September 2012 – Volume Nineteen, Number Nine
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September 2012 – Volume Nineteen, Number Nine
EXPEDITION NEWS, now in its 19th year, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.
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Polar Explorer is Stand-Up Guy
Polar explorer and guide Douglas Stoup, 48, from Olympic Valley, Calif.,
and amateur adventurer Frank Fumich, 44, from Arlington, Va., will
attempt to SUP (Stand Up Paddle) from Cuba to Key West, Fla., non-stop
and unsupported later this month. The team hopes to complete the
118-mile paddle in less than 40 hours, all depending on the
ever-changing weather and sea conditions.
Stoup and Fumich are paddling to raise money and awareness for Stoupβs
Ice Axe Foundation, an educational 501(c)(3)established to educate youth
about the planet. Adventurers visit students in their schools and bring
them along on the expeditions via satellite, connecting students to the
surrounding environments and incorporating them into the mission at hand.
A portion of proceeds will also go to the Wounded Warrior Project which
provides programs and services to severely injured service members.
Fumich's adventure c.v. includes summiting the highest peaks on three
continents, Ironman Triathlons, and dozens of marathons and ultra
marathons, including some of the hardest 100 milers and 150-mile self
supported ultras in the world. Fumich recently trekked to the North Pole
with Stoup guiding.
Later this year Stoup will guide 18-year-old polar explorer Parker
Liautaud (see EN, May 2012) from the Messner start – the coast of
Antarctica along the Ronne Ice Shelf – to the Geographic South Pole, a
distance of approximately 560 miles.
Project sponsors include Kiehls Skin Care Products, Tahoe SUP and
Quicksilver Waterman. (For more information: Douglas Stoup, Ice Axe Foundation)
EXPEDITION UPDATE
First Solar-Powered Intercontinental Roundtrip Flight Completed
On July 24, Bertrand Piccard landed the Solar Impulse, the world's first
solar-powered airplane, in Payerne, Switzerland, having traveled some
3,728 miles (6,000 km) during a roundtrip flight between Europe and
Africa. (See EN,April 2010)
The journey between Switzerland and Morocco, which began on May 24,
consisted of eight flights – from Payerne to Ouarzazate and back – with
Piccard and Andre Borschberg taking turns in the single-seater cockpit.
The most challenging leg was from Rabat to Ouarzazate, just beyond the
Atlas Mountains, a region rife with turbulence and strong winds. On the
return from Rabat to Madrid, Piccard found himself actually flying
"backwards," having encountered headwinds greater than his airspeed.
Piccard and Borschberg's Crossing Frontiers Expedition reaffirmed the
reliability of the technologies used to construct the plane and the
efficiency of its energy consumption, according to The Explorers Club
website, the team carried a Club flag on the flight.
Originally built only to prove the feasibility of flying day and night
solely on solar power, the HB-SIA prototype, which has the wingspan of
an Airbus A340 and is the weight of an average car, is now in the
process of collecting a number of distance world records for solar
aircraft, being verified by the International Air Sports Federation
(FAI) in straight distance, free distance, and distance along a course.
Its ultimate challenge is to fly around the world.
(See the aircraft land in Payerne to the sound of alpenhorns)
EXPEDITION NOTES
Terra Nova Found
The wreck of the 187-foot SS Terra Nova,a ship famous for taking Captain
Robert Falcon Scott and his doomed party of explorers to the Antarctic
in 1911, has been discovered by accident off the coast of Greenland
during a test of echo sounders by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. A camera
was then sent down to confirm the ship's identity.
The Terra Novawas built in 1884, sailed by Scott to the Antarctic in
1911, and later was used by a Newfoundland seal fishery. In 1942 it was
chartered to sail supplies to Greenland, but was damaged by ice the next
year; the U.S. Coast Guard saved the crew but sunk the ship.
"It is remarkable that the Terra Novahas been found now, 100 years on
from the race to the pole, the death of Scott and four of his crew, and
in the year of various events to commemorate that occasion," said one
historian. Due to the damage it suffered and the cost of recovery, the
wreckage will likely continue to remain at depths of 1,000 feet.
Search for Amelia Earhart's Plane Continues
In July, a team searching for the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane was
wrapping up an expedition and feeling downhearted. They had come away
with apparently little to show for their $2.2 million worth of efforts.
