A TUNNEL UNDER THE TETON MOUNTAINS? Sure, for $400 million a mile. It ain’t gonna happen, but that doesn’t mean Jackson, Driggs, and Victor residents aren’t fantasizing about a road under Teton Pass, an idea that was discussed at a recent Wyoming Department of Transportation meeting. The benefits would be immediate for drivers commuting over the avalanche-prone Route 22 between Idaho and Wyoming but even more tastily for backcountry skiers, who would have the existing road over the pass to themselves. “Conceptually, it’s a neat idea,” said WYDOT district engineer John Eddins, but costs could be extraordinary — up to $200 million to $400 million a mile. Well, it’s a nice fantasy. Via Jackson Hole Daily.

A CANADIAN LEADS THE GIRO D’ITALIA FOR THE FIRST TIME. This past Saturday Ryder Hesjedal became the first Canadian to wear the maglia rosa (the pink leader’s jersey) since the race began in 1908. He got there by climbing slightly better than his rivals and then hung on during another rolling day in southern Italy on Sunday. Yesterday he fought hard to hold his narrow, nine-second lead and should be able to defend it for a few more days, until the Giro hits the mountains, where the 31 year-old isn’t going to be a favorite. Via Cyclingnews.com.

MAYAN RUIN PREDICTS THE FUTURE — AND NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. One of the oldest records of Mayan culture has been unearthed in Guatemala and the astrological chart is pretty amazing. Archaeologists stumbled onto the tables inscribed on the walls of a small building while excavating part of the Xultun ruins, a large, heavily looted archaeological site in northern Guatemala. What the numbers in the table indicate are huge lunar cycles, as well as the cycles of Mars and Venus. And we’re talking major math, calculated out thousands of years. The table predicts the heavenly bodies’ orbits not only well beyond the existence of Mayan culture, but perhaps beyond our own. Via Scientific American.

SANTA CRUZ BECOMES A WORLD SURFING RESERVE. Local surfers as well as the Santa Cruz government and local businesses have teamed up to give the designation (which really means nothing on its own) some teeth. And to make World Surfing Reserve mean something in the rest of the world, too, by creating a formula that can be followed by communities worldwide. The idea grew out of the Save the Waves Coalition, which has fought for specific surf spots globally. But they wanted a way to unite entire communities behind protection initiatives and although nascent, they see the model as one that can take off worldwide. Via NPR.

REMEMBER THIS NAME: ASHIMA SHIRAISHI. The 11-year-old girl from Manhattan is climbing’s biggest wunderkind, and the New York Times has turned its attention on this incredible pint-size bouldering savant. Summing it quite nicely, the Time writes, “Ashima, a petite girl with pale skin, a toothy smile and a thick fringe of bangs cut in a perfect line across her forehead, is not only the best climber her age in the United States, or maybe anywhere, but her accomplishments have already placed her among the elite in the sport.” Shiraishi already has a long list of sick sends, but none may be more impressive than what she did this spring, climbing the V13 (on a scale that goes to V16) Crown of Aragon at Hueco Tanks, Texas, when she was just 10. Via NY Times.

A LOST OLYMPIC HIKER WAS FOUND WITH INFRARED. It’s the shortcuts that get you. David Snider was hiking the Irely Lake loop trail in Olympic National Park around 9 p.m. when he decided to cut cross country back to the trailhead. He made his way down a drainage with low snow levels and very steep sides, lost his glasses, and then got stuck. Rescuers searched for days, but it wasn’t until a helicopter with infrared sensors pick up his body heat and found him. The 55-year-old was hypothermic and dehydrated but otherwise okay. Via Peninsula Daily News.

CAN PEEING IN A LAKE REALLY KILL FISH? Reports from Germany says that the urine from swimmers in Eichbaum Lake are, um, pissing off the anglers because the fish are dying. Now, that right there sounds like a hoax, or at minimum an exaggeration, but Io9 investigated whether pee could actually cause piscine demise. Their conclusion: Urine contains nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, elements used in fertilizer, which could theoretically cause an algae bloom, which would reduce oxygen levels, which could kill the fish. Well, sure if Eichbaum is the size of a kiddie pool and the entire population of Berlin is swimming in it. Otherwise, it doesn’t take a whiz to say…probably not. Via Io9.

A NEW JERSEY SKI RESORT IS SUING OVER WARM WEATHER. Mountain Creek, a 1,040-vertical-foot, eight-lift ski area in New Jersey, has taken its insurance company to court to pay out on a bad-weather policy. Everest Indemnity issued the insurance to cover Mountain Creek if temperatures were too warm to make snow and natural snow didn’t fall. That’s exactly what happened last December, but the two companies are fighting over how to calculate the temperatures, and $1.7 million is on the line. The policy required 11 days between December 12 and 27 with temps over 33 degrees for payout; Everest says there were nine, so nothing is due, while Mountain Creek says 16, so the whole enchilada is due. At issue is which weather stations to use — on mountain or nearby. Via The Ski Channel.

HOW BIG IS BIG? TRY DOWNHILLING IN THE ANDES. If you want to hit some trails with serious down, you’d be hard pressed to do better than hitting the lines above Sorata, Bolivia. So writes photographer Nicolas Teichrob, whose shots showcase massive mountains and huge bombing runs that plunge up to 9,000 feet. Better to bring a second set of lungs, as Sorata sits at nearly 10,000 feet already, and that’s the BOTTOM point of most rides. And pack the cajones, too: Teichrob blithly notes that blowing a corner “sports significant exposure with real consequences.” At least eyeballing his stunning slideshow poses no such risk. Via Bike.com.

THIS IS THE HARDEST NEW ROUTE IN COLORADO. Daniel Woods has tagged 5.15a at New Hampshire’s Rumney, so he should know what 5.14d feels like, which is how he rates his just completed new route in Clear Creek Canyon, Colorado, which was first bolted in the 1990s by Jay Samuelson, but not climbed until now. “Mission Impossible,” he says, is aptly named, since it gets nearly impossible to climb in warmer weather; the tiny gneiss crimpers slime up too much, and he was only able to complete the route when temps dropped into the 40s. Via Climbing.

BROKE SNOW KING SEES ITS SALVATION IN SUMMER ACTIVITIES. Jackson’s “other” ski hill has been teetering on the edge of insolvency for some time now, but its owners say adding a freeride mountain bike park, zip lines, a yurt system, dogsledding, and more complete snowmaking to stretch the ski season will all put more cash in its coffers. They also want an amphitheater, to draw concerts to the mountain, to take advantage of its proximity to a town that sees a lot of summer tourists. Via Jackson Hole News and Guide.

NEWS FLASH: DEAN POTTER’S STILL RAD. Potter strung a slackline across China’s Enshi Canyon in late April and walked it without a tether. And some folks just couldn’t abide: “I wonder how many young kids will die trying to emulate Mr. Potter’s reckless stunts,” wrote one poster on Rock and Ice’s forum page…leaving themselves wide open for R+I’s Duane Raleigh to come back, sharply, with a funny essay about why the world needs Dean Potters, so we know where the boundaries are and just how hard to push them. Via Rock and Ice.

YOU’RE LOOKING AT A 100 MPH BIKE. At least that’s the hope of former world hour record holder Graham Obree, who is slowly but surely building his 100 mph machine out of discarded bike parts. A few months ago he talked about the concept and now he’s starting to show the work in development. Obree will ride facing head first, while every other rider trying to break the speed record rides recumbent. His creation will use dual chainrings, with a gear ratio that equates to about three times as hard as the stoutest gearing of most road rigs. He says that to even shift to the hardest gear you need to be pulling 80 MPH. He’ll make the attempt this September in Nevada. Via Telegraph.

NUKING ALASKA? THANKS TO PROTECTION, NO. Roosevelt created the Tongas and Chugach national parks, but historian Douglas Brinkley’s new book, The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960, gives credit for preserving Alaskan wilderness to less heralded figures from railroad tycoon E.H. Harriman to Walt Disney. One shocker: In the 1950s environmentalists prevented Edward Teller from his grand plan to drop atomic bombs on the North Slope in order to make an artificial harbor for oil extraction. In this wide-ranging interview Brinkley gives a broad history of the state’s wonders and the struggles to protect them. Via WBUR.

CONTRARY TO COMMON BELIEF, THERE IS ALREADY MOUNTAIN BIKING IN NATIONAL PARKS. But only extensive mountain biking in a select few, like Mammoth Caves. And is that as it should be? National Parks Traveler may think so. A column suggests that Big Bend shouldn’t study the feasibility of allowing in bikes. Unfortunately the essay isn’t very well grounded in the concerns of mountain bikers, hikers, and equestrians. But what comes after, in the comments section, highlights the valid concerns of all parties. It’s a little ugly, but at least a little more balanced than the essay itself. Via National Parks Traveler.

$55,000 AND NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. Mountain guide company Himalayan Experience (Himex) said it wouldn’t refund climbers who spent $55,000 on an expedition to Mt. Everest that was abruptly canceled earlier this week. The company canceled due to dangerous rockfall conditions that were endangering clients as well as guides. The company said most of the money was already spent on logistics, permits, supplies, and salaries for this season, but those clients wishing to return next year could do so at a discounted rate. This has already been a risky season on the world’s highest peak with unusually warm and dry weather on Everest causing many guiding companies to seek a more protected route between camps II and III where rockfall is less common. Via Gadling.

B.C. FREERIDE TRAIL, FULL NELSON, OPENS WITH A BANG. If you don’t know Squamish’s 60-berm, 48-water-crossing, 100-jump Half Nelson freeride route, you’re missing out. Maestro trail builder Ted Tempany built Half Nelson to flow, and for every gap-jump or wall ride that’s beyond your ability there’s a relatively mellow progression so repeated visits pay dividends. And now he’s added another half-mile of circuit to the well loved (by 100,000 riders last year) Half Nelson. The new Full Nelson trail is more of the same and it saw a serious send-off last weekend with the likes of Red Bull, Anthill Films, and Giant Bicycles showing up for the ribbon cutting. Via NSMB.

TAHOE’S BID FOR OLYMPICS DIVIDES VAIL RESORTS. Andy Wirth, CEO of Squaw Valley, would like to see the Winter Games return to Tahoe in 2022, last hosted there in 1960. Vail Resorts, which owns three ski resorts in the Tahoe area, supports the idea, but Blaise Carrig, co-president of Vail, says he’d like to see Summit County, Colorado, host the games instead. Colorado or California? How about neither? Groups like the Mountain Riders Alliance are drawing attention to how the increased infrastructure — not to mention fleets of jets flying in athletes and fans — is bad for the planet and bad for skiing. Via Marketplace.

IS THERE CANCER IN YOUR WATER BOTTLE? BPA, the chemical widely used in manufacturing polycarbonate plastics, has been shown to heighten the risk of breast cancer in rats, with a clear link to humans, according to a study at Washington State University. BPA has already been banned for use in some food containers in 11 states but this past March the FDA said it needed more evidence to enact a nationwide ban. Via Summit County Voice.

THIS YEAR’S SKI SEASON COULD’VE BEEN WORSE. The preliminary report on skier numbers nationwide has come in and it isn’t pretty, with a drop of roughly 16 percent in skier visits, according to the National Ski Areas Association, which amounts to 10 million fewer visits than the 2010-11 season. Not that this should be a surprise. On average, resort operators say snowfall amounts dropped 40 percent during the winter that wasn’t. Silver linings? Eldora, Wolf Creek, Echo Mountain, Durango, and Aspen all managed flat or growing skier numbers; Wyoming and New Mexico, both states with better snow than much of the nation, increased traffic. And mild weather boosted lesson sales nationwide, since newbies are more inclined to adopt a fresh sport when they’re not freezing. Via NSAA.org.

EMILY BATTY IS A JOCK WHO INSISTS ON BEING A GIRL. The XC mountain biker races in pearls. And earrings. And makeup. And she explains, politely, that while she’s happy to have many adoring male fans (who seem to ignore the fact that she’s engaged), the 23-year-old Canadian prefers to be “girly” because it’s part of who she is and also because it attracts more girls to the sport. Batty says she’ll never forget how when she was young she met former Canadian Olympic rider Chrissy Redden, who convinced her that she could be a pro. Which Batty is, ranked fourth in the world, and is one of a handful of women favored to win gold at the Olympics this summer. Via The Star.

SPELUNKERS HAVE BEEN WARNED TO STAY OUT OF BLACK HILLS CAVES. A two-year-old ban on visiting about 200 national forest caves and old mines in the 1.2 million acre region remains in place this year. The Forest Service hastily imposed the ban in July 2010 to protect the region’s bats from white nose syndrome and the ban covers caves in adjacent Wyoming, Kansas, Nebrasa, and Colorado as well. While the region’s bats have so far remained uninfected from the deadly fungal disease that has just crossed the Mississippi on its steady westward move, Forest Service officials feel they can’t be too cautious, since it’s believed that people are an unfortunate carrier of the syndrome. And one side effect is also unfortunate: Reduced tourism dollars from cavers. Via Rapid City Journal.

ASPEN HOLDS A SKI RACE…WITHOUT SNOW. Auden Schendler, Aspen Skiing Company’s vice president of sustainability, says “climate change is already pounding businesses and communities, whether you’re a ski resort, an insurance agency, or a raft business.” His comments came as town Mayor Mike Ireland pointed out reduced flow in area rivers hurting businesses from guiding to farming, and author Peter McBride spoke about how, “The Colorado River used to flow into the Sea of Cortez. Then it stopped in 1998.” The confab was part of a 350.org rally held in town, which was tied into a larger call to arms on climate change with rallies going on globally. The faux slalom on Ajax was produced for the TV cameras, but the stunt worked: The Washington Post and Associated Press picked up coverage. Via Aspen Times.

COLORADO GETS A HOT NEW WILDLIFE CORRIDOR. The first-of-its-kind-in-the U.S. Rocky Mountain Greenway Project links local, regional, and national parks into a single, continuous corridor between Denver and Rocky Mountain National Park. The “hot” part? The corridor includes a converted chemical and nuclear weapons factory at Rocky Flats, halfway between Golden and Boulder. But the site has gone through significant remediation (and the superfund portions of Rocky Flats will remain fenced), and the goal of the giant parkway is laudable: To connect hundreds of miles of trails, parks, and open spaces along the Front Range into one long parkland, which backers say will have lasting economic and environmental benefits. Via Denver Post.

EIGHT PEOPLE DIED IN THE JAPANESE ALPS this weekend after a spring storm brought winter back to the mountains in Nagano, catching climbers and hikers unprepared. Six of the eight were in one group — a party of men in the 60s and 70s who were climbing Mount Korenge near the Hakuba ski area. The group, believed to be from Kitakyushu, disappeared Friday. They were all lightly dressed. The storm came in warm and wet, then turned cold and dropped below freezing. “After expending so much energy in the rain, when it turned into snow they might have experienced a sudden loss of body temperature,” a rescuer said. Via Japan Times.

FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2008 AN AMERICAN LEADS THE GIRO D’ITALIA. Taylor Phinney, who is a mere 21 years old, stomped the field in the opening time trial, clear of second place by a startling nine seconds. That’s an immense lead on a flat course that was merely 5.4 miles long. The four-time world time-trial champion got caught in a crash at the finish of today’s stage three and was hurt enough to climb into an ambulance, prompting speculation his race was over. But he later told reporters he’s fine and can continue — and he’ll retain the leader’s pink jersey. Via Cyclingnews.

KILLING BIGFOOT IS LEGAL IN TEXAS. Dear Sasquatch: I know life has been hard lately, hounded by photographers, your habitat riddled with pirate pot plantations, lady sasquatchi tough to find, but I have to add one more bummer. Don’t go to Texas. A hunting enthusiast named John Lloyd Scharf contacted the Texas Parks and Wildlife to inquire about the legality of shooting your furry hide. You, my friend, are fair game. Or rather, you’re considered a “non-protected nongame animal,” which “may be hunted on private property with landowner consent by any means, at any time and there is no bag limit or possession limit.” That’s according to L. David Sinclair, commission chief of staff, who responded with the very clear message that not just hunting you is legal, killing you is, too. Ouch, dude. Ouch. Via Cryptomundo.

BEING SEDENTARY STARTS YOU ON THE ROAD TO OSTEOPOROSIS, even if you’re as young as 30, say scientists in Sweden. Too much couch time creates the precursor to osteoporosis in the form of bone density loss. But of the 800 men studied over the course of five years, those who remained active doing weight-bearing activities built more bone. Cyclists, especially roadies, be warned: Unless you’re riding potholes or cobbles on a regular basis, you’re not getting enough jarring to build those bones. Via Medical.net.

CLIMBING MAGAZINE PICKED AN EIGHT-PACK OF ROUTES from Fred Beckey’s gorgeous book, 100 Favorite North American Climbs, honing in on their favorites among the lot, all of them rock routes rather than mountaineering ascents. The 89-year-old Beckey is, of course, a living god, with thousands of first ascents to his name, and his new book is a beautiful coffee-table guidebook, if you can imagine such a thing. Climbing’s number one pick is about as choice as they come, Angel’s Crest, a 13-pitch 5.10b on Squamish’s the Chief that, as Beckey drily writes, can be a bit of work. Imagine how exhausting it was when he set the line 48 years ago, without sticky rubber, cams, etc. Via Climbing.

ALEX HONNOLD IS NOT LIKE THE REST OF US. One of the world’s top rock climbers and certainly the highest profile free soloist, in a blog post at La Sportiva, gives some insight into the workings of a mind oriented toward the vertical in ways far different from us mortals. Last February in Zion National Park, he and Tommy Caldwell zipped up Monkey Finger, a nine-pitch, 900-foot 5.12b, then Honnold went back and soloed it but came away nearly bored. Repeat: nine pitches, 5.12b, no rope…bored. “I really wanted it to be badass,” wrote Honnold, “for it to be something to feel proud of — but it just wasn’t. It was fun, it was good climbing, it’s a great route. But it just didn’t feel rad to me, which makes me worry that I’m getting a bit jaded.” In his post, Alex comes across less cynical than curious. “The climbing was almost boring, and has subsequently made me reflect on my motivations and wonder why I felt so compelled to do it when it wasn’t even that much of a growth experience for me.” Via La Sportiva.

A TRUCK DRIVER WATCHING TV KILLED THREE KOREAN CYCLISTS. Three South Korean professional women cyclists were riding behind the Sang Ju City team car with the team van behind them when a 25-ton truck crashed into the van, knocked it out of the way, and then ran into the group of riders. Park Eun Mi, Lee Min Jeong, and Jeong Soo Jeong were killed and three others injured. The driver admitted to being distracted while watching a soap opera on a dash-mounted television. “The driver said he was watching the television and only after hearing a loud noise while colliding with the van did he realize he had caused an accident,” police said. Via Cycling News.

WORKER BEES CAN SOMETIMES REBEL. The queen lays all the eggs, which are then fertilized by thousands of male drones. The workers in a bee colony are all the sisters of the queen and infertile and part of their job is to raise the young. This much, science already knew. But what they didn’t know was that while a queen will at some point bear another fertile female — the next in line for the throne — the workers might not give their support to her or her young. If that happens, suddenly all the workers in the hive turn into queens, and can all bear their own offspring, kicking in a self-preservation instinct to breed and pass on their genes. Crazy. Via BBC.

THE FBI THWARTED A PLOT TO BOMB A NATIONAL PARK BRIDGE in Ohio by supplying “anarchists” with fake explosives, then arresting the five after they planted and attempted to trigger the bomb by sending text messages with their cell phones. The target was a busy bridge carrying Route 82 through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park about 15 miles from Cleveland, one of many considered by the men, who split from the local Occupy movement because it wouldn’t adopt violent tactics against corporate America. “Taking out a bridge in the business district would cost the…corporate big wigs a lot of money,” an undercover agent recorded one of them saying. They might be bad guys, but they look like a bunch of lifties showing up for work at 8 on Saturday morning. Via Detroit Free Press.

SNOWBOARDING HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE PARALYMPICS in Sochi, Russia, in 2014, with two medal events announced this week. The world para-snowboarding championships were held in France in February and attracted just 40 athletes — here’s hoping the higher visibility of the Paralympics will bring more attention and participants to it. Qualifying rules will be announced by the end of the month, and the games will be held March 7-16, 2014. Via International Paralympic Committee.

JUST HOW MUCH IS YOUR FUEL ECONOMY HURT by having that bike or storage box on the roof of your car? It could be a lot. A recent test of a Nissan Leaf fitted with a rack showed a decline of about 12 percent in driving range, which fell dramatically when a load (a big, square box) was attached. That’s a major buzz kill whether you’re plugging in to charge your vehicles or filling it with unleaded. The report suggests your range might fall by as much as 30 percent with bikes or a boat on the roof — a sobering number that puts a tangible reality on what we’ve already suspected. Via Green Car Reports.

QUEBEC WANTS TO PRESERVE A CHUNK OF WILDERNESS THE SIZE OF FRANCE. Naturally, there’s a catch. A bill was originally proposed to set aside 150 million acres in the northern half of the province to prevent industrial development, but since it was first proposed government bureaucrats have gutted it — now it only says that, at some future point, steps will be taken to “protect the environment, maintain biodiversity, enhance the natural heritage and promote the sustainable use of resources.” A strongly worded editorial in the New York Times suggests that the original spirit of the bill needs to be restored — you know, actually preserving it — or there’s not much point in bothering to enact it. Via NY Times.

AFTER CUSTOMER UPROAR, STEVENS PASS IS BACKPEDALING as fast as it can on its decision to fleece season pass holders out of three weeks of skiing. The Washington resort had announced that pass privileges would end on April 15, not on the closing day of May 6, but when the Northwest rippers went bonkers over the decision, Stevens changed course. “It has become evident that the decision for the 11-12 season passes to expire as of April 15th was a poor one…we apologize for the error in judgment.” If pass holders bought lift tickets to keep skiing, the resort won’t refund the money but will let them apply the amount to buying next year’s season pass. Apology video here. Via Stevens Pass.

WHISTLER WAS SKUNKED ON ITS HIGH-PROFILE X-GAMES BID. The town and resort committed nearly a million bucks to putting on a Winter X-Games, but in the end it wasn’t enough: ESPN announced it’s expanding the mega-popular comp in three other spots: Barcelona, Munich, and Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. Foz do Iguaçu? “We’re very, very disappointed,” said Barrett Fisher, president and CEO of Tourism Whistler. Whistler has a great track record with big events (see: Olympics), but ESPN thought the April timing was too late for a winter competition, and advertisers wanted another site outside North America. Via Vancouver Sun.

COLUMBIA SPORTSWEAR WILL PAY A $22,880 FINE TO THE EPA for violating pesticide labeling rules in its Insect Blocker clothing. Some 155 garments imported to the U.S. last year lacked the required warnings. No, they weren’t supposed to say DANGER: DIPPED IN DNA-ALTERING POISON; they lacked ingredients, pesticide registration number, disposal info, and the words “It is a violation of Federal Law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.” Columbia cooperated with the feds, but at $148 fine per garment, ouch. Cheaper than an altered-DNA liability lawsuit, though. Via EPA.

SKI RESORTS AREN’T EXACTLY RUSHING TO BUILD BIKE PARKS and other summer attractions, despite all the hootin’ and hollerin’ over the passage of the Ski Area Recreational Opportunity Enhancement Act of 2011, signed into law by Obama in November and designed to streamline the building of off-season amenities. The reason: a crappy winter that cut into ski area bottom lines. “There have been just a handful of proposals around the country. If the ski industry had had a better winter, we probably would have seen more,” said a Forest Service official. No matter: The fact that “frisbee golf course” is formally recognized in a federal law is cause enough to celebrate. Via Summit County Voice.

LEBANON IS SEEING A RESURGENCE OF TOURISM, AS WELL AS SKIING, but you might want to pack that flak jacket. Last week a skier was wounded on Mount Hermon in the southeast region of the country when stray fire came across the border from neighboring Syria. Or maybe it wasn’t stray fire — a month ago a Lebanese television cameraman was shot and killed by Syrian regime forces. In that shooting, Syrian forces said they were targeting armed rebels and people crossing illegally into the strife-torn country. Via France24.

IF YOU BLEW OUT THAT ACL, HERE’S A SILVER LINING:  Researchers at McMaster University, in Ontario, found that whether you work out with a very heavy weight, say, that you only life for 10 reps, or a very light weight, which might take 30 reps to get to exhaustion, the results are nearly the same. Meaning: You don’t need to leg press 300 pounds to build the strength to do so. Do lots of light reps and you’ll gain back nearly the same strength, with far less strain on that rebuilt joint. Via Journal of Applied Physiology.

CAMERA TRAPS ARE SEEING MORE ENDANGERED SPECIES. Just last week they snapped shots on the wild island of Negros, in the Philippines. You’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of it, or seen images of the spotted deer or the warty pig, both thought nearly lost or at least impossibly hard to see in the dense jungle of the island. In fact it’s that jungle that has protected these animals, although they are near extinction. These shots are thought to be the only photos of them in the wild and the hope is that it will help gain new protections for them. Via BBC.

ONLY A MONTH AFTER PUTTING UP AN AUDACIOUS ROUTE ON PATAGONIA’S Torre Egger, Norway’s Bjørn-Eivind Årtun and his climbing partner, Stein-Ivar Gravdal, were killed apparently when a large cam they placed dislodged a 12,000-pound block above them, severing their rope. Årtun and Gravdal had been attempting a first ascent of the massive, 3,000-foot high Kjerag wall in southwestern Norway. And while it’s a grim business learning what killed the pair, it’s still important to do a post-mortem for the sake of their families and for future climbers to assess the risks of attempting a repeat of their deadly route. Of course, it’s pretty difficult to predict when pro will knock loose a six-ton rock. Via Rock and Ice.

THE CONFUSED DOLPHIN THAT MEANDERED INTO BOLSA CHICA WETLANDS in Southern California looked like it was about the return to the ocean when it was scared by a pod, presumably its own. The cetacean swam into the estuary a few days ago and seemingly hasn’t been able to find its way out, becoming a tourist attraction in the process. Over the weekend, six California Fish and Game workers used paddle boards in an attempt to herd the dolphin to open water, but when it spotted the pod circling outside Huntington Harbor, it spooked and fled back to the wetlands. “He proved he can get out if he wants to. There are no red flags. I’m not concerned,” said Peter Wallerstein, a marine biologist with the Marine Animal Rescue service. Via LA Times.

CONVICTED KIDNAPPER AND “MOUNTAIN MAN” DON NICHOLS was denied patrol by Montana for the third time on Friday. Nichols, 81, nabbed biathlete Kari Swenson in 1984 when she was on a training run near Big Sky to keep as a wife for his son, Dan. The two kept her chained to a tree in the woods for most of day and then killed a would-be rescuer and shot her. The Nichols avoided capture for months by living in the woods. Nichols is serving an 85-year term, and Swendon, who was able to recover and compete, gave emotional testimony against his release. Patrol board member Sam Lemaich said, “I think there is little chance that Mr. Nichols…is ever going to be suitable for parole.” Via Washington Post.

WHAT’S IT LIKE RIDING OUT AN AVALANCHE IN THE CHUGACH? Well, in this case, avoidable is what it’s like. Freeride snowboarder Onna Konicek’s guide had the cajones to send his customers into a couloir with the words, “It could pop on any of us,” before directing his charges to follow him. The group stood there watching his wake, trying to decide what to do. Finally, Konicek dropped into the couloir anyway. The slope let go and she suffered a dislocated left shoulder but was still able to yank the rip cord on her Snowpulse air bag, saving her life. Via Aspen Times.

IN TELLURIDE, THE FOREST SERVICE WANTS THE SKIING TO STOP when the lifts do. And that doesn’t sit too well with locals, who say that a USFS decision to close the mountain for spring post-season maintenance and fall preseason work is unnecessary. Officials want the terrain shut to hikers, bikers, and touring skiers because of what they called safety issues, but public and official community objections say that the ruling was made with little notice and no public input. Still, both the USFS and Telski, which leases the land from the feds, stand behind the ban, saying that since they don’t manage avalanche risk in the off-season, the public, as well as Telski and USFS employees could be put at risk. Via Telluride News.

IT’S NO ACCIDENT YOU’RE STARTING TO SEE a lot of stories about Yvon Chouinard — he has a new book to promote, The Responsible Company — but a profile in the Wall Street Journal goes way beyond a simple Q&A: The Journal devoted some 3,500 mostly glowing words to Chouinard, Patagonia, and his business philosophies. Talking about Yvon’s new salmon business, it writes, “The idealism, ambition, self-assurance and total hubris at the heart of this salmon escapade are all hallmarks of the Chouinard executive style. His approach to leading a company is perhaps best understood as a sort of performance art—less about the bottom line than about providing a road map for future entrepreneurs.” It’s a bit of a hagiography, yes, but a great read to learn more about this ubiquitous brand and its laudable goals. Via Wall Street Journal.

TWO SHERPA DEATHS EARLY IN THE EVEREST climbing season have been widely reported, but with little depth or information about the men who died or the risks to Sherpas. Rock and Ice takes a closer look: 225 people have died on Mt. Everest since 1922, 75 of them Sherpas. They typically carry 80-pound loads and can earn an entire year’s wages per expedition. Of the two who died, 40-year-old Karsang Namgyl Sherpa succumbed to altitude sickness and Namgyal Tshering Sherpa, 30, caught a crampon point on an aluminum ladder crossing the Khumbu Icefall and fell 150 feet. Via Rock and Ice.

COULD THE OUTDOOR RETAILER SHOW end up in Orlando, Florida? North America’s largest outdoor trade show has been held twice a year in Salt Lake City, but the company that runs the show is exploring other options. Its commitment to Utah runs through 2014, and other possible sites include Denver, Vegas, Anaheim, and Orlando, which, OR says, has the dubious distinction of being “miserably hot and humid.” Um, well, so’s SLC in August…miserably hot, at least. OR wants 1 million square feet of exhibition space to show all the world’s tents, soft shells, and utilikilts; the Salt Palace has just 510,000. And crappy food, I might add. Via Salt Lake Tribune.

THE ASPEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HAS SPLIT with the national chamber over its stand on climate change. After an 11-1 vote, the Aspen Chamber Resort Association broke its ties with the U.S. Chamber. The town of Aspen and the ski area have been at the forefront of the discussion and efforts to fight manmade climate change, while the U.S. chamber has been almost belligerently opposed to even the idea of global warming. Aspen clearly understands that pursuit of profits is fine and dandy, but when your core product, snow, might not exist in a meaningful way in 10 or 20 years, actions count, even symbolic ones. Via The Aspen Times.

TREK’S CARBON RECYCLING KICKS INTO HIGH GEAR. A year after it instituted a recycling program with a company called Materials Innovation Technologies, Trek says it recycled 70,000 pounds of carbon. The material was cooked down and turned into a sort of mulch that can then be reworked and molded into non-structural automotive parts, like seats and dashboards. Mind you, that’s mostly not Madones converted into dashboards: It’s all the cut away material that gets left behind when a Madone is born. Via Trek.

R.I.P. FOR SIMS? If you were ever a fan of one of the original snowboard and skate brands, you can probably go ahead and light the incense and make an offering now. A private-equity firm as well as bootmaker Wolverine World Wide are fighting over the partly dead carcass of Collective Brands — owner of Airwalk and Sims. They don’t want the dead part, though — the vital brands include Keds and Sperry Top-Sider, not to mention the mega-discount chain, Payless Shoes. Whatever’s left of the snowboard brands will likely wind up in the trash heap, most industry watchers predict. Via Wall Street Journal.

THE TYPICAL USED-BIKE BUYERS ISN’T A POOR DIRTBAG. They’re actually quiet affluent, spend more on bike accessories, and are more likely to spend more when they buy a new bike from a shop. These results, from a new study, are surprising to some folks, but not to us: Buying a used bike means you’re gear savvy and willing to tinker once you buy. That means you have the time it takes and the financial flexibility to make something work well. Less knowledge means you’re more apt to buy a bike as an “appliance” — there’s less passion or romance in the process, even if, ironically, you pay more for that lack of involvement and commitment. Via Bicycle Retailer.

THERE ARE SOME SERIOUSLY MESSED UP PEOPLE IN THE WOODS. Benjamin Rutkowski and Kai Christensen were recently arrested for reckless endangerment after setting a trip wire attached to this very scary ball of sharpened sticks in South Fork Canyon outside Provo, Utah; the core of the device was a 20-pound rock — hit the wire and the weapon would’ve hit a hiker or biker in the head. The trap, found by a ranger before it was triggered, guarded a rudimentary shelter off a path called Big Springs Trail. The pair said they were using it to “hunt,” but police are skeptical. Oh, and they were nabbed after bragging about the device on Facebook. Via Deseret News.

RETRO-GROUCHES BEWARE: DISC BRAKES ARE COMING TO CYCLOCROSS Raleigh just lifted the veil on its new top-end cross bike, the RXC Pro, in plenty of time for this fall’s racing season. The bike gets cable-actuated discs from Shimano, one of the first production frames built to accommodate disc calipers. If a mid-size builder like Raleigh is embracing discs, it’s only a matter of time before the big guns do, too. And why not? Discs stop 10 times better, especially in the goop of cross. Via Cycling News.

WE’RE FOND OF DESKTOP WALLPAPERS, so hats off to Petzl for offering a pretty sick mix of their own, including Said Belahj climbing an overhung pinch fest in Guizhou, China, an absolutely gorgeous silhouette ice climbing shot beneath the Mer de Glace at Mont-Blanc, and this mixed route climb of Ben Nevis in Scotland from last winter. If you’re a climber your fingers will be itchy looking at this collection. Via Petzl.com

ELDORA AND MONARCH SKI AREAS BOTH WANT TO EXPAND. Distance from Colorado’s ski highway I-70 means that Eldora, near Boulder, and Monarch (much closer to Colorado Springs than to Denver) have grown modestly, attracting locals especially because there’s nothing “mega” about them. Now both want to expand, each by roughly 100 acres, in addition to upgrading infrastructure. And the U.S. Forest Service seems inclined to help, arguing that if a resort is actually crowded, there’s a good argument to be made for expansion — but if a resort is simply in an arms race (cough, Breckenridge, cough), the USFS is less inclined to yield. Via Denver Post.

OUTSIDE’S PIECE ON HIGH ALTITUDE RESCUES by a new breed of helicopters is a classic story about the unintended consequences of new technology. From bottled oxygen to down garments, better tech has made the Himalayas more accessible, especially for amateur climbers. But if the possibility of rescue at 23,000 feet exists, it also breeds a false sense of confidence for guided clients in the region. Bad weather can ground any heli rescue, of course, and operations marketing the possibility of being saved rather than cautioning that it’s an absolute last resort is opening up a dangerous can of worms. Via Outside.

A HOPEFUL FINDING: BATS MAY BE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST white nose syndrome. Scientists found a significant increase in the number of little brown bats in three out of five upstate New York caves where white nose syndrome was first found six years ago. There are hopes this is an early sign that bats can adapt to a disease that has spread to 19 states. But scientists caution it’s far too early to tell if this small survey is significant or not. So far, the fungal infection has killed more than 5.7 million bats as it spread from the Northeast. Via NY Times.

THE 650B WHEEL IS COMING SLOWLY TO MOUNTAIN BIKES. SRAM just announced it’s building forks and wheels in the “tweener” size, part-way between 26- and 29-inch wheels, and B.C. frame builder Norco just showed a prototype 650b bike at this past weekend’s Sea Otter Classic. Not everyone is convinced, though: Easton and Mavic are standing pat. But with SRAM jumping in, more medium-sized frame makers might, too. And for a downhill-oriented Norco it makes sense — 29er DH bikes are just too tall and difficult to turn, but a mid-size wheel might take some of the pucker factor out of gravity, which is Norco’s prime niche. Via NSMB.

RECON INSTRUMENTS’ HEAD’S-UP-DISPLAY FOR BRANDS LIKE SMITH was already pretty advanced, with the ability to control your iPhone and view real-time stats like total vert and current speed, as well as see a virtual map of the hill and your location on it. Now Recon’s latest (for this coming season) MOD-Live HUD includes wireless syncing with Contour HD helmet cams, giving you the ability to more accurately aim your setup prior to shooting — or if you’re really obsessed, to live-view what you’re shooting, as you’re shooting. Also known as, “Stop looking at the screen, before you hit that tree!” Via Transworld Business.

MIKE HALL IS AVERAGING 154 MILES A DAY IN THE SADDLE in his effort to set the world record for lapping the planet. And in 60 days he’s already traveled 9,286 miles. He set off from London, across Europe, through the Mid-East, India, eventually across Oz as well as New Zealand, and now he’s headed down the West Coast of the United States. His closest competitor, Martin Walker, is nowhere near as far along, having ridden a “mere” 6,941 miles. They’re both better off than South African Sean Conway, who chose to ride across the U.S. first, east to west, and was hit by a truck in Arkansas, leaving him with a broken back. Via Bike Radar.

AT SIX MILLION ACRES, ADIRONDACK STATE PARK IS the largest publicly protected wilderness in the contiguous United States, bigger than rolling Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon into one. But the proposed Adirondack Club and Resort, which would allow luxury home building and other construction in the park, has drawn a lawsuit and major fire from environmentalists. They warn that if the project, which would include a 60-room inn and other amenities, is allowed to go forward it would compromise the values of the park. Still, some environmentalists see it as necessary; their hope is that more attractions would bring more dollars and actually help preserve the remaining wilderness. Via Times Union.

ALEX HARTLEY’S ART CALLS ATTENTION to the vulnerability of remote places. He travels the globe, photographing far off lands, then paints jarring man-made structures into them, forcing you to see how wrong the landscapes look. This summer he’ll turn the idea on its head, building an “island” (a collection of dirt and rock towed from the Arctic Circle on a barge) and pulling it around the British Isles as a moving installation. The idea behind Nowhereisland is to bring the wildest part of the globe to the masses and let them understand that what they do impacts the greatest reaches of the earth. Via Wired.

AS BOLTED ROUTES GAIN “PERMA-DRAWS,” THE CLIMBING COMMUNITY DIVIDES. A permanent quick-draw is even less aesthetically pleasing than a line of bolts sewn up a rock, and the growth of pre-drawing has caused climbers to wonder if less couldn’t be more. The Access Fund says the concerns aren’t just aesthetic: They warn that an over-reliance on fixed-anchor hardware is potentially dangerous and that if local craggers aren’t regularly inspecting and replacing the gear it could cause serious injury. Via The Access Fund.

THE 50 SEXIEST ENVIRONMENTALISTS? It wasn’t that long ago that there wasn’t anything remotely sexy about environmentalists or environmentalism, not unless you consider hemp underwear and hairy armpits sexy, but hey, what with green being trendy and all, you don’t have to look far these days to find hotties bent on saving the planet. And while some of the people in Rodale’s list are dubious choices at best (actress Lea Michele is included because she doesn’t eat meat? huh?), many of them are indeed strong voices for making the world a healthier place, such David de Rothschild, Alexandra Cousteau, and, among the many Hollywooders listed, Leonard DiCaprio. Number one? Snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler. The list is link bait at its best/worst, but if it gets glitter fans paying any attention to global warming, more power to it. Via Rodale.

10 SQUARE MILES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST will be protected permanently through a deal that patches together public and private property and transfers jurisdiction to state and federal agencies to keep it open to the general public. The landmark deal was a decade in the making, and it sets aside a prime stretch of coast just north of Santa Cruz. The Coastal Dairies property was one of the three largest sections of undeveloped private land between San Francisco and the Mexican border. “This is important: an incredible part of the Central California coast that’s going to be retained in the form it was years and years ago,” said Dan Carl of the California Coastal Commission. “It’s something you don’t see a lot in California as development moves and marches forward.” Via LA Times.

IT’S EASIER TO DRIVE THE HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED machine known as the modern automobile than it is set up mountain bike suspension with anything close to accuracy. Fox shocks, for example, have had multiple settings for low-speed compression, lockout, ProPedal, and blowoff threshold. Well, now they don’t: The new Fox forks have just three simple settings that even idjits like me can figure out: climb, trail, and descend. The nerdiest of nerdy bike geeks are already complaining they won’t have enough control, but of course they are. Via Cycling News.

THE FACT THAT 140 PEOPLE DIED IN A NATURAL AVALANCHE in Pakistan last week points out the absurdity of that country and Indian continuing to face each other down over the Siachen glacier at 20,000 feet in the Himalaya. More than 3,000 Pakistani soldiers have died from the weather and natural hazards, while the two countries haven’t fired a shot at each other in years. Maybe they’re too cold — the temps can drop to minus-50. Pakistan spends $5 million a month to militarize the mountains, and the head of the army recently acknowledged the impact of pollution from the activity. “For us, Pakistan, it is very important. You see, this is the glacier which feeds our rivers, which feeds the Indus River, which is the main river in Pakistan. So we understand that physical deployment of troops in these areas, the…environment gets affected.” Via NPR.

THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HAS BACKED DOWN on its plan to ban commercial guiding in Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison after three senators said, basically, “What, are you high?” Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colorado), Mark Bennett (D-Colorado), and Max Baucus (D-Montana) wrote to the head of the Park Service, Jon Jarvis, to point out in no uncertain terms that the Black Canyon is a badass place, some people need guides, and without commercial outfitters fewer of their constituents will have access to it. NPA backpedaled quickly. “We are not proceeding at this time with new restrictions on commercial guiding,” wrote regional director John Wessels. “This issue will not move forward without much more internal deliberation and then close collaboration with all interested parties, including your offices.” Via National Parks Traveler.

EDDIE AIKAU’S FAMILY IS SUING TO STOP A FILMMAKER from claiming rights to make a movie about the waterman’s life. Hawaiian Aikau is the infamous Eddie in “Eddie Would Go” and the lifeguard/surfer for whom the big wave Eddie Aikau contest is named. He was lost at sea in 1978 trying to save sailors of a Polynesian canoe that capsized in stormy weather off the Big Island. In 2004, the Aikau family gave a California production company an 18-month option on an Eddie film, but it came to nothing. Now, the family says, the company says it still has the rights when it doesn’t, scaring other filmmakers away from a potentially lucrative bio-pic. Via Courthouse News.

ORANGUTANS BUILD WILDERNESS SHELTERS BETTER AND FASTER than humans. Wanna know how to build a fort 60 feet off the deck in the forest canopy that’s strong enough to support the weight of a few people and soft enough to have the “give” of a hammock? Ask an Indonesian orangutan for help. Turns out they can whip one out in about 10 minutes using sticks and leaves, even making these shelters with specific flex designed to make it perfectly comfy for repeated nights of sleep. And, naturally, by sleeping in the canopy they’re less threatened by predators. As for that midnight nature call? Tarzan better wear a hat. Via Scientific American.

“IMMORTAL” BACTERIA MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD is going to be reborn with global warming. Yeah, we didn’t see this one coming, either, but ice core samples from Antarctica have contained bacteria that were 420,000 years old — and then revived in the lab. Researchers say all the ice melt going on globally will release the bacteria and perhaps viruses millions of years old. While the latter are more fragile and less likely, scientists say the bacteria as well as gene material from an ancient era could disturb ocean life and potentially introduce new life forms that haven’t been seen on earth in human existence. Via Daily Climate.

THE FOREST SERVICE MIGHT BLOW UP THE FROZEN DEAD COWS that took shelter in a Colorado cabin last winter. Well, they weren’t actually frozen or dead when they went in the cabin — that came later. The bovines were discovered by snowshoers in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness outside Aspen in late March, and officials are struggling to figure out a response. Helicopters are too spendy and driving ATVs or trucks is prohibited in wilderness. “Obviously, time is of the essence because we don’t want them defrosting,” said a spokesman. Well, yeah. It doesn’t help that 29 cows went missing this winter and the USFS doesn’t know how many moos are actually in and around the cabin because the snow’s so deep. Among the possible solutions are packing the carcasses with explosives and sending them sky high or simply burning down the cabin and corpses. Just remember, you can have too much of a good thing, even dynamite, as this classic video of a whale being blown to bits shows. Via AP.

