January 2025 – Volume Thirty-One, Number One 

Celebrating our 31th year! 

EXPEDITION NEWS, founded in 1994, 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.

EXPEDITION NOTES

Denali, as it’s currently called, is the tallest peak in North America

Controversy Brews Over Mt. Denali Name  

President-elect Donald J. Trump recently mused about wresting control of Greenland from Denmark, turning Canada into the 51st state, and taking over the Panama Canal. That’s controversial enough, but many in the outdoor community are aghast about his thoughts to revert the name of Alaska’s Denali back to Mount McKinley, its former title honoring William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president who was assassinated in 1901.

At 20,310 feet, Denali is the tallest peak in North America.

Democratic former President Barack Obama in 2015 officially renamed the mountain Denali, siding with the state of Alaska and ending a decades-long naming battle. The peak had been officially called Mount McKinley since 1917, according to the Reuters story by Kanishka Singh (Dec. 22, 2024).

"They took his name off Mount McKinley," Trump said in a speech to supporters in Phoenix late last month. "He was a great president," said Trump, a Republican, adding that his administration will "bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it."

Denali, the local Athabascan name meaning "the High One," was officially designated as the peak's name in 1975 by the state of Alaska, which then pressed the federal government to also adopt the name.

"There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali - the Great One," Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, wrote in a post on X.

This move also doesn’t sit well with Mead Treadwell, Lt. Governor of Alaska from 2010 to 2014. He tells EN, “Alaskans have called the peak Denali for hundreds, if not thousands of years. As Lt. Governor, I chaired the State Historical Commission which acts as the Board of Geographic Names, and it too, had recommended an official change of name to Denali in the 1980’s, decades ago.

“It is not understood here why the issue has come back up. 

“While many of President-elect Trump’s positions on use of public lands, energy, mining, transportation and defense are popular in Alaska, I’m confident we will be calling this mountain Denali for some time to come, hopefully for all time,” said Treadwell.  

When the story appeared on YahooNews.com, 14,700 people weighed in. The first 200 or so responses were overwhelmingly negative about the name change. (Ed. Note: Please don’t make us read the other 14,500 comments.)

Is nothing sacred? We wonder when Confederate statues will soon be returning to Richmond, Virginia.  

In his later career, Rusty Schweickart co-founded the B612 Foundation,

a non-profit dedicated to defending Earth from asteroid impacts.

10th Leif Erikson Award Honors Rusty Schweickart  

In late December, The Exploration Museum in Husavik, Iceland, announced the winners of the 2024 Leif Erikson Awards, recognizing outstanding achievements in exploration and the preservation of exploration history. This year’s awards celebrate three remarkable recipients:

Leif Erikson Award: Rusty Schweickart – Astronaut Rusty Schweickart, 89, received the 2024 Leif Erikson Award for his lifetime achievements in exploration. Schweickart served as Lunar Module Pilot on the 1969 Apollo 9 mission, where he performed the first spacewalk to test the portable life support system used by astronauts on the Moon.

He later contributed to the Skylab program and co-founded the Association of Space Explorers, and the B612 Foundation, advocating for planetary defense against asteroid impacts. Schweickart’s pioneering work and advocacy have inspired generations of explorers and scientists.

Young Explorer Award: Nima Rinji Sherpa – Nima Rinji Sherpa, a 17-year-old mountaineer from Nepal, is the recipient of the 2024 Young Explorer Award. Earlier this year, Nima Rinji became the youngest person to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks. His historic achievement highlights not only his extraordinary courage and skill but also the enduring spirit of exploration and adventure, according to the museum announcement.

Leif Erikson Exploration History Award: Space Hipsters – The 2024 Exploration History Award is presented to Space Hipsters, a global online community dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of space exploration. Founded by Emily Carney in 2011, Space Hipsters has grown to over 66,000 members, fostering connections between historians, authors, artists, and astronauts. (Follow the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spacehipsters)

Read the award announcement here:

https://www.explorationmuseum.com/10th-leif-erikson-awards-honor-pioneers-of-exploration/

An older version of the Peak Design Everyday Backpack

was used by the alleged shooter of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. (Photo: Peak Design)

Popular Travel Pack Worn During NYC CEO Murder

In the history of the world, criminals have never been known to possess the sharpest minds. Like the armed robber at a Wells Fargo ATM in Boulder recently caught on camera holding up his mask with two fingers clearly tattooed – tats that he previously posted to Instagram. A short criminal investigation led to a quick arrest.

