Newfoundland at 2:30 p.m. on June 14, 1992. A small crowd was there to watch the former SEAL, fully enclosed and seemingly safe from the ocean seas with the winds at his back, attempt to pedal at a faster speed than anyone expected – The Little Engine That Could. Or maybe not. Nevertheless, a childhood dream realized.

With the setting sun of the first day, the insidious effects of the frigid southerly Labrador Current hampered his eastward progress to the Gulf Stream and its prevailing easterly winds. After discouraging progress the first week, a mixed blessing arrived in the form of a major gale which brought with it 20-plus foot waves and winds over 70 knots. The good news: the Labrador Current was left in the dust and he achieved greater speed than anticipated. The bad news was that this was the first of three storms that kept Collins wide awake to prevent Tango from turning parallel to the waves and rolling.

Collins pedaled an average of 19.5 hours per day during the trip, sitting there in his hydrophobic, sweat-wicking sports apparel, energy bars and sports drinks at the ready.
At times waves were up to 30 feet and winds reached gale force. Despite the rough ride, heavy weather helped slingshot him eastward. “By the end of the trip, I had gone through so many gales I could hardly keep track,” he told Amy Nutt of Sports Illustrated.

He dodged trawlers, suffered major bouts of boredom when his Sony Walkman died due to moisture, and had a 12-foot shark trail him for a few terrifying minutes. At times he donned a waterproof survival suit for protection. His only serious mishap occurred when a violent roll threw him out of his bunk across a beam, tearing a gash in his forehead.

Collins arrived July 24 at 3:30 p.m. in Plymouth, England, 40 days and about 2,300 miles later – the fastest human-powered west-to-east crossing of the Atlantic ever recorded. He blew away the previous record crossing, a 55-day solo row set in 1987 by British oarsman Tom McLean.

One British tabloid considered Collins a madcap mariner obsessed with the call of the wild, someone who “. . . can’t face life without proving his manhood.” Harsh words indeed for someone followed by thousands of armchair adventurers each day of the journey.

Collins’ personal credo was written on a note and cast adrift in an empty Moet champagne bottle. It read, “To whoever finds this bottle – may you have the courage to pursue that which means the most to you.” The bottle was found five months later off the Brittany coast by an old fisherman who received his weight in Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial Champagne No. 1, courtesy of the expedition’s main sponsor.

So there it sits in the Collins backyard in Noroton Heights, Conn. High and dry. For now. Collins, a Stamford, Conn., real estate developer and father of three, says, “I’m looking to place it in a good home, where it can continue capturing the imagination of young and old.”

The last Tango? Not if Dwight Collins can help it. (Reach him at: dcollins@collins-llc.com, 203 541 1305).

MEDIA MATTERS

Science and Exploration are Intertwined

Robert W. Duffy, associate editor of the St. Louis Beacon, believes science and exploration are closely linked in today’s world. He writes in the Oct. 11 issue, “…. science, that broad and brilliant field of human endeavor that ennobles us all, widens our world, cures our illnesses, feeds us and quenches our thirsts, designs various transportations to take us places near and far, heats and cools our buildings and allows buildings to reach the skies.”

He continues, “Everywhere we look, exploration and science affect us and ultimately extract order from chaos. Too often nowadays, all too often, both dimwits and demagogues anathematize science as some sort of elitist plot. Doors of the mind left wide open to science and exploration are passages to the light of truth. Slammed shut: oblivion.”

Read his entire column here:
http://www.stlbeacon.org/voices/blogs/beacon-blog/113492-exploring-the-world-exploring-the-mind

Old Man of the Mountains

Fred Beckey, 88, is the most prolific first ascensionist in the history of climbing, according to Michael J. Ybarra of the Wall Street Journal (Nov. 10). Climbing magazine bestowed upon him a lifetime achievement award, impressed by his “enduring climbing-bum lifestyle.”

“Fred’s the ultimate dirtbag,” says Patagonia Inc. founder Yvon Chouinard, who during the first ascent of the Beckey-Chouinard route on South Howser in Canada watched Beckey settle in for a cold night on a ledge by stuffing the pockets of his jacket with pages torn from a Louis L’Amour novel – an old hobo trick.

Beckey laments, “Most people just seem to lose their keenness for outdoors adventure when they get older. People my age aren’t doing much any more. It just works out that way. It doesn’t have to.”

CLIMBING FOR DOLLARS

“Mountains for Water” Plans Kili Climb in January

In January 2012, a group of dedicated climbers will ascend Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the highest peak on the continent of Africa, while fundraising to construct a water reservoir for a community in need in Northern Kenya.

In 1998-2000, Kenya experienced a two-year drought. Ongoing issues have prevented communities, livestock and wild animals from having enough water to drink. Daily, Samburu women have to walk for an hour or more to collect water. The shortage of water means ill health and dehydration within the whole community – often leading to the prevalence of Trachoma, a bacterial infection of the eye and the leading cause of painful blindness. Reservoirs are of huge benefit to alleviate damage in times of drought, says expedition spokesperson Peter Kojalo.

The climb hopes to raise funds to construct a rainwater reservoir, which will benefit a local community for decades to come. A few open places remain for interested climbers.

(For more information: http://www.elevatedestinations.com,
info@elevatedestinations.com, 617 661 0203).

Deadline Nears for Polartec Challenge Grant

Dec. 31 is the deadline to apply for the 2012 Polartec Challenge Grant which since 1991 assists low-impact teams who set an example for responsible outdoor recreation through respect for local cultures and the environment. Grant recipients are chosen for the vision, commitment and educational and cultural value of their expeditions.

Legendary Polartec Challenge Grant recipients over the past two decades include Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, Steve House, Marko Prezelj, Andrew McLean, Greg Hill and John Shipton. Recent recipients include Kate Harris and Melissa Yule, who are exploring environmental conservation while cycling from Europe to Asia, and Jon Turk and Erik Boomer, who recently completed the first circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island.
(To apply: www.polartec.com/polartec-challenge).

EXPEDITION MARKETING

Explorers Demonstrate Durability of Brother P-touch Labels

When Brother came to EN for help locating explorers to test its new labeler in extreme conditions (see EN, June 2011), we had a suspicion that more than a few explorers would respond with interest. In fact, we referred over 18 projects, from which Brother selected at least four. The company is now promoting its label durability message with the help of British explorer Jeremy Curl, solar educator Stephen Ramsden, shark researcher Greg Skomal, polar explorer Richard Weber, and others. See the P-touch “Extreme Offices” story at www.ptouchtough.com.

WEB WATCH

Warning: Geezers Ahead

Andrew Burmon of The Huffington Post writes an amusing plea to his parents to take it easy out there. “The travel industry is increasingly oriented toward older people who want to get off the beaten path. The problem is that no one is on the path anymore and the wilderness around it is full of people with bad knees. It turns out the no limits approach to travel is not actually feasible. We all bring our limits with us and, yes, aging people have more limitations than whippersnappers,” he posts on Nov. 4.

“Here is my plea to my parents and to the generation of aging travelers who opened up the world to people my age: Please be careful.

“I'm not telling anyone to sit out their retirement. I'm just saying: maybe go boogie boarding instead of surfing; maybe go bouldering instead of rock climbing; maybe take it easy with the heli-skiing.

“As boomers begin to enjoy their retirement, there will be a glut of global travelers. It would a pity and a lost opportunity if these travelers were too busy getting bandaged after cliff diving to enjoy some whitewater rafting. Wrinkles make you look wise. Stitches don't,” Burmon writes.

See the entire posting here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-burmon/an-open-letter-to-older-adventurers_b_1074677.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

ON THE HORIZON

Ken Burns Keynotes Explorers Club Annual Dinner, Mar. 17, 2012

The 108th annual gathering of the world’s foremost explorers and adventurers, The Explorers Club Annual Dinner (ECAD), is scheduled for Saturday, Mar. 17, 2012, at New York’s Waldorf=Astoria Hotel. This year’s dinner, which is expected to attract 1,000 explorers and guests, is themed “How Far Is Far: Remote Exploration” and will focus on the use of technology to understand the world in which we live.

"Recent scientific and technological capabilities have upped the stakes on what we consider remote in exploration today," said Lorie Karnath, president of The Explorers Club.

Keynote speaker is Ken Burns (The Civil War, Lewis & Clark, The National Parks), who has been named one of the most influential documentary filmmakers of all time by Realscreen magazine. He will be joined at the dais by master of ceremonies Robin Esrock, creator, writer and co-host of Word Travels, a 40-part adventure series seen in over 100 countries and 18 languages.

Tickets are available for members, guests and friends of the Club. For more information, call 212 628 8383 or log onto: www.explorers.org

EN HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

Again this year our team of shopping experts scoured the world looking for holiday gifts to recommend this season. Well, maybe not. But there are a few drool-worthy items we’re jonesing for this year and they’re not what you might think. Here are a few adventurous gifts that appeal to our twisted, somewhat irreverent view of the exploration field.

“Oh, the Humanity”

Deepsea submersibles are so 1990s. There are personal shoppers, personal digital assistants, and now the personal blimp. Skyacht Aircraft’s personal aircraft is filled with hot air rather than helium, or god-forbid hydrogen. Hot air allows it to easily deflate between flights. The Alberto is 102 feet long and 70 feet in diameter. Price is in the low six figures. (www.personalblimp.com)

Hang up on Ralph

When crossing the Drake, is your friend or loved one tired of calling Ralph on the porcelain phone? Charles Darwin was famously stricken by seasickness during his voyage, but your gift recipient needn’t suffer the same fate with QueaseEase, an aromatic inhaler containing natural oils said to reduce motion sickness. When inhaled through the nose, molecules in the essential oil vapor travel to the olfactory bulb. Chemical messengers are then formed, which communicate with the limbic system of the brain and signal the central nervous system to take it easy. Really? Better play it safe and send it gift wrapped inside a plastic bucket. (www.soothing-scents.com)

Become a Card-Carrying Explorer

If your friend or loved one doesn’t have the chops to join the RGS or American Alpine Club, no matter. Get them an official MileagePlus Explorer Business Card from United Airlines. Perfect for wannabes and armchair explorers, especially any of them 1 percenters we’ve been hearing so much about – the Explorer card comes with 10,000 bonus miles after the recipient spends $25,000 within a calendar year. (www.explorerbusinesscard.com)

Sittin’ Pretty

That explorer in your life is undoubtedly a hearty soul. He or she treks through jungles defying dengue fever, consume untold billions of pathogens eating fish tacos at roadside stands, and even face the insidious candiru which can enter a man’s, er, manhood. For the holidays this year, PlaneSheets is ample ammunition for germ warfare we fight in flight (especially where we sit, back with the chickens and goats). These cotton sheets solve the cootie problem by completely encasing an airline seat. Just slide it over the headrest, tuck and sit. Friend or loved one may look like they suffer from OCD, but they’ll be napping better than anyone else. (www.planesheets.com)

Belay Glasses

We first caught glimpse of these specs in Climbing magazine and knew we had to have them. Triangular prisms in these German-made specs bend sight lines 90 degrees to the vertical so the climber in your life can belay without craning their neck. They also make it easier to hit the call button when sitting on a set of PlaneSheets. (www.powernplay.com)

EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS

Ballard’s War – A WW-II spy thriller with all the intellectual pyrotechnics (plus an aching love story) for which author Tom Holzel (The Mystery of Mallory & Irvine, The Air Rifle Hunter's Guide) is well known. A mysterious American approaches the Abwehr – the German Secret Service – bearing gifts: advance intelligence that helps turn the tide of war. But there’s a catch. And Oskar Faulheim (the Darth Vader of the Gestapo) wants to know how he does it. With Ballard protected by the Abwehr, Faulheim sets his sights on his new girlfriend – the Italian widow Sabina Pergolesi. E-book or paperback from Amazon.com.

Women Needed for Peaks Foundation Trek – Peaks Foundation has launched 10 new climbs for 2012 and are looking for women who want to travel to unique regions, bag a peak and create positive change for women and girls in mountain communities across the globe. Trek the Peruvian Andes, the high Himalayas or even the mountains of Morocco. For more information on how to join a climb, visit www.peaksfoundation.org or contact info@peaksfoundation.org.

DreamQuest Productions - An award-winning full service film production company with over 20 years of experience in adventure & expedition film production. Contact us to see how we can help your expedition! Tel. 661 492 3188, www.dreamquest.tv, info@dreamquest.tv

Advertise in Expedition News – For just 50 cents a word, you can reach an estimated 10,000 readers of America’s only monthly newsletter celebrating the world of expeditions on land, in space, and beneath the sea. Join us as we take a sometimes irreverent look at the people and projects making Expedition News. Frequency discounts are available. (For more information: blumassoc@aol.com).

WEBER SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION USES SKIS AND KITES FOR SOUTH POLE ROUNDTRIP TREK

2011-11-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

On November 16, 2011, a team of six adventurers flew to the continent of Antarctica –Canadian Richard Weber; Briton Chris de Lapuente; Americans Kathy Braegger and Ruth Storm; New Zealander Michael Archer; and South African Howard Fairbank. The entire team started skiing from the Ronne Ice Shelf at a location called the “Messner Start,” 540-mi./900 km from the South Pole. The team plans to pull all their supplies in sleds while Howard Fairbank will ski off on his own for a solo attempt. The journey to the South Pole is expected to take about 35 days.

At the South Pole, it gets interesting: they will receive a re-supply, the skiers will change boots, skis and sleds, Ruth Storm will fly back, and Fairbank will re-join the team. Then the group will kite-ski 660-mi./1100 km back to the edge of the Antarctic continent at Hercules Inlet. The South Pole, an altitude of almost 10,000 feet, experiences cold air flowing down toward sea level. Using this wind, the team expects to reach Hercules Inlet in about 15 days and hopes to depart for home on January 12, 2012.

According to Weber, despite numerous South Pole expeditions these days, a roundtrip to the South Pole has only been completed twice in history. Once by Amundsen in 1911, and another team in 2004, but never on this route. The expedition will send text and images via satellite telephone, which can be seen at www.WeberArctic.com, Kathy Braegger’s website, www.southpoleroundtrip.com, and Chris de Lapuente’s site, www.south-pole.weebly.com/.

Expedition sponsors are Fischer skis, 7Systems endurance supplements, Brother Labels (see related story), and Recon GPS. Weber considers the Recon his coolest piece of gear. The goggles have a built-in GPS display that provides speed, temperature, latitude and longitude, considered a huge advantage while kite-skiing and navigating in bad light. “No need to look down at the compass or to get out a hand held GPS. The battery can be recharged from one of our mini solar panels,” Weber blogs.

Expedition News - November 2011 - Technology Lends a Hand

2011-11-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

November 2011 – Volume Eighteen, Number 11

EXPEDITION NEWS, now in its 17th year, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.

EXPEDITION UPDATE

Soldiers to the Summit is Bullish on Connecticut Surgeon

In 2010, seven disabled soldiers reached the 20,075-foot summit of Lobuche, a spectacular Himalayan peak at the foot of Everest. The “Soldiers to the Summit” team included four members with post traumatic stress, three leg amputees, two blind climbers, and one who had spent over three years in a wheelchair. Also on the trip was Stamford, Conn., surgeon Sherman Bull, 75, who at the age of 64 was at the time the oldest climber to summit Mt. Everest (2001). (See EN, October 2010).

Dr. Bull addressed a church group in his hometown of New Canaan, Conn., on Oct. 12, telling the audience of mostly retirees, “We have created a generation of damaged goods (through war) that will be with us for a lifetime and beyond.

“I felt tremendously responsible for this team. We were ready to stress them physically but not mentally and emotionally – many were experiencing post traumatic stress including one veteran who had killed so many people they wouldn’t let him re-enlist.”

Bull later said the veterans on the trip “took partying to a new level,” as he flipped a Powerpoint slide to an image of an amputee drinking out of his prosthetic limb.

The expedition, which included blind climber Erik Weihenmayer, is the subject of a documentary from Serac Adventure Films called High Ground, directed by award-winning filmmaker Michael Brown and the Outdoor Adventure Film School.

High Ground is in final production now and will be released next year, initially at some major film festivals. Also planned is a nationwide tour with special screenings for sponsors as well as VA hospitals.

Next spring and summer, soldiers will travel to Colorado for two intensive training sessions. Then in December 2012, they will travel to Ecuador and to climb Cotopaxi, a 19,347-ft. volcano. (For more information: www.soldierstothesummit.org, www.seracfilms/highground).

EXPEDITION NOTES

Walking the Amazon

On Aug. 9, 2010, British explorer Ed Stafford walked into the history books after completing the longest jungle expedition ever undertaken, thus becoming the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River.  Previously thought of as an “impossible” feat, Stafford’s success in navigating the entire length of the 4,000 mile Amazon on foot from its source in Peru to the mouth of the river on the shores of Brazil proved once and for all that if you have a dream, and you have the determination to succeed then nothing is impossible.  

Stafford, 35, a former Captain in the Devon & Dorset’s Light Infantry regiment of the British Army who was inspired by reading the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton, filmed and blogged his deadly journey the entire route.

At The Explorers Club on Oct. 26, he tells EN, “Sure we had all the technology – but we were in areas of the Amazon where rescue was hopeless. We could have Facebooked and Tweeted ourselves with great photos showing us dying. That’s just the risk we understood going into this.”

Up to 70 percent of the trip involved hacking through dense jungle at the rate of four miles per day. “But it was easy really,” he joked. “All we had to do was put the river on our left and keep walking downhill.”

His tale of true grit, bravery and determination to succeed against all odds has led to him being described by The Daily Mail as, “Britain’s most intrepid hero since Scott of the Antarctic.” His new book, Walking the Amazon, comes out in the States in spring 2012. (For more information: www.edstafford.org).

First All-Female Team Paddles From Minneapolis to Hudson Bay

Ann Raiho and Natalie Warren finished the historic 2,250-mile route from Minnesota to Hudson Bay in 85 days, becoming the first all-female team to canoe the journey. The project was supported by Sierra Designs. Titled the “Hudson Bay Bound” adventure, the trip was inspired by the fur trade route outlined in the 1935 book Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid who recounts a canoe trip with his friend Walter Port.

Raiho and Warren were struck by the fact the trip had never been completed by an all-women’s team, and saw a potential journey as a way to inspire other women to plan and embark on their own multi-day adventures.

Raiho and Warren were not only the first women’s team to complete the arduous journey, but also were the fourth team ever to complete the trip.

The two canoeists left Minneapolis on June 2, and reached York Factory in Hudson Bay on August 25. In total, 70 days were spent canoeing, including seven wind-bound days on Lake Winnipeg.

“Our biggest physical challenge was paddling upstream on the Minnesota while the river was in flood condition and the state was experiencing record high temperatures for June,” said Raiho. (For more information: www.hudsonbaybound.com).

Hardest Climb by a North American Woman

adidas Outdoor athlete Sasha DiGiulian, 18, achieved the most difficult documented climb by a North American woman on Oct. 15, when she completed “Pure Imagination” in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, a 5.14d grade 9a climb, in only six attempts. Pure Imagination was first climbed by American Jonathan Siegrist in November 2010.

DiGiulian has been climbing for the past 11 years. At the present time she is first in the world ranking for Female Outdoor Sport Climbing, winning first place overall at the IFSC Climbing World Championships in Arco, Italy, this summer. She is also the current Pan-American Champion; the U.S. National Champion, female division; and undefeated Junior Continental Champion, female category. (For more information: www.sasha-digiulian.com)

North Face Team Summits Meru’s Shark’s Fin

The North Face athletes Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk summited the Shark's Fin route on the northwest face of the 20,700-foot Meru in the Garhwal Himalaya, one of the last great unclimbed features of the range. With favorable weather, complementary skills and good climbing conditions, the group was able to finish on Oct. 2, almost a week ahead of schedule in a stark contrast to previous attempts.

Anker first attempted the route in 2003 but had to turn back two-thirds of the way up. In 2008 Anker returned with his current climbing team and spent 19 days on the wall before having to retreat just 100 meters from the summit.

Shark's Fin represents one of the world's ultimate mountaineering tests. In the last 30 years top alpinists have attempted the climb but none of them were successful, until now. The face represents a combination of climbing features – the first third is an alpine snow-and-ice route, the middle section is a mix of ice and rock, while the last section is a grueling overhanging headwall.

To outfit their expedition, the group used and tested The North Face's new Meru Kit, built specifically for high-altitude mountaineering. According to Chin, the trio used knowledge from their previous attempts to incorporate certain design elements into the products. At the end of the day the kit allowed the climbers to focus on the important aspects of their ascent.

As Ozturk said, “climbing with such close friends in one of the most visually stunning parts of the Himalayas is the kind of adventure that fuels my soul.” (Read the expedition dispatch here: http://www.neverstopexploring.com/blog/meru-sharks-fin/).

Jawbone Found of Earliest Known Modern Human in Northwestern Europe

A piece of jawbone excavated from a prehistoric cave in England is the earliest evidence for modern humans in Europe, according to an international team of scientists. The bone first was believed to be about 35,000 years old, but the new research study shows it to be
significantly older – between 44,000 and 41,000 years old, according to the findings that will be published in the journal Nature. The new dating of the bone is expected to help scientists pin down how quickly modern humans spread across Europe during the last Ice Age. It also helps confirm the much-debated theory that early humans coexisted with Neanderthals.

Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Associate Professor of Biology at Penn State University and a member of the research team, explained that the fragment of maxilla – the upper jaw – containing three teeth was unearthed in 1927 in a prehistoric limestone cave called Kent's Cavern in southwestern England. Shapiro explained that the new and more-accurate date is especially important because it provides clearer evidence about the coexistence of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. (For more information: Beth Shapiro, 814 863 9178, 814 321 8389, beth.shapiro@gmail.com). See high resolution images at
http://www.science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2011-news/Shapiro10-2011-2).

Apple Macintosh Makes Field Research Easier

Three explorers advised how technology has changed the face of exploration during a first-ever Explorers Club presentation Oct. 18 within the Apple store on New York’s Upper West Side. As crowds of Mac addicts clamored for the latest iPhone 4S gizmo and bellied up to the Genius Bar, Edmundo R. Edwards, Patricia Vargas Casanova, and Claudio P. Cristino of the Easter Island Expedition explained how they used Apple products to understand the culture of Eastern Polynesia and the mysterious moai that stand on the shores of Easter Island. The presentation was introduced by Explorers Club President Lorie Karnath.

After the three purchased an armload of gear at bargain prices compared to their native Chile, they explained how Macintosh computers were used to reconstruct 30,000 tons of statues – 15 in all – destroyed in the 1960s by tsunami.

Vargas enters her field notes directly into iPads to save time transferring data later. Before the Mac, every day in the field required another day keyboarding findings. “Now, we take notes at the site and synch it later that night to our main computer,” she said.

“This kind of equipment is incredible. Plus, if we stumble upon a find on our day off, we can record it using the iPhones we carry in our pockets everyday.”

Their next stop is Pitcairn Island in the southeast Pacific, home of the Bounty mutineers. (For more information: www.islandexplorer.org).

Exploration Continues to Thrive

Two of the six awards at The Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award dinner in St. Louis on Oct. 15 went to researchers from a technology institute at the University of California, San Diego – Thomas E. Levy and Albert Yu-Min Lin. Both are passionate about championing the use of advanced technologies to shed light on – and conserve – the world's cultural heritage. Lin was on hand to accept his award, while Levy recorded his remarks from the field, where he is leading a new expedition and living in a remote tent camp without electricity in southern Jordan.

"We are searching for the political and economic center of Iron Age copper production some 3,000 years ago in the southeastern Mediterranean basin," said Levy. "We are using state-of-the-art cyber-archaeology to help revolutionize our understanding of the relationship between archaeology and ancient Near Eastern texts – specifically, the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible."

Fellow UCSD researcher Albert Lin was cited for his exploration of the Mongolian steppe in search of uncharted heritage sites, notably the lost tomb of Genghis Khan. Accepting his award, Lin talked about his four-year effort to do so without digging in the ground. Instead, his team used non-invasive technologies, including satellite imaging, ground-penetrating radar, and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as crowdsourcing to engage the public in the search via a National Geographic web portal running applications developed at UCSD.

Recalled Lin after the event, "It was clear from other awardees and fellow Explorers Club members that exploration in the name of understanding the world around us continues to thrive, with even more purpose than before, given the urgency of taking what we learn and applying it to conservation."

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

– St. Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430)

CLIMBING FOR DOLLARS

McNeill-Nott Award Deadline Nears

With the untimely death of Sue Nott and her partner Karen McNeill on Mt. Foraker in 2006, The American Alpine Club partnered with Mountain Hardwear to establish an award in their memory. The McNeill-Nott Award seeks to preserve the spirit of these two talented and courageous climbers by giving grants to amateur climbers exploring new routes or unclimbed peaks with small and lightweight teams.

The Award focuses on projects that have strong exploratory and adventuresome mountaineering objectives. These elements are more important than the technical rating of the climbing objective.

