Posted: Dec 16, 2007 10:47 pm EST
Everyone out Christmas shopping; these are quiet times for world explorers. Except of course for the ocean voyagers; the polar skiers; the few climbers packing for winter attempts; Alpinist mag whose warehouse burned down, and Shared Summits - whose K2 film debuted this weekend both nation- and worldwide.

Yeti tales, a mystery plane, SpaceX year's end update and the finals of the Kampire Dior adventure were among other stories at ExWeb last week.

Italians and Kazakhs for Makalu winter attempt This season we will have no less than three Italian attempts for winter firsts; Simone La Terra is already in Pakistan headed for Nanga Parbat; Simone Moro will set out for Broad Peak after Christmas; while Nives Meroi, Romano Benet and Luca Vuerich will attempt Makalu together with yet unconfirmed Kazakh climbers. Departure is fixed for 24 December.

More details on Shisha Pangma fall summits through the British route Shisha Pangma has been summited this fall from the south side by Argentine-, Basque, Korean and Nepali climbers. A total of 9 summits are so far confirmed this fall.

The world’s largest human biology experiment at high altitude A team of doctors who scaled Everest this spring to study the effects of low oxygen levels in the blood talked about the expedition at London’s Royal Geographical Society last week. The Caudwell Xtreme Everest took arterial blood samples on the Balcony of Everest (8,400 metres) and also constructed a laboratory at the South Col. 200 volunteers from the public took part in three-week long treks to Everest Base Camp, where they took part in scientific tests and kept daily diaries recording personal medical data. Critically ill patients in intensive care units very commonly experience low blood oxygen levels. The expedition set out to understand why some individuals adapt better to low oxygen levels than others and to develop therapies that might benefit “poor adaptors”.

Everest speed climber Christian Stangl summits Vinson in 9 hours and 10 minutes; Seven Summits climbed in 58 hours and 45 minutes A Skyrunner climbs alone without crew, artificial oxygen and camps. He wears light gear and aims to climb the mountains in a single day, taking the fastest track against the clock. Last year, Austrian Chris Stangl climbed Everest north side from ABC (6.400 m) to summit without O2 in 16 hours and 42 minutes. This fall, he speed climbed Cho Oyu in 15 hours and 6 minutes from BC to summit. On Antarctica this month, he climbed Vinson in nine hours and ten minutes from the base camp to the summit.
Christian has scaled the seven summits in a total climbing time of 58 hours and 45 minutes.

Everest Yeti and other events: Ang Tshering reports If you are a frequent Himalaya climber, you've had your share of Yeti tales. From Messner's much publicized search expeditions, to the Yeti head in the monastery en route to Everest BC which in fact is the scull of a monkey. In the past weeks, world media have had another Yeti frenzy - with Reuters this time breaking the news of supposed Yeti tracks found in Nepal. In a later report, there was also news of a runaway elephant in the area. Ang Tshering shot over a report with his own take on current events, including the Yeti and a stay with Everest climber Prague mayor Bem who just recently released a book about his eventful climb.

Alpinist Magazine’s warehouse burned to the ground On December 5, a warehouse that contained all of Alpinist Magazine’s inventory—back issues, hats, shirts, water bottles, stickers, coffee mugs—burned to the ground. Nothing was salvaged. “The destruction of our entire inventory, including all our back issues, would have been bad enough. This one, though, came in the middle of the holidays—our bread-and-butter season,” said Alpinist publisher Marc Ewing. “We're dealing with details such as insurance and inventory loss at the moment, but the fire hasn’t affected subscription fulfillment in the least.” Alpinist co-founder Christian Beckwith added, “The silver lining has been the response from the climbing community. Readers have resubscribed or subscribed for the first time. Regardless of what it means to us as a business, as climbers the value of such responses is immense.”