On a far more serious note is the recent apprehension of the alleged killer of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson; the shooter was seen on numerous New York City CCTV systems wearing a distinctive backpack. When Peak Design’s founder, Peter Dering, was alerted to the use of his company’s 2019 Everyday Backpack, he reached out to the NYPD to pass along the information, according to GearJunkie.com (Dec. 16).

Use of the pack was one of the clues that led to the arrest of Luigi Mangione, 26, the suspected murderer.

Some online trolls labeled Dering a “snitch.”

In an official statement, the company maintains it takes customer privacy seriously, saying in part, “Peak Design has not provided customer information to the police and would only do so under the order of a subpoena.”

Read the official statement here:

https://journal.peakdesign.com/an-official-statement-from-peak-design

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“We are, all of us, pilgrims who struggle along different paths towards the same destination.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944), French writer, poet, journalist and aviator. Source: Second Suns (The Experiment, 2016) by the late David Oliver Relin.

MEDIA MATTERS

NASA’s Space Launch System, the rocket intended to return humans to the moon, sits outside the agency’s Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The rocket’s future in the Trump administration, like much of space exploration policy, is uncertain. (Photo: Kim Shiflett/NASA)

Space Exploration Under Trump is Up in the Air

The future of U.S. space exploration and NASA-funded science is up in the air as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to office, according to Lisa Grossman writing for ScienceNews.org (Dec. 18).

“There’s just so many question marks,” says political scientist Victoria Samson. Where will humans go in space, and when? What will SpaceX billionaire and close presidential adviser Elon Musk’s influence be over NASA and space policy? What does the nomination of billionaire space tourist Jared Isaacman to lead NASA mean?

“If I have one thing to say, everything is unclear,” says Samson, who is in the Washington, D.C., office of the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit space sustainability organization. “Anything could happen.”

Space scientists are making predictions based on things Trump and his allies have said in the past. Naming Isaacman as his pick to be the next NASA administrator reflects priorities for space exploration that had already been telegraphed during the election: getting boots on the ground of another world, as quickly as possible, writes Grossman.

NASA currently plans to land humans on the moon in 2027 with the Artemis III mission – a delay of about three years from the original goal of 2024.

Read the story here:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/space-exploration-nasa-trump

Edward Stone with a model of a Voyager spacecraft in 1980. (Photo: Caltech Archives)

The Lives They Lived: NASA’s Edward Stone

In the annual end-of-year New York Times remembrance of those we lost the previous 12 months, writer Jon Gertner eulogizes Edward Stone (1936-2024), lead scientist on the 1977 Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions. 

Both missions went on to become the farthest-reaching expeditions in human history, with Voyager 1 now 15.4 billion miles from earth and Voyager 2 now 12.8 billion miles away. Stone remained Voyager research chief for 50 years, overseeing this once-in-a-generation investigation that overturned many establish ideas about the outer planets and their moons, and gave us thousands of images that defined how we see our solar system, according to Gertner.

Read about his career:

https://tinyurl.com/NYTEdwardStone

The Titan imploded June 18, 2023, near the Titanic wreck. 

Last to See Titan Passengers Plans Documentary

A documentary about the Titan submersible implosion is set to be directed by the last person to see the crew and passengers alive. Aron Arngrimsson,  who sealed the hatch on the Titan ahead of its ill-fated journey to the Titanic wreckage, will helm the yet-to-be titled documentary, writes Nate Todd last month in Movieweb.

Arngrimsson is a veteran diver and filmmaker who has worked on numerous TV and film productions for National Geographic. Dirty Dozen Productions, co-founded by Arngrimsson, will co-produce the documentary, currently in post-production, alongside RadicalMedia.

"We are committed to telling this important story with the thoroughness it deserves, through exclusive interviews with the Titan crew members and in the aftermath with the families. Our goal is to reflect on the lives affected by this tragedy while providing crucial insights into walking the razor-thin line between success and failure," Arngrimsson says.

Read the story here:

https://movieweb.com/titan-submersible-documentary-aron-arngrimsson/

EXPEDITION FUNDING

Graduates of a previous Students on Ice trip to Antarctica.