TAX DAY SUCKS FOR EVERYONE, BUT IT WAS ESPECIALLY HARD ON LINDSEY VONN. The alpine ski racer and her estranged husband were hit with a lien by the IRS for not paying their pound of flesh to Uncle Sam in 2010, but have paid the $1.7 million owed. On her Facebook page, Vonn blamed unnamed others for the mistake. “I just recently became aware of the outstanding balance and I have done everything in my power to settle it immediately…Not being in control of my finances and relying on someone else who you believed had your best interest at heart was a mistake and one I will not make twice.” Bummer, Linds, but I just keep thinking about how much money you have to make to owe that much cheddar in TAXES. Via SI.

IT TOOK A HELLISH SUMMER AND A BUSTED WINTER, but Americans are finally connected extreme weather events to global warming and man-connected climate change. 69 percent said that global warming is affecting the weather and that the weather is indeed getting worse. “Most people in the country are looking at everything that’s happened; it just seems to be one disaster after another after another,” said Anthony A. Leiserowitz of Yale University. “People are starting to connect the dots.” Not everyone: 11 percent “strongly disagree” that climate change had anything to do with last winter and March that saw more than 17,000 heat records broken. Via NY Times.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN MIGHT BE A MICROBE. In 1976, two NASA spacecraft landed on Mars and conducted three experiments on Martian soil to look for any forms of life. Thrillingly, one of the tests turned up evidence of microbes, but because the other two tests came up goose eggs, NASA rejected the positive. Now, a new mathematical analysis of the data strongly suggests that the first test was correct. How they determined this is all very wonky and there’s no direct confirmation yet, nor will there be any time soon. Scientists who’ve studied the results are convinced, but they need stronger evidence before claiming. Perhaps the Mars Science Laboratory that lands on the Red Planet later this year will back them up. Via National Geographic News.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES WAS A BIKE PARADISE…FOR A DAY. Last Sunday L.A. closed a 10-mile stretch of downtown streets to cars for CicLAvia, a rolling carnival that brought out more than 100,000 cyclists to explore their own city. And that was the shocker: Angelinos came in droves and were stunned to see stores and street vendors they never knew existed because they were so used to driving past them. It’s the fourth CicLAvia since October 2010, and this one was designed to highlight the city’s new $16 million bike-sharing program, which will put 4,000 bikes at 400 stations around town. Via LA Times.

THE 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION ACTUALLY GOT ITS START ON MT. RAINIER. The Army’s famous alpine-oriented fighters are best known for their Colorado connection, and, yes, the 10th switched from Washington to Camp Hale, Colorado, but in a recent ceremony on Crystal Mountain, Washington, commemorating the founding of the ski/snow-based force, tribute was paid to how the Army activated its first mountain unit – the 87th Mountain Infantry Battalion on and around Rainier. The National Ski Patrol led training and recruiting efforts, a relationship with skiing and snow that led to the founding of more than 60 ski areas nationwide, all by 10th Mountain Division vets, including Crystal and Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain. Via Bellingham Herald.

POLICE SUSPECT FORK FAILURE IN A CYCLING DEATH. 58-year-old Gary Lanoue, of Attleboro, Massachusetts, was training for his 15th big-mileage charity ride when he crashed on the road in Rehoboth. He was found by an off-duty policeman and his Cervello Wolf SL fork was separated from the frame. Lanoue died a short time later at Rhode Island Hospital. 5,800 Cervello Wolf SL forks were recalled in 2008 after reports of breakage and injuries, and the cops are looking at “mechanical failure” as the cause of Lanoue’s crash. This is why you need to fill out those little warranty cards, peoples, so companies can get in touch if there’s potentially a problem. Via Wicked Local.

LIONS SHARE FOOD, COUGARS NOT SO MUCH, BUT IN JACKSON HOLE cat watchers were astounded to see mountain lions sharing kills in the same manner that their bigger African cousins do. Two females and a male shared three kills in the Gros Ventre River drainage, said researchers from the Teton Cougar Project. One of the females is the star of National Geographic’s “American Cougar” TV show (no, not Cougar Town), and Wyoming seems to be the place for anomalous cat behavior — four years ago, a female adopted three orphaned kittens as her own. An altruistic cougar? Somewhere, Courtney Cox shudders. Via Jackson Hole News and Guide.

MANATEE SEX PARTY DRAWS A CROWD. It’s spring break in Florida, so these things should be expected, but last week a herd of manatees conducted a very public mating session in Desoto National Monument and, this being the Sunshine State and all, drew a large group of onlookers. “Everytime we get a call about a mating herd we come out,” biologist Sheri Barton or the Mote Marine Lab. Well, duh. Mantees…sex…who wouldn’t? It wasn’t just the biologists, either — the general public flocked to watch the splashing and roiling of waters. Barton said mating sessions have been known to last as long as 49 days…right up until finals, basically. Via Sarasota Patch.

BUCKING GLOBAL TREND, KARAKORAM GLACIERS ARE GROWING. It might not be true of the rest of the world, with 500 billion tons of ice melting globally each year, but in the Karakoram, on the China-Pakistan border, glaciers are actually increasing in size, according to 3D altitude maps obtained from satellites in 2000 and 2008. And the Karakoram, as in other remote regions of the Himalayas, haven’t grown warmer either, even as the poles, for instance, have. However, scientists say that the short period of the study makes it too early to call it anything more than a blip — an anomalous weather pattern rather than an indicator (or counter indicator) of climate change. Via Guardian.

CARTER HANSON, FIFTH GRADER, HAS BRIGHT SKI BUM FUTURE. The grade schooler skied at 24 resorts in Colorado this winter, all without spending a dime on a lift ticket. Colorado’s ski marketing office and Vail Resorts offered free skiing to fifth graders statewide and Hanson (and his family) hit every resort but for A-Basin, which is still open and next to be tagged. Via Daily Camera.

THE CANYONS WAVES WHITE FLAG AND SETTLES WITH PARK CITY. Utah’s Canyons said it is willing to offer new leases to Park City after the latter ski resort sued for allegedly trying to drive it out of business by refusing to extend leases. Park City had leased 3,700 acres, mostly at the upper portion of the mountain, from United Park City Mines since the 1960s, but Talisker bought the mining company in 2003 and became a landlord. One reason Talisker might have been pushing back against Park City: According to the lawsuit, the resort had been paying just $155,000 a year in rent for the land. Now the two sides are apparently trying to settle quietly, not least because the bad press hasn’t been good for either party. Via Deseret News.

UPSCALE FASHION LABEL PAUL SMITH has opened a bike boutique within luxury department store Harrods. The London store’s fifth floor sports department has a nook devoted to the designer, a retail experience where you can thumb through vintage cycling magazines and browse custom bikes, with niche brands Condor, Brompton, Mercian, and Paris exhibiting wares. Coolest is the fact that the Rapha + Paul Smith cycling line is there for trying on and Smith designed several bike-themed t-shirts as well. via British Esquire.

INCREASINGLY RESILIANT STRAINS OF MALARIA ARE SHOWING UP in Southeast Asia, spurring concerns that within a few years a common drug to combat it is no longer going to be effective. This will have impacts on travel not only to Cambodia, where the strain of mosquitoes are increasing, but potentially into Thailand, India, and Africa. The drugs, called artemisinin, have become less and less effective since 2001; The proportion of slow-clearing infections increased from 0.6 percent in 2001 to 20 percent in 2010. The fear is that a spread of drug-resistant malaria parasites in Southeast Asia could spill over into sub-Saharan Africa, where medical care is weak. There were 655,000 malarial deaths in 2010 – more than one every minute. Via BBC.

JUST HOW STRANGE WAS MARCH’S WEATHER? NOAA says it was full-scale record-breaking in nearly too many ways to quantify. Tornadoes caused the first $1 billion weather disaster of the year, with nearly triple the number of twisters as average for March, not to mention it was the warmest March on record for the Lower 48 since 1895. And not just a “squeaking-over-the-line record,” but 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the average of 51.1 degrees. Over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were broken over the U.S. in March. And although the warmth has abated in a lot of the country, much of the nation is now left in a state of persistent drought, with wildfire potential exceedingly high in places that rarely see the danger, like Connecticut. Via NOAA.

CUSTOM TI FRAME BUILDER SEVEN IS CROWING ABOUT Swiss rider Nino Schurter’s World Cup win a few weeks ago…on a bike built by Scott. But the gist is that Schurter won on a bike with 650b wheels (halfway between a 29er and a 26-inch wheel) and Seven is arguing that this spells a tipping point for a third mountain bike wheel standard. There could well be advantages for racing: Tall 29ers are tougher for shorter riders to steer and to tip into and out of turns, and sheer physics require that you have more mass at the edge of the rim, mass that’s harder to move. But pity the poor bike shop having to stock three wheel and tire sizes. It could happen; nobody thought the 29er “fad” would go anywhere, either. Via Bike Radar.

WHAT’S IT REALLY TAKE TO RECONSTRUCT ALL THE CLIMBING ROUTES ON A MOUNTAIN? Let’s just say going into the sausage work with Alpinist magazine to find out how they do their Routelines section isn’t pretty, but it is darned amusing, and fascinating, since it requires archeology, interviewing climbers in foreign languages, testing and prodding fuzzy memories, “…you get the lines back from all the members of a rope team and each line is different…” and of course trying to piece together photography from different times of year, different aspects, and dealing with the vicissitudes of shrinking glaciers and seasonal snowfalls. In total this one section of the magazine takes over 80 hours to produce. Hard work. And very cool work. Via Alpinist.

WHITE NOSE SYNDROME IS STILL SPREADING IN NORTH AMERICA, but European bats have learned how to fend off the disease. The fungus, which is now seen in bats in 20 states and four Canadian provinces, will, like beehive failure, cost billions in U.S. crop production, since bats gorge on pests that would otherwise feast on fruits and grains. One hope is that since European bats brought the disease to the U.S. and haven’t shown signs of mass die-offs they must have some coping mechanism that scientists could perhaps use to save North American bats. Via National Academy of Sciences.

TEXAS TAKES GULF OIL-SPILL SETTLEMENT AND GIVES IT TO THE BIRDS. Texas’s chapter of the Nature Conservancy has bought 80 acres of prime habitat for endangered whooping cranes, buying the land with $2 million gained from a company called MOEX Offshore that was a partner in the Deepwater Horizon spill. Texas got about $6.5 million from MOEX and says half would go to the office responsible for preserving and overseeing its land and water resources and half would be spent by the parks service. The whooping crane land is adjacent to seagrass that helps prevent coastal erosion, oyster beds, marshes, salt flats and important aquatic habitat and includes a mature forest, which is important for migratory song birds as well. Via Washington Post.

DO YOU WEAR EYE PROTECTION WHEN YOU SKI? PADDLE? RIDE? A survey that found that nearly half of outdoor recreationists don’t wear eyewear seems whack. Speaking of which, whacked…in the eye…is what one in 10 American said they’ve experienced while participating in outdoor sports and it’s shocking it isn’t higher. It’s not surprising that 40 percent of runners and 35 percent of water sports participants do not consistently wear sunglasses, because doing either while shaded can be a nuisance, but for watersports especially the danger of long-term eye damage from excess glare and UV is an issue. Via Transworld Business.

A GHOST SKI RESORT STILL HAUNTS MISSOULA. Call it a shadow of the real estate boom years, but the erstwhile Bitterroot Resort still looks like it could’ve been something. Its creator, Tom Maclay, cut 30 ski runs through his 2,900-acre family ranch nine years ago, pursuing his vision of a ski resort on Lolo Peak. Just one problem: Maclay never got U.S. Forest Service permission to develop adjacent public land and eventually found himself on the wrong side of a U.S. Attorney’s lawsuit against him for cutting down over 400 trees on Forest Service land — and his own land was auctioned off for $22.5 million in February, to the originators of his loans. Still, the makings of a resort are there, if someone smarter than Maclay wants to build it…legally. Via High Country News.

APPARENTLY SARAH PALIN ISN’T THE ONLY ALASKAN WHO LIKES TO HUNT FROM A PLANE. Too bad it can get you jail time. Kevin M. Foster pleaded guilty to same-day airborne hunting, while Kevin Foster II, 22, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession or transportation of game. Alaska game laws prohibit taking most big game on the same day a hunter flies. Meaning: That the Fosters’ use of a Cessna to corral a bull moose will cost them eight grand, jail time for pops as well as his Winchester model 70 .338-caliber rifle — and Junior’s airplane. Prosecutors said they were alerted to the illegal hunting via another hunter in the area, who saw the plane dive bombing repeatedly. Via Anchorage Daily News.

ROULEUR MAGAZINE HAS BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING SOME GORGEOUS photojournalism back to the sport of cycling — doing for road cycling what hasn’t been done by newsstand “glossies” either in the U.S. or in Europe. But capturing those images is not without risks. Rouleur photographer Taz Darling was hit at the finish of the Scheldeprijs on rain-soaked roads in Belgium last week. Darling suffered a broken collarbone, ruptured spleen, and fractured eye socket. According to Belgian TV several riders hit the much slicker, race-sponsored logos painted across the road at the finish and went into skids. Via Road.cc.

WANNA KNOW WHY PRO ROADIES WANT THEIR OWN LEAGUE? Consider the UCI’s latest novella-sized rule book: 63 pages in total. Longtime cycling journalist Alan Cote muses on the absurdity of this phone book of retrograde thinking, not least of which is a page regarding precise sock height. But it gets yet more head-scratching when it comes to gearing. No larger a combo than 52×13 for the flats will be allowed (your local out-of-shape amateur sprinter runs stouter gearing), and no easier climbing gearing than 39×23. News flash to the UCI: Bike manufacturers whose money sponsors your races have been selling bikes with compact chainrings (50/34 or 50/36) for nearly a decade. Cote’s fictional “source” aptly summarizes the lack of logic: “No one else seems willing to stand in the way of progress and reason, so the UCI must.” Via Red Kite Prayer.

AS LINDSEY VONN’S MARRIAGE CRUMBLED, SHE FOUND NEW SUCCESS. The alpine racer split with her husband of four years, Thomas, in an acrimonious divorce that both call a “mess,” but the 27-year-old had her best year ever on the World Cup, winning in disciplines that weren’t her strength and dominating those that were. “This year, I realized that I’m the only one in the start gate and I’m the only one deciding what line to ski and how fast,” Vonn said. “That was really empowering. It was kind of like being a kid again, skiing for yourself and having fun with it.” Without Thomas as coach and mentor, Vonn found support among her fellow ski teamers and even her sometimes chilly relationship with rival Julia Mancuso began to thaw. Via NY Times.

ITALIAN SIMONE MORO IS GOING FOR EVEREST AND LHOTSE on the same expedition — again. The 45-year-old has summited Everest four times, but nobody’s completed the attempt to link Everest and Lhotse. The difficulty is that even though the route is obvious: descend Everest after summiting, then head up the South Col to the top of Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain on earth, it means spending an eternity above 8,000 meters. Moro tried it in 2010, only to have his gear at his highest camp swept away in an avalanche and his base camp belongings stolen. Now he’s headed back and brothers Helmut and Hans Peter Karbon will climb and film with him. As if the effort weren’t difficult enough, the goal is to do the climb with no oxygen. Via Montagna.tv.

RESORT OPERATOR STARWOOD IS DEVELOPING A HUGE SKI AREA IN CHINA. Starwood and Sheraton are opening resort properties in China’s Changbai Mountains in August. The area is home to plenty of skiing already, and the world’s longest toboggan run, but in a growing sign that the Chinese want higher-class amenities at home, both Starwood and Sheraton are extending brands in the country, hoping to get a toehold on a potentially huge recreation market. And although the Changbai have skiing, the region is vast enough for much greater lift-served development — not to mention, full-fledged resorts. Many of the villages are relatively sleepy, lacking the beds and other amenities that have seen Chinese skiers head abroad instead. Via Marketwatch.com.

ONE WAY TO BATTLE AN INVASIVE SPECIES: SHOOT IT. The island of Boca Grande, Florida, has more than 10,000 iguanas thanks to pet importers who brought them (and many other non-native species) to the Sunshine State over the years and owners who released them into the wild. One problem: These reptiles have no natural predators but prey on local species, both fauna and flora. George Cera was hired to do something about it and he’s shot thousands of them. In this video, he explains the unsettling reality: That it’s sad to have to kill the iguanas, but the option of letting them run amok just isn’t viable, either. Via Vimeo.

41 HOURS, 5,000 FEET, AND NEXT TO NO SLEEP. Mt. Dickey, in the Ruth Gorge of the Alaska Range, is known for its towering, nearly sheer granite eastern face that’s a full mile long. It poses great challenges still, not least because decent weather windows are scant. One way around those obstacles is to avoid taking on the east face in full, which is just what Americans John Frieh and Doug Shepherd did while setting a new route called No Such Thing as a Bargain Promise (Alaska Grade VI, WI5 M6R). It picks a super delicate line up the unclimbed northeast face that included thin-to-overhanging ice as well as very tough pro. And, knowing they had good weather the pair avoided danger by sleeping only one night: In total they flew in, climbed, descended the peak, and flew out in just three days. Via Climbing.

TOM BOONEN’S BREAK FROM THE PACK with a full 30 miles to the finish at yesterday’s Paris-Roubaix was one of the gutsier road race performances of the past decade. No rival got close to him in the last 10 kilometers, even as he had zero team support relative to a group of riders from Team Sky that tried and failed to chase him down. But despite winning by 1:39 vs. second place, Boonen has nothing on Eddie Merckx, who in 1970 pulled ahead of the pack by over five minutes — absurd in a race as technical as “The Hell of the North.” Via Eurosport.

BIG OIL PROTECTS PACIFIC CREST TRAIL: President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors program is attempting to make good on a promise to direct fees made from off-shore and land-based oil drilling toward the purchase of public lands in 15 states across the U.S. The USFS will spend $40.6 million on 27 projects, from sections of of the PCT in California, Oregon, and Washington, to one of the last large, contiguous tracts of forest land in the East, in Tennessee. The feds were careful to say that “lands are purchased from willing sellers at fair-market value or through partial or outright donations of property” to head off critics who argue that the purchases are “big government interference.” Via Boston.com.

IF LOUSY SNOW HURT MUCH OF THE COUNTRY’S SKI RESORTS, IT HURT COLORADO’S MORE. 2012 will go down in the books as the third worst in terms of snowfall in most every U.S. ski resort region. Squaw went from a 2011 with 800 inches to just 170 this winter, and in Colorado even snowmaking couldn’t save ski resorts from one of the driest Marches on record. Nationally ski participation is expected to have dipped with the lack of snow by 10 million skier visits for the first time in 20 years. Colorado might be hurt more than almost any other state, though, because skiing is the second-largest industry there. Via Denver Post.

COLORADO WHINERS ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT HOSTING A PRO CYCLING RACE. You would think Coloradans would be stoked to have one of the biggest professional cycling races in the United States in their backyard — this is the state where people are born wearing Lycra, after all — but small towns along the route are beefing that the peloton does nothing for them. “We have no choice. They are coming through here, and we have nothing to say about it,” said David Wright, owner of the Golden Burro restaurant in Leadville. “There are a lot of us up here who are just about sick of this.” Wright is closing his restaurant during this summer’s USA Pro Cycling Challenge, as he does for the Leadville 100. There’s half full, half empty, and empty-minded… Via Denver Post.

CAFFEINE AND EXERCISE FIGHT SKIN CANCER? Crazy as it sounds, the combination of C8H10N4O2 and exercise appears to connected to a reduction in the incidence and severity of cancer — specifically, in mice that were bred to be at high risk for skin cancer, the rodents that took caffeine and ran on a wheel experienced 62 percent fewer tumors. The volume of the tumors were 85 percent lower, too. Also, either one on its own reduced tumors: Caffeine alone knocked down incidence 27 percent and volume 61 percent, while exercise by itself dropped things 35 percent and 70 percent. And the dynamic duo together reduces inflammation and fat more effectively than on their own. Fire up the espresso machine, I’m getting healthy! Via American Association for Cancer Research.

KELLY SLATER IS PIMPING FOR A FOOD CHAIN. The 11-time world champ is the brand ambassador for a small SoCal restaurant group called Daphne’s California Greek, but he says it isn’t about the money. “I’m interested when someone represents a certain philosophy that I’m aligned with,” Slater tells Entrepreneur, “and I’ll say I like it if I like it, with or without a sponsorship.” The 16-store chain just rebranded itself, retooled with a healthy, active approach, signed up Slater, and has built a small surf of young surfers, who range from 11 to 18. Via Entrepreneur.

“THE OFFICIAL SWIMWEAR OF MT. HOOD MEADOWS” HAS A SURREAL rung to it, but that’s exactly what a Portland, Oregon, bathing suit shop was just named. Popina, a retro boutique, is promoting the ski area and vice versa this month — you can buy lift tickets at the shop for $15 off and, if you show up in a bathing suit at Mt. Hood on any April weekend, get 20 percent off at the shop. But to all you salivating dudes heading for Mt. Hood, don’t get too excited…these retro granny suits have more cover up than Watergate. Via Oregon Live.

THE INNOVATIVE BODY WORLD FOLKS HAVE BEEN SLICING AND DICING up critters for a radical new exhibit at London’s Natural History Museum, and even if you aren’t anywhere near the U.K. you can check out the innards of giraffes, elephants, and more — nearly a Noah’s ark full — through a photo story at Notcot. For the Animal Inside Out show, the creatures are “plastinated” — their body fluids are replaced with polymers under vaccuum, leaving muscles, bones, blood vessels, and more perfectly preserved. There nearly 100 exhibits, and, the show runs from tomorrow until September 16. Via Notcot.

ASPEN MOUNTAIN WANTS OUT OF THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE because of the business organization’s policy on climate science. Skico, the mayor of Aspen, and many residents say they want the town to divorce itself from the organization’s continued backing of legislation that’s unfriendly to the environment — and to skiing in particular. Auden Schendler, a V.P. at Skico, says that resorts and ski manufacturers have to scream about these subjects: “I think the next step is to become activists on climate,” Schendler said. “It’s uncomfortable, seems outside the scope of the organizational mission, irritates people, and isn’t all that much fun. But it is essential for the survival of the industry.” Via Real Aspen.

BEATING A 15-FOOT PYTHON TO DEATH WITH A RAKE got a now-former Florida Forest Service ranger in hot water. It was Jean Bernard Tarrete’s last day of his career and he and co-worker came upon the massive non-native Burmese python. The duo wrestled with it by the tail, hacked at the head with a sharp rake used to create fire breaks, and then posted the video to YouTube. The Forest Service wasn’t stoked — a live snake could have been used to train other rangers and service dogs. “We appreciate the efforts of these rangers to capture and kill the python but we absolutely do not condone the way it was handled,” Hill said, saying it was a decidedly inhumane death. Via ABC Action News.

CAN YOU REALLY BLAME INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BIKERS behaving badly? In a column at Grist the author quotes president of the League of American Bicyclists, Andy Clarke, saying, “I can understand why people behave the way they do on a bike, because the system isn’t set up to help them.” True, he also acknowledges that the defensive response of cyclists brings plenty of its own negative connotations, but the story doesn’t go nearly far enough to explain that, though the law may say bikes are entitled to the road, reality says being a jerk to drivers and pedestrians endangers everyone who rides. Via Grist.

BIKE SADDLES ARE BAD FOR WOMEN’S PRIVATES, TOO, not just men’s, a new study from Yale shows. Well, duh. Any time you’re putting significant, extended pressure on the perineum you can expect tingling, numbness, and discomfort, and that’s just what 48 women cyclists who rode their gear in Yale’s lab reported. The problem is exacerbated by riding in the drops or aero bars, which create more force down there. The solution? Unfortunately, if you like your cycling traditional, not much — ride less, don’t use the drops, get a noseless saddle. Via NY Times.

WOLF CREEK OUTLINES ITS PLANS FOR EXPANSION. Last week at a public hearing Davey Pitcher, owner of Colorado’s Wolf Creek, outlined the specifics of the mountain’s proposed expansion, although Pitcher was quick to point out that these were ideas, and nothing was a done deal. The coolest part of the expansion would include a new tram lift east of Horseshoe Bowl that would add an additional 720 acres to the mountain’s terrain. But other changes, including replacement of several lifts, and adding a few shorter ones, would help out beginners, too, by moving lift lines to better mirror the fall line so that traverses and cat tracks would be shorter or disappear altogether. Via Valley Courier.

IS CLIMBING THE ONLY SPORT THAT’S BEEN “COMMODIFIED” TO DEATH? Hardly, but blogger and author Peter Beal argues that the “joie de exploration” that was once the lifeblood of climbing has been undermined by the banality of the perpetually “stoked” jock with nothing to say and no higher agenda than collecting a check. If you climb (or for that matter, ski, surf, or mountain bike) the entire post is thought provoking, though this may be the money quote: “The idea that climbing was a significant pursuit that created and carried real personal meaning and was not merely an opportunity for punchy visuals and superficial chatter seems to be on life support.” Via Mountains and Water.

THE END OF LODGEPOLE PINE FORESTS? Scientists at Oregon State University say pine beetles spell doom for the future of the lodgepole: extinction by the end of this century. The scary part is that there are already 750,000 squares miles (an area greater than the size of the state of Washington) of dead standing lodgepole pine across the Pacific Northwest. Those trees spread all the way from northern California to Alaska — a scary amount of fuel just waiting to burn. One solution may be to mine the dead trees (which the forest industry can’t use for the building trade) for biofuel, since leaving them to stand is akin to leaving a bonfire in the woods and walking away. Via Oregon State University.

SOME OF WASHINGTON’S BEST DOWNHILL TRAILS WERE SHUT DOWN beginning yesterday — the unauthorized network on Slide Mountain is being decommissioned by the state Department of Natural Resources and patrols will be handing out $124 tickets on weekends if you’re caught riding. The DNR was almost apologetic. “We’re so far behind the curve,” said the department’s Mark Mauren. “The public, in their desire to have access to the outdoors, had to go out and create their own.” Still, illegal is illegal and though bike groups have petitioned to keep the trails open while a solution is found, Washington said nyet. Via Bellingham Herald.

GROWING POT IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ISN’T THE ISSUE, cutting trees is. Large marijuana plantations in the Santa Cruz mountains are creating fire and erosion hazards because farmers are clear-cutting trees to make space for plantations while leaving the dead wood behind rather than removing it. Oh, and there’s the illegal part, too, but fire safety officials say they don’t care if the pot operations are for medical marijuana or are clandestine — they’re concerned about the huge potential fire danger these farms are creating, and the piles of illegal timber they’re stacking up. Via Santa Cruz Sentinel

CLIMATE SCIENTISTS ARE SLOWLY EDGING toward connecting weird weather — tornadoes in January, 80-degree heat in Vermont in March — to climate change. A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that specific events, from heat waves to coastal flooding, will be worse due to climate change. But scientists are still very cautious about tying any specific event to human activity, and that’s in part because of incomplete data going back into the 20th century. For instance, comparing today’s hurricanes and heat waves to those in the past doesn’t help much if there isn’t reliable hurricane and heat wave data dating to the early 20th century. Via NY Times.

THERE ARE LOTS OF WAYS TO REPURPOSE SPORTS EQUIPMENT, such the Adirondack ski chair, among others, but they often fail because their creators forget that the goal isn’t just to repurpose — it’s to make something excellent. So with that, we bring you two defunct bicycle rims transformed into a very mod-looking hanging lamp. To anyone not looking closely it’s just a lamp — it’s not a bunch of bike parts. And to us, that makes this one of the cooler DIY projects you can do, because the achievement is that you don’t have to be a gear geek to love the end result. Via thebirdwheel.

THE SO-CALLED “ROGUE VIKING” WHO SAILED TO ANTARCTICA without authorization has been detained by the Chilean military. Norwegian Jarle Andhoy illegally sailed from New Zealand to the southern continent in search, he said, of what happened to his three comrades who disappeared along with his boat, the Berserk, during a storm a year ago while Andhoy and a companion were attempt to take ATVs to the South Pole. Recent reports suggested Andhoy’s current vessel, Nilaya, had a broken mast and was out of diesel fuel, but it was apprehended in Chilean waters en route to Argentina. There’s no word if Andhoy’s been charged with a crime and, if so, what it would be. Via Stuff.

ULTRAMARATHONER MICAH TRUE WAS FOUND DEAD Saturday evening in New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness about three miles from where he was last seen. The legendary race director of the Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon had been missing since going on a run last Tuesday. His body was found sitting next to a creek, his legs in the water, with no visible sign of trauma. True was beloved and an inspiration to many in the running community, and he achieved a celebrity status after being a central character in the book Born to Run. “When he was out on the trail running, it was like someone just rang the school bell and said, ‘Recess.’ It was utter playfulness,” said Chris McDougall, author of the book. Via Associated Press.

KAYAKER PREPARES FOR SEVEN PLUMMETS In one of the more amusing April Fool’s posts from Sunday, Kraig Becker writes of novice kayaker Bob “Gnarly” Goldstein planning to drop Niagara Falls, Iguazu Falls, and Victoria Falls. If you’re not tickled at this sendup of the typical “extreme” athlete by mid post, you will be when you read a few paragraphs later that Goldstein just learned to kayak down at his local YMCA. Via Gadling.

THERE ARE LOTS OF STOPS ON THE WORLD CUP MOUNTAIN BIKE CIRCUIT where the riders may as well be shredding pavement — the courses are that lacking in technical challenges and it’s just a horse race between guys built like roadies. Apparently UCI’s first stop this year, in South Africa, wasn’t any such slice of cake. Check this video from the wheel of American Adam Craig and watch how smoothly he drops a log staircase (fast forward to 2:44) and think how you’d fare. And Craig? Despite how good he looks here he’s still coming back from a bad ACL tear and was sucking wind on race day to pull a 55th. Via Cyclingnews.

LEGENDARY AUSTRALIAN SURFER MICHAEL PETERSON DIED Wednesday of an apparent heart attack in his home on the Gold Coast, and while the tributes have been rolling in, none give a better sense of the 1970s icon than a profile from Surfer Magazine. Peterson was named 16th all-time greatest surfer by the magazine, and the accompanying bio gives a powerful window in the tortured schizophrenic, drug-abusing, unbelievably talented regular foot. “Five years after Nat Young was christened “The Animal,” a gangly, scruffy kid from Coolangatta came along who made Nat look like a koala bear by comparison. Aloof, awkward, and monosyllabic on land, Michael Peterson was transformed upon immersion into saltwater. His surfing was frenetic and savage, a personal blitzkrieg on the idyllic green walls running down into Rainbow Bay.” Check it out at Surfer.

JUST HOW HIGH IS MOUNT EVEREST? Despite being surveyed numerous times, there’s still disagreement on the actual elevation of the world’s highest peak — it’s actually getting taller, fyi — and North Face athlete Conrad Anker is leading an expedition to the Himalaya to measure it with the latest in GPS technology. Accompanying Anker and his TNF crew will be a group from the Mayo Clinic, who will be studying, probing, and measuring the climbers’ bodies for more insight to the effects of high elevation. One of the avenues they’ll be exploring: markers that suggest how you’ll perform at altitude are similar to those that indicate cardiovascular disease. Via NPR Science Friday.

GETTING OLDER USED TO CARRY SOME BENEFITS, but Purgatory ski area outside Durango, Colorado, is rolling back the red carpet it used to extend to senior skiers. The resort is upping prices for grey-haired rippers — up to $250 more for early-bird purchases. The reason? Grandma and Grandpa are living too long and getting after it too hard, and dang it, Purgatory isn’t making as much dough. “People are living longer, healthier lives and are more active later in life,” Oyler said. “We’ve analyzed historical data, and people in the age group 65 and older are using their passes more and more due to their healthy lifestyles.” Via Durango Herald.

SNOW BLADING HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE OLYMPICS at the last minute after an emergency meeting of the International Olympic Committee, along with a new TV-friendly sport called The Gauntlet, reports Whistler’s Pique News Magazine. Bladers will make three jumps over a 90-foot gap — the first inverted, the second a spin with at least 540 degrees of rotation, and the third a combination of grabs, spins, flips, and hand gestures. “The Gauntlet, which was banned in several countries until organizers agreed to remove live animals from the event, is best described as an obstacle course with jumps, berms, open pits, spinning blades, and flaming hoops. Dogs will no longer chase the snow bladers down the hill under the new FIS regulations, but to keep the sense of danger and urgency the course will now be lined by international judges wielding paintball guns and water cannons.” This is gonna be the most awesome Olys EVER. Via Pique.

SOME WHALES AND DOLPHINS HAVE FINER SONAR THAN ANYTHING EVER DEVISED BY HUMANS. Scientists at the University of Hawaii say that toothed whales and dolphins, collectively known as odontocetes, can distinguish between two objects that differ in width by less than the thickness of a human hair. Their echolocation is the product of both how they direct a sound beam and the ability to measure the size of the reflection coming off an object to decipher not just the size of an object but also its density. The latter is useful in measuring whether an object is a fish, and if so, how meaty or fatty it might be. Via BBC.

SKI FOR CHEAP…IN POLAND Hard by the Czech border, the town of Bialka Tatrazanksa has built a ski resort where winters once killed the economy. While the Tatra range has long seen summer tourists who come for geothermal spas and hiking, entrepreneurs recently built Kotelnica Mountain. It started in 2000, when 50 farmers put their money together and received a loan — they also installed an Italian ski lift from another community in Poland that had never had it installed. Ten years later, Bialka Tatrzanska, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Krakow, is a major Polish ski resort. And it’s drawing dough from the rest of Europe this winter especially, when the snow’s been great, and a mid-winter, 14-day lift pass costs justs $250. Via Philly.com.

THAT HIGH-ALTITUDE HEADACHE CAN (MAYBE) BE CURED BY HEADACHE MEDS. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine report that taking ibuprofen can reduce the likelihood of symptoms related to altitude sickness. The study was small (86 hikers who ascended to 12,570 feet), and the dosages were relatively high: Four doses of ibuprofen of 600mg each in a 24-hour period. Half the hikers took nothing. In a questionnaire following the hike 43 percent of the hikers who took ibuprofen reported developing symptoms like headache, nausea, and dizziness, compared with 69 percent of those who didn’t take the drug. Via Time.

BE VERY UNAFRAID OF THIS JELLYFISH, IT’S HERE TO PROTECT AND SERVE. The “biomimetic jellyfish,” dubbed the Robojelly, is about the size of your hand. University of Texas at Dallas and Virginia Tech researchers invented it as a remote ocean monitor. But the really trick part: It runs on hydrogen and oxygen interacting with its surface wrapper of platinum. That causes a chemical reaction, very similar to the way a battery works — minus the need for any external recharging. Researchers say it could be deployed at beaches to monitor pollution or, a little creepily, be like an oceangoing drone (since military backing was involved in its development). Via CNET.

ANTI-DOPING AUTHORITIES HAVE A NEW SCOURGE — GREEN TEA. If you’re trying to juice, one tried and true M.O. is testosterone injections, which aid recovery. Ask Floyd Landis, who used the male hormone in the Tour de France. To catch testosterone dopers, authorities look for an unusual ratio of testosterone to a hormone called epitestosterone. Now researchers have found that compounds called catechins, found in green and white tea, inhibit the appearance of an unusual ratio. Don’t dope? Drinking the tea may provide a natural testosterone booster, too. Do dope? Bummer: Researchers alerted the World Anti-Doping Agency and suggest that blood tests be added to urine testing, since tea won’t mask extra testosterone in blood. Via New Scientist.

SNOW KING’S BUYER WOULD BE GETTING A CHUNK OF HISTORY, not just another ski hill, says a report by the Teton County Historic Preservation Board. The board wants potential buyers (and perhaps town movers and shakers) to understand that Jackson Hole’s Snow King isn’t just a ski hill, but a piece of sporting history, and an important part of Jackson’s heritage. The board found out that the King qualifies for National Register of Historic Places status, since it was the first ski hill in Wyoming. Among the data dredged up about the King’s colorful past: In the 1920s skiers would walk the face and bomb back down on super long and narrow wooden planks, often launching massive kickers at the bottom. Via Billings Gazette.

IN THE LAND OF LAISSEZ FAIRE, A LAWSUIT THREATENS SKI GUIDING. A prosecutor in France wants to ban two ski instructors for five years after a 2009 avalanche in Orelle cost the life of a client, buried for 15 minutes by an avalanche while skiing off piste. The prosecutor, Patrick Quincy, says his goal is to make an example of the instructors and of the entirety of the guiding profession, which he calls totally unregulated. Quincy says that off-piste skiing and guiding has “…developed in a dangerous manner, and can be a killer.” He wants to see more regulation because he says instructors ignored warnings from the ski patrol that deemed the slope that slid a permanent danger zone. Via Piste Hors.

ARE WILDLIFE CORRIDORS BIPARTISAN? The transportation bill that just passed the Senate (and is being held up by the House) contains funding to create wildlife corridors to bisect busy highways more safely. The funding should, at least in theory, be non-partisan. Hunters, drivers, and anyone pro-family should be in favor of reducing deadly car-on-animal accidents. But where to put those crossings? A volunteer study that asks drivers to report wildlife along Washington’s Snoqualmie Pass — the I-90 Wildlife Watch — has enabled scientists to crowd-source precisely where to implement the crossings in Washington State, and Montana would very much like to emulate the idea. Now about that Federal dough… Via Seattle Times.

AT DOUBLE THE SIZE OF WHISTLER-BLACKCOMB, B.C.’s new Jumbo Mountain project would dwarf any new ski resort development in decades. Last week B.C.’s minister of forests and lands signed off on the plan (which had been in the works since the early 1990s), to build the aptly named 15,000-acre resort west of the town of Invermere, in the Purcell Range. This will be North America’s only year-round glacier-based ski resort. The plan calls for 23 lifts, including gondola service to a 9,800-foot summit. But will it really happen? Members of the nearby Ktunaxa Nation, which claims the site as part of its traditional territory, are angry, and environmentalists say that the plan doesn’t provide for a grizzly bear management strategy. Via Vancouver Sun.

AT THE NATIONAL BIKE SUMMIT IN D.C. ALL THE BUZZ WAS ABOUT…health care? Yep. Jason Gaikowski, director of sales for the Bloomington, Minnesota-based wholesale distributor Quality Bicycle Products said that his company’s health program includes cash incentives to bike to work — $3 a day. And he presented a compelling argument for how every sort of company can save a bundle by encouraging cycling. While the nation’s businesses (and individuals) are facing crushing health care costs Quality’s costs are GOING DOWN. And Gaikowski argued this isn’t just a decision for private employers. He made the case that QBP’s example ought to be heard by policy makers: Investment in infrastructure that supports active transportation could bring down the costs of health care, he said. Via Streetsblog.

IN A WELL-ARGUED COMMENTARY IN FAVOR OF REMOVING CERRO TORRE‘S BOLTS, Rock & Ice’s Andrew Bisharat wonders if those who defend Cesare Maestri’s Compressor Route as sacred would also defend the “…thousands of canisters of oxygen that currently litter the slopes of Everest because they are pieces of history.” He calls both the bolting of Cerro Torre and the unzipping of that line anomalous events in climbing, since the 1970 bolting didn’t unleash a trend of high-altitude sport lines and, he writes, neither will their removal cause rampant bolt chopping elsewhere. Via Evening Sends.

NASA PHOTOS COMPARING NORTH AMERICAN SNOW cover circa early March 2011 vs. March 2012 clearly show the lack of whiteness throughout much of the U.S. Huge swaths of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota as well as nearly the entirety of New England are brown, not snowy. And while the 2011 pic shows much of Oregon, Washington, and large portions of California blanketed, a much greater proportion of those states’ mountains did not get lasting dumpage this winter. NASA climatologists blame the meek winter on a strong La Niña that pushed moisture northward, and an intense Arctic Oscillation that held that moisture at polar latitudes. So Alaska gets record snow — and Killington gets dandelions in March. Via NASA.

JESUS LOST HIS HAND. The infamous statue atop the ski area at Big Mountain, Montana, had one of its hands snapped off by an overzealous high five in early February on the same day the Forest Service said it would allow the 60-year-old Messiah to continue stoking skiers and snowboarders as they disembark a lift. The statue has been the source of lawsuits and conflict between those who argue religious icons have no place on public lands and those who say the son of Mary is perfectly acceptable where he is. As for the hand, it was returned to the ski resort’s lost and found department and will be reattached some time this summer. Via Billings Gazette.

ANY TIME YOU’RE CAUGHT IN AN AVALANCHE you triggered yourself, the mistake is obviously yours, and while post-mortem assessments of fatal avalanche accidents might seem unkind, they play an important role in learning from unfortunate decisions of others. In the case of well-known blogger Steve Romeo and friend Chris Onufer, who died several weeks ago in a slide in the Tetons, officials have studied their route and not surprisingly place the blame on the duo. “They chose to go up a known avalanche path ascending into an avalanche starting zone,” Jenny Lake Ranger Rich Baerwald said. Another ranger suggested Romeo hadn’t learned from numerous close calls. “He had more [avie encounters] in the last few years than I’ve had in my lifetime,” said Chris Horner, a 30-year Teton ranger. On the other hand, the head of the search effort that found their bodies said, “Different people are willing to accept different levels of risk. I hate second-guessing people.” For the full analysis, see the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

“MOTHER NATURE HAS NOT BEEN KIND” to New England ski resorts, says Mt. Snow’s Dave Bleeker — the highly anomalous warmth of late March devastated the Northeast snowpack. With temperatures climbing as high as the 80s in some areas, the melting has come fast, leaving only 25 percent of Vermont and New Hampshire’s trails open. Just a few days ago, that figure was 50 percent, and at this time last year 85 percent of the runs were open. Via Boston.com.

IT’S NO WONDER WHISTLER WANTS TO HOST THE X-GAMES: Nabbing the winter event would generate $77 million in revenue for the western Canada town, including $17 million in direct tax revenue. It makes the $250,000 the town, the ski resort, and the local tourism board have each promised to support the event look like a smart bet with huge upside. Whistler is gunning for a 10-day Global X Games event beginning in April 2013 and running for at least three years. Nine finalists are in the running for three X-Games tournaments, and ESPN will announced its decision in April. Via Pique.

WOLVES IN MICHIGAN’S ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARK could soon be extinct. The wolves there aren’t a unique species — they’re believed to have swum to the wilderness island chain in western Lake Superior about a half century ago following moose that had migrated south from Canada. But the pack has dwindled down to just nine wolves, and scientists are at a crossroads about what to do, if anything. Letting the pack die off might lead new wolves to come to the islands, although the moose population has diminished. Or park managers could artificially boost wolf numbers there. The argument for having wolves there is strong: Overgrazing by an unchecked moose population in the early part of the 20th century led to denuding of most of the islands’ native forests. Via Ashland Current.

THE WINTER THAT WASN’T IN THE LOWER 48 HAS BEEN JUST THE OPPOSITE IN ALASKA. Anchorage is just 3.3 inches shy of setting the city’s all-time record for snowfall. Nearly 11 feet of snow has fallen on Anchorage this winter, forcing the city to haul away 500 million pounds of snow to clear almost 2,500 miles of roads. To put that in perspective, the 125,000 truckloads of snow hauled by city crews would stack up to almost 1,200 feet if they were dumped onto a football field surrounded by walls. The snowfall is double Anchorage’s historical average of 69.5 inches. Via MSNBC.