A road less traveled - Kampire Dior, Final Pockets shrinking with every step; an inferno of rescues through imploding weather and night fall awaited the Polish climbers once they got to Kampire Dior. The team had to slide a member down the icy slopes. One of the rescuers was caught in an avalanche and fell head-down - saved at the last moment by a rope. The doc fell into a crevasse and spent one hour there before the climbers could get her out. Last week the Kampire Dior adventure series ended with the heavily scaled down team arriving back to Islamabad over bridges hanging by their last splint.

Shared Summits K2 movie This Sunday NBC Sports and Jeep World of Adventure Sports broadcasted a nationwide one hour television special about the 2007 Shared Summits K2 Expedition. For the film production, Chris Warner from Earth Treks went to Italy in November to meet with Stefano Zavka's family, and later interviewed Danielle Nardi, leader of the Italian expedition. The resulting film, a true climbing tale very different from regular Everest movies, is also available to view online at www.nbcsports.com/k2.

Antarctic wrap-up: Difficult decisions “We, nor much equipment, are not built to operate down here under such conditions and strains of effort, and things unfortunately do fail,” wrote Adrian, currently skiing on a broken binding. Two men have been evacuated unfortunately; British Jason De Carteret due to lower body injuries and 70 year old Peter Blaikie (unknown reasons). Ine-Lill Gabrielsen and Rita Glenne left Base Camp after summiting Vinson and are now skiing to the South Pole. Storms and white-outs have battered the teams. Some were trapped in their tents, others pushed through the weather.

AdventureStats special: Definitions for Todd Carmichael's speed record attempt After Jason left, the question now is, will Todd qualify for a team or solo record?
American Todd Carmichael can not claim solo (which he didn't intend to from the start anyway) and he can't claim unassisted as the expedition received emergency evacuation assistance. Todd however definitely qualifies for the overall speed record and he is still unsupported - using only human power (no kites etc).

Mystery plane over the South Pole It happened last Saturday evening at 2130 Pole time. No flight plan, no comms, no nothing. A mystery plane flew over the South Pole. A call went out for information to solve the riddle. The Pole overflight aircraft had 4 engines.

Henk De Velde update: "Good bye Europe - hello big world" After departing from the Netherlands in rough weather Henk carried on to Bayona and stayed there for 16 days, "I needed it; leaving, let it go completely is much more than leaving it all behind," he wrote. Now, it's on back to the big, wide world - with all sails set Henk is cruising to Trinidad.

Anasazi Girl update: On the water for 8300nm passage James Burwick completed his solo around the 3 capes voyage on June 12, in New Zealand's South Island. With a Westerly flow of air and falling tide, end this week James slid out of the Hauraki Gulf into the Pacific to cross 8300nm from Auckland to Cape Town via Drake Passage.

Barcelona world cup drama: Two ships dismantled, Jonathan McKee in Cape Town with broken rudder You might be aware that the Barcelona World Race is in full swing - with two ships dismantled already. Last week, Seattle-born sailor Jonathan McKee, America’s Cup and Olympic medalist hit the dockside in Cape Town, his fate hanging on a broken rudder. “I think we're still a bit in shock,” Jonathan said.

Mars Ocean Odyssey update - comms blackout and man-loving plants There's heavy weather in the South Atlantic and Soanya is seasick. Logs didn't come up but Tuesday the two answered the phone at last and confirmed they are fine. The couple also posted an interesting report on their ship pets - the rosemary, aloe and ivy plants - growing lush and green, the ivy adjusting its growth exactly to gently brush the ship captains' faces in the galley at cooking time. "We were very surprised because every time we moved from the counter to the stove or vice versa, we would brush against the plant. It didn't seem to mind. In fact, it seemed to like it."

SpaceX end-of-year update by Elon Musk Oh f***!" were the last words coming from Elon Musk's webcast immediately after the first aborted countdown on Mars 20 this year. Yet only some 30 minutes later, SpaceX blasted off from earth in a picture perfect lift off. Last week, Elon posted a monster report about the current state of things at SpaceX.

Read these stories - and more! - at ExplorersWeb.com

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