But now those searchers say high-definition video from that trip reveals
promising evidence. "We have man-made objects in a debris field," Ric
Gillespie told the Los Angeles Timesin an interview last month. And
those objects are "in a location where we had previously reasoned where
airplane wreckage should be."
Gillespie is the executive director of the International Group for
Historic Aircraft Recovery. TIGHAR has an exclusive agreement with the
island nation of Kiribati to search for and recover any artifacts from
the plane wreck – which Gillespie and his wife and search partner, Pat
Thrasher, are sure occurred there.
But first he needs to search for an estimated $1 million in sponsorship
support. He'd like to make use of two submersibles, each with
three-person crews. This summer's expedition was supported by Lockheed
Martin, the Discovery Channel and FedEx, which moved 30,000 pounds of
various cargo over 17,000 miles.
(For more information)
Record Broken in "Everest of Caves"
Cavers from the cave research unit of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
returned last month from exploring the deepest cave in the world. The
cave, known as Krubera-Voronya, is considered the "Everest of the caves"
and is in Abkhazia in the south of Russia near the Black Sea.
The cavers, Boaz Langford, Leonid Fagin, Vladimir Buslov and Yuval
Elmaliach, went on the exploration mission as part of an international
delegation organized by the Ukrainian Speleological Association. Cave
explorers from nine countries were part of the mission, including those
from Russia, Spain, Britain and Lebanon.
Prof. Amos Frumkin of the Department of Geography at the Hebrew
University, who heads the university's cave research unit, said the
purpose of the project was to break the world record for cave
exploration – an achievement reached when a Ukrainian researcher
descended to a depth of 7,205 feet (2,196 meters) beneath the earth's
surface, five meters deeper than the previous record.
The Israeli explorers worked at depths of from 1,640 to 6,824 feet (500
to 2,080 meters) beneath the earth's surface.
"One has to remember that caves are the last place in the world where it
is still possible to be the first human to tread on unexplored
territory," Frumkin said.
(For more information)
Aconcagua "Grows"
Aconcagua mountain, known as the "roof" of America, has a new official
height of 6,980.8 meters (22,902.9 feet), a measurement slightly higher
than it had more than 50 years ago, researchers said this month.
The official altitude of Aconcagua was previously considered to be
6,959.6 meters (22,833.3 feet), according to measurements taken by
University of Buenos Aires scientists in 1956.
The new height "cannot be compared" to the previous one because "the
technology used for the measurement is totally different," Argentine
National Geographic Institute, or IGN, scientist Sergio Cimbaro told Efe
magazine.
(Read more)
Hope for Malaria Victims
The University of Cape Town's Science Department believes that it has
found a single dose cure for malaria, which would have been good news
for Teddy Roosevelt who was seriously weakened by the disease some 100
years ago.
The medical discovery was announced by researchers who have been working
on this compound, from the aminopyridine class, for several years.
Unlike conventional multidrug malaria treatments that the malaria
parasite has become resistant to, Professor Kelly Chibale and his
colleagues now believe that they have discovered a drug that over 18
months of trials "killed these resistant parasites instantly."
Animal tests also showed that it was not only safe and effective, but
there were no adverse reported side effects. Clinical tests are
scheduled for the end of 2013.
If the tablet is approved in coming years, this achievement will surely
usher in a new age for science in Africa, according to the University of
Cape Town announcement. It will save millions upon millions of lives on
the continent, helping avoid at least 24 percent of childhood deaths in
sub-Saharan Africa.
(For more information)
Experts Unite to Professionalize Gear Testing
The newly formed Gear Institute announced an outdoor gear buyer's resource for
credible reviews and in-depth advice by well respected product testers
in the outdoor industry.
The Gear Institute was founded in 2011 by former Outside Buyer's Guide
Executive Editor Justin Nyberg, former Outdoor Retailer and SIA Snow
Show Daily Editor Peter Kray, and veteran web developers and outdoor
enthusiasts Tal-ee Roberts and Ken Marold. When it was only four months
old, the Gear Institute's beta site was selected as one of the top five
outdoor gear blogs by Outside magazine.
There are openings for product experts – guides, specialty shop employees,
industry journalists, coaches, and athletes who know product technology
inside and out, and have no conflicts of interest.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple
request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and
the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling
down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."
