Four people remain missing on Mount Rainier more than a week after they were expected to return from the mountain. Climbers Sork Yang and Seol Hee Jin had planned to climb Mount Rainier on January 16. Mark Vucich and Michelle Trojanowski were camping in the park and should have returned on January 15. Search teams have been hampered by winds of up to 70 miles per hour and heavy snowfall. In some parts of the park the snowpack measures more than 15 feet deep. Authorities believe that both parti... Read More
Three skiers and one snowmobiler have died in Colorado avalanches since Wednesday, one of the worst single-week fatality totals in recent Colorado state history. Two people died on Sunday, including 13-year-old skier Taft Conlin of Eagle, Colorado, who was killed while skiing a closed run inbounds at Vail Resort. Avalanche safety experts blamed the deaths, in part, on poor snow conditions made more dangerous by the weekend's heavy snowfall. Unstable conditions in the backcountry could last mon... Read More
Pirates abducted an American journalist and acclaimed surfing writer in central Somalia on Saturday and are holding him for ransom. The writer was kidnapped by armed men in Land Cruisers near the city of Galmadug, where he was researching a book on piracy. Initial reports that local elders had negotiated his release have been retracted. The Sa'ad clan has claimed responsibility and accused the man of spying and studying their activities in the Mudug region. Kidnappings are frequent in Somalia,... Read More
Conservation authorities in New Zealand are contending with another mass-stranding of whales that has left dozens of animals dead at Farewell Spit on the country's south island. Volunteers and officials refloated and saved 17 of 99 stranded whales on Monday, but another 40 whales re-beached themselves on Tuesday when they failed to escape the area's shallow water at low tide. Thirty-six whales died Monday. This is the third mass-stranding of pilot whales in Farewell Spit this season, including... Read More
Didier Cuche won the infamous Hahnenkamm downhill on Saturday in Kitzbühel, Austria, two days after announcing plans to retire from skiing at the end of the World Cup season. Cuche, 37, has now won the Hahnenkamm, considered the toughest downhill course in skiing, a record five times. That is once more than Austrian legend Hanz Klammer, who won four titles in the 1970s and 1980s. Cuche is a four-time World Cup downhill champion and had won three Hahnenkamm downhills in the past four years... Read More
