Heidi Kloos, One of the First Female Certified Alpine Guides, Dies In Avalanche On Mt. Baldy, Colorado

ExplorersWeb is reporting that Heidi Kloos, the first female to become a certified mountain guide, has been killed in an avalanche on Mt. Baldy.  Heidi had been working as a guide for Mountain Trip since 2005 and was preparing to lead a trek to Everest Base Camp before the accident ocurred.

Heidi had skied to the remote peak with her cattle dog. According to Telluride Daily Planet she was assesing an ice climb when unseasonably warm temperatures probably caused the north-facing slope to rip and slide. Heidi was buried under 10 feet of snow; her dog stayed with her until a rescue patrol arrived on Thursday.

The tragedy of Heidi Kloos’ death comes after her late fiance, Dave Bridges, was killed while climbing with Alex Lowe in 1999 when an avalanche struck and killed him.  Heidi’s brother was killed in a 1996 kayaking accident and she recently lost her father, a ski patroller at Snowmass Mountain, in January.

Let’s keep our thoughts and prayers with Heidi’s family and friends.

Apa Sherpa To Carry Sir Edmund Hillary’s Ashes To The Summit Of Mt. Everest

A few sources are reporting that Apa Sherpa will once again be heading for the summit of Mt. Everest in 2010.  If he is successful, this will be Apa’s 20th summit of Mt. Everest.  The Adventurist reported on each of his previous two summits (18th and 19th) and will be following along closely this season for his 20th.

Apa Sherpa will be climbing to promote the Apa Sherpa Foundation and will also be carrying along a very historical piece of history with him.  That historical piece of history will be none other than part of the remains of the late Sir Edmund Hillary.  Most of Hillary’s ashes were scattered around the ocean of Sir Ed’s native country New Zealand.  The rest were sent to a monastery in Nepal.  Not only was Sir Ed one of two people to first summit the world’s tallest peak, but he also had a hand in many other projects dedicated to helping the people of his second home, Nepal.

This will be a very cool expedition and one that should bring some interest to this season’s climb.  Apa and Sir Hillary were both big supporters of teaching the children of Nepal and trying to help the kids prosper in one of the world’s poorest countries.  Edmund, being one of the first to top out on Everest, and Apa, having the most summits of the legendary peak, is just a very awesome moment in Everest history.  We will see how this season’s climb goes.  Perhaps Sir Edmund Hillary will see that summit once more.  The Adventurist wishes Apa the best of luck on his 20th Mt. Everest summit attempt.

You can read more about this expedition on The Adventure Blog, The Outside blog, or Yahoo News.

Hall of Mountaineering Excellence Inductees

The American Mountaineering Museum will hold it’s first annual induction ceremony for the Hall of Mountaineering Excellence on April 10, 2010.  The Hall of Mountaineering Excellence honors individuals for their commitment and contributions to mountaineering on and off the mountain.  This year’s inaugeral class includes Yvon Chouinard, Bob Craig, Bob Bates, and Charlie Houston, along with special speaker Ed Viesturs.  Yvon Chouinard and Bob Craig will be in attendance, while family members will accepting awards on the late behalf of Bob Bates and Charlie Houston.

This American Mountaineering Museum event will definitely be a night to remember and one to look forward to for years ahead.  Tickets are currently being sold on the American Mountaineering Museum website, or you can find more information by surfing over to Jake Norton’s MountainWorld Blog which offers excellent information on all of this years inductees, as well as the event itself.

Les Stroud Fan Dies Trying “Survivorman” Techniques In Wild

A fan of Discovery Channel’s ‘Survivorman‘ has died while trying out techniques used on the program.  Stephen Code was found dead Thursday northeast of Huntsville, Ontario, Canada.  Code was on a 4 day excursion in the Canadian wilds.  An article on Canadaeast.com states that Code was trying to condition his body for the cold during numerous outings, oftentimes not bringing a jacket.  It is noted that Code is thought to have died of hypothermia, even though he did have layered clothing in his possession.

Sister-in-law Barb Code said he had previously made about several excursions, including one in November, when there was a light dusting of snow on the ground.

However, this was his first in the dead of winter. Temperatures fell to -12 C at night in the area and snowstorms hit much of southern Ontario during the weekend.

“It was sort of a challenge – an adventure in seeing how little he could survive on and being successful at doing that,” Code said.

“(But) he just didn’t have what he needed to survive in cold temperatures.”

The rest of the article goes in to some detail about Les Stroud, Survivorman, and Code’s hobby of survival.