CYCLISTS TEND TO THINK THAT THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF riding is nonexistent. But a piece in the Guardian recently examined the C02 emissions of building and delivering a bike, and all its components, from all over the globe, and found that (shocker!), there’s plenty of carbon going into the manufacturer of bicycles. The article (worth a read) was fairly shredded by commenters, the bulk of which said: Please instead compare the carbon footprint of building a car vs. a bike, and then the carbon footprint of the life of the car vs. the life of a bike. One valid question raised in the piece is why cyclists/bike makers have yet to create a streamlined way to recycle old bikes/parts. Via Guardian.

THERE’S JUST RIDING ALONG, AND THERE’S JUST RIDING ALONG DRUNK…on a stolen bike. Last Friday in Aspen a guilt-ridden, unidentified cyclist left a stolen bike next to the Aspen Police Department. The note, left, was on the saddle of the black Trek. Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn said while they recover lots of stolen bikes, this was a first. “There are plenty of drunks who take bikes in the middle of the night, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone confess to it,” he said. “This is a very Aspen story, isn’t it?” Or maybe not. As with so many bike heists the cops say they have no clue who it belongs to, and it will go on auction if an owner doesn’t come forth to claim it. Via Aspen Times.

THE WINTER THAT WASN’T IN THE LOWER 48 HAS BEEN JUST THE OPPOSITE IN ALASKA. Anchorage is just 3.3 inches shy of setting the city’s all-time record for snowfall. Nearly 11 feet of snow has fallen on Anchorage this winter, forcing the city to haul away 500 million pounds of snow to clear almost 2,500 miles of roads. To put that in perspective, the 125,000 truckloads of snow hauled by city crews would stack up to almost 1,200 feet if they were dumped onto a football field surrounded by walls. The snowfall is double Anchorage’s historical average of 69.5 inches. Via MSNBC.

THE LACK OF SNOW IN MUCH OF THE UPPER MIDWEST has already sparked over 70 wildfires in Wisconsin, and it’s only March. It’s also been dry and warm in the Dakotas and Minnesota, with burn bans widespread across the country. In Montana, firefighters and fire researchers are coming to grips with the multifaceted dangers of beetle-killed forests. Standing dead trees provide much better fuel for dangerous crown fires, and there’s a stronger likelihood that such trees will fall on firefighters more often or fall ahead of a burn and stack, forming a ready coal bed of fuel. Via Missoulian.

CYCLISTS TEND TO THINK THAT THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF riding is nonexistent. But a piece in the Guardian recently examined the C02 emissions of building and delivering a bike, and all its components, from all over the globe, and found that (shocker!), there’s plenty of carbon going into the manufacturer of bicycles. The article (worth a read) was fairly shredded by commenters, the bulk of which said: Please instead compare the carbon footprint of building a car vs. a bike, and then the carbon footprint of the life of the car vs. the life of a bike. One valid question raised in the piece is why cyclists/bike makers have yet to create a streamlined way to recycle old bikes/parts. Via Guardian.

THE 26-INCH-WHEELED MOUNTAIN BIKE IS QUICKLY BECOMING A FOSSIL, at least if you look at sales over the past 12 months. 100,000 more 29ers were sold in 2011 vs. 2010, adding up to $50 million in sales and an increase of more than 90 percent vs. 2010 — which was already a boom year for 29ers. Specialized says 29ers are 49 percent of sales — and take up a much greater percentage of higher-end sales. This is true across the market, where the average-priced 29er is going for more than double the average price of a 26er. Via Bicycle Retailer.

LEGENDARY CLIMBER AND FOUNDER OF CLIMBING MAGAZINE Harvey T. Carter has died at 81. Carter was a prolific climber and along with Fred Beckey probably had more first ascents than anyone in North America (rumored at more than 5,000). He was considered a serious hard man — his nickname was “Balls” if that gives any indication. Beyond pioneering routes all over the Southwest, including on three of the four Fisher Towers, Carter was also hucking cliffs on skis long before the “extreme” era was officially crowned. And while he founded Climbing Magazine in 1970, after two years he gave it up. He wanted to be climbing, not covering climbing, and lived his passion, working as a ski patroller in Aspen to fuel a never-ending goal of hitting new challenges. Via Climbing and Aspen Times.

JEEPERS, CREEPERS, WHERE’D YOU GET THOSE MASSIVE PEEPERS? A giant squid and a swordfish are roughly the same sized animal, but a squid’s eyes are 27 times larger by volume, and scientists could never understand why. Now, at last, they have a theory. They think that the grapefruit-sized eyes of the giant squid evolved to evade their giant-er enemy, the sperm whale, which would be invisible in the murk of great ocean depths except they give off a faint, bioluminescent light, a sort of visual wake caused by the disturbance of plankton. That light would be too dim if giant squid had merely swordfish-sized eyes, so their eyes grew large enough to let them see the whales before the whales saw their dinner. Via Discovery.com.

A STUDY OF SCOTT’S FAILED EFFORT AT THE SOUTH POLE says a lot about the British character. Not about Scott the man, but about admiration for him still in the U.K. — even though he failed. Or maybe BECAUSE he did. Present day adventurer Brit Benedict Allen says that the British are sentimental for suffering, and that it’s a particularly British belief that, “It’s not about getting to the goal, it’s about the way you do it.” And writer Jeffrey Marlow argues that style points count more heavily England, which is particularly susceptible to romanticizing the effort: “Vulnerability humanizes an explorer in a way that meticulous planning and hyper-competent execution don’t.” Via Wired.

GASHERBRUM I HAS TAKEN THE LIVES OF THREE CLIMBERS. A few weeks ago Poles Adam Bielicki and Janusz Golab summited the 11th-highest (26,509-foot) peak, becoming the first climbers to do so in winter. But bitter cold (70 below at night) is one reason not to try climbing the Karakoram in winter, and Bielicki and Golab both suffered frostbite. They were also the last climbers to see Austrian Gerfried Goschl, Swiss Cedric Hahlen, and their Pakistani porter, Nisar Hussain Sadparaat (photo, left) when the trio was just 400 feet from the summit. Now an official helicopter search has found no evidence of the men, and that flight was delayed for days due to bad weather, meaning their chance of survival had already been reduced to near zero by the time of the search. Via Dawn.com.

IF YOU WANT TO STOP A BEAR ATTACK, PACK PEPPER, NOT HEAT. A new study from BYU analyzed reports of 341 bear conflicts in Alaska involving brown, black, and polar bears and found that only two percent of incidents involving the use of pepper spray resulted in people being injured, while 30 percent of people trying to hold off a bear with a gun got hurt, sometimes gravely. Bears killed 15 people who were defending themselves with guns, according to the study, while nobody wielding pepper spray was killed. In too many instances packing heat resulted in a false sense of confidence — with no plan B in case a shooter missed, a gun jammed, or the gravely injured bear charged instead of retreating. Via Jackson Hole News and Guide.

LOCAL POW UNDERWHELMING? HIT JASPER, WHERE THEY’RE ON A RECORD PACE. While much of North America enjoys (is bummed about?) an early spring, north of the border they’re getting pounded. Jasper’s Marmot Basin has had 200 inches so far this season (through middle of last week), and only needs 15 more to smash a 1998-99 record for total snowfall. And you don’t have to get the plane tix for tomorrow, either. Marmot says they’re now solid to stay open through their closing date of May 6. Via Transworld.

2008 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ADVENTURER OF THE YEAR Gregg Treinish had a novel idea a while back — why not take people who are already heading to the most extreme ends of the earth and train them as citizen scientists? Now he’s heading up just such a program, called Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. The program pairs off athletes and explorers with scientists so that expeditions turn into critical field missions that lab workers may not be fit enough to do themselves. Treinish says beyond helping science, it helps athletes channel their innate wanderlust toward something good for society. Via NYT.

LOCAL PRIDE? THIS NEW YORKER SHOULD WEAR YANKEE PIN STRIPES. Yeah, New Yorkers are a brash bunch and think they’re so special. Turns out the leopard frog recently discovered in metro NYC actually IS unique, right down to the accent of his call (scientists didn’t say if it was more Bronx cheer or Queens jeer). Luckily lab workers didn’t have to listen for the frog’s distinct rib-et to tell this new frog species from its estranged cousins (who moved out to Jersey and even as far as California a while back): They studied its DNA. And we aren’t kidding about the frog’s native hopping grounds, which are right in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. Via Wired Science.

SKI SEASON ENDS WITH A WHIMPER IN PENNSYLVANIA. It wasn’t just the lack of snow in Northeast cities that tanked skiing; it was the unusually warm temperatures in February and March that turned skiers into golfers six weeks early. This is especially true for mid-Atlantic states like PA, where traffic was only down about 15 percent this season thanks to diehard skiers and snowboarders happy for the milder weather — and the intense snowmaking that kept slopes white. But snowmaking is expensive and the lack of interest from casual skiers has forced some local mountains to shut about 45 days earlier than usual, cutting their losses. Via Pocono Record.

IN VENTURA, COUNTY CALIFORNIA THE USFS IS STILL CHARGING USER FEES TO HIKE AND BIKE. This despite a Federal appeals court ruling last month that prohibited the U.S. Forest Service from asking visitors to pay user fees to park and use national forest lands for recreation. But that only resulted in a recommendation by the USFS that the fee structure (called the Adventure Pass) be dropped — in 2013. Activists are protesting the fees right now, and suggest that anyone who receives a summons for parking or not paying up should take the matter to court, since the Ninth Circuit ruling will support their right not to pay. Via VC Reporter.

IF YOU PICKED UP A PAIR OF DYNAFIT’S RADICAL BINDINGS in November and have been super stoked at how insanely light they are, and have otherwise had zero issues, sweet. But if you’re one of .17% (what, that’s like 50 people on the planet, tops?) who’ve had the heel lift mechanism crack or bend, know that Dynafit has your back. They released word of a defect back in November, and are now clarifying the cause: hydrogen embrittlement. Basically that’s too much H introduced during forging. Never mind the cause; Dynafit says that 1. This poses no danger, since it has nothing to do with what holds the boot in place. And…2. If you’ve had the lifter fail, to ping them at service@dynafit.us. and they’ll get you warrantied. Via Unofficial Networks.

FRENCH CLIMBER ALIZEE DUFRAISSE REPEATED A GNARLY 5.14c in Siurana, Spain this past week. The route, on El Pati wall, is some of the toughest climbing on earth, not to mention, especially stout for female climbers because it’s sustained, laid back, and requires immense power. Dufraisse was more than a match both in fitness and dynamism. One move involved a heel hook at shoulder height, then laying out nearly sideways on a tiny dime-size dimple. Catch the entire Vimeo here. Via Climbing.

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S KING PINE SKI RESORT DOESN’T BOAST MUCH VERT, but the rugged little mountain two hours due north of Boston on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest offers night skiing, tubing, nordic skiing, and ice skating. And it’s been run by five generations of the same family, the Hoyts; in 1938 Milt Hoyt put in a rope tow comprised of Model A truck parts and there wasn’t a chairlift here until 1962. But being fancy hasn’t been the point. King Pine is a little learner’s mountain, in the shadow of far bigger New England resorts. It survives because it’s full of people learning, not shredding — and for newbies, that’s absolutely ideal. Via Boston.com

NEARLY 4 MILLION COULD BE HOSED by rising sea levels, says a new study. Researchers at the non-profit group Climate Central combined 2010 census results with much more accurate mapping of coasts, beaches, and tidal areas, and found that 3.7 million people live within one meter of the mean high tide level. So what? They (you?) can expect much more frequent flooding, the level of which once was extremely rare but soon to be common. Via Yale Environment 360.

THE FIRST-EVER WINTER ASCENT OF GASHERBRUM I BELONGS TO POLES Adam Bielicki and Janusz Golab, who summited the 11th-highest (26,509-foot) peak in the world on March 9th. The two climbed by the normal route up the peak’s west and northwest sides. This is only the second of Pakistan’s 8,000-meter peaks to be climbed in winter; Gasherbrum II was climbed last winter. Gasherbrum I was first summited in 1958 by an American expedition, the only 8,000 meter mountain first climbed by Americans. Via Climbing.

WHILE LOTS OF SKI RESORT VILLAGES HAVE VELVET-ROPE CLUBS that require high-roller dough to enter, an even more exclusive caliber of V.I.P. lounge exists in the woods of many Western ski resorts. These ad-hoc buildings — some no more elaborate than lean-tos and others, sprawling two-story creations — are of course smoke shacks, whose purpose is to provide an, um, oasis. Resort managers have a laissez-faire attitude about their existence but the U.S. Forest Service is increasingly cracking down, saying they pose a liability — and not to mention are illegal. Via Westword.

THERE ARE MORE FISH PER MILE ON THE SOUTH FORK OF THE SNAKE RIVER (5,177) than at any time in a quarter century. A fish count on one of the nation’s blue-ribbon fisheries points to an amazing angling season forthcoming in Idaho and also to success culling non-native rainbows to save cutthroats. One reason for the population spurt: Last year’s incredibly high-water from snow melt kept anglers away, allowing stocks to recover. Via Jackson Hole News and Guide.

RED BULL WILL TAKE OVER webcasting duties of downhill and XC World Cups in 2012. The switch from Freecaster will have two immediate effects: 1. It will be free (despite the name, Freecaster charged for some webcasts). 2. It will be in HD, provided you have the bandwidth. Red Bull also gets rights to broadcast the BMX World Champs, which matters since BMX always gets more intense in Olympic years. And maybe most important, Rob Warner will provide color commentary. If you don’t know Rob, go here and just listen. Via Red Bull.

WHILE THE NATION’S SKI BIZ SUFFERS, ASPEN BUCKS THE TREND. Skico’s skier visits were up 2.1 percent from Thanksgiving through the end of February at Aspen, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass, and Buttermilk compared with the same period last season, and that’s ahead of a record-setting season last year. And 2010-11 was a record for the industry as a whole, with 60.54 million skier visits, but this year the industry is bracing for a decline in skiing of 10-15 percent. Aspen credits its uptick to more snow earlier than Summit County resorts — and to having more loyal locals as well as glitz that draws skiers from the southern hemisphere, including Australia and Brazil. Via Aspen Times.

WHILE PRO CYCLING IS FUMBLING ABOUT STANDARDS FOR DISC BRAKES IN RACING, SRAM says it’s not waiting on production for its road and cyclocross brakes. (Shimano’s clearly not waiting, either). SRAM says disc brakes are inevitable in racing, but even more so for regular riders, where the brakes are exponentially stronger, especially in the rain but also during long descents. While some traditionalists hate the look of discs on road frames, others say that disc rotors will torque the wheels out of open dropouts (a.k.a. many people won’t close them tightly enough and then blame it on the brake design). The solution may be through-axles for road, just like on mountain bikes. Via Road.cc.

THE LITTLE ICE AGE LASTED 300 YEARS, but while scientists used to think this snowy, cold period in North America and Europe (from about 1275 to roughly the mid 1600s) was caused by some consistent accumulation of soot from volcanoes in the atmosphere, it turns out that this isn’t the case. Instead a very short, intense period of volcanic activity caused increased Arctic icing, and that lead polar ice to creep farther south, cutting off part of the Gulf Stream. That prevented warmer currents heading north, which lead to yet more icing. The feedback loop took centuries to break, and now scientists are curious if it could be made to happen again to stave off global warming. Via University of Colorado.

EIGHT PRO ROAD CYCLING TEAMS HAVE AGREED TO JOIN FORCES TO WRESTLE CONTROL of international racing away from private governing bodies. The motive behind the so-called World Series of Cycling that would kick off in 2014 is about putting more money into the pockets of racers and teams, and the ten-race series would carefully not clash with the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a Espana. The business model is similar to the team franchise plan used in the NFL and has apparently attracted a lot of investor interest, not least because it doesn’t depend as much on single-advertiser backing, a la the current system. Via Bloomberg.

THE IDITAROD TRAIL INVITATIONAL IS USUALLY A SUFFER-FEST, but this year the real winner was Mother Nature. Only 18 of 49 racers finished because epic snow caused riders to push rather than pedal nearly the entirety of the 350-mile course. The winner, Pete Basinger of Bend, finished in six days and 15 hours. Yes, that’s a average of 2.2 MPH. Basinger has won the race six times, but this year’s time was more than double last year’s. Bikers were going so slowly it looked like snowshoeing racers might beat the bikers, which has never come close to happening. Via Newsminer.com

ARIZONA SNOWBOWL WILL SPRAY ARTIFICIAL SNOW THIS WEEK, although it won’t be from the treated wastewater the mountain won the right to use after a contentious court battle that was resolved just a few weeks ago. Rather, Snowbowl will use potable water to cover less than five acres of the San Francisco Peaks to prevent bare patches during the latter half of the season. The water choice isn’t due to any sort of concession to Native Americans who oppose snowmaking from wastewater, but because the pipeline for that water is still incomplete and won’t be ready until next winter. Via Arizona Republic.

OREGON AND CALIFORNIA WON’T SEE DAMS COME DOWN ANY TIME SOON. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said recently that lack of action in Congress has stalled a landmark 2010 agreement to remove four dams in the water-short Klamath Basin. Congress has to give Salazar authority to rule on dam removal, but bills introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Rep. Mike Thompson in California have been stuck in committee. The respective bills aim at getting water to farmers and saving fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. Via Oregonian.

IS FOX ABOUT TO DEBUT ELECTRONIC SUSPENSION? James Huang with cyclingnews.com is speculating that Fox might be toying with a terrain-responsive electronic fork. Don’t forget that the brand makes automotive and moto suspensions, and in that arena reactive suspension designs are already common. For bikes the challenge isn’t the tech — it’s the batteries. Canadian XCer Geoff Kabush was spied racing with a proto fork and Shimano’s bulky Di2 battery pack on his bike (borrowed from electronic road shifters). Something lighter and more compact would have to be devised for any sort of viable resale. Via Bike Radar.

THE REASON PRO SURFING CONTESTS WERE HELD IN NYC AND SAN FRANCISCO is obvious: money. With surf brands struggling to sell boardshorts (we’re talking to you, Billabong), the pressure is on to raise the visibility and bring pros closer to where people actually buy stuff (hint: not Fiji). Much has been made of the two urban stops in 2011, and now the Wall Street Journal is taking a peek at the finances of it all. The top prize at some comps is $75,000 — lots of coin, but meager by the standards of professional sports. The U.S. Open in Huntington Beach, California, pulled one million spectators and generated $21 million in spending. But still…surfing should be surfing. “The sport should be about crowning champions, even if the industry is about selling board shorts. It’s a tough marriage to work out sometimes,” said hall of fame surfer Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew. Via WSJ.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO REMAIN FASCINATED WITH ÖTZI the Iceman, the 5,300-year-old mummified body found in the ice of the Ötzal Alps in Germany, as research continues to reveal his secrets. According to a recent study of his genome, Ötzi most likely had brown eyes, was at genetic risk of heart disease, and was lactose intolerant (“It’s the altitude, I’m telling you!). He also had traces of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. Despite possibly suffering from that, as well as arteriosclerosis, it took an arrow wound to the shoulder to bring him down. Via Scientific American.

IF CROSS-COUNTRY RACING IS TOO LYCRA AND downhill is too aggro, you may be stoked to hear about the arrival of the Big Mountain Enduro series. The races are focused on adventure riding, where a trail- or all-mountain bike is ideal, the terrain is challenging, and the routes are epically cool and all-day long. The series will be anchored by The Whole Enchilada Enduro in Moab, which bombs 7,000 feet over 30 miles. Plus, there’s a race from the Continental Divide Trail to Steamboat, as well as one that climbs over Kennebec Pass in Durango. The Enchilada will be the coolest though, because when you get to Porcupine Rim you can take any line you know to the finish — there won’t be any course tape. Via Bike Radar.

IF PARTISAN GRIDLOCK IS GRIPPING THE ISSUE OF CLIMATE CHANGE in Washington, it’s just possible the insurance business can break the logjam. Last week members of the insurance industry called for a national policy related to climate and weather. They said the U.S. needs a massive shoring up of infrastructure and standards as the costs of extreme weather are mounting ever upward. Cynthia McHale at Ceres reinsurance put it simply when she told Congress that costs of recent hurricanes and tornadoes have zilch to do with believing in climate “theory,” and ignoring those costs and trends ignores not only science but reality. Via Insurance Network.

WOLF CREEK PASS COULD GET SIX NEW LIFTS AND a lot more skiable terrain. That’s the plan that the mountain in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, proposed to the public recently in a request for comments. Three of the proposed lifts would provide access to the sought-after backcountry-style terrain near the Alberta lift that is currently only accessed by hiking. Wolf Creek averages nearly 500 inches of natural snow, the most in the state. The mountain is also considering adding a better shuttle system that ferries skiers and snowboarders to/from both sides of Wolf Creek Pass to reduce traffic. Almost quaintly, there is no real-estate development included in the proposal. Via KOAA.

UTAH’S ANTAGONISM TOWARD THE ENVIRONMENT AND FEDERAL LANDS isn’t just misguided, it hurts the state’s economy, argues Black Diamond CEO Peter Metcalf. The Beehive State is looking to pass legislation that would enable it to take federal lands for itself and then develop them, as well as suing to open dirt roads and tracks to exploration for mining, extraction, and other uses, but “the mindless rhetoric that passes for debate” ignores the $5.8 billion and 65,000 jobs active outdoor recreation brings to the state — an impact that would be sorely tested if Utah continues its path toward environmental degradation. Via Salt Lake Tribune.

WHEN AN OIL MAN ARGUES THE CASE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, IT’S WORTH A LISTEN. Bryan Lovell, the president of the Geological Society of London, says that there’s no debating the geological record of past massive carbon events (think volcanoes). He says that no matter what, when you spew 2,000 gigatons (billion tons) of carbon into the atmosphere you’re not “conducting a grand experiment” because the geological record is there to prove it: “It gets hot. The oceans get acid. They run short of oxygen and as a result quite a number of animals become extinct.” Lovell’s case is simple: You can argue climate modeling and how things might unfold and at what pace, but you can’t argue whether it WILL happen, he says, because there’s consistent proof that this is the outcome. Via NYT.

NINE YEARS AGO, PROFESSIONAL FREESKIER KRISTEN ULMER PUNTED on skiing for the cameras and turned instead to teaching the sport with an unconventional approach through Zen-based clinics called Ski to Live. Wall Street Journal reporter Brigid Mander took the seminar last winter at Alta and was alternately awed by Ulmer’s presence and perplexed by a curriculum that ignores the mechanics of skiing in favor of retraining the membrane. Students skied runs using different “voices” in their heads — the fearful one, the know it all, the angry one. Though skeptical, Mander came around…”The following day, I decided I was really enjoying ski camp.” She didn’t, however, say if it made her a better skier. Via Wall Street Journal.

IT’S NOT YOUR IMAGINATION: PEOPLE ARE TAKING MORE BACKCOUNTRY CHANCES. In the 29 missions the Whistler search and rescue conducted over the last year, all but two required helicopter operations and included four spinal injuries, two head injuries, eight fractured limbs, and two chest injuries. “Twenty years ago if you were going to huck yourself off a cornice you were probably going to do it in the ski area and if you had a negative consequence from that decision, you had medical aid right there,” said SAR manager Brad Sills. “Now we’re seeing that same behavior taken 20, 30, 40 kilometres away from the closest road.” One culprit: The new narcissistic everyone’s-a-filmmaker culture. “We see kickers being built way back on the Ice Cap and they’re gi-normous,” said Sills. Via Pique News Magazine.

DID EARLY AMERICANS CROSS THE ATLANTIC? The traditional theory of North American population says peeps came across the Bering land bridge 15,000 years ago, but plenty of artifacts older than that have been found, and now evidence shows that people were living in the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia area (known as Delmarva) as early as 20,000 years ago. A new and not surprisingly controversial book, Across Atlantic Ice, radically suggests that people called Solutreans made their way from Europe to the North American East Coast well before the Westerners. Among their evidence are stone tools from at least five sites that were found in soil dated to 20,000 years ago, as a well as a stone blade and mastodon tusk found together. The tusk was dated to 22,760 years ago. Via Washington Post.

WHY DON’T SPIDERS GET CAUGHT IN THEIR OWN WEBS? Because unlike their prey, spiders’ legs emit a sort of Teflon anti-stick coating and are covered by branching hairs that actively push them away from the surface of the web, say researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and University of Costa Rica. They also walk their webs like a person on a slackline, muscularly weighting the sticky lines. Via Smithsonian.

NEWFANGLED SNOW-CAT OPERATOR ECOGROOMER says its idea to speed up turning moguls into corduroy has been so popular with resorts that it’s going ahead with its plans to build 60 of the machines and that it will source motors from Volvo. The motor choice is important: Ecogroomer’s model saves gas by tripling the surface of the groomer deck, which means one engine doing the work of three cats. The Volvo engine already meets the highest emissions standards, whereas lots of currently operating snowcats have older, dirtier diesels. Via Transworld.

LOOKING TO DO A SUMMER TRIP DOWN THE ZION SUBWAY? Getting your backcountry permit just became a little easier. Zion National Park will now accept last-minute reservations online for its most popular spots instead of making you come to the visitors center and stand in long lines to get them in person. A drawing will be held at 1 pm two days prior to the desired dated, and if picked you’ll be notified immediately by e-mail. Wow, Uncle Sam applies common sense and technology to make lives better, imagine that. Via Zion National Park.

THE NATIONAL FOREST SERVICE HAS NOW PROPOSED TO AXE ITS FEES after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that they were illegal. In the wake of the ruling, which essentially said that the NFS was charging for access to land that taxpayers already supported, the Adventure Pass along with most other unpopular recreation fees that have raised the ire of hikers will be eliminated. Although under the proposed revisions (which won’t likely take effect until 2013) 26 national forest areas will still require visitor fees, down from the current 90 areas nationwide. Via Chicago Tribune.

THE KLAMATH RIVER IS EXPECTING A MONSTER SALMON RUN THIS YEAR — six times the number of fish that returned upriver to spawn in 2011. How many is that? 1.6 million, the most since they’ve been keeping records. California’s Sacramento should see a 4X increase, to 819,000 fish. The numbers “obviously are evidence of good ocean survival conditions that have allowed those fish to thrive and become available this year, potentially some of them, for harvest,” said a representative from Oregon Fish and Wildlife. Of course, there’s potentially a downside — too many chinook could crash the 2013 run. Via LA Times.

CAN YOU CLIMB A TOTAL OF 105,312 FEET IN 45 DAYS? Sure, that’s 2,340 feet of climbing every single day. Actually, it’s the equivalent of five Spring Classic races…multiplied times three: Milan-San Remo – 6,260 feet; Tour of Flanders – 5,709 feet; Paris-Roubaix – 3,259 feet; Liège–Bastogne–Liège – 10,883 feet; Amstel Gold – 8,993 feet. And that’s the gauntlet thrown down by Specialized’s Classic Climbing Challenge launched in conjunction with the Strava app that lets you virtually “race” other cyclists for bragging rights on your favorite regional mountains (best times are posted online and GPS keeps it all honorable). So it’s you against the mountains…against 6,000-plus riders so far. Specialized promises prizes, but we all know this comes down to ego. Via Road.cc.

IT WAS A BAD DAY FOR AVALANCHES IN UTAH YESTERDAY: An 18-year-old snowmobiler was killed in the La Sal Mountains near Moab, an in-bounds slide at Snowbird injured a snowboarder, and the Little Cottonwood Canyon Road was closed for four and a half hours due to avies. The Snowbird slide was big — two to three feet deep, 80 feet wide, and about 600 feet long — and was triggered about 2 p.m. in the Blackjack area, a west-facing ski run off the Peruvian Ridge that separates Snowbird from Alta. Like the mega-avalanche that took out a chairlift in France on Friday with skiers on it (see video), this slide was likely caused by post-storm rapidly warming temperatures. Via Deseret News.

HOW MUCH FRESH DID VAIL REALLY GET? That’s a great question and it probably doesn’t help that the stake Vail uses to measure overnight accumulation sits at mid-mountain and is eyeballed at 4:30 each morning by a guy at the base via video camera. So he couldn’t see that wind had piled snow up against the stake on the morning of February 23, which is when Vail misreported a foot dump that was really just a dusting, for which the resort is getting blasted. We’re just wondering if there isn’t a more accurate way to do this than a guy peeking at a stick in the snow via a surveillance camera. We also wonder how much more money Vail made from eager powder hounds that day by reporting a foot instead of an inch or two. Via Aspen Times.

IT’S NOT JUST MOVIE CRITICS WHO ARE PANNING THE LORAX: The conservative head of the Media Research Center, Dan Gainor, said, “They’re trying to equate caring about nature with environmental extremism.” The Lorax is “teaching our kids is that the biggest threat to Mother Earth is mankind, and it’s a ludicrous premise. I don’t want the moron writers of The Lorax trying to indoctrinate children and turn them into millions of little eco-warriors. Who appointed them in that role?” Okay then. This is the same guy who complained that naming the bad guy in The Muppets movie Tex Richman meant the filmmakers were anti-capitalist. Via LA Times.

A FLORIDA METH ADDICT BURNED DOWN A 3,500-YEAR-OLD TREE so she would have enough light to see the drugs she was doing. We do that all the time — it’s great until the embers burn your hair off. Seriously, dude? Sara Barnes was arrested and charged with possession and intent to distribute methamphetamine after allegedly torching the 118-foot-tall cypress known as the Senator, near Orlando. Acting on a tip, the local policia raided her apartment and found pictures of the cypress aflame, as well as heaps of paraphernalia. Via Orlando Sentinel.

IN THE UPPER MIDWEST CYCLISTS ARE FLOCKING TO MILWAUKEE — IN FEBRUARY. No, they’re not seeking misery, but singletrack. Snow-free singletrack and balmy 70-degree temperatures, too. Because they’re ripping indoors at the second outpost of Ray’s (the first Ray’s began in Cleveland in 2004). Now in its second year, the Milwaukee park is a lot like the original — it allows riders to pedal skinnies, rollers, pump tracks, and jumps at 8 p.m., when outside it’s dark, cold, and snowy. Membership runs $299 for the seven months of winter, and folks come from as far as Chicago to get their fix. The appeal is broad: Pros practice back flips and novices take advantage of the Whistler-style progression of challenges. The model is spreading, too, with a new indoor facility opening later this year in Portland, Oregon, and a 90,000 square-foot space called Cranx set to open in Syracuse, NY. Via NY Times.

AN AVALANCHE VICTIM IN AUSTRIA WAS CLINICALLY DEAD — AND THEN RESUSCITATED. Rhianna Shaw, 23, was entombed in the snow for 15 minutes following a slide in the backcountry near St. Anton. Incredibly Shaw remembers being buried alive, being unable to move, screaming for help and then blacking out. She didn’t have a beacon, but her friends formed a human chain and, in an ever-widening circle probed until they found the back of Shaw’s leg and dug her out. Shaw was clinically dead, with no pulse, but one of her friends gave her CPR – and against the odds, it worked. Now, after a week in the hospital, she appears to have no neurological damage. Via IOL News.

FEARS OF DAMAGE TO CLOSED STATE PARKS have come true in California, where the infrastructure at Mitchell Caverns, the main attraction of the 5,900-acre Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, has been trashed by vandals. Traveling 16 miles into the closed park, the perps broke windows and doors, smashed display cases, ripped out thousands of feet of copper wire, and stole hand-held radios, flashlights, binoculars, and diesel-powered generators. And while the officials are devastated, they have a bigger issue than just Mitchell Caverns: Come June, another 70 California parks will be closed because of the budget shortfalls, many in rural areas where patrolling is unlikely or difficult. Via LA Times.

IN A SHOCKINGLY UN-SHOCKING STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF trails in the U.S., Singletracks.com finds that there are more miles of mountain biking dirt in Colorado and California than in any other states (um, duh), and that the average length of trails in the West are longer than those in the East. If there’s anything at all surprising it’s that when you cross-pollenate population density against trail mileage you’ll find more solitude in states like Missouri, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming than, say, Oregon. Via Singletracks.com

NOW FOR SALE ON AMAZON: WHALE AND DOLPHIN. The retailer’s wholly owned subsidiary in Japan has been caught offering almost 150 products from whales, dolphins, and porpoises, including canned meat, whale jerky, and whale stew. The Environmental Investigation Agency found 147 meat products on Amazon’s website, including from four species protected under the international moratorium on whaling — fin, sei, minke and Bryde’s whales. The EIA also found meat caught in Taiji, the town made famous in The Cove. Via EIA.

IN THE WAKE OF RECENT AVIE DEATHS, TELLURIDE is struggling with who pays for rescues. The backcountry adjacent to the Telluride ski area is typically accessed from T-ride’s lifts and is mostly national forest lands, but the county sheriff’s office often picks up the tab. Bill Watson, San Miguel County sheriff, has suggested a lift-ticket tax, an idea that was promptly Heisman’d by the ski area. “Dinging visitors to pay for services they are not using isn’t justified,” said Telluride CEO Dave Riley. Via Pique News Magazine.

BLACK PEOPLE SKI, IMAGINE THAT! The New York Times has discovered that people of color actually, you know, recreate in the snow. Granted, the sport far too closely resembles the medium that creates it — blinding white snow — but African-American ski clubs have been nurturing black participation in skiing for generations. The National Brotherhood of Skiers formed in 1973, for example. Still, there’s a long way to go — the Brotherhood has 59 member clubs, but just 3,000 members. And surveys show just two percent of U.S. skiers are of African descent. Via NY Times.

IN A SURE SIGN OF THE X-GAMES’ INFLUENCE ON SKIING, the world’s elite slalom racers converged on a central Moscow park last week to compete in a unique, head-to-head formatted urban World Cup, with 15 World Cup points awarded just for showing up. The pros bombed the artificial slope through 17 gates with runs lasting barely 20 seconds. Each skier ran through a total of ten heats, with clean starts critical to winning such short contests. The novelty of the event could well sell in other cities, too, given how much cooler head-to-head anything is vs. races solely against the clock. The extra cash didn’t hurt, either: Winners took home $43,800, or about $5k more than they bring home with a traditional World Cup victory. Via The Economist.

HOW STRONG ARE HIMALAYAN FIXED ROPES? Something to ponder if you’ve ever clipped into a faded bit of line at some sky-scratching elevation — just how badly have UV and the elements weakened the rope? Black Diamond wondered this, too, and when someone brought a bit of used fixed line back from Ama Dablam, BD took the rope into its testing lab and subjected it to a handful of failure tests. The rope broke at between half and a quarter of the force sewn slings must meet. The takeaway? “Don’t fall on fixed lines —you just shouldn’t.” Via Black Diamond.

IT’S LONG BEEN KNOWN THAT EXERCISE MAKES YOU SMARTER — or that it enhances cognitive abilities. Now Japanese scientists are honing in on a possible answer to why. The brain stores glycogen as fuel and, as it turns out, regular exercise means that it stores more glycogen than normal in a kind of grey-matter carbo-loading. And it stores the most in the areas related to thinking and remembering. “It is tempting to suggest that increased storage and utility of brain glycogen in the cortex and hippocampus might be involved in the development” of a better, sharper brain, said one researcher connected to the study. Via NY Times.

JACKSON, WYOMING, IS ABOUT TO DROP A BUNDLE ON AVALANCHE FENCING, but don’t worry, it’s not in the middle of Glory Bowl on Teton Pass. There’s a slope in town called Gravel Pit Slide that has been using snow sails, which are designed to divert wind and drifts, and helicopter bombing, neither of which is as effective as the town would like. Thanks to a $2.3 million grant from the state, a specialized California company will start construction of the fencing this summer. Aware that traditional avie fences are butt-ugly, the town will plant trees around them to reduce the eyesoreness. Via JH Daily.

ELEPHANT SLAUGHTER IS OCCURRING IN CAMEROON — nearly 500 have been killed by poachers in the last two months. Officials found 480 carcasses in Bouba Ndjida National Park in the northern part of the country, but they caution that there could be many more victims of ivory hunting, as the park is a massive 540,000 acres. The tusks are poached and sent to Asia, and officials blame “dozens of Sudanese and Chadian poachers armed with machine guns and operating in gangs on horseback. Via AFP.

THE SOUTHEAST FACE OF THE AIGUILLE DU MOINE above Chamonix saw just its third descent in 25 years last week when five Italians stitched together a beautiful ski and board accomplishment. It was first skied in 1987 by Jean Marc Boivin, who enchained it with the use of a helicopter, along with the South Face of the Dru, Couloir Whymper on Aiguille Verte, the North Face of Les Courtes, and the South Face of the Gran Jorasses. The five skied the entire line except for 50-foot rappel over a rocky face. Via Planet Mountain.

THE BRAINIEST COMPANIES IN SILICON VALLEY are recruiting by touting bike-friendly policies. This is a big switch: Back in the go-go 1990s bigger tech companies used to recruit nerdly talent with free BMWs; smaller ones (and Microsoft), with an unlimited supply of junk food. Today though, the carrot is bike love. Google gives employees racks and lockers, and donates to charity if employees ride to work. Etsy’s got an in-house bike mechanic. In New York, Foursquare just chose a new outpost based on bike-ability. The thinking? Creativity happens when people are fitter; exercise isn’t just its own reward, it’s also a company’s reward. Via Marketplace.org

A PASTOR IN THE PHILIPPINES COMMANDED A TSUNAMI TO STOP, and it obeyed him, he says. In the wake of an earthquake that hit the island nation earlier this month, Severino Fuentes told the incoming tidal wave ‘Stop in Jesus name and go back to where you belong!’” he said. “And the wave stopped and went back into the sea.” Has anyone told Fuentes that that’s what tsunamis do? Did he think it was going to hang out on land and break bread? Via Christian Broadcasting Network.

PROTECT OUR WINTERS puts this winter’s low-snow year in context by pointing out that this is how the future could look. But there are 21 million winter sports enthusiasts in the States and POW is asking every one of them to do more. There are seven steps to the POW pledge, including bugging your elected officials — and to bug ‘em harder if their League of Conservation Voter score stinks. POW also suggests the obvious — that if every snow lover just hung up a clothes line and got busy caulking and insulating their homes that they’d save money in the long run and burn less carbon. Via Protect Our Winters.

YOU CAN SEE THREE PRO SNOWBOARDERS IN THE MARCH PLAYBOY, but if you’re a dude starting to think about Gretchen Bleiler you might want to take a cold shower. Danny Davis, John Jackson, and Mark Sollors all posed for a fashion shoot, wearing neon $4,000 suits as they shredded at Vail. Davis said, “Well, there were no girls…I just had no clue what might go on and was just, like, ‘Okay, cool, whatever.’ And then a couple days before they were like, ‘Just so you know there are no girls on this.’ And I was like, ‘Well, how is that a Playboy shoot?’” Psych. Guess it’s not your father’s Playboy. Via ESPN.

WHILE LOTS OF SKIERS LAMENTED LAST WEEK’S SALE OF KIRKWOOD TO VAIL, in Wyoming small, defunct ski hills are hungry for just that sort of sugar mama. White Pine Ski Area, located in Pinedale, 50 miles southeast of Jackson, was run by a consortium of local business owners last winter but they couldn’t afford it this year; now it’s for sale for $1.4 million. Antelope Butte, located in the Bighorn Mountains, may be run cooperatively in 2012-13. Nope, no sugar mama: The goal is to run a locals’ mountain with volunteers, everyone pitching in; a mountain by the people, for the people. Via On The Snow.

STORMS OF THE CENTURY WILL BECOME STORMS OF THE DECADE, thanks to, uhhh, what’s that thing called? Oh yeah, climate change. MIT scientists say that increased ocean levels and more intense storms will bring once-in-100-years weather events every three to 20 years. In New York, for example, that’s defined as a flood nearly six feet above high tide line. Yes, there’s a decidedly FML element to this, but the MIT modeling also offers the ability to predict the likelihood of massive storms, helping cities plan to mitigate their effects. Via eScience News.

BILLABONG IS STRUGGLING FINANCIALLY, and the effect is rippling throughout surfing. The Australian brand can’t continue to sponsor its Jeffrey Bay surfing comp at the ASP World Championship Tour level and has downgraded its support, leaving the WCT with just 10 events. The brand is flailing, to put it mildly. It recently sold about half of Nixon to raise cash and pay debts, but analysts say it still needs $300 million+ to clean up its balance sheets. Its value has fallen from about $4 billion five years ago to $819 million now — the price offered by private investors who want to turn the brand around. Billabong, however, rejected that offer as “significantly below the underlying value of the company.” Via Surfing Life, Bloomberg, and Shop Eat Surf.

CANADIAN NATIONAL PARKS ARE STITCHING A NETWORK OF CRITTER CAMS across the West, and the noninvasive nature of the stealth paparazzo is teaching them a lot about the wildlife in their parks. There are 42 motion-activated cameras in Banff, plus 40 in Jasper, 20 in Yoho and Kootenay, and about 40 in Waterton Lakes, plus another 20 cameras on provincial lands in Kananaskis Country. In all, 40,000 square kilometers are covered. They’re only beginning to analyze the results, but so far they’re finding concentrations of wolverines, that lynx are scattered throughout Banff, and that there might be lower wolf density than is healthy for caribou herds. Via RM Outlook.

TIMING YOUR HIGH-WATER RIVER RUN JUST GOT A LITTLE EASIER thanks to the U.S. Geological Survey — the USGS WaterAlert —will send you a text or email on water levels from any of the survey’s 7,000 real-time stream gauges around the country. You can set the alerts for when conditions are above a value, below a value, and between or outside a range of values. The service is free and if you really want to geek out you can be alerted on water quality, temperature, and more. Via Summit County Voice.

COLORADO IS THE FITTEST STATE IN THE NATION, BUT one thing Coloradoans, or at least Denverites, don’t do is walk, and there’s a new effort to make the city more pedestrian friendly. The city’s goal is to have 15 percent of folks commuting by bike or foot within the next eight years, up from the current six percent, but how they’ll get there isn’t clear. Transportation bills currently in Congress would slash money for cycling and walking programs. Much of the responsibility will fall on volunteer advocates like Gosia Kung, who created Walk Denver to encourage, cajole, and nag. Via NY Times.

ELECTRIC CARS IN CHINA ACTUALLY PRODUCE MORE ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION than internal-combustion engine cars, says a new study. The reason is that the most of the power the propels the EVs comes from coal-burning power plants — some 80 percent of China’s electricity comes from coal. Researchers looked at 34 Chinese cities and five vehicle technologies and emphasized that if alternatives to coal can be found, the EVs will be much cleaner. Via Yale Environment 360.

DOES WAGNER CUSTOM SKIS MAKE THE PERFECT STICKS? Well, we’re huge fans of the skis that Pete Wagner and his crew of nine craft in Telluride and so, apparently, is Forbes. In a glowing story, the business magazine lays out a nice background on Wagner’s methods, how every customer fills out a 12-part “DNA” questionnaire followed by a one-on-one conversation to dial in flex, sidecut, etc. All the skis are built around wood cores and can be layered with alloy for damping or given a carbon wrap for snappiness. When you learn how much goes into customizing your pair, $1,750 seems like a bargain. Via Forbes.

A RARE CHIMP SO UN-USED TO HUMANS THAT it approaches people out of curiosity is gaining new protection in the Republic of the Congo, now that the country has expanded its Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park by 144 square miles. The chimpanzees are called Pan troglodytes and the region that gained protection is the Goualougo Triangle, a remote swamp forest that is also home to forest elephants and western lowland gorillas. The chimpanzees have been described as “naive” since they show instead intense curiosity rather than fear; chimps in other parts of Africa are wary of humans since they are hunted as bushmeat. The deal to save Gualougo Triangle was brokered between the Republic of Congo government and Congolais Industrielle des Bois, a private logging company, which gave up its rights to log the forest. Via Monga Bay.

