While rising temperatures threaten to melt the glaciers in Glacier National Park and invasive African weed threaten to choke out the saguaros at Saguaro National Park, Bill Briggs points out in this MSNBC article that we’re still a big part of the problem. The hundreds of millions of visitors to national parks, and their natural [ more... ]

This season Vail Resort in Colorado will be outfitting their entire resort with radio frequency towers on almost all 90 lifts. The idea is that iPhone and smartphone developers could create apps that would let skiers check-in across the hill or go online and track their progress up-and-down the resort after skiing all day. I [ more... ]

A duo of hikers came upon a well-preserved body while walking near Edmonton, Canada. A melting glacier had given up the body, and it’s been ID’d as an American climber who’s been missing for 21 years. Parks Canada rescue specialist Garth Lemke told The Canadian Press news service that the glacier ice that covered the [ more... ]

You move to rural Alaska hoping to escape the random violence associated with gritty inner cities, only get caught in the middle of a bear vs. cop gun battle. Fortunately the guy who caught the bullet wasn’t directly in the line of fire, but was hit by a pellet from a shell that ricocheted off [ more... ]

The latest Protect Our Winters ad is out, and it features some fine skiers, including Backcountry.com Athlete Ingrid Backstrom. The skiers are mobilizing, and halfway through the video, you can even see one of them wearing a suit! You can join POW or find out how to get involved at their site, protectourwinters.org.

Thanks Colin

Three firefighters in Grand Teton National Park had to paddle a boat out to a small island and put out a forest fire that was started by a person’s not-quite-extinguished campfire. It was easy to catch up with the guy who’d left the fire burning since he was fishing on the other side of the [ more... ]

River kayak racing is a lot tougher than it might seem. Brad Pennington was 35 miles into a 340-boat race up the Missouri River when he said he thought someone hit him in the head with a brick. It turned out to be a 30-pound, sideways-leaping silver carp that jumped out of the water at [ more... ]

I was wondering how they get down from the top of the tree until I saw the last second of this clip. Climbing through those thick branches would be tough. I’d come out strong against this kind of activity in National Parks or federal land we all share, but frankly, I think it’s good to have some people engaged in this kind of activity. You know, cull the herd, clean up the gene pool a bit.

via Wend

Order up the Sender Films boxed set and pencil off six-and-a-half hours to watch some climbing and other death defying stunts. It’s actually six separate hour-long stories that take you from the first ropeless ascent of Half Dome to Dean Potter’s work using a BASE chute instead of a climbing rope.

The interents all a twitter about the Nike patent filing for an ‘automatic lacing system.’ The patent was filed last year but it took awhile for news to hit the interwebs. The news, of course, is that Nike might be in a position to launch their McFly shoes from Back to the Future II, worn [ more... ]