Two or three grants totaling $7,000 are awarded annually to amateur teams that best meet the criteria for pursuing an exploratory objective. The application deadline is Jan.1, 2012.
(For more information: www.americanalpineclub.org, grants@americanalpineclub.org.

MEDIA MATTERS

Uniforms for Armchair Explorers

English designer Nigel Cabourn conducted a “style autopsy” on the body of George Mallory, discovered on Everest in 1999. Cotton gabardine, woven silk, tweed, a shred of flannel shirting has provided inspiration for this season’s hottest looks, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal by Darrell Hartman (Oct. 8-9). All the rugged, retro winter wear out there can be read as an attempt to dig these bygone heroes out of their frozen graves.

“The difficulties these expeditions faced, their sheer determination to reach into the unknown, it sparks an idea,” said Gilded Age designer Stefan Miljanich who is showing fur hoods and hand-knit sweaters inspired by North Pole explorer Robert Peary.

Cabourn continues, “People don’t think of Everest as romantically as they used to. In the 50’s, if you went up there, you couldn’t get help from helicopters. I think heroes like Hillary have captured something precious that we don’t have today.”

Five U.S. Peaks to Tackle

Gordon Ranow, the director of programs for Alpine Ascents, a guiding outfitter in Seattle, states the obvious in the Wall Street Journal (Sept. 13). He tells reporter Jen Murphy that anyone gearing up for a climb should get outside as much as possible.

“There is a big difference between working out for an hour in a gym and an hour outdoors in all weather. If you have to work out inside, try to do things that mimic climbing, like the stair climber or elliptical.”

He suggests walking three or four days a week with a heavy pack to prepare for a climb, and recommends this bucket list of worthy U.S. mountains to attempt: Mount Shasta (Northern California), Mount Whitney (California), Mount Rainier (Washington), Grand Teton (Wyoming) and Mount Washington (New Hampshire).

EXPEDITION MARKETING

X Marks the Spot

A competition to build an underwater robot is just one of the initiatives that might be funded under a new partnership between the X Prize Foundation and the Shell Oil Co.
The three-year, $9 million program, called the X Prize Exploration Prize Group, aims to spur the development of innovative technologies to explore the Earth, sea and space through competitions with significant cash payoffs.

"We're here to celebrate a new partnership with the vision of reinvigorating and inspiring a new generation of explorers," X Prize Foundation chairman and CEO Peter Diamandis said during an October Explorers Club news conference to announce the initiative. "We're entering a day and age where anybody who really, truly has the impulse and desire to go and explore someplace can make it happen." (For more information: www.xprize.org)

Wingsuit Pilot Joins Evolv Sports Team

Footwear manufacturer Evolv Sports has added legendary climber Steph Davis to its climbing team. Davis is a professional rock climber, alpinist, big-wall climber, BASE jumper and wingsuit pilot currently based out of Moab, Utah. She is the author of High Infatuation (Mountaineers Books, 2007) and blogs at www.highinfatuation.com. She is currently writing another book about wingsuit flight and free soloing called Learning to Fly, to be published by Touchstone/Simon and Schuster. Davis has been pushing the limits of climbing for 20 years in many disciplines. She is known for her free ascents of El Capitan, climbing some of the hardest cracks in Moab and free soloing long, committing routes. (For more information: www.evolvsports.com).

Everest IMAX Filmmaker Partners with Coke

Beginning this month, white will be the new red. Coca-Cola and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are joining forces in a new campaign to help protect the polar bear’s Arctic home. For the first time ever, Coca-Cola is turning 1.4 billion of its iconic red cans white in celebration of the polar bear and committing up to $3 million to WWF’s polar bear conservation efforts. The Coke is also asking fans in the U.S. to join the “Arctic Home” campaign by texting donations.

Coca-Cola and WWF also have partnered with Academy Award nominated filmmakers MacGillivray Freeman Films, which is working with Warner Bros. Pictures and IMAX Corporation to co-produce the new IMAX film, To The Arctic 3D, scheduled for release in 2012. Coca-Cola’s “Arctic Home” television commercials and content on the website, ArcticHome.com, feature sneak preview footage from the film. (For more information: www.ArcticHome.com, www.oneworldoneocean.org/tothearctic).

WEB WATCH

Why Travel the World?

National Geographic Society chairman emeritus Gilbert Grosvenor tells Ford Cochran in a website post on Sept. 19, “ Travel, I believe, is the best way to acquire an education. When you stay home, you miss out on the sensations you experience and the insights you gain when you travel. … You absorb the sights, the sounds, and the smells of a place when you’re there on the spot. You mingle with the people. You get a feeling for contemporary life that you simply can’t get in any classroom. I value that kind of education, and I’ve continued it on into retirement because I find it so stimulating.” (Read the entire interview here: http://blog.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/2011/09/why-travel-the-world/)

Or You Can Just Dial for Matches

Backpacker magazine Editor in Chief Jon Dorn shows you how to get a fire going with nothing but your cellphone, a piece of steel wool, and some tinder. It would have to be pretty grim before we take our phone apart for warmth – how else could we play Angry Birds? But it’s a good skill to know nonetheless. See:
http://www.backpacker.com/start_a_fire_with_your_cellphone/videos/82

Rob Hall's Daughter Climbs Kilimanjaro at 15

Sarah Arnold-Hall, 15, the daughter of New Zealand mountaineer Rob Hall (1961-1996) who died on Mt. Everest in 1996, has climbed the highest peak in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro, with her mother, Jan Arnold. The mother and daughter took eight days to climb the 19,341-ft./5895m peak as part of a three-week trip to Africa in September, according to Wayfarer, the blog of polar explorer Bob McKerrow.

Kilimanjaro is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world and every year an estimated 30,000 people make the arduous, but not technically challenging climb.

"Someone said the last day is like trying to climb three Empire State Buildings on a 16-degree angle, and on one lung," Sarah said.

When she was 10 she visited Mt. Everest's base camp at 17,598-ft./5364m, but said she found the extra altitude on Mt. Kilimanjaro much harder.

Sarah's father died on Everest nine weeks before she was born. An expedition leader, he was trapped 656-ft./200m from the south summit in a deadly storm with a client. Eight climbers died in that storm and before he died Hall called his wife in Christchurch via satellite phone telling her not too worry too much and to "sleep well, my sweetheart.”

But, as Sarah and Arnold gently imply, the fact she completed the climb is not a cue for reporters to write, as some have done in the past, that Sarah is following in her famous father's footsteps.

Arnold, who climbed Everest in 1993 with Hall, is keen to continue climbing. But Sarah is up-front in that she doesn't necessarily share her parents' love of climbing, McKerrow blogs. She has her eyes on Paris as her next overseas destination, and among other things would like to see the Eiffel Tower.

Arnold says Rob Hall was much more than a climber. "He was a designer and entrepreneur and by age 23 he had 12 people working for him manufacturing tents and packs. He had quite another side to him."

McKerrow posts on his Wayfarer blog, “Rob Hall's death was tragic but it is such a pleasure seeing his daughter Sarah, who Rob never knew, and her mother Jan, climbing Kilimanjaro and enjoying life.” (See the entire post here: http://bobmckerrow.blogspot.com/2011/10/rob-halls-daughter-sarah-climbs.html).

BUZZ WORDS

“Hominology” – Paging All Sasquatches

A still-unrecognized branch of biology that studies hairy upright walking creatures, as championed by a handful of Russian devotees. It sounds more scientific than “Yetiology,” “Bigfootology,” or “Sasquatchology.” (Source: Wall Street Journal, Oct. 29-30)

IN PASSING

Michel Peissel, Tibet Expert and Adventurer

Michel Peissel, a French explorer and an ethnologist who devoted a good part of his life to recording the culture of Tibet and led numerous expeditions to seldom-traveled places, died on Oct. 7 at his home in Paris. He was 74. The cause was a heart attack, his son Jocelyn said.

In 16 books and more than 20 documentary films, Peissel chronicled his explorations of inaccessible or ignored regions of the globe, including the Tibetan high plateau, remote Russian river towns and unrecorded Mayan ruins, according to his obituary in the New York Times (Oct. 16).

A noted storyteller, he was fond of sharing some of his harrowing tales, such as the time he lay with two broken legs in freezing winds, or the time his truck was stuck for days in mud and ice until a passing caravan of yaks pulled it free, or the day a part of his mule train dropped off a precipice and animals, tents and provisions were swept away in a roaring stream.

“Travel with him was always a triumph over the impossible,” said one of his sons, Olivier, a sometime travel companion.

Added Explorers Club member Frederick P. Selby, author of Postcards from Kathmandu (Vajra Publications, 2008), "Michel Peissel was a passionate, curious, adventuresome, restless man. He was one of the last 'real explorers' who utilized endurance and body strength to reach his objectives. The Himalayan regions were never out of his thoughts, particularly the land and people of Tibet.”

EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS

Women Needed for Peaks Foundation Trek – Peaks Foundation has just launched 10 new climbs for 2012 and are looking for women who want to travel to unique regions, bag a peak and create positive change for women and girls in mountain communities across the globe. Trek the Peruvian Andes, the high Himalayas or even the mountains of Morocco. For more information on how to join a climb, visit www.peaksfoundation.org or contact info@peaksfoundation.org.

DreamQuest Productions - An award winning full service film production company with over 20 years of experience in adventure & expedition film production. Contact us to see how we can help your expedition! Tel. 661.998.3524, www.dreamquest.tv, info@dreamquest.tv

Advertise in Expedition News – For just 50 cents a word, you can reach an estimated 10,000 readers of America’s only monthly newsletter celebrating the world of expeditions on land, in space, and beneath the sea. Join us as we take a sometimes irreverent look at the people and projects making Expedition News. Frequency discounts are available. (For more information: blumassoc@aol.com).

EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., 28 Center Street, Darien, CT 06820 USA. Tel. 203 655 1600, fax 203 655 1622, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Assistant editor: Jamie Gribbon. ©2011 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com. Enjoy the EN blog at www.expeditionnews.blogspot.com.

Mountain Film Festival Comes to Film Society of Lincoln Center, Oct. 21-23

2011-10-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

Friday, October 21st, and running all weekend long, the Film Society will host a special film festival: MountainFilm Festival. This unique and rich program provides a varied slate of shorts and features emphasizing the wonders of adventure, exploration, sports, and environment. The festival also highlights human rights and activism through food, environment, and community development. MountainFilm Festival is filled with screenings, panels, and some complimentary discussions regarding these intriguing subjects, with appearances from the program's filmmakers and activists.

Forty-six Days Cycling through Iceland… with Kids

2011-09-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

EXPEDITION FOCUS
Trip Report by Charles Scott
September 2011
www.icelandbikeadventure.com

“Are you crazy?” I often got this reaction while cycling 1,500 miles across Iceland with my 10-year old son Sho and 4-year old daughter Saya to raise money for a United Nations environmental campaign. Sho pedaled behind me on a connected trailer cycle, and Saya sat snugly behind him strapped in a bike trailer. We carried about 100 pounds of gear.

“Crazy” is a relative term, but not necessarily pejorative. It might describe any act that includes seemingly unnecessary hardships, falls outside of mainstream behavior, or challenges the status quo. That’s why I usually answered the question with a smile and a simple, “Yes.”

Yes, I’m crazy and lucky. Cycling for forty-six days with my kids through this dramatic, rugged, inspiringly beautiful country offered a remarkable contrast to our mainstream life in the dense urban mess of New York City, where I feel disconnected from nature’s rhythms. Most days, I sit in a climate-controlled environment staring into a computer screen for hours on end. And I am bombarded by constant temptations to consume material goods. In addition to raising money for a United Nations tree planting campaign, the trek through Iceland was an attempt to share with my kids an experience of unspoiled nature, a place where humans have not yet subjugated their surroundings.

Many people were concerned about the welfare of my kids, asking me, “Don’t you think it’s dangerous to ride with your kids on busy roads with passing cars?”
Answer: We trained on the streets New York City. If you wear reflective gear and don’t go too fast, I think it’s reasonably safe.

Several asked, “Won’t your daughter get bored, riding for hour after hour in a bike trailer?”

Answer: Yes. What’s wrong with being bored? That’s what imagination is for.

Others asked, “Isn’t it too much to expect a ten-year old boy to cycle for six weeks, often through rain and cold wind?”

Answer: Sho didn’t think so.

He and I cycled across Japan, 2,500 miles in 67 days, when he was eight years old. And he’s already looking forward to another adventure cycling trip next summer.

He regularly tells people, “A kid can do a whole lot more than most adults think.”
Arriving on the summer solstice in Reykjavik, latitude 66 degrees north, it took us a few days to get used to the near-constant daylight.

But the magical experience of cycling beneath a midnight sun made up for the mild disruption to our sleep patterns, and served as a real-world science lesson for my kids.

Sho marveled at the phenomenon and explained the earth’s tilt to Saya.

But at four years old, she preferred an anthropomorphic explanation: “The sun doesn’t want to miss summer, so it stays up all night.”

The ride through Iceland was like taking an inspirational and educational field trip. Sho and Saya discovered a tiny carnivorous mountain plant, snacked on wild crow berries while hiking past majestic waterfalls, explored a massive glacier, witnessed the powerful calm of a humpback whale diving and resurfacing, and scaled the edges of towering, vertigo-inducing bird cliffs that overlooked an endless, sparkling ocean expanse. We became enthusiastic bird watchers, identifying oyster catchers, puffins, snipes, eiders, razorbills, and arctic terns.

While cycling through the east fjords, we came across a scene I will not soon forget: fifteen whooping swans coasting serenely over the sea, large alabaster forms stretching out long necks to take gentle sips of the glowing water. We ate lunch amid vast lava fields strewn with black boulders and belching sulfur vents. We rode sturdy Icelandic horses, camped in the wild, and awoke to the cries of arctic terns hunting above the softly lapping ocean surf nearby.

While inspired by Iceland’s raw beauty, I also felt small and fragile in the face of nature’s power and indifference. A glacial flood triggered by a volcano washed away the road we had traversed just days earlier. Sometimes the headwind was so strong that we struggled to maintain a pitifully slow pace. Sho and I shivered, despite many layers of clothing, when the temperature dropped to the low 40’s F, and rain soaked through our “waterproof” gloves and socks (my daughter stayed safe and warm in her trailer). Our answer was to pedal harder to stay warm. I told my son, “This ride was supposed to be hard. Sometimes an adventurer just suffers for a while.”

We met a stream of friendly people. Passing motorists stared at our unusual bike setup and often gave us a thumbs up.

Some tourists pulled over to snap our picture as we cycled past. Sho usually gave them a wave, while Saya made crazy faces and stuck out her tongue. Locals who heard about our charity ride offered us places to stay, gave us discounts or free entry to museums, and commiserated with us about the wind and rain.

Many people told us about recent changes in the country’s climate. A group of scientists we met explained that, while Iceland’s glaciers are retreating steadily, the most dramatic change is happening beneath the surface, as the ice is hollowed out by ever increasing amounts of flowing water.

A fisherman told me that, since 1980, he has measured a 2 degree Celsius increase in the average temperature of the water where he fishes. In the past few years, great numbers of mackerel have begun to appear off the coast of Iceland, moving north in search of colder water and causing tensions between Iceland and the EU over fishing quotas. People speculate that one reason for the recent decrease in the local puffin population may be that the encroaching mackerel are eating the sandeels that are the puffins’ primary food source. When we visited the Westman Islands, previously home of the world’s largest puffin colony, we learned that the vast majority of nests were empty this year.

Living in New York City, it is easy to ignore or minimize the impact of these climatic changes.

But as I cycled through a country in which the forces of nature so clearly held sway, I felt a powerful and humble connection to the world around me. We cycled past baby sheep peeking out from behind a protective mother, or ducklings crowding close to their parents. We ducked below aggressive arctic terns swooping down from above to protect their young. Hearty shrubs and bright delicate flowers struggled to grow in harsh lava fields. I recognized in these animals and even in the plants the same resilience that I hope to cultivate in my children.

As we cycled along one of Iceland’s many dramatic fjords, Saya declared, “I’m in love with horses and arctic terns!” It is this sense of connection to the natural world, and a desire to treasure and protect the wilderness that remains, that I hope my children will internalize. It is something I hope we will all take to heart, treating the earth, and our brief time on it, as a gift to be cherished. Perhaps then we can begin to reverse the cycle of unsustainable living that has become our generation’s signature legacy.

Call me crazy.

Lowell Thomas Awards Dinner, Oct. 15, St. Louis

2011-09-13T06:31:00.001-07:00

The St. Louis chapter of The Explorers Club will host the Lowell Thomas Awards dinner at the Missouri History Museum (Forest Park, 5700 Lindell Boulevard) on Oct. 15th. This is the first time the award, established in 1980, has been given outside of New York.

The theme of the dinner is “Exploring the World’s Greatest Mysteries.” Master of Ceremonies is Explorers Club Honorary Chairman Jim Fowler, former star of the TV show Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom.

Previous recipients of The Lowell Thomas Award include Isaac Asimov, Clive Cussler and Wade Davis; astronauts Buzz Aldrin, James Lovell and Kathryn Sullivan; and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary.

This year’s honorees are:

• Edmundo R. Edwards, Patricia Vargas Casanova, Claudio P. Cristino for studies of the culture of Eastern Polynesia, and the enigmatic moai that stand on the shores of Easter Island.

• Albert Yu-Min Lin, Ph.D., a research scientist attempting to find the tomb of Genghis Khan and protect a sacred region of Mongolia.

• Thomas E. Levy, Ph.D., who has revolutionized the dating of the Biblical land of Edom, pushing the sequence some 500 years earlier than the scholarly consensus – and brought researchers closer than ever before to testing for the potential existence of “King Solomon’s Mines.”

• Brent S. Stewart, Ph.D., J.D., a senior research scientist praised for studies of the mysterious whale shark and other migratory marine species.

• William C. Stone, Ph.D., one of the world’s foremost expeditionary cavers and a proponent of using technology to help explorers survive and thrive as they challenge new frontiers.

• Kenneth R. Wright and Ruth M. Wright, J.D., partners whose work on water conservation has brought enduring benefits to the environment, water resources, and communities in both North and South America.

Tickets start at $200 and can be ordered through http://ltad2011.explorers.org/

Vern Tejas’ 50th Summiting of McKinley Probably a Record

2011-09-12T05:59:00.000-07:00

Guide Vern Tejas logged his 50th summit of Mount McKinley this summer, prompting an obvious question: Does that make him the ruler of North America's highest roost? Beth Bragg of the Anchorage Daily News (July 20) reports officials with the National Park Service don't know if anyone has been to the top of McKinley more often than Tejas, because they didn't begin tracking summits until 1995. They think Tejas, who boasts numerous claims to fame gained in the Alaska Range and beyond, probably owns the record for the most McKinley summits. (See EN, September 2009).

Tejas, 58, a guide for Alpine Ascents International, said his first two McKinley summits came in 1978, one as a client and one as a guide. An impressive – but not unprecedented – four summits came in 1988, when Tejas became the first person to complete a solo climb of the mountain in the winter. No. 50 came June 30, when he was the guide of an eight-person team that made it to the summit.

"Mt. Vinson in Antarctica would be my next most climbed mountain, however it's not even close to Denali at a mere 27 summits," Tejas tells the Daily News.

In 1988, Tejas made it to the top of McKinley four times, an achievement that began in March when he became the first person to make a successful solo winter ascent of the mountain. "My endless winter," Tejas calls it.

Tejas guided adventurer Norman D. Vaughan in 1994 when, at age 89, Vaughan climbed a 10,320-foot Antarctic peak that Admiral Richard Byrd named in his honor 65 years earlier during their historic 1928-1930 South Pole expedition.

Tejas also continues to pursue adventures outside Alaska, but nothing inspires him like McKinley. "Denali is the most beautiful mountain in the world," he wrote, "and I want to climb it as long as I can – 65 summits when I am 65 sounds great to me. A nice round number."

Jetman Video is Home Run for Breitling

2011-08-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

In 2006, Swiss pilot Yves "Jetman" Rossy became the first man in history to fly like a bird, albeit with fiberglass and carbon fiber wings powered by kerosene-fueled engines. Since then he has crossed the English Channel and, most recently, flew over the Grand Canyon. This beautifully produced video has it all – great scenery of the Grand Canyon shot in May 2011, p.o.v. footage from his 190 mph flight, stirring Cirque du Soleil-like music (with even a pan flute thrown in), and lots of visual identification for Breitling, his sponsor. View it here: http://timetosignoff.com/video/?id=16545

The Explorers Club Discovers Its North Face

2011-07-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

Members of The Explorers Club, the world renowned international exploration organization, discovered a bit of urban archaeology unseen for years – the North Face of their iconic Upper East Side headquarters named for famed broadcaster and Club member Lowell Thomas.

The 107-year-old Club celebrated completion of the restoration of its 46 East 70th Street north-facing façade, and removal of construction scaffolding, with a public open house on July 28. Immediately following the ribbon ceremony, a climber descended the east exterior wall of the six-story building, highlighting the next area of the building targeted for Phase II of the renovation project. The Phase II renovation will also focus on the Club’s outside terrace and a colonnade of particular historical import that dates from the medieval period, another portion of which is believed to be housed at The Cloisters.

Public Invited: Explorers Club Open House, July 28

2011-07-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

Members and Public Discover
The Explorers Club “North Face”;
Celebration of completion of
Phase I Headquarters Renovation

Open House, Thursday, July 28,
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Public Welcome

NEW YORK, N.Y. (July 26, 2011) – Members of The Explorers Club, the world renowned international exploration organization, will soon discover a bit of urban archaeology unseen for years – the North Face of their iconic Upper East Side headquarters named for famed broadcaster and Club member Lowell Thomas.

The 107-year-old Club will celebrate completion of the restoration of its 46 East 70th Street north-facing façade, and removal of construction scaffolding, with a public open house starting with a ribbon cutting on Thursday, July 28, at 11 a.m. Immediately following the ribbon ceremony, a climber will descend the east exterior wall of the six-story building, highlighting the next area of the building targeted for Phase II of the renovation project. The Phase II renovation will also focus on the Club’s outside terrace and a colonnade of particular historical import that dates from the medieval period, another portion of which is believed to be housed at The Cloisters.

Upon taking office as president in 2009, Lorie Karnath ¬– the 37th president and second female president in the Club’s 107-year history – launched a fundraising campaign to raise capital to begin the much needed revitalization of the 100-year-old headquarters. This initial campaign has raised the most amount of money to date for the Club under one administration.

“As explorers our mission is to not only conduct field research and add to man’s body of scientific knowledge, but to help ensure cultural and historical preservation as well. In this instance, cultural preservation starts at H.Q.,” stated Karnath.

In addition to restoring the façade of the Jacobean revival mansion, Phase I of the renovation involved repairing 114 stained-glass windows; installing a new roof membrane; replacing limestone ribs on the exterior; and repointing the South and East façades.

A spectacular 3-1/2-story bay window was meticulously rebuilt with reinforced stone, cast and color matched to the original that had deteriorated beyond repair.

The initial building fundraising campaign “Preserve a Brick” called for $50 donations to preserve each brick. “Adoptions” of stained-glass windows were offered beginning at $5,000 each, supplementing the numerous donations received from private individuals as well as a number of foundations including the Mabel Dorn Reeder and Richard Olson Foundations.

Rarely Viewed Artifacts

Rarely viewed artifacts from the Club’s extensive collection will be displayed throughout the day. These will include fragments of matting used in the burial of 10th century Alaskan mummies; a Polar Capsule left at the North Pole by the 1986 Steger North Pole Expedition and recovered off the north coast of Ireland three years later; an axe from 1911 used in the construction of Robert Falcon Scott's base shelter in Antarctica; and a 1906 recording made by Robert E. Peary, who would successfully claim to reach the North Pole in 1909.

There will also be a solar display courtesy of event sponsor Eastern Mountain Sports where guests can charge their cell phones while viewing the building’s elegant interior.

The unveiling of the North Façade and open house will be followed that evening by a presidential picnic hosted by President Karnath to launch Phase II of the capital campaign (tickets required). Old Pulteney has prepared an appropriate whisky tasting for the event in celebration of the restored North Face of the Lowell Thomas Building, the Club’s polar traditions, and Old Pulteney’s current Arctic expedition, “Row to the Pole.”

For more information: www.explorers.org.

Explorers Club Flag Program is on Track

2011-07-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

The Explorers Club is Monitoring Flags Like Never Before

During the early part of the 20th century, Admiral Richard E. Byrd, an Honorary Member of The Explorers Club, carried three flags on his second Antarctic expedition in 1933-35. Yet by the mid-1950s, when their whereabouts were still a mystery, the celebrated explorer was reportedly miffed that Club officials would ask for them back. You can imagine the sense of unease when the Club president solicited board volunteers: “Who here wants to ask Admiral Byrd to return our flags?”

There are 202 numbered flags in existence, but several are still unaccounted for. Occasionally they turn up from time to time. In fact, just last spring, while rummaging through some old archives, polar explorer Paul Schurke of Ely, Minn., found number 124 that he had taken on his 1989 Bering Bridge Expedition. “It was mismarked in a box marked ‘Flags Flown at Pole,’” he reported somewhat sheepishly. It has since been returned.

