Aron Ralston's Survival Story Heading to the Big Screen

Danny Boyle, the Oscar winning director of Slumdog Millionaire just announced his next project: a mountaineer epic about the Colorado-based climber Aron Ralston, according to Variety. Ralston, of course, is best known for cutting off his right hand after an 800-pound boulder fell on it while hiking Utah's Bluejohn Canyon in 2003. The movie, called 127 hours, will chronicle Ralston's struggle to stay alive. Variety says the script is likely to be penned by Slumdog screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy. —Laura Buckley

Mountaineering Takes Manhattan: Explorers Club Hosts Elite Climbers For "Mountain Stories"

On Saturday, October 17th, the Explorers Club in New York City will celebrate those individuals who have braved our planets highest peaks with "Mountain Stories,” a daylong special event featuring presentations by some of the most prominent individuals in mountaineering.

The day starts at 9:00 a.m. with a continental breakfast and coffee followed by a series of presentations from Robert Anderson, Jennifer Lowe-Anker, Ken Kamler, MD, Graham Bowley, Freddie Wilkinson and Janet Bergman, and Kevin Mahoney. A full lunch is served at noon and the day closes with a book signing and cocktail party at five o’clock, which provides an opportunity for attendees to meet with the speakers.

The event is open to the public and held at the Explorers Club's historic headquarters in New York City which is located at 46 East 70th Street. This “not for profit” event is $30 for adults and $25 for students.

Adventure Filmmaking: Climber-Artist Renan Ozturk (Part I)

It used to be, if you wanted to see the most extreme places on Earth, you'd have to wait for folks like Jacques Cousteau to head out with film crews, big cameras, reels of tape, and limited power. Then they'd hit the editing room and emerge, months later, with a final product. Then, you'd have to wait for it to air on TV. Those days, like the Calypso, are a thing of the past.

Now, with compact hi-def cameras, powerful laptops, satellite modems, and alternative power sources, expeditions of any size can cut together films from the field, in near real time. This flexibility hinges on access to affordable, professional editing software, such as Apple's new Final Cut Studio, an upgrade to the preferred Final Cut Pro that's just $1,000. This fall we joined the Eddie Bauer First Ascent Everest team, led by mountaineers Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker, send in daily video dispatches on a climb of the world's tallest mountain. The remotest corners of the planet are opening up for the rest of us to see, sans down jacket.

We decided to survey our own National Geographic explorers to see how they are using improved technology to bring the world their stories like never before. First up, a climber-artist Renan Ozturk. At just 29, this North Face athlete-artist has made his unique films that combine video with illustrations from the Czech Republic's sandstone towers, the Himalaya's Tapovan Base Camp (14,000 feet), and Borneo's Mount Kinabalu (13,000 feet), as well as Argentine Patagonia and Yosemite National Park. Here, he tells us how he does it.—Mary Anne Potts

K2 - Altitude Vs. Attitude in Ed Viestur's New Book

In recent years, mountaineering’s grand prize has begun to shift from the world’s highest summit to its riskiest: K2. Even after a serac collapse took the lives of 11 experienced climbers there in 2008, this year saw the vaunted peak’s first ever commercial expedition. Which makes K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain a particularly timely read. Co-writing with adventure contributor David Roberts, renowned alpinist Ed Viesturs relays a history of the mountain through tales of those who’ve climbed it, including his own.

Where Next: Greek Isles Rock Climbing, Cycling, More

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reports on the thriving rock climbing scene on Kalymnos in the Eastern Aegea near Turkey. The Greek island, with its towering beachside cliffs, geological oddities, and low-key atmosphere has become “a top destination for rock climbers looking to combine outdoor adventure with an exotic beach vacation.” Particularly well-suited to rock climbers, Kalymnos has an authenticity some more developed resort towns have lost. 

Sign us up. We have long held the Greek Isles high on our must-see list. But if we're going, we want to go big. So we called up local expert Colleen McGuire, Marketing Director at Aegea Adventures and Cycle Greece, to get her recommendations on additional attractions in the area. Here’s what we discovered.