– Statement from the family of Neil Armstrong upon his death last month
at the age of 82. (See related story below)
MEDIA MATTERS
Neil Armstrong's Death Receives Little TV Attention
"Television news didn't seem to fully recognize the importance of the
first human to walk on the moon on the weekend he died," reports David
Bauder of Associated Press (Aug. 26)
One reason: Armstrong died in Cincinnati on a Saturday. Not just any
Saturday, when news organizations have a skeletal staff, but a late
August weekend.
It's not a stretch to think inexperience on duty might
have played a role in NBC News' embarrassing gaffe: a website headline
that read: "Astronaut Neil Young, first man to walk on the moon, dies at
age 82." NBC called it a staffer error and said the mistake was taken
down after seven minutes, according to Bauder.
"His death came as somewhat of a surprise, too. Everyone dies, of
course, and most news organizations have prepared material on hand to
mark the passing of famous people. In many cases, though, there is
advance word that someone is very ill, giving the media a chance to
prepare and plan," Bauder writes.
Armstrong's determined effort to live a quiet, private life after his
astronaut days also left TV at a disadvantage, says Bauder. There was
relatively little tape on hand to roll from interviews reminiscing about
his experiences, reunions with old astronauts or public appearances. No
Armstrong chats with David Letterman. No appearances in music videos.
There was the moon walk, and not much else.
"His death was like his life: strangely muted given the magnitude of his
achievements," Bauder says.
When Fossil Collectors Profit, Science Loses
Former Explorers Club President Lorie Karnath writes in the Huffington
Post (Aug. 14), "...the largely unregulated Internet has provided vast,
inexpensive means to quickly and profitably offload fossils,
archeological objects and antiquities of dubious provenance. The haste
to capitalize on the desirability of fossilized dinosaur remains and
other ancient finds has led to these being in some instances literally
bulldozed out of the ground."
Karnath reports dinosaur remains have proven particularly popular
targets as they can be especially lucrative. When in the early 1920s Roy
Chapman Andrews came up with the idea of auctioning off an "extra"
dinosaur egg to ostensibly help raise the profile as well as fund his
next expedition, he unwittingly opened the door to what has developed
into new avenues for trade in natural and cultural artifacts.
She continues, "Meanwhile underwater treasure seekers scour the seabeds
seeking out and claiming shipwrecks to recoup and sell off valuable
artifacts. Such negligent carnage inevitably destroys critical
information important to science "¦ the mantra of the explorer/scientist
to explore, discover, share, preserve, sustain is being infringed upon
by plunder."
(Read the entire story)
EXPEDITION MARKETING
Scuba and Snorkel Gear Available
A famous manufacturer of scuba masks, fins, snorkels, spearfishing
equipment and wetsuits is seeking expeditions to support with in-kind
donation of gear. In return for product, they request a photograph of
the gear in use, and a field report they can use on their website and in
social media.
Any use for advertising, if desired, would involve a
separate negotiated fee. If your project would like to be considered,
contact Jeff Blumenfeld, editor@expeditionnews.com
Voyage of Modern-day Kon-TikiThrills Inmarsat Maker
Six Norwegians have reached French Polynesia on a replica of Thor
Heyerdahl's famous Kon-Tikiraft after a 71-day voyage across the Pacific
from Peru, following the route of the intrepid explorer 59 years ago.
The six-person Norwegian crew – including the explorer's grandson Olav Heyerdahl –
set sail from Lima on board The Tangaroaand reached the island of Raroia
in Polynesia in early July.
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl made history when he sailed across the Pacific
to prove that Polynesia could have been populated by people from South
America.
Like Kon-Tiki,The Tangaroais an authentic replica of the original
Polynesian settlers' papyrus rafts, but used a different and larger
sail, and incorporated the latest maritime communications equipment.
The effort was sponsored in part by Nera, the Norwegian manufacturer, which
supplied an Inmarsat Fleet F77 terminal for essential Internet, e-mail,
telephone and fax connections. This enabled the crew to relay its
research findings in real time and to communicate with project
headquarters.
The Tangaroaalso attracted media attention from all over the world.
Interviews with the crew, as well as video footage, were beamed live
from the middle of the ocean.