UTAH IS MOVING TO LEGALIZE SEIZING FEDERAL LAND. Oh, you Beehivers, you just can’t stop poking your finger in the eye of Uncle Sam, can you? In a bid that stands zero chance of making it in law, the Utah House Natural Resources Committee approved by 8-1 vote a bill that would make it legal for cities and counties to seize federal land. Aside from a general antagonism toward most things federal, the Utahns have their eyes on what they see as mighty developable land. Legislative attorneys say the bill is unconstitutional, but Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, said, “When it comes to public lands, I consider it a badge of honor to have a constitutional note.” Via SL Tribune.

ASPEN’S LIFT TICKETS ARE ADORNED WITH ART THIS YEAR. Five different designs based on the art of 43-year-old painter and sculptor Mark Grotjahn are appearing on tickets through a program with the Aspen Art Museum as part of its efforts to expose the great unwashed masses to the more aesthetic and esoteric joys of the conceptual. Gotjahn’s work now sells for $500,000 to $800,000, in case you’d like to consider a career change. Gotjahn grew up skiing at Squaw and said being on the lift passes “could be one of the pinnacles of my career.” It doesn’t hurt that he gets free skiing all season in Aspen, either. Via Wall Street Journal.

THERE HAVE BEEN SIX COLORADO AVALANCHE FATALITIES SO FAR this season, and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) says this is one of the most potentially deadly avalanche seasons they’ve seen in decades. Early season snows were cooked by sun and then frozen hard by high winds, and more consistent recent snows are all piling up on top of this weak, slide-prone base. Last week a Keystone ski patroller was killed in a slide near Wolf Creek Pass and a Telluride snowboarder was killed in an avalanche on Monday just beyond the Telluride ski area boundary. CAIC says conditions are only going to get worse, with sun crusting across the state ahead of the next storm cycle. Via CAIC.

CHRISTOPHER CARLSON, THE 45-YEAR-OLD GRANDFATHER ACCUSED OF ABUSING HIS GRANDSONS on a summer hike in the Grand Canyon, is now on trial in Phoenix, and the 12-year-old testified, “I needed medical attention and I was hurting and he was hitting and pushing me and calling me fat. I was scared and it was hard and I was all weak and tired and kind of hurt.” The boys had blisters that turned into bleeding ulcers, and they couldn’t wear shoes for weeks. They were chafed because Carlson allegedly wouldn’t let them wear underwear, and, deprived of food and water, they were dehydrated and suffering heat exhaustion and signs of heat stroke. Carlson’s attorney says he’s a health nut who simply wanted to encourage an active lifestyle. Via Washington Post.

IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE IT BECAME LEGAL TO CARRY GUNS IN NATIONAL PARKS, and now a group of congressman led by the Washington State delegation are trying to overturn the law and reinstate the ban on weapons. The move comes after the January shooting death of Mt. Rainier National Park ranger Margaret Anderson. “The dreadful and deeply saddening event that occurred on Mt. Rainier makes me question why on earth people should be allowed to carry loaded weapons in our national parks,” said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., in introducing new legislation. Via Seattle PI.

IN ITALY, CYCLING IS A SPORT. AND THAT’S ALL IT IS. At least that’s the case in the opinion of “The Italian,” the protagonist of a very short essay about what’s wrong with cycling in Italy (and you could say, in America, Canada, and much of the rest of the world, too). Maybe the Italian is fictional because he says things that sound like sacrilege: “Since Coppi and Bartali, we have only racing. They ruined everything.” Or maybe he’s real and impassioned, knowing that cycling can become more, wanting cycling not just for “cyclists” but for ordinary people. You know, like the Dutch. But not, apparently, like the Italians. Via Red Kite Prayer.

THE WINDOW TO CATCH YOSEMITE’S HORSETAIL FALLS ON FIRE is closing shortly, so if you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of this potentially sick display of light and water, you’d best get thee to YNP ASAP. Made ultra-famous by the 1973 Galen Rowell photograph, the phenomenon occurs when the alpenglowish setting sun hits the top of the waterfall, which plummets almost 1,600 from the east side of El Cap. There are just two weeks each year when the angles line up, but all depends on weather and how much water is running. You have until February 24. Get going, pilgrim. Via Boston Globe.

JOHN FAIRFAX WAS A MAN MADE FOR REALITY TV BEFORE IT WAS INVENTED. He set two world records, rowing solo across the Atlantic in the late 1960s and, together with champion rower and girlfriend Sylvia Cook, across the Pacific in 1972. You could argue those were the more boring parts of his life. At just 13 he ran away from home to the Amazon jungle and lived with local trappers, hunting jaguars. Lovesick in his 20s, he tried to kill himself by having a jaguar eat him, then shot the animal instead. He became a real-life pirate and, later, a professional gambler. After a life of incredible adventures he’s just now passed away, at a youngish 74. But you could hardly claim he hadn’t lived. Via NY Times.

NEAR THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, A 45-YEAR-OLD SWEDISH MAN was found alive after nearly two months trapped in his car by heavy snow that completely obscured his existence. Doctors say his body probably went into a sort of hibernation, since temperatures have been as low as -20 Fahrenheit. The police didn’t identify him by name; he was found by passing snowmobilers who thought they had come across a car wreck until they dug their way to a window and saw movement inside. The man, who was lying in the back seat in a sleeping bag, said he had been in the car since December 19. Via Irish Times.

THE FEDS HAVE REMOVED AN OBSTACLE TO OFFSHORE ARCTIC DRILLING by Shell. Last week, the Obama administration approve Shell Gulf of Mexico’s emergency response plan if something goes wrong with exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea. The plan includes a fleet of response vessels nearby, a secondary drill to dig a relief well if something goes wrong with first, a full time federal inspector, and a capping and containment system. Environmentalists say, yeah, right.
“This is a premature decision,” wrote Marilyn Heiman, director of the U.S. Arctic program for the Pew Environment Group. “Ideally, they need two to three more years to really do this safely — to get the science right, to protect wildlife areas and to get equipment that’s been designed for and tested in the Arctic.” Drilling could begin this summer. Via LA Times.

HOW MUCH IS A “LITTLE” BRAND LIKE NIXON WORTH? The watch and accessories company was valued at $464 million this week as parent company Billabong sold 51.5 percent to raise cash and pay off debts. Billabong will retain 48.5 percent, Trilantic Capital will buy 48.5 percent, and Nixon management will purchase 3 percent, netting Billabong $285 million. Billabong is slashing costs, too – it’s closing 100 to 150 stores and laying off 400 people. It expects to cut $20 million to $30 million by shuttering its storefronts. Oh, and how much did Billabong pay for Nixon in the first place? $55 million in 2006, plus a deferred payment this year of $76 million. Via Shop-Eat-Surf.

WITH 1,151 FEET OF VERTICAL, THE ADIRONDACK SKI HILL OF BIG TUPPER is a far cry from Vail, which may explain why it was closed for a decade. But now an army of volunteers has brought it back to life, as well as an even lesser known mountain, Ski Hickory, that was also shut for five years. Both mountains are being run by locals, and those locals at Hickory are happy to let things be a little less groomed, a little more wild. Folks can skin up and ski whatever backcountry they can find, too. Which is just how Hickory’s WWII-era founders, who were ski paratroopers, would’ve wanted it. The bumper sticker for Hickory is also classic: “Mad River Glen, Ski It If You Can’t Ski Hickory!” Via Lake George Mirror.

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: MARDI GRAS PRODUCES 25 MILLION POUNDS of plastic beads each year, none of which can be processed by traditional recycling centers. And New Orleans, no surprise, isn’t exactly rushing to find a way to reduce, reuse, or recycle. But some are trying to make a dent. “This year, an unprecedented crop of initiatives has sprung up to help feed the recycled bead market, with most of the ideas as idiosyncratic as the city itself,” reports the LA Times. One idea: a trailer that follows parades and asks revelers to toss their beads back. Yes, well, ahem. Good luck with that.

IF YOU’VE EVER CLIMBED THE RED RIVER GORGE IN KENTUCKY, you haven’t forgotten its fantastic array of sandstone challenges. But even if you’ve been there you may not realize that adjacent Muir Valley Nature Preserve isn’t part of the Red — it’s on private land. And its 300 bolted routes, which range from 5.2 to 5.14a, are in danger of closing — climbing is funded by owners but has to be offset by donations (they don’t charge admission). Muir Valley, named for naturalist John Muir, only dates to 2004 but saw 30,000 visitors last year. A buck a climber would go a long way toward saving the area. Via Climbing

IT’S A SHARK-EATS-SHARK WORLD, ESPECIALLY WHEN ONE WEARS CAMO. This amazing shot from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef shows a kind of camouflaged shark called a tasseled wobbegong swallowing a brownbanded bamboo shark. Daniela Ceccarelli, from Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, witnessed the meal during a fish census. Expecting to find the front part of the bamboo shark hidden under a coral ledge, Ceccarelli swam closer — and the highly camouflaged wobbegong materialized. “It became clear that the head of the bamboo shark was hidden in its mouth,” she said. “The bamboo shark was motionless and definitely dead.” Via National Geographic.

INTERVALS ARE LOOKING TO BE CLOSEST THING TO A SILVER BULLET you’ll find in exercise. Studies in the last few years have documented a growing body of evidence that short-term, high-intensity effort gives amazing bang for the buck, and a new one from McMaster University in Canada shows that just 20 minutes of training can have huge benefits. Subjects rode exercise bikes at 90 percent of max heart rate for one minute, easy for one minute, and then hard again for a total of 10 for each intensity. “Despite the small time commitment of this modified HIIT program, after several weeks of practicing it, both the unfit volunteers and the cardiac patients showed significant improvements in their health and fitness,” writes the NY Times.

THE COLORADO RIVER IS, AS WRITER JON WATERMAN PUTS IT, “A testament of what happens when we ask too much of a limited resource. It disappears.” Waterman ought to know. In 2008 he tried to float the entirety of the 1,450-mile Colorado, only to come up a few hundred miles shy of the Sea of Cortez…on dried up river bed he had to walk for a week. In an editorial partially about that trip, he writes about the fallout in Mexico for fishing, people, and an array of species clinging to life without a river that flowed freely for six million years. Via NY Times.

HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING UP ON YOUR CAMEL RACING TECHNOLOGY? The 12th International Camel Race took place in Kebd, Kuwait, last weekend, and the winning camel was piloted by a…robot. In fact, pretty much all the ungulates were ridden by tiny robots. The cyber jockeys were first introduced in 2005 in the United Arab Emirates and quickly (and thankfully) replaced the children who were maltreated, underfed, and forced to ride the camels in races. There’s still room for improvement — the owners operate the whip-wielding robots while zooming alongside the six-kilometer course in cars. Via New Scientist.

TAKING A PAGE OUT OF KELLY SLATER’S PLAYBOOK, former world champion Lisa Andersen is returning to competitive surfing in the Moskova Trials in Australia on February 24 in hopes of earning a slot in the Roxy Pro, which begins the next day. Four-time world champ Andersen, who hasn’t surfed competitively in eight years, will turn 43 on March 8. “The Roxy Pro is such a great start to the competition year,” Andersen said. “It’s a big perk to be involved…I can’t wait to get my feet wet and to catch some Aussie waves.” Via SurfGirl.

THERE ARE FEW WINTER HIGH-ALTITUDE CLIMBS for a reason: Conditions in the Himalaya and Karakorum are not conducive to, well, anything. Simone Moro and Denis Urubuko have abandoned their attempt on Nanga Parbat after winds of nearly 100 mph and the sound of “10m airplanes” have been sweeping across the mountain; with the forecast for another week of snow and gale-force winds, the duo are heading home. Same goes for the Polish team on the same peak. Last week, an all-start crew of Russian climbers quit their attempt on K2 after months on the mountain and the death of one of their team from complications of frostbite. Via Planet Mountain.

SHARKS ARE FASTER IN THE WATER BECAUSE THEIR SKIN ACTS AS A MECHANICAL BOOSTER. Harvard scientists George Lauder and Johannes Oeffner have found that the coated, razor sharp scales of a shark disturb the flow of water to reduce drag (like a golf ball’s dimples) and also that they do something never before understood: propel the animals through the water mechanically, like thousands of tiny paddles. Then they tested fabrics that mimic sharkskin, like Speedo’s Fastskin FS II fabric, and found no such mechanical or flow-disruption effects. Lauder says there may be other advantages, such as buoyancy, however. Via Harvard.

PLASTIC IN THE BLOOD? IT’S NOT JUST FOR DOPERS ANYMORE. What’s that? You didn’t know that about 90 percent of us are walking around with plasticizers known as phthalates in our blood? Too bad. Because it’s true, since the stuff is used in food wrappers of every stripe, and leeches into our grub. Researchers think it contributes to all sorts of diseases and may cause childhood obesity, too. Yay. Meanwhile, anti-doping agencies worldwide thought they could nail athletes by tracking spikes in phthalates, since blood bags also have high phthalate levels. But new data suggests the methodology is deeply flawed. It turns out the stuff is everywhere, and in all of us, and plain old dehydration can cause the appearance of a spike in an athlete or, sadly, any of us. Via Scientific American.

SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT NEANDERTHALS (and we’re talking to you, Geico), they weren’t as second-rate as people assume. Indeed, what appears to be the world’s oldest rock art has just been discovered — and it may have been painted by, yes, Neanderthals. Found in a cave in Spain, these petroglyphs of seals could date to 43,000 years old — charcoal found by the paintings was radiocarbon dated to then — making them 13,000 years old than the famous Chauvet cave art in France. “Until recently, Neanderthals were thought to have been incapable of creating artistic works. That picture is changing thanks to the discovery of a number of decorated stone and shell objects – although no permanent cave art has previously been attributed to our extinct cousins.” Via New Scientist.

THERE’S A MISPERCEPTION ABOUT THE DIRE IMPACT OF A BAD SNOW YEAR on North America’s biggest ski mountains. Which is the idea that many of them rely on excellent snow. For Vail at least, as well as Whistler, that’s not true, because they own everything on the mountain, and people plan vacations months in advance. As this excellent piece in the Atlantic explains their resort model, it’s like a cruise ship, with a captive audience, and every dime going into company coffers. Sure, Vail would like better snow. But a bad snow year won’t break them; revenue this season hasn’t even fallen. Via The Atlantic.

14 YEARS AFTER DREAMING OF DOING IT, PHIL HARWOOD COMPLETED THE FIRST-EVER canoe trip down the entire 3,000-mile length of the Congo River from source to sea. He’s just completed a book about his adventure, filled with all sorts of harrowing moments, from navigational panic trying not to get swept over rapids, to fending off crocodiles and snakes with his paddle. Had it not been for the kindness of strangers, he might’ve been killed by not-so-kind strangers. In this interview on the BBC (it’s the second story in the audio clip) you can hear just what got him through: his sense of humor and dauntlessly good cheer…and the fact that he’s an ex British Royal Marine. Via BBC.

PLENTY OF SPECIES ARE STRUGGLING, BUT MOUNTAIN GOATS in the Pacific Northwest aren’t one of them. In the last eight years, the population of goats in the Olympic Mountains has grown about 40 percent, increasing by 100 individuals to 344. That’s an estimate, cause goats are tough to count. And “being able to accurately estimate mountain goat populations is a key issue throughout Washington, including Olympic National Park. Mountain goats are not native to the Olympic Mountains and are a long-standing management concern at the park.” Well, yes, when they stand in line to drink hikers’ pee, that might be a concern.

ARIZONA SNOWBOWL CAN USE RECLAIMED WATER FOR SNOWMAKING, a federal appeals court ruled last week, denying the petition of Save the Peaks Coalition, which sued to stop the plan. Further, the court said the suit was “a gross abuse of the judicial process” by using arguments and an attorney who’d already lost an identical petition from the Navajo Nation. “The ‘new’ plaintiffs…brought certain environmental claims that were virtually identical to some that the attorney had improperly attempted to raise in the earlier lawsuit for no apparent reason other than to ensure further delay and forestall development,” the court said. The Forest Service approved treated water for snowmaking in 2004, but its use has been held up in litigation since then. Via Arizona Daily Sun.

ASPEN HAS CUT OFF THE HARD-PARTYING LUNCH CROWD at mid-mountain Cloud Nine restaurant, dropping hard alcohol from the menu and limiting patrons to three drinks after a few too many who’ve had a few too many had to be snowmobiled down the mountain by patrol. “I understand people will get upset,” said Aspen spokesman Jeff Hanle. But “given the mid-mountain location, we’ve gotten to be concerned about the safety of our guests.” Said the Cloud Nine manager, “We certainly don’t want people skiing intoxicated.” You’re right about that: They might run into a stoned ski bum. Via Aspen Daily News.

ZEBRAS’ STRIPES EVOLVED TO THWART PESKY BLOOD-SUCKING FLIES, says a group of researchers from Hungary and Sweden, adding a new theory to the reason for their black-and-white pattern. The scientists discovered polarized light reflects horizontally off black and brown horses, which attracts horseflies. They then tested a white horse and a zebra and found that the zebra pattern was the least appealing to the bugs. The final test? They built life-sized statues of all four, covered them with glue, and counted how many flies were caught. The zebra had the fewest. Via BBC.

FRED BECKEY IS A GOD AMONG CLIMBERS. Beckey, 89, has hundreds of first ascents to his name and is one of the most prolific climbers in history. He’s been at it for 70 years and still climbs. And while his longevity and stamina are legendary, it’s Beckey’s writing about climbing that shows why he’s still with us: He solved difficult routing problems on hundreds of peaks both safely and elegantly. Climbers still refer to the sagacity of Beckey’s totemic Cascade Alpine Guide, but his most recent work, 100 Favorite North American Climbs, is also gorgeous and bound to be useful to anyone serious about following in Beckey’s prodigious tracks. Via Oregonian

RED LIGHTS ARE STOPTIONAL FOR PARIS CYCLISTS after the city passed rules allowing riders to turn right on red without stopping — or to go straight through the light. The test program at 15 intersections comes with restrictions: It’s only in places where the speed limit is 30kph, cyclists have to avoid pedestrians, and they’re responsible for accidents. If the test project works without mayhem, it will be expanded to 1,700 crossroads in the City of Light. Via Telegraph UK.

A SPANISH PROFESSOR IS ON A HUNGER STRIKE to protest the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to strip Alberto Contador of his 2010 tour de France and 2011 Giro d’Italia titles and ban him (mostly retroactively) for two years from racing after he was found guilty of having a performance-enhancing drug in his system during his Tour win. Like many in the cycling world, including Eddy Merckx, Unay Talara Robles is upset at the magnitude of Contador’s consequences. To which someone who’s sick of hearing about doping may respond, hey, idiot, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Via Cycling News.

IF THE IDEA OF DOWNHILL MOUNTAIN BIKING SCARES YOU, maybe you’d be happier trying it on snow. That’s what a Maine/New Hampshire series offers, on fairly tame terrain, and if you eat it you’re more apt to slide and, probably, wind up less broken than on dirt. Some caveats: Heats are run a la BMX, with three or four riders going at the gun en masse (top finishers are then sent down again against other top finishers), and most racers run spiked tires, so there is potential for puncture wounds in the event of a pileup. Hey, it wouldn’t be a sport if someone couldn’t get an eye put out. Via Maine Public Broadcasting.

WHEN IT COMES TO WATER, IT’S SKI TOWNS VS. COLORADO CITIES. At least that’s what yet another study suggests. Mind you this one was commissioned by a group that specifically advocates on behalf of Rockies dwellers in the state, but it’s interesting because the conclusions don’t just say that diverting water to cities on the Front Range threatens agriculture and tourism, but also says that fracking is going to come up against mountain-town water rights as well. If you live in the West, expect to see a lot of drawing of lines between competing user groups. Via Aspen Times.

BETWEEN WORLD TITLES, SURFER POLLS, AND MORE, Kelly Slater has to be one of the most decorated athletes in history, and he added to his list of bling this week, winning an almost-unprecedented fourth Laureus Sportsperson of the Year award, a prestigious honor bestowed in London on Monday. Tennis player Roger Federer is the only other athlete with four. “This is a historic moment with Kelly Slater; he had a stellar year,” said Tony Hawk, a member of the Laureus academy. Slater, of course, won his 11th world title in surfing in 2011. His quest for 12 begins later this month as the world tour kicks off in Australia. Via ESPN.

IT’S BEEN WARM THIS WINTER, FOR SURE. HOW WARM? NOAA says it was the fourth-warmest January on record since 1901. There was also the third-least snowfall over the nation since satellites began measuring coverage about 50 years ago. The central plains and Northeast have been especially mild, and about the only exceptions to both warmth and a lack of snow have been in Washington State and Alaska — some parts of Alaska have seen record-setting cold and snow, as the jet stream has just refused to dip south. Via Summit County Citizens Voice.

BILL CLINTON’S ‘ROADLESS RULE’ FOR FOREST SERVICE land was famously upheld a few months ago, clearing the way for national policy on preserving a huge chunk of federal land as it is now, but that leaves Colorado in a bind. The state crafted its own version of the roadless rule, begun under the Bush era, and it takes into account the state’s unique issues. The law says it must be stricter than the fed version, and in some ways it is. But how to tackle issues like clearing beetle-killed deadwood from fire-prone forests without roads? Or maintain economically important industry, like ski areas and energy? As always with policy, the answer isn’t clear. Via NY Times.

SKI RESORTS HOST COMPS LIKE THE DEW TOUR FOR THE MONEY. And, no, that’s not cynical, it’s a fact. Especially in a year when Northeast-area ski hills are struggling and getting by on manufactured snow alone, having NBC come and broadcast from your mountain is a big deal, says Killington GM Chris Nyberg. It isn’t even about the event: “The bigger value is post-tour.” Meaning that folks in relatively mild Philly, NYC, and Boston need the reminder that while there might not be snow on the seaboard, there is in Vermont. Via Transworld

AFTER FREEING ONE OF THE GREATEST SPIRES in the world (and becoming the first to do so), Austrian David Lama sat down for an interview on what it was like to scale Patagonia’s Cerro Torre without aid, a monumental achievement (that included one section where he was 60 feet above his last protection). “The crux pitch is the one which avoids the Bolt Travese. I first reckoned it’s circa 8a (5.13b), but the more I think about it, the harder it seems to become. Perhaps one day someone will attempt to repeat the route free up to the summit, that way we’ll get a second opinion. But in truth the grade of the crux pitch doesn’t really reflect the real difficulties of a free ascent on the Torre – to do this you need to be able to do much more than simply climb 8a…” Via Planet Mountain.

THERE’S ANOTHER SIDE TO YOSEMITE CUTTING BACK ON PERMITS TO HIKE UP HALF DOME: Climbers walking off after scaling the giant monolith. The Access Fund makes it clear that park managers haven’t said anything about limiting the number of descenders off the rock in their proposed plan to reduce the number of hikers by 25 percent, but then…they haven’t said anything about climbing the rock at all. And since there’s constant stirring about a better way to manage the hoards, one might be to let climbers rappel via fixed anchors instead of waiting in the cue with everyone else. Or…even down climb the slab if, as some Wilderness advocates propose, the anchored walkway were removed at some point. Via Access Fund.

GETTING OFF COAL AIN’T EASY for Los Angeles. Despite a vow by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that the city’s power would be coal-free by 2020, contracts and the complicated grid of power agreements constrain its options — and whatever it does may have repercussions for a Utah national park. L.A.’s contract with a coal-burning plant in central Utah has it locked into a deal to buy power through 2027, and the plant’s growing needs are a big reason why owners want to quintuple the Coal Hollow mine on federal lands just outside the border of Bryce National Park. Park officials are opposed, the BLM has supported the expansion, and the market…usually gets its way. A terrific look at a complex subject in the LA Times.

THAT FEELING LIKE YOUR HEART IS GOING TO EXPLODE IN SPIN CLASS PROBABLY ISN’T REAL, BUT… a study in Sweden suggests that an hour-long spin session can trigger the same biochemical indications as a heart attack. The study’s authors say that the reaction is natural and harmless (provided you don’t have a heart condition), but they note that while it’s already been shown that long periods of strenuous physical exertion like marathons and triathlons can trigger what are known as cardiac biomarkers, the new study reveals that short, intense workouts produce the same chemicals. What’s important to note is that if you do work out intensely and then visit an emergency room for some non-heart-related reason, EMS workers could mis-identify the markers and think you’ve got a problem you don’t. Via University of Gothenberg.

THE MOST RELIABLE SKIING WILL BE IN EUROPE NEXT WINTER and several winters after that if you can believe a theory about how a thinner polar ice cap ramps up the snow machine for the Continent. It goes like this: Less ice at the pole leads to warmer water evaporating into a cold sky just as days are shortening over the top of the planet in late fall. That water vapor freezes, turns to snow, and in a natural oscillation creates a semi-permanent funnel of snow that ducks down over central Europe until longer spring days disturb the colder upper atmosphere at the pole. Chamonix, here we come. Via Bits of Science.

THE HUGE ADVANTAGE OF DISC BRAKES FOR MOUNTAIN BIKES is that you stop more quickly and rim weight can be reduced massively. A lighter rim makes a wheel feel lighter because it turns faster. And now at long last, the discs are coming to the road because UCI finally approved them for racing. That means roadie and cyclocross pros can have circa-1995 mountain-bike braking technology. Expect an avalanche of tech to be showcased come spring, with record-breaking lightweight disc-brake wheelsets and trick hydraulic road brakes. Via Bike Radar.

MALDIVES V. UNITED STATES OVER CLIMATE CHANGE? Palau and other small island nations have formed an exploratory committee to research bringing large carbon-emitting nations before the World Court in hopes of finding them liable and forcing significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. “If 20 years of climate change negotiations have taught us anything, it’s that every state sees climate change differently. For some, it is mainly an economic issue…for others it’s about geopolitics and their past or future place in the global economy, but for us it’s about survival,” said Johnson Toribiong, president of Palau. Via Dawn.com.

TAGGERS HIT WHISTLER PEAK 2 PEAK GONDOLA, scratching “BIRD” into the glass of four windows on the British Columbia resort’s gondie and also tagged spots in Seymour Mountain, Rossland, and Nelson — and in a Starbucks down the road from Whistler in Squamish. Estimated cost of the damage is $10,000. Does the RCMP still get its man? Well, they’re on the case, and though it’s just a small grammatical quirk, the fact that it put quotes around “grafitti tagging” in its press release as if it was some kind of newfangled previously unknown crime makes one wonder. Via Pique.

MENNA PRICHARD WAS PHOTOGRAPHED ROCK CLIMBING near Swansea, England, with her two-year-old daughter Ffion on her back, and when the image went public she was castigated in the famously caustic U.K. press. Prichard was wearing a helmet and the child was not, and she said regretted having protection while Ffion didn’t and so if she were to do it again she wouldn’t wear hers. Well, that’s smart. Revealing even more astounding depths of ignorance, she also said, “A friend was solo climbing – without ropes – beside me. He’s a qualified Mountain Leader and rock climber. It meant we had someone very experienced right next to us all the time.” The British Mountaineering Council, losing a teaching opportunity and showing a wide yellow streak, said it was parents’ place to decide if rock climbing with children on their backs is appropriate. Via Telegraph UK.

STRUGGLING SNOW KING RESORT AND SKI AREA IN JACKSON, Wyoming, might have a buyer. The steep town hill has been losing $500,000 to $800,000 a year and locals have rallied to find solutions to keep it running — it’s both the oldest ski hill in Wyoming and the source of lunchtime ripper runs and skin-up/ski-down workouts. An investor group with connections to the San Diego Padres has signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase the resort and area. Asking price is reported to be in the $40 million range. Via JH Underground.

BRITAIN’S ROADS ARE DEADLY TO CYCLISTS, with fatalities and serious injuries growing by 10 percent in the first quarter of last year, 8 percent in the second quarter, and another 8 percent in 3Q, and Brits are fighting back with a national campaign to make the streets safer. Six Olympians are lending their celebrity to the Times of London Save Our Cyclists effort, which calls for redesign of dangerous intersections, driver education, lower speed limits, and safety improvements to trucks, which are one of the biggest culprits. Via the Times.

DEER VALLEY HAS RENAMED ITS FREESTYLE SKI LIFT to honor Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, the talented by troubled Olympic silver medal aerialist who committed suicide last year. The drag lift serves the freestyle jumping hill and is now called the Hurricane after his signature jump, a quintuple twisting triple flip. Peterson won seven World Cups, two of which he nabbed at Deer Valley. Via the Ski Channel.

AGGRESSIVE SHEEP DOGS GUARDING FLOCKS IN COLORADO are intimidating hikers, mountain bikers, and other visitors, and they’re turning out to be so bad for tourism business that the town of Silverton is entering the debate over whether they should be allowed. The Akbash breed was imported from Turkey to watch over sheep grazing in summer and fall, but numerous interacts with dogs snarling or chasing recreationalists have created a climate of fear, particularly on the Colorado Trail near Little Molas Lake. “We’ve had a lot of heat over these dogs,” Mayor Terry Kerwin said. Via Durango Herald.

SKIERS AND SNOWBOARDERS HURT THEMSELVES IN DIFFERENT WAYS, and we know that because science tells us so. An 18-year study conducted in Vermont shows that snowboarders primarily suffer wrist injuries while skiers tear their ACLs, according to the results published in the American Journal of Medicine. Yeah, sure, you need empirical data and peer review, but seriously, I could have told you this and only would have charged half of what the study cost you. One surprise: Young inexperienced female snowboarders are the most likely to get hurt, not dudes. Via LA Times.

IN HER CRITIQUE OF THE ICONIC ROAD RACING BOOK, THE RIDER, the author of the blog Lovely Bicycle says for a while she couldn’t get past the story’s first line: “Hot and overcast. I take my gear out of the car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.” What bugs her, she explains, is roadie’s tendency to “…intellectualise and aestheticise cycling. If I ask a typical hockey playing acquaintance, ‘Hey, why do you play hockey?’ He will grin and sort of shrug and say, ‘Oh you know… It’s hockey, I love it,’ And he leaves it at that. He does not write or visit philosophical blogs about hockey.” What she ponders here, even as she’s a huge fan of cycling, is the very disturbing tendency among roadies to solipsistically believe that what they do is noble, and superior not just to other forms of sport, but even to any other form of riding a bicycle. Via Lovely Bicycle.

SIGNAL SNOWBOARDS IS GOOFY. That Steve Jobs-tribute board they built was pretty insane, yes, but as Wired reports, founders Dave Lee and Marc Wierenga have encouraged employees to let their imaginations run wild, from deck-mounted paintball guns to boards built with beer cans, an integrated boom box, a dart board, and a putting green. And it’s all in the name of development, because every concept board sees snow, which means Signal learns how to make better snowboards. They’re just having fun along the way. Because hey, it’s snowboarding, not rocket science. But you know, done right, it could be. Via Wired.

RAFTING DOWN THE COLORADO THROUGH THE GRAND CANYON IS A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME experience. All the more so because you need a highly coveted permit to do it unless you hire a guide — and even then the slots are scarce. So if you want to paddle it unguided, you need to plan ahead, as in a full year ahead: The National Park Service has just begun accepting applications for 2013 permits. They’ll award 449 of them via a weighted lottery. You have until February 22. Via Grand Canyon National Park.

YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE ADDICTED TO ENDORPHINS, BUT MAYBE IT’S THE SUNSHINE TALKING… By now you know the paradox that to boost your body’s production of vitamin D, which is critical for cancer prevention, you need a daily shot of sunshine and its ultraviolet light. And yet…too much U.V. directly correlates to skin cancer. Now research says that Americans who tan regularly — 30 million hit indoor tanning “salons” every year — are actually addicted to it. Overdosing on U.V.’s turns on all the happy centers of the brain, so much so that tanning bed addicts will even go back after getting skin cancer. Via NY Times

IT’S BEEN 16 YEARS SINCE EIGHT CLIMBERS DIED ON EVEREST in the Into Thin Air tragedy, but for guide Neal Beidleman, a man who stayed on the summit of Everest for a mind-numbing two hours while clients straggled toward the top, it was a day that never stopped haunting him. Now, on a return trip with skier Chris Davenport, Beidleman’s finally gone back to the place where so much went wrong, where he lost his best friend and mentor, Scott Fischer. What he learned proved cathartic: “I will always be sad about what happened. People died up there. But you can allow yourself to appreciate that maybe you did everything you could under the circumstances.” Via Coloradan

HOUSE REPUBLICANS ARE STILL TONE DEAF TO GUTTING FUNDING FOR POPULAR PROGRAMS, like Safe Routes to School, a fractional part of the transportation bill that has support of parents, kids, and schools, since it gets kids on bikes and on foot and off the school bus on their way to the classroom. Unfortunately the latest House transportation bill eviscerates this funding and aims to increase coastal oil drilling massively in states like California, allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and give Congress the authority to approve construction of the Keystone oil pipeline. Via San Francisco Chronicle

JESUS IS JUST ALL RIGHT WITH THE FEDS. The Forest Service has reversed itself on the 57-year-old, blue-robed statue of Jesus atop Whitefish Mountain Resort, Montana, saying the Son of God can chill with the homies for another 10 years. The statue has been the focal point of a church and state ruckus after groups argued that a religious icon shouldn’t be allowed on federal land. The Forest Service agreed, but after an outcry of support for the Knights of Columbus monument (95,000 comments received), it now says it can be considered a historical object and will renew its 10-year special use permit. A lawsuit fighting the decision is expected. Via Seattle PI.

A NATIONAL PARK RANGER TASERED A LAPDOG-WALKING MAN in the back in San Francisco’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area two days ago. Gary Hesterberg was walking two small dogs without a leash when he was confronted by a ranger “as a routine education contact,” the Park Service said. Hesterberg gave the ranger a fake name, walked away, and didn’t stop when instructed to do so, and the female ranger shot him in the back with her stun gun. “We were like in disbelief,” said a witness. “It didn’t make any sense.” Well, to those of us who’ve seen grown men walking little yappy purse dogs, it makes total sense. Via SF Gate.

IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME, but pace cars used to control traffic on Colorado’s I-70 between Denver and Summit County ski resorts don’t work. The reason? Traffic is so heavy it creates jams that couldn’t keep up with the pace cars. The bottleneck, not surprising to anyone who’s driven this stress-induced stretch, is the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnels. “It’s really too hard to figure the optimal time for using the pace cars. When traffic is light, [cars are] unnecessary and it slows traffic down. When it’s too heavy, the cars go too slow,” said a DOT spokesperson. Back to the drawing board. Via Denver Post.

PEOPLE WILL STEAL ANYTHING. Just recently, a group of potheads was busted for smuggling petrified wood out of Petrified Forest National Park, and now, down south, a gang has been charged with stealing ice from the Jorge Monte Glacier in southern Chile. A getaway driver was sneaking away with five tons of glacier blue in his truck when he was nabbed by cops tipped off by national forest agents (not ice-sniffing dogs? dang!). The loot is valued at just $6,200, but the feds are considering filing charges of theft of cultural resources. You go, dudes. Via AFP.

ALMOST ALL MID-SIZED MAMMALS ARE GONE FROM THE EVERGLADES. The culprit? Giant Burmese pythons that became popular “pets” among collectors in Florida in the 1990s and, along with other creatures that don’t belong in the Sunshine State, have managed to get loose of their owners. How bad is it? Raccoon populations have fallen 99.3%, possum sightings 98.9 percent. “When we actually did the calculations, we were astonished by the magnitude of the declines,” said one Florida academic. At last, if much too late, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wants a federal ban on importing non-native reptiles. Breeders — unbelievably — say they don’t pose a threat. Via Miami Herald.

SARAH BURKE’S DEATH HAS CAUSED A LOT OF HANDWRINGING, both over the freak nature of the accident and over the kind of skiing she championed. And then there’s this: The simple fact that Canadian Sarah Burke’s injury occurred in Utah, not north of the border, left her family not only unfathomably grieved, but burdened with massive debt — somewhere between $200,000-$500,000 for nine days of intensive care. Of course she wasn’t insured in the U.S.; such an accident in Canada is covered by national health care. This argues heavily for mandatory insurance for any athlete, regardless of nationality, who comes to the land of the free, but not of free health care. Via MSNBC and the Center for Public Integrity.

SPIDERMAN HAD A CRAZY-ACCURATE ABILITY to avoid danger, but it probably would be even better if he had eight eyes. Real-life Adanson spiders have two types of vision that create a super dimensional grasp of the world well beyond the ability of any mammal. Some of their eyes are designed to capture in soft focus, with others capture sharp detail; the combination creates what scientists speculate is extra acute depth perception, well beyond 3D. Via Wired.

THE ARGUMENT FOR LEGALIZING DOPING IN CYCLING (AND PLENTY OF OTHER SPORTS) often comes down to the notion that if it’s a free-for-all everyone will be even, because the presumption will be that everyone’s juiced. There’s just one flaw: Everyone would have to dope — and some would die. And, in this rebuke of a middle-aged reader considering taking EPO to aid his performance in master’s races, columnist Charles Pelkey states the obvious but timeless point that if you’re going to race, don’t you want to know you won — or even finished last — fair and square? Via Red Kite Prayer.

THE “MOST EXPLOSIVE MOUNTAINEERING CONTROVERSY in the last decade” gets substantive, in-depth coverage from National Geographic Adventure: Two weeks ago, Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk climbing Patagonia’s Cerro Torre for the first time by “fair means” and then on their descent chopped off 120 expansion bolts that had been placed in 1970 by Italian Cesare Maestri. The Italian’s placement of 400 bolts was considered a sacrilege (as was bolting the gas compressor he used to drill the holes), but the bolts on the “Compressor Route” were considered by many to be an important part of climbing history. Predictably, Kennedy and Kruk’s action was both lauded and vilified — but among some of the world’s top alpinists, like Reinhold Messner, Rolo Garibotti, and Conrad Anker, it was resoundingly praised. Via NGA.

WOLF FEVER HAS HIT CALIFORNIA. A few days before New Year’s, a grey wolf known as OR7 crossed the Golden State’s northern border, the first lobo in 88 years. Since then, the single male (in search of companionship) has caught the imagination of wildlife fans as he’s loped 1,000 miles, all tracked by his GPS collar and mapped online. “People are going to get wolf tattoos, wolf sweaters, wolf key chains, wolf hats,” said Patrick Valentino, a board member with the California Wolf Center. After being hunted to near extinction, the wolf population in the West has rebounded to 1,700, and California officials are scrambling to prepare for the inevitable immigration by OR7′s cousins. Though considered endangered in California and protected by stringent state and federal laws, many fear the bachelor wolf will get offed by a hunter or rancher for he finds his mate. Via NY Times.

CYCLOCROSS WORLDS WILL BE HELD IN LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, NEXT YEAR, the first time ever CX’s coveted contest will be run outside Europe. But the results probably won’t be too different than they were yesterday at the 2012 Worlds, held on a wet and sandy track in coastal Belgium. No doubt that home field advantage played a role, but still: Belgian Niels Albert raced out of the gate and within a quarter lap held a lead that would prove untouchable for the next hour. His fellow Belgians took the next six spots, too, making the rest of the world look like they were standing still. This was Albert’s second worlds and for all the ‘cross happiness going on Stateside these days the closest American was Ryan Trebon in 18th. U.S. national champion Jeremy Powers, who looked like a world-beater just a few weeks ago, only managed 25th. Via cyclingnews.com

IN A SIGN THAT EVEN FRIENDS OF BIG BUSINESS UNDERSTAND THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS “REAL,” last Friday Forbes, which is hardly Mother Jones, published a stunning and thorough rebuke to the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board for claiming that scientists have doubts about climate change. Forbes castigates the Journal not only for fudging its facts (i.e., claiming that the world isn’t warming when incontrovertible evidence shows that 2011 was the 35th year in a row in which global temperatures were above the historical average and 2010 and 2005 were the warmest years on record), but also for refusing to publish an earlier submission by 255 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences on the realities of climate change. Via Forbes.

A MASSIVE AVALANCHE STRUCK TAYLOR MOUNTAIN ON TETON PASS near Jackson Hole this week after a backcountry skier ski-cut the slope, triggering a slide that covered the Coal Creek drainage for 500 yards with debris up to 30 feet deep. No one was caught in the slide, either on Taylor or in Coal Creek, a major exit for skiers coming off Mt. Glory and adjacent slopes. The outcome could have been far worse, given the huge amount of backcountry traffic on the pass, and the incident set off a “blogalanche” of fiery debate at Teton AT over the skier’s action, responsibility, and liability. There’s a predictable amount of self-righteousness in the comments, but also a lot of excellent points wrestling for definitive answers to questions that might not have them. If you care about snow and avie safety, you should give it a read. You’ll get a fair dose of the mosh pit that is the Jackson backcountry community, too. Via Teton AT.

IF YOU’RE ADDICTED TO EXERCISE AND IT’S LED TO A LIFE of good cholesterol and normal blood pressure, pat yourself on the back. Better yet, tap your sternum, because your heart will thank you by probably not exploding. That’s what a new study from the New England Journal of Medicine concludes, suggesting that if you get to middle age with good numbers your chances of croaking from a heart attack or stroke are zilch. The bummer? “If at age 45 you have two or more of either elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes or smoking, and you’re a man, then there’s a 50-50 proposition that you will have a heart attack or a stroke during your remaining lifespan,” says the head of the story. Oh snap. Via NPR

A FRENCH PLAYER WANTS TO BUST INTO THE NORTH AMERICAN SKI RESORT MARKET, especially in Colorado, California, and Quebec, but for world-famous Club Med to succeed it’s going to have to dispel its cheesy stereotype. That is, a tacky buffet, battles at the bar for your one free drink, and hairy chests decorated with gold chains. Club Med says it’s the largest ski lodging outfit in the world — it has 18 resorts in the Alps — and is confident it can crack the market here. Via WSJ

THE LIGER IS PROOF THAT SPECIES DO PLAY TOGETHER, and so is this pretty freakin’ incredible shot of a dolphin balancing atop a whale’s snout. As described by a researcher, the incident “took place on a January afternoon off the northwest coast of Kauai, when a group of eight bottlenose dolphins met up with a pair of humpback whales. Two of the dolphins – apparently adults – approached one of the whales, first appearing to surf the pressure wave created by the whale’s head as it swam, and later taking turns lying perpendicularly across the whale’s rostrum when it surfaced to breathe. Then, while one of the dolphins lay balanced over the end of its rostrum, the whale stopped and slowly lifted the dolphin high into the air. The dolphin maintained an arched position and made no effort to escape, allowing the whale to continue lifting until it was nearly vertical in the water, at which point the dolphin slid down the whale’s rostrum, dove into the water, and porpoised back to its fellow dolphins.” More pictures and a video at Animalwise.

JOEL SARTORE’S BIODIVERSITY PROJECT FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IS A BIT UNORTHODOX: He’s shooting wild animals at a scale where they become, well, objectified — similar to how photographers shoot human models. He goes to zoos, brings a portable studio, and shoots the animals on black or white backgrounds. He’s already shot 1,800 animals and says he’s racing the clock to capture as many species as possible before they’re lost. And that we should weigh the cost of losing them. As Sartore writes: “The clean background, combined with nice light, allows the viewer to look every species in the eye, the window to the soul. I hope these portraits will connect with viewers and get them to understand that all creatures have at least a consciousness as well as a basic right to exist.” Via National Geographic

IT WON’T BE THE LAST NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF STRETCHING FOR PERFORMANCE, but it might be one of the first. In 2010, researchers at Florida State shows the static stretching before time trial running decreased efficiency by 5 percent and distance by 3 percent. A new study of dynamic stretching by the same group of scientists is just out and it reveals that stretching had no significant impact in distance or efficiency. Stretches does increase flexibility, which is a good thing, but as performance edge? Nyet. Via Sweat Science.

