Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 7/14/11

Northwest:

--Two climbers were injured at the base of the Monkey Face in Smith Rock when another climber unintentionally moved their rope, knocking them off their stance. It appears that an individual was swinging, when he grabbed a rappel rope, which in turn knocked the pair off their perch..  To read more, click here and here.

--Olympic National Park in Washington state is urging hikers not to urinate along backcountry trails to avoid attracting mountain goats who lick urine deposits for salt. The advice is part of a plan to avoid aggressive goats like the one that gored a Port Angeles, Washington, man to death in October. To read more, click here.

--There was no reason for Gwen Hall and Jim Krieger to believe their dog, Sasha, would be alive after they saw her leap off a cliff at the summit of 5,944-foot-high Mount Ellinor, above Lake Cushman in the southeastern Olympic Mountains. But she was. Rescuers successfuly retrieved thee 5-year-old Bernese Mountain dog. To read more, click here.

Sierra:

--Narcotics officers destroyed a large marijuana garden Friday in the first major outdoor operation of the year.  A total of 13 officers from Nevada County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Forest Service found a large marijuana garden composed of three, terraced seed beds on Tahoe National Forest property between Graniteville and the Town of Washington in eastern Nevada County Friday, said Sheriff Keith Royal. To read more, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--This month's Climbing magazine includes a photo of AAI Guide Dawn Glanc working her way up a steep and intimidating off-width crack in Indian Creek.  The photo can be found on page 44 of Issue #297.

 Development plan for Blue Diamond Hill outside Red rock Canyon

From the Las Vegas Review Journal

--Picture 7,000 homes in multiple villages complete with a town square, schools, a college campus, light-industrial shops, stores, restaurants, offices, spas and parks atop a mesa.  That's what Jim Rhodes envisions in a conceptual plan he submitted to Clark County for developing 2,500 acres of hilltop land overlooking the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. To read more, click here.

Alaska:

-- Swedish extreme skier Andreas Fransson recently completed the first completeski descent of the huge South Face of Denali in Alaska. To read more, click here.

--Alaska Mountain Rescue Group climbers rappelled down a cliff to rescue a hiker who was stuck on a ledge just south of McHugh Creek Saturday night. The hiker, Aubrey Jackson, 45, of Anchorage, is inexperienced and got to a place that was beyond his capabilities. To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

Bean Bowers

--Well-known climber and guide Bean Bowers passed away this week from cancer. He was 38 years-old.  To read more, click here and here.

--In light of the final space shuttle launch last week, CNN profiled astronaut/climber/doctor, Scott Parazynski.  Dr. Parazynski climbed Denali with the American Alpine Institute in 2006.  To read the article, click here.

--Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar had barely made his way back to Washington, D.C. from his announcement at Grand Canyon, where he extended an emergency mining ban on one million acres of public lands in Grand Canyon’s watershed and established that ban as the Interior Department's preferred alternative, when some Arizona congressmen sought to stop it. To read more, click here.

--So some companies have corporate picnics, but not our friends over at FiveTen. As professionals making adventure footwear, they had another idea for an outing. It appears that they have run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.  To read more, click here.

--Rainer Hertrich has skied every day for over 2,500 days straight.  To read more, click here.

--The Greg Mortenson epic continues.  Former school teacher Deborah Netter of Illinois dropped her lawsuit against Mortenson. She sued him for the cost of Three Cups of Tea, stating that the grounds for the lawsuit were based on the fact that portions of the book were fabricated. To read more, click here.