Athol Whimp, a major figure in New Zealand's climbing and mountaineering history, died in a fall in Fiordland on the country's South Island last week. Whimp, 50, was known for establishing lightweight routes in the Himalaya and South America. In 1998, he won a Piolet d'Or, alpinism's highest award, for a first ascent of India's Thalay Sagar. Whimp was un-roped when he slipped and fell 800 meters on February 23 while climbing an easy but exposed route near Fiordland's Homer Saddle.
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Organizers from the USA Pro Cycling Challenge on Tuesday announced that the race will gain an uphill finish on stage six, just outside of Boulder, Colorado on Flagstaff Mountain. It will be the race's first mountaintop finish and could become the most important day in the seven-stage event. The 2011 PCC attracted a field of world-class riders, including Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck, and inaugural race winner Levi Leipheimer. “There is a great cycling heritage in Boul... Read More
Scientists at the European Institute for Mummies have sequenced the genome of a 5,300-year-old mummy known as Ötzi the Iceman, according to a paper published on Tuesday. Europe's oldest natural human mummy had brown eyes, was lactose intolerant, and contained DNA of the infectious bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Ötzi appears to have had the first documented case of Lyme disease. Ötzi has been under analysis since 1991, when tourists discovered what they thought was the body of a... Read More
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is mulling a plan to kill several wolves that appear to have become habituated to humans in Jackson, Wyoming. Wolf sightings became frequent in Jackson last December, and some conservationists argue that the wolves should be harassed before they are killed. “These wolves haven’t actually done something yet,” said Defenders of Wildlife representative Suzanne Stone. Wolf manager Mike Jimenez said the Fish and Wildlife Service considered reloc... Read More
A team of five Italian skiers and snowboarders last week recorded the third-ever recorded descent of the southeast face of Aiguille du Moine in the French Alps. Davide Capozzi, Julien Herry, Stefano Bigio, Francesco Civra Dano, and Luca Rolli took advantage of unusually good snow for the mountain. "The descent is steep and exposed throughout, and the snow was very difficult to ski," snowboarder Davide Capozzi wrote on PlanetMountain. Jean Marc Boivin made the first descent of the Aiguille... Read More