Now flags are being tracked like never before thanks to a new website feature at Explorers.org. Log on, click Expeditions-Flag Expeditions–Interactive Map and view a real-time map of the flags almost anywhere in the world (the polar regions have yet to be added). Click an individual flag to read the Flag Report from that expedition, a report flag-carrying members are required to submit upon completion of their project.

The Explorers Club flag represents a history of courage and accomplishment and has been carried on hundreds of expeditions since 1918: to both poles, to the highest peaks of the greatest mountain ranges, to the depths of the ocean, and to outer space, perhaps someday even to Mars and beyond. Flag expeditions fulfill a fundamental part of the Club's mission: To engage in scientific exploration and share the results. Flags are constantly being re-circulated, even more so now. New durable nylon fabric construction withstands the rigors of expedition travel better than the cotton flags of old which often returned stained and in shreds.

Consider the tale of Flag no. 170. Starting in 1956 it went to the South Pole with Albert L. Raithel, Jr., then Nepal with John Alley (1968), the North Pole with Rev. Laurie Dexter (1981), Madagascar with Terry J. Cooper (1985), and the North Pole again with Will Steger’s first confirmed dog sled expedition (1986), with numerous stops in between.

“Flags are the ‘Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval’ for an expedition. We receive fantastic applications that are really impressive,” said former Club director and Flag and Honors Committee member David Concannon. Each year, the committee considers about 100 applications, rejecting at least half because they do not meet exacting standards of what constitutes a flag-worthy expedition. Just being first to do something is not enough; what matters is the science, the research, and how the project improves understanding of the world, according to Concannon.

Flags require a $250 deposit and, like Hollywood’s Oscars, can never be sold. Members don’t own the flag, they can only be borrowed. One year when a flag came up for auction at Christie’s, the Club had it removed despite strong interest from collectors to own one the easy way – with just a few strokes of a well-heeled checkbook.

Flags are only retired if they were taken on a trip where a member died, or if they participated in an historic expedition, such as the flags taken on three moon voyages and now displayed under glass in the Clark Room in the Club’s Lowell Thomas Building in New York. Nearby is flag number 2, featuring an older design, taken to the Gobi Desert in 1925 by famed paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. Also on display is Thor Heyerdahl’s retired flag no. 123 carried on the historic voyage of the Kon Tiki, an expedition that inspired many of today’s explorers. You can see it in one of the images in his famous book about the expedition.

Sadly, the last flag to be retired was no. 68 in 2009, carried by highly regarded British diver Carl Spencer, 37, who perished in 400 feet of water while diving the Britannic, sister ship to the Titanic. The flag began its career in 1937 and had twice voyaged aboard the Space Shuttle.

“Members have studied some of the world’s greatest mysteries,” said Club President Lorie Karnath. “The Titanic, the tombs of pharoahs, Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. I’m sure we’re up to the task of locating more of the missing flags, especially with the help of the new mapping feature on Explorers.org.” She tells Club members, or anyone else for that matter, “If you have a flag, or know the whereabouts of one, let us in on the mystery and we’ll track it down.”

Steger North Pole Expedition 25 Years Later: Where Are They Now?

2011-05-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

For the first time in 25 years, the eight-person Steger North Pole Expedition team reunited in St. Paul for a two-day reunion slash lovefest attended by hundreds of Minnesota fans. Held at the Minnesota History Center, the May 17 event included displays of the famed Polar Capsule, on loan from The Explorers Club; an original sled and clothing; and vintage copies of the September 1986 National Geographic magazine that featured what is recognized as history’s first confirmed and unsupported dog sled expedition to the North Pole.

Steger credited Paul Schurke’s knowledge of the sextant with navigating the team in an era before GPS. He also revealed that 1909 photos of Cmdr. Robert Peary ferrying his teams on blocks of ice over open leads provided the 1986 team with the idea of doing the same. “Now you can’t make the pole by dog team because of the open water caused by global warming,” Steger told a capacity audience of 330.

Added Richard Weber, “Today you can’t use a sextant because it’s too warm and there is less sun to shoot. It’s unbelievable how thin the Arctic ice is now.”

Later Weber said, “If someone says climate change doesn’t exist they should take a trip to the Arctic because it’s really, really scary up there.”

As one might expect from such a dedicated, athletic group, the years have treated each kindly. While perhaps a bit heavier and grayer, some saddled with reading glasses, the Steger team has continued to follow their passions for exploration:

• Will Steger, Ely & St. Paul, Minnesota – In 1989-90, he led the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica with a team of seven from seven countries, another milestone in his 45-year career of leading some of the most significant polar expeditions in history. He has become a formidable voice on Arctic climate change and a global environmental leader through his "Global Warming 101" website and Will Steger Foundation. For over 22 years he’s been building a five-story conference center on an isolated lake outside Ely that he hopes will someday become a center for leadership in environmental policy and industry. It is funded not with sponsorship, but the old fashion way through sweat from lecturing, writing and photography, and clothing design.

On a personal note, Steger can stretch a dollar until it’s screaming for mercy. He picked us up in a 1992 Camry with 258,000 miles on it, purchased for $1,400 over 100,000 miles ago. There was dust on the dashboard, a year’s supply of expedition gear in the back, spare tires all the way around, and some sticky, food-like substance between the seats. This guy knows how to save a buck in addition to saving the planet.

(For more information: www.WillStegerFoundation.org)

• Paul Schurke, Ely, Minnesota – In 1989 he co-led the Bering Bridge Expedition from Siberia to Alaska, a journey that Presidents Bush and Gorbachev credited with hastening the opening of the U.S.-Soviet border following the 40-year Cold War. He and his wife Sue operate Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge and founded Wintergreen Northern Wear, an outdoor apparel business based upon designs Sue developed for the 1986 North Pole trek. They live on a beautiful lake outside Ely with 70 sled dogs, three house dogs who think they rule the place, and an endearing pet rat named “Chevy” who comes running when called. (For more information: www.dogsledding.com).

• Ann Bancroft, Scandia, Minn. – In 2001, Bancroft and fellow explorer Liv Arnesen skied to the South Pole, securing Ann's place in history as the first woman to trek to both ends of the earth. Her Ann Bancroft Foundation promotes the potential and achievements of women and girls. Ann is planning another expedition to Antarctica in 2012. (For more information: www.AnnBancroftFoundation.org).

• Geoff Carroll, Pt. Barrow, Alaska – A wildlife biologist living in the northernmost community of the U.S., Carroll is an expert on arctic ecosystems and sea ice and maintains a dog team to enjoy life on the land.

• Richard Weber, Alcove, Quebec – Canada's top polar explorer, he has lead over 50 arctic expeditions. In 1995, he completed the first and only trek from Canada to the North Pole and back with no outside assistance, and with his wife, Josee, operates an eco-lodge on Lancaster Sound in the Canadian High Arctic. (For more information: www.weberarctic.com).

• Brent Boddy, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut – Granted the Order of Canada award for his polar endeavors, Boddy continues his love of arctic adventuring in his retirement from overseeing public works for a native village in Canada's western arctic.

• Bob McKerrow, New Zealand – A mountain climber and polar explorer who was a member of one of his country's first teams to winter in Antarctica, he works with the International Red Cross. Since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, McKerrow has been coordinating relief efforts and public health projects in India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia. An avid blogger, you can read about his reunion trip at http://bobmckerrow.blogspot.com.

• Bob Mantell, Albuquerque – "Ironman Bob," as he was called for his dogged perseverance and legendary stamina on the 1986 expedition, is a former employee of Outward Bound who now works installing cell towers.

JOIN THE BROTHER P-TOUCH TEST TEAM

2011-05-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

Explorers and adventurers are nothing if not organized, what with all the gadgets and gizmos we take into the field. Brother, makers of P-touch labelers, wants to lend a hand with its durable, laminated TZ series label tape.

This month Brother is launching the P-touch Test Team and is looking to provide monetary and in-kind sponsorship to a select number of projects in all kinds of environments – cold, hot, windy, sunny, dry – most of the places we often find ourselves in.

If you’re planning to go into the field with a newsworthy expedition or adventure that could use an efficient labeling system, explain your project in a short e-mail of no more than 200-300 words. Attach a photo if you’d like.

The labelers, powered by six AAA batteries, use laminated TZ series tapes ranging from ¼ to 1” in. wide for indoor and outdoor use. These are tougher labels than you may think – they are heat-, UV-, cold-, and water-resistant – perfect for the trail, the mountaintop, or out at sea. (For more information: www.brother-usa.com).

Tell us where you’re going (or where you’re already at), when you plan to leave and return, the significance of the project, and how you’d intend to use the P-touch labeler.

P-touch Test Team members selected for this program will receive a P-touch labeler, plenty of TZ laminated tape, and instructions on their use. They will be asked to submit field reports in the form of 6-8 blog or Facebook posts throughout the project and a final report within 30 days of its conclusion (a template for posts and final report will be provided). Posts and final reports should include as many photos as possible to illustrate the conditions and terrain in which you are testing the product.

A small payment will be made when you leave, then upon the presentation of the final report. Brother will ask for the rights to use your name in publicity (which could also help promote your project), and requests rights to two images for editorial purposes. Any advertising use will be negotiated separately.

Interested? Tell Brother what you have in mind by e-mailing Jeff Blumenfeld at jeff@blumenfeldpr.com. Deadline: June 1, 2011

Apa Sherpa Summits Everest for Record 21st Time

2011-05-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

Apa Sherpa, Climbing Leader of Eco Everest Expedition 2011 reached the summit of Mt. Everest for the 21st time on May 11 - a new world record. Apa said he is committed to supporting the efforts of Dawa Steven Sherpa, leader of the Eco Everest Expedition to bring awareness to the world community about Climate Change and to help remove old garbage from the slopes of Mt. Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest).

Dawa Steven Sherpa said that “This Expedition is focused on climbing in an Eco-sensitive manner to keep Everest clean and collect garbage, debris and waste left by past expedition groups. The collected garbage will be brought down to the Base Camp by members of the clean up team for proper disposal. The Eco Expedition used alternative energy solutions such as parabolic solar cookers, solar lights, ultraviolet light pens for water purification, and portable toilets called CMC (Clean Mountain Can).

In addition wreckage parts of the Italian Army helicopter were also recovered from the edge of the Khumbu Icefall. The helicopter crashed at 6100 to 6500m during the Italian Everest Expedition in 1973 (thus demonstrating the movement of the Khumbu Icefall 1.3 km over the past 36 years. Also more than 400 kilos of human waste produced by Eco Everest Expedition was removed, along with four dead bodies brought down from the mountain for a dignified burial.

The sponsors of this year's Eco Everest Expedition 2011 "Cash for Trash" garbage collection program are Asian Trekking Pvt. Ltd and The North Face.

Dawa Steven Sherpa and his Eco Everest Expedition team are continuing this initiative to create awareness among the local people and among the climbers to help keep Mt. Everest and the Himalayan Mountains clean.

AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK PREPARES FOR HUDSON RIVER DESCENT

2011-05-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

A furniture maker and endurance cyclist from London has hatched an audacious plan to build a boat made of discarded New York City constructions materials, tow the boat behind his bicycle 300 miles to the source of the Hudson River in the Adirondacks, then paddle back downriver. Not as wild as you’d think – the adventurer, James Bowthorpe, 33, has done it before on the Thames River in London, traveling 130 miles. And oh yeah, in 2009 he completed an 18,000-mile bike ride across 20 countries in less than six months, beating the world record by 20 days.

Bowthorpe met us in a coffee shop near the Explorers Club in New York to explain his plan. With fiery red hair and beard that makes him look like a modern day Viking, we shared tea while he explained how he planned to MacGyver a craft together this September, then sail from Lake Tear in the Clouds to the Atlantic.

Bowthorpe plans to scour the streets of New York for metal, timber and anything else of use he can load onto a bicycle trailer and pedal to a Manhattan workshop he has yet to secure. A combination of welding and carpentry will create a one-man, 12-ft. paddleboat that’s strong and reliable enough to withstand the bicycle ride north, an eight-mile portage to the river’s source, then a descent of thousands of feet during an eight-week journey downriver. A documentary of the Hudson River Project will be videotaped by a crew following along in a motorhome.

“I hope to encourage people that adventure should be a day-to-day activity – you don’t have to climb Everest to find adventure,” he said in a dry monotone not unlike Karl Pilkington on popular Ricky Gervais podcasts.

As he left the coffee shop, it was trash day on the Upper East Side and Bowthorpe couldn’t help but gaze longingly at a metal filing cabinet someone had discarded. It seemed like a good gunwale to us, but it’s a little too early for this Englishman in New York to start scrounging just yet.

(For more information: www.jamesbowthorpe.com, Antony Crook, 917 803 1026, antonycrook@mac.com).

Air Traffic Controller is Raising a Crop of Solar Nerds

2011-04-23T09:37:00.001-07:00

Amateur and professional astronomers will go to any lengths to pursue their passion as we learned last month at the Northeast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show (NEAF) in Suffern, N.Y. Stargazers travel to one of the darkest skies in the world, the desert of Atacama, Chile, where local lodges host “star parties.” Enthusiasts will journey to Hawaii in 2012 in pursuit of the transit of Venus; trek to the sunniest spot of the Australian Outback to view the 2012 eclipse; or build elaborate fiberglass “Astro Haven” domes in their backyards to control their telescopes from the comfort of the kitchen table, no matter the weather outside.

NEAF is where you can buy a 54 lbs. meteorite from Campo del Cielo, Argentina, for $3,900. Or for those of modest means, meteorite particles the size of raisins for $10. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is represented with his signature Moon Explorer ED102 Air-Spaced Triplet Apochromatic Refractor Telescope from Bresser ($1,999.95 sug. ret.).

Atlanta air traffic controller Stephen Ramsden’s passion for the past four years is to teach solar education around the world, starting with presentations to schools in the U.S. southeast based out of his Ford-built Sun Specific Public Outreach Truck or “SUNS.P.O.T.” Ramsden’s non-profit Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project, named for a fellow controller who committed suicide in 2007, reaches approximately 50,000 students a year at 60 schools. The Navy veteran owns 11 telescopes – about $100,000 worth of observatory quality telescopes and cameras including a Lunt Hydrogen Alpha Solar Telescope which can show sun prominences and surface detail.

Ramsden, who likes to dress in a yellow sun costume, is booked six months in advance by educators eager to have him teach about the sun’s effects on aviation, communications and climate. He’s lightly funded to say the least. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association supplies thousands of giveaway eclipse viewers, but otherwise the program’s $60,000 annual budget comes from small private donations and out of his own pocket. “I hate fundraising and would just as soon rip off my toenails than ask for donations for the program,” he explains on his website.

“I’m trying to breed a new crop of nerds, attempting to get kids interested again in something real like science. We have a tight budget but it’s worth it – the emotional reward comes back to me 12-fold,” he tells us in between deflecting snarky comments about sleepy air traffic controllers. (“I guarantee no one falls asleep where I work. Atlanta Center is the busiest airspace in the world.”)

Ramsden adds, “When the Sun cooperates with a 60,000+ mile filament or prominence or a large active region with sunspots there is no replacing the look on a kid’s (or the faculty's) face after you explain the enormity and origin of the features.”

(For more information: sramsden@solarastronomy.org, www.charliebates.org; see a photo of Ramsden at www.expeditionnews.blogspot.com)

Expedition News This Month - Return to Mariana Trench

2011-04-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

INTO THE DEEP

Hawkes Ocean Technologies announced this month that the experimental prototype DeepFlight Challenger submersible is being prepared to make a record 36,000-foot dive to the Mariana Trench. The dive, planned for sometime this year, is part of the Virgin Oceanic Five Dives project, a series of ocean expeditions being carried out by DeepSub LLC. Concurrently, Hawkes Ocean Technologies is prepping two Deepflight Super Falcon craft for separate expeditions: a Hawkes-led project in the Gulf of Aqaba, Jordan, and a multi-year ocean expedition, led by venture capitalist Tom Perkins.

The DeepFlight submersibles are designed and built by Hawkes Ocean Technologies, Point Richmond, Calif., a company founded by renowned marine engineer Graham Hawkes, to introduce a new generation of ultra-lightweight, cost-effective manned craft, based on the Hawkes-patented concept of underwater flight and the higher safety standards of positive buoyancy. Since the late 1990s, four generations of DeepFlight vehicles have been launched, and are now proving to be a flagship technology in enabling privately funded ocean exploration using manned submersibles.

DeepFlight Challenger, the third generation winged submersible, was commissioned in 2005 by the late adventurer, Steve Fossett, as an experimental prototype to push sub-sea technology to its absolute limits. Fossett had planned to make a record dive to the deepest point in the ocean, the Mariana Trench. The project was taken over by Chris Welsh and DeepSub LLC in 2010, who, with the support of Virgin Oceanic, is planning to dive DeepFlight Challenger to the deepest point in each of the world's five oceans. Hawkes Ocean Technologies owns the patents and intellectual property rights to commercialize DeepFlight Challenger for science, industry and adventure. (For more information: www.deepflight.com).

EXPEDITION UPDATE

Ancient Mariners Cross Atlantic on Pipe Raft

British adventurer Anthony Smith, 85, and a senior citizen crew have sailed their tiny raft, An-Tiki, some 3,000 miles from Portugal's Canary Islands to Sint Maarten in the Caribbean, arriving in early April (see EN, March 2011). An-Tiki collected wildlife along the way, including flying fish which leapt onto the deck at night, and "a very interesting and pretty small squid," which the crew, after admiring it, ate for lunch. The four men, the youngest a mere child at age 56, subsisted variously on flying fish and peanut butter, according to a report by Alan Farnham of ABCNews.com. (Apr. 6).

They used their crossing to raise money for WaterAid, a U.K.-based non-profit whose goal is to give the world's poorest communities access to safe water and better sanitation. A WaterAid spokesperson told the Anguilla News that An-Tiki had raised enough money for the organization to improve the lives of hundreds of persons around the world. (For more information: www.gasballoon.com/antiki/)

Uber-Sailor Reid Stowe Hits the Lecture Circuit

Extreme long distance sailor Reid Stowe, who returned June 17, 2010, after a record 1,152 unresupplied days at sea, has hit the lecture circuit. We recently caught up with him at the Riverside Yacht Club in Connecticut on Mar. 18 where he told an audience of sailors that for the first two years of his voyage, he never had time to read a single book. He worked everyday repairing sails.

“I never had time to relax, except if there was a sunset or a rainbow,” he said. Any leisure time he had was spent practicing yoga, painting and in prayer. He’s currently living in Long Island City, N.Y., with his fiancé and young son who was conceived during the voyage. He supports his family through sale of paintings while his agent, the Peter Miller Literary Agency, and ghostwriter David Fisher, actively pursue a book deal. “Lack of money,” he says, “gives me the drive to succeed.” (For more information: www.1000days.net).

Jeff Lowe's Pack Recovered After 20 Years on the Eiger

In 1991, after 9 harrowing days on the North Face of the Eiger, American climber Jeff Lowe abandoned his backpack when he couldn't find any anchors at the end of his rope. Lowe untied and left the rope and his backpack behind as he free soloed the last 50 feet to the summit ridge where he was plucked off the mountain by a helicopter, just hours before a big storm would engulf the great North Face.

On Mar. 25, Josh Wharton spent over two hours chopping Lowe's pack out of the ice and snow, high up on the North Face of the Eiger. Lowe was anxious to see the condition of the pack after 20 years on the mountain. Wharton delivered the frozen, weather worn pack to Lowe on the deck of the Bellevue Hotel at Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland.

Lowe was relieved to have this bit of unfinished business taken care of after all these years. Leaving the pack was contrary to Lowe’s Alpine Style ascents, but necessary for his own survival on that day.

Lowe was in the region filming Metanoia on the North Face of the Eiger (see EN, January, 2011). Support and sponsorship is still needed to complete the film. (For more information: see the video clip at http://vimeo.com/21548239; for a list of contents, see our blog entry at www.expeditionnews.blogspot.com; www.jefflowemovie.com).

Shackleton’s Whisky: “Delicious”

A Glasgow distillery is betting that a whole lot of people will want to sip the Scotch that Sir Ernest Shackleton had with him on his Antarctic adventure. Three crates of the explorer’s whisky spent a century forgotten and frozen to the rock underneath the hut he used as a staging ground for his attempt at the South Pole (see EN, August 2010). Once they were discovered, it took another four years of strategizing before the crates could be safely removed, a sojourn in New Zealand where the bottles were thawed under precise laboratory conditions, a private jet ride back to Scotland, and eight weeks of exacting analysis. Now Shackleton’s Antarctic whisky has been recreated and is ready for mere mortals to drink.

Whyte & Mackay, the company that now owns the distillery that made Shackleton’s spirit, announced this month that it had tasted the original blend, deemed it delicious and created “an exact replica.”

Fifty thousand bottles will go on sale for $160, with 5 percent of each sale being donated to the New Zealand nonprofit responsible for conserving Shackleton’s hut, according to
Whyte & Mackay Master Blender Richard “The Nose” Paterson. His tasting notes reveal Shackleton’s Scotch has “delicate aromas of crushed apple, pear and fresh pineapple. It has a whisper of marmalade, cinnamon and a tease of smoke, ginger and musovado sugar.”

Makes the thirstier members of the EN staff wonder whether you drink it or eat it.

EXPEDITION NOTES

Explorers Club Annual Dinner Attracts the Brightest and Bravest to the Waldorf

The Explorers Club 107th annual dinner at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York on Mar. 19 was packed with a who’s who of exploration, including astronauts, mountain climbers, an ant expert, naturalists, ethnobotanists, and all matter of scientists, researchers and authors. The theme this year was Exploring 2012: The Maya Prophesy. Each talk was interspersed with The Explorers Club theme song ¬– a stirring piece of music that makes you want to put on a pith helmet and study pygmies in equatorial Africa.

EN sat mesmerized next to two young emergency room doctors, both 28, who explained the meaning of “Lover’s fracture,” a condition they treat on a regular basis. Also known as Don Juan fracture, it’s a fracture of the large bone forming the heel that occurs when a lover jumps from great heights while trying to escape from the lover's spouse who arrives unexpectedly. Fascinating stuff, but we digress.

Highlights of the evening included:

• Former Mutual of Omaha sidekick Jim Fowler throwing away his cane to celebrate his new knee, although still in pain: “It’s like a Soviet tank drove over you for a few weeks.” His animal presentation included a monkey named “Wilson,” drinking coconut milk with a straw. Fowler warned, “We have things happening in our natural world today that are pretty scary. … We humans can’t survive unless we treat the other creatures with us (on the planet) in good shape.”

• Edward O. Wilson, American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and author, offered his praise for the 2,900-member organization, “The Explorers Club is devoted to the exciting process of exploring parts of the world unknown physically and intellectually – and that’s vital to steering us through this volatile world we find ourselves in.”

• The fast talking Wade Davis, the noted Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author and photographer, spoke of meeting five men in the desert who were down to their last liter of water and who, nonetheless, offered him tea. He joked about those forced to travel across the desert short of water: “The great thing about brake fluid is that it keeps you off the battery acid.”

• Don Walsh, American oceanographer, explorer and marine policy specialist, said, “On Spaceship Earth, there are no passengers. We’re all crew.” Later in his keynote address he decried the world’s fisheries that are “vacuuming the oceans,” and the unfortunate fact that “we have better maps of Mars than of the world’s oceans.”
He continued, “We can’t build enough ships and enough scientists to research the oceans.” Walsh, who calls himself an “inner spaceman,” believes researchers need to do more robotically to study the seas so they can launch a mission to “Planet Earth.”

Record Everest Climber Returns to Clean Up

Apa, a Sherpa who has climbed Everest a record 20 times, plans to bring down 11,000 pounds of garbage during the spring climbing season.

Since Everest was first summited in 1953, thousands of people have climbed it, leaving behind the empty oxygen bottles, ropes, tents and other garbage that made their journey possible. Nepal has since required climbers to bring down everything they take up the mountain or lose their deposit, but debris from past climbs still litters the slopes.

The team hopes to clear 8,800 pounds of garbage from the lower part of the mountain and another 2,200 pounds from near the 29,035-foot summit.

Expedition members, porters and guides of other expeditions will carry the garbage down the mountain, receiving 100 rupees ($1.40) for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) they haul out.

Ang Tshering Sherpa, organizer of the Eco Everest Expedition, said this is the fourth year a cleaning expedition has been held. He shares some of the details with EN: “There are 22 climbing team members consisting of seven Americans, eight Indians, three Brazilians, one Japanese, one Spanish, one Mexican and one Swiss. Eco Everest Expedition's advance team staffs are already at Base Camp building platform sites for tents.

“We are using 124 sleeping tents for members and staffs, seven big dinning tents at BC and Camp II, five kitchen tents, two storage tents, four shower tents, one communication tent and six toilet tents for this expedition.”