Urban Adventure: A Climbing Gym Grows in Brooklyn

Several weeks ago I went to a party in an old, abandoned-looking parking garage in Brooklyn. It wasn’t so different from any other hip Brooklyn party hosted in an industrial building gone to seed—there was cheap beer, graffiti on the walls, detritus and construction equipment. Eventually the cops showed up. "Is that a Buddha?" one of the boys in blue said, and pointed to a figure high up on the wall. It was. Bright pink, too.

Climbing's Latest Losses: An Aborted Rescue, A Fatal Fall, and the Passing of a Legend

It was a somber weekend for climbers the world over.

First, the search for Oscar Perez on Latok II was called off due to the amount of time elapsed since last contact with the injured Spaniard. American and Spanish mountain climbers have been working in conjunction with the Pakistani air force for ten days, in an effort to locate Perez and evacuate him from where he was last seen at roughly 6,200 meters above sea level. However, the bad weather that has thwarted so many climbs in the Karakorum this season extinguished their chances of a successful rescue (read more from mounteverest.net).

Desperate Rescue Underway on Latok II

A rescue attempt is underway in the frozen heart of the Karakoram to save the injured Spanish Climber Oscar Perez. The trouble started seven days ago when Perez and climbing partner Alvaro Novellón were involved in an unspecified accident while attempting a new route on Latok II (7,125 meters). Perez suffered a broken arm and leg in the incident, and it was decided that Novellón should descend and look for help. Upon his return to base camp, the call went out around the world, via satellite phone and Internet, to any and all climbers who could get to the mostly empty Karakoram and assist in the rescue. Despite an outpouring of responses, including a team of Spanish alpinists who are currently en-route to the Karakorum and a plea to the Pakistani government for the use of a helicopter, it appears that these efforts will take too long to be of much assistance.

Which leaves the fate of Perez in the hands of the only man left in Pakistan with enough strength, ability, acclimatization, experience, and courage to carry out a rescue of this difficulty: Fabrizio Zangrilli.

Who Will Become the First Woman to Climb All 14 8,000-Meter Peaks?

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

Five months ago, at the start of the high altitude climbing season, the Internet was abuzz with speculation regarding who would become the first woman to summit all 14 of the world’s 8000 meter peaks. Would it be the Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, the Spaniard Edurne Pasabán, or the Italian Nives Meroi? Each woman entered the season with 11 peaks to her name and it seemed like a sure bet that one would walk away with the title no later than early 2010. The problem was, everyone was so busy picking their ponies, they completely overlooked the dark horse.

Continue reading this story >>

Climbing Icon John Bachar, 52, Dies in Fall Near Mammoth Lakes

Text by Alyson Sheppard

Free climbing legend John Bachar, 52, died on July 5 after a fall near his home in Mammoth Lakes, California. The 52-year-old was attempting a solo, unroped ascent of Dike Wall.

Rock and Ice magazine, which routinely chronicled Bachar's career, has the full account here. Or read his obituary in the Los Angeles Times'here.

Bachar was considered a rock-climbing icon for his unprecedented, dangerous climbs back in a time when professional climbing was not yet even nationally recognized. He pioneered physical and mental training for his sport, which ushered in a new era of athletes focused on respecting safety and nature.

Originally from Los Angeles, Bachar regularly climbed the Joshua Tree National Monument, and it was there he met friend John Lang in the 1970s. He gained notoriety for his free-solo climbs of Yosemite routes such as New Dimensions (5.11a) and his 1981 first ascent of Bachar-Yerian (5.11c) with Dave Yerian. That same year, he famously offered $10,000 to anyone who could follow his ropeless exploits in Yosemite for a solid day. No one claimed the bounty.

According to Rock and Ice, Bachar climbed 1.5 million feet of rock without a rope, up to 5.13 in difficulty, over his 30-year career.