Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 12/1/11

International Mountain Day!

On Saturday, we will be celebrating International Mountain Day with some skills seminars and a benefit for the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center. At this point we have over $2000 (now over $3400!!!) in donated items that we intend to raffle and auction off. To find out more about these items, click here. To learn more about our event, which will include FREE rock rescue seminars, a FREE avalanche awareness seminar, a movie, live music and a pizza party, click here.

Northwest:

--A man died after hitting a tree on opening day in Nelson, British Columbia on Saturday in Canada. Will Schooler, 20, died on Monday, November 28, after slipping into a coma following the incident at the resort on Saturday. To read more, click here.

--About 120 skiers and snowboarders were stuck on Mount Baker Ski Area's Chair 8 on opening day last week, when one chair on the 150-chair lift broke and fell a short distance. People were just getting into the chair, which fell less than 1 1/2 feet Friday, November 18, according to Duncan Howat, president and general manager of the ski area. No one was hurt in the incident that began on Chair 8 about 10:45 a.m., he said. To read more, click here.

--Some people are starting to notice how dangerous HR 1505 will be to National Parks and Wild Places. The bill will essentially allow the Boarder Patrol to ignore environmental laws so that they might build roads, offices, base camps, etc. in places like the North Cascades National Park in Federally mandated wilderness. To read more, click here.

Sierra:

--It sounds like a helicopter crash in the Sierra was actually a false alarm.

Desert Southwest:

--It appears that a female was injured in a groundfall in Red Rock when her deaf belayer made some kind of error while she was climbing. The woman suffered fractured vertebrae and an injured ankle. To read more, click here.

--The high desert, with its boulder-strewn landscapes and the haphazard limbs of the Joshua tree, stars in the forthcoming “Seven Psychopaths,” the second feature film to be shot in the desert in recent months.The movie, described as a twisted comedy, stars Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken. To read more, click here.

Alaska:

--The Minnesota climber who made an unsuccessful bid last winter to become the first solo climber to reach the 20,320-foot summit of Denali in January is going to give it another try. Lonnie Dupre of Grand Marais will be dropped off at 7,200 feet on the Kahiltna Glacier on December 21 — the shortest day of the year — to begin a winter climb up North America’s highest peak. To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--It looks like the Siberian Bigfoot was another hoax. Read about it here.