EXPEDITION NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Here are highlights from the July issue of Expedition News. To receive a free sample
issue of the complete newsletter, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address
below. - The editors
July 1999 - Volume Six, Number Seven - Highlights
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.WANTED: WOMEN TO TREK NORTH
It won't be an easy task for Sue Carter to find an additional eight women to join
her on the all-women WomenQuest Polar Trek 2001 to the North Pole in April 2001.
Rather than run an advertisement like Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1907 ("Wanted for
hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful
..."), Carter is resorting to a decidedly 1990's approach: applications are available
through her www.womenquest.org Web site. So far, three women have responded, but
Carter is hopeful more will consider this a "life defining opportunity," and will apply.
BRITISH EXPLORERS PLAN CENTURY'S
LARGEST SOUTH AMERICAN EXPEDITION
Colonel John Blashford-Snell of Dorset, England, is leading an expedition to navigate
1,800 miles of river from Bolivia to Buenos Aires over the next three months. The
Kota Mama Expedition will be the largest British voyage to South America this century.
An international team of 60 scientists and explorers will be joining the expedition
to find evidence that thousands of years before Christ, the people of South America
had trading links with Africa and beyond. Blashford-Snell hopes to discover archaeological sites which will reveal new clues to back his theory.
STANDING TALL IN THE HIMALAYAS
Ed Hommer, 43, of Duluth, Minn. has become the first double amputee to summit Mt.
McKinley, a feat that landed him on the NBC-TV Today Show on June 28. Hommer now
has his sights set on a first-time expedition to the Himalayas in 2000 to climb a
trekking peak in Nepal's Annapurna sanctuary. The next year we wants to climb 26,906-ft. (8201
m) Cho Oyu, then Everest via the North col in 2002 - hopefully as the first double
amputee to successfully summit.
EXPEDITION UPDATE
Baby It's Cold Outside
- A Canadian three-year-old became one of the world's youngest polar explorers after
setting sail for the Arctic late last month, following a route chosen by a Norwegian
explorer 100 years ago. Keziah Winter Magor is traveling with her parents Lynda and
Arctic veteran Graeme on a trip during which they will let their 52-ft. steel-hulled
ketch Northanger become trapped in the Canadian polar ice from September 1999 to
August 2000. (See EN, November 1997).
EXPEDITION NOTES
W.L. Gore Awards $30,000
- W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., inventors of Gore-Tex fabric, has granted $30,000
to six expeditions that embody the philosophies of Eric Shipman and Bill Tilman,
world-class explorers who were strong advocates of small expeditions. The ninth annual
Shipman/Tilman Grant awards selected the winners from a field of 44 applicants.
On Foot Across the Gibson -
Four explorers departed in late June on the first-ever foot expedition across Australia's
vast uncharted Gibson Desert. The 620-mi. (1,000 km) desert trek is expected to take
50 to 60 days and is the first of four expeditions planned as "the last great adventures of the 20th century" - the conquest of the elements of earth, fire, water
and air. The desert trek represents the earth element.
EXPEDITION MARKETING
Yeah, But Will it Cure Yak Breath? -
Everest: the book, the IMAX film, the made-for-TV movie, now Everest: The Gum. It
was only a matter of time, we suppose. An affiliate of Wm. Wrigley, Jr. Company is
introducing Everest Powerful Mint Gum, with the "taste as big as its name." Made
with natural peppermint oil, the maker of this "powerful" mint gum, the Amurol Confections Co.
of Yorkville, Ill., says it "Stands up to the Challenge!" Look for it in test markets
nationwide. Guaranteed not to stick to your crampons.
MEDIA MATTERS
Climber Regrets Selling Mallory Photo
- Selling a photograph of the frozen remains of George Mallory on Mount Everest has
caused its share of problems for the men in the Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition
(See EN, June 1999). Climber Andy Politz, 39, told the June 3 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, "Looking back on it now, it was a mistake." Politz spent two months as part of a
14-member expedition that found the remains of the Englishman.
Trailblazers of the Century
- Approaching his 80th birthday on July 20, Sir Edmund Hillary was honored as a "Trailblazer
of the Century" in the June 14 issue of People magazine. "Over the years," New York
bureau chief Maria Eftimiades writes, "Hillary has watched thousands try to duplicate his heroics as mountaineering, no longer the province of a few hardy adventurers,
has become the exotic diversion of virtually anyone with a whim and a checkbook."
What's So Funny About the Explorers Club?
- Popular New York cartoonist Stan Mack thinks the Explorers Club is full of good
material. He attended the Explorers Club annual dinner last March and created a two-page
cartoon for the June 6 New York Times Magazine titled, "Overheard at the Explorer's (sic) Club." A member is quoted from the podium: "Americans have lost their sense
of adventure. I asked a colleague about Magellan and he said the funds are overrated."
EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS
Zegrahm Expeditions
- Join TOP EXPLORERS as ZEGRAHM EXPEDITIONS travels to Earth's remote and compelling places. September finds us among MELANESIAN ISLANDS of Vanuatu & Fiji with oceanographer JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU. In December, adventurer WILL STEGER is aboard in ANTARCTICA exploring the Peninsula, South Georgia & the Falklands.
Oceanographer SYLVIA EARLE leads first-ever submarine expeditions observing SIXGILL SHARKS in July, 2000.
Best-selling author CAROLINE ALEXANDER tells the story of Shackleton during a CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF SOUTH GEORGIA, November, 2000.
For reservations and more information:
ZEGRAHM EXPEDITIONS
1414 Dexter Avenue N. #327 Seattle, WA 98109
Phone: 800-628-8747 or 206-285-4000
Fax: 206-285-5037
Web: http://www.zeco.com
E-mail: zoe@zeco.com
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Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld
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