Field Expedition: Mongolia - Join Explorer Albert Lin's Groundbreaking Search

When we first introduced Dr. Albert Yu-Min Lin in our Adventurers of the Year feature story last November, we were all blown away by his groundbreaking archaeological quest in northern Mongolia—you even gave him the Readers' Choice Award. Now you can literally be part of his expedition team with our new Field Expedition: Mongolia website.

By conducting a noninvasive archeological survey as never before—with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flyovers, ground-penetrating radar, remote sensors, satellite imagery, and even a 3-D virtual reality chamber—the team has redefined exploration and conservation. And while solving the 600-year-old mystery would, of course, be amazing, Lin's ultimate goal is to help preserve the region's significant cultural heritage (see a photo gallery from their previous expedition).

To do that, Lin's crew is currently on the ground in Mongolia's "Forbidden Zone" to continue their search—with some new tech toys, such as their "oktokopter" UAV (see it nearly crash into Lin in this video). But all the technology in the world can not make up for the skill of the human eye, so they are asking for your help. Think of it as a citizen science expedition team of 1,000 or 10,000 or as many people as we can recruit. The potential for discovery is astounding.

On the Field Expedition: Mongolia website you can examine real-time satellite photos to spot irregularities that the scientists on the ground should investigate. Lin's team will then report back with their findings. This crowd-sourcing technique has been used before—perhaps most notably in the search for Steve Fossett's lost airplane. We are hopeful that you will have a hand in helping preserve Mongolia's most sacred heritage. Follow their blog and sign up for newsletter updates.

Adventure in 60 Seconds: This Week in Exploration

It has been a wild week in adventure: Man has confronted nature with every type of result, but in the end, it was the women who stole the show. —By Tetsuhiko Endo

MOUNTAINS
Spring is always hectic in the Himalaya and 2010 has been no different. This week proved to be noteworthy for both its positives and negatives. As reported earlier, South Korean Oh Eun-Sun became the disputed queen of the the 14ers with her ascent of Annapurna. For more on the controversy, check out this insightful BBC article that breaks down the controversy surrounding her claim.

Annapurna continued to live up to its reputation as one of the more lethal of the 8,000-meter peaks by climbing the life of Spaniar Tolo Calafat. The situation was further complicated by allegations of fixed rope cutting by Korean teams. This is the 7th straight year in which at least one fatality has taken place on Annapurna, and yet another instance in which the climber summited, but was too exhausted to make it down the mountain. (explorersweb.com)

Adventure in 60 Seconds: This Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

MOUNTAINS

Headache, heartache, and triumph in the Himalaya this week with lots of acclimatization, bad weather, and even a couple of summits. Edurne Pasabán is sitting in camp 3 on Kangchenjunga, which she says on her blog is “Bonito, pero duro” (pretty, but hard), as she gets over the headaches and shortness of breath that are par for the course (edurnepasaban.com).

The same can be said for just about everyone doing the acclimatizing rounds on Everest. The First Ascent team members who aren’t super human (the minority in a group that includes Ed Viesturs, Peter Whittaker, and Dave Hahn) are taking advantage of the down time to practice hiking with their supplemental oxygen (watch video dispatches). In between headaches and oxygen masks, they took a few moments to remember expedition member Pete Whittaker’s uncle Jim Whittaker who on this day in 1963 became the first American to summit Everest. On the newly opened north side, a lot of teams are regretting that they used the new road (built for the Beijing Olympics) to get to base camp. According to the Adventure Blog, it has allowed them to arrive so quickly that at least one team has had to descend due to theinability to acclimatize.

Over on Manaslu, bad weather forced Spaniard Carlos Pauner to turn back just 60 meters from the summit, while the Portuguese man o’war Joao Garcia pushed on and topped out a day later, along with Koreans Hong Bo-Seong, Kim Chang-Ho, and Seo Sung-Ho. Summitting later in the week was Czech Radek Jaros (mounteverest.net).

OCEANS

Things were just as difficult at the bottom of the world as they were at the top this week with three boats, Hoppipolla, Dream It Do It, and What Ever It Takes, being knocked out of the Indian Ocean Rowing Race due to wear and tear (theoceans.net). Another boat, Old Mutual Endurance and its single crew member, one gritty brit named Simon Prior, were capsized in high seas, but quickly righted themselves and remain in the race (indianoceanrowingrace09.com).

