PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Here are highlights from the August issue. If you'd like to receive the complete version of the latest issue and remain informed about leading expeditions and adventures all year long, we invite you to subscribe by sending US$36 / year (12 issues) to Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., 397 Post Road - Suite 202, Darien, CT 06820 USA. Be sure to include your Postal or e-mail address.
At press time (Aug. 1), British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves was still waiting at a base camp on Pakistan's 28,251-foot K2 for dangerous weather to pass, enabling her to make a bid for the summit. Hargreaves, who stood atop Mount Everest (29,028 feet) May 13, is attempting to be the first to scale the world's three tallest peaks in a year (See EN, April 1995).
STEGER AND IAP RETURN TO WHIRLWIND MEDIA TOUR
An online chat, an appearance on ABC-TV's Good Morning America, a parade, and a press conference at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. were some of the media events welcoming the International Arctic Project team upon its return from crossing the Arctic Ocean.
BLIND TEACHER REACHES SUMMIT OF MOUNT MCKINLEY
Erik Weihenmayer, the 26-year-old Phoenix school teacher who is blind, has achieved the goal he's been driving toward for years. On June 27 -- the 115th anniversary of the birth of Helen Keller -- Weihenmayer reached the summit of Mount McKinley (20,320 feet), North America's highest peak.
FIVE-YEAR EXPEDITION STUDIES WORLD'S CORAL REEFS
In May, the 82-foot Research Vessel Heraclitus and its international crew of 11 set sail from Miami toward Madeira, Portugal, commencing a five-year voyage around the world to study twelve coral reefs and to explore the origins and futures of human cultures.
Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner, the first man to scale Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and the first to scale all 14 of the world's tallest peaks, broke a bone in his heel in late July when he fell off the perimeter wall of his castle in northeast Italy.
Human Smolts Swim With Salmon
On July 25, four Idaho men completed a swimming expedition that retraced the migration of juvenile sockeye salmon down the entire Salmon River and a long stretch of the Lower Snake.
Freedom Flight Tours America
On July 31, an historic cross country flight of vintage planes began in Long Beach, Calif.
The McKinley Circus
A July 6 Reuter story discussed the controversy of thrill seekers on Alaska's Mount McKinley.
The New Extremists
An article on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times Sunday, July 16 entitled "The New Extremists" analyzes a new relationship between adventure seekers and the outdoors.