Climbers Get $12K in Grants for First Ascent Attempts in China, Pakistan

The American Alpine Club awards $12,000 of grants supporting first ascent attempts in Pakistan and China

The American Alpine Club (AAC) just announced this year’s Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award recipients. Through the generous contribution of Lyman Spitzer, Jr.—longtime Club member and lover of the mountains—the AAC initiated the Lyman Spitzer Climbing Award Program. The program promotes state-of-the-art, cutting-edge climbs through financial support of small, lightweight climbing teams attempting bold first ascents or difficult repeats of the most challenging routes in the world's great mountain ranges.

Paul Gagner, the chair of the Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award committee, noted, "I've been chairing the Spitzer Award committee for several years now, and the award winners we are announcing today, and their objectives, are among the best we've seen. These trips represent the dreams and aspirations of some of the very best climbers, and the American Alpine Club, and the Spitzer Award committee are very excited to help these dreams become reality."

This year’s grant-recipient teams focus their considerable energies on Asia:

Stan Price + Rusty Willis the storied, oft-tried North Ridge of Latok 1.

Hayden Kennedy + Kyle Dempster for K7 and the Ogre II.

Graham Zimmerman, Scott Bennett, and Blake Herrington for Tahu Rutum, a stunning 6,651m tower in the Karakoram.

David Gottlieb + Chad Kellogg for China’s unclimbed Karijiang (7,221m), the 3rd highest unclimbed peak in the world.

In addition to the Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award, the AAC offers grants for everyday climbers attempting big-walls, new or notable free climbs, and alpine objectives. Of significant prominence is the Mountain Fellowship Award, which offers funding to climbers under the age of 25 to aid them in making the transition to the Greater Ranges. The annual application deadline for the Lyman Spitzer Grant is December 1st. A committee of three active climbers reviews the applications, selects the recipients, and decides on award amounts. For more details and specific application information for this and other AAC grants visit americanalpineclub.org/grants.

About The American Alpine Club The American Alpine Club provides knowledge and inspiration, conservation and advocacy, and logistical support for the climbing community. The AAC advocates for American climbers domestically and around the world; provides grants and volunteer opportunities to protect and conserve the places we climb; hosts local and national climbing festivals and events; publishes two of the world’s most sought-after climbing annuals, The American Alpine Journal and Accidents in North American Mountaineering; cares for the world’s leading climbing library and country’s leading mountaineering museum; manages the Grand Teton Climbers’ Ranch as part of a larger lodging network for climbers; and annually gives $80,000+ toward climbing, conservation, and research grants to adventurers who travel the world.

Best Adventure Destinations for 2012

Our list is out: Each of these ten best adventure destinations for 2012 has new access, be it new parks, trails, hotels, crazy weather patterns, or cosmic events. Combined, it's enough to make a well-traveled world feel full of new frontiers again.

And the best adventure destinations are...

Skiing + Snowboarding Mammoth Mountain, California
Rafting the Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers, Idaho
Mountain Biking Bosnia and Herzegovina
Snorkeling the Ningaloo Coast, Australia
Surfing Todos Santos, Baja, Mexico
Exploring Maya Culture, Belize
Climbing Mustagata, China
Hiking Newfoundland, Canada
Canoeing the Susquehanna River Water Trail, Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania
Kayak Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

Get Trip Details >>

Photograph courtesy Jay Graham, Rancho Pescadero


 

Video: Wingsuit Daredevil Jeb Corliss Will Fly Through a Mountain Cave in China

By Samantha Cook; Photograph courtesy Jeb Corliss

Professional wingsuit flyer Jeb Corliss hit the Web a couple weeks ago with a video in which he throws himself off a 7,000-foot cliff and tries to grab a pair of balloons held by a member of his crew on the ground, while flying at a speed of 122 miles per hour. Now he will attempt something even more outrageous. See the video below of his recent trial flight.



On Saturday (which works out to be 1 am EST on Friday) Jeb will jump from a helicopter hovering at around 6,000 feet and fly through a cave located on top of Tianmen Mountain in the Hunan Province, China (photo above). He will continue his flight through a narrow gorge over staircases covered with spectators for about a mile until he can finally open his parachute.

Jeb will be using a new wing suit that gives him more control than ever. However, the jump is still extremely risky. “This is by far the most challenging project of my life to date and the most committing,” he said.  The most dangerous part of the flight will be the gorge. “I will be in a no-pull zone with no outs of any kind for almost 40 seconds. I will literally have to fly to live.”

The pressure is on. It’s expected that over 300 million people will watch the event live and China Central Television will air it during prime time to a possible 1.2 billion Chinese viewers. Jeb has been training for five months to prepare himself and hopefully he will be able to execute his mission safely.

 Stay tuned for updates or watch live here at tonight, Friday, 9/23, at 1 am EST.

Born to Explore: Richard Wiese on Cultural Exploration and His Hardest Expedition Yet--Fatherhood

Photograph courtesy Born to Explore/ABC

Some people seem to have exploration hard coded into their DNA. This is true for Richard Wiese, whose globetrotting parents took him to some of the world's most far flung places starting at an early age—including climbing Kilimanjaro at age 11. We spoke to Wiese, former president of the Explorers Club and a lifelong adventurer and field scientist, about his new TV show, Born to Explore (Saturdays on ABC, check local listings). Once admittedly fueled by testosterone, Wiese is now a family man, and it shows. Here he explains his shift away from adrenaline to a slower, more deliberate approach to experiencing the Earth's amazing places, cultures, and creatures. Tune in this week to see Australia's rugged Northern Territory (see a preview below).