Applications Open for 2025 Polar Expedition Scholarships

Life changing. That’s the best way to describe the experience of a young person’s first visit to the polar regions.

Know someone ages 14 to 35, who is passionate about environmental stewardship, Indigenous-led conservation, or the Sustainable Blue Economy? Applications are open for the Students on Ice (SOI) Foundation’s 2025 expeditions, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025.

These educational experiences offer youth the chance to develop their knowledge, skills, and networks while exploring pathways to academic and career opportunities in fields like environmental science, ocean conservation, and more.

Full scholarships are available. Applications close January 30th, 2025. 

Learn more:

 https://soifoundation.org/en/youth/expeditions/application-process-youth/

RGS Expedition Planning Webinars are Free

Are you developing an idea for an expedition or fieldwork project and in need of expert guidance on your next steps?

Throughout the first half of 2025, the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), based in London, will be hosting lunchtime webinars, each on a specific topic. The first one on Jan. 15, 2025, is titled, “Explore More #1: Pitch Your Project.”

Learn how to refine and launch a successful exploratory venture, whether it’s a challenging journey with a purpose, field research in a remote location, or anything in between. Test the “elevator pitch” for your project, get constructive feedback on your goals and objectives from a small group of peers, and air your questions and concerns.

Advisors are Tom Allen, the Society's new Expeditions and Fieldwork Manager; and Shane Winser, RGS Expeditions and Fieldwork advisor, and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Expedition & Wilderness Medicine, now in its third edition, and editor of the RGS Expedition Handbook, soon be to be revised as a digital resource.

One does not need to be a member of the RGS to participate.

For more information: events@rgs.org

https://www.rgs.org/events/upcoming-events/explore-more-1-pitch-your-project

WEB WATCH

Karolina Gawonicz and Michal Lukaszewicz’s award-winning project involved crossing

Canada’s Barren Lands from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories to the

Inuit hamlet of Baker Lake in Nunavut.

RGS Expedition and Fieldwork Festival Streams

"Postcards From the Field"

Last November, the Royal Geographical Society hosted an evening of discovery from recently returned expeditions and field research projects. Speakers shared their experiences from the field, providing a glimpse into the challenges they faced, the discoveries they made, and the valuable lessons they learned along the way. 

Karolina Gawonicz and Michal Lukaszewicz presented their Neville Shulman Challenge Award 2023: Across the Barren Lands, retelling how they set out on a self-sufficient, non-motorized canoe journey across the Canadian Barren Lands, the second-largest uninhabited wilderness in the world. They followed in the footsteps of explorers James Critchell-Bullock and John Hornby on the 100th anniversary of their expedition; both modern-day explorers were attempting to locate the cache buried by the British pair back in 1924.

Watch their presentation to the RGS at 1:17. The link also includes another five “Postcards From the Field.”

https://www.rgs.org/events/talks-on-demand/welcome-home-postcards-from-the-field

Northwest Greenland Spotlighted in YouTube Documentary

A documentary from polar explorer Lonnie Dupre is now available to stream on YouTube. Shot in Northwest Greenland, AMKA highlights the lives of polar Inuit hunters, Arctic explorers and the relationship between each other and their sled dogs as cultures melt away in the rising temperatures of global warming.

It has been over twenty years since Dupre and John Hoelscher completed the first and only circumnavigation of Greenland – a 5,000-mile non-motorized journey by dog team and kayak.

In 2022, Dupre went back to Northwest Greenland to film the polar Inuit culture by traveling from village to village by dog team. Dupre re-connected with his past indigenous friends to find out how their culture has changed due to global warming over the last two decades.

The 40-minute documentary was directed and filmed by Eva Capozzola. Support was received from Rolex as part of its Perpetual Planet Initiative, and PrimaLoft.

Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rPVmgruFzs

Help Wanted on Mars

ArtSourceInternational.com, which calls itself the world’s largest and best vintage maps and posters website, has a series of clever helped wanted signs in anticipation of the colonization of Mars.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has said that he hopes to have humans living in a city on Mars within 30 years. Thus, the time is right for some adventurous career planning.

The posters advertise openings for teachers, surveyors, farmers, technicians and explorers. Cost is $30 per poster; the experience is priceless.