HOLY FREEPORT, MAINE, IT’S THE BOOTMOBILE! The Maine Hunting Shoe upon which the L.L. Bean Bootmobile is quite loosely based was born in 1912 and was (and still is) considerably more fashionable than a giant boot with an Ford F-250 underneath it, but any boot you could buy wouldn’t be SEVEN FEET LONGER than the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, nor would it commemorate a 100th birthday in a big way. Naturally, you want to know what size shoe it is, right? Try 747. No joke. Nor is the way-too-earnest Youtube video where you can learn all about the making of the Bootmobile, Orange County Chopper style. Via NYT

A SHED AT THE BOTTOM OF A GARDEN is a lousy place to keep almost 50 years of precious mountaineering notes, photographs, and materials, and thankfully the collection of Sir Chris Bonington has been moved from its dodgy spot next to his daffodils to safekeeping at the U.K.’s Mountain Heritage Trust. Bonington, still climbing at 76 (and seen here on his first climb at 16), is a towering figure in mountaineering, with 19 Himalayan expeditions, a host of first ascents, 17 books, and knighthood under his belt. Should you be in Scotland this weekend, Bonington will be speaking around the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his ascent of the North Face of the Eiger; otherwise, check out a selection of images from his long climbing life and collection here.

IDAHO HAS COOLER LICENSE PLATES THAN YOUR STATE. The special mountain biking plate is the result of an effort by Geoff Baker begun in 2009 to rally support and petition the Department of Transportation. Since approval, more than 600 MTB fans have paid the $35 to rock the knobbies. The dough has raised $13,000 for the Department of Parks and Recreation to use for trail building, maintenance, and improvements. Via Bike Rumor.

IF YOU WANT TO RACE LEADVILLE IN 2012, YOU CAN START IN LAKE PLACID, which will host one of six qualifying 100-mile mountain bike races around the country that feed into the famous Leadville sufferfest. Each feeder race welcomes several hundred racers and the top total times vie for slots at Leadville, some 70-100. While racing in and around Whiteface Mountain may not sound as tough as some of the comps at locations like Austin, Texas (in insufferable June) the 2,501-foot climb up the ski hill comes at the end of the slog and is one of the steepest ascents in cycling. Finish first as a singlespeeder, male or female and you’re guaranteed a shot at Leadville. Oh, we almost forgot: There’s also a tandem category…Via Alpinezone

DISC BRAKES ARE DEFINITELY COMING TO ROAD BIKES…EVENTUALLY, but in the meantime if you’re a time trialist discs might never arrive because no matter what technological developments they’re going to create excess drag. That doesn’t mean technological gains aren’t being made on the brake side for TT bikes. Magura’s new RT8TT is an intriguing idea: traditional brake pads grab the rim, but the system is hydraulic, rather than mechanical, yielding quicker response and easier modulation than a traditional (i.e., weak-ass) braking system, especially from the aero position where mechanical levers provide slow-as-tree-sap-in-January modulation. Via Red Kite Prayer

ALASKA EXPANDS SHOOTING BEARS FROM THE AIR and other methods of culling under a program called “intensive management” that even hunter advocacy groups are calling inhumane. It’s part of a statewide effort to increase the size of moose and elk herds for human consumption by shooting and snaring predators, but scientists are argue that game populations are being depleted because of hunting, not bears — and that picking sides to stack the deck for hunters goes against a scientific approach to wildlife management. The feds oppose the move, and the AK director of the National Parks Conservation Association called it part of a “larger war on bears and wolves.” Via LA Times.

WE’VE BEEN COVERING THE CAMERA TRAP PHENOMENON pretty regularly in this space, and they’ve revealed a lot of wild beast cameos, and seriously cool revelations about both endangered and brand-new species never documented before. But on the Afghan border with Tajikistan they’ve provided beautiful color images of rare snow leopards that go beyond the typical grainy black-and-white shots you’ve seen. Also one mystery: One of the 11 cameras went missing shortly after installation. When scientists studied the film of a neighboring camera they solved the case. This image shows one of the leopard cubs using the camera as a chew toy. Bad kitty! Via fauna-flora.org.

AS WE TOLD YOU JUST YESTERDAY, THE SITE OF THE NEXT WINTER GAMES in Sochi, Russia, is seriously behind schedule, but we didn’t tell you what it’s like to ski there. As one reporter learned, the skiing can be excellent, but if Putin or Medvedev show up to ski the entire mountain shuts down for them, and during the writer’s visit they ran out of coffee, wine, and even vodka. Also, the power went out. Oh, and there are metal detectors when you enter the ski hill cordon, and there are hundreds of armed guards at the lift stations, in the resort, and even up on the slopes. If they’re concerned about security now, just imagine what fun it will be to attend the games. Via planetski.

YEP, THE COMPRESSOR ROUTE ON CERRO TORRE WAS CLIMBED without aid of the extant bolts, as we mentioned last week. But Alpinist is reporting that Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk didn’t merely climb the “compressor route” without using the sport climber’s best friend — they chopped out the 102 bolts that were controversially placed there in 1970 by Cesare Maestri. Kennedy and Kruk were detained by the cops when they came off the climb, who confiscated the bolts and simultaneously saved Kennedy and Kruk from an angry mob who wanted their heads for removing the hardware. Now the flame wars have begun in the climbing community, with traditionalists arguing that once bolted, the metal becomes part of the rock and others shouting back that the rock should never have been sewn up in the first place. Via Alpinist

SARAH BURKE’S MEDICAL EXPENSES ARE LESS THAN HALF what was originally announced. The family of the freestyle ski star who passed away last week from injuries suffered in the Park City Eagle Superpipe was facing a bill of more than $500,000, it was reported. The actual amount has turned out to be $200,000 — and the ski industry and her fans have already donated enough to cover it. “It is now clear that Sarah’s family will not have any financial burden related to her care, said Burke’s publicist. GiveForward, the donation website, received an “unprecedented” volume of giving and had to transfer some of the traffic to a partner site. Any funds left after paying her medical bills will go toward establishing a foundation “to honor Sarah’s legacy and promote the ideals she valued and embodied,” said the publicist. Via Toronto Sun.

IT COULDN’T HAVE BEEN SCRIPTED ANY BETTER: After announcing his retirement last week in Kitzbühel, Austria, where he’s won the infamous Hahnenkamm downhill four times, Swiss World Cup skier Didier Cuche went out and did it again. In crowning stye, the 37-year-old finished the burly course first, in 1 minute 13.28 seconds, grabbing his fifth gold to break a four-win with Franz Klammer. “It’s amazing that this came true,” Cuche said. “I just announced two days ago that I am going to retire and I was fighting for that fifth victory and, finally, I made it. It’s a dream. I can’t believe it. Winning five times here is just incredible. I can’t find words to describe that.” Via NY Times.

THE CURRENT CONSTRUCTION TAB FOR THE SOCHI OLYMPICS IS $41.6 BILLION, 70 of the 400 construction projects are behind schedule, and the site is located near the “restive” North Caucasus region (meaning there are people with guns who kill other people). But the International Olympic Committee says it isn’t worried. The reason: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is very much the man behind the Games. Jean-Claude Killy, who’s involved, says, “He has the power. His political position is the No. 1 factor. His love for sport is No. 2.” What he didn’t say is that if you want to get something done in new-gangster Russia, you should call a former KBG dude with dictatorial tendencies. Via Washington Examiner.

THE FOREST SERVICE, WITH LIGHTNING SPEED (FOR THE FOREST SERVICE), has decided what to do about the conjoined giant sequoias that fell and blocked the popular Trail of 100 Giants in Sequoia National Forest last September. After considering cutting through the 280-foot trees or building steps over them, among other options, the USFS will reroute the trail around the trees with a boardwalk. “The Trail of 100 Giants was refurbished in 1997 to provide increased accessibility for those with disabilities,” said a ranger. “I would like to see this loop opportunity re-opened to all visitors.” Construction is expected to run August to November. Via GSNMA.

THREE MONTHS AFTER WRECKING HIS ANKLE ON EL CAP, Mikey Schaefer found himself in Patagonia at the base of a steep unclimbed line on a peak called Poincenot, wrestling with doubt. “I arrived early December with my sights set extremely low knowing that climbing a 35ft 4 bolt sport climb at Smith Rocks hardly got me ready for climbing in alpine. Or maybe it did?” He and the partners who roped him into it pulled off the new route, 5.11 A2, but not without a little drama, fear, and pucker. The story’s a good read and the photos, as always from Mikey, are epic. Via Mikey Likes Rocks.

FOUR PEOPLE ARE STILL MISSING/OVERDUE on Mt. Rainier, despite a search effort yesterday by an “elite” team of rescuers. Much has been made about the “eliteness” of the team, with most news reports using “elite” in their ledes. The term was used in a Rainier press release, which cited their “familiarity” with the mountain and “highest level of fitness” and the media reflexively fell on it as if this was something special. But search and rescue, especially on a mountain like Rainier, is comprised of people who are at the top of their game — climbing rangers and volunteers often from guide services. So, um, duh. As for the two overdue parties, there was no sign yesterday, and eight of the 10 SAR folks came off the mountain while two remained at Camp Muir to continue the search. Via Washington Post.

SWISS DOWNHILL ACE DIDIER CUCHE, whom you’ve never heard of unless you pay attention to World Cup skiing, announced his retirement at the base of the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, Austria, this week, and what’s rad is that he chose to leave at the top of his game. Cuche has won four of the last five DH titles, 18 World Cups, and four world championship medals over 19 years. He also won the first World Cup of the year, so he’s no old grey mare. But, he said, “I would like to leave the World Cup stage on a high.” Kudos, amigo. Via NY Times.

EXCITEMENT OVER OBAMA’S “NO” ON THE KEYSTONE XL pipeline should be tempered by the fact that the Alberta tar sands have too much oil that’s too valuable for the idea simply to go away. “Americans’ thirst for oil probably will push the administration and TransCanada Corp., the pipeline’s sponsor, to find a way to transport Canadian crude across the United States even if it’s not through a pipeline called Keystone XL,” the LA Times writes. Even environmentalists say this isn’t the end of things. Via LA Times.

DUO COMPLETES FIRST DESCENT OF DENT DU JETOULA. Davide Capozzi and Stefano Bigio put down the first ski and snowboard descent of this spicy ridge in the Mont Blanc range. It doesn’t stand out as an obvious ski line, but is riddled with plenty of steeps and exposure. “I think the route is often in condition but the real difficulty lies in finding both enough snow and cold temperatures,” said Capozzi. “The ridge gets the sun practically all day long and transforms quickly. The route is very similar to the Rochefort diagonal (skied in 2006 by Remy Lecluse and repeated in 2010 by Stefano and myself) but we believe this one is harder to ski since the ridge is narrow and you’re always on the knife-edge drop!” Via Planet Mountain.

JEB CORLISS WON’T BE CHARGED AFTER ALL. The wingsuit pilot who crashed in South Africa’s Table Mountain National Park, breaking both legs, won’t be arrested and charged with jumping without a permit, park authorities said, rescinding their previous statements. He will be fine 1,500 rand, however — about $189. The production company that filmed him without a permit won’t be slapped either, proving the old saw how it’s better to ask forgiveness. And in what might be the quote of the year so far, park spokesperson Merle Collins, warning others not to jump, said, “The man is an expert stunt man and if he can fall, then what about your lesser beings?” Via Times Live.

WEST COAST SHARK ATTACKS ARE UP DRAMATICALLY. According to the Shark Research Committee, the first decade of the 21st century saw U.S. Pacific Ocean shark attacks jump fivefold over the previous century’s average. In 2011 alone there were eight attacks on the West Coast, compared to a 20th century average of just one a year. For the decade there were 64, while 1901 to 1999 saw just 108. The big culprit? Great whites, implicated in 86 percent of the incidents. Via Shark Research Committee.

WELL, THIS IS CERTAINLY IRONIC: The Los Angeles Times is calling out Seattle for mishandling this week’s dump of snow on the city, which saw 736 traffic accidents in the 24 hours after the snow started falling. Under the headline “Snow wimps: Seattle is shut down by first real snow of the season,” the Times also said, “Color Seattle clueless. The city has always marched unarmed into its infrequent battles with snow, and Wednesday’s snowstorm was no exception.” This from a city that hasn’t seen snow accumulation in the 25 years I’ve lived here. This from a city that nearly shuts down in a heavy rain. If ever there was a case of STFU, it’s right here, right now, to the LA Times. Via.

JON TURK AND ERIK BOOMER WERE STRANGERS when they launched their attempt on paddling around Ellesmere Island for the first time — a mutual friend got injured and pulled out, but the duo, 65 and 26, forged on, laughing at the absurdity of it when challenges came their way. Their singular achievement has been widely reported — they’re candidates for National Geographic Adventure’s Adventurer of the Year awards — but in this piece they get much broader recognition by the New York Times, which rightfully gives props. 140 days, 1,500 miles pulling boats even more than paddling…that’s badass.

BRITISH TV CELEB/ATHLETE HELEN SKELTON is being called out on her Antarctic world record claims. Skelton, a children’s TV host in the U.K., is traveling to the South Pole via kite skis and bike, and she or her crew recently boasted of setting a record for the fastest-traveled 100 kilometers — seven hours and 55 minutes. But Explorersweb calls BS on that, pointing to Sebastian Copeland and Eric McNair’s 2010 Greenland effort, in which they zipped 100K in four hours. “In fact 100 km covered in 8 hours is so common among kiters on Antarctica that it’s not even reported by them, not to mention claimed as a world record,” said Exweb.

HIKING HALF DOME? YOU’LL STILL NEED A PERMIT. The so-called “interim” program appears to be setting itself into stone, as Yosemite National Park officials are once again requiring permits to hike Half Dome via its cable route. Overcrowding on the cables often looks more like passengers boarding an airplane during the holidays than a wilderness hike, and the park has been requiring permits since 2010 to ease the congestion. A draft of a new Half Dome management plan is expected to be released for public comment this winter. Via Yosemite National Park.

POACH OUR RHINOS? YOU MIGHT JUST GET POACHED YOURSELF. South Africa is ramping up its anti-poaching efforts in Kruger National Park, adding 150 armed rangers to the 500 already there. Rhino poaching is reaching near epidemic proportions — 448 were killed last year in South Africa for their horns, which are considered an aphrodisiac in some Asian countries, and 11 have been taken already in just two weeks into 2012. Rangers recently killed two poachers and captured two more. The situation is worst along the border with Mozambique, which is much poorer and where organized crime flourishes. More than 200 miles of the fencing along that keeps critters in and poachers out along the border is destroyed or damaged. Via IOL.

PINKBIKE ASKED ITS CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS TO CHOOSE THEIR BEST SHOTS OF 2011, and while pro shooters don’t always make the best photo editors, especially of their own work (we’ll get picky and say they should’ve made them draw from each others’ work instead, not their own, and have the voting be anonymous), this portfolio contains plenty of stunners. We like Margus Riga’s god-lit shot of Wade Simmons at Whistler, and Wade Simmons again at left, this time glued to moss-slimed rock on the North Shore and frozen in time by Sterling Lorence. Via Pinkbike

TRAFFIC LIGHTS ARE DUMB. Not in concept, but in execution, because little technology has been added to them since the first lights came to be nearly 100 years ago. Sure, they have lights that vary timing based on traffic patterns, but most can’t tell a pedestrian from a car. Most, but not all. A new light called the Intersector, now deployed in some California cities, uses a microwave beam to measure the speed of an approaching object. If the object is slow (cyclists and walkers) it can extend the length of the green. Cars get four seconds while bikes get 14 seconds. And if you get to a light and no cars are coming it can ignore the normal timing and change red to green. Via Co.Exist.

WHILE MOSQUITO BITES ARE A TERRIBLE NUISANCE IN THE NORTH AMERICAN WILD, in much of the world they can also carry deadly dengue fever. But Australian scientists just released thousands of the pests carrying a strain of bacterium called Wolbachia, which stops the virus from reproducing. There’s also evidence the bugs become less likely to carry encephalitis. Whether that means the same methods could be used to prevent the spread of other diseases remains vague. But there’s no call for eradication, as pleasing as the idea might be — mosquitoes are food for lots of species, from birds, to bats. Via Nature.

PATRICK SYMMES BECAME AN ANTI-BIKE-THEFT VIGILANTE AFTER having two of his commuter bikes pinched from city streets. In this deeply obsessive tale of writer-turned-cyber- and GPS-equipped bike thief stalker you get to laugh — and cry — with Symmes as he baits a crackhead into stealing a worthless Huffy and learns very sad stats about bike theft in America. Example: $350 million worth are stolen every year, with 100,000 bikes disappearing from NYC streets alone. And: 95 percent of stolen bikes are never recovered. “In America’s rough streets, there are four forms of currency — cash, sex, drugs, and bicycles. Of those, only one is routinely left outside unattended. Via Outside.

CRAIG DEMARTINO CLIMBS 5.12+. HE CLIMBED THE NOSE IN A DAY. AND HE’S MISSING PART OF HIS RIGHT LEG. In 2002 he took a 100-foot ground fall that should’ve killed him — it nearly did. It shattered part of his lower spine, broke his neck, punctured his lung…and he didn’t die. But this fall upended his life in ways he never could’ve imagined. In one of the best profiles we’ve read in a heck of a long time, Fitz Cahall chronicles DeMartino’s decade-long fight back from wheelchair, having to choose to have part of his leg amputated, and the evolution to the forever changed father, husband, and climber he’s become. Via Climbing.

SKIER SARAH BURKE REMAINS IN AN INDUCED COMA in Salt Lake City after surgery to repair a torn artery in her neck, which was causing bleeding in her brain. The coma will reduce swelling and pressure while doctors evaluate the extent of her injuries from a crash in the Park City superpipe on Tuesday. They have two main concerns — damage in the brain from the bleeding and possible brain damage from loss of blood. Via Salt Lake Tribune.

THE PERSONAL LOCATOR BEACONS THAT HAVE BECOME COMMONPLACE in North America can for the first time be used in the United Kingdom. The devices have long been used by boaters and aviators, but weren’t authorized on land until now. “If we can take advantage of today’s technology to help manage and minimise the risk to rescuers and help speed up the whole rescue process, in an emergency, there is no doubt we can save lives that might otherwise be lost,” said one constable. Well, yeah. They’ve been pretty darn effective on the west side of the Atlantic. Via BBC.

HERE’S A POORLY KEPT SECRET; WEATHER FORECASTERS STINK AT GUESTIMATING SNOWFALL TOTALS. Part of the problem, according to NASA, is with interpreting the water content of snow as it’s being measured via satellite. Knowing how “wet” a snowflake is allows scientists to measure overall water content and how it will accumulate. So NASA is going to measure snowfall in the air over Ontario this winter, both via its DC-8 airborne science laboratory and from space. The goal is to make future satellite readings more accurate — but we won’t know if they’ve succeeded until 2014, when a range of new satellites launch that will be able to measure not just snow volume, but snowflake shapes, because that helps gauge their water content. Via Nasa.gov.

AWESOME NEWS — THE MORE YOU EAT, THE FASTER YOU GO. One of our favorite blogs, Sweat Science, reports on a new study of calorie consumption in an ultra race called K4, where cyclists ride 384K and climb 4,600 meters in about 16 hours. Two points stand out. One, participants didn’t eat enough — on average, there was a 1,500 calorie deficit between intake and burn. Two, there was a direct relationship between the amount of calories consumed and finishing times — the more they chowed, the faster they finished. Eat up, Homer!

ISN’T THERE A LAW AGAINST THIS? Last week, National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration officials cracked down on jet skis at Mavericks big wave break in Northern California. The skis were running safety on a Hollywood movie production about the life of surfer Jay Moriarty, and personal watercraft are illegal there. Okay, whatever. It wasn’t that NOAA handed down $500 fines, that was to be expected — it’s that if you choose to fight the infraction, as the riders did, NOAA jacks the fine to $2,500. And who passes judgment on guilty or innocent? NOAA. Via Santa Cruz Patch.

IF WE WANTED TO PICK ANY MONTH TO BIKE IN THE U.K., it probably wouldn’t be March. But on March 10th several celebrity/professional athlete contestants will bike, run, row, and sail a total of 1,000 miles over the course of eight days in a clever contest that has the Irish, English, Welsh, and Scots all pitted against each other, with each starting at home, racing clockwise through each others’ countries, and back home, all trekking the same distance. This is for a charity called Sport Relief, which helps the U.K.’s poor. The kicker is that when every country’s team has completed the circuit to their respective capitals, they then run a 10k all starting at the same time to determine winners, along with 1,000 participants in each country running alongside the celebs, all of whom have raised a minimum of £450. As for the athletes/celebs — they’ll need to be exceedingly fit to even finish. The riding leg from Edinburgh to Retford, for instance, covers 234 miles. Via road.cc.

WE DOUBT NORTH AMERICANS WANT TO HEAR THIS, BUT AUSTRIA’S ST. ANTON SAW A DUMP OF 18 FEET (YES, FEET) of snow over the weekend, stranding skiers and burying resorts like Galtur, St. Anton, and Arlberg. You want some cold comfort? Avalanche dangers were so high the tourists were told to stay indoors and not to ski, though not everywhere. St. Anton managed to stay open, even as hotels struggled to provision guests, and trees as well as some roofs were crushed. And as always happens during epic dumps, several cars were smashed by plows that didn’t even know the cars were there, because the snow was that deep. Yeah, didn’t think that would make you feel any better, but we bet a plane ticket to Austria would…Via London Evening Standard.

THE MOON IS THE LAST PLACE YOU’D HAVE TO WORRY about preserving artifacts, right? After all, the tracks of Apollo astronauts will last until interstellar dust fills them and the American flags until ultraviolet rays shred them. Well, not so fast. There’s a race to put spacecraft back on the moon between states like Russia and India and private efforts like the Google Lunar X Prize, any of which could run roughshod over the signs of one of humanity’s greatest achievements. Well, now preservationists in California and New Mexico, after being shunned by officials at the National Park Service, have announced state connections to the NASA stuff on the moon and listed them as historical resources not to be disturbed. They’ve drawn boundaries around the landing sites that shouldn’t be crossed — a 75-meter radius for the Apollo 11 lander, for example, and their effort is gaining traction with NASA to publicize it. And, while it doesn’t have the force of law, their declarations are paying off: One private company seeking the Google prize says it now will avoid the Apollo 11 and 17 sites. Via NY Times.

HOW MUCH IS A TOUR DE FRANCE VICTORY WORTH? Last year’s winner Cadel Evans pulled in a cool $5 mil for 2011 thanks to his accomplishment last summer, according to a report on the highest paid Australian athletes — about $100,000 for every time he peed in a bottle. Well, we already know pro riders can make big bucks. What was pretty interesting is that pro surfer Steph Gilmore cashed in $1.2 million. All you young girlie board riders, take note… Via NT News.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE A 4,000 YEAR OLD FOREST, GO TO THE OREGON COAST. Oh, you won’t see an actual forest on the beaches between Lincoln City and Newport. You’ll see what look like the remnants of pontoons or docks, stuck in the sand. But geologists think that these are the remnants of coastal forests that were inundated by cataclysmic tsunamis and perhaps earthquakes as well, which sunk the coastline in one massive cratering between 1,500 and 4,000 years ago. What’s left are stumps of trees, gnarled and weather-beaten, and they wouldn’t exist at all had they not been buried in sand for thousands of years, unearthed at last by the relentlessness of the Pacific. Via Beach Connection.

POLAR BEARS MAY DIE OFF ON HUDSON BAY IF IT NO LONGER FREEZES IN WINTER. That’s grim news for the 950 bears that rely on the bay to refreeze each winter, but there’s another part of this equation that should concern all of us, because the function of the massive Hudson Bay not freezing could disrupt Atlantic currents that bring warmth from the tropics to the shores of Europe. That’s right: Global warming could trigger partial global cooling, because if the Gulf Stream is cut off a great deal of Northern Europe could grow a heck of a lot colder, disrupting the lives of 500 million people, crops, and so on. The polar bears may be an early victim of this change, but it won’t stop with them. Via The Australian.

IT’S CRAZY BUT TRUE — SKI BUMS CAN TURN LEGIT. A big part of the Salt Lake City metropolitan community originally moved to Utah to sample the steep and deeps, then stuck around to contribute to the arts, medical infrastructure, and more. “Yesterday’s ski bums are today’s doctors, lawyers, beer makers…” says the Salt Lake Tribune, seemingly shocked that adrenalized snow junkies might eventually hold a real job. It’s an odd and funny story, treating ski immigrants as if they’re exotic natives of a foreign land who against all odds learned the manners and more of polite society. Via Salt Lake Tribune.

A DEATH BY A GRIZZLY — AND UNCLE SAM SAYS IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT. In June 2010 70-year-old Ervin Evert was hiking in the Kitty Creek area just east of Yellowstone National Park when he came upon a bear as it was recovering from tranquilizers administered by a federal research team. The suit brought by his widow claims that the team, under the auspices of the USGS, had removed warning signs from the research site too early. But U.S. attorneys say that the Wyoming Recreational Use Act makes it immune from liability — that in effect, anyone who enters a national forest is on their own and any act of god or nature is just that. The law, according to the attorneys, requires a “willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition,” and they say there was no malice, just a coincidence that Evert found himself confronting a bear that happened to have been part of research. A federal judge in Cheyenne now has to decide whether or not to throw the case out. Via Powell Tribune

MOUNTAIN DEW IS GREAT FOR GETTING A BUZZ, not to mention dissolving bodies and perhaps stripping paint from old cars. The choice of hyper-caffeinated extremists long before Red Bull came along, Mountain Dew is defending itself from a lawsuit by a man who claimed to have found a dead mouse inside a can. But Dew’s lawyers say that’s impossible because the beverage would have turned the rodent into a “jelly-like substance” in the 15 months between production and when the man opened the can. Nice. Oh, and human teeth soaked in Mountain Dew for two weeks had six percent of their enamel eroded. Via Scientific American.

EVEN GETTING TO EVEREST BASE CAMP ISN’T THAT EASY. Just ask Erika Lederman, who last week reached 18,373 feet on the way to the mountain and was euphoric. She was there as part of a charity-organized climb, Women for Women International, which enlists individuals to raise money for women in war-torn countries so they can rebuild their lives, even as it provides the fundraisers with a non-financial goal — in this case, to trek to Everest base camp. The six-woman team each raised over $15,000 and trekked for 18 days, but at the highest point Lederman suddenly felt funny and in the middle of the trail decided it was time to take a very deep nap. It was the sign of acute altitude sickness. Lederman eventually made it to base camp, a very laudable goal, and blogs that the greater point of removing oneself from the humdrum of “first-world” duties is precisely the point of a trek like this, even if you never summit Everest. Via Bloomberg

BIG SKY SAYS COLORADO AND TAHOE SEASON PASS HOLDERS CAN SKI MONTANA FOR FREE. No, this isn’t a con. Big Sky says that just because these skiers are skunked for snow doesn’t mean they have to have a lame ski season. Big Sky’s been relatively blessed with plenty of pow and say that they want to spread the wealth. So Epic Pass holders to Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly, Northstar, and A-Basin can ski free at Big Sky throughout the end of January. The resort cuts to the meat of the matter: “Big Sky Resort encourages all Rocky Mountain skiers to stop praying for snow and just come find it.” Oh, and drop a bundle on food and travel while they’re at it. Via Big Sky

A CALIFORNIA MARINE BIOLOGIST HAS BEEN INDICTED by a federal grand jury for feeding killer whales. Nancy Black, who also runs a whale-watching business, video-taped orcas feeding on pieces of a gray whale that had been attacked by killer whales, but cut a hole in the blubber and tied it to her dinghy with a rope. “The federal government says that’s like feeding the bears in Yosemite,” said Black’s lawyer. “You’ve got to be kidding me. We’re not bringing in Twinkies and moving them into cars; this is what they are eating.” Black is also accused of altering the video tape and lying to officials by saying it was the original. Via SF Gate.

IF YOU LIVE IN BOSTON, ARE A CYCLING FAN, AND ARE MOVING ACROSS TOWN you may want to enlist the services of Gentle Giant Moving Company, which will move the contents of your abode via bicycle, not truck. The company says they avoid the cost of permits and the hassles of parking — and that a lot of their customers are cyclists who like the idea of a zero-carbon move. The company uses trailers and extra-low-gear bikes. But they didn’t invent the notion: The idea started when a local rider moved friends’ stuff by bike for extra cash, then brought the idea to a Gentle Giant, which loved it. Now they work together. Via Moving and Relocation.

GEE, THIS IS SHOCKING: ITALY’S RITZIEST SKI RESORT is a haven for tax evasion. Federal officials counted 133 Lamborghinis and other luxury cars parked on the streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo, one-third of whose owners claim to make less than $28,000. Not likely when a tank of gas can cost $230. Cortina hotels, restaurants, and boutiques are severely underreporting income, too; one luxury shop claimed sales of 1.5 million euros but couldn’t produce a single tax document or receipt. Via Telegraph UK.

A DOG FEARED LOST IN AN AVALANCHE THAT KILLED ITS OWNER MIRACULOUSLY SHOWS UP. The slide that caught and buried Bozeman’s Dave Gaillard near Cooke City was thought to have taken out his Welsh corgi Ole, but the dog turned up four days later and four miles away at the hotel where the skier and his wife had stayed. Ole was hungry and thirsty, and he plopped down at the door of the room they’d rented. Gaillard’s wife Kerry survived the slide after he shouted for her to take cover in the trees. Ole’s survival was a welcome bit of cheer in the midst of the tragedy. “The family is super excited,” said Mark Staples, of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, which investigated the incident. “It’s one bright spot for them.” Via Billings Gazette.

HOMEWOOD SKI AREA ON THE WEST SHORE OF LAKE TAHOE defines old school, but a plan to gentrify the tiny hill has opponents crying foul: The Sierra Club and a group called Friends of the West Shore filed suit yesterday against Placer County’s approval of the $250 million project, calling it “an ill-conceived, inadequately studied, and environmentally-disruptive development.” The plan by developer JMA Ventures would add two lodges, a four-story hotel, swimming pool, retail space, and condos. The hotel would be the largest on the west shore since 1901, when the Tahoe Tavern was constructed. Via SF Chronicle.

A SCARY VOLCANO COULD OBLITERATE EUROPE! SOMEDAY…MAYBE… But not likely in 2012. Despite what the screaming headline said in the British tabloid the Daily Mail a few days ago, a caldera volcano in Germany that last erupted 12,000 years ago isn’t actually ready to blow. Vulcanologists say that just because the Laacher See volcano is actively venting carbon dioxide, this is by no means evidence of anything — it’s been venting for several centuries. Wired’s Science blog called the Daily Mail’s sensationalism, “The volcanic equivalent of going out and saying ‘Massive hurricane to hit London?’ because they looked out the window and saw a cloud. Irresponsible, lazy journalism at its finest.” Via Wired.

EVEN IF YOU DON’T HUNT OR FISH IT’S WORTH UNDERSTANDING THE SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN what you do in the outdoors and what anglers and hunters do. It starts, as most things do, by following the money. As hunting and fishing licenses stagnate and decline, so do state coffers that were helping keep rivers free of pollution. State wildlife and conservation offices are starved of funds to both study and argue for studies of game and non-game species. To augment these shrinking funds, many states have turned to charging at state parks and preserves, which penalized the many hunters and anglers who aren’t in the field for pleasure but because they need the food. Fewer people who love the outdoors, no matter how they love it, means fewer conservationists of all stripes. Via VTDigger.org

THE CRAPPY SNOW SEASON IS HITTING SKI AREA BOTTOM LINES. Mt. Ashland, Oregon, is closing after just four inches fell in December. The area opened in the middle of the month with an approximately two-foot base, but warm holiday temps trashed the snowpack, and the hill will idle its lifts until more bounty falls. To the east, Boise’s Bogus Basin has yet to open and the area has begun cutting positions, pay, and spending, int he face of $100,000 a day in lost revenue. The area’s latest opening was January 6, so it’s a cinch to set a new record. And in Tahoe, there are rumors things could go from bad to worse and force Squaw to close; the 10-day forecast predicts temps in the 50s.

TORRES DEL PAINE ISN’T THE ONLY PART OF CHILE BURNING: Wildfires have scorched the Bio Bio region, too, and officials are investigating the strong possibility that they didn’t start naturally. Some 62,000 acres in Bio Bio have burned, one man is dead, and 160 homes destroyed. Eight fires were started simultaneously near a cellulose plant, which was severely burned. Meanwhile, in the southern Torres del Paine National Park partially reopened as fires were no longer spreading. An Israeli tourist is accused of starting the blaze with a burning roll of toilet paper, which he was unable to extinguish. Via Reuters.

AS MITT ROMNEY HEADS TO NEW HAMPSHIRE, THE STATE’S SCIENTISTS ARE URGING HIM TO HEED CLIMATE CHANGE. Romney and all the other Republicans vying for votes in the state’s GOP primary next week were sent a letter by 50 prominent scientists from across the Granite State urging the politicians pay attention to the reality that New Hampshire and the entire United States continues to grow warmer — and that the weather is also far more volatile, damaging, and costly to American’s wallets, and that pretending that climate change is a theory (as all but Newt Gingrich have — though he’s now calling it a theory again) is ignoring the reality that all Americans face. The letter makes it clear that the concern here isn’t that climate change is merely damaging to the environment, but puts things in clear, economic terms — terms that should add up for any politician, regardless of party allegiance. Via Carbon Solutions

AUSTRALIAN CYCLIST CHLOE HOSKING CALLED UCI PRESIDENT PAT MCQUAD “A DICK” AND isn’t apologizing for it, just that she could have worded her criticism more eloquently. Cycling Australia admonished Hosking and in response she’s said she will send McQuad a formal apology for her choice of words — but the Commonwealth Games bronze medalist maintains that the UCI is sexist, women’s pay is inequitable, and leadership is flawed. While Cycling Australia’s retort was that Hosking was being disrespectful, the views expressed are hardly out of line with what’s often been said behind closed doors about McQuad and the UCI by both male and female racers and especially team managers who find the body dictatorial and inanely organized compared to most professional sporting bodies. Via Sydney Morning Herald

THE WORLD’S FIRST CARBON NEUTRAL INDOOR SKI HILL IS COMING TO Barcelona, and the trick is how the Spaniards will manage to keep the facility cold without creating waste. The plan is sort of like the way a heat pump works; in this case, the heat pump already exists, too, since the port of Barcelona converts liquified natural gas into gaseous natural gas, a process that uses thousands of gallons of seawater to warm the gas, and, in so doing, creates ice that’s normally thrown away. Instead, it’ll be used to make fake snow. If you still have your doubts about indoor shredding, there are some pros today who learned indoors. And for some comps, like jumps, it makes perfect sense: intense reps breed specific talents faster. Just like what’s happened with climbing gyms. Via ESPN.

MOST OF US AREN’T THAT AWARE OF LIGHT POLLUTION UNTIL WE head somewhere like the Utah desert and all of the sudden we look up at 10 p.m., and BAM! there’s the sky, clean and bejeweled and magnificent. But now you can see the reason for the contrast between city and not-city via The Blue Marble Nightlights map which harnesses a composite of Google satellite images to show light density, which happens to be strongly correlated with income and infrastructure. Note that Africa is truly the “dark” continent in this case, and that whole swatches of central China are dark. But also note: These are nearly nine-year-old satellite images — we bet China and India are lot brighter today. Via Google Maps Mania.

WITH BICYCLE VENDING MACHINES BECOMING MORE COMMON, maybe it was only a matter of time until someone developed a helmet vending machine. This one comes from the brainiacs at MIT, and it’s designed to sell or rent bike lids at extremely low cost to users of Boston’s Hubway, a wildly successful bike-sharing system that saw 140,000 rides in just four months. Research showed that just 30 percent of Hubway riders wore helmets, compared to 72 of peeps on their own rigs. The MIT prototype machine would offer head protection for as little as $8. Via Boston.com.

ICE ISN’T THE CURE-ALL FOR SORE MUSCLES, says a new study. Yes, the numbing effect takes away pain, but as a fix for muscle damage there’s no evidence that it helps. Indeed, icing before participating in sports can have a negative effect, reducing proprioception and diminishing both strength and power. It’s not clear exactly why, but “the most likely reason is that ice reduces nerve conduction velocity,” said one of the researchers. The takeaway? Most athletes we know only ice themselves after they’ve completed their game/workout/activity, and for post-effort relief it’s still effective. As for further-reaching conclusions, more study is needed. Via NY Times.

TWO OF NEPAL’S MOST PROMINENT SHERPAS ARE OFF ON A DIFFERENT SORT OF ALPINE ADVENTURE STARTING January 15, when Apa Sherpa, who holds the world record of summiting Mount Everest 21 times and Dawa Steven Sherpa, who has reached the peak twice, will take part in a marathon walkathon starting in Ghunsa in eastern Nepal and ending in Darchula in the far west. They’ll cover the entire, 1,000-mile Great Himalayan Trail, thought to be one of the toughest hikes you could try, since the bulk of it is at 18,000 feet or higher. The duo are trying to raise awareness for sustainability and climate change in the Himalayas, which researchers believe are apt to be among the most drastically impacted regions. The GHT traverses many of the poorest regions of the mountain range as well, and the two aim to highlight how the world’s poor are especially harmed by climate change. One way they’ll get more TV coverage: A parade of Bollywood stars and other celebrities will join them along the way. Via Hindustan Times

NORCAL IS WARM, DRY, AND WITHOUT SNOW, AND LIKE MUCH OF THE NATION, IS WAITING FOR WINTER, but in an odd twist, Southern California’s ski resorts have been blessed by a snowier than usual early season. So while Squaw saw only two inches of natural snow in December (compared with over 12 feet of fresh that dumped on the resort December 2010) and Mammoth has seen its driest month in the resort’s history, Big Bear got three feet of snow in December and both Big Bear and Snow Summit were selling out of lift tickets during the holidays. If there’s a consolation for the Northern California-area hills, it’s that visitors have booked vacations well in advance, so Mammoth reported that visitor numbers were just 18 percent behind 2010 December numbers, not as dire as it could be. Via LA Times

DUNCAN MACKENZIE WAS ONE OF THOSE GUYS WHO PROBABLY TOUCHED MORE PEOPLE in his 30 short years on earth than most folks do in a lifetime. He worked as a ski patroler and trail builder at Whistler and he often schooled people on the mountain’s trails in both summer and winter. But beyond being an extraordinarily gifted athlete, he was a friend to everyone, with an infectious smile and the warm attitude of a golden retriever; if you met him even once, you remembered that warmth. Sadly for the Whistler community and well beyond, MacKenzie was killed by an avalanche outside Pemberton this past week. What he leaves behind are so many lives he touched — and if you’ve ridden any part of Whistler, you’ve probably ridden a trail pioneered, repaired, or built by MacKenzie’s hard working hands. Via Pinkbike

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEARLY A CENTURY THERE’S A WOLF IN CALIFORNIA. The two-and-a-half year-old gray male crossed into the state from Oregon and was tracked by a GPS collar. Conservationists are happy; ranchers are horrified. Officially, wolves are endangered in California and are registered that way federally, and a Lassen County rancher said that if that were not the case that he’d shoot them on sight. But Mike Fris, the assistant regional director of ecological services for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest region, said wolves are a concern to livestock only when they are in packs. But wolf packs in Oregon are believed responsible for killing 20 cows and two calves over the past two years, and if a pack is eventually established in California it’s inevitable to cause controversy. Via San Francisco Chronicle

METS PITCHER R.A. DICKEY IS GOING TO CLIMB KILIMANJARO IN TWO WEEKS FOR CHARITY AND THE NEW YORK franchise totally blew a chance at superb P.R. Typical. The franchise sent a letter to the Mets ace asking him not to make the attempt, which he’s doing to raise awareness for a charity called Bombay Teen Challenge, an organization that rescues and cares for women and girls in Mumbai who are at risk of being abused and exploited. He plans to blog and post during the expedition to the summit of the 19,300-foot peak, which is considered about as technically easy as any mountain of its height. Dickey has already raised $50,000 for Bombay Teen Challenge and a whole bunch of awareness…And the Mets greeted Dickey’s cause with Bronx cheering, saying if he gets hurt he could void his contract. Via NYT

A RAGING FOREST FIRE IS BURNING CHILE’S TORRES DEL PAINE NATIONAL PARK, where winds over 60 miles an hour quadrupled the size of the blaze in a single day, burning over five percent of the 927-square-mile park that’s considered one of the most scenic places to hike and climb on earth. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera declared a state of emergency and tripled the number of firefighters attacking the blaze — at first a paltry 120-man crew was trying to contain the blaze as it spread to over 30,000 acres. Pinera has also called for international aid to help fight the fire and Argentina, which has parkland just across the border, has responded. Historically most fires in the park have been human-caused because Torres del Paine is generally fairly wet, even during summer. Via Bloomberg

NEWS FLASH: YOUR VO2 AIN’T MAX. Yeah, we just told you about a Swiss study recently that suggests that neurochemicals are there to protect us from over-revving our systems (a.k.a., VO2 max isn’t purely physiological) but this South African study suggests that the “brain fuse” can be bypassed. They took subjects and had them start at their previously achieved “maximum,” which had been arrived at via a typical stress test of slowly ratcheting the pace/resistance. The subjects then BEGAN a new series of tests at above that prior max and were able to go about 4 percent harder, and then the scientists slowly backed off the resistance. The researchers believe that because the test subjects knew that the above-max effort would be short-lived, their brains granted the extra-hard work rather than hitting the dose of trip-wire chemicals that would normally prevent such an effort. Via British Journal of Sports Medicine

PINE BEETLES ARE DESTROYING THE LANDSCAPE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, killing enough trees to halve the output of the timber business of the provence and releasing 250 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, the equivalent of all the car and light truck emissions in Canada for five years or enough wood to build a city of eight million homes. In Kluane National Park and Reserve, Yukon spruce beetles have killed over 1,400 square miles of white spruce, a forest four times the size of Yellowstone. The habitat destruction can’t be seen in isolation, either: The beetles are ravaging forests worldwide because the earth is warming, and the effects of this simple fact will be felt on a global scale. Via Vancouver Sun

IT’S BEEN A YEAR OF EXTREME WEATHER, as well as man-made environmental devastation, and NASA images have cataloged the extremes from space. From the massive tsunami that struck Japan to melting and calving glaciers in Antarctica and volcanic eruptions in Russia and Chile, the images from space are awesome in their detail and strong reminders of what a tough year it’s been, not just fiscally, but physically…naturally. When you see the hard swat at the earth in the wake of a tornado or a hurricane, it puts the minutia of politics, of people, in a context where we feel tiny, and that’s probably very apt. Via Yale 360

A NUMBER OF CYCLING GROUPS IN ENGLAND DON’T WANT A NATIONAL HELMET LAW, claiming that it doesn’t increase safety, that only improving infrastructure and driver/cyclist education can do that. Their petition suggests that helmet laws put off would-be cyclists because they tell society that cycling is dangerous. They argue that helmet laws in Australia have directly contributed to the rise in obesity, and the Netherlands, which has no helmet law, has a much lower rate of obesity and much higher rates of cycling. But that logic seems specious: There’s no national helmet law in the U.S., either, and yet we have very few cyclists and a massive obesity problems. Via road.cc

WE’RE UNABASHED FANS OF MIKE CURIAK. A GUY WHO CAN AND WILL enter any kind of winter bike race and win it is a hero to many, we’re sure, but it’s his blogging and musing and videography of his adventures that makes him compellingly normal to us. Because his soul-searching isn’t any different than any other nature lover’s. Here’s a fittingly quick and quiet example he posted on a snow bike ride during the winter solstice that he took with his dog Fang (yes, he has a dog named “Fang,” too). Take a moment for the read and let it inspire some winter play of your own. Via Lacemine29

A FEW WEEKS AGO THERE WAS THE STRESSED OUT MOUNTAIN LION TRYING TO GET BEYOND THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER FENCE. Now there’s news that in Arizona the fence is posing a threat to the state’s black bear population, which, researchers say, is at the limits of its range, which has already been pinched by urban sprawl in the southern part of the state. This isn’t a matter of the same bears that live in, say, Colorado roaming as far south as Mexico. Arizona’s bears have more genetic commonality with Mexican brown bears and are more apt to want to mate with those bears than those to the north. Arbitrarily (from the bears’ perspective) cutting them off from each other will have impacts, and not just on bears, the authors suggest, but probably on the entire ecosystem in the Southwest. Via NY Times

IT’S BEEN KNOWN FOR YEARS THAT CAFFEINE IMPROVES ENDURANCE ATHLETES’ STAMINA, but now there’s evidence that you can improve a weight-lifting workout with the caffeine, too. For endurance caffeine increases the number of fatty acids in the blood, preserving carbs and burning the fat instead, allowing you to charge longer before dipping into the carb reserves. In the gym, though, researchers found that caffeine limits the buildup of a substance called adenosine, a chemical that blunts the power of muscles during exercise by weakening the force of a contraction. But there’s a lot they still don’t know. For instance, in this study subjects were buzzing on the equivalent of five cups of coffee; whether the same improvement would happen on less caffeine isn’t clear. Via NYT

NASA PHOTOS NOW REVEAL THE GROWTH OF ALBERTA TAR SANDS PROJECTS FROM SPACE, which isn’t very remarkable when you realize they cover an area of 50 square miles, twice the size of Manhattan. This is no ordinary clearcut: The open-pit mines result in a slurry toxic enough to kill any birds that land in the area. And a leaked Environment Canada memo recently cast doubt on the government’s claims at the Durban, South Africa, conference on climate change that tar sands development was “clean.” The criticism comes as the Obama administration is being forced by the GOP to fast-track consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline — and Canadian officials appear to be looking to China as a market for the oil if the U.S. says no, since EU countries are saying they won’t take dirty oil from the Great White North. Via National Geographic.

