"To the bottom!"; Moscow vs. Ouray: Ice Dancing; Forums and Coliseums
To the Bottom of the World!
The AAI team made it to the summit of Vinson after a few false starts. Now they are off to the South Pole ... by skis. For a very interesting read on Antarctica take a look at the Nova/PBS website on their documentary of Jon Krakauer's 2001 climb of Vinson. As usual on this type of site it is the multimedia clips that makes it interesting. Take a look at Patriot Hills panorama for sure.
Russian Ice Dancing
The Russians held their annual climbing award ceremony in Moscow. The Russian equipment company, Bask is a major sponsor. I found it interesting to look at their website to see what kind of gear you can get over there. Anyway, the event is a chance to award the best climbers and to recognize the Russian"Piolet d’Or" winners which is given to the "strongest sportsmen who have made the most outstanding ascensions" by the French GHM (Groupe de Haute Montagne) and Montagnes magazine in Grenoble France. I would love to attend this one year just for the food!
American Ice Dancing
If you have not made your reservations in Ouray ... forget it. That is unless you like camping in -15F temps on 6 feet of snow. Seriously, the annual Ouray Ice Festival is a great event for Ice Climbing. It is January 11 and 12, 2006. The small town of Ouray in Southwest Colorado serves as the host and all the hotels sell out quickly. But if you can make you get to witness world-class ice climbing by some of the best around. Not to mention getting some time on the ice yourself! All the major companies run clinics so it also a nice way of checking out cool gear. I wonder if they give away samples?
More Forums than Rome
The slickest (and most expensive) climbing magazine out there, Alpinist, has started a forum section on their website. There are not a lot of postings or activity yet. It will be interesting to see how it does as compared to the well established sites such as SummitPost.net, Climbing Boulder.com and Rock Climbing.com. If you ever get a chance to browse a copy of Alpinist, take it since it is beautifully published. More like Architectural Digest than Popular Mechanics! Now all we need is a coliseum for the ice dancers to compete in!
