–Gripped is reporting that, “Brette Harrington has redpointed her El Capitan project with a tick of the 31-pitch El Corazon 5.13b. Harrington climbed with Elliott Bernhagen, who nearly sent the full route.” To read more, click here.
Desert Southwest:
–The New York Times is reporting that, “In August 2018, Mark Lantis’s mother dropped him off at a trailhead at Yellowstone National Park to search for the buried treasure of an eccentric millionaire. But after going off trail and getting lost in the Wyoming backcountry, Mr. Lantis ended up in need of a helicopter airlift. He ultimately did not find the treasure, but he was charged with reckless disorderly conduct. After a hearing before a magistrate judge in 2019, Mr. Lantis was convicted and sentenced to five years of unsupervised probation. He was also banned for five years from Yellowstone National Park and ordered to pay a $2,880 fine to cover the cost of the rescue.” It is the opinion of AAI’s staff, that charging for rescue is always wrong. The reason? People may become afraid to call for help when they need it, or may hide from rescuers. To read more, click here.
–High Country News is reporting that, “despite knowing for years about widespread harassment across the agency and promising to take action, the National Park Service buried an internal study that shed new light on the problem, High Country News has confirmed. The Voices Tour Report, which was compiled in 2018, goes further than any past NPS report in describing how women, LGBTQ+ and Black, Indigenous and people of color are treated in the workplace and left unprotected by agency leadership. In early November, an employee leaked the report to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which tipped HCN off.” To read more, click here.
–Deadline is reporting that, “Tragedy struck in the Tibetan Himalayas on October 5, 1999, when an avalanche claimed the life of two Americans, including Alex Lowe, a mountaineer considered perhaps the foremost climber in the world. It was an incalculable loss for the climbing community, but something worse for the family Lowe left behind: wife Jennifer and their three young boys, Max, Sam and Isaac. Max, who grew up to be a filmmaker, attempts to come to terms with his father’s death and all that happened after it in the National Geographic documentary Torn.” To read more, click here.