Adventure: By the time we publish this interview you’ll be Iceland. What’s going on there?
Richard Wiese: We're shooting episodes of Born to Explore about volcanoes and looking into Viking ancestry. Iceland is very interesting because the Mid-Atlantic Ridge goes right through Iceland, so y ou have the North American plates and the European plates colliding or spreading apart from there. So everything in Iceland is predicated on volcanoes. In fact, the term "geyser" comes from Icelandic.

A: You’re kind of a volcano hunter, aren’t you?
RW: I actually studied geology at Brown; I've done quite a few projects with volcanoes—and quite a few active ones: Cotopaxi in Mexico when it was erupting; Etna in Sicily, Italy; Soufriere Hills in Montserrat; Kilauea in Hawaii. Volcanoes seem to chase me around ... or the other way around.



A: Which volcano would you recommend for a first-time lava trek?
RW: Kilauea in Hawaii is probably the most active and the safest one to go up to. But Etna is interesting, too, because you are in Sicily. There are more complex volcanoes out there, but they are beyond the Volcano 101 trip.

First Ski Descent in China's Minya Konka: Against the Clouds

A wild range in western China is an unpredictable epic

Text by Cliff Ransom; Photograph by Jimmy Chin

It was early in the day when the storm moved in. Kasha Rigby, Ingrid Backstrom, Guila Monega, and Jimmy Chin had been creeping up the West Ridge of Reddomaine, an obscure 20,000-foot peak in western China, since dawn. They had just belayed up a steep section of rock when the clouds thickened and the snow started blowing hard. Bad visibility became terrible. “We huddled around,” Backstrom said, “and said to ourselves, ‘you know, conventional wisdom would say we should go down now.’” 

Beluga Whale Saves Drowning Diver

Text by Laura Buckley

Tack on another reason why we love whales. Last week, a beluga named Mila saved a drowning diver in Harbin, northeast China, the Telegraph reports.

Yang Yun, 26, was competing in a free diving contest to become a whale trainer at the Polar Land Aquarium when her legs suddenly felt paralyzed. In the test, divers had to sink to the bottom of the 20-foot, beluga-filled, arctic pool and stay underwater for as long as possible without breathing equipment. To her horror, Yun's legs cramped in the icy water, making her unable to swim to surface. "I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me – I was dead," Yun said. 

Enter Mila. The beluga spotted Yun and guided her to safety by placing Yun's leg in her mouth (see the video, top, and sorry for the cheese factor). "I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface," Yun said. An organizer of the event credited Mila with saving Yun's life: "She's a sensitive animal who works closely with humans and I think this girl owes her life." Belugas, also called white whales, are social animals and very vocal communicators.

News: World's Rarest Leopard Found in Russia

Good news from the Wildlife Conservation Society:

The world’s rarest big cat is alive and well. At least one of them, that is, according to researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) who captured and released a female Far Eastern leopard in Russia last week.
The capture was made in Primorsky Krai along the Russian-Chinese border by a team of scientists from WCS and the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Biology and Soils (IBS).

The team is evaluating the health and potential effects of inbreeding for this tiny population, which experts believe contains no more than 10-15 females. Other collaborators include: Wildlife Vets International, National Cancer Institute, and the Zoological Society of London. The Far Eastern leopard is perhaps the world’s most endangered big cat, with an estimated 25-40 individuals inhabiting a narrow strip of land in the far southeastern corner of the Russian Federation.

The leopardess, nicknamed “Alyona” by the researchers who captured her, was in good physical condition, weighing a healthy 85 pounds (39 kilograms). A preliminary health analysis revealed that she is he is believed to be between 8-10 years old. The animal has since been released unharmed.

One of the options scientists are considering is trans-locating leopards from other areas to increase genetic diversity—similar to what happened with Florida panthers when animals from Texas were brought in to supplement the remaining population. Today, Florida panthers have risen from less than ten individuals to a population of approximately 100.

Over the last 100 years, Far Eastern leopard numbers have been reduced by poaching combined with habitat loss. However, both camera-trapping and snow-tracking surveys indicate that the population has been stable for the last 30 years, but with a high rate of turnover of individuals. If inbreeding or disease can be kept in check, WCS and its partners believe there is great potential for increasing survival rates and habitat recovery in both Russia and Northeast China.

Photograph by Andrew Harrington

The Adventure Life with Steve Casimiro Gear: Twice is Nice for Carriers of Rice

Text and photos by West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro

Skip the attempts at creative writing, let’s get right to the point: This super-rad Keen messenger bag is made of recycled rice sacks, which were discarded, discovered in a corner of Keen’s shoe factory in Panyu, China, and repurposed as this one of a kind carryall. Giant recycled rice sacks, how cool is that?

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Kayakers Find Big Water on China’s Salween River

Filed April 28 by Kyle Dickman
Photographs by Adam Mills Elliott

It's been a phenomenal week of kayaking for the Epicocity crew on southwest China's Salween River. Himalayan snowmelt left the Salween swollen with rapids that were the biggest and most exciting we've paddled over the past two months.

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The Adventure Life with Steve Casimiro Banished Everest Climber, In His Own Words

Virginia climber Brant Holland made headlines this week for becoming the first person kicked off Mt. Everest and out of Nepal for carrying a “Free Tibet” banner up the mountain. Chinese authorities, worried that the Olympic torch will be held up on its way to the top of Everest by protests over China’s role in Tibet, have closed access to the summit until May 10. Although Holland was climbing the south side, Nepal has been cooperating with China and has deployed army troops at Everest Base Camp.

On Monday, Holland was deported. On Thursday, he spoke to National Geographic ADVENTURE West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro.

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