Here are highlights from our March 2000 issue. For a complete copy of Expedition News delivered by e-mail or postal service each month, see subscription information below.
March 2000 - Volume Seven, Number Three
is a monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online and by mail to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.
Manfred Schulze of Geisenheim, Germany, is a man with a mission. While others dedicate years to circling the globe
in a hot air balloon; crossing the Atlantic in a rowboat; or cross-country skiing to either pole, Schulze's four
year project appears at first blush to be deceptively simple: he plans to circle the globe on horseback.
On April 7th, 1996, Schulze left his hometown near the Rhine River and headed east. After four years, he's made
it as far as Arizona and is now ready to pick up where he left off on a six month journey along Highway 40 to Washington,
D.C., where he plans to arrive this August. Then after flying to the Netherlands, the 57-year-old Teutonic cowboy
will follow the Rhine River back to Geisenheim in early October.
A group of Royal Marines will attempt to become the first unsupported British team to walk from Canada
to the Geographic North Pole. The expedition will start in early March from Ward Hunt Island in the Canadian High
Arctic.
This spring, the Inventa Everest 2000 Environmental Expedition is being called the most significant clean-up
ever undertaken of debris from the high camps of Mount Everest.
A team of eight world-renowned climbers and over 20 Sherpas will climb the South Col to Camp IV (26,000-ft.) this
May to remove hundreds of discarded oxygen bottles and tons of trash left by past climbers.
"Our mission is two-fold," says Robert Chang, one of the team members. "In addition to climbing
the highest peak in the world, we will make a significant clean-up of a major environment sore spot in what should
be one of the most pristine places on earth."
Veteran British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes looks likely to lose the ends of two fingers due to severe frostbite suffered during an aborted solo and unsupported bid to reach the North Pole, his spokeswoman said last month.
A new television ad unveiled by the Gore campaign features Washington State-based mountaineer Jim Frush discussing his trip to the summit of Mount Rainier with Al Gore and his son Albert, Jr. Frush and the Gores climbed the 14,410-ft. active volcano over a 3-day period last August (See EN, September 1999).
If you thought Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones finally put to rest all the buzz about balloon circumnavigations last spring, think again. Illinois native Kevin Uliassi is at it again, attempting the first solo non-stop flight around the Earth. At press time, Uliassi, 36, was over the Atlantic, 750 miles west of Africa, after traveling 4,700 miles since his lift-off on Feb. 22 from a stone quarry near Rockford, Ill.
- It's a big month for balloon stories. Now we hear a British explorer plans to complete Swedish explorer Saloman Andree's fatally unsuccessful 1897 attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon from Spitzbergen, Norway.
American adventurer Phil Buck, 36, from Greenfield, Mass., is attempting to circle the globe in 55-ft. reed boats built by Bolivian Aymara Indians on the shores of Lake Titicaca.
Robots have come a long way since the days of Robbie, Klatu, and Tobor - all famed robots depicted in
science fiction films and television series. Now a new breed of robotic explorer promises future discoveries without
human assistance.
The 1,600-lb. VW Beetle-sized robot recently explored Elephant Moraine on the east Antarctic plateau, 160 miles
northwest of the U.S. base at McMurdo Station. The area is an important site for meteorite discovery, with nearly
2,000 specimens recovered during seven previous visits, including the first meteorite identified as definitely
being from Mars.
Perhaps it's the unrelenting cold of Minnesota that makes the state a hot-bed of polar explorers. In the February 2000 issue of Mpls. St. Paul magazine, writer James Mathewson, who believes the country's entire cold-weather exploration contingent resides in Minnesota, casts a critical eye on the careers of home-grown explorers Will Steger, Paul Schurke, Ann Bancroft and Lonnie Dupre.
- "A Web connection is now recognized as one of the basic building blocks for a successful expedition,"
writes Douglas McDaniel in the Jan. 16 - Jan. 22 issue of Access Internet Magazine (www.accessmagazine.com).
"... virtual adventures have helped to raise the icon of the explorer to pop star status.
- Kilimanjaro hike. Mt. Kenya rock climb. Safaris. Low cost. Well organized. mazur@cybernet2.com, www.cybernet2.com/africa_explore; tel. 406 363 7747.
- Join ZEGRAHM EXPEDITIONS and the world's TOP EXPLORERS as we travel to the most remote and remarkable places on earth. Underwater archeologist JAMES DELGADO leads submersible expeditions to the wreck of the legendary Titanic. Explorers FRED McLAREN and DON WALSH dive deep under the Arctic ice in high-tech subs to a 19th-century shipwreck. In July, oceanographer SYLVIA EARLE and nature photographer ART WOLFE delve deep underwater to observe sixgill sharks. And in November, best-selling author CAROLINE ALEXANDER tells the story of explorer par excellence, Sir Ernest Shackleton, during our Circumnavigation of South Georgia. For reservations/information: ZEGRAHM EXPEDITIONS, 192 Nickerson St., #200, Seattle, WA 98109. Phone: 800 628 8747, 206 285 4000; Fax: 206 285 5037; Web site: www.zeco.com; E-mail: zoe@zeco.com.
is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., 28 Center Street, Darien, CT 06820 USA. Tel. 203 855 9400, fax 203 855 9433, blumassoc@aol.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. 2000 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr.; international postal rate US$46/yr. Highlights from EXPEDITION NEWS can be found at www.expeditionnews.com; credit cards accepted through www.mountainzone.com/news/expedition. Layout and design by Nextwave Design, Seattle.