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 Biddin' Treasure
April 2009 - On December 19, 2008, 27-year-old University of Utah student Tim DeChristopher waded past the throngs of picket-wielding protesters surrounding the Salt Lake City Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office and headed upstairs to the auction room, where the drilling and mineral rights for 149,000 acres of some of America's most coveted and pristine publiclands acreage were to be sold to the highest bidders.
 High-Altitude Rescues on Manaslu
Helicopters can't fly to the roof of the world. People who try to go there know this. When climbers in the Himalayas get into trouble they have to get themselves down. A 24-year-old climber from Hermosa Beach who is trying to climb the eighth-highest mountain in the world - Manaslu in the Nepalese Himalaya - assisted on two high-altitude rescues in the past few days.
 Comfortably Naked at the Dazed Inn (Or, How to Share in the Suffering of Financial Institutions We Now Subsidize)
April 2009 - Say you and your girl are taking on your semi-annual or annual road trip, and three days out you have a ring around the sock line and your scalp’s starting to itch. Why spend a hundred bucks (more or less) for a night in an antiseptic room with bad art and depressing television, when you can meet all your primal-up-tomodestly civilized needs by almost but not quite checking into the Comfortably Dazed Inn?
 Preserve Rock Canyon, Utah
Rock Canyon, adjacent to Provo, is under SERIOUS THREAT of being ruined by a mining operation. Locals as well as people from afar are inspired by its beauty and value the multitude of natural resources for hikers, climbers, bikers and those interested in geology, wildlife, and other nature interests. Please visit: preserverockcanyon.com for more information
 Destruction of our climbing areas at our expense
By Ann Schmechel - The environmental cost of fires and water contamination related to natural gas and oil drilling is simply unacceptable. Where we hike, climb, camp and bike are directly affected by the numerous toxic chemicals they use to extract the gas and oil, spills, improper run off and the resulting fires from "blow-outs'. Even more disturbing is the tax deductions for oil and gas companies and the cost of massive clean up and restoration comes out of our pockets.
 Hundreds of Volunteers Needed to Build the Continental Divide Trail
With volunteerism and national service being revived in bipartisan political dialogue, one exceptional way to dedicate your time this year is out on the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT) in the most spectacular regions of the country. Continental Divide Trail Alliance (CDTA) volunteers participate in new trail construction, posting signs, clearing existing trail and building bridges and trailheads.
 Erik Weihenmayer and Chad Jukes on Bridal Veil Falls, near Telluride, Colorado
Video by David D'Angelo / TrustforPublicLand - On February 12, 2009, blind climber Erik Weihenmayer scaled frozen Bridal Veil Falls near Telluride, Colorado, which Trust for Public Land (TPL) recently helped to reopen for climbing. Also on the climb was Chad Jukes, and Iraq war veteran who lost a leg to an explosive device. It was the blind athlete's second climb celebrating TPL's efforts to protect recreational access in Colorado and nationwide. For more information visit: tpl.org. Read more about this ascent in a story by Craig Stein.
 Grandmother with towering ambition could be oldest U.S. woman to top Everest
A 65-year-old Flint, Michigan area grandmother has one towering ambition that could put her in the record books, twice. This spring, Nancy Norris will attempt to conquer Mt. Everest. If she succeeds, she will become the oldest U.S. woman to have climbed the world’s highest peak – and the oldest woman in the world to have climbed the highest mountains on all seven continents.
 Fish and Wildlife Service to Conduct Status Review of Roundtail Chub
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces that it will conduct a status review for the roundtail chub in the lower Colorado River basin. The assessment will inform the Service’s determination of whether the roundtail chub in the lower basin qualifies as a distinct population and warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act.
 We Shall Overcome
March 2009 -There is no doubt that, for the past decade or
so, maintaining one’s liberal-leaning purity has
become harder and harder — mainly because
issues and perspectives are rarely as black-and-white
as pundits, prognosticators and those with palpable
self-interests (read: fundraising) based to a large extent
upon maintaining societal rifts would have us believe.
More than that, though, there are very real issues-based
schisms that occasionally furrow liberal-leaning brows ...
 Dispatches from the Mojave
March 2009 - I walk East, I walk away from the last light of the shortest day. I walk next to a ribbon of gleaming snowmelt - in the High Mojave Desert. The colors of clouds and snow-melt shift constantly: lilac to rose, rose to red-gold, red-gold to pink, pink to turquoise, turquoise to ice blue.
 No Shit, Sherlock
March 2009 - I may not be a gentleman, but I patterned myself
after one last spring, by retracing Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle’s ski tracks across 8,000-foot Maienfelder
Furka Pass near Davos, Switzerland. Almost 114
years later to the day of Doyle’s March crossing, I stood
in a Swiss park by a small bronze plaque that commemorates
the event. It reads: “English author — creator
of Sherlock Holmes — and sportsman, who on March
23, 1894, crossed the Maienfelder Furka from Davos to
Arosa on skis, thereby bringing this new sport and the
attractions of the Swiss Alps in winter to the attention
of the world. The perfect pattern of a gentleman.”
 We're Looking For A Few Good Men
Do you have a compelling story to tell about a defining moment in your life?
The editors of More Than a Few Good Men are sponsoring a national writing contest and are accepting submissions through May 1st, 2009. The contest is open to men ages 35 to 60. Essays should be from 1,000 to 3,000 words long and written in the first person.
 The First Adaptive Athletes Have Conquered Bridal Veil Falls
On a clear crisp February morning blind climber Erik Weihenmayer and climbing partner Chad Jukes, a below-the-knee amputee, geared-up in Telluride, Colorado to begin a snowshoe hike to the base of this classic landmark. Guided by veteran climber Mike Gibbs of Ouray, Colorado and accompanied by a host of cameramen, the team approached the falls which could still be heard from a distance as water cascaded over portions of the precipice.
 Ride for Free, Fact or Fiction
February 2009 - If you are a dumpster-diving dirtbag like me, the Northeast is the place to be this year. I know, complaining about lift ticket prices is de rigeur thing to do, especially at the snowboard shop when you are trying to replace those broken Burton Mission bindings on the cheap…gotta pay to play they say.
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