BREAKING NEWS: FAMED AMERICAN SOLO CLIMBER< MICHAEL REARDON DEAD AT 36

BREAKING NEWS–BREAKING NEWS–BREAKING NEWS

Famed American Climber Michael Reardon, 36, has died in Ireland.  He was taking part in a special shoot for an American Climbing magazine, had just finished his climb and was standing on a rock shelf–when a wave knocked him off and into the sea.  Michael was unable to get out of the water.  The Coast Guard immediately put out an alarm, but as of this time, Michael Reardon has not been found and is feared dead.

Michael’s wife Marci and 13 year old daughter are scheduled to arrive in Ireland some time tomorrow.  Michael was scheduled to leave back for the states today.

This story is still developing.  As far as I know this news has not hit the US newswire at this point.

If you don’t know Michael Reardon, Please follow the following links to learn more about this incredible climber–

Climber Reaching for New Heights

Interview with Michael Reardon

From Wikipedia

I will be updating you when more is known.  At this time, it is rumored that Michael Reardon was doing a shoot for Climbing Magazine.  No word has been mentioned from their site at this time.  Efforts continue to try to locate his body, but it is being called a recovery mission at this time.  He was staying with a close friend in Ireland when this tragedy struck.  His friend has been on the Irish News Services discussing these tragic events

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Marci and his daughter, as well as their family, friends, and associates.  Micheal Reardon will be greatly missed in the climbing world, but his legacy and never-give-up attitude will be with us forever.

From George Mallory–A Quote for Consumption

The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest ?’ And my answer must at once be, ‘It is no use’..

There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it.

We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go.

What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.

                     —-George Mallory, 1922

The Adventurist: A Call to All Outdoor Writers and Photographers!

I have just put the finishing touches on a new “Submit & Contact” Page here at The Adventurist.  I am hoping that this new feature will be accepted and used by all of my great readers.

This page goes into detail about a few things I am looking for here at The Adventurist–and ways you might be able to get involved.

Do you love Adventure Writing or perhaps Great Outdoors Photography?–Help me share your incredible talents with a much bigger audience!

Head on Over to the “Submit & Contact” Page, found on a tab right up above this article, and Share your Adventures with the World!

Also, if you are looking to put me to work, there is info there as well….

Cheers-

J. Alan Hendricks, Editor

Celebrate National Trails Day! June 2, 2007

The Adventure Blog Casually  reminded me that June 2 is National Trails Day. 

What a better way to enjoy a quiet bit of sunshine, bask in nature’s wonders, and get a bit of the ol’ exercise that the Doc always seems to recommend–by hiking up or down your favorite trail!

My personal favorite trail happens to be no further than a mile from my house, right smack dab in the middle of town.  The funny part about this trail is that any time of day there is virtually nobody there..it rolls and meanders for a couple of miles tracing the trail of  a river that always keeps you close company.

I only mention this because when a lot of us think of “Hiking Trails”, our minds automatically wonder towards the great scenic trails of the National and State Park Systems–sometimes the most exclusive and rewarding trails can be found right in our own backyards, so to speak, if we only search them out.  They don’t have to be no 48 mile trek into no man’s land, even though we all know that these hikes can be very rewarding as well–as long as you are prepared accordingly.

If, by chance, you have a job that you just might not be able to get away from, then at least take some comfort in reading the following list of the Top 100 Trails in the Nation as voted by the members of Trails.com.

I guess one of the big surprises on this list were the three sections of the Appalachian Trail listed in the Top 10.  In a way, it isn’t a surprise as this is some of the most beautiful backpacking and trail hiking country in the world, but I would have thought for sure that some of the great trails in California and Alaska…and even Utah would make it in the Top 10.

I also understand that nearly 60% of the country is within a days drive of some of these classic Appalachian Trails…now there is absolutely no excuses for not checking these out.  Take a weekend, grab your boots and water bottle and hit the trails!  I plan to do just that the last week of June..in the Great Smoky Mountains..

Teva Mountain Games–May 30-June 3, 2007

The Teva Mountain Games held in Vail, Colorado will be kicking off in less than a week.

This week long competition will be featuring some of the best athletes in the world in a number of disciplines associated with the Vail, Colorado mountain scene.

You will get plenty of climbing action as well as Mountain Biking, Kayaking, Trailrunning, and yes, even flyfishing in this week long tournament. 

The true highlight of this competiton though has to lie with the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, a two day event featuring groups of 1-4 individuals competing in four different events.  The events will include a down river kayak sprint, the Nature Valley XC Mountain Bike Championships, The Cytomax 10k Trailrunning Championships and the Trek Hill Climb to finish things off.

The Ultimate Mountain Challenge will be handing out prize totals in excess of $11,500 this year.

