Rob Machado: The Drifter
Rob Machado's just come out with his latest project, The Drifter, a film he made with his good buddy, Taylor Steele. They've been working together since they were teenagers, which translates into smooth filmmaking these days. In the movie, Machado travels through Indonesia and Bali to chase exotic waves and hang with the natives. Sometimes he prefers the peace and solitude of a tent, and sometimes he likes to have a whole village surrounding him. Either way, he drifts in his own style. Outside Online caught up with him during his film tour.
--Aileen Torres
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November 17, 2009
Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day Three
Yangshuo Climbing Festival Day 3: Steady Drizzle.
The morning's scheduled outdoor climbing workshops were moved to the Yangshuo Kungfu Training Centre. I biked over around 9:30 a.m. to watch Alex Honnold give a lesson on "knee-bar-ing" -- using one's knees, rather than feet or hands, to stabilize -- for a dozen reverent twentysomethings.
One was Pyry Tuominen Tampere, a twenty-six-year old Finnish climber with a scruffy blond beard. Tampere, who is traveling around the world with his girlfriend, explained why he was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning: "It's not every day you get a lesson from one of the best climbers in the world!"
A few minutes later, Tampere and co. ceded the bouldering wall to a bunch of Chinese dudes with electric drills. The latter were designing new "problems" for the second and final round of the Yangshuo bouldering comp. According to "Xitang" (aka Alex), a local climbing guide who oversaw the wall's construction, wall materials were sourced from as far as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai.
The remainder of our Sunday morning felt sleepy in a good way. A Seattle-like mist was shrouding downtown shops. I spotted several climber-types huddled over lattes and late breakfasts at Cafe China, a foggy-windowed local haunt. Tom, my new Australian buddy, went for a massage. I slurped noodles at a market.
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November 16, 2009
Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day Two
Fire and rain bracketed my second day at the 2009 Yangshuo Climbing Festival. The former began in the common room of my rustic hotel, a 4-kilometer bike ride from downtown. Someone had stored a pile of scrap two-by-fours too close to the wood stove. When I looked up from my coffee, a mini blaze was threatening to creep up the walls. Fortunately a cook doused the flames with water.
After breakfast, I went biking with Tom, a friendly climber from Australia. Tom and I were looking for a famous local crag called "White Mountain." But we couldn't figure out how to hold our trusty Yangshuo map.
Yangshuo, as it turns out, is a great place to get lost. A two-hour cycle-jaunt whizzed us past livestock, farmland, smiling kids, orchards (those "peaches," on reflection, taste more like apricots) and majestic karst pillars. The landscape here looks like a land version of Vietnam's karst-tastic Ha Long Bay.
Thanks to Tom's Mandarin phrasebook and a friendly local villager, we found White Mountain by mid afternoon. This is where festival organizers have funded construction of a permanent toilet for Yangshuo climbers. Ryan Gellert, managing director for Black Diamond Equipment Asia, says this and other projects
White Mountain was crawling with climbers from Shenzhen, a large Chinese city near Guangzhou and Hong Kong. A few of them graciously allowed us to climb their top rope. The view from route's end showed karst, farmland and trees stretching out toward the horizon. And storm clouds.
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November 14, 2009
Yangshuo Climbing Festival: Day One
Ni Hao, Outside Readers,
Mike Ives here -- a freelance writer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. For the next few days, I'll be filing dispatches from the second-annual Yangshuo Climbing Festival in Yangshuo, China. If my aching fingers will cooperate.
A little background info on Yangshuo: This touristy town in Guangxi Province (which borders Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin) is an overnight bus ride from mega-cities Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The late American climber Todd Skinner set some of the first Yangshuo routes in the early 1990s. Last year's inaugural fest drew more than 350 climbers from 15 countries.
And a word about me: I've been living in Asia since May. Before that, I was a staff reporter at Seven Days, the alt weekly in Burlington, Vermont. I'm not a particularly committed climber -- my favorite part about top-roping at the "Gunks," near New Paltz, New York, is the post-session souvlaki. But I understand words like "beta," "crimp" and "jug," and I know good climbers when I see 'em.
Many are in Yangshuo this weekend. It's easy to see why: Yangshuo's urban core of dumpling shops, touristy boutiques and internet cafes is flanked by postcard-perfect karst cliffs. Fifteen-minute bike rides past farms, mud-brick houses and peach orchards land you at the base of more than 300 primo sport routes. Indeed, says Ryan Gellert, managing director for Black Diamond Equipment Asia, Yangshuo has lately become "ground zero" for climbing in China.
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Alpinist Tomaz Humar Confirmed Dead
Veteran climber Tomaz Humar was found dead today after being stranded for days on Langtang Lirung in the Himalayas, according to the AP. Earlier today, the flight operations manager for Swiss Air Zermatt confirmed Humar's body was retrieved by a three-man rescue team.
Humar, who has some 1,500 ascents to his name and has been the recipient of several mountaineering awards, apparently used a satellite phone to call a friend to say that he was injured on Tuesday. Though fellow climbers searched for Humar during the last several days, heavy snow and bad weather hampered efforts. He was found in a different location than expected.
"He was lower than expected, at 5,600 meters not 6,300 meters," Gerald Bin of Swiss Air Zermatt told the AP.
Humar leaves behind a wife and two children.
Read more about Humar's initial call and stranding and more about his career in the stories below.