I am not sure how Code’s hobby of survival (reading, watching t.v., and very little REAL experience) automatically ties him in to Les Stroud and Discovery Channel’s Survivorman.  Sure, Code may have been a fan.  Sure, he may have tried a few of the techniques, but there a million fans of that program and wilderness survival.  I think it is irresponsible of the press to try to pin this show down  as a possible reason for why Code died.  Code died because of two things:  the weather and his own stupidity.  Stroud is a professional survivalist.  There are warnings on his program, as well as others like it, to not try what these guys do.  If Code wanted to win this test, perhaps he should have checked the weather.   Am I being to hard on this guy?  He definitely did not have to die the way he did, but maybe that is exactly what he wanted.  Comment below.

Everest 2010: Alan Arnette Interviews Lei Wang For Outside Online

Lei Wang will attempt to become the first Chinese female to top out on all 7 Summits and reach the two Poles.  This April, Wang will head off to Mt. Everest to try to bring her dream to completion.  She has reached the two Poles and topped out on 6 of the 7 continents highest peaks.

Alan Arnette recently had the opportunity to interview Lei Wang for Outside Magazine’s online venture: Outside Online.  The interview is pretty extensive and talks about Wang’s past and her future in the world of climbing.

I found a few things interesting with this interview.  The first is that Lei Wang’s parents and family have no clue that she is getting ready to risk her life on Everest.  Three months away and still they have no clue!  Some of her training aspects for Everest are interesting.  Not only is Wang training like a polar explorer, but her mental focus and clarity are also being worked out.  Everest is as much mental (if not more so) as it is physical.

Alan Arnette has done an excellent job with this interview for Outside Online.  Alan, having been to Everest three times (with a possible fourth) in the future, really knows how to ring in and relate.  His insight and attention to detail clearly mark him as an excellent addition to the Outside Online team.  If you are not familiar with Alan Arnette, be sure to stop by his fantastic website for some of the most extensive Everest coverage online.

Olympic Rock Climbing In 2020?

Rock climbing could be heading to the Olympics in 2020 as a competitive sport.  The Vancouver Globe and Mail is reporting that the International Federation of Sports Climbing recently jumped the first of many hurdles by becoming recognized by the International Olympic Committee.  The IOC will be taking a close look at the sport of Rock Climbing, with a final decision to be made by 2013.

Rock Climbing as an Olympic sport is not that far fetched.  It is recognized in nearly every country as a viable and popular competitive sport.  Europe probably boasts the biggest following from the public, with regular competitions generally having an audience of 10,000 or more.  The United States has seen a large jump in recent years of the popularity of this sport.  Some of the larger competitions are now regionally and nationally recognized.

There are not many details of what the Olympic sport of Rock Climbing might look like.  A guess would be that it would be staged on home-made climbing walls rather than “On Location”.  Either way, this would give many of us one more reason to tune in to the Olympics.  There are some very strong competitive climbers in the world.  It would be nice to see some of them get recognized in places other than here.

Should Rock Climbing become an Olympic Sport?  Leave your comments below.

The Adventurist Returns To The World Of Adventure

It has been nearly a year since The Adventurist last made an update.  A year.  More than enough time to regroup, rethink,  and rediscover what it is about these adventures and adventurers that just keeps me hanging on to the edge of my seat and coming back for more.

Without adding to much drama to the mix, I will offer a simple explanation of why I took a year away.  I had to rediscover myself.  I went through a divorce, lost touch with my surroundings, and decided to make a new start.  If we can’t complete it the first time, we get back up and try it again.  Simple enough.  Sometimes it takes a year to get back up.

Rather than cry over spilled milk, it is time for me to get back to work and back to doing what I love.  I have kept my return to The Adventurist as secret as possible, so if this new post finds your email, Surprise!

I will be working towards getting myself back up to a regular schedule, but perhaps one that is a bit lighter.  It is quite hard to make 5 or 6 posts a day-every day.  I am not sure what the schedule will look like, but I will definitely try to do what I can.  To those of you that have stayed subscribers to my feeds, THANKS!  Those that continue to come back and check in on me, write me emails, and keep me up to date-THANKS!  To the more than 1 MILLION people that have visited this site over the past three years-YOU ARE THE REASON WHY I AM BACK!

Cheers-

Jason A. Hendricks, Editor, The Adventurist

Denis Urubko Summits His 14th 8,000 Meter Peak

Denis Urubko has succesfully completed his quest to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000 meter peaks.  His latest accomplishment, and the icing on the cake, was the SE Face of Cho Oyu, which Urubko done in alpine style.  RussianClimb.com has the report, but few details.  It is noted that Urubko is back in Cho Oyu Basecamp–and more details will follow.

