Top Ten Adventurist Stories of 2006 and what’s in store for 2007

Top Ten Adventurist Stories of 2006

1. The Search on Mt. Hood

2. The Story of Arthur Blessitt

3. Tim Mosedale Testimony of Ama Dablam Tragedy

4. The Fowler-Boskoff Search in China

5. Mt. Everest 2007:  What does a climb cost?

6. World Champion Ice Climber Harald Berger Dead at 34

7. The Adventurist Makes Contact with Mt. Hood Sheriff’s Department

8. A Few Thoughts on Mountains, WInter, and Responsibility–a special article by Michael Bane

9. Should Adventurists be forced to pay for high cost of rescue?

10. Life at McMurdo Station, Antarctica

I am hoping that everyone will have fun going back and reliving some of these very important and sometimes tragic stories that I have covered in the last year.  2006 was a great year for adventure as well as sorrow as we all witnessed some incredible history in the making.  The new year, 2007, will be no different.  What’s in store?

How about some more Mt. Everest Expeditions as they happen?  I am currently in the process of trying to line up with a few expedition companies in trying to cover as many of these Expeditions as possible in the coming year.  I will also be focusing on a lot of history in the Mountain climbing world, with an emphasis on the 14 highest peaks.  I will still be bringing you updates from the Arctic and Antarctic Expeditions taking place in the past and the present.

Search and rescue?  If it happens, I will bring it to you.  I will also be getting into some more technical discussions about The Adventurists we all love as well as trying to teach you a few more things on some Adventure Sports that maybe we just don’t know much about.

2006 was a great kick-off for the Adventurist with over 45,000 people visiting this site in the last two months alone.  I am definately looking to expand in alot of different directions with some very fun and interesting things getting lined up as we speak.  So stay tuned in 2007 for ALOT more of the same great stuff you have come to expect from The Adventurist and I am hoping that everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year!

J. Alan Hendricks, Editor

Polar First Expedition to Circumnavigate the World via Poles Lands in Antarctica

A Little over a week ago I mentioned that there was an expedition taking place to become the first team  to circumnavigate the globe via the North and South Poles by Helicopter.  The Polar First Team of Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill are well on their way and have landed safely in Antarctica.  Here is a dispatch from the team as posted on the Polar First Website:

 12pm (UK)
I have had confirmation that the pilots have landed safely at Marsh Base and all is well. They are continuing on to Vernadsky as as the weather is good and are hoping to land there later. We are aware that the tracker on our site is showing as ‘inactive’ and the position of the helicopter showing as being in the middle of the ocean. This is a just a technical error and we are trying to resolve this. EMma - Ground Support

So it looks like everything is going as planned thus far.  This same team had made one previous attempt but had to back out as their helicopter had crashed.  Thay have since wrote a book about this first expedition titled “Broken Journey”.   

 

If you would be interested in following along with this journey as it happens you may visit Polar First.

Remembering Scott Fischer and the Worst Mt. Everest Disaster Ever

Remembering

Scott Fischer

Fischer spent his early life in Michigan and New Jersey and took two years of climbing courses after being inspired by a show he saw on television. In 1982, he and his wife, Jeannie Price, moved west to Seattle, Washington where they raised two children.

In the 1990s, Fischer formed his own adventure company, Mountain Madness, which he set up to guarantee clients the summit of the world’s highest mountains for fees in the $50,000 range. In 1992, while climbing K2 successfully, he was involved in a daring rescue of Chantal Mauduit, a French woman climber who became severely snow blind. She went to climb five more eight-thousanders but died in an avalanche on Dhaulagiri (1998). From the 1992 season, Fischer brought a new level of commercialism to adventures from successes of climbing.

He died on May 11, 1996, in the worst tragedy in the climbing history of Mount Everest. On May 10, 1996, Fischer, Anatoli Boukreev and Neil Beidelman guided eight of their clients to the summit of Everest. On the descent, the team was caught in a severe snowstorm. All the climbers managed to reach Camp IV on the South Col (7,900 m or 25,900 feet), except Fischer.

Fischer, who had reached the summit at around 3:45pm, had severe difficulties on the descent. Fischer was accompanied by sirdar (chief Sherpa) Lopsang Jangbu, but just below the south summit, Fischer was unable to continue and finally coaxed Lopsang to descend without him. Lopsang did so, with the hopes that he would be able to send someone else back up with additional supplemental oxygen and help Fischer get down. Boukreev made several attempts to reach Fischer but turned back on the first two attempts due to the weather.

Finally, around 7pm on May 11, Boukreev was able to reach Fischer’s position, but unfortunately it was too late. Many speculate that Fischer had been suffering from a severe form of altitude sickness, either HACE or HAPE. A memorial cairn for Scott Fischer can be found at the top of a hill near Lobuche, on the trail to Everest base camp.

