Northwest:

--A snowboarder out of bounds at Revelstoke Mountain Resort was lucky to escape with this life.  Revelstoke RCMP Cpl Rod Wiebe says a group of four ducked the operational boundary line in the Greely Bowl. While standing around deciding where to go, a section of snow broke away triggering an avalanche, taking one of the men down the mountain. To read more, click here.
 
--The Washington State Senate's Natural Resources Committee took testimony on Monday about out-of-bounds skiing.  In this context they were concerned about those who start skiing in a ski area and then go out-of-bounds creating a need for Search and Rescue to get involved.  They would like to impose a $1000 fine on those who leave the ski area. To read more, click here.

--There is a movement afoot to create three new non-motorized recreation areas in Eastern Washington. Backcountry skiers and snowshoers would love to see this happen.  The snowmobilers are not happy.  To read more, click here and here.

Sierra:

--A combined effort among members of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, Mono Search and Rescue and Bishop CHP led to the rescue of a lost snowboarder. According to the Mono County Sheriff's Department, David Joseph, 27 of Crystal Heights, California, went snowboarding by himself and unknowingly crossed the western edge of the ski area boundary and became lost. To read more, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--On Tuesday Senator Dianne Feinstein reintroduced legislation that would create two national monuments covering more than a million acres in the Mojave Desert. The California Desert Protection Act of 2011 is similar to a desert bill the California Democrat introduced in late 2009, but this one is more focused on land conservation efforts. To read more, click here.

Alaska:

--After spending a harrowing seven days stuck at 17,200 feet on a solo winter ascent of Denali, Lonnie Dupre has made it back down to 14,200 feet.  Unfortunately, he did not summit.  To learn more about his expedition and to get daily updates, click here.

--A newly discovered prehistoric bird from Denali National Park and Preserve has been named Magnoavipes denaliensis, which roughly translates into "big-ass flying Denali reptile" or something like that, according to the Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas. The bird was named by paleontologist Tony Fiorillo, the museum curator who has been spending recent summers up to his elbows in dinosaur tracks in Alaska. To read more, click here.

Himalaya:

--A 16-year old boy from England is currently getting ready to attempt Mount Everest.  If he summits  this spring, George Atkinson will be the youngest person to summit the seven summits.  Hot on his heels is Jordon Romero, the boy who summitted Mount Everest at thirteen.  To read more, click here.


Notes from All Over:

--A seventy-seven year-old skier in Snowmass, Colorado died in on last week after he told a good Samaritan that another skier had run him off the trail into the deep snow. Thomas Berglund died of cardiac arrest early Wednesday afternoon as a ski patrol team helped him out of a snowdrift. To read more, click here and here.

--A 52-year-old man died over the weekend while cross-country skiing at night in Maine's Acadia National Park. Officials say Duncan Rosborough was found Sunday morning on the park's carriage road system. They say Rosborough was an experienced skier, mountain biker, hiker and canoeist who apparently died of natural causes.  To read more, click here.

--A skier in her 40s was rescued by helicopter Wednesday afternoon from an area between Edelweiss and Christmas Tree bowls off Teton Pass in the Grand Teton National Park after she injured her knee.  Two skiers found the woman alone, said Tim Ciocarlan, Teton County Search & Rescue board president.  To read more, click here.

--The Austrian climber, Dave Lama, is back in the spotlight in Patagonia again.  He intends to free-climb the southeast ridge ("Compressor Route") of Cerro Torre. And like last year, his tactics are questionable.  To read more, click here.  To read our response to this individual's actions last year, click here.

--A group of ski patrollers have gone on strike in Banff's Sunshine Village to protest what they perceive as a unjust firing. It appears that a young ski patroller asked the son of the ski area's owner to follow resort rules.  The son complained to his father and had the patroller fired.  To read more, click here.

--Austria’s Markus Bendler proved he is still the man to beat in the Lead event, winning the first competition of the 2011 UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup season in Cheongsong, Korea on January 8 and 9. Russia’s Maria Tolokonina came first in women’s Lead, while her compatriots, Maxim Tomilov and Irina Bagaeva took the honours in the men and women’s Speed events.  To read more, click here.

--The Alpine Club Antarctic Expedition, led by Phil Wickens, has made the first ascents of 6 Antarctic Peaks, making it one of the most successful mountaineering expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula in recent years.  To read more, click here.

--Visitors to national parks got into the parks for free last weekend, the first of 17 days in 2011 the National Park Service is waiving entrance fees. While it’s hard to complain about what seems like a free lunch, the NPS can ill afford such freebies.  Its backlog in deferred maintenance projects lies at $9 billion. And in 2008, for every dollar the NPS spent, it got back only 16 cents. Each fee-free day costs the agency between $750,000 and $1 million in foregone revenues, amounting to $12-$17 million for the free dates in 2011. This is a mere drop in the bucket when compared with the colossal backlog, but it begs a question: what should be done about the Park Service’s fees and budget? To read more, click here.

--Fifty-five-year-old Daniel Goodwin is facing charges of creating a public nuisance and trespassing in the Sept. 6 climb of the Millenium Tower. The trial is underway for a man known as "Spider Dan" who scaled a fifty-eight story downtown San Francisco skyscraper. To read more, click here.


--A twenty-four year-old Orono man was rescued on the back side of Maine's Sugarloaf Mountain just before midnight Wednesday after skiing beyond the resort's boundary. State game wardens found Cody Martel about 11:15 p.m. after they joined Sugarloaf ski patrol members in a search that lasted about seven hours. To read more, click here.

--We don't really follow fashion, at all. Indeed, there is no less fashionable group of people than climbers and guides.  But it is interesting to note that a big named fashion designer -- Diane von Furstenberg -- was involved in a ski accident in Aspen when another skier cut her off.  She says she looks like "Mike Tyson after his worst fight." There is some question as to the amount of involvement that she will have in a bunch of upcoming fashion stuff.  To read more, click here.

--SpiderDan may have no trouble scaling towers, but, on Tuesday, he smacked into a wall of justice - and lost.  A San Francisco Superior Court jury found the daredevil climber, a.k.a. Dan Goodwin of Marin County, guilty of two misdemeanors for his attention-grabbing ascent of the 60-story Millennium Tower in the Financial District on September 6th. To read more, click here.

Manufacturer Recalls and Equipment Issues:

--Backcountry Access (BCA), the North American manufacturer of avalanche safety equipment, has just announced a recall of its latest beacon, the Tracker2. BCA representatives say they have isolated certain issues that could cause a potential malfunction in the T2 units.  To read more, click here.
--The United States Consumer Products Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of 3,500 Avalung backpacks due to a suffocation hazard.  The backpacks, imported from China by Black Diamond Equipment, include air intake tubing that can crack at cold temperatures.  To read more, click here.
--Totem Cams sold prior to December 31st 2010 are being recalled.  The color anodizing of the cams gives them a surface hardness that may affect their holding power in certain areas of polished limestone and when the cams still retain their layer of anodizing on the area in contact with the rock.  To read more, click here and here.

--There have been some problems with Petzl ice tools.  The adjustment system of the GRIPREST (the lower hand rest at the bottom of the handle) on the 2010 NOMIC (U21 2) and ERGO (U22) in some cases may not stay fixed in the desired size position.  This issue concerns NOMIC and ERGO ice tools with serial numbers between 10208 and 10329 and all GRIPREST (U21 GR2) accessory parts. It does not concern the new QUARKs or the older versions of the NOMICs, QUARKs and QUARK ERGOs.  To read more, click here.