WEB WATCH
SPOT On
SPOT Messenger, the satellite rescue device, made a cake for itself and
posted it on-line to celebrate facilitating its 2000th rescue around the
world.
The unit's SOS button has activated first responders, search and rescue
teams, and coast guard units in 78 countries when the worst has
happened. One example: an Arkansas photographer activated his SPOT after
falling 30 feet in a steep ravine in the Ozark National Forest, breaking
several bones.
More recently, a helicopter pilot called for help with
his SPOT after clipping a power line and crashing in a remote region of
Columbia. (For more information and safety advice for the outdoors)
Maybe It's Toe Cheese
TheActiveTimes.com carried this story in July that appeals to our sense
of the weird:
"This is one of those things that's not only surprising, but never
really even occurred to anyone, as far as we know. According to The
Atlantic, when astronauts return from spacewalks, they bring something in with
them that sticks to their suits, and gives off "...an odor that is
distinct and weird: something, astronauts have described it, like
'seared steak.' And also: 'hot metal.' And also: 'welding fumes.'"
The website reports astronauts are remarkably consistent in describing
Space Scent in meaty-metallic terms. "Space," astronaut Tony
Antonelli has said,
"definitely has a smell that's different than anything else."
Three-time spacewalker Thomas Jones has put it, "carries
a distinct odor of ozone, a faint acrid smell."
Jones elaborated, "Space smells a
little like gunpowder. It is sulfurous."
According to Space.com, "Not so surprising is the fact that
the International Space Station, to which the astronauts return, has its
own peculiar smell – a mix described as having notes of sweaty feet,
stale body odor, nail polish remover, gasoline, and the exhaled vodka
brought aboard by Russian cosmonauts."
Ralston Jokes About Climbing with Circular Saw
Comedy Central riffs on Aron Ralston's famed misadventure in a Utah
Canyon (See EN, August 2012) in a raunchy, bawdy, irreverent video by
American stand-up comedian Tosh.O who dismisses carabiners as "a fancy
key chain for frat dudes." The skit is web redemption for climber and
guide Jason Kruk who a couple of years ago while climbing with a
hangover, got his knee stuck and then had something even worse happen.
Ralston, who calls himself the "real James Franco," jokes he brings a
circular saw with him now on his climbs.
This is very graphic, uses foul language, discusses sexual situations
and is based on potty humor. In other words, it's hilarious.
(You can see it here)
ON THE HORIZON
The Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Awards Recognizes Four, Oct. 13, 2012
The Explorers Club announced the recipients of its 2012 Lowell Thomas
Awards, named for Lowell Thomas, the famed broadcaster and former Club
member. Awards to Sir David Attenborough, David K. Hempleman-Adams,
William H. Thomas and Scott Wallace will be presented in New York on
Oct. 13 during an evening celebration themed, "Mindfulness: the Ultimate
Tool in Exploration."
The dinner, one of the Club's major events of the year honoring
important explorers, will be held starting at 5 p.m. at Cedar Lake Event
Space, 547 West 26th Street, just west of the High Line.
Tickets starting at $375 per person are available to anyone interested in
exploration and the honorees through www.explorers.org or by calling (+1) 212-628-8383.
Story of First Human-powered Circumnavigation – Available NOW on Amazon.com in the U.S., and Indigo in Canada:
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Ripped From the Pages of EN – Read the book that was spawned by Expedition News. Autographed copies of You Want to Go Where? – How to Get Someone to Pay for the Trip of Your Dreams (Skyhorse Publishing) – is available to readers for the discounted price of $14.99 plus $2.89 s & h
(international orders add $9.95 s & h)
If you have a project that is bigger than yourself – a trip with a purpose – learn how it's possible to generate cash or in-kind (gear) support.
Written by EN editor Jeff Blumenfeld, it is based upon three decades helping sponsors select the right exploration projects to support.
Payable by PayPal to blumassoc@aol.com, or by check to Expedition News, 1281 East Main Street – Box 10, Stamford, CT 06902 USA.
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EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., 1281 East Main Street – 1st floor, Stamford, CT 06902 USA. Tel. (+1) 203-655-1600, fax (+1) 203-655-1622, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Assistant editor: Jamie Gribbon. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2012 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at expeditionnews.com. Enjoy the EN blog at ExpeditionNews.blogspot.com.
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