Year: 2010

Climbing News

The Climbing Youth Movement Continues: Matt Moniz

Mike Moniz on Mt-Washington

What did you do on your summer vacation? Well 12 year old Matt Moniz is trying the extraordinary. He and his father, Mike are tagging the highest points in all U.S. 50 States in 50 days. They just completed number 49, Granite Peak in Montana. Next up they leaving for Hawaii to tackle Mauna Kea. If you are curious about your state’s highpoint, take a look at this link. As might be expected, the lowest is Florida’s Britton Hill at 345′ and the highest is Denali in Alaska at 20,320′. The organization, highpointers.org tracks those going for the high points and helps with information.

Colorado 14ers

A Windy Meeker

Mt. Meeker is the poor cousin of mighty Longs Peak. Just missing out being a 14ers by a mere 9 feet, Meeker is the mountain you see from Denver, not Longs At 13,911′ is is one of the highest 13ers but is often passed by with climbers going for Longs, the highest in Rocky Mountain National Park, at 14,256′. I know this since I have passed it by while on my way to Longs on multiple occasions. So on this mid July day in 2010, I set out to pay homage to this peak, little did I know she would not make this a trivial “tag”.

Everest, Everest News

Everest Facts for KiDs

Do you know what kind of rock makes up Mt. Everest, when was the first north side summit or how much rope is used to set the fixed rope on the south side each season? Well, Everest is full of interesting history, details and trivia. As part of my Everest for KiDs slide show, have added a page with a few facts that kids, and adults, may find interesting. If you know others I should add send me an email.

Colorado 14ers, Weekend Update

Finding Clark's Arrow on Longs Peak

Sometimes it is the little thing. I have climbed on Longs Peak perhaps 70 times in all kinds of weather by multiple routes. But one small goal has eluded me for years. You see, way back in the early days of Rocky Mountain National Park, an enterprising ranger named John Clark decided to help out his fellow climbers by painting an arrow directing climbers to the saddle between Longs Peak and Mt Meeker. The area is a rock filled gully and can be very confusing so some type of semi-permanent sign would have been useful. Of course today that would be illegal and considered graffiti!

2010 Coverage, Everest, Everest News

Final Everest 2010 Stats: 513 Summits

There were 513 total summits on both sides of Everest in the spring 2010 season. This according to Asian Trekking’s Ang Tshering Sherpas regular news letter. He said there were 157 foreigners who summited along with 190 Sherpas on the south and an estimated 165 on the north side. He further quotes the Grand Dame of all Everest statics, Ms. Elizabeth Hawley that 5070 people have now summited Everest since 1953 and about 3431 of those are single summits with the rest being multiple summits.

2010 Coverage, Everest

Continue to Follow the Climbs

Please continue to follow the climbing news and my own adventures by reading The Blog on alanarnette.com. Everest 2010 is now over so all future updates on Everest and other climbing news will be posted on The Blog. I regularly add dedicated pages to my main site for my own climbs such as the recent climbs of Colorado’s infamous Little Bear Peak or the US’s highest peak, Mt. Whitney. Use the menu in the upper left of this page to explore the site.

Colorado 14ers

Paying To Climb Colorado 14ers

There are 54 ‘official’ Colorado 14ers mountains rising above 14,000 feet and at least 300′ from an adjacent saddle. An estimated 500,000 people climb on 53 of the 14ers each year without fees or permits, today. Now, the U.S. Forest Service (NFS) is investigating charging for other 14ers starting with four highly popular 14ers in Southern Colorado. The primary issue land managers are struggling with is that many of the 14ers are being climbed so much that the trails are getting overused, scattered with trash, toilet paper and poop and all the other problems that comes with a lot of use.

Everest, Everest News

China Sets Everest Age Limits

With the controversial summit from the Tibet side by 13 year old Jordan Romero, China seems to feel enough is enough. Starting this fall, 2010, climbers must be between 18 and 60 to be issued a permit. This was announced by the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) who manages mountaineering in Tibet. In a report they said

2010 Coverage, Everest

Everest 2010 Follow Up- Race for Youngest

Even though the season is over and climbers are back home, the ramifications from 2010 still echos throughout the climbing world. There are two developments – youngest records and the search for proof that Mallory and Irvine summited in 1924. First, the records race. This is precisely what people feared from the 13 year-old Jordan Romero’s summit. According to this article, Sherpa Pemba Dorje wants to find a younger climber to summit in 2011 saying that all Everest records should belong to Nepalese.