Cold Call: Tomaz Humar, Outside Magazine, February 2008
Climbing Lessons from the School of Tomaz Humar, Outside Magazine, June 2006
Tomaz Humar Photo Gallery, Outside Magazine, June 2006
--Joe Spring
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November 13, 2009
Alpinist Tomaz Humar Stranded on Langtang Lirung
Slovenian Tomaz Humar, one of the most accomplished and audacious high-altitude solo climbers in the world, has been stranded since Monday on Langtang Lirung, a 23,710-foot peak in the Langtang Himal of Nepal. Humar, who has some 1,500 ascents to his name and been the recipient of several mountaineering awards, apparently used a satellite phone to call a friend to say that he was injured. There is some confusion as to how injured Humar is—he likely has a broken leg and ribs, but may have back injuries as well—and where, exactly, on the mountain he is, although he is believed to be stuck at an altitude of about 20,670 feet somewhere on the southern face of the peak. Humar has not been heard from since Tuesday, when he placed a call to basecamp and sounded "very weak."
Rescue attempts are underway, but have been progressing slowly due to bad weather. On Tuesday, a helicopter dropped off four Nepalese climbing Sherpas at basecamp, who were able to look for him above Camp 1 on Wednesday before being forced back to basecamp due to a snowstorm. And earlier today, three rescue climbers from Switzerland, along with some of Humar’s relatives, have reportedly arrived to aid in the search, but haven’t been able to ascend the peak due to bad weather.
This is not the first time that the 40-year-old Humar, who is married and has two children, has needed to be rescued. In 2005, a Pakistani military helicopter plucked Humar from Nanga Parbat. You can read more about the controversy surrounding that rescue, and his subsequent solo ascent of the 26,040-foot east summit of Annapurna here. Peter Maas wrote a feature story about Humar for us in 2002, which you can read here. You can also check out our online gallery of images that accompanied Maas's story, and a highlight tour of some photos from his memoir, No Impossible Ways.
More details about the current rescue can be found here, and we’ll update you as soon as we have more info. —Sam Moulton
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Book Smackdown: The Best Adventure Biography Ever
In our November issue we ranked the 10 best adventure biographies of all time. We were inspired to write the list after reading an incredibly solid bio of Jacques Cousteau by Brad Matsen. We're pretty sure our list is definitive. Still, if you disagree, let us know. However slim, there's always a chance we'll revisit our rankings.
Tell us what you think in the comments section below. What is the best adventure biography of all time?
--Joe Spring
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November 12, 2009
Fabrizio Zangrilli on Latok II and Guiding K2
Mountaineer Fabrizio Zangrilli recently stopped by Outside's office in Santa Fe to talk about his experience guiding 10 clients up K2 this past fall. Few alpinists have a resume to match. Zangrilli has been climbing for 22 years, has led more than 20 expeditions in the Karakorum and Himalaya, has led world class rescues, and has spent at least one year of his life on K2. He broke down the anatomy of the mountain and the special challenges of leading a large group. We covered Zangrilli's new venture before the climb and we were glad to hear—though he didn't reach the summit due to deep snow at the top—that his entire team remained safe. You can get an idea of the climb in this K2 gallery.
The 37-year-old Boulder, Colorado climber did not return home immediately after the expedition. Instead he volunteered to participate in an incredibly difficult rescue mission on Latok II in Pakistan. A Spaniard fell and broke his leg while attempting to summit the peak in August, and authorities called upon Zangrilli, who was already acclimatized and had a very unique set of skills, to help with the rescue. The team struggled against bad weather and a shortage of supplies. (Some resupply efforts were less than ideal as goods were dropped into a swamp from a helicopter traveling at high speed, leaving broken crates, wet sleeping bags, etc.) Though Zangrilli and his crew made a valiant attempt at rescue, poor weather forced the team to turn around 300 meters from the victim. Extreme conditions would have jeopardized the team's safety had it continued. A sad ending, but a necessary decision in what was an undeniably bold and courageous effort.
To hear a summary of Fabrizio's summer in his own words, check out fabriziozangrilli.blogspot.com.
--Aileen Torres
Photo by Fabrizio Zangrilli
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November 11, 2009
Aron Ralston's Story to Become Film
Variety announced last week that director Danny Boyle's next movie will be '127 Hours,' the story of mountaineer Aron Ralston. During a climb in Utah in 2003, Ralston was pinned by a boulder for nearly five days and eventually amputated his own arm to get free. We've mentioned Ralston quite a few times in our pages, but for more about this ultimate survival story, check out "Between a Rock and the Hardest Place" by Mark Jenkins (Outside, August 2003).
-- Lisa Lombardi
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The Good Route: Outdoor Clothier's Sustainable Wave
When Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard called him two years ago, wanting to talk gear, Ernest Capbert knew that he and his cohorts at the outdoor clothing startup Finisterre were doing something right. The company is the dreamchild of Tom Kay, a British surfer who wanted to create a sustainable clothing line for the action sports industry. Like Patagonia, Finisterre places a major emphasis on how and where it sources materials, creating products with a cradle-to-cradle lifecycle in mind, while fostering a sustainable supply chain. The company is also incorporating biomimicry into its designs while going to great efforts to secure its own source for wool (hint: it takes the do-it-yourself trend to new heights).
The Good Route recently had a confab with Capbert, Finisterre's director of marketing, about the company's clothing line and its focus on sustainability.
Herewith, some outtakes.
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