IN AN X-GAMES WORLD IT’S ONLY FITTING THAT BURTON AND MOUNTAIN DEW HAVE TEAMED UP to make clothing. At first, the teamwork is decidedly non-performance focused: The soft drink brand will send recycled plastic bottles in the form of PET (rPET), which Burton will use in a series of three blended, 50 percent rPET, 50 percent organic cotton Ts. More performance clothing will be done specifically in conjunction with Mt. Dew for the 2012-13 season. Via ESPN

EAT LOCAL, SKI LOCAL, ON BOARDS MADE LOCALLY. That’s the philosophy of Glenwood Springs, Coloradan Matt Cudmore, who started making Meier Hadmade Skis in 2009 out of trees that grow on the slopes of Sunlight Mountain Resort. Cudmore, 32, says he got tired of the idea that skis had to come from Europe or China — and he was already hand-crafting skateboards in his garage. Now he’s making the most of a bad thing, turning Colorado-grown, beetle-killed pine into skis and harvesting other woods from around the Roaring Fork Valley. And just like in the micro-batch bike world, Cudmore has realized people will spend more for custom sticks, so he’s making those for customers, too. Via Aspen Times

THESE BOOTS HAVE BELONGED TO ONE OWNER FOR 13 YEARS. In the vast churn of the new and the now, that’s an eternity. And yet Evan Orensten’s Red Wings just went back to Red Wing, Minnesota, to their birthplace, for a little spa treatment. For $95, including shipping, Orensten had them resoled, buffed, relaced, and given the TLC he never bothered to show them through 13 years of abuse. And they’re fine. Good as new. Really, better, because they fit him like the perfectly broken-in gloves that they’ve become over the course of his ownership. Yeah, a pair of new, 8146-style Red Wings cost $200, and now he’s spent $295, total. But think how much you’ve spent on boots in 13 years and the math makes a lot of sense, especially for made-in-the-U.S.A. boots by a company that will fix them up again for a lifetime. Via Cool Hunting

FOR THE PAST FEW DECADES BIOLOGISTS HAVE SAID THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS THE ATLANTIC SALMON. That’s because it was declared all but extinct. The only place you’d see an “Atlantic” salmon was at a fish farm. But in Maine, they’re seeing them, finally, in the wild again. For the count this past fall more than 3,100 salmon returned to the Penobscot River, the most since 1986, and nearly 200 ascended the Narraguagus River, up from the low two digits just a decade ago. This is the first good news after years of conservation efforts that had little return on investment. Now, with fish finally coming back to stocked nesting grounds, and with dam removals to follow the fingers-crossed hope is that fish stocks may eventually stabilize, though there’s still a very long way to go. Via NYT

IF CITIES ARE ABLE TO MANAGE THE LOGISTICS OF BIKE SHARING, you’d think that colleges would’ve nailed this years ago. But it really only seems to be taking off now, AFTER cities have implemented programs. Bike theft and lack of decent bicycle storage have often been cited as reasons many students forgo owning their own bikes and commuting to or across campus, and scheduling constraints can also play a role, but universities as varied as Cornell in Ithaca, New York, to Washington State in Spokane and Stanford in Palo Alto are now putting more work into share programs, where students pay a small fee and can ride to various lock stations, many of them within the community, not just on campus. Via Bike Radar

HEAVENLY IS GETTING SUED FOR A SNOWBOARDING EMPLOYEE WHO HIT A SKIER last winter. Heavenly’s owner, Vail Resorts is being faulted as liable for the actions of its employee, liftie Daniel Barreno who crashed into Florida native, Kimberly Bland, who was knocked unconscious by the impact and hospitalized after suffering injuries to her head, neck, shoulder and back. The lawsuit says that Bland suffered spinal injury resulting in bulging discs. Not to minimize this kind of accident, which is still too common between between snowboarders and other boarders and skiers, but a follow-the-money reading of the $350,000 suit suggests that if Barreno wasn’t a Vail Resorts employee the damages sought might be way lower. Via RGJ.com.

WHEN MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA SURFER ERIC TARANTINO WAS ATTACKED BY A SHARK THIS PAST FALL the 27-year-old had just paddled out into the surf in the pre-dawn light. When the great white struck, it knocked Tarantino cold, and he awoke upside down and in the jaws of the shark. What happened next is somewhat of a blur, but doctors later said that the deadliest of Tarantino’s wounds came just two millimeters from slicing open the carotid artery in his neck. Tarantino vaguely remembers kicking back at the shark, then mounting his board and managing to paddle back in to the point where he could catch a wave. It was only then that he realized his arm was bleeding and at that moment the fear came: “Seeing all the blood in the water and realizing that if the shark decided to come back and get me, there would be nothing I could do about it. That’s when it became really scary.” Via Santa Cruz Sentinel.

FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD JORDAN ROMERO SPENT CHRISTMAS EVE climbing Antarctica’s Mt. Vinson, completing his quest to be the youngest person ever to climb the Seven Summits. Romero first had the idea to climb the world’s highest peak on every continent when he was just 10 and later that year he bagged Kilimanjaro and then went on to tick off Kosciuszko (Australia), Elbrus (Europe), Aconcagua (South America), Denali (North America), and Carstensz Pyramid (Oceania). At just 13 he tackled Everest, but the logistics and fierce weather of climbing Vinson made summiting on Antarctica especially challenging. This past Friday he had the weather window he needed. He climbed to High Camp with his parents, and then, in sub-zero temperatures with high winds, went on to summit solo and made it back down to High Camp. The family then skied down to base camp together, where they had Christmas dinner. Via Gadling.

FRENCH GLACIERS ARE IN RETREAT, according to new research. In the late 1960s/early 1970s, the ice fields slipping down Mont Blanc and the surrounding mountains of the European range covered some 375 square kilometers; by the end of 2010 they’d shrunk to 275 square kilometers, a 30 percent loss. The research mirrors what’s happening in the rest of the Alps, in Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, France, and Italy. As you might expect, the greatest loss has been in the south, where some glaciers are nearly gone. Scientists believe the cause is more than merely due to southern latitude, saying that the south also has lower glaciers and that the cloud cover over the northern Alps is consistently thicker, preventing more melt. Via BBC.

IT’S EASY TO FORGET THAT PATROLLERS are risking their lives, and not just from the obvious danger — being caught in a slide themselves. In the Alps last week a 54-year-old pro troller was killed setting a charge during avalanche control work. The red coat and his colleague had loaded a rocket into a launcher and were removing the safeties when the charge blew without warning. Just a week earlier, at another Swiss Alps resort, two patrollers were injured when a charge exploded inside a launcher. Via Lovetoski.com.

THE WORLD’S FIRST CARBON NEUTRAL INDOOR SKI HILL IS COMING TO Barcelona, and the trick is how the Spaniards will manage to keep the facility cold without creating waste. The plan is sort of like the way a heat pump works; in this case, the heat pump already exists, too, since the port of Barcelona converts liquified natural gas into gaseous N.G., a process that uses thousands of gallons of seawater to warm the gas, and in so doing, creates ice that’s normally chucked. Instead, it’ll be used to make fake snow. If you still have your doubts about indoor shredding, there are some pros today who learned indoors, and for some comps, like jumps, it makes perfect sense: intense reps breed specific talents faster. Just like what’s happened with climbing gyms. Via ESPN.

WE LOVE WIRED’S “WHAT’S IN IT” COLUMN, BECAUSE it’s always breaking down household products (Colgate toothpaste, say) and grossing us out with their toxicity. Here we have fake snow, a common celebratory ingredient of any festive holiday in Phoenix…and increasingly, Xmas in the rest of the nation, too. What we learn about the fake fluff vs. real pow is that it takes lots of fat to seem both snowlike in appearance and white. What KIND of fat? Both vegetable and animal. And then there’s glue, too, so you can spray your canned fat onto a just-cut spruce and have it stick. Of course it wouldn’t be a holiday without some highly flammable, and toxic-if-inhaled solvents, some salt to make the faux flakes sparkle, and a few hydrocarbons to help propel the fat from the bottle. Jolly good times! Via Wired.com.

SOME OF THE RAREST BIG CATS IN THE WORLD ARE IN AN UNLIKELY PLACE: RUSSIA. There are only 35 Amur leopards left on earth and they occupy a huge range of roughly 8,000 square miles in both remote and wild land in Russia’s far east. BBC Nature rode along on an expedition to track and tag the huge cats, and to study how they get along with Russia’s other rare felines, Amur tigers, which are also incredibly endangered, with fewer than 500 expected to still be in existence. The biggest threats are both intense timber harvesting and poaching: the market for a whole tiger in China is said to exceed $15,000. Via BBC and Al Jazeera.

HOW DID WE GET POLAR FLEECE? Good question. On this public radio segment from WNYC, Sean Cormier, assistant professor in the Textile Design and Marketing Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Jill Dumain, Director of Environmental Strategy at Patagonia, go through the glory that is polyester fleece. It’s a good 101 for any outdoor geek who wants to better understand not only how this stuff came to be, but when to wear what — why wool stretches out, but doesn’t stink, and so on. Via WNYC.

IN SANTA CRUZ, A FIGHT FOR CONTROL OF THE LOCAL SIERRA CLUB chapter shows a deeper rift between the interests of mountain bikers and other environmental advocates. At issue is whether several mountain bikers who are running for seats on the chapter should even be considered — there’s some debate about whether they care about larger environmental issues, or just access to trails. A fair question, and not one specific to Santa Cruz. But as groups like Sierra and others have long had feuds with mountain bikers it’s worth considering the far larger picture: the next environmentalists are far more likely to mountain bike than to hike. They’re going to continue to push for change. Advocacy for the environment, yes, but a seat at the table, too. Via Indybay.org

AFTER THE OIL SPILL THIS PAST SUMMER ON THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER, both the House and Senate quietly passed a bill this past week that doubles the fines of pipeline operators and increases the amount of money the government is going to spend monitoring the safety of such systems. And well after the massive Gulf oil spill, the bill requires mandatory shut-off valves on new or replaced lines. But industry watchdogs say the bill falls short; that it should have required such equipment for all existing pipelines and should have created standards for leak detection systems on pipelines to ensure that accidents are swiftly identified. Via NYT

A ‘SUPER PIPE’ IS NOT A HALF PIPE. Well, technically it is half a pipe, but it’s more, bigger-er, as Sun Valley’s just-opened super pipe demonstrates. It comes as Sun Valley celebrates its 75th anniversary, and it’s no accident that the Idaho mountain isn’t ushering in the calendar mark with crochet’d sweaters and hot toddies. Nope, they’re going big and new school, turning a decided back on sleepy tradition with the first mega pipe in the Northwest. The sucker is 18 feet high and considerably longer than a football field. It’s in in Dollar’s Old Bowl, beneath the Dollar lift, and you can expect some serious amplitude coming off its edge. But keep the newbies away, because what goes up…Via Transworld.net

IF YOU HIKE IN ANY PART OF THE EASTERN U.S. YOU KNOW THE DANGER OF LYME DISEASE. If there’s any good news it’s that the secondary infections caused by ticks could soon be a thing of the past. In case you don’t know it, Lyme isn’t the only danger. Ticks transmit borrelia pathogens that can damage joints and organs. Often undetected, one bite from a tick, can introduce and spread the bacteria throughout the entire body. But a new gel applied to the location of the bite will off the bacteria as long as you’re able to smear the goo on within the first few days of being bitten. Via Lymeaware.com

YESTERDAY THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE CLEARED THE AIR ON TOXIC POLLUTION, issuing new regulations through the EPA that force power plants to scrub mercury emissions. Other toxins include arsenic, chromium, nickel, and acid gases. These are considered especially deadly to children; the Obama administration said they’re responsible for 300,000 children born with learning disabilities each year, and that taken as a group, the chemicals are responsible for 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks and 130,000 cases of asthma. According to an EPA analysis, the larger economic benefits of the reduced pollution will more than pay for the short-term clean up costs and that the costs will also be offset through health care that won’t have to be administered. Republicans were quick to call the new regulations “job-killing” and suggested that forcing dirtier plants offline will endanger the power grid. But NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has a pro business record, was decidedly on the side of regulation: “We can stop this,” Bloomberg wrote of mercury poisoning. “We can spare children this tragic injustice and the pain it brings their families. We can spare adults from losing years off their lives. And we can spare taxpayers the enormous health care costs that come with mercury-related-illnesses.” Via CNN.

YOU’RE DREAMING OF A WHITE XMAS? FORGET THAT. MAKE YOUR OWN! Of course before you go out and make your own snow gun, as this link we LOVE advises, note the very important disclaimer they also provide: “The author, instructables.com, and any supplier mentioned in this instructable is not liable for any damage or injury that result from following these instructions…” There’s further cautioning about how air may back into the water lines, or water may back into the air lines, and you need an air compressor and a power washer, and live somewhere where 90 gallons of water an hour isn’t depriving the world of safe drinking water, but the point is, WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY! Now you just need to shuttle the kids off to grandma’s overnight and then when they return Christmas morning they can make snow angels in the front yard. Via Instructables.com.

FOR 2012, VAIL’S GETTING A GONDOLA…WITH WIFI. No, we’re not sure either why a gondola needs WiFi, since the typical ride isn’t that long, and since, Vail says, the new gondola, which will replace the 26-year-old Vista Bahn lift, will provide 40 percent higher capacity. To us that means it will likely be even faster; better download those apps in a hurry! The real attraction for Vail is greater volume to mid-mountain, as the new gondola traces the same course as the present Vista Bahn, and more comfort in lousy weather. There’s more attraction for summer use, too, since gondolas are easier for loading and unloading mountain bikers and hikers. Via Transworld Business

IT’S BEEN A BUSY LATE FALL OF 5.14/V14 BAGGING all around the globe. Gregor Peirce, two-time national bouldering champion who’s only 19, repeated his hardest route yet: The Swarm (V13/14) in the Buttermilks, California. In Arkansas, Finnish climber Nalle Hukkataival and Ian Dory repeated Lost in the Hood (V14) and Hukkataival also just repeated Esperanza, in Hueco Tanks, another V14. But probably the most aesthetic of this fall’s bouldering caught on video is Slovenia’s Katja Vidmar on Petting with an Alligator (V12) in Maltatal, Austria. Check the Vimeo, here, and wonder aloud how the hell she pulls some of the moves she does — like a few crimpers that’ll make your hands hurt just witnessing. Nice! Via Climbing

IF THE IDEA OF SURFING THROUGH BLOWING SNOW AND SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES in Alaska sounds just a mite too burly for you, consider Scott Jones’ day last week, when a rip tied off Kodiak took him for a ride he couldn’t resist…to a remote headland where he was unable to paddle out from, because gale force winds made getting in the water or even walking back to the beach where he’d started impossible. Instead, he relied on instinct and the buddy system. He’d been surfing with a friend who saw Jones taken by the rip and figured he might call for help. So Jones sought the shelter of a cave and waited for the phap-phap of rotors. When the rescue litter was lowered 250 feet Jones didn’t hesitate: “That didn’t faze me,” he said. “I snowboard. I’m used to being in high places. Via Alaska Dispatch

SHAUN WHITE CAN SHRED…AND HE CAN DECORATE? That’s the upshot of White’s newest collection at Target, a line of bedding, lighting, and home accessories inspired by skating, snowboarding, travel, music and art. In this interview with the New York Times he explains that, even though he’s just 25, he’s owned three homes and has learned a lot. He admits that a house he bought when he was 20 was overwhelming, with too many rooms to furnish, a separate pool house, and it sat on three acres. Does this make him qualified to furnish your home? Apparently Target thinks so. Via NYT

RAPHA MAKES ITS STUFF IN CHINA, AND THEY’RE NOT AFRAID TO SAY SO. While we’ve heard that turn a lot of people off, wondering why it isn’t made in England, where the high-end cycling brand is based, they go right at that question in this blog post about why that’s untenable, and why what you might end up with would be far inferior to what you get from China. They drill down on labor quality and labor quality of life as well, and explain that KTC, their Chinese manufacturing partner, was founded by a pair of Austrians in the 1970s, and that since, KTC has worked for brands as mass as Adidas and as elite as Bogner. It’s an interesting read for anyone who wonders why things are no longer made in the West. Via Rapha

WILL A NEW JERSEY SKIING HELMET LAW PLAY IN COLORADO? New Jersey’s law holds parents, not ski resorts liable if a minor skis/boards lidless. Yes, by the way, New Jersey does have downhill skiing, and even if it’s hardly Jackson Hole, because its few ski hills are close to metro New York, by volume we’re talking tens of thousands of young skiers. The larger question is whether other states with more skiing opportunities will follow suit. California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill in September that would have required helmets for anyone under the age of 18 who is skiing or snowboarding. Brown, in his veto message, stated, “While I appreciate the value of wearing a ski helmet, I am concerned about the continuing and seemingly inexorable transfer of authority from parents to the state.” Via NJ Herald

THE JURY IS STILL OUT ON WHETHER LANCE ARMSTRONG BROKE THE LAW, and that’s just the point. The jury is literally out, and the curious may wonder just how long it can remain out before Lance is innocent by lack of proof that he’s culpable. The answer, as you’d expect, is complicated. First, those reading the tea leaves suspect that the feds are trying to tie Armstrong not to doping in particular, but to trafficking across state and international borders. If that’s the case the statute of limitations is much longer, and in theory the anvil hanging over the former TdF grand champion’s head could continue as a threat for years to come. Via Red Kite Prayer

IT’S AN ODD PLACE FOR A MUSEUM, ATOP THE HIGHEST PAVED MOUNTAIN PASS IN AUSTRIA, 8,172-feet up, at the summit of the Timmelsjoch Toll Road that leads to the border with Italy. It’s stranger still that the new museum is only open in summer; the pass is buried by more than 30 feet of snow every winter. The strangest part of all is that the museum looks totally out of place, yet cool, like a space pod, for some reason crashed to earth in this remote, nearly lunar landscape. Its architect,  Austrian Werner Tscholl, made the new building to resemble a boulder just about to tip downhill, so he perched it precariously right above the penultimate curve of the road. The cavelike museum commemorates the work it took in the 1950s to build the curvy, steep Timmelsjoch, a favorite of hard core cyclists when the pass finally clears in late May. Via Cute Decision

TRACTOR-JACKED TRACTOR WILL SLOW OREGON SINGLETRACK. It can do the work of 15 people. It costs $75,000. It weighs 4,500 pounds and can break apart 800-pound rocks. It’s specifically designed for cutting narrow trail, and whoever stole it knew what they were looking at, because the Single Track 240 was locked in a trailer, and the thieves that got hold of the beast had to break through a fenced area and tow away the entire trailer. Did they know there are only five ST240′s in the world, and that fencing it wouldn’t be as simple as hocking a hot Camaro on Long Island? Good question. What is known is that the theft directly affects projects at Sandy Ridge, Stub Stewart State Park and the Cascade Locks International Mountain Bike Trail. There’s a reward of up to $2,000 for information on the theft. Via Oregonian

FOLKS WHO SKIN TO THE PROPOSED MANITOBA MOUNTAIN SITE ON ALASKA’S Kenai Peninsula would prefer the area stay lift-less. There had been resistance already from the U.S. Forest Service, which doesn’t want any new lifts in the 5.4-million acre Chugach National Forest. MRA says that since Manitoba had lifts up until the 1960s, they aren’t asking for “new” lifts…But backcountry skiers aren’t thrilled with the idea of lifts; the low-angles and easy access of Manitoba are appealing — and so is the fact that they don’t have to shell out for lift tickets. Via Alaska Dispatch

WANT TO RACE A MOUNTAIN BIKE IN THE OLYMPICS? You’d better have UCI points, and to have those, you’d better be on the UCI’s new list of “elite” teams for 2012.  Only two teams, Trek World Racing and Ghost Factory Racing (Ghost is a big brand in Germany but not sold in the U.S.), are “elite” in both gravity and endurance events, and all that means is that of the 27 teams granted elite-ness, very few have the money to field serious squads in every discipline. If you aren’t elite it’s harder to get UCI points, and Olympic spots are largely determined by who has status. Talent? Talent matters. But so does team support. Hugely. Via WorldXCMTB

IT’S NOT EASY FOR SMALL SKI HILLS TO SURVIVE, BUT VERMONT’S Bolton Valley is doing okay, despite a failed effort to sell itself to a larger investor. The 650-acre area is the quintessential “locals’” mountain, in the shadow of much tonier places like Stowe and Sugarbush. The owners acknowledge that their bread and butter is Vermonters, and that they come because the mountain is more affordable. But at some point Bolton may get sold; the present owners say they’re in the real estate business, not the ski business, even as they’ve added and upgraded infrastructure, such as a wind turbine to help lessen the area’s carbon footprint, and there are plans to add a second one. That’s just the sort of thing that you’d think would attract some smart investor…Via Burlington Free Press

THE FEDERAL BUDGET AND WOLVES When congress was passing its latest round of budgeting, representatives from Wyoming were trying (and failing) to slip in language that would’ve made it illegal for environmental groups to sue the state over its plan to allow anyone to shoot the state’s roughly 243 wolves that live outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation. The effort failed because the Obama White House called it a deal breaker. Meanwhile there are still pending GOP-sponsored provisions that would exempt oil and utility companies from the Clean Air Act. Leaving the EPA to regulate cars…and probably the methane wolves create? We’re not sure. Via Trib.com

A $250 MILLION LODGE AND CONDO COMPLEX FOR TAHOE’S HOMEWOOD RESORT HAS been approved by the Lake Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. The 1,253-acre property will include a 75-room hotel, 70 condos, 25,000 square feet of retail space and a pedestrian village. Local and environmental opposition seems to have tapered since the developer plans to use a combo of solar, geothermal and hydroelectric energy and will include expanded water taxi service and the use of hybrid/electric vehicles for shuttling guests. Part of the plan also includes a new 15,000-square-foot, mid-mountain lodge served by eight-person gondolas. Via San Francisco Chronicle

IF ALL PEOPLE RODE BIKES AS MUCH AS THE DANES, THE ENTIRETY OF EUROPE COULD achieve up to one-quarter of its target for carbon emissions reductions by 2050. So says the European Cyclists’ Federation, which also says they’re not talking about very much riding — the average person from Denmark rides about a mile a day. But if that happened across the EU it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 55 million to 120 million tons annually, or 5 to 11 percent of the EU’s overall emissions target, by 2020. Since the EU is unlikely to meet its targets with more efficient technology alone, the report says a shift away from cars is critical. Meanwhile, New York City transportation officials say the number of people bicycling in Manhattan this year is double the ridership in 2007, largely as a result of increased bike lanes across the city. Via Yale 360.

YES VIRGINIA, THERE’S A SANTA CLAUS. AND AN APP FOR CHEAP LIFT TICKETS, TOO. Liftopia, which is already the largest online marketplace for discounted ski lift tickets, yesterday launched an app version for iPhones. You can use the iPhone’s location awareness to have it auto-shop deals, or search by date or region. A pretty sweet feature is that you don’t have to print a lift pass; you just show your bar-coded receipt on your phone’s screen at the ticket window at participating resorts. Currently Liftopia is working with 150 ski areas, including a lot of the majors, like Aspen, Copper, Stowe, Squaw, Mammoth, Taos, Bachelor, etc. And, yes, Android folks, they’re working on your app, too. Via Transworld Business.

SHOULD WILDLIFE AUTHORITIES TREAT SHOOTING WOLVES LIKE SPORT? That’s the question in Idaho, where a blog recently reported that the state’s Wildlife Services agency, which is again considering shooting wolves from the air, was until recently representing wolf kills on an aircraft much the same way that fighter pilots used to adorn aircraft with symbols of gunned-down enemy planes. In this case the “enemy” is hotly open for debate. Opponents of the shooting say it’s being done to protect elk just so that hunters can kill them for pleasure (the wolves obviously are killing them to survive). The state says the elk herds are dwindling. Ranchers say wolves are a threat. But the question remains: Even if wolves end up in the crosshairs, should the hunt be treated like sport? Via L.A. Times.

BIKES VS. CARS. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Streetsblog really hit a raw nerve with this post. The partial read is here, but if you’re an urban cyclist you should click through: “Yesterday I saw a bicyclist do [insert dangerous, stupid, inconsiderate, boneheaded move here] and it nearly inconvenienced me. This means all bikers better watch out because the responsible, productive, law-abiding members of this community aren’t going to tolerate this kind of of anti-social behavior from you riffraff much longer…Yesterday I saw a car driver do [insert dangerous, stupid, inconsiderate, boneheaded move here] and kill someone! A tragedy, but it was an accident, no one’s fault really, just one of those bad parts of living in the modern age that we all have to put up with. After all, anyone can make a mistake…” Via DC Streetsblog.

100 YEARS AGO YESTERDAY, NORWEGIAN EXPLORER ROALD AMUNDSEN BECAME THE FIRST MAN to reach the South Pole, besting his British nemesis, Robert Falcon Scott. There’s still a lot to be learned from Amundsen’s triumph and Scott’s tragedy. Amundsen studied how arctic-dwelling Inuits survived near the North Pole, and adapted their techniques for the Southern assault, including wearing animal pelts and using sleds pulled by dogs, while Scott famously and disastrously chose horses and sledges. What was true 100 years ago is still true today: Conrad Anker’s recent third and triumphant try on the Shark’s Fin was the result of trial, error, and adaptation, not bull-headed will. Via Gadling.com.

IN A RARE MOVE, THE ARMY DEPLOYED A BLACKHAWK HELICOPTER TO RESCUE a pair of stranded climbers this past Monday morning. The duo were stuck on Summit County, Colorado’s, 14,265-foot Quandary Peak. Luckily the male and female climbers, who were described as strong and fit, were also smart. They’d left word with a friend about where they were going and their planned return Saturday night. When they failed to return rescue officials were contacted, but rescuers had trouble reaching them on foot. So with temperatures falling below zero Sunday night, the Army National Guard deployed for the mission, plucking both the stranded climbers and several members of the rescue party off the summit. Via Summit County Citizens Voice.

POT GROWTH IS RAMPANT IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS, according to U.S. Forest Service director of law enforcement, David Ferrell, who told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control that huge trafficking organizations “…are sophisticated and include armed guards, counter-surveillance methods, logistics support and state-of-the-art growing practices.” To give a sense of scale, Ferrell cited cleanup and restoration efforts in The Golden State that included tossing 130 tons of trash, 300 pounds of pesticides, five tons of fertilizer and nearly 260 miles of irrigation piping. You’d hope the law-and-order faithful in congress would be upset by this testimony, rather than continue misguided efforts to gut the ability of the Forest Service to do its job. Via USFS.

MOST OF US AREN’T THAT AWARE OF LIGHT POLLUTION UNTIL WE head somewhere like the Utah desert and all of the sudden we look up at 10 p.m., and BAM! There’s the sky, clean and bejeweled and magnificent. But now you can see the reason for the contrast between city and not-city via The Blue Marble Nightlights map which harnesses a composite of Google satellite images to show light density, which happens to be strongly correlated with income and infrastructure. Note that Africa is truly the “dark” continent in this case, and that whole swatches of central China are dark. But also note: These are nearly nine-year-old satellite images — we bet China and India are lot brighter today. Via Google Maps Mania.

SHOOTING A NEW-SCHOOL SPORT LIKE SNOWBOARDING IN A VERY OLD-SCHOOL WAY, WITH a massive, 8×10 camera, photographer Ian Ruhter has also broken some serious ground. For the Wet Plate Project, which will be shown at galleries around the U.S. and Canada, Ruhter used wet plate photography, which involves capturing images to glass. It’s messy, and delicate — and then Ruhter pushed it further, exposing his subjects to massive wattage with artificial light, a la what Edward Muybridge did back in 1878, when, for the first time, people could see from his shots that when a horse galloped, all four feet were off the ground at once. Ruhter realized that he’d need the artificial light to capture action, slow it down enough without losing the motion, but you can tell from the Vimeo footage that this was still purely experimental. And even if this was all done in the name of a catalog shoot, you still have to applaud the effort for pushing things further. Via Four Square Outerware.

WE REALLY DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A GOOD THING OR A BAD THING, OR JUST A THING, but Ortovox’s Mountain Skyver Trail bike is at least interesting seeming. As Wired points out, the term “bike” is really inaccurate. It has no pedals, just foot pegs, and no drivetrain, so it’s more like a scooter with a seat…although it also has full suspension. The clever innovation is that it folds up and lets you carry it in its own backpack. So in theory, you could lug the 20-pound Skyver on a day hike, and then bomb the descent back down. What Wired found, though, is that actually riding the Skyver takes some getting used to. They learned (after many face plants) that you can’t so much steer as skid turns, using the carving action of the rear brake to induce arcs, and jamming a foot down like an outrigger. The author claims the testers were giggling like little kids…nervous, bludgeoned little kids. Via Wired.

A MAN WAS ARRESTED IN TOKYO YESTERDAY FOR TRYING TO SELL A STUFFED PANDA. When we first read that headline we guessed that this was about a stuffed animal, a toy, gutted of its stuffing and filled with coke or something. But, no, Shang Erqiang, 40, a restaurant operator based in Tokyo and originally from China, was trying to sell a full-sized stuffed REAL panda, which was described as ’80 percent real,’ with the head and ears apparently sourced from another animal, with rabbit fir that was dyed to look panda-like. Erqiang wanted 3 million yen, or about $38,000 for the stuffed pelt of the endangered panda and his plea to the cops was that it wasn’t even his, but a friend’s. Killing a panda is a huge no-no; even having its pelt or trafficking in them will get you jail time. There are believed to be fewer than 1,600 wild giant pandas left in the world. Via Daily Yomiuri.

AS WE TOLD YOU LAST WINTER, B.C.’S RED MOUNTAIN SUCKS. But apparently nobody told this guy, who tells us that Red saw Western Canada’s first lift, in 1947, that there’s nearly 3,000 feet of vert, that because it’s in the Kootenays it gets lighter, fluffier snow than any lower, coastal resort (cough, Whistler, COUGH), and that the resort plans to expand to five peaks and grow to more than 4,200 acres. He chronicles how more than half the two mountains’ runs are advanced, ticking off several no-slouch double diamonds, and quoting marketing folks explaining how they’ve positioned Red toward more skilled, aggro skiers and not toward families or newbies. Yep, like we said, it sucks. Stay away. Via The Olympian.

LINDSEY VONN’S HIT LIST OF GREAT SKIING, NO SURPRISE, INCLUDES HER adopted hometown of Vail, but she also gives shout-outs to Heavenly and to Mt. Hood…but the latter, only in the summer (sorry, Oregon, you lose in Vonn’s book). Strangely, in this interview in the New York Times, she misses the opportunity to stroke other U.S. hills, calling out Lake Louise, in Canada, as her favorite race course. Or maybe it’s not so strange; when asked where she’d like to try skiing she mentions heli-skiing in Alaska and indoor skiing in Dubai. The fact that the great Lindsey Vonn hasn’t been dropped on top of a mountain by a heli lends a little insight into the limits of what pro racers do and don’t get to see. Via NY Times.

VERMONT’S HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN HAS BEEN DOWN THIS ROAD BEFORE, with prior owners vowing to turn the once-public ski hill in Dover into an exclusive, members-only resort…and then the real estate bust, busted. But its new owner seems like he at least has a coordinated game plan. Jim Barnes, a Connecticut businessman, bought the Hermitage Inn in 2007, and it just so happens that the Inn’s property and Haystack’s are adjacent. So now that Barnes has bought the mountain (for $6.5 million) you can start to see the makings of a unified ski area and golf club. Note, though, that Haystack’s prior owner tried twice to develop it as a members-only ski club, with million dollar homes and $80,000 membership fees. Barnes’ plan is slightly more modest: 450 planned homes and condos will now start at $650,000. The ski area is promising uncrowded slopes to prospective members, but will offer 250 lift tickets per day at reduced prices for residents of Wilmington and Dover. Via VPR.

IN THE MIDST OF A RHINO KILLING SPREE THAT’S PUSHING THE ANIMALS TO THE EDGE OF extinction, South Africa’s Kruger National Park, in eastern South Africa, has removed maps that used to tell tourists where the elusive beasts were last spotted. Now, waaay after the fox has gotten into the hen house, camp managers have stopped the practice. Not, apparently, that it’s saving the animals from poachers, who kill the rhinos because their horns are used in bogus medicine favored in many Eastern cultures. Sadly, in the past week, six rhino carcases have been found in the park, adding to the record 405 rhinos that have been killed in the country so far this year, compared to 333 last year. The poaching has driven Africa’s white and black rhinos onto the global list of endangered and critically endangered species. Via The Telegraph.

WHILE THROTTLE TWISTERS AND MOUNTAIN BIKERS HAVE, AT TIMES, TRIED to work together on access issues, in central Colorado it’s the gas-powered crowd that approached the pedalers for a change, after fear that a section of the White River National Forest was about to get shuttered to them — and to cyclists. At issue is whether, if/when the proposed Hidden Gems Wilderness goes through, it closes the area to all forms of “mechanical” travel, be it motorized or human powered. So for added leverage the Colorado Backcountry Trail Riders Alliance got together with a local mountain bike group to lobby the Forest Service for a seat at the table. They aren’t asking for the prevention of Wilderness, but they are asking for singletrack routes that let them access some of the Roaring Fork Valley. Via Post Independent.

SUICIDE SIX IS JUST A SLEEPY SKILL HILL OUTSIDE WOODSTOCK, VERMONT. But to read this lovely piece about the mountain’s 75th anniversary you can’t help but relish tales of how the rope tow used to be one-horsepower (because it was pulled by ONE HORSE!), and how farm boys, not slackers, were often the lifties. And you also cannot help but laugh at the fact that hifalutin Dartmouth and Harvard students would skin up the hill, not because it was fashionable as it is today, but because there was zero other choice! Indeed the story of Suicide Six (sorry, not spoiling it; you’ll have to click the link to understand how the name evolved) is the story of a little mountain that may be less dangerous than in the 1930s, but is still rough around the edges and idyllic, just as it should be. Via Boston Globe.

THIS IS A PRETTY AMAZING APP/WEBSITE, BUT WE’RE STRUGGLING TO SEE THE POINT OF CNN’S ECOSPHERE project, which gives twitter followers of the just-wrapped Durban, South Africa COP17 Conference on climate change a way to participate and follow the many conversations. Yep, it’s neato, and if you use twitter, check it out just because it’d be awesome to see other conversations “visualized” this way. But while climate squabbles were/are over whether or not the U.S., India, and China will adhere to carbon reduction models, the twitter-reality is individuals, not governments, taking tiny actions…hanging out laundry to dry; turning laptops off at night. Nope, no headlines there, just a few million very quiet, boring tweets. Via CNN-Ecosphere.

DO REPUBLICANS REALLY HATE BIKES? This piece by Bike Radar makes the very good point that while a recent Mother Jones story argues that bikes are somehow inherently antithetical to right-leaning politics, the current congress has several Republican members quietly in favor of cycling and cycling infrastructure. The problem is the noisy, individual politicians like Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn and Virginia’s Eric Cantor, both of whom have continually advocated cutting the tiny percentage of the transportation budget that goes toward cycling and walking infrastructure as a means to balance the deficit. The left’s solution (that would raise billions more against the debt than cutting infrastructure for pedestrians) is a no-go, third rail for the right: upwardly adjusting the gas tax. And despite political claims that this somehow unfairly punishes drivers, most cyclists would also pay, because hardly any biker in the U.S. doesn’t also own a car. Via Bike Radar.

THE NUMBER OF DECENT SKI SLOPES WITHIN AN EASY DRIVE OF the New York City area is very limited, but a recent deal by the state to buy 1,200 acres in the town of Big Indian will result in the expansion of tiny Belleayre Mountain. Belleayre is a hidden gem for those in the know (think flannel and duct tape vs. the city slicker ‘tude you might find at neighboring Hunter), especially on days when the mountain gets a big dump of natural snow. The state’s purchase of adjacent land will include a lot of lodging that may change that little-mountain vibe, but existing Belleayre infrastructure is falling apart and sorely in need of a total overhaul. Plus, the mountain is already a great venue for summer XC pedaling, and the new plan includes a broad expansion to the existing singletrack network. Via Times Union.

THE PROPOSED GONDOLA FROM SOLITUDE TO THE CANYONS IS PICKING UP SERIOUS political muscle in Utah, where house members Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz and senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee want to help resort owner Talisker, a Canadian development group, push through the lift. Opposition groups say the gondie is a farce, that it’s disguised as transportation but doesn’t solve any traffic problems, especially since as proposed it will end in the Colony at the Canyons, a gated development that’s completely private and where the average home price is several million dollars. The City of Salt Lake, the Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Forest Service are all concerned about the impact on the watershed, but the latest news about whether or not the lift would be entirely private is raising the ire of skiers as well. Via Salt Lake Tribune.

WOULD YOU PAY $60,000 TO VIEW THE TITANIC? That’s too bad, because even if you would, you likely aren’t going to be on a sub gazing at the wreck on April 15, 2012, for the 100th anniversary of the cruise ship’s sinking, since all those tickets are spoken for. And Deep Ocean Expeditions says this spring’s anniversary spells the end of their exceedingly popular and expensive sub tours. It seems the fact that such trips can be risky hasn’t dissuaded clients, either. Then again, that didn’t stop the incredibly wealthy passengers who boarded the ill-fated Titanic…There’s so much mystique around the Titanic that passenger cruises (for a lesser fee) will also commemorate the anniversary on the surface as well, to a spot exactly 13,000 feet above the ship’s permanent resting place on the ocean floor. Via NY Times.

YOUR BRAIN IS A FUSE THAT KEEPS YOU FROM BLOWING OUT A MUSCLE — OR YOUR HEART. We told you about a study that suggests that exercise prevents your brain from growing old and how here’s one that explains how your brain acts as a relay switch, measuring the fatigue and fitness of muscles and then releasing chemicals that make you feel tired, essentially shorting out a muscle group (manifested as soreness or even pain) to prevent you from over-working it. The scientists even went so far as to induce spinal numbness in the test subjects, disabling the feedback loop from the brain and the athletes experienced less exhaustion. The hope for the research is to find ways to help patients who suffer from muscular disabilities possibly via chemical imbalance, but you can bet that some professional athletes are going to want in on future “testing,” too. Via University of Zurich.

A RECENT STORY ABOUT SPYING ENDANGERED JAGUARS IN THE WILDS OF ARIZONA GRABBED US because…c’mon, jaguars, in Arizona. That’s rad! No, not the sports cars driven by cougars in Scottsdale…these are genuine big cats that along with ocelots are endangered and the biggest felines you’ll find in the Western Hemisphere. If you’re very lucky, you’ll find them in the remotest part of the state, too, though more often they stay south of the border. The author notes that the jaguar in question (later verified by wildlife officials) was treed by a number of dogs…under the employ of a man who hunts mountain lions for sport. Via NY Times.

WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE, SUFFERING LIKE A BEAST ON A CLIMB, OR in a paceline. But Red Kite Prayer’s “Robot” absolutely nails that sense of suffering, of the murder that is the moment, the psychoses generated by feeling slow, the fear that is generated by what lies ahead…and then the revisionist history that follows a brutal ride. Afterwards we tell ourselves that it wasn’t so bad, that we weren’t going dog slow, pedaling squares, that the joys outweighed the sorrows…that the mean hill wasn’t that soul-crushing. And of course that we’ll charge it harder next time. Via Red Kite Prayer.

ASPEN HIGHLANDS HEADS A LIST OF THE GREENEST SKI AREAS IN THE WORLD, although this grouping from National Geographic shows that most of the “eco-friendliest” hills and resorts are largely outside the United States. Whistler gets a nod for hydro power, but it’s Europe’s resorts that are making the broadest gains, by combining solar, wind, and biomass energy. The sleeper on the list is Massachusetts’ Berkshire East, which installed wind turbines to power its lifts and became the world’s first 100-percent wind-powered ski resort, trading the volatility of fluctuating energy prices for the fixed monthly cost of the loan used to complete the infrastructure upgrade. Via National Geographic.

YOU CAN FAULT 62-YEAR-OLD ULTRASWIMMER DIANA NYAD for hubris, for thinking she could swim from Cuba to the U.S. She’s failed, despite trying and re-trying what’s considered by many to be the toughest open water swim in the world. Still, you can’t say Nyad’s not driven, nor that she hasn’t learned, or isn’t funny, fascinating, or hasn’t lived one of the richest, most varied lives of any modern athlete. She was once considered the very best distance swimmer in history, and maybe she still is in some sense, with a drive and still the will to dream huge. It’s people like Nyad that should take even a cynic’s breath away, and this excellent profile also opens the door far enough so we aren’t left with the portrait of a hero, but of a human being — a complete sense of a person you’re not so likely to find on most sports pages. Via NY Times.

C’MON, WAS THERE REALLY EVER ANY DOUBT THAT APPLE GEEKS ARE SKIERS? Well even if there was, you can now lay those aside as it’s been revealed that Apple’s internal code naming follows a ski-resort logic. So iOS 1.0 was internally known as Alpine, 2.0 was called Big Bear, 3.0 was codenamed Kirkwood, iPad-only offering iOS 3.2 is known at Apple HQ as Wildcat and iOS 4.0 is nicknamed Apex. iOS 5.0 goes under the codename Telluride and upcoming iOS 5.1 effort is called Hoodoo. This doesn’t seem to follow any alphabetic or numerical logic however, although we’re willing to bet that some clever mathematical conspiracy theorist out there will be able to decode the formula into a pattern that spells: “Put all your files in iCloud, now!” Via Phones4u.

