Man, I love Chris Davenport's life. Attempts to ski all Colorado's 14ers in one season, doesn't make it, still skis them all in one year, makes giant coffee table book about it, moves on to next adventure, then the next, then plans ski siege of peaks in Antarctica. Films that, makes movie. The movie, Australis: An Antarctic Ski Odyssey, looks phenomenal. Given the setting and what these mutants are doing, I'm not sure how they could go wrong.
There are tragedies afoot with this whole climate change thing. We'll miss some of the glaciers in the Alps and in Glacier National Park, and it's too bad all those people's homes will be underwater. But as soon as that damn Antarctic ice sheet melts, there is going to be some sick climbing revealed. Antarctica's roughly 8500-foot tall Gamburtsev Mountains are not the brave new world challenge of Olympus Mons, but you can see some potential from these images from National Geographic. If you're interested in helping climbing progress, fire up your SUV, leave the lights on, and ask your energy company what else you can do to increase your carbon footprint, before the Huber brothers are too old to out up some routes.
Ever notice how many people go to OR to "cover" it, and then everybody just ends up partying and networking instead? The one thing I was hoping to hear about was the Champion Supersuit, a gel-filled "extreme weather suit" that is intended to replace bulky down suits for high-altitude mountaineering, and was unveiled last weekend. The Gear Junkie is pimping it, of course, because he's on the team going to Everest with the Expedition Hanesbrands team that will be wearing this stuff: "Champion is touting its Supersuit as having 'the potential to change the entire outdoor apparel industry.'" Or the potential to be a footnote, of course. You can say one thing -- at least these guys are pumping some science and effort into this trip, more than you can say for Eddie Bauer's First Ascent. If it lives up to the hype, I'm hoping they can put together a tiny, tiny 0-degree sleeping bag, and then mail me a free one. We'll see.
Well, everyone's at Winter OR now, and this morning is probably the worst of the hangovers. Someone get us a photo of this Hanes gel-filled 8,000-meter suit if you see it. Jordan Romero's probably there, pimping his quest to be the youngest person to complete the 7 summits, and this week, 17-year-old Johnny Collinson became the youngest ever to do it. Try to remember what you were doing at their age: trying to get past third base, drinking stolen liquor, getting yelled at by your football coach, deciphering emo lyrics. Oh yeah, I remember this song. Like it was yesterday. I was in Antarctica with a bunch of smelly climbers and guides, trying to go climb Vinson. Were there any cute girls there, dude? No, not really. Oh.
Helicopters increase the intensity of everything, as you may have learned by watching Die Hard, or one of those Teton Gravity Research films where they not only have rad ski shots from helicopters, but even shots of other helicopters from their helicopters. We know what heli-skiing is, and maybe you've heard of "heli-hiking," which is a great alternative for out-and-back hikes, if you're lazy. But if you're sitting around asking yourself, "What's sicker than dropping into Alaska steeps after being dropped off at the top of a peak by helicopter?" We say, "Why, dropping into downward dog after being dropped off by helicopter, of course." Heli-Yoga. You can fly into some pristine land near Banff, get a Hatha yoga session in and come out of Savasana to the noise of a helicopter landing to pick you up.
Just a short drive outside Banff National Park near Alberta’s Lake Louise, Icefield Helicopter Tours takes the conventional aerial experience one step further. This helicopter tourism provider has partnered with Martha’s Heli-Hikes, an outdoor adventure outfitter, and together, they are offering a variety of high altitude activities, from hiking to snow shoeing, ice walking to yoga.
Sixty miles from Haiti's devastated earthquake zone, luxury liners dock at private beaches where passengers enjoy jet ski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks.
The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was "sickened".
"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.
There's been a good amount of discussion of Personal Locator Beacons in Colorado as of late, mostly because some shit-for-brains backcountry user keeps turning theirs on near Berthoud Pass. Eight times in a month, that is. The PLB isn't registered, and six times, rescuers have headed out to try to find the person in distress, only to find it's been turned off by the time they get anywhere close. One theory is that it's somebody who thinks they have an avalanche beacon, and they turn it on, get in a few turns, and turn it off again. Remember, there have been calls for legislation requiring every Mount Hood climber to carry one of these. It sucks to say, but the more of PLBs sold, the more chance someone this stupid is going to own one, making it a real pain in the ass for SAR crews.