Apa, who first climbed Everest in 1989 and has repeated the feat almost annually, has campaigned about the degradation he has seen on the Himalayan peaks due to global warming and other issues. He is a resident of Draper, Utah. (For more information: www.asian-trekking.com)

Busy Month for Prince Harry

In addition to planning what we suspect must be the biggest bachelor party of the decade for his brother Prince William, Prince Harry this month was in the Arctic supporting the Walking With The Wounded charity walk to the North Pole involving four wounded UK servicemen. At press time the prince was stranded due to cracks in the runway at the Barneo Ice Camp at the 89th parallel. Will he make it to the church on time to be best man? Stay tuned.

Harry is patron of the Walking With The Wounded charity. The four servicemen, who were all injured in combat in Afghanistan, hope to enter the record books as the first disabled team to walk unassisted to the North Pole. The charity hopes to raise 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) through donations and sponsorships for the expedition.

The men are: Capt Martin Hewitt, 30, whose right arm is paralyzed after being shot; Capt Guy Disney, 29, whose right leg was amputated below the knee after he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG); Sgt Stephen Young, 28, who suffered a broken back in a roadside bombing; Pte. Jaco Van Gass, 24, who had his left arm amputated and suffered significant tissue loss to his left leg after being hit by an RPG. The trip is guided by Inge Solheim, 36. (For more information: www.walkingwiththewounded.org.uk).

Radiation Danger Suspected at McMurdo

The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is supporting a request from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D- Ohio) that the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs evaluate the probability of radiation exposure from a leaking nuclear reactor at McMurdo Station that may have caused cancer in veterans serving there from 1964 to 1973 during Operation Deep Freeze.

“Thousands of service members may have been exposed to radioactive contamination in the air, their water and their food,” said DAV National Commander Wallace E. Tyson. “The experimental, one-of-a-kind nuclear reactor used at McMurdo Station suffered hundreds of reported malfunctions over its lifetime. The same reactor was used to melt snow and desalinate seawater used by the service members stationed there for as long as 13 months at a time.”

In his letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Sen. Brown said that veterans stationed at McMurdo have made numerous disability claims to the VA for cancers they suffered, only to be denied. Many died before their cases could be fully decided. (For more information: www.dav.org).

Record Double Summit of Everest Planned

For over 40 years, Bill Burke was a corporate lawyer just dreaming about what he would do in retirement. Little did he know that he would enter the record books and become an inspiration to millions around the world.

At 60 years of age and keeping in mind that he had never climbed a mountain in his life, Burke, from Costa Mesa, Calif., set a goal to climb the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on all seven of the world’s continents. He succeeded and at age 67 summited Mt. Everest, becoming the oldest American in history to stand at 29,035 feet and return alive.

Forward to 2011 and The Summit Expedition. Burke, now 69 years of age, has arrived in Nepal in preparation for a record dual summit attempt. He plans to summit Everest from the North (Tibet) side of the mountain and then turn right around and head for the South (Nepal) side and summit once again in the same season (other climbers have summitted twice from the South side in the same season).

Not everybody is as confident about the likelihood of attaining such an ambitious goal. Renowned mountaineer Ed Viesturs tells GrindTV.com in an email, "The key factor is the physical endurance that will be required. I've pulled off a few doubles in my career, and everything has to fall into place – health, endurance, perfect conditions, etc. Take it one climb a time and see how it goes."

In case you were wondering, as we have, what the modern Everest climber brings in the way of gadgets, here’s Burke’s list of gizmos:

satellite telephone
iPad
iPod
Apple computer
Kindle reader
still photo camera
high definition video camera
GoPro head-mounted video camera
monitor for Go Pro head camera
portable speakers

It’s a far cry from George Mallory’s Vest Pocket Kodak camera, which by the way, went missing with Mallory in 1924.
DreamQuest Productions is working on a documentary of the effort and is seeking funding. (For more information about the climb: www.eightsummits.com; to learn more about the documentary, log onto www.dreamquest.tv or contact Allan Smith, allan@dreamquest.tv, 661 998 3542).

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

We climb the highest mountains,
just to get a better view.

We plumb the deepest oceans,
‘cause we're daring through and through.

We cross the scorching deserts,
martini in our hands.

We ski the polar ice caps,
in tuxedo looking grand.

We are reckless, brave, and loyal,
and valiant to the end.

If you come in here a stranger,
you will exit as a friend.

– Adventurers Club Creed from the fictitious Adventurers Club, an attraction at Walt Disney World’s Pleasure Island. How did we ever miss this place when we dragged the kids to Mouseland? It was styled after a private club for world travelers and explorers and was set in 1937. Alas, despite a rigorous online petition, the Club closed in 2009, with many props sent to Hong Kong Disneyland.

Scenes from the Club’s “Last Hoopla” are on Youtube.com at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOGBcRaVP_s&feature=related

EXPEDITION MARKETING

Pepperoni to the Peak

Always one to admire a well-orchestrated publicity stunt, especially if it relates to outdoor adventure, our admiration goes to Carmelle Druchniak of Scout PR (www.scout-pr.com) in New Hampshire.

It seemed like a great idea: the ultimate pizza delivery to the top of the mountain trademarked as "Home of the World's Worst Weather." To bring fresh pizza to weather observers atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire (www.mountwashington.org), Druchniak donned three layers of thermal underwear (“…très alluring for any woman self-conscious about her caboose,” she blogs) and arranged for her pizza client, Rustic Crust, to drive its wood-fired pizza oven truck to the top and throw a pizza party for the weather-watchers and researchers at the 6,288-ft. summit. The stunt a few months ago required the help of a snow tractor.

The folks at the Observatory were gung-ho for this bit of PR derring-do, since their first-ever take-out dinner also marked the start of a partnership between the non-profit Observatory and Rustic Crust. Druchniak joked she trained in advance by eating a raw-meat diet in the event of a Donner Pass-type scenario. “I even made a mental list of my traveling companions, and decided the CEO would be the last on the menu, since he signs my checks. Bad news for the field marketing manager, who'd be the first to go.”

The pay-off was exposure on the local TV news. The Pittsfield, N.H.-based pizza crust maker will be a sponsor of the Observatory’s 11th annual Seek the Peak hike-a-thon, July 22-23, pledging cash and healthy pizza to the event. (See the pizza expedition at www.tomguilmette.com).

Swedish Sponsorship Darling

The 42-year-old Swedish explorer Johan Ernst Nilson has embarked on a yearlong expedition from the North Pole to the South Pole titled Climate Neutral — Pole2Pole.

Nilson’s journey of some 12,000 miles starts with a 124-mile walk on the Arctic ice of the North Pole to the Svalbard Archipelago in Greenland. He will then navigate across the Arctic Ocean to Ottawa, and cycle six months through North and South America, passing through major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Austin. He’ll trek the Amazon Jungle before arriving in Patagonia. Finally, he plans a two-month journey in Antarctica on skis and a parafoil, to the South Pole. The expected duration of the expedition is a year.

According to the Wall Street Journal (Mar. 21), he’s become a darling of various sponsors. Last month, Nilson traveled to Geneva where Zenith is unveiling a watch in his honor that also celebrates the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition.

Nilson is also sponsored by Audi, which has created light equipment for him, including sleds and ski poles. "I tried some of it out in their cold chambers in Germany which went down to minus 40 or 50," he tells the Wall Street Journal’s Marshall Heyman. The automotive company is also naming a lightweight hybrid Q5 after him. (For more information: www.pole2pole.net)

WEB WATCH

Ocean Adventures Gone Awry

This month, adventure filmmaker and explorer Jon Bowermaster writes on his website www.jonbowermaster.com:
“A trio of sailboat adventures gone bad in recent weeks have me thinking about the limits of adventure in this modern day. Four Americans on a sailboat headed into "the most dangerous waters on the planet" off the coast of Oman are grabbed by pirates and killed. Days later two Danish families, including three teenagers, sailing off the coast of Somalia are taken hostage by Somali pirates and are held for ransom somewhere in the desert. And off the coast of Antarctica a trio of sailors die when their 48-foot sailboat, the Berserk, ices up in a monstrous storm and sinks to the bottom of the Southern Ocean.

“Each story is tragic, each was easily avoided. The Indian Ocean sailors had been warned repeatedly to stay away or travel in packs. The boat lost off the Antarctica was in an always-dangerous place renowned for ice and storms, in the wrong season. All I could wonder when I first read the accounts was, 'What were they thinking?'

“I am the first to encourage an adventurous life. But good adventuring includes knowing your limits and possessing some kind of personal radar to help recognize the boundaries between adventure seeking and foolhardiness.

“One of the four passengers killed aboard the Quest was quoted as saying, ‘... If anything happens to us on these travels, just know that we died living our dream...

“Really? That is your dream? To sail into the most dangerous waters on the planet, be kidnapped by a gang of thugs and shot to the death in the galley of your sailboat? In retrospect, of course, it sounds far more like a nightmare.”

CLIMBING FOR DOLLARS

Eddie Bauer Grants $50,000 for Explorers Club Expeditions

Climate change and the threat of extinction emerged as the core issues in the first round of $25,000 Youth and Expedition Grants (totaling $50,000) sponsored by Eddie Bauer, the Outfitter of the Explorers Club. Chosen by a committee of Club members and representatives from Eddie Bauer, recipients were awarded at The Explorers Club Annual Dinner in New York on March 19, 2011.

The Explorers Club-Eddie Bauer Youth Grant and the Explorers Club-Eddie Bauer Grant for Expeditions will be used to fund expeditions related to climate change, conservation, and sustainability. The grants support young scientists early in their careers as well as established explorers working in remote climes on the cutting-edge of discovery. The five awardees are:

• The Explorers Club-Eddie Bauer Youth Grant (total $25,000)

Jan F. Gogarten – “How Will Climate Change Interact with Disease Dynamics to Affect Wild Primate Populations?”
James B. Voirin – “Shielding from Extinction the Pigmy Three-Toed Sloth of Escudo de Veraguas Island, Panama”

• The Explorers Club-Eddie Bauer Grant for Expeditions (total $25,000)

Gregory Deyermenjian FN’88 – “2011 Paititi/Pantayqoya Expedition”
Nathan K. Lujan – “Aquatic Inventory of the Rio Mamore: Last Untouched Corner of the Amazon”
David G. Buck – “Climate Change, Environmental Contaminants, and Ecosystem Health in the Maya Forest Region of Mesoamerica”

The new grant program underscores the Club's commitment to "explore, discover, share, preserve, and sustain" the Earth and its creatures. “Specifically, The Explorers Club and corporate sponsor Eddie Bauer look to support young scientists early in their careers, as well as established explorers working in remote climes on the cutting-edge of discovery,” said Explorers Club President Lorie Karnath, MBA, Ph.D. (hon.).

Said Neil Fiske, president and CEO of Eddie Bauer, “Eddie Bauer has been an important part of The Explorers Club long before this grant program was conceived. Members have relied upon Eddie Bauer gear and apparel for decades to survive some of the most extreme climates on Earth. We each share a mission to promote a spirit of adventure and discovery, and we are proud to support both the current and next generation of explorers as they extend the frontiers of knowledge and geography,” said Fiske.
(For more information: www.explorers.org, www.eddiebauer.com)

ON THE HORIZON

Steger North Pole Reunion Celebrates 25th Anniversary, May 15, 17, 2011

Has it really been that long? On May 1, 1986, the Steger International Polar Expedition went down in history for making the ﬁrst conﬁrmed dogsled journey to the North Pole, without being re-supplied along the way. A 25th anniversary reunion, organized in conjunction with the Will Steger Foundation, will be held for team members, including Minnesotans Will Steger, Paul Schurke and Ann Bancroft. A North Pole ’86 Expedition Family Day will be held May 15 from 12 to 4 p.m. at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. The 25th anniversary reunion is May 17, also at the History Center. (For more information: www.willstegerfoundation.org).

EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS

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EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., 28 Center Street, Darien, CT 06820 USA. Tel. 203 655 1600, fax 203 655 1622, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Assistant editor: Jamie Gribbon. ©2011 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com. Enjoy the EN blog at www.expeditionnews.blogspot.com.

Students on Ice Announces 10th Anniversary Event, May 6-8

2011-04-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

The Students on Ice Polar Ambassador Summit will celebrate over a decade of SOI Alumni accomplishments in Ottawa, Canada, at the Canadian Museum of Nature from May 6-8, 2011.

Dates: Friday, May 6 - Sunday, May 8, 2011

Location: The Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Registration fee: $50 CAD (to be paid at registration on May 7, includes the cost of your lunch, dinner and evening celebration)

Questions: alumni@studentsonice.com / 1.866.336.6423

Web: www.studentsonice.com | www.uantarctic.org

Jeff Lowe's Pack Recovered After 20 Years on the Eiger

2011-04-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

In 1991, after 9 harrowing days on the North Face of the Eiger, American climber Jeff Lowe abandoned his backpack when he couldn't find any anchors at the end of his rope. Lowe untied and left the rope and his backpack behind as he free soloed the last 50 feet to the summit ridge where he was plucked off the mountain by a helicopter, just hours before a big storm would engulf the great North Face.

On Mar. 25, Josh Wharton spent over two hours chopping Lowe's pack out of the ice and snow, high up on the North Face of the Eiger. Lowe was anxious to see the condition of the pack after 20 years on the mountain. Wharton delivered the frozen, weather worn pack to Lowe on the deck of the Bellevue Hotel at Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland.

Lowe was relieved to have this bit of unfinished business taken care of after all these years. Leaving the pack was contrary to Lowe’s Alpine Style ascents, but necessary for his own survival on that day.

Lowe was in the region filming Metanoia on the North Face of the Eiger (see EN, January, 2011). Support and sponsorship is still needed to complete the film. (For more information: see the video clip at http://vimeo.com/21548239; www.jefflowemovie.com).

The contents of the pack provide insight into what every good climber carried 20 years ago:

• 1 white Scott motorized goggles (a fan for defogging)
• 1 Thermarest stuff sack
• 6 Mazda AA alkaline batteries
• 1 Vau De prototype jacket designed by Jeff Lowe
• 1 Pair of wool socks
• 1 carabiner
• 1 small black stuff sack
• 1 pair glove liners
• 1 pair very thin/light glove liners
• 1 medium blue stuff sack
• 1 lithium battery dated 1/91
• 1 Black Diamond Red Lithium Battery Headlamp
• 1 Medium sized food bag (pretty trashed, but one Mars Bar and one snickers bar remained intact)
• 1 small black stove bag
• 1 large pink stuff sack for pots
• 1 hanging stove made by Jeff Lowe
• 2 nested pots, oxidized through on one side
• 1 potholder
• 1 small purple plastic cup
• 1 Ziploc bag
• 1 fuel canister
• 1 16 oz. white plastic Nalgene pee bottle
• 1 small zip lock with small roll of TP intact
• 1 compass
• 1 silver insulated water bottle bag
• 1 large purple stuff sack
• 1 medium blue stuff sack
• 1 pink and beige zippered side pocket
• 1 small pouch with repair kit
• 1 small clear plastic box with assorted safety pins (10+)
• 1 small tube sun cream
• 1 small film canister with a tissue and 3 pills - disintegrating
• 1 glasses case w/signature Jeff Lowe glasses, large, thick lenses w/Croakies
• 1 small can of vitamin C tabs
• 1 2” roll of medical tape
• 1 cut off 8” metal mill bastard file
• 1 extra ice pick (unattached)
• 1 hammerhead (unattached)
• 1 shovel head
• 1 green HelSport one man bivy tent with poles
• 1 black Vau De compression stuff sack
• 1 pink and purple Vau De sleeping bag (still frozen)

Good Reason to Get Delayed at ATL

2011-03-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

One consolation for becoming delayed at the Atlanta airport is the new Antarctica gallery exhibit. Atlanta Photographer Santiago Vanegas sailed below the Antarctic Circle in 2009 aboard a Quark Expeditions vessel. From the 11,000 pictures he took during the 15-day voyage, he has chosen 50 to include in an exhibit titled, Antarctica: Photographs by Santiago Vanegas. Look for the year-long exhibit in the airport’s Transportation Hall.

(See 10 of the images here: http://www.quarkexpeditions.com/Santiago-Vanegas)

A WALK ACROSS AFRICA

2011-02-23T10:40:00.001-08:00

In late April, renowned African Explorer Julian Monroe Fisher, 56, will launch his most ambitious expedition to date.

Equatoria – A Walk Across Africa, is a four- to five-month expedition will have Fisher walking solo west from the Indian Ocean coastal town of Pemba, Mozambique, towards the coastal town Lobito, Angola, at the Atlantic Ocean. The more than 4,000 mile walk will take him across the landscape comprising parts of the territories of the African countries of Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. Some gear will be pre-shipped to drop zones along the way; he will also purchase supplies from local villages as he travels, loaded onto an estimated 30 lbs. backpack. Most of the journey will be on footpaths and unpaved roads, with some grassy savannah.

If successful, Fisher will become the first recorded American to walk coast to coast across the African continent from Mozambique to Angola, and is believed to be the first recorded solo expedition by any explorer ever attempted along this specific route, according to Fisher, who currently resides in Gars Am Kamp, Austria.

The primary objective of the project is to bring global awareness to the efforts of the Mines Advisory Group – MAG International – and their work in current and former conflict zones to reduce the threat of death and injury from remnants of conflict. He hopes to draw attention to the members of the United Nations Security Council
that have yet to sign the Ottawa Treaty, namely the U.S., Russia and China.

Fisher will walk across many areas that remain impacted by landmines and other lethal remnants of wars both old and new. His journey will raise awareness of how these weapons continue to plague people’s lives long after ceasefires.

Additionally, the expedition will raise funds for The Bunkeya Cultural Village (BCV) in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Julian Monroe Fisher is a noted African explorer from Greenwood S.C., who currently lives with his family in Austria. An anthropologist, his team in 2008 was recognized by the Ugandan Wildlife Authority for establishing a new route down from the Rwenzori Mountain glaciers along the Lamia River to the Semliki River confirming conclusively that the mountains are a true source of the River Nile. His sponsors include: Eton, Goal Zero, GoPro, Jetboil, Nitewatches, and Spot.

(For additional information: www.WalkAcrossAfrica.org,
www.JulianMonroeFisher.com).

For additional information about MAG and its global work visit: www.maginternational.org).

Tuckerman Ravine’s Greatest Friend

2011-02-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

Al Risch doesn’t wear a hat when he skis. It could be 20 degrees F. outside, as it was recently at Sugarbush Resort in Vermont, and there’s Al. No hat, no helmet, ears bright red. “Hats make my head itch,” he tells us as we set off on one of the resort’s signature intermediate trails.

When Risch worked at Cranmore Mountain Resort in New Hampshire, they say you could tell it was a really cold day, way too cold to ski, if you saw Risch in a hat, although truth be told, it was usually just a hood. “My ears just freeze up and peel, they don’t care.”

When Al tells us he’s climbed to Tuckerman Ravine, the southeastern flank of 6,288-ft. Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, over 630 times, somehow we’re not surprised. As executive director of Friends of Tuckerman Ravine, he knows that steep, 50+ degree glacial cirque – a backcountry ski destination since the early 20th century – perhaps better than anyone else alive.

Risch, who tells us that at the age of 78 he’s “half-way to middle age because I’m going to live to be 156,” learned to ski on a rope tow at age five. He first climbed Tuckerman in 1959 and has had a few close calls since. Like the time he decided to glissade down the east snowfields on his boots, without skis, then hit boilerplate ice and had to grab at rocks, twigs, anything to arrest a death slide. He said that before he could slow his descent, “I could visualize a plaque on the mountain, ‘Here Lies Al Risch.’”

He continues, “There were people in the bowl, but no one saw me. Next time I’ll look before I leap.”
Then there was the time he lost most of his index finger to a lawn mower accident. Kids love it when he pretends to pick his nose, seemingly right up to his base knuckle.

Today Risch is perhaps Tuckerman Ravine’s greatest friend, head of an organization of 1,000 outdoor enthusiasts passionate about protecting this fragile environment for future generations of people, plants and animals.

Says Eric Friedman, advisory council member of Friends of Tuckerman Ravine and marketing director of Mad River Glen in Vermont, "Al Risch is without question the biggest advocate for arguably the most important piece of backcountry ski real estate in New England. We and our progeny owe a tremendous debt of gratitude for his commitment and perseverance for Tuckerman Ravine."

The Tuckerman mystique is threatened by overuse and shrinking federal support for the Forest Service which has managed and protected the ravine since the early 1930's. Friends of Tuckerman Ravine has built a foot bridge to an overflow parking lot, purchased new emergency radios, replenished first aid caches, and plans to install new avalanche warning boards.

“Tuckerman Ravine has a mythic quality,” Risch says. “You have to hike up, there’s no mechanization. It’s a mecca for backcountry skiers who can make a pilgrimage back to the source.”

A tip of the hat from Expedition News for keeping the legend of Tuckerman alive.

(For more information: www.friendsoftuckerman.org).

Got Books? One Man's Polar Collection

2011-02-04T20:27:00.000-08:00

According to retired Du Pont executive Mike Tyler of Lewes, Dela., “Books, a seemingly endless resource of exploration accounts, have taken me on frigid journeys I never imagined existed or ever realized that so many courageous men even made.”

Here is a list of his favorite polar adventure books:

Shackleton, Roland Huntford, Abacus 1996 (paperback)

South Sir Ernest Shackleton, Konecky and Konecky

The Heart of the Antarctic, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Birlinn Ltd. 2000 (paperback)

Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Journey, Alfred Lansing, McGraw Hill, 1959

Shackleton, Margery and James Fisher, James Barrie Books, Ltd., 1937

Shackleton's Boat Journey, Frank A. Worsley, W. W. Norton, 1977 (paperback)

Shackleton's Boat, The Story of the James Caird, Harding McGregor Dunnett, Neville & Harding Ltd., 1996

Shackleton's Forgotten Men, Leonard Bickel, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2000

Shackleton An Irishman in Antarctica, Jonathan Shackleton and John MacKenna, University of Wisconsin Press, 2002

Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic, David Thomson, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002

Shackleton's Captain, A Biography of Frank Worsley, John Thomson, Mosaic Press, 1999 (paperback)

Trial by Ice, A Photobiography of Sir Ernest Shackleton, K. M. Kostyal, National Geographic Society, 1999

Shackleton the Antarctic Challenge, Kim Heacox, National Geographic

Shackleton, the Antarctic and Endurance, edited by Jim Pigott, Dulwich College, 2000

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, Jennifer Armstrong, Crown Publishers, 1998

The Endurance, Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, Caroline Alexander, Alfred A. Knopf, 1998

Antarctic Eyewitness, Charles Laseron's South with Mawson, Frank Hurley's Shackleton's Argonauts, Angus and Robertson, 2000 (paperback)

Shackleton's Way, Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer, Margot Morell and Stephanie Capparel, Viking Press, 2001

Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition, Caroline Alexander, Harper Collins, 1997

The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Carroll & Graf, 2002 (paperback)

South with Endurance, The Photographs of Frank Hurley, Simon & Schuster, 2001

Other Adventures in Polar Regions beyond Shackleton

Scott's Last Expedition, Captain Scott's Own Story, Forward by Peter Scott, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1964

Race to the Pole, Tragedy, Heroism, and Scott's Antarctic Quest, Sir Ranulph Feinnes, Hyperion, 2004

Tragedy and Triumph, The Journals of Captain R. F. Scott's Last Polar Expedition, Konecky and Konecky, 1993

Little America, Richard E. Byrd, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1930

Discovery, Richard E. Byrd, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1935

Scout to Explorer, Back with Byrd in the Antarctic, Paul Siple, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1936

With Byrd at the Bottom of the World, Norman D. Vaughan, Stackpole Books, 1990 (signed)

Crossing Antarctica, Will Steger and Jon Bowermaster, Alfred Knopf, 1992 (signed)

North to the Pole, Will Steger with Paul Schurke, Times Books, 1987 (signed)

Polar Frontiers, Norman Lyttle, Parents' Magazine Press, New York, 1972 (signed)

The Loneliest Continent, Walker Chapman, New York Graphic Society, 1964

Nansen, Anna Gertrude Hall, The Viking Press, 1940

The Crossing of Antarctica, Sir Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary, Cassell, 1958

Antarctic Odyssey, in the Footsteps of South Polar Explorers, Graham Collier, Carroll and Graf, 1999

Voyage Through the Antarctic, Richard Adams and Ronald Lockley, Allen Lane Penguin Books, 1982

Wondrous Cold, An Antarctic Journey, Joan Myers, Smithsonian, 2006

The Antarctic Regions, Dr. Karl Fricker, The Macmillan Company, 1900

The South Pole, An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the "Fram" 1910-1912 Vols. One and Two, Roald Amundsen, John Murray, 1913

Two Years in the Antarctic, Lieut. A. B. Armitage, Edward Arnold, 1905

Antarctic Adventure, Scott's Northern Party, Raymond E. Priestley, E. P. Dutton, New York 1915. (Inscribed "To Surgeon General G. Bidie 1906 [initialed "From N"] Fridtjof Nansen).