AFTER AN ONLINE PETITION REAMED THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL for being cowardly on climate change, the network has reversed course and said it will air the seventh episode of the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary when the series hits this coming spring. The final episode not only documents the coldest regions of our world, as do the first six, but also starkly discusses the effects a warming world will have on the plants, animals, and people who depend on cold winters either directly or indirectly. Discovery had originally said it wouldn’t show the finale because it was worried that some viewers didn’t believe in climate change. But an online petition from Change.org hit 75,000 signatures in just a few hours after the news broke, prompting the network to backpedal. Via The Telegraph.

WHILE THE REST OF THE WORLD MAKES PROCLAMATIONS ON CLIMATE CHANGE, Mongolia is doing something about it. In the nation’s capital, Ulan Bator, they’re creating what’s being called an “ice shield” by growing the amount of ice that naturally forms on the city’s Tuul River with a little help from man. It’s similar to how ice skating rinks are made thicker, by topping the ice with more and more water. Ulan Bator will grow the ice up to 21 feet in thickness to create reserves of water for summer, as well as fight the city’s heat island effect. The project could provide a precedent for other arid cities that also have cold winters; Denver, for instance, which is facing potentially dire water shortages by 2020. Via The Guardian.

DO SKI AREAS OWN THE WATER THEY USE FOR SNOWMAKING? That’s the central issue in a fight between Vail and the U.S. Forest Service. The agency wants to alter the way resorts account for their water rights, and Vail, for one, is crying foul, saying that after investing millions in infrastructure they should have the right to dictate both the use and sale of the rights. The feds say their aim is to tie the rights directly to resorts, since the original intention of the grants was for the water to be used to make recreation viable (snowmaking, drinking, etc.), not to resell for farming or to cities. As usual, this fight is all about money and who will profit from the sale of water that’s originating on federal land. Via Vail Business Journal.

WE SHOULDN’T CARE ABOUT ALL THE JARGON USED TO SELL MOUNTAIN BIKES, argues Mitchell Scott’s funny, engaging essay, Riding in the Age of Confusion, where he says that all the technobabble is alienating, prevents more people from adopting the sport, and denies mountain biking its central appeal: the simple act of getting out on the trail and away from the complexities of computerized daily life. He uses skis/boards for a perfect analogy: “We don’t really care if our snowboard or skis have a triaxal weave, or if they’re balsam or spruce or monocoque foam core or not. We just want to know if it shreds. If it will shred for a long time. And if we’re getting maximum shred for our buck. It’s more about ‘what’ this thing can do, and less about ‘how.’ Via Pink Bike.

“TOM CHAPMAN IS A DOUCHEBAG.” That’s the bumper sticker you’ll find on some cars in Telluride, where Chapman has exploited red tape that divides private and federal land for his own gain. Or maybe not. In this excellent portrait of the real-estate developer and thorn in the side of the feds, Chapman argues that he’s doing something good, not just for Telluride, but for any park or piece of preserved land with “inholdings,” a.k.a., private parcels — protecting the owners from federal land grabs. Chapman scoops these up and then threatens to develop them, forcing the government to buy him out or watch him develop the land. The upshot is preservation of a messy kind, with Chapman walking away with the cash…save when his schemes don’t work or are possibly illegal. Although the story gets bogs down in the details in the middle and should have spent more time on the Telluride fracas, it’s an example of Outside as its best: curious, committed, and willing to devote space to an important but unsexy story. Via Outside.

THE OTHER SHOE HAS DROPPED ON MOTION-CONTROL AND CUSHIONING RUNNING SHOES AND researchers at the University of Calgary’s Human Performance Lab as well as at the University of British Columbia have found that there’s little evidence that motion control shoes for heavy pronators or heavily cushioned shoes are doing anything to prevent injury. Chris McDougall, author of the 2009 bestseller Born to Run that advocates barefoot running, greeted this latest research with a blog post entitled: “Breaking news from Nike: We’ve been talking a lot of crap, and selling it.” But researchers caution that the lack of proof that one kind of shoe prevents injury doesn’t mean that another kind of shoe (or running barefoot) will be any more palliative. Via Globe and Mail.

SOMETIMES A HEAD IN THE BUTT IS JUST A HEAD IN THE BUTT. A video shot by BBC in Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta that was excerpted from the Beeb’s Frozen Planet series went viral on YouTube. The footage shows a pack of wolves struggling to take down a bison calf when a much larger buffalo mows the smaller calf down from behind. It looks like an act of mercy, if you anthropomorphize what you’re watching, and that’s what a lot of viewers’ comments suggested, prompting response from the scientific community that too many of us are divorced from the wilder world — that we should know that in the animal kingdom there’s not necessarily “logic” at work and sure as heck nothing remotely like mercy. Via Vancouver Sun.

IF SANDISK KNOWS WHAT’S GOOD FOR ITS REP, IT’S GOING TO HAVE AN AD SHOP BREW UP some quick promo material and take advantage of some amazing luck. This Canon Rebel XS/EOS 1000 spent a year at the bottom of Deep Bay, British Columbia when biologist Markus Thompson who was diving there found it. He pulled it up, cleaned it, and managed even to salvage photos from the SD card, despite a year of salt water corrosion. Then he put the images (from the SanDisk Extreme III card) onto Google+ which enabled him to find the camera’s owner: a firefighter from British Columbia. Now we want to know: 1. Can the camera be rejuvenated after a year in salt water? 2. If not, will Canon give the guy a new one? 3. Will SanDisk still warranty the card?? Via PopPhoto

STORIES OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR CHANGING IN ADVANCE OF EARTHQUAKES dates back centuries, but now scientists have some clues why that might be, at least with amphibians. Days before a big quake in Italy in 2009, the population of a breeding pond of toads went from 96 to zero. Researchers found that rocks under great stress, such as immediately before tectonic plates shift, release charged particles that can flow through soil until they make contact with air, where ions are created. “Positive airborne ions are known in the medical community to cause headaches and nausea in humans and to increase the level of serotonin, a stress hormone, in the blood of animals,” said the lead scientist, who speculates that the changing underground chemistry could be toxic for the toads. Via BBC.

IS OBAMA’S VICTORY ON FUEL STANDARDS enough to outweigh his lack of environmental leadership elsewhere? NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman says yes, “all is forgiven.” The deal between the administration and automakers will almost double fleet averages by 2025, to 54.5 mpg, adding $2,000 to the cost of an average vehicle but saving $6,000 over its typical life. It’s a big deal for the environment: Some four billion barrels of oil will be saved and two billion metric tons of carbon kept out of the atmosphere. Automakers are on board because the standards are national (rightfully fearing California, which promised to act if the U.S. didn’t). Via NY Times.

THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA COULD GET 130,000 MORE ACRES OF WILDERNESS under a proposal by U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. The two are taking their idea to locals in Washington before crafting a bill to introduce in Congress. They want to tighten restrictions on a patchwork of land surrounding Olympic National Park, preventing logging and closing some Forest Service roads. There are five parcels totally 20,000 acres that include private land, which would be managed by the feds less restrictively than full wilderness. “If the federal government says it’s good for me, I’m skeptical,” said one loke. Via Kitsap Sun.

THE NUMBER OF GRIZZLIES CAPTURED IN THE NORTHERN ROCKIES MORE than doubled this year above long-term averages — a whopping 44, compared to 17 in a typical year in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. Some were relocated, some were euthanized. So, no, it’s not your imagination: Bear-human conflicts are increasing dramatically. “We are entering a new era in grizzly bear management,” said Jim Williams of the U.S. Forest Service. The bear population is now around 1,000 and growing two to three percent a year. One culprit: Humans raising poultry. One-third of the bears caught were killing chickens. Via The Missoulian.

THE POSITIVE IMPACT EXERCISE HAS ON YOUR BRAIN is becoming impossible to ignore, and scientists are honing in on some of the mechanisms by which a good hard sweat can jumpstart your grey matter. In the latest study to show a connect between working out and getting smarter, researchers in Ireland have identified “significantly higher levels of a protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which is known to promote the health of nerve cells.” In every case, people with higher levels of BDNF performed better on tests of memory — and motor skills. Intervals, anyone? Via NY Times.

JACKSON HOLE IS REQUIRING EMPLOYEES TO WEAR HELMETS this season, joining Aspen and Vail in mandatory use of head protection. In 2009, patroller Kathryn Miller, who was not wearing a helment, died of head injuries after a crash, and the state of Wyoming called out the resort for not doing enough to protect her. Most workers already have their own helmets, but for those who don’t Jackson will provide them for free. The use of a helmet can reduce the risk of injuries by 35 percent, a Canadian study found. Via Jackson Hole News.

WILL WEST VIRGINIA GET A NEW NATIONAL PARK? The feds have been considering creating a new national park in Maine, and Mainers have been up in arms over what they see as a land grab, and now the National Park Service is looking at almost heaven West Virginia. The difference? The study was requested by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. The proposed High Allegheny National Park would be formed from parts of the Monongahela National Forest as well as Blackwater Falls and Canaan Valley state parks. Via Sunday Gazette Mail.

THERE’S NO LIMIT TO THE SIZE WAVES THAT CAN BE SURFED with tow-ins, says big-wave jedi Greg Long, but waterman are reaching the upper end of what can be paddled, he says in an interview with The Inertia. The future will be paddling into waves that were once the purview of jet skis, now made somewhat safer by the inflatable V1 wetsuit invented by Shane Dorian and Billabong.

TOP-OF-THE-LINE YETI SB-66 WILL RUN YOU A COOL $6,150. That’s a lot of change, and a new outfit in England, called the Bike Leasing Company, thinks most cyclists would much rather pay 25 percent down and then a low monthly payment for two years, so they have the opportunity to always ride the latest technology the hassle of reselling. This setup does carry the same disadvantages of leasing a car — you turn the bike back in at the end of the two-year period. Although there is an option to buy the bike outright, which costs about 5.9 percent more over the original purchase price, not a bad deal at all. Is this a model for the U.S., too? It already was for one major startup in 2009 — and to our knowledge it died when the housing bubble popped. Via Road.cc.

DESPITE WHAT PORTLANDIANS MIGHT CLAIM, THE CITY OF ROSES ISN’T the most bike-friendly town on the globe (note how far one has to travel for decent singletrack). However, there’s no doubt that with irregular events such as bicycle jousting and more frame builders per capita than even Copenhagen can boast, Portland is hands-down the most bike-obsessed city on earth, so much so that some of its circus antics, such as zoobombing, in which cyclists bomb downhill from the zoo on kids bikes, have attracted coverage from the mighty BBC. The Beeb’s about eight years off the back of the cutting edge with this cute video, and there’s more “extreme” zoobombing footage on Youtube, but for the uninitiated, this clip actually explains the story, which is, to say the least, a little obscure. Via BBC.

IF YOU LIVE IN THE FINGERLAKES REGION OF NEW YORK (NOT FAR FROM ROCHESTER) downhill skiing is greatly dwarfed by skinny skiing — verticality isn’t a strong suit of the region. But tiny Bristol Mountain (1,200 feet of vert, for the record), outside Canandaigua, knows there are skiers and singles and is out to (forgive us) wed the notion of speed dating with the thrill of skiing. And it’s actually pretty dang smart: Sign up and you get three 45-minute ski/snowboarding dates with three different people in the same evening of night skiing. There’s even wine and cheese to sample beforehand, to loosen nerves, and the requirement that you be at least an intermediate shredder. It’s an idea that makes more sense at a small, community mountain like this, too, where (dare we wager?), there’s probably less of a swinger scene than, say, Park City. Via Visitfingerlakes.com.

THE DINOSAUR ARCHAEOPTERYX WAS CLAD IN HIPSTER BLACK, naturally. Considered the first true bird by evolutionary scientists, archaeopteryx is also the mascot and inspiration for Arc’teryx (hence the apostrophe, btw), and thanks to new research by Brown University graduate student Ryan Carney, the world now knows that archaeopteryx was covered in black feathers. Carney based his conclusion on a 150-million-old feather fossil, which was actually the first archaeopteryx ever to be identified — his team used scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analyses to detect pigment structures called melanosomes. Via New Scientist.

While the Black Sea resort of Sochi will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games,  a maybe future Olympic venue is about to get under way in a much colder place — in Siberia, on the edge of Mongolia, with a Russian mega-developer backed by Chinese cash building a massive ski resort within view of Lake Baikal. When Gora Bycha is done in 2020 it will be twice the size of France’s Courchevel. The $1 billion resort is backed by Chinese dough since Chinese resorts are already being impacted by global warming, but Siberia will still be really cold for decades. It’s just a two-hour flight from Beijing to Baikal. Via RT.com.

Legendary downhiller Steve Peat is slowly transitioning away from DH and into coaching. Sort of. He’s the face behind the UK-based Steve Peat Syndicate racing team, where 12 amateurs get a season of coaching and the chance to take part in a genuine race series with full support and advice. The cost is $9,256, which goes toward a Santa Cruz V10, body armor, helmet, and other gear, plus training from Peat and other coaches and a chance to race in England’s British Downhill Series. Yes, that’s a pile of cash, but just imagine how great a rider you’d be after a season devoted to downhill with Peaty as mentor. There is another catch, however: They don’t just want your dough, they’re going to evaluate your character, too, before you earn a spot. Via SPS.

A Vermont ski hill is surviving by going part co-op. No, we’re not talking about Mad River Glen. This 50-year-old slope is Magic Mountain, a once-shuttered little hill that rocks with glade and tree skiing and free access to anyone who wants to hike to terrain and skip the lift. But mellower pistes for kids and families are also an attraction, and Magic has been selling shares to volunteers who have been helping clear glades of dead wood and who simply want to see the mountain succeed. That community vibe is paying off in dollars: Skier visits climbed 29 percent last year and revenue was up 32 percent; season pass sales also grew about 50 percent. Another plus: It’s a lot closer to Boston and NYC than Killington. Via Boston Globe.

A British woman broke her own record for running from Everest to Kathmandu despite an upper respiratory infection and a big delay due to torrential rains. Lizzie Hawker ran the 200 miles from base camp to the capital of Nepal in two days, 23 hours, and 25 minutes — about four hours better than her previous time. She’d hope to crush the old record and was on pace to do so until being forced by rain to take shelter for eight hours in the village of of Bupsa. Via Gadling.

BAYWATCH FICTION BECOMES REALITY. NO, NOT THE AUGMENTED “CHARACTER” DEVELOPMENT, the episode in which a surfboard belonging to a character named Jimmy Slade (played by Kelly Slater) is used to smuggle. Now three Italian fans of Baywatch (just our guess) were caught in Spain trying to traffic over 100 pounds of cocaine inside surfboards. Apparently the cops in the Basque region where the smugglers were nabbed were made suspicious by the funkily shaped boards and their crappy paint jobs. We’re pretty sure the creative minds behind Baywatch would’ve done better in the, er, cosmetic surgery department. Via ESPN.

KIWI MOUNTAINEER MARK INGLIS LOST THE LOWER PARTS OF BOTH OF HIS LEGS AFTER A CLIMB ON Mt. Cook, in 1982, and later Inglis devoted himself to helping amputees, successfully raised awareness for their cause with climbs on Cho Oyu and Everest. He became the first double amputee to summit Everest in 2006, but on summit day he and his team encountered a fellow climber, Brit David Sharp, who was dying, and, according to Inglis’s account, beyond help. Controversy has swirled ever since about why Inglis’s team didn’t quit their attempt and instead try to save Sharp. Inglis’s defense, in this BBC interview, still comes off pretty weak; he seems bummed about the incident, but there’s no compassion in his voice — odd considering what he’s endured. Via BBC.

THE NUMBER OF HIGH SCHOOLERS IN COLORADO’S mountain bike racing league doubled in its second year and so has the number of girls. This follows a national trend where high school students are now increasingly being given the option to race mountain bikes as a varsity sport in lieu of more traditional team athletics. Not only is this good news for the future of mountain biking, it’s excellent news for any kid who might otherwise find herself stuck with only ball sports, which, unlike cycling, rarely carry forward into lifetime habits of good fitness. Colorado’s league is expanding to more high schools, and the National Interscholastic Cycling Association says what started as the NorCal High School Cycling League has spawned leagues in SoCal, Texas, Washington, and next year, Utah and Minnesota will join the fray. Via Denver Post.

WERE THE CAVE ARTISTS OF PECH MERLE, FRANCE, TRIPPING or taking major artistic license when they painted horses with wild spotted jaguar patterns? DNA analysis of fragments 31 horses that lived in Europe and Siberia 25,000 suggest not, and that they were in fact literalists. “It would appear as if they, at least in this case, were painting things they really saw,” said a researcher involved in the new genetic study. Via LA Times.

BEING SECOND MAY NOT COUNT AS MUCH AS BEING FIRST, but Sonnie Trotter’s second-only ascent of the 5.13d, 1,500-foot The Prophet on El Cap is pretty seriously high-five worthy. It took Trotter, seconded by Will Stanhope, a few months of effort and frustration, but they made it happen. Trotter writes on his blog that he and Stanhope found themselves the only climbers on all of El Cap, and only in a last, desperate attempt, were they able to do complete an all-out haul-and-climb slog over the course of three days. The last two pitches, a 5.12 and 5.13, were finished in the dark by headlamp, and Trotter writes of being utterly spent: “I think it was the most savage and satisfying rock climb of my life.” Via Sonny Trotter.

THE MISSILE IS GROUNDED: FORMER WORLD CHAMPION mountain biker Missy Giove has been sentenced to six months of home detention and five years of probation for transporting 350 pounds of ganja in her truck, but avoided up to two and a half years of jail time that prosecutors sought. The Missile pleaded guilty, along with a partner in crime, who was busted with $1.5 million in cash in his house. Via Wall Street Journal.

FIRST THEY ALLOW GUNS IN NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM, NOW THEY WANT TO SHOOT THEM. The move to allow firearms in national parks was plenty controversial, but now comes a move by Congress even more fractious: Allowing them to be used to kill animals. A bill recently passed the House Natural Resources Committee pushing the expansion of hunting, fishing, and trapping on federal lands, and some properties within the national park system that haven’t specifically outlawed hook and bullet activities could find themselves open to it. Among the best known, most-used are Blue Ridge Parkway, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Gettysburg National Military Park, and Natchez Trace Parkway. For a full summary and list of potentially affected areas, see National Parks Traveler.

THE SPERM BIKE HAS LANDED ON AMERICAN SHORES, hopefully not with a splash. The flamboyant delivery bike that’s been used for a while in Europe is now making the reproductive rounds of Seattle, doing duty for the Seattle Sperm Bank as a cryogenic carrier of potential babies to be. Not everyone’s stoked on it, though. “Oh my, I did discuss this with the lab director here, and he was very uncomfortable with it, just because it’s so disrespectful,” said one reproductive counselor. Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the economics of the sperm trade — the donor gets $50, the recipients pay $600. Via NPR.

IF YOU THOUGHT THE ONLY OLD, LEATHERY CREATURES IN VEGAS were senior citizens giving away their Social Security checks one nickel at a time, think again: In September, the BLM discovered dinosaur tracks in Red Rocks Conservation Area, the first evidence of Jurassicness in Nevada. The three-toed critter left ripples in the mud when it walked through this desert 190 million years ago and is estimated to have been about a meter tall — but that’s a complete guess because the study of the tracks has just begun. Officials are keeping the location secret for now, but say it’s about two rugged hours hiking from the visitors center. Via Las Vegas Review-Journal.

SURFING’S SHORTBOARD REVOLUTION STARTED WITH A FIN, says Nathan Pratt, one of the original Z-Boys, who curated a show on the evolution of boards from 1965 to 1984 running now at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica. “Greenough’s fin design…changed modern surfing,” he said in an interview with Transworld Business. It went from being the fat, D-shaped fins to the high aspect dorsal fin. That started everything.” The Q&A digs deep into the early Dogtown years and the cross-pollination between surf and skate…it’s must-read for board fans. Via Transworld.

WHAT DOES DOLE BANANAS HAVE IN COMMON WITH POT GROWERS? The giant corporation has been illegally planting its product in a national park — in this case, Sri Lanka’s Somawathiya National Park. The company destroyed forest and habitat for the endangered Sri Lankan elephant, which number 400 to 500 individuals. The company at first denied it, then said it didn’t know where the land was in relation to the park, and then, finally, when confronted with Google Earth photos and the threat of a lawsuit, agreed to stop the operation while admitting no guilt. Via Monga Bay.

WHAT MAKES MAVERICKS MAVERICKS? Surfline has put together a fantastic, graphic-based story on the science behind waves and the unique topological and bathymetric features of the Central California spot to create an informative, easy-to-understand primer on how Mavericks gets to be so big. Written by forecast ninja Sean Collins, it explains why nearby breaks might be cranking while Mavericks is small and vice versa (it depends on swell period and direction) and describes the unique, spiraling reef that focuses waves like a magnifying glass. It’s must-read for any wave lover. Via Surfline.

WOULD YOU RACE THE WORLD’S HARDEST “road” contest, Paris-Roubaix, if it wasn’t your job? Tour de France champion Bernard Hinault (pictured), hated the race, and once he’d won it bailed on going back in subsequent years. But most cyclists ride for love, not for money, and dream of racing/riding on famous courses, even if we have to spend our own money and time to do it. So the blog Red Kite Prayer asks what’s on your bucket list and why, what’s really worth it, and where’s that line between worthwhile suffering…and just suffering? It’s worth indulging the fantasy, because you won’t do it if you don’t dream of doing it first. Via Red Kite Prayer.

REI IS FINALLY GOING WHERE ONLY EMS, THE NORTH FACE, QUIKSILVER, and Patagonia have gone before…to NYC. Yes, we mock, because as New York-area residents know, REI is pretty darned dominant in other cities — but lamely, hasn’t been in the Big Apple, where it can still be hard to find everything you need to outfit for a week of hiking in the Adirondacks or the Whites. REI says it has a larger mission by going to the heart of American big cities — to educate the next generation on the joys of the outdoors, so that Millenials actually dig the natural world (and so that REI has customers in the future). But, considering where younger New Yorkers live (not in Manhattan), it may have been smarter had REI staked out turf in Brooklyn, not SoHo, where its 35,000-square-foot store will open. Via NY Times.

A NASA SCIENTIST HAS CALLED OUT RICK PERRY ON climate change. James Hansen, one of the world’s foremost experts on global warming, says that this past summer’s heat wave across Texas and the drought in the Southwest, as well as a prior heat wave in central Russia the summer before, would have not occurred if global warming wasn’t real. And he attacks Perry for praying for the drought to end without also acknowledging the possibility that the science is accurate: “Science cannot disprove the possibility of divine intervention. However, there is a relevant saying that, ‘Heaven helps those who help themselves.’ ” Chron.com.

SIERRA CLUB CHAIRMAN CARL POPE HAS QUIT OVER DISAGREEMENT on the direction the influential environmental organization should be taking. A member of the group for 40 years and executive director for 17 before becoming chairman last year, Pope controversially partnered with corporations like Clorox, accepted funding from large industrial donors, and staked out positions on issues many felt too accommodating of big business. With or without him, the club faces massive challenges, including “declining membership, internal dissent, well-organized opponents, a weak economy and forces in Congress trying to take the teeth out of environmental regulations.” Via LA Times.

WASHINGTON STATE’S STEVENS PASS SKI AREA WAS SOLD FOR $20 MILLION to the Florida company that owns Snoqualmie Pass. New owner CNL said it will continue running the 74-year-old resort as is, though it might add a new mountain bike park (which would be assisted by the new federal law making non-skiing activities at resorts easier to implement) and replace a lift or two. And there are no plans to sell a combined lift ticket or season pass or share staffs between the Stevens and Snoqualmie. Via Seattle Times.

PHOTOGRAPHER JUSTIN OLSEN WAS FRUSTRATED BY THE LIMITATIONS OF HELMET CAMS, particularly their lower resolution vs. a DSLR. So instead he rigged a custom chest mount for a DSLR that athletes could wear and that could be remotely fired to capture something closer to the rider’s field of view, from behind the bars, and that would include their hands in the frame. His primary aim: Make the weight secure. And, uh, yeah, he’s risking some pretty fancy hardware, hanging a Canon 5D Mark II onto riders flying through the air. So far…no damage. Next up, Olsen’s going to try the setup on skiers and snowboarders. Via Pop Photo.com

WHAT IF THERE WAS A MOUNTAIN RANGE AS HUGE AS THE ALPS, BUT TOTALLY UNKNOWN? Turns out there is, in Antarctica. And although it’s twice the age of the beaten-down Appalachians, the billion year-old Gamburtsevs are just as jagged as the day they were born, because they’ve been protected by miles of ice, so they’ve never eroded. Now scientists have mapped the Gamburtsevs and can see that they’d be massively ski-worthy — but they haven’t been unburied since T-Rex shredded the planet. If earth continues to warm, future skiers (should humans survive) may have new peaks to bag we’ve never even seen. Via BBC.

CHINESE KIDS WALK UPHILL TO SCHOOL — BOTH WAYS. No, seriously. Children in the village of Pili in the Pamir Mountains have a 120-mile trek to their school, 50 miles of which are by foot or camel. This has to be the world’s most badass kinder-commute: They have to climb up and over a peak, tiptoe along an inches-wide track cut into a cliff, cross four frigid rivers, and take a 600-foot zipline. “Actually, the parents think it toughens the kids up, and gives them good experience,” said Su Qin, the head teacher at the Taxkorgen school. Can we import some of that to America? Via The Telegraph.

THE U.S. IS GETTING A NEW NATIONAL MTB RACING SERIES. Anyone remember the glory years of American mountain bike racing? Didn’t think so. Well, Dylan Dean of Dean Racing Development has seen the lows and what passes for highs, and he’s launching a new downhill and super D series next year in an attempt to do right by racers. The U.S. Grand Prix of Mountain Biking will focus on the gravity events first, then add XC and gates as momentum builds. 5 to 7 events are slated and locations will be announced next month. Via Cycling News.

AS NEW YORK STATE WEIGHS APPROVING HYDRO-FRACKING AND THE DANGERS OF using treated sewage wastewater in the process — not to mention contaminating wells, releasing radioactive waste, and all sorts of other nasty byproducts of fracking — a less-known method is already in use in Canada that might prove far less dangerous and toxic. Gas fracking uses a propane gel to free trapped natural gas bubbles, but in the process the gel reverts to vapor, then returns to the surface — for collection, reuse, and ultimate resale. It’s more costly than pumping water to drive natural gas to the surface because of the up-front cost of the propane, but it requires no filtering, nor does it have the potential to poison local/downstream water sources. Via Inside Climate News.

IS THE IBERIAN PENINSULA THE NEW NORTH SHORE? Across Portugal and Spain, surfers are discovering big break after big break. First Garrett McNamara sledded a monster in Portugal at Praia do Norte that some called 90 feet (unlikely), and now the Quiksilver La Vaca Gigante has entered its waiting period for swell. This big wave contest — the Big Cow — is being held at Playa de el Bocal in Spain, which was discovered just five years ago. No word on how big El Bocal can hold, but the contest won’t get called unless waves are at least 20 feet. 24 of the world’s top riders have been invited and will have 48 hours warning. Via Quiksilver.

IF YOU FALL WHERE GRAVITY IS LOWER, DOES THAT MAKE YOU MORE OF A KLUTZ? Oh, man, this is a good — a strangely compelling series of video clips of astronauts falling down on the moon. We’ve been there, brothers, we’ve been there. The best comes at :50, when he spits the dummy, loses it, and hucks incredibly expensive NASA gadgets to the dark side of the moon on his way down. Via YouTube.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL DISCOVERS IT HAS NO SPINE. The BBC series Frozen Planet, written and narrated by larger than life (with British accent) Da-vid At-ten-bor-ough, consists of seven episodes, but Discovery won’t be running the seventh in the States because it’s afraid of upsetting American viewers who don’t believe in global warming. “On Thin Ice” tackles the vanishing wilderness at the poles, which most informed people acknowledge is due to a great extent by anthropogenic warming. So, does this mean Discovery doesn’t show globes or Google Earth perspectives, either, so as not to alienate those who still think the world is flat? Shameful. Via ENN.

DUDE DOLPHINS WORK TOGETHER TO CLOSE THE DEAL. Researchers in Australia have found that male dolphins who collectively surround a female that’s ready to breed are more likely to pass along their DNA. In other words, having multiple wingmen is far more successful than going it alone. It sounds vaguely creepy: “Males in alliances have better control of the females – we often see the males swimming around the females one on each side, sometimes one at the back. The female can’t get away from them,” said one scientist. Via Bioscholar.

WHILE U.S. SKI RESORT OWNERS ARE HALTINGLY PRESSING POLITICIANS on the effects of climate change, Europe is further ahead of the curve (it helps that leaders there aren’t casting doubt about whether or not climate change is “real”). The European Environment Agency is currently looking at the effects of climate change on snowpack in the Pyrenees, both because scientists there are saying that temperatures are rising faster in alpine zones and because resort areas will lose big Euros. And urban areas could suffer, too — as in the American West, snowpack in much of Europe stands in as “reservoirs” and too-rapid snowmelt is leading to summer droughts. Via EuroAlert.

COLORADO’S FRONT RANGE IS WRESTLING OVER THE FUTURE OF CYCLING: Boulder gets skunked, or at least its mountain bikers do, since last week the Boulder city council voted to nix any new singletrack for cyclists in the West Trail Study Area. And Ft. Collins, which already has a reputation for great mountain biking, is considering allowing e-bikes — but only on paved paths. The idea is contentious, but with e-bike sales booming, you can bet the electric vs. “analogue” debate is going to go national.

THERE ARE WORLD RECORDS FOR HIGH FIVING? YEP:A snowboarder named Roy Tuscany successfully give skin to 9,325 different people, breaking the world record for the most high-fives in a 24-hour period. While that’s not as huge as, say, setting the record for the biggest gap jump or the most aerial rotations, the agenda of this event, put on by the High-Fives Foundation, was raising awareness for athletes who have suffered life-altering injuries in winter sports. Via Transworld Business.

UNMANNED DRONES MAY BE USED TO SAVE LIVES ON THE BATTLE LINES…OF WILDFIRES. One of the chief problems of firefighting is knowing where the fire is headed and how to coordinate personnel on the ground. A new drone could help with both of those issues and, best of all, the SIERRA (Surveillance for Intelligent Emergency Response Robotic Aircraft) is cheap to operate and deploy — far easier than piloted aircraft. The system’s in-flight data merges with Google Earth, NOAA weather info, and fire prediction software, too. Via Discovery.com.

TINY HURRICANE RIDGE IS ONE OF ONLY THREE SKI HILLS in America within the boundaries of a national park. And while its modest 800 feet of vert may not be much to write home about, it gets pounded with 43 feet of snow a year (it’s on the tippy top of a rainforest on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula) and accesses some fairly serious and legal backcountry. A season pass is only $200, too. The news: this year they’re plowing the road to H.R. daily — in past years they only plowed on weekends, so this is a big deal. From Seattle a trip to H.R. takes a little under two hours. Via Peninsula Daily.

JEFF SPICOLI JUST SHUDDERED: SURFING’S PROFESSIONAL WORLD TOUR will institute drug testing next year. This comes in the wake of the drug-related death of former world champ Andy Irons and the resignation of Association of Surfing Professionals chief Brodie Carr after the debacle that prematurely awarded Kelly Slater his 11th title. Unfortunately, the ASP didn’t announce what drugs they’d be seeking (pot, steroids, PEDs, blood doping), how the tests would be conducted (random? after comps?), or whether they would use a biological passport that measures chemical blood levels. So far, the response from pros has been…silence. Via The Australian.

DOES IT TAKE A BIKE THIEF TO CATCH A BIKE THIEF? That was the thinking of Kathryn Lucas in Denver, who after she saw her stolen bike on Craigslist arranged to meet the seller for a “test ride.” When she saw the bike she knew it was hers, right down to the red bar tape, and that test ride of hers kept going until she was far enough away to put the bike in her car and drive off. The thief was later arrested, but the cops cautioned this wasn’t a tactic they’d necessarily recommend. Well, no — if it had been a dude, there’d have been some revenge at the end of a karmic tire iron. Via Bike Radar.

NAKED CLIMBING IS ALMOST NEVER A GOOD IDEA, but it’s probably worse when you’re high on mushrooms. At least in this case the naked guy, a yet-unidentified 25 year-old who had apparently scampered up the First Flatiron in Boulder last Friday, was rescued before he got hurt. There are some easy (when sober) 5.3s on the giant fin of rock — but there are also some tough-to-protect 5.8s, especially when you’re literally trying to protect your own skin. Post rescue, the cops busted the climber’s friend, Jon Schuttenberg, who’d called 911 and was later charged with possession of the illegal fungi. Via Daily Camera.

WAIT, DID YOU SAY BARE PATCHES ON THE SLOPES…OR BEAR PATCHES? Early snows have prompted a cautious soft opening to the season at Anchorage’s tiny Hilltop ski area — with lots of signage warning of bear activity, since at least four different sets of brown- and black bear tracks were found by groomers in the last few weeks. This is unusual because most years skiing doesn’t typically start until Thanksgiving, and by then bears have gone into hibernation. Via Anchorage Daily News.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD WERE ANNOUNCED FRIDAY, BASED on the votes of millions of people around the world. But the whole exercise is starting to smell rotten now that accusations of extortion have been leveled. The four-year long competition charged countries $199 to register landmarks, such as the Grand Canyon, but several nations have accused organizers of demanding millions in “marketing” fees. Organizers somewhat foolishly admitted they wanted the contest to turn a profit — we’re wondering whether that means there’s about to be a barrage of “wonders” memorabilia, hats, jerseys, happy meals… Via The Guardian.

SHOULD GAY ENDANGERED PENGUINS BE FORCED TO MATE? Not with each other, people, not with each other. But the Toronto Zoo has a dilemma — four endangered African penguins, two of each gender, and the males are only interested in grownup boy bonding time. Buddy, aged 20, and Pedro, 10, have only had eyes for each other, and while penguin homosexuality is documented in the wild and in zoos, the Torontonauts aren’t 100 percent sure the boys are gay. They’re considering splitting up what could be just a very close platonic relationship and locking them in boudoirs with the ladies, who have very clearly displayed their ardor, but to no avail. Via Scientific American.

SCOTLAND MIGHT NOT STRIKE YOU AS THE SNOWIEST PLACE ON EARTH, but it’s now home to the world’s first year-round avalanche transceiver training school. While in summer the school uses wood chips to simulate the white stuff, the training works just like it does in winter (it was designed by Backcountry Access), where transceivers simulating victims are buried and students have to learn how to find them quickly. And unfortunately Scotland does see numerous avalanche deaths each winter, since there’s plenty of backcountry skiing and climbing there. Via UK Climbing.com.

WABBIT SEASON! DUCK SEASON! GAS SEASON? Pennsylvania hunters are bummed at the boom in fracking on state game lands. Drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale is growing dramatically, and the ever-present hum of compressors and other equipment is impacting the solitude of killing things. The Game Commission made just $556,000 in leases four years ago, but will haul in $18 million this year, which it will use to acquire more lands. The state gas association, perhaps spotting constellated rural road signs, warns, ““We don’t want hunters to use our tanks for target practice or to sit on top of them.” Via NY Times.

WHEW! FINALLY, COLLECTING ROAD KILL IS SOON TO BE LEGAL in Illinois. We got worried when Governor Pat Quinn vetoed the bill letting common citizens like you and me grab dinner or next winter’s hat from the middle of the double yellow line, but the state House of Representatives overrode Quinn’s negatory. Now it heads back to the Senate, which already passed a version unanimously. The only catch: You need a $10 license. SO worth it. Via My Stateline.

IDAHO’S SALMON RIVER, WHICH CUTS THROUGH THE Salmon-Challis National Forest, will get protection from a federal judge’s ruling to restrict off-road vehicles in some sections of the 4.3 million acre forest in central Idaho. The ban in the forest, which contains the 1.3 million acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area, the largest wilderness area in the Lower 48, follows a February ruling that the Forest Service ignored evidence showing significant damage to trails and the landscape from ORVs when it crafted its 2009 plan. As conservationists hailed the decision, they also hope that it will have broader-scale implications for how land managers plan for ORV use in the rest of the West. Via Local8 News.

SNIPERS HAVE TO ASK PERMISSION, EVEN IN IDAHO. Bureau of Land Management officials recently shut down the Advanced Mountain Sniper Course, which was operating without authorization in the Upper Snake region and Caribou-Targhee National Forest. AMSC said they were operating on 1×1 mile section of private land to simulate Afghanistan. “If the U.S. Department of Defense came to us, we could work through a process with them,” said a BLM spokesman. “But we cannot permit that kind of thing as commercial activity.” Okay, then, is noncommercial sniping instruction allowed? Via Local News 8.

IF YOU’VE EVER WONDERED HOW VARIOUS CREATURES OF THE PLANET NAVIGATE IN THE DARK, one answer is that they use a compass-like pattern of light created by the moon. This light is invisible to us — and unfortunately distorted by the nighttime glow of cities. That glow is registered as distortion to insects, including species of beetles, moths, crickets, and spiders, possibly leading to disruption of food webs and affecting entire ecosystems. The fix for towns: Direct light downward, since that’s the only way it’s useful to humans anyway. Via Yubanet.

MAINE COMMON SENSE RULES OVER A FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT: A jury recently rejected skier Steven Sutton’s $2 million suit against Sunday River. Sutton was sitting sideways on the Baker chair when it entered the top station and swung abruptly in the wind; the 59 year old was knocked from the chair and suffered injuries to his arm. Curiously, he was asking for $2 mil, while his wife wanted $265,000 for “loss of consortium,” a.k.a. knockin’ boots. That’s all it’s worth to you, honey? “It is rather surprising this case even made it to trial,” said one lawyer. Via First Tracks.

WE’RE OUTRIGHT FANS OF JOE LINDSEY’S BOULDER REPORT, a weekly blog that covers the ins and outs of cycling. Name another writer (about any sport) who can fold Edward Abbey, Formula 1, and a terse (and not necessarily complimentary) analysis of the artifice of ski resorts into a single sauce that’ll take you two minutes to digest. Lindsey’s latest post is a hymnal to the joys of cyclocross, what’s to love as a spectator or participant, and why it trumps other bike racing. This quick read lets you understand why Lindsey’s a fan, and why you ought to check it out live, too. Via Bicycling.com.

IF YOU LIVE IN PENNSYLVANIA, NEVADA, WYOMING, UTAH, ARIZONA, or Texas (or 32 other states) and ride a bike, you might want to pen a note to at least one of your state’s senators. Because if you click on the link below you’ll be taken to a listing of senate members who voted to gut funding for safer roads for pedestrians and bike riders, an especially bitter sort of law conceived by Kentucky’s Rand Paul, who wanted to take away $900 million that goes toward making biking safer, and put it toward repairing bridges instead. Save that states already have the choice to spend more of their respective pot on bridge fixes. All this (defeated) law would’ve done is make it tougher for states to enhance bike and pedestrian safety. Via T4America.org.

WOLVES MIGHT NOT BE THE BRILLIANTLY SMART, COOPERATIVE HUNTERS that we’ve long assumed. Researchers at Hampshire College programmed a computer simulation of a hunting wolfpack with just two rules: to keep a safe distance from prey and also from other wolves. The digital wolves mirrored real-world dynamics: They closed in on prey and then encircled it. If the prey moved left or right, one of the wolves sometimes pulled away to maintain its distance from its fellows. That wolf ended up waiting in the prey’s path, seemingly ambushing it. Via New Scientist.

WHO IS TIM DECHRISTOPHER? Much has been made of his civil disobedience, his efforts via posing as a legal bidder for BLM land to bring attention to climate change, but who is the guy? This story on Outside’s website digs into his history and bio, and although you don’t get the roundest portrait of the man, now serving time in federal prison, you do get a clear sense of his passion. At one point he says that climate change ought to arouse not just distress, but outrage: “All of our ancestors that didn’t feel outrage when their children were threatened, they all died off. And now that we’re all critically threatened and our children are threatened, if we don’t acknowledge that fear and find a constructive way to act upon it, then we should expect to meet the same fate.” Via Outside.

TWO CLIMBERS WHO WERE STRANDED ON THE MOUNT BLANC MASSIF HAVE BEEN FOUND DEAD after a helicopter search that was hampered by a week of bad weather located the pair. Guide Olivier Sourzac, 47, and his client, Charlotte Demetz, 44, had summited Grandes Jorasses last Wednesday and had downclimbed about 400 feet, to 13,300 feet, when they were caught in bad weather, including heavy snow and extremely cold temperatures for late fall. They did not have sleeping bags or bivys, according to reports, and had last been in contact by cell phone on Friday, when they said they were digging a snow cave. Via Herald Sun.

SRAM IS GOING PUBLIC AND HAS SET ITS IPO VALUE AT $300 MILLION. The Chicago-based bike brand filed that estimate with the SEC for its first public stock offering. Last year, it had $524.3 million in sales and profit of $50 million. Maybe with all that extra coin it can catch up to Fox in cushy shock technology. RockShox are good, but the California rival is still the gold standard. Via Chicago Tribune.

THE CURRENT DRYNESS IN THE WEST HAS A MUCH SCARIER PRECURSOR — A 100-YEAR DROUGHT that scientists have just unearthed by studying tree-ring data from bristlecone pine trees in the San Juans in south-central Colorado. Yes, there are trees that old; bristlecone can live 4,000 years. Scientists used a special bore to take core samples without damaging the trees, and what they found is disconcerting, since they indicate a “megadrought,” one that came about in a period eerily consistent with present weather patterns of warmer-than-average Northern Hemisphere temperatures. Via Red Orbit.

JACKSON, WYOMING’S SNOW KING IS ONE OF THE STEEPEST AMERICAN SKI AREAS, and the hill’s financial fortunes have declined as steep as skiers on their lunch runs. The resort has been seeking a buyer, as we mentioned in September, but the $800,000 it loses it winter is a tough nut. What would the closure of the King mean to the community? What can Jackson do? The town has discovered there are no easy solutions, as have many communities with small, struggling ski areas. Via NY Times.

AMERICAN TODD WELLS ISN’T JUST FAST IN A 90-MINUTE XC RACE. HE WON THE LEADVILLE 100 in August, and has just won what’s often considered the most trying mountain bike stage race on earth, the La Ruta de Los Conquistadores, a four-day slog over 240 miles bisecting Costa Rica, from west to east. The huge elevation changes (39,000 feet of climbing!), heat, cold, wet, and this year, bees that stung several racers as well, make La Ruta a severe test of physical endurance. If anything’s shocking about the Wells’s victory, it’s that he had that level of strength in this, his first-ever stage race. Via Cyclingnews.com.

THE FATE OF MAINE’S NATIONAL PARK IS GETTING A LITTLE MORE DIRE now that a forest industry group has joined prominent hunting and snowmobiling groups in opposition to creating the 70,000-acre park east of Baxter State Park. The Maine Forest Products Council represents landowners, loggers, paper mills and others involved in wood products, and says it is in opposition to a feasibility study on the plan proposed by Roxanne Quimby, who wants to give her land for creation of the park (we covered the park plan about a month ago). The industrial group backs greater access to logging; the recreation groups don’t want bans on ORVs and hunting. This latest push follows the the Maine Legislature’s nonbinding resolution earlier this year asking Congress to reject the park idea. Via Bangor Daily News.

EEK, A SABER-TOOTH RAT! SERIOUSLY? WELL, thankfully this beady-eyed, long-canined creature, dubbed Cronopio dentiacutus, is merely a distant cousin of us, one that crawled around 100-million years ago when dinosaurs, not mammals ruled the planet. The fossils were discovered in sandstone sediments at Cipolletti, Rıo Negro Province, Argentina, and while this rat had giant fanglike canines, scientists have no idea why, because they suspect the massive teeth would’ve been just as likely to cause self injury as wound a foe. Perhaps that’s why they’re extinct? More to the point, studies of ancient mammals are so nascent that scientists say that weird news of our ancient ancestors are only more likely to be exhumed in the future. Via Nature.