Denis Urubko now joins a very select list of climbers to ever top out on all 14 8,000 meter peaks.  Reinhold Messner became the first back in 1986, and since that time, less than 20 others have ever made this distinct accomplishment.  EverestNews has a list of some of the individuals who have accomplished this, but their last update in 2005, has left a couple of others off the list.  The list is quite intersting and includes: Reinhold Messner, Park Young Seok, Ed Viesturs, and Alan Hinkes.  Ed Viesturs is the only American,  and also done so using no O2.

Denis Urubko’s Cho Oyu climb has been well-documented in an article published today on ExplorersWeb.  A BIG congratulations goes out to Denis.  Now we can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!

Murder On Everest? Tainted Alcohol Blamed For Sherpa Poisonings And Death

There is some very disturbing news coming off of Mt. Everest today.  A recent Sherpa death has been attributed to what the Sherpa thought was a bottle of alcohol-which in reality was methanol.  It was packaged, bottled, and labeled as Nepali Royal Stag Deluxe Whiskey.  At least one other Sherpa is currently in dire condition after drinking from the same bottle.

Gavin Bates reports that the recent death of Kaji Sherpa is attributed to this bad batch of brew and that Gavin’s own expedition cook is also suffering some very serious health problems-being near death at one point.

I don’t do this very often, but the seriousness of this situation and the readership that this site has, I feel that it is only right to reprint Gavin’s full report to get the word out about what is/has taken place.

I would seriously recommend ANY expedition leaders to please, Please, PLEASE go through the alcohol in your camp and make sure that Nepali Royal Stag Deluxe Whiskey is NOT in your stash of supplies and get the word out on this disheartening and truly awful situation before more deaths occur senselessly.

Gavin Bates has done an amazing job of giving us plenty of information, clear down to who is possibly passing the bad alcohol off on unsuspecting individuals.  Here is his full report:

Ngima Sherpa is my cook here, and a ridiculously happy chap he is too,” Gavin Bate reported earlier today. “He also enjoys the odd drink, like most of the staff here, and the other night he went next door to the Mountain Top group and polished off a bottle of Nepali Royal Stag deluxe whiskey with his mate Kaji Sherpa, the camp 2 cook from this group. They come from the same village called Thaksindu, three days below Lukla.”

“Unfortunately this wasn’t whiskey at all, it was methanol, part a stock of illegal brew made in Kathmandu and delivered throughout the Khumbu in the last few months. The dealer in Lukla is a Gurung called Lama and so far four other people have died in the region because of this poisoning. At this moment, as I type, I am surrounded by liaison officers and we are calling the police inspector in Namche Bazaar to push for a formal investigation into murder or manslaughter.”

”A few hours after enjoying their late night , Kaji was lying dead on the ice outside and Ngima was fighting for his life. Methanol poisoning is quick and deadly. Within a short time the Indian Army team doctor found Ngima and attempted to help him (he was conscious enough to drink some coffee) but very quickly he was going into renal failure. My staff carried him to the HRA medical emergency tent, and then began the first desperate 24 hours of trying to keep him alive.

Ngima was lucky, he was attended to by some of the finest medical minds in wilderness medicine. Eric and Torrey, who run the HRA here, were immediately forced to think outside the box. This was almost a lost cause from the start, but they persevered with dogged tenacity. Other doctors started to attend the scene – Jeff from Adventure Consultants, Lana from the Croatian team, Melissa from RMI, Donald from Summit Climb and also Felix from the German team.”

”My team here attended round the clock, but we were supported mostly by both Willie and Damien Benegas, who carried out procedures and assisted from beginning to end, eschewing sleep and even their own climbing teams to keep Ngima alive, right up until the moment that we finally loaded him aboard the helicopter this morning. Also worth mentioning is Adele from Jagged Globe who kept on turning up to help at the just the right moment.”

This is a sad and very SERIOUS situation.  Investigations are currently taking place into this matter.  I will share more info when I get it…

Let’s keep the affected Sherpas in our thoughts and prayers and hope that investigators can get to the bottom of this tragic situation.  Unbelievable!

Achille Compagnoni, 1954 K2 First Ascent Team Member, Dies At 94

K2climb.net is reporting that famed K2 first ascenter Achille Compagnoni has died at a hospital in northern Italy at the age of 94.  Compagnoni was one of two Italians that were finally able to conquer what many consider the ‘world’s toughest peak’ to climb.  The big ascent finally came in 1954 after a series of failed attempts on the second highest peak in the world.  Achille Compagnoni achieved the summit with fellow Italian teammate Lino Lacedelli.

There was controversy about this first ascent.  Years later news would break that another member of the Italian team may have gotten the jump on Compagnoni and Lacedelli and raced to the summit ahead of the famous duo.

You can read the full account of the famed 1954 K2 first ascent by going to k2climb.net.  It is definitely an intriguing story and one that is still in question today.

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