The Globe and Mail has an interesting story about an iPhone app that it says is making it impossible for ski resorts to exaggerate their snow totals. There was a Dartmouth study a few months back that said resorts do exaggerate their snow totals, and more frequently on the weekends, when resorts close to urban areas pull in a lot of business from city folk who head up more often when there's new snow. It's nice to have the scientific proof, but hey, ski resorts exaggerate the amount of powder, TGIFriday's exaggerates the quality of their food. This is America. Anyway, the article, and how the iPhone is saving affluent white people from the injustices suffered by past affluent white people:
During the final season of the study, 2008-2009, skireport.com added a feature to its popular iPhone app that let skiers opine live from the mountain. The professors found that dispatches such as this one – “Jackson Hole DID NOT get 15” today ... more like 0” – had an instant impact on the industry.
“The weekend effect drops to zero where the iPhone is heavily used,” said economist Eric Zitzewitz at Dartmouth. “Consumers are getting armed with ever-more data. There's a deeper message, it goes beyond just skiing. When it's easier for consumers to share information, all of a sudden we don't see the exaggeration.”
I just had the pleasure of watching Fat Bike, a documentary about snow biking in Alaska. The elements of Anchorage winter bike commuting, the Surly Pugsley, and the Susitna 100 come together to make a good short film -- which won the Boston Bike Film Festival a couple months back. These folks are definitely the fringe of a fringe of cycling. More info at IndieAKFilms.com.
I hope these guys raise a ton of money and do some good, because it looks like they've already spent a ton of money on something that looks like a giant flop, and it isn't even off the ground yet. Summit On The Summit is a giant advertising and PR campaign in which a bunch of celebrities climb Kilimanjaro to raise "awareness" of the world water crisis. And hopefully some money. As of yesterday, they had raised about $37,000, or a little less than one percent of the price of Jessica Biel's condo. I'm pretty sure the "climbers" (Lupe Fiasco, Kenna, Biel, Isabel Lucas, Emile Hirsch, etc.) and their corporate sponsors (Hewlett Packard, Windows 7, PUR, etc.) could have skipped the whole mountain climbing stunt, and just gotten together for a check-writing party and raised about a hundred times that much money. The web site takes 25 seconds to load, the cheesy YouTube "training" videos each have about 7,000 hits, and you're invited to a giant Tweeting shitstorm. (Lupe Fiasco will personally read all your Tweets on the summit of Kilimanjaro!) Follow along.
Man, I love Chris Davenport's life. Attempts to ski all Colorado's 14ers in one season, doesn't make it, still skis them all in one year, makes giant coffee table book about it, moves on to next adventure, then the next, then plans ski siege of peaks in Antarctica. Films that, makes movie. The movie, Australis: An Antarctic Ski Odyssey, looks phenomenal. Given the setting and what these mutants are doing, I'm not sure how they could go wrong.
Helicopters increase the intensity of everything, as you may have learned by watching Die Hard, or one of those Teton Gravity Research films where they not only have rad ski shots from helicopters, but even shots of other helicopters from their helicopters. We know what heli-skiing is, and maybe you've heard of "heli-hiking," which is a great alternative for out-and-back hikes, if you're lazy. But if you're sitting around asking yourself, "What's sicker than dropping into Alaska steeps after being dropped off at the top of a peak by helicopter?" We say, "Why, dropping into downward dog after being dropped off by helicopter, of course." 
There's been a good amount of discussion of Personal Locator Beacons in Colorado as of late, mostly because some shit-for-brains backcountry user keeps turning theirs on near Berthoud Pass. Eight times in a month, that is. The PLB isn't registered, and six times, rescuers have headed out to try to find the person in distress, only to find it's been turned off by the time they get anywhere close. One theory is that it's somebody who thinks they have an avalanche beacon, and they turn it on, get in a few turns, and turn it off again. Remember, there have been calls for legislation requiring every Mount Hood climber to carry one of these. It sucks to say, but the more of PLBs sold, the more chance someone this stupid is going to own one, making it a real pain in the ass for SAR crews.
The Globe and Mail has an interesting story about an iPhone app that it says is 
I hope these guys raise a ton of money and do some good, because it looks like they've already spent a ton of money on something that looks like a giant flop, and it isn't even off the ground yet. Summit On The Summit is a giant advertising and PR campaign in which a bunch of celebrities climb Kilimanjaro to raise "awareness" of the world water crisis. And hopefully some money. As of yesterday, they had raised about $37,000, or a little less than one percent of the price of Jessica Biel's condo. I'm pretty sure the "climbers" (Lupe Fiasco, Kenna, Biel, Isabel Lucas, Emile Hirsch, etc.) and their corporate sponsors (Hewlett Packard, Windows 7, PUR, etc.) could have skipped the whole mountain climbing stunt, and just gotten together for a check-writing party and raised about a hundred times that much money. The web site takes 25 seconds to load, the cheesy YouTube "training" videos each have about 7,000 hits, and you're invited to a giant Tweeting shitstorm. (Lupe Fiasco will personally read all your Tweets on the summit of Kilimanjaro!) Follow along. 