Mentors Needed: Students on Ice Antarctic University Expedition 2011

2011-02-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

StudentsonIce.com has a few spots open in its upcoming University Antarctic Expedition, Feb. 12-28, for adults to join the team as a mentor. Prices have been reduced because of the short timing, so here’s your chance to see Antarctica.

This ship-based expedition offers prospective students the opportunity to enroll in one of several University-level field courses, and experience one of the most awe inspiring places on Earth. SOI uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine the uniqueness of the Antarctic continent, its political, scientific and exploration history.

Once in Antarctic waters, all students and mentors will make frequent field trips to the Antarctic mainland via Zodiac inflatables from the main ship. These landings will be supplemented by lectures, seminars and lab exercises in dedicated space aboard our expedition vessel, the M/V Ushuaia.

The expedition will have approximately 60 participating University students, and 30 University faculty, scientists, experts, and educators. If interested in mentoring on this trip of a lifetime, see www.uantarctic.org, then contact: Geoff Green, Executive Director, Students on Ice, geoff@studentsonice.com.

Used Cameras Sought for Conservation Group

2010-12-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

Reptile & Amphibian Ecology International (RAEI), a nonprofit conservation ecology organization, has a new innovative program that puts used cameras and other equipment to work for promoting the science and art of biodiversity. RAEI accepts donations of all kinds of gear crucial to conservation ecology, from camera bodies and lenses to GPS units. The donated equipment is used by biologists and photographers in the field to document the diversity of life. Some of the gear is used by RAEI staff, but many of the recipients of the donated items are residents of impoverished regions in Ecuador, Mexico, and Cameroon, according to Dr. Paul Hamilton, executive director.

Residents of targeted study areas are chosen for their knowledge of ecosystems and abilities to conduct field work. They are then given basic gear like cameras, GPS units, and data sheets, along with training and a research manual. They are also taught the technical skills needed to take photos and field data, and given instructions on how to get their photos and data to biologists who can use them. A list of items that are particularly needed can be found at RAEI's website, www.raei.org.

Wilderness Research Foundation Seeks Marketing Pro

2010-11-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

Marketing Professional Sought – Wilderness Research Foundation seeks a marketing professional to join their Board of Directors. The successful candidate will be based in the New York metro region, have an interest in science, the outdoors, or the polar regions, and the capacity to help us attract corporate sponsorship and media attention. For further information, please see www.wildernessresearch.org or contact WildResch@aol.com.

Trans-Antarctica Expedition Reunites 20 Years Later

2010-11-24T14:19:00.001-08:00

The Will Steger Foundation is celebrating the 20^th Anniversary Reunion of Will Steger's Trans-Antarctica Expedition, December 10-11, 2010.

On March 3, 1990, a team of six men from six different countries and their 42 sled dogs completed the first-ever dogsled crossing of the Antarctic continent. The 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition, led by Minnesotan Will Steger, travelled 3,741 miles in seven months, enduring temperatures as low as -54F and winds as high as 100 mph. In early December 2010, the team will gather for the first time in 20 years to reflect on their journey and its impact, felt around the world by both lawmakers and school children.

Public Events:

· FFree public forum – Perceptions from China and the US on Climate Change, featuring China team member and scientist, Dr. Qin Dahe and University of Minnesota’s Associate Professor Elizabeth Wilson. Dr. Qin Dahe is a well-known glaciologist, climatologist and a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences as well as the former Administrator of the China Meteorological Administration. Details: Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Cowles Auditorium, December 10^th, 7 pm.

· EExpedition Reunion Event - Team members representing France, UK, China, Japan, Russia and the US will share their stories and video clips from the expedition at a public event on Saturday, December 11th from 3-5 p.m. The event will be held at Anne Simley Theater at Hamline University, 1536 Hewitt Avenue, St. Paul. Tickets are available at The North Face Stores in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The tickets are free; a donation of $5 for students and $10 for adults is suggested.

The landmark expedition could not be replicated today: not only have dogs been banned from Antarctica, but the Larsen A and B Ice Shelves, on which the team travelled for a month, no longer exist, its demise a major indication of the impacts of climate change.

The impacts the team has made on a global scale are monumental. Following the expedition, the team members met with the heads of state in France, China, Russia, Japan and the US, calling for the ratification of the 1961 Antarctic Treaty; the Treaty involves 39 countries that cooperatively manage Antarctica for scientific purposes only. The team and sled dog “Sam” met with President and Mrs. Bush at the White House on March 27, 1990. In 1991, the Treaty was ratified, protecting Antarctica from oil and mineral exploration and preserving it for science.

In 2007, team member Dr. Qin Dahe of China shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for his work on climate change. Dr. Qin’s scientific contributions were largely based on the ice core samples he took across the entire Antarctic continent during the expedition. Frenchman Jean-Louis Etienne and Minnesotan Will Steger both have committed themselves to raise awareness about climate change, informing citizens through expeditions and public speaking on how they can make a difference. Locally, Will Steger established the Will Steger Foundation to educate, inspire, and empower people to engage in climate change solutions. UK team member Geoff Somers has worked with numerous polar expeditions and lectured widely. Dr. Victor Boyarsky of Russia heads the Arctic and Antarctic Museum in St. Petersburg and has led numerous expeditions in the Arctic. Japanese team member Keizo Funatsu runs Silver Cloud Kennel in Alaska and has competed several times in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.

As a result of the success of the expedition’s adventure learning program, Hamline University launched the Center for Global Environmental Education, to create environmental education programs for K-12 teachers. Leading up to and following the expedition, Hamline hosted a series of summer institutes for teachers, bringing together leading Antarctic scientists with K-12 educators from around the world. The expedition packed its gear on the campus during the third annual Antarctic Institute.

“The expedition literally changed the direction of my life, my teaching and in many cases the lives of my students,” explains Louise Huffman, a teacher from Naperville, Illinois, who attended the Antarctic Institutes. “Today, I would not be leading the educational outreach efforts of a huge international science project if I had not been so turned on by polar science 20 years ago. Six young women who were in my classes in 1989 and 1990 have gone on to get PhDs in science! The changes brought by this project have far-reaching affects.”

The educational program, which relied on the early computer networks of Prodigy, CompuServe, Minitel and Apple (as the internet was not yet available to the public), reached 25 million children worldwide. The team received letters, poems, essays, handmade books and drawings from schools around the world, including rural communities in China and even the Australian Outback.

“Wherever I go,” explained Will Steger, “I meet people who were affected by the expedition. Many of them followed the expedition in elementary school. Now that they are parents, they are teaching their children about global cooperation and the importance of working together to solve problems like global climate change.”

The expedition was the focus of four hour-long ABC-TV specials which won the station a National Sports Emmy Award. It was featured in the November 1990 issue of National Geographic Magazine. Jazz great Grover Washington wrote a song and dedicated his 1990 national concert tour to the expedition, called Protecting the Dream. Major sponsors Target Stores, The North Face and Gore-Tex launched an expedition exhibit in an 18-wheeled truck that travelled the country, providing armchair explorers a “vicarious” experience.

# # #

Hamline University is located at 1536 Hewitt Avenue in St. Paul. Lot parking is free on Saturdays. For a campus map, visit www.hamline.edu

Join the American Polar Society

2010-11-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

As the American Polar Society celebrates its 75th anniversary leading the world in polar research and exploration, they have launched a membership drive, hoping to attract scientists, explorers and enthusiasts from around the world. For more information: www.ampolarsociety.org.

Father and Son Cycle Japan; Iceland is Next

2010-10-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 2009, Charles Scott, a middle-aged corporate executive, and his 8-year old son, Sho, left their home in New York City to ride connected bicycles 2,500 miles the length of Japan. Telling skeptical friends, “A child can accomplish a whole lot more than many people think,” the two mapped out a 67-day route that stretched from the northern coast to the southern tip of the mainland, passing through many of Japan’s most famous cultural sites and nature preserves.

Hoping to encourage efforts to combat climate change, they raised money for a global tree planting campaign, received press from around the world, and were named “Climate Heroes” by the United Nations (http://www.unep.org/wed/2009/english/content/climateheroes.asp).

Scott, 42, described the estimated $10,000 adventure as “a celebration of the bond between father and son, and a challenge to contemporary society’s notions of what is reasonable for a child to attempt.” Dismissing fears shaped by “a culture that is increasingly sedentary and mistrustful of the value of discomfort,” the pair cycled through uninhabited stretches of Japan’s northern wilderness, slept in a tent wherever they found themselves, navigated heavily populated, traffic-choked urban landscapes, struggled up and down mountains populated by wild monkeys, took on sumo wrestlers, meditated in a Buddhist temple, held hands in silence at Hiroshima Peace Park, made friends throughout the country, and explored the limits of quality father-son time.

The trip was almost entirely self-funded, with support from Intel which provided a mobile Internet device using their latest Atom processor and a wireless card that allowed Scott and Sho to stay connected and post blog updates throughout the country. Details from the adventure are at www.japanbikeride.com.

Scott and Sho have just announced their next bike adventure, scheduled for the summer of 2011. The pair, along with Sho’s 4-year old sister, Saya, will circumnavigate Iceland, a 1,500-mile (including side trips) fully self-supported trip on two connected bicycles and a bike trailer. They will use press coverage from the ride to encourage action to address climate change. The route and other logistical details are still being developed and they are currently seeking $10,000 in cash and in-kind support. (For more information: www.icelandbikeadventure.com).

Students On Ice Seeks Students, Chaperones for Antarctica Trip

2010-10-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Sure, you can travel to Antarctica on a big, fat cruise liner and pay upwards of $20,000, or you can apply as a chaperone or student on Students on Ice, an award-winning, 10-year-old organization offering educational expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic.

The Quebec-based organization has a few openings for chaperones and students to visit the Antarctic from Dec. 27, 2010 to Jan. 10, 2011.

The ship-based journey will explore southern South America, the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding Southern Ocean. It will involve 65 international students, aged 14-18. The students will travel on this transformative adventure together with a team of 25 world-renowned scientists, historians, artists, explorers, educators, leaders, innovators and polar experts. Students on the expedition will develop knowledge, skills, perspectives and practices that will help them to be Antarctic ambassadors and environmentally responsible citizens.

Interested students and teachers/chaperones should contact the Students on Ice office to get more information and an application form, or apply online. The cost is $12,500 USD and includes airfare from New York JFK, accommodations, and all meals and activities. (For more information: www.studentsonice.com, 866-336-6423, apply@studentsonice.com)

EXPEDITION INK: The Boy Who Conquered Everest

2010-10-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

By Katherine Blanc, author, Hay House, 2010

The next time you are facing a monumental task and feel overwhelmed by it, think of Jordan Romero. He’s the thirteen-year-old boy who reached the summit of Mount Everest in May, ably accompanied by his mountaineer father, stepmother and three Sherpa guides.

As well as ice fields, crevasses and boulders, another obstacle that Jordan had to overcome was skepticism from the public. When news of his Everest success was made public, some in the international climbing community balked at the idea of a kid barely into his teens being put into the dangerous circumstances that come with climbing the world’s tallest peak, and others made assumptions about how he got there. But to author Katherine Blanc, whose recently published book for children and young adults, The Boy Who Conquered Everest, documents Romero’s story, the mountain climbing is secondary to the planning, the hard work and training it took to get there.

“People thought he was a rich kid who bought his way to the top of the world. Jordan does not come from money. He raised the money for his trips by selling t-shirts and headbands, by holding taco dinners with some of the money going to the trip, by giving presentations to outdoor companies that then sponsored him with equipment rather than funds. He did it the hard, old-fashioned way,” says Blanc, 47, the daughter-in-law of famed cartoon voice Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble)

(When we heard that, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask what it was like at the dinner table. Katherine tells us, “Mel frequently spoke to us ‘in character.’ And since Mel created over 1,500 character voices, you never knew who you might be talking to next.”)

But back to Romero: Not only did the Everest ascent make him the youngest person ever to reach the summit, it also got him one step closer to fulfilling his childhood dream of summiting the highest peak on each of the seven continents. In a three-year period starting just after his tenth birthday, Romero climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa, both Mount Kosciuszko in Australia and the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia (to satisfy any sticklers about his credentials), Russia’s Mount Elbrus, Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, then Alaska’s Mount McKinley, before tackling Everest.

While her book is aimed at young adults or kids, Blanc says Romero’s mindset appeals to all ages, including many adults. “’Find Your Own Everest’– that’s become his catch phrase,” says Blanc, a resident of Romero’s hometown, Big Bear Lake, Calif. “As the youngest person to summit Everest, Jordan holds a world record, but he really wants to use the book to urge kids, and adults for that matter, to get outside, put down the video game, get some exercise. … He’s not telling everyone to pursue mountain climbing, just to set your own goals and dream big.”

In January 2011, Romero hopes to climb Mount Vinson Massif, the highest point in Antarctica, the final stop in his Seven Summits quest. His only obstacle is his age – Antarctica requires a climber to be 16, and Jordan is 14. Blanc says Team Jordan is hoping to obtain a special permit, based on his previous climbing record. (For more information: www.hayhouse.com).

Chin Up

2010-10-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

The torrential downpour outside on the streets of Manhattan was reminiscent of the Himalaya as 200 climbing fans gathered on the Upper West Side to hear climber and professional photographer Jimmy Chin recount a spellbinding expedition in 2008 to summit what Conrad Anker called “the center of the universe” – Shark’s Fin, a stunning unclimbed blade defining the east face of Meru, a 6,450-meter (21,161 feet) peak located in the Garwhal Himalaya of northern India, high above the Ganges River.

The 19-day experience was harrowing. “Talk about the art of suffering,” Chin said. “You’re either gorging on food getting ready for the trip or starving somewhere.”

The talk began with a photo of Chin as a youngster in a sled. “Despite all my climbing, the coldest I’ve ever been was standing at a bus stop back home in southern Minnesota in a jean jacket on a 30 degrees below zero day. I guess that prepared me for a life of freezing,” said Chin, a North Face athlete from Victor, Idaho.

Later he praised the support provided by Sherpa. “Here we think we’re bad ass climbers and the Sherpa are running rings around us on an expedition, putting up ladders, fixing lines. They’re all super strong. They were born at 15,000 feet.”

The elusive granite feature on Meru, which resembles a shark's fin, is the exemplar of high altitude alpine big wall climbing, characterized by a 1400 meter (4,593-ft.) climb with the final 700 meters (2,297 ft.) an overhanging big wall. Chin, Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk were pushed back just two pitches from the summit. It was painful watching the team spend five days in a two-man portaledge which resembles a hanging tent. Chin calls it his one bedroom/no bath apartment – a “claustrophobic icebox no bigger than a single bed.”

He continued, “On the fifth day in a portaledge in a storm, you basically run out of things to say.

“One of the great things about climbing is that it’s an amazing vehicle to see the world and experience different landscapes.”

The Never Stop Exploring Speaker Series is a classic touring slide show that had all the trappings – an engaging speaker, a sweepstakes drawing, great music, a poster signing, and schwag such as free magazines, refrigerator magnets and lip balm. It was all part of a multi-city tour sponsored by W.L. Gore & Associates, Outside Magazine, Paragon Sports, Primaloft Insulation, and The North Face.

Heading back outdoors again to hail a cab, the nor'easter pounding New York somehow didn't seem quite so nasty any longer.

Learn more about the Shark’s Fin climb here: http://www.thenorthface.com/catalog/sc-brand/meru.html, www.jimmychin.com/

Blah, blah, blah - Book Talk, Oct. 12, Bethel Library (Conn.)

2010-10-08T13:41:00.001-07:00

Get Your Trip-of-a-lifetime Paid For!
Tuesday, October 12
6:30-8:00 pm
Bethel Library Lobby

Remembering the 1986 Polar Sewer Pipe, er, "Capsule"

2010-10-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Polar explorer Paul Schurke turned on the Wayback Machine and recounted this story from 1986, and the fortuitous recovery of the so-called Polar Capsule. You can also see the entire story here:

http://dogsledding.com/gnablog/2010/10/03/luck-o-the-irish-finds-the-polar-time-capsule/

Luck o’ the Irish finds the “Polar Time Capsule”

Posted by paulschurke on October 3rd, 2010

The 1986 dogsled trek that Will Steger & I (Paul Schurke) led to the North Pole was oddly fraught with inexplicable curiosities and encounters. Perhaps the most unlikely upshot involved a humble piece of plumbing pipe. Enjoy this bonified ‘believe it or not’ tale!

Standing on Top of the World

National Geographic deemed our epic 1986 dogsled trek to the North Pole “a landmark in polar exploration” because we did it WITHOUT resupply. Everything needed to sustain our 50 dogs & 8 team members in temps that reached 75 below zero, was carried with us — some 7,000 pounds of food, fuel and gear. When we reached our goal, all but a few pounds of that food (oatmeal!) had been consumed. As we awaited our ski plane pick-up at the Pole, we had only one thing to leave behind at the top of the world: a “polar time capsule.”

It stemmed from a whimsical idea Will Steger & I had months before. While training with our team in Ely, MN, we took a 4″ x 2′ section of plastic plumbing pipe, painted it blaze orange, affixed screw caps to both ends, and invited each team member to place a memento in it. If we reached the Pole, we’d leave the capsule behind for posterity.

It’s contents included a Boy Scout scarf, a beaded Indian belt, a letter to Santa Claus that a school child had given us, a small lace prayer circle, a 10 Kroner bill and a scroll with the story of our journey and the names of our team members and our hundreds of volunteer & sponsors.

On May 1, after a 2-month, 1,000-mile trek across the Arctic Ocean, we reached the Pole — frostbitten and battered but giddy with excitement. Our celebrations included a little dance around the top of the world during which I ceremoniously pitched the time capsule over my shoulder into a jumbled heap of ice. “Well,” laughed Will, “there’s something we’ll never see again!”

Upon our return home, our expedition sponsor, Du Pont company, had a whimsical idea as well. To capitalize on the international media fanfare prompted by our success, they posted a press release offering a $5,000 reward for recovery of the capsule. Considering that it been set adrift among 5 million square miles of ice at the most remote spot on the planet, it was a safe bet.

But a funny thing happened. Nearly three years later, in February 1989, Irish carpenter Peadar Gallagher was on a Sunday stroll along the Atlantic Ocean beach in County Donegal. He spotted an odd bit of flotsam. Curious as to what it contained, he took it home and cracked it open. Unbeknownst to him, he’d found the time capsule. The one item inside that remained legible, was a Polaroid photo of our team bearing the words “National Geographic Society.” He reported the find to the American Embassy in Dublin which in turn helped put in touch with NGS and Du Pont officials in Washington D.C. “We were shocked,” said Du Pont’s Robert Slavin upon learning that the capsule had survived a 2,100 mile ocean journey. “After three years, we had simply forgot about it.”

Will with battered capsule

Then expedition marketing wizard Jeff Blumenfeld had another whimsical idea. To generate more media fanfare, plans were made to offer Gallagher an all-expense-paid first class vacation to New York City if he’d appear at an international media event to receive his check. But when Blumenfeld phoned Gallagher to alert him to the significance of his discovery and his reward, he got an unexpected response. No way, no how, said Gallagher. He had no interest in going to New York. He wouldn’t budge. So a forlorn Du Pont exec schlepped to Gallagher’s home to present the check and retrieve the capsule.

Adventure Book Talk in the Catskills, Friday, Sept. 3, 7 p.m.

2010-08-29T18:36:00.001-07:00

Morgan Outdoors, 46 Main St., Livingston Manor, in the New York Catskills, about 100 miles northwest of New York, N.Y., will host Jeff Blumenfeld for a special presentation based on his book, "You Want to Go Where?" at 7 p.m. Sept. 3.

The book covers some of the world's most historic expeditions and adventures with an eye toward how people can gain funding for their own travels.

This program has been presented at the Explorers Club, the Adventurers Club, the American Mountaineering Museum, and off the coast of Antarctica in January.

Blumenfeld covers several adventures, from Will Steger's first confirmed dogsled trek to the North Pole to Reid Stowe's recently concluded history's longest sea voyage — 1,152 days.

Seating is limited and reservations are recommended by calling Lisa Lyons at 845 439 5507.

The free public program will be followed by a book-signing.

We'll Drink to This - Morse Code Padthaway Shiraz

2010-08-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Finally, all those ham radio DXpeditions become a little more bearable thanks to this new Australian wine we picked up at Stew Leonard's in Norwalk, Conn. The coded message on the label says, naturally, SHIRAZ.

The wine commemorates the craft of postal "telegraphists" whose Morse signals, delivered across Australia's great telegraph line, connected the country with the world and helped save countless lives.

Many people buy wine based upon pretty labels, but Morse code? If those code messages are a bit slurred on the 20 or 40 meter bands, we'll know why.

Expedition News - August 2010 - The Titanic Memorial Cruise

2010-08-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

August 2010 – Volume Seventeen, Number Eight

EXPEDITION NEWS, now in its 16th year, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.

PROTECTING RUSSIA’S WILD SALMON

This summer, Outdoor Research, the outdoor gear company, will help a team of whitewater kayakers explore the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East and draw international attention to this threatened area and its wild salmon.

Partnering with scientists, conservation NGO's and funded by a grant from National Geographic Society's Expedition Council, the Kamchatka Project aims to collect valuable scientific data for researchers and bring much needed attention to protect Kamchatka’s river drainages and the salmon that depend on them. Kayaks will allow the least intrusive, most intimate and only way to explore many sections of these wild rivers.

The 600-mile long Kamchatka Peninsula is the spawning ground of roughly one fourth of all Pacific salmon, a species that plays an integral role in the livelihood of communities around the world. Yet this environmentally rich and pristine wilderness is severely threatened by a changing landscape, including an increase in poaching for caviar and industrial land use designations, putting this iconic species at risk.

The Kamchatka Project team is comprised of six skilled whitewater kayakers with diverse backgrounds in science, education, video, and web production, allowing them to tackle the issues that face Kamchatka with an educated and informative perspective.

Throughout the summer, the expedition will be documented in real-time through photos and interviews on VertiCulture, an outdoor adventure website. Once the expedition ends this month, the Kamchatka Project team will generate an online educational platform, edit an adventure documentary, create educational materials, and organize a speaking tour.

“Exploratory kayaking provides a compelling platform to raise awareness for a more important cause,” said Kamchatka Project expedition leader Bryan Smith. “Kamchatka’s salmon-based ecosystems are unparalleled by anything on the planet, and we hope our efforts will help inspire the international community to make sure this abundant source of natural capital is not destroyed.” (For more information: www.outdoorresearchverticulture.com).

EXPEDITION UPDATE

Ericsson Dies on K2

Swedish mountaineer and professional skier Fredrik Ericsson died Aug. 6 while trying to summit K2 in Pakistan (see EN, June 2010). The incident occurred between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. as Ericsson was attempting to become the first man to ski from the summit to base camp. Ericsson, in his mid-30s, was at the bottleneck, at an altitude of around 8300 meters (27,231 feet), between Camp 4 (8000 meters) and the summit (8611 meters). According to published reports, as Ericsson was attempting to fix ropes to the snow and ice along the route he lost his purchase and was unable to arrest his fall.

Ericsson's body, resting at about 7000 meters, will remain where it fell, according to his website. His parents have requested it remain in the mountains he loved. (For more information: www.fredrikericsson.com).

New Highpoint Record Set

On July 16 at 1:55 p.m. Hawaiian time, Mountain Hardwear Youth Athlete Matt Moniz, 12, and his father Mike ran to the top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kai (13,796-ft.), setting a new speed record for summiting the 50 highest points in all 50 U.S. states. The new 50-50 record set by the Moniz duo is 43 days, 3 hours, 51 minutes and 9 seconds, beating the previous record notched by Denver schoolteacher Mike Haugen and mountain guide Casey Grom by two days 16 hours (see EN, July 2010).

The elder Moniz reflected upon the past weeks, “From Florida to Alaska and Katahdin to Mauna Kea, Matt and I marveled firsthand at both the cultural and geographic diversity of our great nation. It seemed daily we were confronted with complexities ranging from high winds and snow to mosquitoes and bears; challenges that served to strengthen our resolve and our already close father-son bond. The expedition was an adventure of a lifetime and will most certainly provide a lifetime of memories.”

The project was dedicated to raising awareness about pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). (For more information: www.climb7.com).

Northern Lights Expeditions Shines on Children of Arctic and U.K.

Kokatat, the watersports apparel and accessories company, continues to sponsor Northern Lights Expeditions, a project seeking to establish links between children of isolated indigenous communities of the Arctic and children of the U.K., as they are preparing for phase two of its three-part service project.

Northern Lights explorers Richard Smith and Craig Mathieson founded the project to help develop the children's confidence and self-reliance through what Smith and Mathieson have coined “inspiration of exploration.” The participating schools are developing online projects covering global warming, song, dance, and social cultural comparisons.

During July and August 2009, Smith and Mathieson kayaked between remote Inuit settlements of Eastern Greenland forging links with Scottish schools and delivering donated laptops to assist with connecting children from different cultures.

