Jason Sikkila's fundraising page for the upcoming AIDS/LifeCycle event.
On June 3, Jason Sikkila will mount his bicycle in San Francisco and start peddling south. Over the course of a week, he'll bike through Santa Cruz, Paso Robles, Ventura and a handful of other towns you know primarily as "those places out by the beach," before ending up in Los Angeles, 545 miles away from where he started, on June 9. He'll be just one of the more than 2,000 people expected to make the trek this year in a now decade-long effort to raise funds for fighting—and awareness about—HIV/AIDS. Sikkila isn't joining the pack just because he needs to or because he wants to—though those are reasons too, he says—but because he is able to.
The first time that he participated in AIDS/LifeCycle, back in 2010, Sikkila recently wrote in a moving short personal essay for The Advocate's website ("What It Really Means to Be a Positive Peddler," May 11), he didn't believe the kick-off words of Lorri L. Jean, then as now the CEO of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, the world's largest LGBT organization with thousands of volunteers, and a frequent member of "most powerful gay and lesbian people in the country" lists. "AIDS/LifeCycle is a life-changing event," she said. "You will not complete this ride and leave here the same person you are today."
For centuries, Sherpas wore layers of heavy wool to handle the harsh Himalayan weather. Now, Sherpa Adventure Gear is bringing back Himalayan styles from the 1950s, but making them with modern materials.
Tashi Sherpa, founder of Sherpa Adventure Gear, had two uncles involved in the first climb of Everest. Da Namgyal Sherpa—far right in the photo above—one of the Tigers of the Snow, the elite cadre of Sherpa who trained as high-altitude mountaineers at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, pitched the way for Hillary and Tenzing Norgay with John Hunt. Ang Gyalzen Sherpa, who appeared on the cover of Outside's issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first Everest summit, was also one of Tashi's uncles. He was a porter, a man Outside called an unsung hero.
Mark your calendars for 3 p.m. EST on May 24. That's when Anthill Films will show their new mountain-biking documentary Strength in Numbers for free on Red Bull TV. The production company spent 726 days in the field shooting everything from novices to the world's best mountain bikers. In the end, they traveled more than 35,000 miles, shot more than 450 hours of footage, and edited that footage for more than a year to create the final feature-length film.
Climbers working through the icefall. Photo: Grayson Schaffer
It's starting. Several prominent forecasters have agreed that May 17, 18, and 19 will form the first legitimate summit window of spring 2012. Given the short time period and how late it's coming in the season—Sherpas are planning to fix lines to the summit on the 17th—it's likely that up to 200 people could be racing to the top in the coming days. Both the First Ascent teams—West Ridge and South Col— will be avoiding the crowds and waiting for the next weather window to attempt the summit.
My plan was to go to Camp II this morning, but the expedition sirdar, who was going to be my guide, just got back from a climbing funeral and says his mom won't let him go up the mountain. Who can blame her? Instead, sometime in the coming days, we'll go to Camp I of Pumori, a peak across the valley from Everest, to photograph lights going nuts on the mountain as climbers go for the summit.
--Grayson Schaffer fb.com/graysonschaffer
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first American ascent of Everest and its then-unclimbed West Ridge, Eddie Bauer has sent a team of seven mountaineers to repeat the historic climbs. Outside Magazine senior editor Grayson Schaffer is currently embedded with the team at Base Camp, sending back daily dispatches, including stories, photos, and videos. A team sponsored by The North Face and National Geographic is also planning on ascending the notoriously treacherous West Ridge, a route nearly as many climbers have died on as have summitted. Schaffer will be covering both attempts, as well as everything else that happens at Base Camp, until early June.
In October 2009 freeskier Angeli VanLaanen was diagnosed with Lyme disease, 14 years after she first contracted the illness. As a result of the late diagnosis, the 26-year-old former X-Games competitior has had a number of health issues. Now, she's working to make a documentary called LymeLight to help raise awareness about the disease, in hopes that others can spot it sooner.
