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Showing posts from October, 2006

BASE Jumping

BASE Jumping Pioneer Dies - Parachute failed to open Brian Lee Schubert a retired Pomona, CA police officer, was the first man to jump from the famous El Capitan in Yosemite Valley in California, an almost 3,000-foot high rock formation. As reported by the Associated Press, BASE jumping pioneer Schubert died when jumping from the world’s second largest single span bridge during West Virginia’s Annual Bridge Day, a BASE jumping event. The event said to draw up to 150,000 spectators this year watched Schubert jump, but his chute opened too late – only approximately 25 feet above the river. What is BASE jumping? The “BASE” in BASE jumping is an acronym. It stands for the four locations a BASE jumper must leap from before he can actually call himself a BASE jumper: B uilding A ntenna S pan (bridge) E arth (i.e., a cliff) Additional Resources: Click here to read the full story by FoxNews . More about BASE jumping … Recommended BASE Jumping literature BASE jumping imag

Rock Climbing

Rock climbing safer than playing soccer A recent study published in the latest issue of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine showed that rock climbing (indoors) is safer than playing soccer. The researchers analyzed the injury risk of rock climbing during the 2005 World Championships in Rock Climbing in Munich, Germany. 500 rock climbers from 55 different countries participated in three different rock climbing disciplines, which totalled in 520 rock climbing days. During the World Championships in Rock Climbing, 18 injuries occurred and only 4 of them were serious. The most common problems were bruises. The injury rate of this competition reached 3.1 per 1,000 hours of rock climbing. As a comparison, male senior soccer national players typically face an injury rate of 30.3 (!) per 1,000 hours of playing soccer. Click here to read the entire study Wilderness Medical Society Rock Climbing Essentials

Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro Two major tourist attractions in Africa are in danger. The “Shining Mountain” Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 meters or 19,340 feet) in Tanzania and Mount Kenya (5,199 meters or 17,058 feet) in Kenya will lose their ice caps in the next 25 to 50 years if deforestation and pollution are not stopped according to environmentalists. Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain already lost more than 80% of its ice cover, Mt. Kenya lost more than 90%. Losing the ice covers means losing an important source of water. More information here: Africa’s Highest Peaks to Loose Ice Caps (update 2016-01-23 Discovery Channel removed the page, therefore, the link has been removed). Kilimanjaro on Amazon.com

Matterhorn

Matterhorn 75th Anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn North Face One of the world’s most famous mountains is the Matterhorn (4,478 m or 14,692 feet) in Switzerland. The first party to climb to the top of Matterhorn was led by British mountaineer Edward Whymper in 1865. Four of the seven men in the group died when descending. In 1931 mountaineers Toni and Franz Schmid were the first to climb the North Face of Matterhorn, which is not only extremely difficult but also very dangerous. After reaching the summit, they had to wait two days on top of the mountain due to bad weather until they finally were able to descend. Matterhorn Resources: Matterhorn images & history on Wikipedia About.ch Matterhorn books on Amazon.com