This month, the team will travel back to Greenland with teachers to make introductions to the Greenlandic schools and to ensure that all required health and safety assessments are in place prior to the exchange visit of the pupils. During the winter, pupils from schools in Scotland and the French Alps will participate in a mini-expedition by dog sled across the sea ice of the South Eastern coast of Greenland.

In the future, Northern Lights will expand the program to involve other indigenous communities from Arctic countries, making first contact again by kayak. A BBC Radio 4 documentary about Northern Lights is currently in production and set to broadcast in the coming year. (For more information: http://northernlights-expeditions.org/).

Scotch on the Rocks

A crate of Scotch whisky that has been frozen in Antarctic ice for more than a century is being slowly thawed by New Zealand museum officials – for analysis, not to be tasted.

The crate of whisky was recovered earlier this year – along with four other crates containing whisky and brandy – beneath the floor of a hut built by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton during his 1908 Antarctic expedition (see EN, December 2009).

Four of the crates were left in the ice, but one labeled Mackinlay's whisky was brought to the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, where officials said last month it was being thawed in a controlled environment.

An Antarctic Heritage Trust team that was restoring the explorer's hut found the crates in 2006 but couldn't immediately dislodge them because they were too deeply embedded in the ice.

Drinks group Whyte & Mackay, the Scottish distillery that now owns the Mackinlay's brand, launched the bid to recover the whisky for samples to test and potentially use to relaunch the defunct Scotch. The whisky may still be drinkable but would probably not be tasted.

Shackleton's expedition ran short of supplies on its long ski trek to the South Pole from the northern Antarctic coast in 1907-1909 and turned back about 100 miles (160 km) short of its goal. The expedition sailed away in 1909 as winter ice formed, leaving behind supplies – including the whisky and brandy.

EXPEDITION NOTES

Check the Attic

The late Peter Allen was right when he sang, “Everything Old is New Again.” Time to check the attic: climbers are using hula hoops to stay in shape. According to Betty “Hoops” Shurin, owner of Betty Hoops Dance Therapy (www.bettyhoops.com), hula hoops are “…portable, fun fitness. I know people that summit mountains with their hoops. Climbers use it on their rest days.” Shurin, an extreme sports enthusiast and yoga instructor, first found the hoop at a music festival, and immediately recognized its cross-training benefits – hip-opening, core strengthening and flexibility – yet fell in love with the youthful and playful feelings. In 2003, she created a collapsible hula hoop which is adjustable to two sizes, for 80-pound youth up to 240-pound adults.

Time to Rearrange the Deck Chairs

The 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Belfast-built Titanic will be marked by a cruise retracing the ship's final journey. Although the ship will not leave Southhampton until April 8, 2012, the cruise company has already sold over 80 percent of their tickets from passengers representing 22 countries. (Why are we not surprised?)

The cruise will depart from Southampton on the MS Balmoral and follow the Titanic’s itinerary. The ship will travel across the Atlantic, arriving at the point of the Titanic’s fateful collision with the iceberg on April 14-15. A memorial service will take place to pay tribute to the passengers and crew who perished 100 years ago. From there the cruise will travel to Halifax, Nova Scotia and on to New York.

Reportedly, many passengers are descendants of those who died on Titanic or who were involved with the ship in one way or another.

The Titanic was the largest passenger steamship ever built when it set off on April 10, 1912. Four days later it struck an iceberg and sank. One of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters, the tragedy claimed 1,517 lives. According to the traveling show, Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, the ship is slowly being consumed by iron-eating microbes. Scientists estimate that this process will cause the ship to implode and collapse on itself in approximately 90 years. The exhibition’s gift shop, which EN visited in a Connecticut Indian casino of all places, sells a raisin-sized piece of coal for $19.99, recovered from the liner’s debris field. A sucker for these kinds of mementoes, it was hard to pass up, but we grit our teeth and moved onto the slots instead. (For more information: http://www.titanicmemorialcruise.co.uk/itinerary.php)

What’s Your Dream Expedition?

What is your dream expedition? Is it rock climbing on seven continents in seven months? Is it bicycling across Europe? This year, NOLS is partnering with Patagonia for the Dream Expedition Contest. The contest is open to people 13 or older. Grand prize is a spot on the classic NOLS Wind River Wilderness course next summer – 30 days exploring the rugged peaks and pristine lakes of Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains. Plus all the gear you need for that course. Plus domestic travel to and from Wyoming. Entries must be in the form of a video. Contest deadline is Oct. 31, 2010. (For more information: http://www.nols.edu/contest/).

The North Face and Gore-Tex Launch Speaker Series

TNF’s “Never Stop Exploring” Speakers Series, presented by Gore-Tex Products, kicks off this fall with a nationwide tour featuring climbers, athletes, and skiers Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, Kit Deslauriers, Karina Hollekim, Dean Karnazes, Mark Synnott, and Diane Van Deren. For a complete schedule and tickets for the Sept. 28 to Dec. 3 tour, log onto: www.thenorthface.com/speakerseries.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Look, and you will find it – what is unsought will go undetected.” – Sophocles

MEDIA MATTERS

We are heartened to discover a wealth of recent stories in the media about explorers and their expeditions. When the mainstream media, especially the Wall Street Journal, shows an interest, it bodes well for explorers and adventurers seeking sponsorship from publicity-hungry corporations. Here are some of the notable mentions we’ve found since our last issue:

The Fur Flies

Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Royal Navy Capt. Robert F. Scott were both seasoned explorers in 1910, but they approached their South Pole expeditions quite differently, according to the New York American Museum of Natural History exhibit, “Race to the End of the Earth,” which chronicles the 100-year-old race to the South Pole. Mark Yost explains in the Wall Street Journal (July 28), that it captivated the world because, as an introductory film explains, Antarctica was the “last great geographical prize on Earth.”

Yost reports the Norwegians chose to wear mostly fur clothing; the Brits opted for wool. Amundsen’s team fared much better with the fur outfits because their natural animal skins provided better insulation against the sub-zero temperatures. The Norwegian had learned from the Inuit how to dress properly for the conditions. The display includes Amundsen’s 12-gauge shotgun, his skis and a Norwegian sled. Yost reports that from the British, there’s a pair of heavy steel-spiked overboots – an early precursor to crampons – that didn’t work well at all. “A metaphor, sad to say, for the entire (British) expedition.”

Lindbergh: “How Do You Do It?”

Thomas Kessner’s book The Flight of the Century (Oxford, 2010) provides insight into the enigmatic Charles Lindbergh. According to a review in the Wall Street Journal (July 24-25) by Daniel Ford, when Lindbergh was received by King George V in London barely a week after the landing in Paris, the British monarch asked a question about the epic flight that was on everyone’s mind: “There is one thing I long to know. How did you pee?”

It was a question which, Lindbergh said later, “sort of put me at my ease.”

“Well, you see, sir,” he said, “I had a sort of aluminum container. I dropped the thing when I was over France. I was not going to be caught with the thing on me at Le Bourget.”

The bulk of the book concerns the effect of Lindbergh’s achievement on the U.S. and its relations with the rest of the world. It shares the little-known fact that when the Spirit of St. Louis landed at Le Bourget field near Paris on the night of May 21, 1927, after 33 hours, 30 minutes, 29.8 seconds in the air, the sleepless Lindbergh was worried that the French might not let him stay overnight since he had no visa. He also had no change of clothes, no toothbrush and only 27 cents of ready money.

New Life for an Old Plane

The venerable Twin Otter turboprop plane, a symbol of Canada’s aerospace prowess and workhorse of the polar regions, seemed destined to fly into history when production ceased in 1988. But according to the Wall Street Journal (July 8), a production facility has sprouted in Calgary where Viking Air is assembling a dozen planes, with orders for a total of 50, mostly from diehard operators of the nearly 600 Twin Otters still flying. Said one Viking mechanic, “I’ve been working on Twin Otters for 22 years. You can do things with this airplane that people can only imagine.”

Selling for about $4.5 million each, the utilitarian Twin needs only 1,200 feet of runway and can take off and land on water, snow, grass or gravel, depending on whether it’s outfitted with amphibious floats, skis or special tires. It can also operate in frigid climes and searing heat, which is why it’s often used to ferry National Science Foundation researchers in Antarctica.

Family Burdens

The coming premiere of the film The Wildest Dream, the new documentary about British climber George Mallory, prompted author Graham Bowley to examine climbing’s impact on the family. “… the costs of climbing and exploration were borne not just by the mountaineers who perished but also by the families they left behind,” Bowley writes in the New York Times (July 25).

Bowley reports that this year more than 513 climbers have summited Everest, but that the mountain claimed four lives. He continues, “It’s a very different age of mountaineering. With the crowds and commercialization, the mountains these days may seem stripped of their mystique, majesty and romance. Without the broader importance of men and women extending the boundaries for all mankind, the climbers of today – some brilliant, others pushed and pampered by paid Sherpas and guides in regions they have no business being – seem to be performing a more selfish, or at least more personal act. “Yet the families carry a burden just the same.”

Dissing Everest

In his review of Graham Bowley’s new book about K2, No Way Down (Harper, 2010), Michael J. Ybarra piles it on the much maligned Mount Everest. “Almost any idiot, willing to spend enough money, can climb Everest. The mountain is high but not technically difficult. The Everest basecamp is a well-appointed village that has become a tourist destination itself. Professional guides eliminate most of what has traditionally been the essence of mountaineering: uncertainty. … Climbers, if the term can still be used, need only show up, wait in relative comfort and, when the weather is good, attach their harness to a fixed line and put one foot in front of the other.” Ouch.

Gobi Reading List

Going on a Gobi desert fossil hunt? What books would you bring? For advice, Ralph Gardner, Jr. of the Wall Street Journal (July 16) turned to Michael Novacek, an eminent paleontologist and provost of the American Museum of Natural History. Before he left for his annual month-long dinosaur and ancient-mammal hunt in the Gobi Desert, among the books Novacek packed was The Oblivion Seekers by Isabelle Eberhardt, a Swiss-Algerian explorer who died in a flash flood in Algeria in 1904 at the age of 27. Novacek is also bringing War and Peace. “It’s time to read it again,” he said. Also packed: a ratty good-luck cap with the likeness of a space alien and the word, “Roswell.”

127 Hours

At the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake this month, Fox Searchlight Pictures hosted an exclusive first look at the new dramatization of climber Aron Ralston’s 2003 ordeal in an isolated canyon in Utah. 127 Hours is the true story of Ralston’s (played by actor James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him miles from help. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65-foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers (Clémence Poésy), family, and the two hikers (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met before his accident.

The film, from Danny Boyle, the Academy Award winning director of last year’s Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire, premieres Nov. 5, and is based on Ralston’s book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Atria Books, 2004). Fox hopes to inspire people to share their own life-changing or death-defying experiences through a “social media event” at www.127definingmoments.com.

EXPEDITION MARKETING

Time for Church

In its current issue, Urban Climber Magazine and Scarpa named boulderer Jill Church, 30, of Flagstaff, the recipient of the magazine’s 2010 Unearthed Climber of the Year Award.

Urban Climber’s feature ‘Unearthed’ is a peer-nominated format that puts the spotlight on North America’s most talented but little-known boulderers and climbers.

Urban Climber Editor Andrew Tower said Church, who has now earned a spot as an athlete on Team Scarpa, can send hard problems, “but she’s also got a great attitude and is a great ambassador for the sport – a criteria that’s just as important for the award as how hard a nominee climbs.

“Aside from her numerous climbing accomplishments, first female ascents, and plenty of hard sends, Church is the kind of climber any company would be proud to have on their team,” Tower said. (For more information about Scarpa, visit www.scarpa.com. For more information about Urban Climber, visit www.urbanclimbermag.com).

Gramicci Sponsors Climbing Film

Gramicci, the outdoor clothing manufacturer, is sponsoring the feature length documentary film, The Last Wild Mountain: Portrait of the American Climber.

Gramicci will donate signature organic hemp “Camu Tees” to support the production, promotion and distribution of the film. The t-shirts will showcase custom art by the producers and artists working on the film and be sold at film locations and online. All proceeds will directly benefit the film’s non-profit production company.

The Last Wild Mountain follows the parallel stories of the first two generations of rock climbers in America, ranging from the Vulgarians to the Stonemasters and everyone in between. Interviews, photographs, writings, and archival footage are woven together into a compelling documentary. The filmmakers explore both the past and the future of climbing—the wild experiences, the offbeat antics, and the environmental aspects on which the future of climbing depends. (For more information: www.lastwildmountain.com)

National Outdoor Leadership School Extends Partnership with Deuter USA

The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and Deuter USA have expanded their long-term partnership into NOLS’ rock climbing program. Deuter has been the exclusive provider of packs for NOLS’ outfitting department for over five years. Each year, hundreds of NOLS students and instructors head into the backcountry equipped with Deuter’s multi-use backpacks to learn and teach wilderness skills, leadership, and outdoor ethics. NOLS will outfit students and instructors on its rock climbing courses with Deuter’s Spectro AC 38. (For more information: www.deuterusa.com, www.nols.edu).

W.L. Gore & Associates Honored by AMGA

W.L. Gore & Associates, maker of Gore-Tex fabric, is the 2010 recipient of the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) Industry Award.

The Industry Award is presented annually to an outdoor company that has shown outstanding support through scholarships, products, and sponsorships of professional mountain guides. An AMGA Partner for the past 17 years and a Diamond Partner since 2005, Gore is the official sponsor of the AMGA Instructor Pool. Additionally, Gore provides one full-tuition scholarship each year for an AMGA course or exam. The scholarship provides financial support for mountain guides seeking training and certification in the U.S.

IN PASSING

Star Man

Caroline Islands native Mau Piailug, who passed away last month at the age of 78, was a master navigator, one of the last experts in the ancient art of Pacific Ocean wayfaring. “Crossing an open ocean without instruments in knife-edged canoes,” writes the Wall Street Journal (July 18), “as the Polynesians did a thousand years before (Capt. James) Cook, is one of the great achievements in human exploration. … the palu’s skill is an achievement of reason, memory and calculation.” He earned wide renown in 1976, when he led a daring 6,000-mile voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti and back in a doubled-hulled canoe. “In Hawaii, until Mau Piailug shared his knowledge, the palu’s art had been lost for a millennium,” writes the Journal’s Lawrence Downes.

EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS

You Want to Go Where?

Expedition News’ editor and publisher Jeff Blumenfeld’s book provides an inside look at expedition sponsorship, including how to develop a newsworthy project, identify likely corporate sponsors, and use the latest technology that allows instant communications with sponsors, media, family, and friends no matter where you are on earth. It also takes a sobering look at what happens when the project doesn’t go exactly as planned. You Want to Go Where? is available on Amazon for about $18 (http://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Go-Where-Someone/dp/1602396477)

EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., 28 Center Street, Darien, CT 06820 USA. Tel. 203 655 1600, fax 203 655 1622, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Assistant editor: Jamie Gribbon. ©2010 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com. Enjoy the EN blog at www.expeditionnews.blogspot.com.

New Yorker Returns From Three Years at Sea

2010-06-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

Reid Stowe, 58, sailed into Manhattan on June 17 on the two-masted schooner Anne after 1,152 days at sea.

"This is a new human experience," he said after docking. "And no one understands what I did physically, mentally or spiritually."

He began his journey with his girlfriend Soanya Ahmed in April 2007, departing from Hoboken, N.J. But a little less than year into the journey she became pregnant and had to return home due to morning sickness. She gave birth to little Darshen in July 2008.

"Before we left, we had an agreement that if I had to get off for any reason, he would go on," Ahmad said. "I knew if he came back and didn't finish the voyage, he would just go back again. There was no way he wasn't going to finish it."

This was the first time Stowe set eyes on his son, who turns 2 in July. While the toddler slept in his mother's arms, other family members, including Stowe's five brothers and sisters and his mother, greeted him with open arms.

"It was because of family love and I dedicate this voyage to my mom and dad," he said.

Over 40 media from around the world covered his arrival.

Stowe’s “Waterworld” Returns

2010-06-10T09:44:00.001-07:00

New York City artist, adventurer and sailor Reid Stowe and his 70-ft. gaff-rigged schooner Anne, will return to New York Harbor on Thursday, June 17, 2010, after logging 1,152 days non-stop and non-resupplied at sea, a world record. Stowe will be accompanied by a flotilla of boats up the Hudson River to Pier 81 (World Yacht pier) where he will debark at 1 p.m. and step foot on land for the first time in over three years. He will reunite with his companion, Soanya Ahmad, who sailed with Stowe for the first 306 days of the voyage, but had to leave due to seasickness which turned out to be morning sickness.

Ahmad now holds the women’s record for the longest non-stop sea voyage. Stowe will also meet for the first time his son, Darshen, who was conceived at sea and is now almost two years old. Readers of EN are invited to attend the ceremony. Free admittance by advance reservation only is available at www.1000days.net.

Expedition News, June 2010 - Solve World Hunger: Eat Bugs

2010-06-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

Overcoming the “Yuk” Factor

(excerpted from Expedition News)

Editor’s Note: One of the advantages of writing a book on expeditions and adventures is that you meet fascinating people on the road during book tours. Such is the case with Dave Gracer, 45, founder of SmallStock Food Strategies LLC, Providence, R.I. Taking us aside in Cambridge, Mass., after a talk to the New England Chapter of The Explorers Club, he pitched us the idea that insects are the best food for an overcrowded planet. While we’d prefer a porterhouse ourselves, we see some merit in the concept, despite the very real “yuk” factor. Gracer explains:

“As a boy I was a picky eater, but I eventually outgrew that: now I eat insects frequently (the practice is known as entomophagy). What’s more, I encourage my fellow Americans to do so. There are very good reasons to do this: insects are extremely nutritious – not only are they high in protein, but their little jointed bodies also contain a lot of vitamins and minerals, making them an almost perfect food source.

“Their resource requirements are much smaller than those of the mammals and birds we usually eat, and insects are much better at capturing the energy from their food – 10 lbs. of feed will yield one pound of beef, but almost 9 lbs. of cricket. That’s a huge difference, especially since you can eat every part of the cricket.

“Beyond this, insects produce far less waste, and cannot host diseases or pathogens that can ‘jump’ to humans. Taken together, that’s a very impressive roster of advantages. Insect-based foods can be developed for both high-end cuisine AND for those at risk of starvation.

“We all know that many cultures enjoy insects in their cuisine, even when many other foods are available. In some marketplaces, insects fetch higher prices than our standard food animals. Given our global overpopulation and possible fresh water shortages, insects are very likely to play an increasing role in our future. As indicated, they’re far more sustainable than cows and pigs.

“I’ve been advocating for entomophagy for many years; in 2008 I spoke at a UN-organized international conference on edible insects in Chiang Mai, Thailand. After the conference I took a driving tour north, and watched tens of thousands of cave swifts streak the evening sky near the Burmese border. The birds were seeking insects for their dinners. Insects do a great deal of work: when we observe the results of their work, we say, ‘isn’t Nature amazing?’

“There will likely be obstacles to introducing insects into human diets, but we must press on nonetheless.”

In order to further his passions, Gracer is a part-time college adjunct instructor. His goal is to create five facilities in five different countries, each of which will produce the quantity and quality of processed, insect-based food that will meet the nutritional needs of 50,000 people for two days straight.

But before that, his next project is to complete a guidebook on entomophagy.

You can reach Dave Gracer directly at 401 286 9065, david_gracer@hotmail.com, or log onto www.smallstockfoods.com (best link: Gracer appears on The Tyra Banks Show, along with a Dumpster diver who spends just $15 per week on food).

Huffin' and Puffin

2010-06-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Jeff Blumenfeld, editor of ExpeditionNews.com in Darien, Conn., attempted to climb Iceland's tallest peak in late May before a nagging back injury forced him back just 1,000 feet from the 7,000-foot summit. The name of the peak - Hvannadalshnúkur – is about as unpronounceable as the world famous Iceland volcano that halted air service in Europe this spring.

American Himalayan Foundation Appeals for Earthquake Donations

2010-04-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

From Norbu Tenzing at the American Himalayan Foundation:

A series of strong earthquakes struck in Yushu, Tibet (Qinghai Province, China) on April 14th, creating disaster in an already struggling region. Most houses and schools have suffered badly, and tens of thousands are homeless in very cold weather.

Although we are still learning the extent of the damage, we want to move as quickly as possible. AHF has worked with the Tibetans in Yushu for over ten years: on education, clean water systems, clinics and bridges. Thankfully, we have learned that our Tibetan partners are alive. But they will need our help immediately.

AHF is now accepting donations through our web site targeted for earthquake relief. 100% of these emergency gifts will go directly to help our partners in Yushu and, as always, are fully tax-deductible. With our track record - a decade of on the ground experience with the Tibetans in Yushu - we know how to get help to those who need it. But we need your help to be able to do so.

Please make a donation and specify "Tibet Earthquake" in the "Note for AHF."

To donate: www.himalayan-foundation.org

Or call 415 288 7250.

Is There a Market for Expedition Stuff?

2010-04-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Obviously someone things so. Here's a listing from Jennifer Gasperini, a Minnesota woman who was involved in promoting past Steger Expeditions:

Celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of the 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition with this authentic expedition anorak, designed by expedition co-leader Will Steger and manufactured to his specifications by The North Face. This jacket containing Gore-Tex is identical to that worn by the team on their 3,741-mile, historic crossing of the Antarctic continent by dog team, a National Geographic cover story in 1990.

The jacket features reflective patches – on back and front – with the six country flags represented on the expedition: US, China, England, France, Great Britain, Japan and Russia. Stitched-on logos for expedition sponsors Gore-Tex and UAP of France appear on both shoulders. Pull cords at waist, bottom and collar make it adjustable to all weather conditions.

A zipper on the hood provides for a zipped-on fur ruff. Full pocket in front is sealed with flap, zipper and Velcro closure. This bright orange jacket was part of a set provided to expedition support staff, but never worn. Selling for $1,500 with free shipping. Contact: jgasperini@iphouse.com

Crossing Antarctica Marks 20th Anniversary

2010-03-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

It was 20 years ago last month – March 1990 – that Will Steger and five international polar explorers completed what will forever be the most audacious crossing of Antarctica. Their Trans-Antarctica Expedition will last in Antarctica history for a variety of reasons: Its length and duration (3,741 miles in 221 days, requiring that it start in winter and end in winter). Because it was the last expedition by dog (dogs were outlawed the following year by an amendment to the Antarctic Treaty). And its expense (upwards of $12 million).   A lot has changed in the two decades since – international politics and economies have shifted, new technologies invented and boomed, the human population added one billion, says writer and filmmaker Jon Bowermaster.

Bowermaster is co-author with Will Steger of the original book Crossing Antarctica, and now its 20th anniversary edition published by Menasha Ridge Press. He writes on his Web site, “… when I think of that grueling, seven-month-long expedition perhaps the biggest change has been to the continent itself. At the time, the impacts of global climate change were just beginning to be talked about and mostly in scientific circles. Today the ice shelf where Trans-Antarctica started, on a very cold July day in 1989, no longer exists.”

Bowermaster continues, “Part of the Larsen B Ice Shelf, it was sundered in 2002 by the massive breakup of Antarctica's largest shelf due to warming sea and air temperatures.  

Steger’s recent work has focused on educating students and policy leaders alike on the causes, effects and solutions to global climate change. His organization is planning the 5th annual Summer Institute for Climate Change Education, Aug. 12, at the University of Minnesota Continuing Education & Conference Center in St. Paul (www.globalwarming101.com).

Bowermaster has been back to Antarctica two dozen times since that initial introduction 20 years ago. His recently completed high-def film, Terra Antarctica, documents a six-week long exploration of the Antarctic Peninsula by sea kayak. (www.jonbowermaster.com).

"Danger, Will Robinson!"

2010-03-17T10:42:00.001-07:00

Many of us of a certain age grew up fascinated about space exploration, in part thanks to a hunk of metal and flashing lights that we wanted in the house as much as a new puppy. Television’s most famous robot – best known for the phrase, “Danger, Will Robinson!” – was developed by TV producer Irwin Allen in the mid 1960s for Lost in Space. Two faithful reproductions have been completed and are ready to be shipped by robot builder B9 Creations of Deadwood, S.D. They join an additional 54 robot replicas that have already been purchased by collectors worldwide. Each one is numbered and authenticated as an officially licensed replica.

The B9 (think “benign”) appeared in 83 episodes between 1965 to 1968, and is currently being reproduced by Michael Joyce, who is also the founder of team Next Giant Leap (www.nextgiantleap.com), an effort to win the $30 million Google X PRIZE for the first commercial moon lander.

The original robot used in the television series was altered for other shows and is lost to TV history. These reproductions are actually better built with an acrylic bubble based on the existing original, laser cut steel brain with polished stainless steel top cover and crown, a torso based on the original stone molds, and hundreds of individual parts fabricated from fiberglass, acrylic, aluminum, steel, etc. The B9 speaks in its original voice, that of Dick Tufeld, the 83-year-old voice actor for many Irwin Allen productions. Of course, it might be cheaper to go for the puppy. The B9’s are currently sold by Joyce to collectors for $24,500 (www.lostinspacerobot.com).