Accounts of what happened in 1996 were described in the books The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev and Gary Weston DeWalt, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, and Left for Dead by Beck Weathers. In the TV-movie Into Thin Air: Death on Everest, Fischer was played by Peter Horton.

The Adventurist Note:  The above information was provided by www.wikipedia.com .  You may view this original article on Wikipedia here.

Other Links related to Scott Fischer:

• What Really Happened In The Thin Air–an interview with members participating in the 1996 Everest Climb Tragedy
• Scott Fischer Page from www.MountainZone.com  –features details of the Everest tragedy–including Scott Fischer’s Last Climb, as well as a call Scott Fischer made from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro to mountainzon.com
• Interview from Peter Horton who played Scott Fischer in the ABC movie Into Thin Air: Death on Everest
• Into Thin Air – the highly acclaimed book by fellow climber and 1996 Everest Tragedy participant Jon Krakauer.    Adventurist Note:  I have read this book.  It is AMAZING..it will make you feel as if you are 29,000 feet above the earth and struggling for each and every breathe you take!  This link takes you to the www.amazon.com website.  I highly reccommend this read!
• Book Review of “Into Thin Air” as done by www.bookpage.com – good review.
• A listing of Outside Magazine’s 1996 coverage of this tragic event.  This lists the news in order, as it happened.  Outside magazine is also where the famous adventurer and writer Jon Krakauer, “Into Thin Air”, was working for at the time of this tragedy.

Hannah McKeand Sets New South Pole Speed Record

Hannah McKeand became the fastest unsupported skier in the world to reach the South Pole on December 28, 2006.  She also became the ninth woman overall to ski to the South Pole with no resupplies.

Hannah’s goal was to ski unsupported to the South Pole, and do so within 40 days.  On December 28, Hannah reached her goal, as well as beating the previously best time by more than two days..

She started out at Hercules Inlet at 10 AM GMT on November 19 2006 and arrived at the South Pole on Thursday December 28 at 8.33pm GMT. The final skiing time is 39 days, 10 hours and 33 min, almost 2 days faster than the previous record of 41 days 8 hours and 14 min.

“The biggest lesson I have learned so far is that with a little patience, you can get anywhere. If you just keep putting one foot in front of the other then vast distances can be covered in time. I’ve also learned that pain is only pain and can be managed psychologically to surprisingly good effect.”

14 Year Old Michael Perham Sailing Solo across the Atlantic

Michael Perham is on track to become the youngest person to ever sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean unaided. He is within 5 days of reaching his goal which started on November 14, 2006 in Gibralter and will conclude in the Carribean in the coming week.

Michael, who has sailed since the age of seven, first volunteered the idea of breaking the transatlantic record three years ago, after watching footage of a previous record attempt.

Michael’s Father said “”Michael said to me: ‘It would be great if I could do that, Dad.’ As a parent I just thought it was a typical boy’s dream. I never thought it would actually happen. “The poor lad has had no [Christmas] presents, nothing. And he’s run out of snacks but I can’t give him any because the rules say I can’t help him in any way.

“I’m immensely proud of him. The school was very supportive - the headteacher said he would learn more in a few weeks on the ocean that he would at school.”

Michael, a pupil at Chancellor’s School in Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, England took three weeks off school to complete the voyage during which he used the trade winds that have carried sailors from Europe to the Americas for centuries. He is being sponsored by local companies.

Michael is raising money for charity on his voyage and has so far raised around £1,000 for Children In Need and £600 for Royal Yachting Association Sailability.

If you would like to keep up to date on this record breaking attempt, I urge you to check out his detailed website and diary with all the latest postings.  www.sailmike.com

The Adventurist wishes Michael the best of luck in this great World Record Attempt!

The Adventurist: 44,000 Viewers and Personal Thoughts on the Mt. Hood Tragedy!

About a month and a half ago when I started “The Adventurist”, I set down some personal goals for my blog.  The first one was that I wanted to reach 500 people the first month.  This would tell me that there was definately some interest in what I was doing here.

At this point, all I can say is WOW!  forty-five days after I started “The Adventurist”, I am now looking at 44,000 viewers….averaging roughly 1,500-2,000 people a day for the last three weeks. 

Now I know that a lot of this success has come about because of the Mt. Hood tragedy that gripped the nation, BUT alot of you will also know that I started covering this situation the moment it broke.  I had no idea it was going to draw the publicity that it did.

The Adventurist seemed to be the source everyone was coming to for all the latest updates on this story beating out CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News among others, as the number one site for the Mt. Hood search.

This site became a voice…something that is very hard to do in today’s world, drawing in family, friends, coworkers and associates of Jerry Cooke, Brian Hall, and Kelly James during this tragedy.  I also had many different websites, mountain climbers from all over the world, and even rescue workers contact me over this story.

Sometimes a vision for something is just a general idea.  You would hope to have a little bit of an impact in the small world you are trying to reach, but when that crosses over to something so big….That people are sending YOU tips on where the climbers might be…or something strange that they seen around Mt. Hood, then it had grown even bigger than me.

