Highlights from EXPEDITION NEWS
January 1999 - Volume Six, Number One
EXPEDITION NEWS 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.
For a free sample issue, send a self-addressed long (no. 10) envelope
to the address below
WERE HILLARY AND NORGAY FIRST?
This May, the $300,000 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition will search the North Ridge of Mt. Everest to launch history's most exhaustive effort to solve the mystery of whether the mountain might have been first climbed in 1924. While metal detectors, subsurface imagers, and probes will be used in a grid pattern to cover the most likely location of the bodies of George Leigh Mallory or Andrew Irvine, the obstacles are many.
First, the weather in mid-May must be conducive to a search and the bodies have to be located and, if found, conclusively identified. Assuming this occurs, how will they know if they reached the summit? The answer lies in Mallory and Irvine's Kodak Vest Pocket cameras, which, hopefully, will be found on the bodies. Film will be developed at an archival laboratory in the U.S., and examined for evidence that the summit of Everest was, in fact, reached some 30 years before Hillary and Norgay.
POLAR KNIGHTS
Corporate sponsors who become $25,000 "Aspirations Advocates" of a North Pole expedition this April will become knighted, according to an unusual proposal from Doug Hall, organizer of the North Pole Aspirations Expedition '99, and founder and CEO of Richard Saunders International's Eureka! Ranch, a new product think tank in Newtown, Ohio.
Hall, 39, purchased a royal title at public auction in London and is legally the Lord of Threshfield, a village in North Yorkshire, England. With this Lordship comes the right to name Knights of Threshfield, a charitable order registered at the College of Arms in London. Knighthoods will be awarded to corporate executives who support Hall's Great Aspirations!, a 501c(3) charity. All Knights of Threshfield receive a framed scroll and medal of honor.
EXPEDITION UPDATE
Splash Down - Another balloon circumnavigation attempt. Another splashdown short of the mark. The crew of the ICO Global balloon is alive and well after the craft descended 10 miles north of Kahuhu, Honolulu. Two Coast Guard helicopters greeted the balloon on Christmas Day after it skipped across the water dozens of times before dropping into the choppy seas. The crew of Briton Richard Branson, Steve Fossett of the U.S., and Per Lindstrand of Sweden had to abandon their mission when it was stalled by a low-pressure weather system.
The Weather Outside is Frightful - New Zealander Peter Hillary and his team, Australians Jon Muir and Eric Philips, attempting to complete British explorer Robert Scott's ill-fated 1911-12 expedition, were forced by fierce weather to spend Christmas in a blizzard about 300 miles from the South Pole.
EXPEDITION FOCUS
Wilderness Research Seeks More Science in Explorations
New Jersey writer Sheldon Bart, 51, is passionate about bringing science and research back to exploration. Disturbed by the trend in what he calls "spectacular stunts," Bart has formed a non-profit organization called Wilderness Research to serve as a match-making resource for scientists interested in studying any wilderness area of the globe.
EXPEDITION NOTES
Blind Faith - Teacher and athlete Erik Weihenmayer, blind since age 13, has his eye on becoming the first blind person to reach the summit of Argentina's Mount Aconcagua (22,841 ft.). His expedition in January - Glaucoma Awareness Month - is sponsored by the San Francisco-based Glaucoma Research Foundation (GRF).
UN Honors Mountains - The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2002 as the International Year of Mountains, intended to promote the sustainable development of mountain countries.
MEDIA MATTERS
20/20 Covers Breast Cancer Climb - Five breast cancer survivors on the Climb Against the Odds Expedition to Mt. McKinley (See EN, March 1999) were featured in a heart-wrenching segment of ABC-TV's 20/20 newsmagazine on Dec. 30.
Trapped in Ice - Frank Hurley's photograph of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ice- trapped "Endurance" appears in the Dec. 28 New Yorker. The story of Shackleton's harrowing expedition will be told starting in April at an American Museum of Natural History exhibition in New York.
IMAX Hits the Small Screen - Miramax Films has acquired worldwide
TV and home video rights to the hit large format IMAX film "Everest,"
which has grossed more than $60 million worldwide in 12 months. Miramax
plans to release the "Everest" home video in spring 1999.
EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS
Zegrahm Expeditions - They are remote and exotic, spectacular and visually compelling. The world's untamed lands are the focus of our 1999 expeditions, starting with the SEYCHELLES & MADAGASCAR in March, the tropical islands of MICRONESIA in April and May. Venture to the land of fire and ice - the KURIL ISLANDS, KAMCHATKA & ALEUTIANS - during May and June. And finally, ANTARCTICA for the Millennium - the Peninsula, South Georgia, Falklands, even a "first light" voyage from New Zealand. Small groups, expert leaders, intriguing destinations. For reservations and more information: Zegrahm Expeditions, 1414 Dexter Avenue N. #327, Seattle, WA 98109 U.S.A. Phone: 800-628-8747, 206-285-4000; Fax: 206-285-5037; or Web site and E-mail. Ask about bold new adventures offered by Zegrahm DeepSea Voyages and Space Voyages.
EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc., 28 Center Street, Darien, CT 06820 USA. USA. Tel. 203 855 9400, fax 203 855 9433, editor@ExpeditionNews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Copyright © 1999 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscriptions: US$36 /yr.; international postal rate US$46/yr. Highlights from EXPEDITION NEWS can be found on the World Wide Web at www.microship.com/expedition_news; credit cards are accepted through www.mountainzone.com/news/expedition/