Cross Posted from Yogaslackers

It took 500 chocolate bars, 25 supermarket cart-fulls of food, and an organizational staff of 64 people to manage and run the 2010 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race. More fun facts and numbers below from this year’s event.

Total course distance: 554 km (344 miles)

Checkpoints: 18

Trekking distance: 220 km (137 miles)

Biking distance: 288 km (179 miles)

Kayaking distance: 46 km (29 miles)

Ziplines over river: 1

Team Gear Junkie crests a mountain pass on day five

Competitors: 56

Teams: 14

Teams that finished: 7

Time to complete course (winners): 5 days 6 hrs 8 mins

Time to complete course (Team Gear Junkie; 4th place): 6 days 3 hrs 31 mins

Race-ending injuries: 1

Average weight loss per competitor: 5 kg (11 pounds)

Weight loss by Stephen Regenold (Gear Junkie): About 7 pounds

Team Helly Hansen in transition area tent, day five of race

Lowest temperature recorded: -2 degrees C

Strongest winds recorded on course: +120km

Number of mountain passes: 4

Oldest racer: Age 56 (Robert Finlay, Team Eddie Bauer)

Youngest racer: Age 22 (Daniel Staudigel, Team GearJunkie.com)

Organizational staff: 64

Amount of support food: 25 supermarket cart-fulls

Amount of support chocolate: 500 bars

Cameras lost/broken in wilderness: 5

Hours to return to civilization at end of race: 32

Tears: A few

Racers and gear in hull of Chilean Navy vessel, the transport back to the start line from end of race

Yogaslackers – Slacklining for a better world

This was on a ridge top on day 2 of the Patagonia expedition race. It had blown like this for 36 hours straight, and continued for the next 12. Minutes after this video, we were on an even more exposed ridge with even stronger gusts, and Daniel and I had to physically hold on to her to keep her from blowing off the ridge.

The strongest gusts reported were actually approaching the speed of a human skydiver at terminal velocity!

The wind finally died after about the first 48 hours of the race, but picked back up again when a blizzard hit the Darwin mountains while we were crossing them…

serious crazy s%*&.

Jason

Story and photos by Armando Menocal

A recent email attached a photo taken by Yarobys García, the Cuban who today is the island’s leading climber. The photo from Yarobys showed a very faded mustard-colored prAna headband being worn by a young Cuban named Yandy working a new project. (Nirvana, 8a/8a+)>>>

I recognized that headband. Not just one like it. I knew that particular mustard-colored  prAna headband. I had photos of it being worn by my girlfriend Laura Rodríguez on El Morro in Havana a decade ago, in <<<1999.

I looked through some more of my old photos. I had many images of Aníbal Fernández, the first Cuban climber, wearing that same mustard headband on climbs during the early part of this millennium, perhaps seven or eight years ago.>>>

I looked at more recent images I had received. Last winter Peter Winter, a Canadian climber, had sent me a photo of Yarobys shooting pics for his website. I looked at the image carefully, and yes, Yarobys was wearing the mustard prAna headband (below). Yarobys is an exceptional climber, and committed to the challenge to do new routes and to the tradition of mentorship.

Yarobys established a website on climbing in Cuba, escaladaencuba.com, which is probably the best source of information on new routes and especially new areas being explored by the Cuban climbers. It is difficult for those from other societies to appreciate how remarkable it is for an individual Cuban, outside of a state-run authority, to create a website. I don’t know of another.

I checked with Laura and she confirmed it was the same headband in all four photos. The same prAna mustard-colored headband worn by her, Aníbal, Yarobys and Yandy from 1999 until now.

I realized that it was possible to trace the remarkable development of climbing in Cuba through the lives of prAna headbands. The Cubans climb despite a crushingly poor, authoritarian government that threatens them with prison for climbing, while welcoming foreign climbers. With their stiff-necked commitment to climb, especially to put first ascents on the stone of their own country, the Cuban climbers have created something that I believe is unique in climbing.

Cuba may be the only climbing destination in the third world where (more…)

In the early 1970s, a small band of young rock climbers, decked out in bandanas, shades and cutoffs, came together and blew open the conventions of climbing. Dubbing themselves the Stonemasters, these now-legendary adventurers established techniques that allowed for some of the most spectacular climbs to be done with a minimum of apparatus. Beyond their unsurpassed skills as climbers, the Stonemasters embodied a lifestyle-they were loud, proud, smoked dope, chalked their lightning-flash insignia across rockfaces, took the light stuff seriously and the serious stuff lightly-and the glamour of this lifestyle made a massive impact on 1970s youth culture across the world. Among the first Stonemasters were Rick Accomazzo, Richard Harrison, Mike Graham, Robs Muir, Gib Lewis, Bill Antel, Jim Hoagland, Tobin Sorenson, John Bachar and John Long, but the character or myth of the Stonemaster caught on like wildfire, spreading from coast to coast and across the ocean, and spawning Stonemasters everywhere. Here, Dean Fidelman’s thrilling archival photos reveal for the first time an era defined by risk, camaraderie and nonconformity. Tales from original Stonemaster John Long and others recall the highs and lows of the early days-a magical time in the annals of adventure sports.

Fantastic sequence of annotated “instructional” clips from Vertical Limit.

Cross-Posted from The Mountain World

The largest environmental film festival in the United States is on tour. You can scroll through 50 trailers on their homepage! October cities include San Francisco, Las Vegas, Asheville, Helena, Sitka, Fall River, Mancshester, Burlington, Cincinnati & Sonora. For a city near you click here.

SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival inspires people and unites communities to heal the earth. SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival is a call to action.  At Wild & Scenic, filmgoers are transformed into a congregation of committed activists, dedicated to saving our increasingly threatened planet.  We show environmental and adventure films that illustrate the Earth’s beauty, the challenges facing our planet, and the work communities are doing to protect the environment.  Through these films, Wild & Scenic both informs people about the state of the world and inspires them to take action.