Learn more:

www.artsourceinternational.com

BUZZ WORDS

Kiviak

Think Icelandic rotten shark snacks are particularly gruesome? Consider kiviak, a bizarre Greenland delicacy. It consists of numerous dead auk birds that are stuffed into a dead seal, and the combination is then left to ferment under a rock, usually for around three months. The seal needs to be packed tightly, so around 400 or 500 auk birds are used, including the feet, beaks, and feathers.

The dish was originally prepared to ensure easily accessible food during the harsh winter months, and nowadays it's especially popular during the Christmas season. The seal fat repels flies, while large rocks are used to keep the air out to prevent the dish from going bad. (Sources: Dachshundlover91 posting to Reddit.com, and freelance writer and photographer Tab Hauser, Boulder, Colorado, who took a pass when it was offered to him during a recent trip. Wise man.)

Mung weed

Dark green and reddish weed that is not anchored to the bottom but floats freely in the current. “It was like somebody had tipped a giant salad bowl over us and we were now swimming in lettuce-filled water,” writes Tony Sampson in his Atlantic Boating story (June 18, 2024), about a dive to the pirate ship Wydah off Cape Cod. (Second source: marine archaeologist Barry Clifford featured on Expedition Unknown – Dive for America’s Pirate Loot hosted by John Gates, Nov. 13, 2024.)

Great Galactic Ghoul

The challenge, complexity and length of Mars missions have led to many mission failures. The high failure rate of missions attempting to explore Mars is informally called the "Mars Curse" or "Martian Curse.” The phrase "Great Galactic Ghoul" refers to a fictitious space monster that subsists on a diet of Mars probes, and is sometimes facetiously used to explain the recurring difficulties.

EXPEDITION MAILBAG

Don’t Forget Europe

Dear Jeff and the Expedition News Team:

As an overseas member of the Explorers Club, somehow, I and maybe other non-USA grounded members, feel slighted that reports are primarily superlatively Americentric. 

Understandably, since the Explorers Club is mostly a United States organization, most articles are about Americans accomplishing superlatively exciting things. 

Is the Explorers Club and Expedition News at all interested in non-American exploration?

It appears to me, that despite an Explorers Club symbolic chapter here or there, nothing seems to be going on elsewhere (?). Here in Europe for example, I get the impression nothing other than American exploits and events are happening or even worth mention in Expedition News. Can it be that nothing is in fact happening elsewhere?

In case you are interested, exciting scientific and adventurous exploits have been happening albeit without media hype elsewhere as well.

Best regards,

Adrienne Jochum, Ph.D.

Research Associate, Malacology

Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern

Bern, Switzerland

Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und

Naturmuseum Frankfurt

Dept. Malacology 

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Editor’s note: This letter has been slightly edited for brevity. Expedition News is independent and unaffiliated with The Explorers Club.

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Explorers Club Society of Forgotten Explorers is a Collaborative Effort

In our December edition we reported that J. Robert “JR” Harris, an 80-year-old member of The Explorers Club, is founder of its Society of Forgotten Explorers. In a December 10, 2024, email to EN, he clarifies, “More precisely, it (the Society of Forgotten Explorers) was a DEI Committee initiative, of which I am the Chair.”

Learn more about these little-known explorers:

https://www.explorers.org/the-society-of-forgotten-explorers/

EN CLASSIFIEDS

Travel With Purpose, A Field Guide to Voluntourism (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jeff Blumenfeld ­– Travel has come roaring back and so has voluntourism. Be ready to lend a hand wherever you go. How to travel and make a difference while you see the world? Read excerpts and “Look Inside” at: tinyurl.com/voluntourismbook

Get Sponsored! – Need money for your next project? Read about proven techniques that will help you find both cash and in-kind sponsors. If the trip is bigger than you, and is designed to help others, well, that’s half the game right there. Read Jeff Blumenfeld’s "Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers." (Skyhorse Publishing).

Buy it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Get-Sponsored-Explorers-Adventurers-Travelers-ebook/dp/B00H12FLH2

Advertise in Expedition News – For more information: blumassoc@aol.com

EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 290 Laramie Blvd., Boulder, CO 80304 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2025 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by email only. Credit card payments are accepted through www.paypal.com to blumassoc@aol.com