Some people were giving so good of tips…that The Adventurist actually had to make contact with the Hood River County Sheriff’s Department to make a report.  It started out simply enough…I was reporting on something of interest….and it became something, that in a small way, I was involved in.

I slept two hours a day during these ill-fated 11 days.  Hope….despair….jubilation when I heard that they had what it took to survive for a week or so….then…well, yeah…..I cried.  It is still very hard for me to talk about because I did let myself get SO involved.

There were times where I actually did ask myself if I was doing the right thing by continuously following this story as it developed.  Now, I can say that it was the right thing to do.  Alot of people had a voice through this site.  I gave family and friends of these three climbers a place to voice how they were feeling….offering them hope through my reader’s comments and my own…and I let them know that they were not alone in this incident.  People truly cared. 

It isn’t about the numbers, it isn’t about me or this blog–it is about being able to touch lives, help people and give them a voice.  I thank all of you for making this site so special to so many people….you readers showed that you cared.  That you had a heart.  That even if we all didn’t agree on the circumstances surrounding this issue..i.e.  should adventurists be forced to pay for their rescue…..We all came together and done what we could to help. 

As I expressed more than once during this search, I was hoping that with the reporting and stories that I did do, that I was able to show the respect and humility towards the family of these climbers, that they deserve.

Would I do it again?  Most definately!  In todays media, if it isn’t about murder or Iraq or North Korea or..Iran….than it just doesn’t make the nation’s news unless people are exposed to it and show a great interest.  This site helped expose people to this tragedy and helped to make it a National event.  The family of these three climbers had a Nation behind them…hoping and praying and in the end…mourning..not for them, but with them.

Fowler-Boskoff Search: Charlie Fowler’s Body Found

Search and rescue personnel in China confirmed that a body found yesterday on a remote mountain in China, is definately that of Charlie Fowler.  Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff have been missing since Dec. 4, the date that the pair was suppose to have returned to the United States.

Charlie Fowler’s body was discovered yesterday but a confirmaion of who the body actually was, was postponed until searchers could definately make a posiive identification.

From what rescuers were saying, Charlie Fowler was the victim of an avalanche on the remote mountain.  Fowler was not wearing a harness or ropes when he was found.  It is thought that he was heading up the mountain to build a new basecamp when the avalanche struck.  The only thing that Fowler had on was crampons and a large pack indicating that this could be the reason.

Charlie Fowler was a very well known climber, mountain photographer and guide.  He has made numerous expeditions to some of the highest mountains in the world as well as being involved in quite a few first ascents along the way.

It is not known at this time whether Christine Boskoff was also involved in the ill fated avalanche that claimed Fowler.  Search and Rescue efforts continue at this hour and are searching the area for possible clues as to where Christine Boskoff may also be.

Mt. Hood Tragedy to be featured in National Geographic: Adventure

The recent Mt. Hood tragedy that claimed the life of climber Kelly James and is suspected in claiming two others, Brian Hall and Jerry Cooke, will be a feature story in an upcoming issue of National Geographic: Adventure.

Climber and National Geographic correspondant Tim Neville will bring this story together from daily updates that he has been giving on the Mt. Hood tragedy.  As this tragedy gripped a nation, it will be interesting to see how National Geographic handles this incident. 

You may read some of Tim Neville’s reporting on the Mt. Hood incident here.

If you would like to follow along with the whole Mt. Hood incident story, as covered by The Adventurist, please click here.

Fowler-Boskoff Search: Your Views, Your Thoughts, and Your Prayers

This area is similar to the area I set up for the Mt. Hood Search and Rescue efforts.  This area is for your thoughts, prayers, views, and concerns.  The Mt. Hood Page had a tremendous effect and input from the public.  It drew in family members, friends, coworkers, and associates that knew the climbers to The Adventurist.  Feel free to use this area to post your thoughts.  This is for you!

Editor’s Note:  Click the headline of the story in order to make a comment.  If the story pops up and you see no comment area, try scrolling down to the bottom of The Adventurist.  For some reason the area to post comments shows up down here from time to time.  It is just a bug that I am trying to get worked out.

The Adventurist In-Depth: Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff

We have been saddened to hear that a body has been discovered of one of the two lost US climbers in China.  It is not known at this time if the body is that of Charlie Fowler or Christine Boskoff.

I would like to take this time to list a few links that will help you get to know both of these climbers better, as well as give you a few more details in the search efforts that continue to go on.

Charlie Fowler

Charlie Fowler’s Biography   Charlie Fowler’s Photography   Charlie Fowler’s Trips

Christine Boskoff

Christine Boskoff Biography  Mountain Madness     MountainFilm

Fowler-Boskoff Search and Rescue efforts

Fowler-Boskoff Search Blog   EverestNews.com Fowler-Boskoff Search Update

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