100 YEARS AGO CAPTAIN SCOTT “FAILED” IN HIS MISSION TO Antarctica. Or did he? His team did reach the pole in January of 1912, though they arrived a month after his rival from Norway, Roald Amundsen — and the five-man party died on their return journey, only 11 miles shy of a resupply depot. But so much of what Scott’s team discovered laid the way for modern research — when his frozen party was discovered, so was research that proved or disproved theories or left the door open for yet more research. One thing Scott’s team collected was penguin skins, which in the 1960s were compared with the hides of present-day penguins to prove that toxic DDT had spread around the globe, even to places it wasn’t being sprayed, leading to its eventual ban. Via BBC.

CYCLISTS AND FANS OF RAPHA WILL FIND IT ILLUMINATING TO READ THE BRAND’S back story. Company CEO Simon Mottram talks about the rise of the Rapha Continental (“gentleman’s rides”) in the U.S., how the American market has taken precedent over the English brand’s original plan to focus more on Europe, and how Rapha was born out of his desire to find attractive cycling clothing in an ugly Spandex jungle. Mottram says there’s probably even more opportunity beyond athletically focused cycling garb: “For commuter cyclists, surely they don’t actually want to wear day-glo Altura and SPD trainers?” Via The Washing Machine Post.
A SURGE IN TRAFFICKING OF BABY GORILLAS IS ENDANGERING THE SPECIES in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Earlier this month poachers demanding $40,000 for one of the animals were caught by park rangers. Mountain gorillas are critically endangered, with just 790 remaining in the world – about 480 in the Virunga volcanoes conservation area (shared by the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda). This gorilla, named Shamavu after the ranger who rescued him, should survive, but the threat from wealthy collectors who will pay so much for the animals, remains dire, says the Mountain Gorillas Veterinary Project, a non-profit that nurses rescued gorillas back to health. Via The Guardian.

FIRST CALIFORNIA CLOSED SOME OF ITS STATE PARKS AND NOW New Jersey wants to privatize its state park concessions. But opposition groups see the move by Governor Chris Christie as a potentially disastrous plan, saying the request for proposals to privatize services places no budget ceiling on how much private companies can charge the state, and they worry that a regressive increase in fees is sure to follow. But some environmental groups are actually in favor of the move, because they say without it New Jersey will be forced to shutter some of its 300 state parks, a great number of which are beaches used by millions every summer. Via The Daily Journal.

A FEW DAYS AGO WE TOLD YOU ABOUT MATT GILMAN, WHO IS BLIND, AND RIDES A BIKE. Now here’s Alex Russo, who does something at least as hard, surfing without seeing. Russo grew up surfing on the East Coast, the nephew of a local shaper, and his family had a beach house, so surfing was a much a part of his life as his first name. When he lost his vision to a rare disease called Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, Russo never even considered quitting his pursuit of graduating with degree in criminal justice, which he’s still on track to do this spring. And he didn’t consider quitting surfing, either, which he still does, almost daily. Via The Inertia.

YOU ALREADY KNOW YOUR IPHONE IS SMARTER THAN most any dedicated GPS, but one reason to hang on to that Garmin was analyzing heart rate data. Blam! That reason is also evaporating, especially with apps like the latest update of Runkeeper, one of the more useful and popular running apps (especially for tracking and sharing runs online) that now features not only live heart rate, but also live analysis and zone alarms, as well as auto stop/start. While this is way old news on the GPS front, the pricing threshold for apps is tiny. Got an Android or iPhone? Runkeeper is gratis. Via GigaOM.

IT WOULD BE NICE TO SEE IF AMERICANS FEEL AS PASSIONATELY ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT as folks who live in Scotland. The Scots recently completed a poll and said they feel that their nation’s natural wonders are huge part of their heritage, that free-running salmon, clean coasts and beaches, otters in the rivers and birds of prey in the sky are all of deep, important value. The report also indicates something else: 1 in 7 jobs are tied to a healthy Scottish ecosystem. Via Grough.

IN CHINA, RUNNING ISN’T COOL. IT’S WHAT THEY MAKE KIDS do in school, and so for most Chinese, running has had a stigma. But a new ad campaign by Nike may be turning the tide. As part of the campaign, Nike hosted “Lunar Runs”: in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan, the nighttime events featured fitness instructors, live music and a few celebrities, and the runs were popular enough to draw over 35,000 runners. Nike’s also pushing new ads that show running as cool, and also a little cheeky and independent, just a hair rebellious in a society that may crave it. Via PopSop.

BICYCLES HAVE SEEN MASSIVE INNOVATION over the past century, and Bicycling Magazine (which itself, is 50 years old this year), took the time to celebrate a few of the breakthroughs in its current issue and online. And despite being a more road-focused magazine, this feature makes it clear where the most stunning cycling breakthroughs have been — in mountain biking, not on the road. That invention really caught heat with the 1981 Specialized Stumpjumper, the first true, complete, mountain bike you could buy right off the shelf. Today, it’s still mountain bikes that lead — for instance, disc brakes and tubeless tires that debuted first on dirt, will eventually become standard equipment on the pavement. Via Bicycling.

IF YOU BELIEVE THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL AND HUMAN-CAUSED, Mitt Romney’s latest pandering to right-leaning primary voters should be disconcerting. Romney was for a while considered the only consistent voice on climate science among Republican candidates for the White House — consistent, that is, with the vast majority of Americans who believe that climate change is real and that carbon emissions are the cause. But last week in Pittsburgh Romney said: “My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet, and the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.” If there’s a distinction here, Romney at least acknowledges that the planet is warming, unlike Rick Perry. Via Washington Post.

A CANADIAN SENATOR ISN’T HAPPY WITH THE NATION’S NATIONAL SYMBOL, THE BEAVER, and wants to replace it with the polar bear. The beaver only became Canada’s national symbol in 1975, but Conservative Party senator Nicole Eaton has called it “a dentally defective rat,” complaining bitterly that the beaver is a nuisance creature, damaging the dock at her summer cottage. Perhaps highlighting the fact that she has a summer cottage didn’t endear her to the rest of the nation, however; a Greenpeace Canada spokesperson pointed out that Eaton’s idea to replace the beaver with the polar bear is a bit ironic, considering that the Conservative party’s policies are doing more to endanger the bear, not save its habitat. Via Reuters Canada.

MORE PROOF: KIDS WHO GET TIME OUTDOORS ARE NOT ONLY FITTER, leaner, and stronger than their peers glued to the Xbox, they’re also less likely to be nearsighted, according to a new study presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Ophthamology. The researchers, led by Dr. Anthony Khawaja of the University of Cambridge, found that for every extra hour per week a child spent outdoors, his or her likelihood of suffering from nearsightedness declined 2 percent. It even found that kids who are nearsighted can actually grow less so simply by getting outside. We’d recommend taking that kid skiing or biking just to make sure they’re having enough stoke to make the habit stick. Via L.A. Times.

IT’S SAD THAT TWO GROUPS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS VISITING YOSEMITE in one day qualify as news, but that’s the state of “diversity” in America’s national parks. Black ranger Shelton Brown called having 65 people of color in the valley in one day “possibly unprecedented”. Only 1% of the 4 million annual park visitors are African American, but with a boost from Obama’s Grand Canyon visit, Oprah’s trip to Yosemite, and Ken Burns’s coverage of Brown, perhaps the parks will start to look less white and more like America overall. Via LA Times.

THE STOKE FACTOR FOR EARLY SNOW IN COLORADO IS HIGH, BUT REMEMBER IT LEADS TO AVALANCHES LATER. Or, it can lead to later slides, since early snow accumulation and the typically cold, clear nights that follow autumn storms can lead to the formation of hoar crystals, a layer of rotten snow on which slides can run. If these first snows don’t melt or receive more snow to build the pack gradually, wind, sun, freeze/thaw cycles can leave dragons lurking beneath. Be vewy, vewy careful. Via Unofficial Networks.

A SNOWBOARDING LIFTIE WHO PEGGED A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD KID won’t get jail time — and whether he should really depends on your perspective. Travis Luffman, 22, of Pfafftown, North Carolina, was charged with reckless endangerment and third-degree assault after authorities say he blindly launched off a small hill on the Green Cabin run and struck the boy, who was later treated for bruises, but no broken bones. Luffman’s lawyer said what happened was only an accident, but it’s also easy to say that about any collision at any ski area, where a little judgment is all it takes to avoid a pileup. What probably helped the snowboarder, who was found not guilty by an Aspen jury, was video evidence of the kid’s father screaming “F— you, motherf—er! I’m gonna kill you!” Via The Goat.

THE GRAND CANYON COULD GET A 20-YEAR REPRIEVE FROM MINING, but the operative word here is “could,” since this latest proposal from the BLM still has to endure a 30-day comment period. The plan is to temporarily withdraw the approximately 1 million acres of BLM and Forest Service lands located near the national park from mining, and after the comment period the Secretary of the Interior can sign the moratorium into law. There has been action by House committees to block the Obama administration from being able to enforce the ban, but these measures have been proven so wildly unpopular among so many groups of advocates, from environmentalists to businesses that depend on the Grand Canyon, that at least the current Congress isn’t expected to adopt them. Via National Parks Traveler.

YOSEMITE IN WINTER IS MAGICAL, AND IF YOU GET INTO THE Ostrander Ski Hut Lottery in time, it can be pretty thrilling, too. That’s because the Ostrander, a stone cabin built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1940s, accesses pretty sweet backcountry ski terrain, and although it’s only a 10-mile skin from Badger Pass Ski Area, it feels like the back of beyond. For $32-$52 a night you get a bunk. There’s also wood, and solar power provides electric lighting, but beyond that the only amenity is having a big chunk of Yosemite to yourself. The lottery kicks off November 17. Via Yosemite Conservancy.

WHILE IT’S EASY TO BE CYNICAL ABOUT CORPORATIONS GETTING BEHIND CAUSES, Coke gets some props for making its cans white this winter to draw attention to the plight of polar bears and is committing $2 million to the World Wildlife Fund. It’s also asking consumers to donate, and Coke will match the $1 donations texted to 357357 up to a total of $1 million. Deadline is March 12. More at arctichome.com. Via Summit County Voice.

JAPANESE SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE DISCOVERED A WAY TO PREDICT EARTHQUAKES AS LONG as 30 minutes before a quake. A researcher from Hokkaido University in Sapporo has reported a possible upper atmospheric disturbance 40 minutes prior to the huge Tohoku quake last March. By studying GPS data researchers found “ionospheric precursors” (an electronic signature in the upper atmosphere) emanating in a wave from the eventual quake’s epicenter. Scientists aren’t clear about the mechanism, but since this discovery have found similar GPS signatures from other past large earthquakes around the globe. Via Irish Weather.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK DROPPED $219,000 ON RESCUES THIS PAST FISCAL YEAR, a record-setting chunk of change. There were 33 “major” rescues (those costing more than $500). Beyond the cash, the sheer volume of rescues was up, as were complicated rescues involving helis and dogs. The prior record-setting year was 2003, which cost the park $159,000. This year the costliest rescues involved major searches for two backcountry skiers (found to be lost to avalanche). While the costs are high, a spokesperson for the park says they don’t ever want to have to weigh the costs of a rescue vs. the cost of a human life. Via Trib.com.

SNOWBOARDER TURNED ACTIVIST JEREMY JONES RECENTLY WENT TO D.C. to testify before Congress on behalf his group Protect Our Winters. The picture Jones paints of Washington isn’t pretty: “Our elected officials see 30 oil lobbyists for every one from an environmental group,” he says. It should actually be easier to unite political polarities around natural resources like snow, he points out, because in western states snow means water and businesses from farming to ski resorts can’t function without it. Jones believes our own tribalism gets in the way — that traditional lines, such as snowmobilers vs. skiers, are stupid, because neither group will be happy when the snow’s gone. Via ESPN.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A LIFELONG SURFER FACES MOVING AWAY FROM THE WAVES? Matt Warshaw, author of The History of Surfing and one-time editor of Surfer Magazine, struggled when his wife received a job offer that would take them to Seattle, away from Ocean Beach in S.F. In this candid interview, Warshaw talks about how his determination to stay could have split his family — and how he deals with his new life far from the beach. Matt, always contemplative, offers an interesting musing on identity, selfishness, and responsibility to others. Via The Scuttlefish.

CLIMATE CHANGE WILL REALLY HIT HOME WHEN COFFEE SUPPLIES ARE AFFECTED. Starbuck’s Jim Hanna, head of sustainability for the caffeine giant, recently told Congress that worldwide coffee supplies are under threat from global climate change. His testimony joined that of other leaders at major companies like Nike, The North Face, Timberland, and the Gap, all part of a coalition called Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy. The push comes ahead of an ad blitz kicking off in November and is part of the message that money — a.k.a., the political lifeblood of Congress — will be threatened when major corporations don’t get a fair hearing on the effects of climate change. Via The Guardian.

TRAFFIC BETWEEN DENVER AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN SKI AREAS COULD GET A WHOLE LOT BETTER this winter thanks to a pacing program implemented by the Colorado Department of Transportation. Every 10 minutes, a state police car will pull in front of traffic and serve as a pace car from Silverthorne to Empire Junction. In tests, average speeds on the crowded I-70 corridor jumped from 30 mpg to 55 mph. “People are generally happy about this solution. Everyone plays nice on the road, it’s less tense of a drive, and they’re getting where they want to go even faster than expected,” says a CDOT spokesman. Via ESPN.

WHO DOESN’T LIKE CUTE CRITTERS, especially when they’re doing cute things? This footage in Antarctica of thousands of Adelie penguin males building nests out of stones is cute defined. The nests act as barriers to run-off — otherwise eggs get washed away. Plus, we all know that a sweet crib is a great way to attract a mate. The footage is also pretty amazing, shot at ground height and close enough to see the foot-and-a-half tall birds in all their ungainly glory. Via BBC.

RUNNING FROM SCOTLAND TO THE SAHARA IS JUST A MATTER OF PUTTING one foot in front of the other, says the thick-accented Dr. Andrew Murray, who averaged 34 miles a day in the 78 days it took him to cover the 2,659-mile journey. Well, maybe not quite that simple, admits Murray during his quick Vimeo slideshow that describes running through snows in Scotland and sand in the Sahara, shredding his feet and his Achilles to the point of agony. But Murray’s humble and very funny demeanor is both inspiring and amusing — it makes you want to go for a run. Via Alastair Humphreys.

WE RECENTLY TOLD YOU ABOUT BOULDER’S PLANS TO DEAL WITH LIONS AND BEARS within its city limits. Meanwhile, just out of town, in the hills above Boulder, mountain lions are already making their own plans. While this little slide show of Zeus, an 11-year-old Maine Coon facing down a teenage mountain lion (through a glass door) is cute, the fact that there were two cougars outside this Pine Brook Hills home should probably make area hikers and bikers more than a little sketched. Via the Denver Post.

GINORMOUSAURUS REX? YES, T-REX WAS EVEN BIGGER than prior guestimates about 30 percent bigger, according to new research that’s straight out of Spielberg. Scientists used 3D laser scans of skeletons as a template for generating fleshed-out digital models whose masses could then be computed. Cross-sections were reconstructed along the length of each skeleton using models based on birds and crocodiles. With these new estimates, an average T-Rex would gain about a hippopotamus a year in weight. Luckily, in case that Jurassic Park really happens, scientists say the 18,000-pound beast would’ve been a little slower, too — topping at 25 mph in a dead sprint. Of course, that’s faster than you can run… Via LiveScience.

MOST PEOPLE ARE HAPPY TO GET THEIR BUTTS OFF THE SADDLE, but not everyone. If you can’t bear to part from your steed for one second, take a look at Kickstand Furniture‘s Cycle Desks. The invention of Dan Young, a rider in Cleveland, the Cycle Desk isn’t some rickety throw-away piece from IKEA. Instead, it features super sturdy two-inch square steel tubing legs (each side is strong enough to support 350 pounds), a 60 x 30-inch top in either recycled maple or tempered glass, and a height of 45 inches so you can scoot your bike underneath. The trainer, sadly, isn’t included in the $2,500 price. Via bikebiz.com.

THIS WINTER, SKIERS SHOULD HEAD TO JACKSON, BIG SKY, AND WHISTLER, at least if you’re inclined to believe the prediction skills of NOAA, which also says that La Niña could bring greater than normal snowfall to the Sierras. But the agency predicts both warmer and drier than normal conditions in the southern Rockies, so, Taos? Not so much. As for Vermont and the rest of the Northeast, the NOAA jury’s still out. Much like it is with their 72-hour forecast everywhere in America every single day of the year. Just sayin’. Via Washington Post.

A LOT OF RED BULL EVENTS ARE CONTRIVED. Then again, what differentiates a “traditional” BMX race or even a game of H-O-R-S-E from a big air contest is just our exposure to the former and getting used to the latter. They’re all contrived. So here we have the Red Bull Cobble Wobble, a bicycle race through a bony, stone road called Catherine Street at the heart of the tiny English town of Frome. What makes it more than the usual Red Bull huck-and-thrill-fest is madcap goofiness — and the fact that clearly anyone could enter, not just the pros. Video here, Via Charge Bikes.

OREGON WANTS MORE FEDERAL WILDERNESS, not less. That’s in contrast to the likes of Montana, Utah, and Idaho. The state’s governor, John Kitzhaber, recently submitted recommendations to Department of Interior for the creation of four new wilderness areas in Oregon. These include the Devil’s Staircase, 30,000 acres in the remote Wassen Creek roadless area in the central Coast Range; Cathedral Rock and Horse Heaven, near the John Day River in Central Oregon; the Wild Rogue, which would expand the Wild Rogue Wilderness by 58,000 acres; and an expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Oregon has only four percent of its land protected under the federal Wilderness Act, compared with 15 percent of California, 10 percent of Washington, and eight percent of Idaho. Via The Register-Guard.

LIFE IN PERRY’S TEXAS IS POLLUTED AND GROWING MORE SO, thanks to constant pushback from the governor against the EPA, shrinking of the state’s own environmental agency, and legislation Perry passed in June making it more difficult to tighten air quality permits on the oil and gas industry. Perry calls climate change “a scientific theory that has not been proven.” Meanwhile, Texas releases more heat-trapping carbon dioxide than any other state, according to government data. In February 2010, it became the first state to sue the EPA for declaring that greenhouse gases are dangerous and subject to federal regulation. Via Star-Telegram.

EVEREST SEES 35,000 ANNUAL FOREIGN VISITORS AND 80,000 SHERPAS, and that make for a lot of poop. Conservation groups are calling for the Nepalese government to install a chain of toilets from the villages all the way up the most popular routes to the summit. A group called Saving Mount Everest has deployed 29 mountaineers since 2008 and to clear away eight tons of garbage, including human waste, but Wangchu Sherpa of the Everest Summiteers Association says the next crucial step is toilets — and a Nepalese law that will require tourists and climbers to use them. Via Toronto Star.

A PLAN FOR BOULDER SINGLETRACK FALLS WAY SHORT OF CYCLISTS’ HOPES. Five miles of trails had been proposed within an area called Anemone Hill but the town’s Open Space department threw a change-up and called for just a 2.9-mile connector trail. The original five miles were drafted primarily for recreational use, i.e., fun, not a utilitarian connector. The latest plan goes before the city council on tonight and you can bet Boulder’s many rabid cyclists will show up in force. Via Daily Camera.

SIGNS OF THE APOCALYPSE: THE WORLD’S FIRST INDOOR OFF-ROAD SEGWAY PARK has opened in Denmark and it was built to resemble Yellowstone National Park. The 6,000-square-meter center is “a cross between a flying carpet and skiing in the Alps,” says Segworld’s Paul Teichert. “And for those who are doing one of the courses as a race, we have automatic timing mechanisms that make sure they don’t cheat.” No, Segway racing should be the way god intended: no cheating…natural…indoors…in the dirt…in a miniature Yellowstone. Pass the peyote, reality is too weird. Via AFP.

THE FOREST SERVICE SAYS A LARGE JESUS STATUE can stay on public land atop Whitefish’s Big Mountain ski area, reversing an August ruling by the USFS that found it illegal for the figure to be on federal land. The statute has stood since 1955, but was opposed recently by atheists who argued against religious icons on public land. That sparked outrage among locals, leading the FS to say the savior must go, then the savior can stay — if it can be placed on the National Historic Register. One wonders what Jesus would do, aside from get tired of watching all those skiers ripping up the pow without him. Via Daily Interlake.

HIKING ALL 734 MILES OF GLACIER’S TRAILS IN ONE summer, averaging 15 miles a day from May 15 until October 15, Jake Bramante has set a record. To Glacier Park’s knowledge, nobody else has ever accomplished the same feat in a single year, and it wasn’t made any easier by late season snows. The 34-year-old quit his network analyst job to make time for the effort and said that at least part of the reason to do the hiking was to document every inch of trail the park has to offer with video and comments on his site, Hike734.com. Via Missoulian.

A FANTASTIC POST BY ACTIVIST BILL MCKIBBEN explains how backers of the Keystone XL pipeline are throwing money everywhere to grease the skids from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico to get their project passed. McKibben explains that the Democrats in the house willing to sign a letter in favor of XL “on average received over 4.25 times more oil money than the average House Democrat in the 112th Congress. That would be how the game is played.” McKibben goes on to add up all the money being thrown everywhere else. Via Grist.

THE FIRST CLIMBER TO ASCEND THE 14 8,000-METER HIMALAYAN PEAKS, both poles, and the seven summits, has gone missing while climbing Annapurna. Park Young-seok said late Tuesday that he and two other Korean mountaineers were downclimbing to an advance camp at 5,000 meters because of deteriorating weather. Officials of the Korea Alpine Federation said that was the last contact they’ve had with the 48-year-old Park. The next day, two climbers searched for Park at the advance camp but only found evidence of an avalanche. Via Koreatimes.com.

NORTH FACE-ENDORSED MARK CARTER COULD SEE SERIOUS JAIL TIME, up to 55 years and up to $2.7 million in fines, for allegedly charging out of state hunters to come and bag deer, elk, and antelope on the Carter family’s Wyoming property outside the town of Ten Sleep (Carter’s brother and father were also charged). Wyoming residents receive landowner tags, which are like chits, allowing a certain allotment of kills, but only for personal use. From 2003-2009, the indictment states, the Carters charged thousands of dollars for out-of-staters to come and hunt. Worse, they violated federal law by helping to transport the game back to clients’ home states. Via Trib.com.

SHIMANO WILL GO TO 11-SPEEDS FOR THE ROAD, AND MAYBE TO disc brakes there as well. At least there’s speculation afoot, because as the UCI is set to approve disc brakes for pro cyclocross racing, every industry watcher figures it’s just a matter of time before the other shoe (as in brake shoe) drops for road racing. This fall’s Eurobike trade show already featured several CX forks with mounts for disc brakes, and even odd adaptations of hydraulic to road. Then there’s the even more radical notion: With Shimano already doing electronic shifting, what about electronic braking? Via Road.cc.

A DRIVER WAS CHARGED $42 FOR KILLING A CYCLIST IN suburban Seattle, and the blog Bikehugger is not only fed up — he’s blaming cyclists for the problem. DL Byron, the editor of Bikehugger, tied this death, and the shame of not having laws in place with real teeth that would give cyclist’s some legal protection on the roads, to the cycling blogosphere’s reaction to the GM ad: “We’ve got a PR problem, us cyclists, and responding like this to an ad indicates a good reason why people don’t like us. The larger issue than a stupid car ad is our safety, how people perceive us, and how a driver can get a $42 ticket when a cyclist died.” The entire post is worth a read. Via Bikehugger.

CLEANING UP AN OIL SPILL OFF THE FORMERLY PRISTINE coastline of Tauranga, New Zealand, has involved everything from soldiers on hands and knees scooping up oil — 350 tons have so far spilled out of a container ship foundering off shore — to scrubbing penguins by hand. The latter is painstaking as the fuel oil that’s spilled from the ship is nearly tar-thick, so it’s already suffocated many sea birds. For the surviving penguins to be washed they’re first coated in canola oil to soften the sticky fuel, then washed in warm water. See the extent of the spill in this slideshow, Via The Guardian.

SNOW BIKES ARE NOT PARTICULARLY PRETTY, NOR are they designed for being especially agile. They go really well in a straight line, on balloon-like tires that weigh as much as some motorcycle rubber. They are beasts, built to go straight, at like, 5 mph. The Surly Pugsley, perhaps the most popular snow bike of the sliver-wide genre, typically weighs about 35-38 pounds, depending on spec. That’s in the ballpark of a light downhill bike. And so what this guy manages to pull on a Pugsley, in that context, is serious. Let’s just throw the disclaimer, “professional rider, closed course…” and roll the tape. Via YouTube.

BIG SKY PRIVATE COMMUNITY GOES BUST. And, no, we don’t expect the Occupy [fill in the blank] protestors to shed a tear over the demise of the Spanish Peaks private ski and golf community at Big Sky. But the fact that the troubled real estate project has croaked means lost work for Bozeman locals, and that’s something that’s often forgotten about resort towns — the second- and third-home buyers are typically seasonal residents, while a blue collar town like Bozeman (and so many others) depends on resort growth for jobs. This follows two other Big Sky projects, The Yellowstone Club and Moonlight Basin, both going under in the past three years. Via Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

AT SOME POINT ON THERE’LL BE A VOLCANIC ERUPTION 200 TIMES larger than that of Washington’s Mt. St. Helens. Now researchers at Oregon State University say they know what causes such blasts. A constant and very slow buildup of pressure is created when a chamber of rock around a volcanic vent forms a sort of halo, almost like stopper in a bottle, resulting in extensive uplifting in the roof above the magma chamber and eventually causing eruption. The Huckleberry Ridge eruption of present-day Yellowstone Park about 2 million years ago was the last such eruption, and scientists say that one like that could trigger an ice age. Via International Business Times.

DAVID BREASHEARS TOOK EIGHT EXPEDITIONS TO TIBET OVER THREE YEARS to retrace the steps of earlier explorers, Major E.O. Wheeler, George Mallory, and Vittorio Sella. Breashears and his team took photos in the exact same locations as the pioneering photographers had in order to compare ice loss, and the images show a startling before and after. Whole glaciers are gone, and lakes or dry rock replace them. Breashears said that the melt rate of glaciers varies widely. The loss is greatest in the eastern and central Himalaya, where monsoons are rapidly melting the ice. The images are on display in London at the Royal Geographical Society. The exhibit was also at the Asia Society in NYC last year. Via Daily Mail.

A DETROIT CYCLIST WAS CHARGED WITH ENDANGERING HIS KIDS: Sean Harrington took a little-traveled side street on his return from a ride on a bike path with his two sons in a trailer. He pedaled the wrong way up a one-way street and got a ticket. When he showed up for his court date the judge changed the ticket (for going the wrong way) to “loitering and obstruction of traffic” (there were no cars on the side street, which is why Harrington chose the route in the first place). Then Harrington received another ticket in the mail — for endangering his children. Via MSNBC.

SKIING IS PRETTY OLD AS A SPORT, BUT it really boomed in the 1960s, when a lot of the planet’s major ski resorts were established. Which makes it the 50th anniversary or thereabouts for nearly half of the world’s estimated 5,500 ski areas. Among them, B.C.’s Fernie turns a half-century this year, as does Japan’s Niseko (both are giving themselves new lifts as gifts). A very large Norwegian area you’ve probably never heard of called Hemsedal is also turning 50. But Breckenridge is probably the biggest ski resort worldwide with a golden anniversary, and Crested Butte also turns 50 on November 23 and (if they have snow) you’ll get a free lift pass. Via The Independent.

INTRAWEST, THE SKI AREA MEGA-DEVELOPER OF THE 1990s, is now a fraction of its former self. It once ran 14 ski resorts, including Whistler-Blackcomb, and boasted 20,000 rental/condo units. It was bought for $2.8 billion in 2006 by private equity firm, Fortress Investment Group​ — and then quickly struggled to meet huge debt obligations, nearly going bankrupt before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Since then it’s sold off most of Whistler, some of Squaw, N.J.’s Mountain Creek, Les Arcs in France, Panorama in B.C., and four luxury hotels in Ontario, Hawaii, California and Florida. Via Denver Post.

PRO SKI RACERS VETOED NEW RULES TO LIMIT SKI SIDECUT. Yes, short-radius skis were a boon to the sagging ski industry over the past decade because they made turning so much easier. Too easy, says a study by the Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS), which governs World Cup and European Cup races, since the worry is that short radius skis add torque to knees. So FIS came out with proposed radius limits for slalom, GS, and super-G events for the 2012-13 season…and then pros tested some of the proto skis and hated them. This resulted in a petition against the FIS rules, headed by Ted Ligety of the U.S. The flap has a nearly united front of pros against FIS and there’s zero indication how it will be resolved. Via The Economist.

IF YOU’VE BEEN TO SEATTLE OR LIVE THERE, you know that it has one of the most active and passionate local bike communities in the country. But what it doesn’t appear to have is a coherent cycling plan for infrastructure, as Portland does — or even NYC or Boston do. Now recent deaths, three since July, are causing Seattle’s riders to raise alarm bells. The last accident provided the strongest catalyst — that of a rider who was killed because a bike path dead-ends into a flight of stairs, with no signs to indicate the hazard. The mayor has called for a summit between advocates and city planners; it’s a late step, but at least one in the right direction. Via Seattle Bike Blog.

THE EXTENT OF ARCTIC SEA ICE RETREAT CAN BE HARD TO FATHOM by numbers alone. Since satellite observations started in 1979, the September sea-ice extent has declined by 12 percent a decade, and the past five years have marked the lowest on record. At this rate forecasts predict a North Pole totally free of ice by 2050 — or even sooner. A graphic depiction of the ice’s retreat can be seen here, part of a series of stories by the journal, Nature, and in a NASA video that shows ice from maximum to minimum this past winter to summer — and how much less ice is present vs. 30 years ago. Via Nature.

THE STANFORD COYOTE? ER, MAKE THAT THE STANFORD COUGAR, or maybe the Stanford great horned owl? Whatever mascot you choose, 16 camera traps set by biologists at Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, less than a mile from campus, show a diversity of life you’d hardly expect outside heavily populated Palo Alto. There are black tailed deer, mountain lions, coyotes, jackrabbits, and several species of water fowl. There are stills and videos at the Jasper Ridge website — although, probably wisely, people are prohibited from visiting the preserve itself. Via USA Today.

LANCE ARMSTRONG TO RACE XTERRA WORLDS. The seven-time Tour de France winner qualified by finishing fifth in the XTERRA USA National Championship last month. Armstrong hadn’t done any sort of triathlon in 22 years, but only finished five minutes down on the winners. That’s actually a bigger gap than you might think: The race isn’t nearly as long as an Ironman, with a 1,500 meter swim, 17.7-mile mountain bike ride, and 10k run. The Hawaii Worlds, this coming weekend, will be tougher, with similar lengths, but the bike portion features 4,000 feet of climbing, which may well favor Armstrong. Via Examiner.com.

THE NEW YORK TIMES TURNED ITS GAZE TO SPEED CLIMBING and tackled — sorta — whether the ethos of moving fast in the mountains is a good one. It’s nice to see studs like Ueli Steck and Alex Honnold getting press in the wider world, but the story follows the predictable newspaper path: NYT shows what they’re doing, trots out Steve House to grumble that speed climbing is dumb, and then closes ambiguously. And the focus, typically, lingers on the ethics of speed without discussing how moving fast can be safer by exposing one to objective dangers for a shorter period. For subject choice, they get an A, for execution, C+. Via NY Times.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD: A SALT LAKE CITY MAN ALLEGEDLY CALLED IN A BOMB THREAT TO SNOWBIRD because his boyfriend went to the resort’s Oktoberfest celebration without him — Daniel Artley was peeved and wanted his partner to come home sooner, so he called Snowbird and said that a “Pakistani colleague” had placed a bomb in the pavilion that would blow up in 15 minutes. Unfortunately for Artley, the phone used to make the threat had caller ID, and police quickly arrested him and charged him with false threat, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. Via Sacramento Bee.

A NEW SKI FILM CALLED WYOMING TRIUMPH made its debut over the weekend at the Pink Garter Theater in Jackson. The flick, shot all over Wyoming by KGB films, appears to be the standard huck flare interlaced with a good bit of cowboy humor. Refreshing: There are no helis; all terrain was accessed by skinning. The sell copy says: “A story of grassroots exploration, of pushing the limits in the most remote and unforgiving terrain…You will laugh, you will feel the passion, and you may well cry.” Or maybe your eyes are welling because you’ve sampled a shot of Wyoming Whiskey, one of the production’s sponsors. Lots of teaser footage here. Via The Goat.

IN A DAVID VS. GOLIATH STRIKE BACK AT GM’s AD CAMPAIGN AGAINST BIKES, Giant Bicycle Corporation posted the adjacent spoof-ad on its Facebook Page yesterday. The ad shows a snarl of traffic with the headline, “Reality DOES Suck.” The text compares the $3,600 annual fuel cost of a $27,300 Silverado LT pickup (maybe not the average college student’s car of choice but…) vs. spending nothing on gas and riding a $420 Giant Escape 2. The ad copy says riding a bike will save you thousands of dollars a year, that you don’t need to be in college to do it, and, “…the only thing you have to lose is some weight, and the burden of fuel prices.” Via Facebook.

QUICKSILVER DIGS THE EAST COAST SURF SCENE AND SEES A BLUE COLLAR VIBE that’s less evident on the left coast, says CEO Bob McKnight, who said the September Quicksilver Pro Tour stop in Long Island was a way to separate Quicksilver from the scenes in Hawaii and California. “We respect the locals, sort of the middle class, grounded core surf town,” McKnight said. In this recent interview he also talks serious shop about the brand, which, for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of surf culture (selling it, rather than doing it) is pretty eye opening — to the tune of $3 billion in annual sales by Quicksilver alone. Via Transworld Business.

CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS ARE STILL CRISIS, BUT THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE is stepping in to help manage three of them that would have been close; 67 of the state’s 278 are still expected to be shut down next year. The three granted reprieve include Tomales Bay State Park, Samuel P. Taylor State Park, and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Par. The reason the feds are stepping in is because all three parks have boundaries within the greater federal system. Closing the parks would only create a bigger headache for the NPS. Additional fees will partly offset the extra duties, but this is a stop-gap measure that will need annual renewal. Via National Parks Traveler.

WHEREVER THERE IS WATER, THERE IS LIFE…MAYBE, say British researches who intend to drill two miles deep through Antarctic ice to get to a lake that’s been buried and in total darkness for perhaps a million years. Lake Ellsworth in western Antarctica will tell scientists a lot about prehistoric life on Earth and perhaps about the limits of life, period — especially if they find no viral, fungal, or microbial creatures. Presuming they do find life in the lake water, there are serious hazards — a virus that the human immune system has never experienced wouldn’t be trivial, so scientists had to devise a very careful system to isolate samples. Sounds like the makings of a good thriller. Via BBC.

STEAMBOAT WANTS TO RIVAL WINTER PARK FOR DOWNHILL MOUNTAIN BIKING, but also to have the most cycling-friendly streets in America. The reason: Increase bike tourism. This comes even after Steamboat won a Bike-Friendly Community Award from the League of American Bicyclists. It helps that bikemakers Moots and Eriksen are local, as is Honey Stinger, Point6 socks, and Smartwool, all known quantities for cyclists. But Steamboat is off the I-70 corridor, so bolstering its rep among cyclists is going to be a long-term project. The work is starting though, with Gravity Logic (builders of Trestle Park at Winter Park) designing Steamboat’s lift-served terrain, and there’s already better signage and sharrows for cyclists on city streets, and new singletrack as well — adding to the 500 miles of trails already in place. Via Denver Post.

DID A 1924 ATTEMPT TO SUMMIT EVEREST ACTUALLY SUCCEED? That’s what an expedition this December, led by American climber David Breashears and Brit Leo Houlding, hopes to reveal. While British explorer George Mallory’s body was found by a 1999 expedition only a few hundred feet below the summit, it’s never been clear if Mallory and Andrew “Sandy” Irvine actually made it to the top. The new expedition will attempt to find both Irvine’s body as well as a pocket Kodak camera he was carrying. The theory is that if the two men summited they would have taken pictures. Recovering the camera could reveal the truth once and for all, although producers of a Hollywood project based on the 1924 expedition may prefer a romantic rather than factual understanding of events. Via BBC.

MORE RISKS ON HALF DOME AS SEASON NEARS CLOSE. The story of near-hypothermia, fear, and a mighty dangerous descent by a recent hiker up the cables on Yosemite’s stone monolith highlights an unwanted byproduct of the permit system that limits traffic — summit fever. Hikers know that if they don’t go for the top, they won’t get another shot. That was why Armando Castillo says he went up the cables, despite threatening weather. The rest of his story reveals how ill-prepared many hikers are for the dangers, their mindset, and how people are taking the alpine ascent far too lightly. Via Taiwan News.

DINOSAUR DIE-OFF WAS BAD, BUT NOT THAT BAD? That’s what scientists at the University of Rhode Island say of the end of the Triassic period that wiped out 96 per cent of all marine species and 70 per cent of those on land. Original estimates claimed it took up to 30 million years for biodiversity recovery, but now they believe that species on land recovered much more quickly, at least as quickly as marine life. What the study means is that whatever caused the mass die-off may not have been as dire, or at least as uniformly dire, as first thought. Via Daily Mail.

PRO SURFERS ARE GETTING OLD — IF NOT QUITE AS old as pro golfers. At 27.5, the average age of the world’s top ten surfers is only a few years younger than the average age for the top ten golfers on the PGA (31). While this item rightly points to technological stasis as an equalizer, the smarter side of the story is that there’s no subbing strength or reflexes of youth for the sheer experience of (relative) geezers like Kelly Slater. Not mentioned: Athletic exceptionalism, which happens in lots of sports, and for older and older athletes, too, it seems. Via The Economist.

GOOD CLIMATE NEWS! THE EARTH’S PLANT MATTER is actually absorbing carbon 25 percent faster than previously estimated. This, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature, via a process that was actually able to measure how long carbon atoms had been in the atmosphere and how long it took for plants to clear the carbon via photosynthesis. The authors of the study said the new estimate of the rate of global photosynthesis will help guide other estimates of plant activity such as the capacity of forests and crops to grow. Via Science Daily.

WHERE TO BUILD YOUR EVIL VOLCANIC-MOUNTAIN LAIR? Apparently the Geological Society of London was having fun naming off their list of “Top 5 Volcanic Lairs for Evil Geologists.” But Wired blogger Erik Klemetti, also a geologist, does a credible job of boosting Antarctica’s Mt. Erebus to the top of the list. We won’t entirely steal his thunder, but we do like that his first justification comes at the cost of scientists (since he is one): “Erebus is near nothing, unless you count the scientists at the McMurdo Station, which I don’t because I know that when it comes down to it, nobody listens to the scientists, even if they’re saying somebody is building an evil lair.” Via Wired.

NIGER’S TIN TOUMMA DESERT HAS JUST ENOUGH WATER TO SUSTAIN A MASSIVE MIGRATION, for now. Scientists who are studying the region in Northern Africa say it’s one of Earth’s most inhospitable deserts, and yet they call it a biodiversity “hotspot,” with endangered species like the dama gazelle, the Saharan cheetah, 41 migrant birds from Europe, and the bizarre looking addax (left). Seasonal rains sustain not only migrating birds, but so many other animals that make the seasonal trek. FYI, more cool images here: Via BBC.

SACRE BLEU! 2012 TOUR DE FRANCE ROUTE REVEALED AHEAD OF SCHEDULE, and we bet some folks in Paris are in deep merde. The route went up on the race’s official website, then the link was disabled, but not before Velopeloton.com caught on and snapped a screen shot. The Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) was later contacted and did a bunch of non-denial denying about the accuracy of the post. As blunders go, this one is minor — official route details were due out in about 10 days. Via Cyclingnews.

 

BLUE WHALES ARE ATTRACTED TO THE SOCAL COAST, BUT DANGER looms from the nation’s busiest port at Long Beach, since huge ships can collide with the world’s largest animal. In 2007 four whales were killed in collisions with ships, prompting greater research into the habits of the West Coast’s 2,500 whales. GPS trackers reveal that the whales like to feed right in the midst of shipping lanes, where they are in the greatest danger. A solution may come by re-routing ships; some groups are pushing for much tighter speed restraints on vessels coming in to port. Via L.A. Times.

BAMBOO BIKES ARE PRETTY RARE, in part because there’s been a lot of skepticism about structural integrity. Now engineers at Oxford’s Brookes University say they’ve done the homework to build a bamboo bike that’s just as safe as other materials and that tests of England’s first locally made bamboo mountain bike have passed European safety standards. The Brookes-built bike will now go into production via Yorkshire-based Bamboo Bikes. Beyond a literal “green” perk vs. carbon (carbon has all sorts of issues, including challenges for recycling), fans claim bamboo bikes pedal with the same power transmission as carbon, but minus some of the bone jarring. Via BBC.

EVEN IN TEXAS, WHERE OIL IS KING, the persistent drought is making towns reconsider giving free reign to fracking. The reason: fracking is a thirsty business, sucking up huge quantities of water. Now the town of Grand Prarie is the first in the state to ban the use of water for fracking. In other parts of the country farmers are selling their water rights to hydraulic fracking operations but this isn’t going to work in a state where there are already strict restrictions on drinking water. This November, Texans will decide whether to pass Proposition 2, which would authorize the state’s water planning agency to invest in up to $6 billion to massively update the state’s water infrastructure. Via Power Industry News.

WITH THE JOHN MUIR WILDERNESS in their backyard, Mono County, California, citizens live beside some of the most gorgeous scenery on earth. But you can’t eat gorgeous scenery. Tourism provides some summer work, but not enough, and now some locals are looking for rescue from gold; mining claims are being snatched up as the price of gold soars. Meanwhile, the region’s wilderness study areas could get permanent protection via the Interior’s “crown jewel” designation — which would kill mining investment. The fight echos oil and gas vs. wilderness battles in the rest of the West, save that Mono County saw the same kind of gold boom in the 1880s; and saw it die a few decades later. Via Bellingham Herald.

AGGRESSIVE CYCLISTS? MAYBE IT’S MORE PERCEPTION THAN reality. At least that’s the conclusion of a recent Australian study that suggests that the quickest way to reduce car-on-bike clashes is driver education, not improved infrastructure or changing the way cyclists ride. The study (which showed rider and driver behavior via helmet cams as well as fixed cameras) exhibits how drivers rarely look for cyclists on roadways, whereas bikers have no choice but to ride defensively. While Oz has seen a drop in bike fatalities in recent years, the number of cycling injuries is skyrocketing. This nifty time lapse video of a busy intersection shows both cyclists and drivers making dangerous mistakes. Via The Age.

MEANWHILE, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN PASSED UP A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to make the streets safer for cyclists when he pocket-voted a bill that would have required vehicles to give bicyclists three feet of space or slow to 15 mph. The California Highway Patrol opposed the measure, arguing that slowing would create traffic jams and accidents. 20 states already have “three foot” laws on the books, including Wisconsin, which passed one 38 years ago, and none have reported an increase in traffic problems. Via Streetsblog Los Angeles.

$4,000 SEASON PASS IS…A BARGAIN? Well, okay, it ain’t peanuts, but if you’re in for a season at Summit County anyway the Summit Foundation’s Patron Pass not only has zero-blackout date access to A-Basin, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Copper, Keystone, and Vail, the dough doesn’t just