Floyd Landis, the controversial Tour de France Winner last year is also said to be competing in this years Teva Mountain Games.

Closing out the ceremoney will be one of my favorite bands, The Samples.  If you have never heard these guys live, you have definately been missing out.  These guys can flat-out Jam!

It looks like it will be a great time in Vail this year.  If you would like more info on the events, participation, or even volunteering, stop by their site.

As these games begin, I will be following along and trying to bring you the latest updates.  Should be a very interesting time to say the least.

The Adventurist Welcomes ExplorersWeb With a Call to Action

I would just like to take a minute to welcome everyone stopping by from ExplorersWeb.  As always, it is nice to be mentioned on such a great site and in turn, I am hoping all of you find something of interest here as well.

ExplorersWeb has seemingly taken an interest in an article I wrote awhile back titled “David Sharp Had to Die“.  It was an interesting piece although to be quite honest, I was afraid to post it.

Controversy can either be an advantage or a disadvantage–depending upon how you look at it.  For the guides heading these teams up Mt. Everest–it was a disadvantage.  They were overwhelmed with an outpouring of bad publicity resulting from people continually wanting to question this incident…by the media.

To myself, there has got to be a point where the circus needs to stop.  Everyone is always searching for the bad, without trying to take a personal stand to help change the problems that started the whole fiasco to begin with.

Russell Brice took a hit last year for the way the David Sharp incident was supposedly handled-this season it has been publicly known that Russell along with Alex Abramov from 7summits have been the first to line up for these rescues..

They have exemplified what mountaineering should be about.  People helping people.  They are all there for their ultimate goal, and all of them want to preach the team ethic..but unless they are seemingly all working together as a team, it can only be as strong as each individual effort put in.

That is why these tragedies, such as David Sharp have happened.  When 20 or 50 teams are all trying to do what benefits their team and no one else, it breeds chaos when these situations occur.

With my article, I want people to look past this one incident.  Granted David Sharp died on Everest in very bad circumstances, but so have alot of other individuals.  It is time to move on and try to make the team stronger…

There are a few things that can happen to make this disadvantage an advantage for the future…

The biggest one would be communication!  These teams need to come together and set up a radio relay so to speak–sort of like what we have here in the states with the “Amber Alert System”.  If a climber gets in trouble, one message will be relayed to every team.

Also, perhaps there needs to be a “Rescue Unit” in place on each side of Mt. Everest.  The Sherpa’s are great climbers.  Why not pay them to do what they do best…help people and pay them proper wages to do so.  That way if a climber gets in trouble or stranded they are not spread all over the mountain.  They should be trained and know what to do and be at one spot where everyone knows where to turn.  They would be outfitted with extra oxygen, and all the supplies needed to make a high-altitude rescue.

Yes, it costs money.  To me though, it would seem like these Expedition companies would want to pay $20,000 for the good publicity of saving lives than nothing for an ungodly amount of bad publicity…when someone perishes.

Every person on Everest can not be saved when they get into trouble…but, for most, a rescue IS an option.  It will only be made possible though if people are willing to work at this as a team and do something about it.

I wrote the David Sharp article in hopes of stirring up what could be done today..It has gained quite a bit of interest, and until something is done that could quite possibly save someones life, I will continue to be outspoken…

I have a great medium here on which to work.  I have no advertisers to upset or people that are behind the scenes.  It is only me.  One person. One person with a voice for change and, if at times, that wants to be looked upon as controversial, then so be it.  That’s my stand.

My hope would be that others will follow suit in expressing what can be done on this situation.  ExplorersWeb has surprising stood along side me on this issue and I thank them for bringing this to an even bigger audience as well as expressing themselves so well on this issue.

We have a chance to save lives.  I am tired of reporting deaths that could have very well been rescues, if only all the pieces would be put into place..

J. Alan Hendricks

Everest 2007 Update: Two High Altitude Rescues, More Summits, and a Possible Weather Change?

Over the past day, two amazing rescues have occured at high-altitude, one each on the North and the South.  One rescue is cause for concern though, as we will see:

Female Nepali Climber Abandoned at 27,500 Feet

An Unknown female climber with the Democratic Nepal Everest Expedition was seemingly left for dead by her own team near the Balcony at 27,500 feet on Everest’s South Side yesterday.  At this time, this is all that is known of the actual incident other than details from the IMG Expedition Team who went up to try to make a high-altitude rescue.