In the South Pacific, Enric Sala and Mike Faye attended a black-tie affair with sharks (ocean.nationalgeographic.com/blog), which might sound a little dicey, but is really a walk in the park compared to getting stranded on a guano island, as they did earlier this month (ocean.nationalgeographic.com/blog).

POLES

With everyone’s favorite Midwesterners John Huston and Tyler Fish off the Arctic ice, that leaves the long-suffering Caitlin Ice Survey hunkered down in their tent awaiting a food re-supply. They are currently rationing their calories to 1,000 a day, so let’s hope those planes come soon. On the up-side, all this sitting and waiting has made for some good conversation in the tent, according to teammate Ann Daniels (news.bbc.co.uk). The optimistic navigator is currently giving some of her own rations to the guys because they spend much of the day on the ice manually drilling for ice samples to compensate for the death of the radar machine that was supposed to electronically measure the thickness of the ice.

Adventure in 60 Seconds: Last Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

THE POLES
This week Christians celebrated Easter, Jewish people celebrated Passover, and adventurers of all faiths marked the 100th anniversary of Robert Peary and Mathew Henson reaching the North Pole (washingtonpost.com).

One guy who definitely wasn’t celebrating was our favorite Scot Pen Hadow. He and his team were informed this week that, due to the cold temperatures at the outset of their expedition, electronic failure might limit the results of their studies. At the very best, they have lost 13 days worth of data from one of their machines (news.bbc.co.uk).

Meanwhile John Huston and Tyler Fish, unencumbered by expensive scientific equipment, are having a great time after having passed the halfway point of their journey. Sure, they are dodging massive leads (break in the ice shelves) and bouncing over “rubbery” thin ice, but they are making good time and have even boosted their calorie intake from 6,700 a day to 7,500 in anticipation of the final push to the Pole. That means extra truffles, cheese, and milk powder all around! (forwardexpeditions.com).

One man who could use a kind thought and a truffle right now is the indomitable Olly Hicks who, ADVENTURE is sad to report, has abandoned his quest to row around the bottom of the world in his boat, the Flying Carrot. According to his website, weather and technical problems conspired against him and kept his progress well below what he and his team had predicted. He will continue on to New Zealand, “have a beer,” and then go back to the drawing board. As John Locke once said: “It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.”

OCEANS
So as one rowing expedition ends, another gears up for the 11 confirmed teams in the Indian Ocean Rowing Race. The race, which covers 3,100 nautical miles from western Australia to Mauritius, takes 60 to “well over 100 days” depending on the number of people rowing (indianoceanrowingrace09.com).

MOUNTAINS
Finally, the excitement surrounding the kickoff of the Himalaya climbing season was dampened by the death of one of the climbing world’s rising stars, Polish alpinist Piotr Morawski. He was descending Dhaulagiri when he fell into a deep crevasse (mounteverest.net).

Adventure in 60 Seconds: This Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

Norwegian, German, and Swiss climbing teams established enormous new ice climbs around Norway, culminating with what might be the longest waterfall climb in the world (climbing.com), while mother of four Jacinda “JC” Hunter locked down the first female ascent of Breaking the Law (5.14b) in Utah (climbing.com). 

At higher elevations, Austrian Gerfried Goschl is planning to climb a new route on the North West face of Nanga Parbat, as well as establish an undisclosed FA on K2 (mounteverest.net). With 32 confirmed teams taking a shot at the summit of Everest, you can bet that there won't be too many new lines being opened, but it promises to be an exciting season (alanarnette.com).

Christina Franco’s ski solo to the North Pole came to an disappointing end when her stove stopped working and she was forced to abandon attempt (thepoles.com). Luckily, fellow Brit Olly Hicks’s equipment was working just fine, as he endured “Hellish Fierce” seas in the Southern Ocean, now 45 days into his attempt to row around the world (in a boat dubbed "The Flying Carrot") (virginglobalrow.com). He was waiting out the storm with candy bars and Don Quixote, while yet another rowing Brit, Sarah Outen announced her own quixotic plans to become the first woman to row across the Indian Ocean, which is roughly twice the size of the Atlantic (theoceans.net). 

Australian and American researchers studying the Tasman Fracture, which plunges nearly three miles beneath the waves, found carnivorous sea squirts, among other never-seen-before creatures (cnn.com). And speaking of discoveries, a joint team of Egyptian and European archaeologists have uncovered two statues of king Amenhotep III in the desert sands (news.yahoo.com).