Hall of Mountaineering Excellence Gala, Apr. 10

2010-03-11T07:03:00.000-08:00

Carabiners and Cummerbunds are the dress code for the American Mountaineering Center and Museum's first Hall of Mountaineering Excellence Gala and Induction Ceremony, Golden, Colo. Honored will be significant individuals in mountaineering's past and present. The night will include fine dining, entertainment, live auction, a program honoring the inductees and special guest speaker Ed Viesturs.

The American Mountaineering Museum will induct four members into the Hall of Mountaineering Excellence:

Robert Bates, Yvon Chouinard, Robert Craig and Charles Houston.

The evening will be filled with stories of each mountaineer's greatest ascents and expeditions, memories of the inductees no longer with us, as well as an appreciative look at each man's work beyond the climbing world.

Tickets: $75 Individual, $125 Couple. 5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

www.mountaineeringmuseum.org

Department of Shameless Flogging

2010-02-16T18:52:00.001-08:00

We continue to shamelessly flog "You Want to Go Where," appearing over the next few months at:

Apr. 12 - Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo (Fla.), 4:30 p.m.

Apr. 16 – New Canaan (Conn.) Senior Mens Group, 10 a.m.

Apr. 20 – Guilford (Conn.) Library, 7 p.m.

May 11 – New England Chapter of The Explorers Club, Boston

Nov. 23 – Darien Community Association Book Group, Darien (Conn.), 10 a.m.

Lowa Boots Sponsors Colorado Book Talks, Feb. 1-3

2010-01-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

LOWA Boots presents Jeff Blumenfeld’s talk, “You Want to Go Where?” based upon his new book You Want to Go Where?: How to Get Someone to Pay for the Trip of Your Dreams. Three Colorado presentations will cover some of the world’s most historic expeditions and adventures with an eye towards how the audience can gain funding for their own travels. The talks will all be held at 7:00 p.m., February 1 at REI in Lakewood, February 2 at the Boulder Library and February 3 at the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden.

Blumenfeld will explain how with the right idea and proper advance preparation, it is possible to raise thousands of dollars in cash and outdoor gear and apparel for worthy expeditions. He emphasizes that companies do not exist to pay for vacations. However, with the right motive for the trip and the ability to negotiate quid pro quo sponsorships, it is possible to generate cash or in-kind (gear) support. His talk will be illustrated with over 40 photographs taken all over the world and with testimonials from the likes of the following adventurers:

• Norman Vaughan - climbed Antarctic mountain named after himself

• Will Steger - first confirmed dog sled trek to the North Pole

• Reid Stowe - currently engaged in his quest to be at sea for 1,000 days

• Mike Haugen - climbed tallest U.S. peaks in record time

• Paul Schurke – dogsled expedition across the Bering Strait

• Barbara Hillary - went to the North Pole; now wants to go to the South at 77

• Andre Tolme – adventure golf? Yes indeed. He hit a golf ball across Mongolia

Jeff Blumenfeld is editor of Expedition News, a 16-year-old monthly newsletter that covers the adventure marketing world. A resident of New Canaan, Conn., he is a member of The Explorers Club, the American Alpine Club, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

EN TRAVELS TO ANTARCTICA - Jan. 8 final blog

2010-01-11T14:59:00.000-08:00

Editor's note: Satellite transmission from the Antarctica peninsula became cranky last week, preventing timely transmission of these blogs. They are posted in their entirety below.

To see a selection of images, log onto:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=140184&id=741743840&l=b39c3e8a63

Friday, Jan. 8, 2010

Better Living Through Chemistry – I write in praise of scopolamine - the wonder drug. Were it not for the little patch behind my ear these past two days, I'm afraid I would have been incapacitated by seasickness. "Talking to Ralph on the big white phone" - not a pretty picture. Pity the poor explorers of yesteryear who had to transit the same passage between South America and Antarctica without this handy little pharmaceutical.

Seasoned hands aboard ship say the Drake Passage behaved itself on the return trip. Hard to believe. Our little 276-ft. ship rolled incessantly yesterday. Where are those stabilizers I read in the brochure? The sea completely fills the picture windows in the lounge one minute, then as the ship rolls, the scene changes to blank sky. Staircases fall away from your feet as you go below. "One hand for you, one hand for the ship," was the mantra continuously drilled into us.

Remaining prone in my tiny cabin has been the best medicine. I've been sleeping great during the passage, no doubt thanks to the patch. The sun streams in through a single porthole, except for a brief twilight period from midnight to 3 a.m. When visiting Antarctica during its summer, don't underestimate the value of a good sleep mask.

We're making great time - approximately 13 knots across the passage. Out in the distance is the fabled Cape Horn, the tip of South America. Tonight we'll hang on an anchor in the placid Beagle Channel for a final dinner with the Captain. Meanwhile, the group is broken up into workshops focused on art, media relations, sponsorship fund-raising, journal writing, and music. Fred Roots, our resident scientist/genius is about to give a lecture on the Antarctic treaty that ensures protection of the entire continent.

Landing in Ushuaia is planned for Saturday morning. It will be a time for shopping and a visit to a national park. There's not much to buy in town other than t-shirts, stuffed penguins, pins and coffee mugs - many imprinted with "Fin du monde." Indeed, it feels like we've been to the end of the world, but now the real world beckons. Solid land beneath our feet will feel good after living on the good ship "Ushuaia" for these past nine days.

EN TRAVELS TO ANTARCTICA - Jan. 4 & 5 blog

2010-01-11T14:52:00.000-08:00

Monday, Jan. 4, 2010

A View From the Bridge – The best view of the Antarctic peninsula this week is from the bridge of the M/V Ushuaia. The captain has an open bridge policy, which both students and chaperones alike have frequently taken advantage of during the trip.

In the evening, after dinner, students gather along the 180-degree picture windows equipped with stools, binoculars and plastic laminated wildlife identification cards. There's even a row of plastic toy whales, the better to identify the humpbacks, minke, and fin whales we see spouting within close proximity of the ship.Suddenly, someone shouts "blow hole" and a half-dozen binoculars sweep the starboard horizon.

As classical music plays softly and the bridge is cast in the glow of red lights, the captain sits monitoring the autopilot, occasionally using a pair of binoculars to visually plot a course through the ice field. From the Palmer coast to Livingston Island, just off the continent of Antarctica, the visibility is an astounding 38 miles.

The green radar screen is dotted with hundreds of blips. There are icebergs shaped like aircraft carriers, giant mesas big enough to land a small plane, icebergs that look like ski jumps, skyscrapers, and scenes from Doctor Seuss.Some have small colonies of penguins - are they gentoos? adelies? Hard to tell. Others are occupied by a resident crabeater, Weddell, elephant seal, or sea lion.

Antarctica is nothing like the photos.It's so much more. It's the cleanest air one can possibly breathe. It's the boom of a glacier calving in the distance. It's the incessant braying of penguins when we come ashore, penguins that have no fear of humans and will approach within four or five feet, giving us all the once over.

There's an absence of green here, of course, but it doesn't matter with the whitest whites and the bluest blues you've ever seen. We're a self-contained community of about 90 people at least a two-day sail from civilization, one focused on giving the future environmental leaders on board the tools they need to keep Antarctica just the way it is.

Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010

FOMO – "Fear of Missing Out" - From a pod of three humpback whales on the port side side of the ship, and two to starboard, to sightings of elephant seals, cape petrels, and minke whales, you can hardly take a moment to eat, sleep or shower, otherwise you might miss yet another spectacular sight here along the Antarctic peninsula.

Leave your camera in your room and you might miss a massive arched iceberg, bigger than the ship itself, about to crack apart with a thunderous roar.

Or as happened today, roll over before our eyes. Each day seems to top the previous one as the group dons heavy rubber boots, ski jackets, pants, and gloves, and ventures to shore in Zodiacs under bright skies and temperatures ranging from 30 to 50 degrees F.

Yesterday we visited Port Lockroy, a restored British research stattion now staffed by four hardy women who run a museum, gift shop and post office. Fifteen thousand tourists are expected to visit this austral summer.

They study the impact of humans on breeding gentoo penguins. There are penguins everywhere, some within a few feet of the main entranceway. Seems the gentoos do better on the inhabited side of the island than the remote and off-limit uninhabited side. The humans tend to scare off the skuas, a predatory sea bird that feeds on penguin chicks.

Today after observing nesting gentoos penguins on Pleneau Island, we cruised in Zodes through an iceberg-choked lagoon, awed by the white and turquoise colors, the porpoising penguins, and the mountainous Antarctic peninsula in the background. The students in my Zode got to kiss an iceberg as we slowed to examine it closely.

Next stop was the Vernadskiy station, the Ukrainian research station that marks our southernmost point on the trip, about 100 miles north of the Antarctic circle. The all male staff greeted us warmly and gave us a tour, including their bar and recreation room with its collection of donated bras, periodically added to by visitors.

We're headed north now, back to Ushuaia 700 miles away, for arrival on Saturday.The sun shines brightly until midnight, then sets until sunrise three hours later. I better log off now lest I miss something.

EN TRAVELS TO ANTARCTICA - Dec. 31, Jan. 1 blog

2010-01-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

Editor's note: Satellite transmission from the Antarctica peninsula became cranky last week, preventing timely transmission of these blogs. They are posted in their entirety in the following blogs.

December 31, 2009

DRAKE CAKE – We lucked out today, our first day on the water en route to the Antarctica peninsula. The feared "Drake Shake" never materialized. Sure, a few students were feeling queasy. As for myself, the scopolmine patch behind my left ear made me a bit spacey and so dog-tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. But by mid-day today, the waters calmed down and the passage between South America and Antarctica was a piece of cake, a Drake cake, if you will.

At 276-ft. long, the M/V Ushuaia is the perfect no-frills ship for this student expedition. In its former life, the ship was a research ship for NOAA. No hot tubs, no laundry, no midnight buffet, and no cute towel figures on our beds at night. There's a well-worn lounge, a bar for the adults, a 70-seat dining room and a conference room that seats 70 where we received a safety lecture, and learned about Antarctic ice and geology from experts in their fields.

The birdlife is starting to pick up as we near Antarctica. Outside the lounge of the M/V Ushuaia , we spotted wandering albatross, some whale spouts, and more varieties of petrels than you can image.

I'm in a starboard bunk room a few floors down with another chaperone, Stephane, from Belgium. There's a bunk bed, a private bath, and a small vertical closet with eight hangers. There's a non-working electric heater strapped onto the top of a non-working radiator. Spartan to say the least.

Today is a special day, the final day of the decade. Our New Year's Eve celebration included dancing on the top deck, skits by each group of students assembled in eight "pods," and a toast featuring fruit juice in champagne glasses. Expedition leader Geoff Green, the good sport that he is, came out as the 2010 baby. One pod group wrote and performed an original composition about seasickness, with Remy on guitar, and Janet, a barrister from the U.K., playing along on her clarinet. Best refrain: "We've got the churning and burning Drake passage seasick blues."

Tomorrow promises to be our most exciting day yet as we sight Antarctica, man the Zodiacs, and try to get in close enough to land. Many of us are students of Sir Ernest Shackleton and are looking forward to seeing Elephant island from a distance, especially Point Wild, the exact spot where 22 of Shackleton's crew were marooned for four months as Sir Ernest went for help in an open boat called the "James Caird." Even today, Elephant island is one of the least-visited landing sites on the peninsula.

But first, we'll need lecture on how to ride the Zodiacs safely and learn the international rules for visiting penguin and sea colonies. Although there is an expensive satellite phone on board and e-mail is available for $3 per minute, we are essentially cut off from the rest of the world as we plan to make this isolated continent at the bottom of the world our temporary home.

Note: bandwidth on the ship is too small to handle photos. Log onto the Students on Ice Web site to view images of our student and chaperone team (www.studentsonice.com), and a collection of student-written blogs.

Friday, Jan. 1, 2010

Happy New Year – "If you're not getting seasick across the Drake, you're kinda getting ripped off," said Students on Ice expedition leader Geoff Green before we threw off the dock lines in Ushuaia. That may be the case, but the final leg of our crossing to Antarctica today was smooth as silk.

So here we are, New Year's Day and our ship sits quietly off Point Wild, Elephant island. We're here all alone, there's not another ship within miles of our location.

Last night, we all toasted in the New Year with fruit juice in champagne glasses. It wasn't until curfew and the students went to bed that the adults began their celebration with slightly stronger refreshments. We were invited to the crew's party deep within the bowels of the ship, in a secret area behind the conference room. The small, windowless room was a tight fit as about 25 of us danced to a thrumming salsa beat. One crew member dressed as Batman, another as a TV set (god bless him), and a woman was dancing with angel wings. The claustrophobic space reminded me of what a party on a submarine must be like. Raise your hands during a particularly energetic dance move and you could palm the ceiling.

Shortly after arriving at Elephant island, waves of students set off in Zodiacs driven by experienced staff members. The Zodes cruised past penguin colonies and the exact spot where Sir Ernest Shackleton left his crew as he sought help 800 miles away. There wasn't enough room for us to land, but we could clearly see the Chilean monument erected to honor Capt. Luis Pardo Villalon, master of the "Yelchor, "the ship Shackleton used to rescue his entire 22 man team without a single loss of life. What's up with that? No memorial to Shack? What is he? chopped liver?

It's humbling to view this barren strip of rock and sand and imagine the hardships Shackleton's men faced for four months as they awaited rescue by eating little more than penguins and seal, of which there were plenty.

The scenery here is truly spectacular. We motored past blue-white icebergs as big as apartment buildings. At the head of the bay is a receding glacier that calves blocks of ice and snow, some huge, others small "bergy bits."

The wildlife is astounding. There are penguins everywhere, sitting above us on cliffs, penguins looking like miniature restaurant waiters, penguins leaping through the water in search of krill, and penguins waddling who knows where across snow and ice fields strung together by penguin "highways."

Earlier today we saw fin whales spouting, an occasional seal, and plenty of sea birds including skua ready to steal penguin eggs the minute a nesting penguin lets down its guard.

Today also included a safety lecture that included a review of the Antarctica Code of Conduct:

There are no bathrooms. Go before you hit the Zodiacs.
Picking up even a pebble is forbidden.
We're told not to approach any animals closer than 15 feet.

Geoff warns: "Never hold, never even pet a penguin. Besides, picking one up is like holding a rugby ball that bites and poops on you."

Seasick or not (and only a handful were), in just one day we certainly received our money's worth. We have another seven days to go; I can only imagine what experiences we'll all share in the coming week as we make a temporary home here, the only continent on earth devoted to science and peace.

Patagonia Toe Jam

2009-12-29T18:13:00.000-08:00

Emerald Lake sits high above Ushuaia, about a 20 minute chartered bus ride from the hotel. The frigid water is the color of turquoise and the scenery here in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina sucks the very breath right out of you. Today's hike through a muddy bog up to the lake was yet another bonding experience for the 64 students and 24 adult chaperones who are preparing to leave civilization on Wednesday evening aboard the 100-passenger M/V Ushuaia.

Jim Raffan, guest lecturer, belives there are "F" days and "M" days. F days stand for "fine," when everything goes as planned. Borrrring. But then there are the "M" days which stand for "miserable" - when the conditions conspire to make you regret getting up in the morning. But Raffan believes those are the days you remember the rest of your life. To him, "m" also stands for "memories" as the Students on Ice team certainly experienced today.

So there we were, our expensive Lowa and Merrell boots set aside as we donned rented rubber boots - "Wellies" - for the six-mile roundtrip hike to the lake, a hike that saw some of us mired in knee-deep mud - an "M" day for sure. Christina and Simit, two students on the group, rescued one of the Argentinian guides from the rath of two Italian women who were smoking cigarettes on the trail and having a hissy fit about ruining their hiking boots. They obviously didn't get the memo about the need for rubber knee-highs. The climb up through the morass was fine, but try hiking downhill in floppy rubber boots. My big toes are crying the blues.

Dinner tonight was shared with Scobie Pye, 59, a professional Zodiac driver from Tasmania. Were it not for these sturdy twin-tubed rubber runabouts, landings on the Antarctic peninsula would not be possible. Pye tells me he's seen "Zodes" flip, but never on his watch. His big concern is with the huge cruise ships - 1000-1500 passengers each - that have begun to ply these waters. He wonders who's going to rescue the passengers if something goes wrong, "certainly not 100-passenger ships like the Ushuaia," he tells me. Luckily, the ships in the area book their landing sites in advance with a trade association to avoid conflicts and overcrowding that could likely occur when more than one ship vies for a visit to the same penguin colony."Antarctica is better off with smaller ships," he says.

Tonight before bedtime, Geoff Green, expedition leader, read us the drill on seasickness, a topic I'm sure I'll return to in a later blog as I share a common trait with Charles Darwin himself: a propensity towards mal de mar, tossing cookies, or as I once wrote after a disasterous English Channel crossing on a hovercraft in 1972: "saying hello to yesterday's lunch." Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

"The Luckiest People on Earth"

2009-12-28T17:58:00.000-08:00

“In a few days time you’ll be among the luckiest people on earth,” said 38-year Antarctic veteran David Fletcher,former base station manager for the British Antarctic Survey. Fletcher’s was one of a series of classroom presentations here at the Hotel Del Glaciar, a combination ski/hiking/fishing lodge high on a hillside overlooking Ushuaia, Argentina.

Sixty-four students from throughout North America and parts of Europe and the Middle East are here tonight learning what Students on Ice (studentsonice.com) calls “polar fundamentals” – a comprehensive curricula designed to prepare the group for Wednesday, the start of a two-day, 600-mi. crossing of the legendary Drake Passage en route to the Antarctic peninsula.

Fletcher tells the students, “What you’ll see in Antarctica you’ll remember and talk about the rest of your lives … you’ll be staggered by what you see.”

Indeed. The students are excited about viewing wild penguins for the first time. Fletcher continues, “Don’t give them a human face, they deserve more respect than that.”

But first, another day of classroom talks, get-acquainted exercises, and a hike to nearby Emerald Lake for a mountainside picnic.

The students and their 24 chaperones, myself included, are beginning to gel, becoming a cohesive second family focused on making the most of every minute down here.

Fletcher again: “Be sure to put your cameras down occasionally and let Antarctica enter your heart. Take the time to absorb the greatest place on earth.”

We're Off

2009-12-26T17:25:00.000-08:00

After visiting my parents and getting suitably fattened up for the coming Antarctic journey, I reported to Miami Airport to meet the group - about 65 Canadian and U.S. high school students and about 20 adult chaperones. JN (that's his name), the ship doctor, tells me he has a supply of seasick patches, which is a good thing considering I get queesy on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World.

Everyone is pretty excited about the trip ahead as sappy Christmas music plays in the departure area (a welcome change from the sappy elevator music they usually play).

Gee, I hope they feed us on this Lan Chile flight to Santiago otherwise I'll be eating my leather boots like Capt. Robt. F. Scott, although my boots have a little road salt on them for extra flavor.

I expect to be offline until I can log on in Ushuaia just before we board the chartered research ship bound for the Antarctic
peninsula. It's the same vessel that hit rocks last year. Memo to self: Google "Argentina hull repair."

Expedition News Treks to Antarctica

2009-12-24T11:19:00.000-08:00

We can’t just sit around while everyone else explores the world. Finally, the time has come for the “trip of our dreams.” Expedition News travels to Antarctica with Students on Ice this month (www.studentsonice.com). Log onto www.expeditionnews.blogspot.com for periodic updates, and be sure to catch our February issue for a full report. Think South.

Tweet This!

2009-12-23T13:45:00.001-08:00

Want to stay current on various expeditions in between issues of Expedition News? Here’s a tip for members of the Twittersphere: search #expedition. In late December there were dozens of expeditions posting tweets. Want to follow EN? Don’t bother. Truth be told, we’re not half as interesting as actor Ashton Kutcher, followed by 4.2 million people last time we looked.

No Butts About It

2009-12-19T13:51:00.000-08:00

Tired of the ubiquitous The North Face logo staring back at you from someone’s shoulder in line at Costco? Is the brand becoming, well, a little too popular on the subway or among non-climbing, non-outdoorsy pretzel vendors on Fifth Avenue? Well, just to knock the mighty TNF down a notch is a look-alike brand called The South Butt with a line of t-shirts, fleece jackets, shorts and hats.

TNF is none too pleased. Recently, The North Face Apparel Corp. issued holiday greetings to The South Butt, LLC by filing a federal lawsuit in St. Louis seeking to enjoin The South Butt from continuing to market and sell its parody apparel product line.

The suit, filed on December 10, 2009 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, also seeks damages from The South Butt, its founder, college freshman Jimmy Winkelmann, and a local St. Louis pharmacy through which on-site retail sales of The South Butt apparel are made.

The South Butt, a small St. Louis-based company, was started by 18-year-old Jimmy Winkelmann, to help his parents pay his college tuition at a state college. It puts out parody products which serve to effectively spoof North Face, employing the tag line, “Never Stop Relaxing” in contrast to the North Face line, “Never Stop Exploring.”

“The South Butt has previously made it clear to the North Face that the consuming public is insightful enough to know the difference between a face and a butt,” said Albert S. Watkins, legal counsel for The South Butt and Jimmy Winkelmann. “In every sense, The South Butt is prepared to assume the proverbial position and take everything that North Face thrusts at it,” added Watkins.

The skirmish between the two companies has garnered international media attention and has effectively been characterized as a contemporary Samson versus Goliath showdown.

The South Butt has initiated a tongue in cheek (pun intended) Internet challenge to hone the skills of the public in discerning the difference between a face and a butt. See it at: http://apps.facebook.com/south-butt-challenge/

Wary of TNF’s legal eagles, the South Butt folks offer this Web site disclaimer, “We are not in any fashion related to nor do we want to be confused with The North Face Apparel Corp. or its products sold under ‘The North Face’ brand. If you are unable to discern the difference between a face and a butt, we encourage you to buy North Face products.” (For more information: www.thesouthbutt.com)

Job Opening - Work for the AAC

2009-12-19T13:23:00.001-08:00

Major Gifts Position Open

The American Alpine Club (AAC) seeks to add a dynamic member to its senior staff as Major Gifts Officer. The position requires a minimum of five years of experience in development, with direct experience soliciting funds from individuals and foundations. This position will be an integral part of the AAC team as the club expands programs, grows membership, and prepares for its next capital fund campaign. Candidates should have extraordinary organizational skills, a passion for the outdoors, and be capable of working directly with donors. The position reports to the executive director, and the right candidate will be a part of the senior leadership team. Resumes and cover letters should be sent electronically by January 11, 2010, to Janet Miller: jmiller@americanalpineclub.org. A full job description is available at www.americanalpineclub.org/pt/majorgiftsofficerjobdescription. `

Want to Go to Ecuador?

2009-12-06T20:13:00.001-08:00

Kurt Diemberger and Martin Torresquintero are heading out to Ecuador on January 6, 2010. They are offering a super good deal on air travel (under $400 on LAN RT from JFK) and still have space on the Land Cruiser for another couple of climbers. They plan to shoot mountain photo and video, hang out in Papapllacta and climb Antisana.

For more information:

Martin Torresquintero
MT Mountain Guiding
PO Box 2986
New Haven CT 06513-3925 USA
mtclimbs@snet.net
(203)752-1191

Clif Maloney's Friends Hike Hudson Highlands

2009-12-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

We're sorry we missed this event. Here's a report from the head of the AAC's New York section:

Clif, who perished on September 28 on Cho Oyu, after becoming the oldest American to summit an 8000 meter peak, trained assiduously in the Hudson Highlands, about 50 miles north of Manhattan, across the river from West Point. On a beautiful, Indian Summer type of day, about 30 New York Section members gathered to remember Clif, in the way he would have most appreciated, by hiking the very same trails he spent so many hours climbing in preparation for his quest for the Seven Summits. Two groups summited Breakneck Ridge via different routes and a third group hiked the carriage trails around and visited the Osborne Castle in Garrison. After a full day of outdoor activities, the group gathered at the Galligan’s in Cold Spring for a sumptuous cocktail party and buffet dinner. Among the attendees were Carolyn Maloney, Clif’s widow, and their two daughters Christina and Virginia.
Our thanks go to Vic Benes who organized the outdoor activities and to the Galligan’s for their warm and welcoming hospitality.

Phil Erard
NY Section Chair

Blah, Blah, Blah

2009-10-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

How do you get someone to pay for the trip of your dreams? Come to an upcoming book talk.

Dec. 29-Jan. 5 - The M/V Ushuaia, somewhere off the coast of Antarctica. Part of Studentsonice.com trip.

Feb. 2, 2010 – Boulder, Colo. Library

Feb. 3, 2010 – Brad Washburn American Mountaineering Museum, Golden, Colo.

Feb. 9, 2010 – AMC Club, St. Thomas Church, 95 Greenwood Avenue, Bethel, Conn.