Dave Hahn–who incidentally has some of the most famous High-Altitude rescues ever to his credit–went back up with both Mike and Casey from the Coleman Everest 2007 Expedition on an attempt to save this female climber.  Here are the details coming from the IMG Expedition website:

Dave, Mike N., Mike H., and Casey have descended to Camp 2. On the way they helped a climber from another team, who had been abandoned at the Balcony (27,500′,) and who was in very bad shape. They managed to get her to Camp 3, where she was turned over to climbers from the Everest Expreme (medical research) team. We are proud of these guys for doing a great job on the way up, and the way down!! We’ll keep you posted!

This comes on the heels of a tragedy that occured last season when a similar incident occured with climber David Sharp…the difference this year?  People went back up to help and the climber was saved.  The David Sharp incident last season brought International attention to climber ethics and how these rescues were handled on Mt. Everest.  Over the past few weeks, we have all witnessed some great high altitude rescues taking place…and all I can attribute that to is the memory of David Sharp…

While I am talking about IMG, today they are reporting that their final team has successfully made the summit today and will shortly be heading back to basecamp. This is great news that has seen well over 33 IMG team members make the summit this year.  Congratulations!

Italian Climber Found Near Death at High Camp

An Italian Climber on North Everest was found today near the Camp at 8300 Meters.  Marco, as he has simply been known thus far, was found unconscience and had apparently spent close to 48 hours lying in the snow before he was discovered by members of Alex Abramov’s 7Summits Expedition.  Here is what 7Summits reported: Read more

Everest 2007 Update: Summits, Summits, and More Summits

Yesterday I posted an Interview with David Tait as well as Alan Arnette’s BIG Announcement–both of these items were pretty big news.  I didn’t post my usual update yesterday with all the previously mentioned stuff going on…so guess what.  That means this is going to be one HUGE update covering the events that has been going on for the last couple of days.

Before I get in to that though, I would first like to post a fair warning for anyone coming by this site from the Television Without Pity forum.  There will be at least one Everest: Beyond the Limit spoiler here today.  So if you don’t want to know what has happened–either skip this post, or come back tomorrow.  I do appreciate all of you stopping by though.

Alright, Let’s get to it:

David Hahn Summits for a Record 9th Time

David Hahn, climbing with IMG, has successfully summited Mt. Everest for his record 9th time.  This puts David as the single most productive Everest Summiter ever that is a non-sherpa climber.  Don’t fear though, I am pretty sure that Apa Sherpa’s current record of 17 will be holding for quite a few more years to come.

Here is a post that Dave made to his expedition website GreatOutdoors:

Hey Great Outdoors, hey this is Dave and I’m on the summit of Mount Everest, it’s let’s see, see if I can see my watch here, it’s 6:40 now we got here 15 minutes ago. Beautiful morning. Beautiful morning. We beat the crowd, and it gave us some trouble, aggravating coming up in the dark at sunrise up the step part of the South Summit, but everybody rested on the South Summit and me and Phinjo Dorge from . . . right there and we got the jump and then had the traverse and Hillary Steps to ourselves, splendid morning, beautiful shadows, casting big shadow of Everest out to the horizon. Just beautiful, really very thrilling, and uh going to give you another call in a minute here, oh boy, it’s exciting to be here. Think I can see as far as I ever have been able to, Makalu, Kangchenchugka, Shishapangma, maybe that’s Manaslu back there, Cho Oyu, Lhotse, beautiful. Beautiful. Okay call you back in a few minutes when my fingers thaw out again.

Sounds like a great view from the top of the World’s Highest Peak, Mt. Everest.

Gavin Bate’s Near Death Experience…Summit Denied

Gavin Bate, who was trying to pull off his own successful traverse of Everest, going North to South, had to call off his climb after nearly dying at 8300 meters.

To begin to put this into perspective, David was planning on traversing Everest with his “shadow” Sherpa Pasang Tendi, using the bare minimum of essentials–a light-weight single-skin tent, a small stove and bivi sack, and whatever else he could manage to get into his backpack.  Now let’s go to the details of what transpired as he attempted to reach the summit.  First, from May 19: Read more

Everest 2007 Update: More Summits, Another Confirmed Death, and News of a New World Record Holder!

Death of Czech Climber, Libor Kozak, Confirmed 

Recent dispatches have been circulating a rumored death on Mt. Everest for the past couple of days.  Today we can positively confirm that this death did take place and did involve a Czech climber.

Libor Kozak, 47, had been climbing on the North Side of Mt. Everest, pushing for the summit when he began to feel bad.  He decided to head back to Camp at 8300 meters in an attempt to get possible help and rest.  Libor Kozak ended up being sicker than what some had thought and ended up dying at this point.

This news was originally posted on an Expedition Update by Alex Abramov and the 7Summits Expedition, but over the next couple of days the story had quieted down.

Two days later, EverestNews made a post saying a confirmation of the death would be coming in, but it never came as they were awaiting word that the family of the climber had been notified of his passing and his name was never released.

