What's New?
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 Rockclimber
envisions a history of climbing museum in Yosemite
(Eric Bailey, 17 April, 2005, Los Angeles Times)Ken
Yager has amassed 30+ years of personal climbing history on the towering
granite Yosemite walls. He's ascended El Capitan more than 50 times and
established routes up other cliffs and spires. But his biggest
mark may come on terra firma. Yager is pushing for a museum to be
built in Yosemite Valley (partly to house his amazing collection of
artifacts) and to help depict the historical development of modern
rock climbing.
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 Climbers
bribing to get on crowded Kilimanjaro
(Paul Redfern, 28 February, 2005, allafrica.com)
Accusations of overcrowding, protests about poor conditions for
sherpas, and suspicions of corruption amongst Tanzanian officials
are undermining efforts by Western tour companies efforts to
provide "gourmet" extreme expeditions up Mt Kilimanjaro.
 The
higher you go, the farther you see
(Todd Balf, November, 1995, Fast Company, 1, 160)
A writer takes on his toughest trip so far, the Tetons.
Venturing on Jackson Hole Mountain Guides' train-and-climb program for
beginning mountaineers, Balf discovers a curious
group, ranging from novice to experienced, including a few risk-happy business-types. The 3-day course included basic instruction on rock and ice that leads to a bid for Grand Teton's
peak. Summit day might last anywhere from 16 to 24 hours. -
Sherpa breaks record for Everest ascent by two hours
(Channel NewsAsia, 21 May, 2004)
50 years ago it took Hilary and Tenzing over seven weeks from
Everest basecamp to become
the first humans known to have scaled the highest peak on Earth.
Now, two vying Sherpas are doing it in under 12 hours...
Two Sherpas have been vying to be quickest up Everest. Now,
Pemba Dorji Sherpa, 26, has broken the record for the fastest ascent of
Mount Everest by more than two hours, reaching the summit just over eight
hours after leaving base camp. Last year Pemba had broken the record
in a time of 12 hours 46 minutes. Three days later Lakpa, powered only
by fruit juice, sprinted to the top to set the new record.
It took Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, more than seven weeks
from base camp to the summit in 1953. During 50th anniversary
celebrations of that historic moment last year, Hillary pointed out that he
and Tenzing had to forge their own route without the benefit of modern
equipment, or of ropes and ladders already fixed in place. "We had to
do everything ourselves," said Hillary. The record for ascending the
world's tallest peak has been steadily chipped away, thanks to climbers
being able to use ropes and ladders put in place by others.
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Jed Williamson talks on mountaineering across the decades
(Pitt News, 25 February, 2004)
"Now, we didn't have the tools you have
today," Williamson said. "The total of all our gear amounted to one ice tool
today, about $300." As editor of Accidents in North American
Mountaineering since 1974, Williamson warned the crowd that bad preparation,
not the mountain or the weather, causes deaths and accidents. "There's
no such thing as bad weather," Williamson said. "It's weather. It's what you
get."
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The man who fell to earth: Interview with Joe Simpson, author of
mountaineering epic "Touching the Void"
(Jasper Rees, The Age, 8 February, 2004)
Could you remain friends with someone who left you for dead? Joe Simpson's
escape from death as a young mountaineer in the Andes brought him fame as an
author and has now been made into a film. This interview delves into
Simpson's psyche and the ongoing effects of his miraculous escape in the
mountains.
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Recommended sites
- Society for Human Performance in Extreme
Environments
The most useful site on the web on the
topic of human's psychological performance in extreme environments.
The SHPEE has an interdiscipinary focus in human performance
- in the air
- under water
- on mountains and
- in polar regions
-
"Human Performance in Extreme Environments": The SHPEE's journal, see table of past
contents
-
Peter Suedfeld is world-renowned for his
psychological research on human performance in extreme
and unusual
environments -
read
this article about Suedfeld's work.
-
Gary Steel's
psychological research has focused on human behavior in extreme and unusual
environments for over 10 years.
-
Wilderness Medical Society -
explores health risks and safety issues in
extreme situations such as:
- mountains,
- jungles,
- deserts,
- caves,
- marine environments, and
- space.
The WMS focuses on medical topics including:
- expedition and disaster medicine
- dive medicine
- search and rescue
- altitude illness
- cold- and heat-related illness
- wilderness trauma, and
- wild animal attacks
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Jon Krakaeur's "Into the Wild" - A "cult" non-fiction book about Chris McCandless, a young adventurer who died in the Alaskan wilderness.
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and
walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was
Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity,
abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his
wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his
decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die, and
his search to discover the extremes of adventure, is the unforgettable story
of "Into the Wild".
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