Feb. 10, 2010 - Richmond Memorial Library, Marlborough, Conn., www.richmondlibrary.info

Feb. 18, 2009 - The Learning Annex, New York City

Feb. 27, 2009 - Southington (Conn.) Library

Apr. 12, 2010 – Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo, Fla.

May 28, 2010 - Senior Men's Club of New Canaan (Conn.)

Mountain Stories Come to The Explorers Club, Oct. 17

2009-10-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

On Oct. 17, The Explorers Club presents a public event titled, Mountain Stories: Mountaineering in the 21st Century – Challenges & Opportunities. The event will honor six outstanding individuals who have made their mark in mountaineering and exploration – presentations ranging from mountain exploration to traditional mountain climbing disciplines. Featured speakers are:

• Robert Anderson, FN '87 - Mountain Guide, Everest summiteer, and author of Seven Summits Solo and Antonovs over the Arctic, Mr. Anderson will discuss the challenges of Antarctic climbing.

• Graham Bowley – Graham is a New York Times reporter who has had numerous assignments in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Graham will be discussing the challenges facing K-2 climbers.

• Ken Kamler, MD, FR '84 – A nationally recognized surgeon, explorer and climber who has made significant and lasting contributions to the advancement and practice of extreme medicine in some of the most remote regions on Earth.

• Jennifer Lowe-Anker – Artist and author of Forget Me Not, a beautifully written story of great love, and a tribute to Alex Lowe and his "tribe" of climbers.

• Kevin Mahoney – A UIAGM certified mountain guide and Mountain Hardwear-sponsored climber from New Hampshire. Juggling his time between his family, and his own guide service, Mahoney has been nominated for the "Piolet d'Or" for the first ascent of Arctic Rage on the "Moose's Tooth" in Alaska.

• Freddie Wilkenson & Janet Bergman – New England-based Mountain Hardwear-sponsored professional climbers and mountain guides. Freddie was the 2007 recipient of the Robert Hicks Bates Award for young climbers. He and Janet will
discuss the challenges confronting young climbers in the 21st century.

(Admission $60; for more information contact The Explorers Club, 212 628 8383, Reservations@ Explorers.org)

Cool Sled - The Concept Ice Vehicle

2009-10-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

In November 2010, Andrew Moon and Andrew Regan, long-time fellow explorers from the Cayman Islands and Geneva respectively, will lead the Moon-Regan TransAntarctic Expedition, a 3,000-mile motorized expedition using two Science Support Vehicles and a bizarre-looking Concept Ice Vehicle (CIV), sort of a cross between a snowmobile and an ultralight airplane.

Once in Antarctica they will depart from Patriot Hills, ascending nearly 10,000 feet to the Polar plateau en route to the South Pole. From there the team travels north to McMurdo Station on the coast. This final leg of the journey is expected to be the most dangerous – the risk of unstable and unpredictable crevasses becomes even more real as they cross the ice shelf, necessitating the use of Ice Penetrating Radar (IPR) to avoid crevasses.

Polar researchers often rely on planes and big road trains pulled by tracked vehicles. Moon and Regan hope to demonstrate that wheeled utility vehicles powered by biofuels can provide an effective means of transport for research teams working on the ice.

Moon and Regan will be using two six-wheel-drive Science Support Vehicles (SSVs) to transport team members and their equipment, one of which has been tried and tested on their Ice Challenger Expedition in 2005. The original SSV was adapted by a team of engineers in Iceland, who dedicated 2,000 manhours to creating the perfect ice-busting expedition vehicle.

The Ice Vehicle, developed by Lotus, is capable of coping with the extreme conditions of the Antarctic. In order to traverse the variable sub-zero terrain at speeds up to 84 mph, the futuristic-looking Ice Vehicle travels atop three independently suspended skids (skis) and is powered by a modified, rear mounted, bio-fueled engine that reduces emissions by 70 percent. It is capable of operating in temperatures as low as –72 C (–98 F).

Designed and engineered by Formula 1 chassis designer Kieron Bradley and Polar guide Jason de Carteret, it is light enough to be man-hauled across rough terrain. The Ice Vehicle will travel ahead of the two heavier support vehicles to ensure that the ice surface is safe.

During the trip, the team hopes to draw attention to the plight of the Antarctic climate by conducting science experiments that demonstrate just how important the Polar regions are to the world’s environmental stability.

They will also visit Scott's hut at Cape Evans to draw attention to the work of the Antarctic Heritage Trust preserving the history of Antarctica and to raise
awareness about Antarctica in the centenary year of the Race to the Pole by Admunsen and Scott. They have established an educational Web site, www.juniorpolartraveller.com, to educate and inspire children about the Polar regions.

Andrew Moon, 50, and Andrew Regan, 45, previously journeyed to the North and South Poles. They met skiing to the South Pole in 2004, and in 2005 teamed up to successfully lead the mechanized Ice Challenger Expedition, a journey from the coast of Antarctica to the geographic South Pole. The trip was completed in 69 hours. For the TransAntarctic Expedition, the co-leaders will be accompanied by a support team including an expedition logistics expert, two mechanics, a cameraman, a Polar photographer and a communications expert. (For more information: www.transantarcticexpedition.com)

Q & A With Vern Tejas

2009-08-31T17:18:00.000-07:00

OUT THERE

Checking in with Professional Guide Vern Tejas

As EN enters its 16th year next month, we’ve created this new feature wherein we attempt in this age of instant communications, short attention spans, blogs, vlogs, Twitters and tweets to check in with some of our favorite people Out There, asking the first 10 questions that pop into our fertile brain.

Vern Tejas, 56, a senior mountain guide for Alpine Ascents International, is best known for Denali’s first solo winter ascent, the first solo of Mt. Vinson (Antarctica’s highest), first winter ascent of Mt. Logan (Canada’s highest) and as lead guide for Col. Norman Vaughan’s first ascent of Mt. Vaughan in Antarctica.

We caught up with Tejas (pronounced Tey-Has) in Grand Central Station after he changed out of his sweaty workout clothes, having rollerbladed up from the West Village. ("Don't you get stares changing in the Mens room?" we asked. He laughs, "I use a stall since there are no phone booths any longer.”)

Over a frightfully expensive Chop Chop Cobb salad and chicken wrap we began our probe.

What brings a hard-core Talkeetna, Alaska guide to the canyons of New York?

"Love, pure and simple. I fell (if you pardon the expression) for a New York M & A attorney named Carole Schiffman. She was a climber on one of my guided trips and we hit it off after we returned home. It was the first marriage for both of us.”

Where did you finally tie the knot?

"After dating for 19 weeks in 2007 we were on a climb together in Antarctica on Mt. Vinson. When we discovered that fellow guide Todd Passey, a former missionary, was still ordained to perform marriage ceremonies, we decided right on the summit ridge that there was no better place than the top of Vinson to exchange vows.”

"Carole would later joke that she was suffering from hypoxia at the time."

Is a wedding ceremony in Antarctica legal?

"Well, not exactly. We satisfied the bureaucrats back home a few months later with a civil ceremony at City Hall in New York, decorated with plastic flowers that looked like they were there for decades.”

"It’s a good thing we made it official. About two months later, after returning from Everest, I became seriously ill and was hospitalized with blood poisoning. I qualified, as her spouse, for health insurance and we could take advantage of the fine health care that this city has to offer. So I guess you can say our marriage and Carole’s quick action saved my life.”

What's next for you?

“I am fortunate to hold the record for the number of times anyone has climbed the Seven Summits - eight. Now I want to re-claim my record for the fastest time. Ian McKeever completed all seven in 156 days, beating my record by 30 days. I think I can go back and knock off another round of the Seven Summits in 150 days next season.”

You had a prostate cancer scare. Will that figure into the attempt?

“Yes, this time around I hope to raise awareness of the disease which I seem to have under control currently. Cancer of the prostate is the most common form of cancer among men in the developed world. It’s estimated that there are 230,000 new cases in the United States alone each year. It’s high time we develop a better understanding of how to deal with this killer.”

How supportive is your wife in your career?

“Carole is wonderfully supportive of my guiding life and understands the call of the wild. We love to climb together and eventually hope to co-guide together.”

How do you train while stuck in the concrete jungle?

“New York is a surprisingly outdoor city. I bike the West Side Highway, Rollerblade to meetings, even unicycle. To train for Vinson, we dragged tires across the Brooklyn Bridge. The comments from passing New Yorkers were priceless:

"'Hey mister? What happened to the rest of your car?'

"'You know, if you put that tire up on edge, it'll roll better.'”

What's the biggest difference between Talkeetna and New York?

"New York has better bagels."

How has the guiding business evolved?

"Well, I'll have to give Dick Bass a big kiss for 'inventing' the concept of the Seven Summits in 1984-85. Paradoxically, the publicity surrounding the Everest disaster of 1996 also generated interest in guided climbs. Since then I've helped a lot of people fulfill their dreams.”

Finally, in a shameless bout of self promotion, we couldn't resist asking: How's it feel to be the cover boy of the new book, "You Want to Go Where?"

“I had to look closely when I first saw Gordon Wiltsie's image of me. It was taken on a serac on Norman Vaughan's namesake mountain in Antarctica in 1994. I recognize my parka and my boots, which I still own. I wound up buying three copies of the book. My mother is going to love it.”

Fuzz Aldrin?

2009-08-31T12:25:00.000-07:00

This t-shirt offered on www.uberapparatus.com made us laugh. But we wonder what Buzz thinks of it. Can you spell "cease and desist?"

Washburn Camera Images Return From Space

2009-08-28T14:31:00.001-07:00

The American Mountaineering Center in Golden, Colo., will host a gathering on Sept. 30 to exhibit the last pictures ever taken from Bradford Washburn's camera, pictures taken from outer space. NASA Astronaut John Grunsfeld, a long-time member of the American Alpine Club, brought the camera on his recent mission to repair the Hubble. On Sept. 30 Grunsfeld will return the camera for all to see, talk about the mission, and unveil the photos which for a limited time will be displayed in the museum alongside some of Washburn's personal favorites. (For more information: www.mountaineeringmuseum.org).

Doggie Bags Climbing Wall

2009-08-01T17:24:00.001-07:00

On the first day of the Outdoor Retailer 2009 Summer Market, the huge outdoor trade show in Salt Lake last month, the climbing wall went to the dogs when Ruff Wear unveiled its new DoubleBack Harness for man's-best-friend. One might be confused as to why a dog would even need a climbing harness since they are physically unable to go up cliffs, so Ruff Wear got an adorable dog into the harness to demonstrate it.

Turns out that there are many ways a dog-specific climbing harness can be used, including climbing, mountaineering, canyoneering, and helping dogs up and down steep and exposed terrain in the high country. It's a good bet that most outdoor enthusiasts are also dog lovers, and would always prefer to have their best friends along for every hike and climb. Now they can, even in the most harsh areas, as a dog can easily be lifted and lowered with the Ruff Wear DoubleBack Harness.

The harness was conceived in 2002 and finally is ready to go to market. Features include strength ratings to 2,000 lbf, anodized aluminum buckles, adjustable Martingale collar (the kind that restrains without choking) to customize fit, a rope tie-in point, padded belly support and adjustable frame and leg loops.

Ruff Wear drew a large crowd to the climbing wall inside the Salt Palace Convention Center as they lifted a dog up into the air and let it hang out. It seemed to be very comfortable and relaxed inside its harness as it looked around at everyone taking pictures. The demonstration made it clear that as long as a dog owner builds good anchors, he can safely raise or lower his pet over just about anything.

The First Time She Met Will Steger

2009-07-31T14:26:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Kimball Gasperini, a good friend and former employee, was inspired by my book You Want to Go Where? (Skyhorse Publishing 2009) to write her own account of when she first became immersed in the world of polar exploration. That's Jennifer with Will Steger's Resolute Bay base station manager, Jim Gasperini (see rugged looking dude in beard and cap), who she would later marry. That's Will Steger during one of the rare moments he wore a tie.

POLAR FASHION

Just two weeks on the job as a PR account executive for a firm on the 66th floor of the Empire State Building, I walked into New York's prestigious Explorers Club with an air of confident sophistication. On this cold January day, I would make my debut to both the New York media and my sole client at a press conference. As the crowd gathered, my boss introduced me to our client representative, Wayne. After welcoming me to the team, he asked for a favor. I was in a position to please; whatever it was, I would do it.

"Our model didn't show up today. Are you willing to be our clothing model for the conference?" Of course there was only one answer: "Sure." In minutes, I was handed a dark garment and set off to the ladies room. I changed out of my stylish linen skirt and pressed white blouse and slipped into the first item of the fashion show. My nose detected a terrible odor but I kept my composure and walked out to face the audience: photographers and writers from Sports Illustrated, Vogue, USA Today, The New York Times and others.

There I stood, cameras flashing from every direction, in a full suit of Thermax thermal underwear. I soon learned that the synthetic underwear,

made of high-tech hollow fibers produced by Du Pont, had recently been worn on a training trip, a dogsled journey in the high Arctic, led by Will Steger, the featured guest of our press conference. I'm certain it had not been washed since. Will Steger lived in a remote cabin in northeast

Minnesota, just miles from the Canadian border. He had no running water or electricity. His life-long goal was to recreate Admiral Peary's famed 1909 dogsled expedition to the North Pole. Despite National Geographic's endorsement of Peary, many experts disputed his claim that he had actually reached the geographic North Pole.

Will, who ran a wilderness training school in the deep woods, had logged hundreds of miles of dogsled travel in the high Arctic. If anyone could put this journey to the test, it was he. He had gathered a select team of six experienced team members, trained 42 sled dogs, and raised enough money for flights to start and finish.

Du Pont had agreed to be the lead sponsor of his 500-mile journey. Their goal: to demonstrate that if their fibers, woven into thermal underwear, sleeping bags, socks, and jackets, could keep a team of polar explorers safe and warm, they were certainly good enough for the average outdoors enthusiast.

On top of the the long underwear, I donned layer upon layer of insulated clothing: an insulated jumpsuit, a hooded jacket with a fur ruff made of

coyote, insulated socks and beaver mitts. As I dressed, Will Steger regaled the crowd with the benefits of each item. Despite the cold outside, the pre-war building was over-heated and I broke out in a sweat. Just when I thought I might faint, I was asked to climb into a huge sleeping bag, demonstrating how the team would sleep, fully dressed in frigid temperatures well below zero. In the nick of time, I was released to the ladies room to reclaim my more shapely, and sweet-smelling attire.

I had never met anyone like Will Steger. A small, wiry fellow, I couldn't imagine how he would survive the demanding trip over floating sea and rubble ice for 500 miles by ski and dogsled; but, his charisma immediately captivated me. He stayed close by my side through much of the press conference and, time and again calling me by my childhood name, Jenny. Only close frends and family called me that. He acted as if we had known one another for years, yet we had just met that day. It later became clear to me that he saw in me the key to his future. If I could generate enough media coverage of his journey, his role as a world-renowned explorer would be set in stone.

The press conference was a huge success. Over a white lunch of Arctic char with cream sauce, rice pilaf and white asparagus, with Baked Alaska for dessert, I be-friended many key media contacts. As everyone departed, they were given large plush polar bears. A few hours later, our staff and client met with Will and his co-leader Paul Schurke for dinner at the famed Oak Room Restaurant. When asked how he wanted his steak cooked, Will answered, "just walk it through the kitchen." At a large round table in the dark wood-paneled restaurant, I was seated next to Will and had the opportunity to ask many questions about his life, expeditions, dogs and the Arctic. This information I stored away, drawing on it over the next four months as I cold-called media for front page coverage of a remarkable story.

Later, standing outside the restaurant, Will took me aside and told me that I would be in regular contact with his base camp manager, Jim Gasperini, during their training and 50-day journey. He gave me a phone number and a sideways hug, then disappeared into the maelstrom that is New York City at night. I would not see or talk to him again until May 1, when his team returned triumphant after 56-days of hardship, many pounds lighter and skin blackened with frosbite.

Note to Self: No More High-marking

2009-07-31T08:23:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing video of a snowmobiler practicing the art of high-marking. Only this time, the motorhead triggered an avalanche. It happened April 4, 2009 near Valmont, BC, Canada. If this doesn't make you sick, nothing will, aye?

See what we mean by logging onto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuU-vnh5M9s

Internet Opens Doors for Explorers

2009-07-01T05:18:00.001-07:00

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY, July 1, 2009

For someone crisscrossing oceans in a 70-foot sailboat to stay at sea for 1,000 days without stops or resupplies, Reid Stowe (pictured) is one of the planet's most accessible people — online.

His 1000days.net — for a voyage which started from New Jersey on April 21, 2007 — offers far more than daily entries such as Friday's post noting "the breaking wavetops spoke to me" or his explaining Sunday that "for me, speaking to you is speaking to God." The site also has satellite tracking, video, audio, an online store, a handy way to use Paypal to pay $20-$49 to become an official "seaman" and listings of at least 33 corporate sponsors backing the venture.

Jeff Blumenfeld, who publishes Expedition News and wrote a new book called You Want to Go Where? that explains how explorers can get sponsorships, notes money was drying up for expeditions until the Internet arrived because sponsors didn't see much payoff. "And then sponsors started to get it," he says. "These wouldn't be explorers who'd take off and you wouldn't hear from them for months. Online, you'd get exposure from them constantly."

Lots of expeditions were able to get backing, he says, that "would have had no chance without the Internet." Like the explorer who hit golf balls across Mongolia, a driver who went across Europe in a truck powered by vegetable oil scavenged from restaurants and a mountain biker pedaling from North America's lowest spot — Death Valley — to its highest — Mount McKinley's peak.

Online, Stowe has chronicled plenty of drama — wild storms, exotic sealife and his girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad becoming pregnant and going ashore — even as he mixes in shout-outs to sponsors who make his isolation possible. Says Blumenfeld: "Without the Internet, he'd just be the Kon-Tiki."

Take a Hike

2009-06-27T05:20:00.000-07:00

Maybe he should have been on a hike after all. When Mark Sanford, 49, the conservative Republican South Carolina governor, ditched his security detail this month, turned off his cell phone, and told his staff he was going to hike the legendary Appalachian Trail, he said he wanted to clear his head. Maybe do some writing after a stressful three months.

Blogs and comics had a field day even before he admitted to the real reason for his absence. Rather than commune with nature, he flew south for an extramarital affair with a “friend” in Argentina. But cry not. Outdoor industry executives – the people who make packs, boots, and trekking poles – rejoiced. The big winner in the Sanford affair is the trail itself, which received enormous publicity nationwide, including route maps published in major media and stories mentioning the trail on the evening news. In fact, at one point this week, there were 1.1 million Google hits for “Appalachian Trail Sanford.”

“Just the mere suggestion that highly stressed politicians can seek solace by hiking the Appalachian Trail plants a positive image in the minds of outdoor enthusiasts everywhere,” said Greg Wozer, vice president of LEKI USA, makers of trekking poles. “While we haven’t noticed a run on our trail equipment, this kind of exposure in newspapers, magazines and on radio and television reaching by millions certainly doesn’t hurt.”

Wozer continues, “I am sorry for the pain caused to his family and the good folks of South Carolina, but am certainly glad he didn’t decide to go lie on a beach somewhere.”

Iceland's Westman Islanders Dig It

2009-06-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

From time to time we like to check in with the hardy Westman Islanders off the southern coast of Iceland – hardy because the only way to reach the island is to fly in small planes that are often cancelled due to weather, or journey on a three-hour ferry with large stacks of innocent looking Chinese take-out boxes in their passenger lounges – only they’re not for Chinese food. Spend some time on board during a rough day and you’ll know what we mean. As the saying goes, once afflicted by seasickness you become afraid you’re going to die; then as the feeling gets worse, you worry that you won’t. Hardy is right.

Within sight of the sheer, towering walls that millions of puffins call home, volunteers and researchers are continuing to uncover the remains of some of the 417 properties destroyed when Heimaey (current pop. 4,100) experienced a volcanic eruption in 1973 that covered one-third of the town in up to 20 meters of lava and ash. In fact, as you drive around, the streetlights are marked 12 to 15 feet high to show the depth of the ash over three decades ago.

This summer, Kristin Johannsdottir (pictured) is leading a modern-day archaeological dig to uncover a section of town – now protected by black netting – where the homes were merely boiled in steam from hot ash; other homes, totally engulfed in molten lava, are beyond rescue. Johannsdottir’s team is targeting about 10 homes which, although their top floors are crushed, are thought to have well-preserved basements. Clothes probably still hang in closets, pictures still on the walls.

While backhoes do the heavy work, volunteers are needed to shovel close to the buildings as homeowners, long-ago compensated by the government for their property, hope to seek return of their family heirlooms and keepsakes. Like the Pompeii of old, it promises to be a trip back in time, or at least back to the Seventies. (For more information: www.pompeinordursins.is).

Got an Adventure Book to Launch? You Want to Go to the Explorers Club

2009-05-29T14:45:00.001-07:00

If you had an adventure book to promote, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better place for a launch party than the prestigious Explorers Club in New York. That’s where we chose to introduce to media “You Want to Go Where,” scheduled for publication on June 17. The event was hosted by the Iceland Tourist Board and IcelandNaturally.com in honor of one chapter that retells the story of an Icelandic sea captain who hand-built a replica Viking ship and sailed it to the New World in 2000. That’s Einar Gustavsson of the Iceland Tourist Board in the middle. Far left is famed adventure photographer Gordon Wiltsie whose image of Vern Tejas on the summit of Mt. Vaughan in Antarctica was selected for the cover of the book. Author Jeff Blumenfeld is far right.

You Want to Go Where? Without a Net?

2009-05-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

This month we offer another exclusive sneak preview of one of our favorite and never-before-told adventure projects, an anecdote that will appear in You Want to Go Where: How to Get Someone to Pay for the Trip of Your Dreams by EN editor Jeff Blumenfeld (Skyhorse Publishing, publication date: June 17).

It’s one thing to capture an image in the field, and quite another to transmit it back home almost instantaneously to a waiting audience of armchair explorers. Today anyone can link their digital camera to a satellite telephone from the most backwater regions of the planet, then onto the Internet. But it wasn’t always that easy. I pushed technology to the edge in October 1995 when I hired a Brooklyn-based news photographer named Mark D. Phillips to photograph a tightrope walk—to this day history’s longest and highest—across China’s Qutang Gorge, the most spectacular of the fabled Three Gorges.

But the word “tightrope” doesn’t do it justice. Listen to former circus performer Jay Cochrane, a thin, intense, milk-drinking athlete in his sixties with impossibly orange-blonde hair, and he’ll tell you it was a high-wire “skywalk.” Listen to my father, a retired but still savvy menswear retail consultant from seventh avenue, and he’ll say, “schmuck! You have a tightrope walker for a client? Better get your money up front!”

Jay, nicknamed the “Prince of the Air,” became a client when he was looking to promote his plans to walk 2,098 feet, some 1,340-feet above the Yangtze river. The Chinese hired the wirewalker to bring international attention to the Three Gorges dam, the largest of its kind ever constructed, and deflect some of the criticism for the many cities and towns that would be inundated. We brought in Mark Phillips because we needed an image of the feat, and we needed it fast, sent by telephone modem to the closest wire service. Easier said than done.

Base camp was Fengjie, a historic city in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality about to be submerged by the dam. First we needed a signature photo. One image that would communicate death-defying heights, an exotic location, and just one man, one wire, and a forty-five-foot balance pole. Mark stationed himself on the far end, waiting for Jay to complete his fifty-three-minute crossing in front of an estimated 200,000 Chinese spectators, and another 200 million watching on television across the country.

Photography is all about access, being in the right place at the right time, so Mark spent two weeks scouting the best position for himself and his camera equipment. Scrambling down to a narrow ledge, just below Jay, below the supports for the unforgiving 1-1⁄4-inch braided steel wire rope spanning the gorge, it was now or never. He fired off dozens of frames of film with his Nikon f3. When Jay simultaneously lifted one hand and one foot, we had our money shot.

Mark raced back to his room in a seedy hotel, developed the film in water that housekeepers boiled for him, and dried the color negatives with a hair dryer. He placed the color negatives into a scanner, then tried to secure a clear open telephone line to Agence France-Presse in Hong Kong. The transmission over the hotel’s single long distance circuit continued to crash. Finally, after sitting on his hotel-room floor attempting to connect for four hours, he managed to complete one seventeen-minute transmission. AFP distributed the image worldwide, and Jay made it into the record books.

Mark believes his digital transmission was one of, if not the first from an independent photojournalist sent from this rural region of the country.

“It was at the cusp of digital photography,” he remembers. Mark would later become embroiled in controversy when a photo he took of the 9/11 disaster, an image shot from the rooftop of his Brooklyn home, seemed to show the face of Satan in the smoke enveloping the World Trade Center. The photo was sent worldwide over the newswires, and a media frenzy ensued when it began appearing on front pages nationwide. Mark was accused of doctoring the image for private gain, but was eventually vindicated when Olympus technicians verified the authenticity of the digital image. It was a case of pareidolia, the same phenomenon that makes people believe they can see the face of Mother Teresa in a cinnamon bun.