CzechClimbing.com Originally made the assumption of who the climber was, based on their information that there was only one Czech Climber climbing from the North this season, Libor Kozak.  On a post to their site, a friend of Libor Kozak’s family confirmed the news and mentioned that the family had been notified. 

A New World’s Youngest 7 Summitter

Samantha Larson, 18, from Long Beach, CA has just become the youngest person in the world to climb the highest mountain on all 7 continents.

She made this new record after summiting Mt. Everest on Thurday with her father, David Larson.  Her record now surpasses the previous record for the youngest 7Summiter held by 20 year old British climber, Rhys Miles Jones.

Samantha Larson began her assault on the 7 Summits record at the Ripe Old Age of 13, when she first reached the summit of South America’s Tallest peak Mt. Aconcagua.  Then the following year she successfully climbed Africa’s tallest Peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Samantha Larson graduated from Long Beach Poly High School last year and amazingly carried a 4.43 Grade point average throughout her high school career.  Upon graduation, Samantha took a year off, in order to climb some of the world’s tallest peaks, before heading off to Stanford University.

Samantha Larson made contact with her Mother,to inform her of the news, after reaching Camp 2 upon her descent.

A Big Congratulations goes out to this young lady from The Adventurist.

The World’s youngest Mt. Everest summiter happens to be a Sherpa who scaled the mountain at the age of 15.

More Summits Today

Alex Abramov’s first group from the 7 Summits Expedition has officially made the summit.  This first wave involved 12 individuals–with a second group currently heading up as well.

Alex Abramov did mention the following news though, and we will have to keep an eye out on this situation:

Only our guide Sergey Kofanov continues to work on the route. . He has found out near to the camp of 8300 meters an Italian climber in very bad condition. As appeared, he has spent two days near the camp of 8300 meters, probably out of tent. Sergey Kofanov has collected small group of rescue: they are two French girls and one Sherpa. They accompany the Italian downwards. In the beginning he could not even move at all and could not speak. Sergey made an injection of deximetazon, then have moved him in a tent, gave him water. In result, Italian climber now can go down on one`s own, but very slowly. We hope, that they can lower him today down to the camp on North Col.

Adventure Consultants Summit 5

Adventure Consultants has announced that 5 members of their team have successfully summited today.  Here is a report from their Expedition as well:

Astounding us with their speed and grace, our climbers reached the summit at 5.00am today, just as the first rays of the sun also arrived. Sherpas Lhakpa Dorjee, Nima Dorjee and Pasang Bhote reached the top first, followed by Mike Roberts and Cedric Hayden, accompanied by cheering on the radio from Basecamp! CONGRATULATIONS GUYS!

Prague Mayor Summits!

Pavel Bem, the mayor from Prague that subsequently was turned away from attempting the North Ridge Route by the Chinese, has successfully summited from the South.  Pavel Bem, climbing with his two personal Sherpas made his successful summit today.

Alan Arnette

Alan Arnette’s magnificent Mt. Everest website has some news of note today.  Actually, two pieces. 

The first involves the female chinese climber that was reportedly killed while trying to ascend Mt. Everest two nights ago. 

The good news is that she is still alive and made it successfully to ABC..and seems to be coming along fine.

The second news of note found on Alan’s site is the story of four Italian Climbers that seemingly got into trouble on Everest and the story that ensued.  I reccommend all of you stopping over and checking out this piece and while you are at it, join Alan’s Climbing Forum dedicated to Mt. Everest and Mountain Climbing in general.  By the way, if you stop by his place, tell him I sent you–

Bear Grylls

The Adventure Blog has posted news of Bear Grylls making his successful flight to the height of Mt. Everest and beyond.  A couple of days ago I posted a piece about an unexpected “encounter” with Bear Grylls by one of the Expedition teams.  You may find this story HERE as well.

Everest 2007 Update: IMG Summits

IMG (International Mountain Guides) is reporting that 4 members of their Expedition have successfully summited Mt. Everest today from the South–two more are heading there now–and yet two others have turned back..

Here is what IMG had to say in a recent post:

Mark Tucker reports from Base Camp that Benjamin and Danuru reached the summit at sunrise and have already started down. The weather is reported to be good. Jim Waldron and Mingma Tshering with Al Hancock and Passang Rinjing are at the Hillary Step and Andre Bredenkamp with Ang Namgya are at the South Summit. Dave Schlimme and Dorje Lama have turned back and are on their way back to the Col.

IMG is also reporting that Mike and Casey from the Coleman Challenge Expedition as well as Mike Nixon and Dave Hahn are all heading up to higher camps that will eventually lead them to the summit push.

So a big Congratulations go out to IMG on their successful summit today!

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