Category: Uncategorized

Why? Because, you can. Unlike the poor saps who saw this sandy mofo coming at them…

Want the story. Click here…

American climber Ed Viesturs has climbed 13 of the world’s 14 8,000 meter mountains. No American has ever knocked them all off. Why? I’m not sure. Yes, it’s really, really hard. But this dude just knocked off the Grand Slam, which means he has climed all 14 8,000ers AND walked to both geographic poles. So, while we should honor Viesturs as he goes at Annapurna for the third time, let’s not overhype it (that will come later, judging from the nmber of photo and film types who are with Viesturs). Anyhow, Viesturs and his gang are in Base Camp, and you can follow the expedition here. Here’s a report that reminds us that Annapurna–statistically the most dangerous mountain to climb according to Explorer’s Web, killing 2 climbers for every 5 that summit–doesn’t give a damn who the climbers are and whether they are on the verge of a milestone:

Ed Viesturs, Veikka Gustafsson, Jimmy Chin and David Breashears left their own warm bags at base camp to climb roughly 3,000 feet up to Camp 1 to drop a load of gear. By 10 a.m., they had reached Camp 1, scoped their route to the summit and turned back down toward base camp. Ed wanted to head back before the sun started to bake the peak.

At high altitudes, the sun’s energy pierces through a reduced atmosphere to reach to the earth, thus making solar rays exponentially more powerful. This radiant heat combined with the reflective property of snow crystals turns the peak into a veritable sauna. What happens to snow and layers of ice when you put them into a sauna? In large enough quantities, such as in glaciers, ice and snow calve off to create mammoth avalanches. As the sun’s rays gain strength, the probability of severe avalanche activity increases. The high odds for avalanche are one of Annapurna’s signature “objective hazards,” as most of the climbing route faces east, thus allowing the sun’s early rays to heat the snow surface. Typically, when clouds shroud the peak after noon, things cool down.

By midmorning, the sun had warmed a lower glacier to its breaking point. At 11:15 a.m., we heard a series of cracks. Standing on the crest of a grassy plateau, we watched a severe avalanche thunder downhill 1,000 feet to where Ed and Veikka were crossing the glacier on their way back to base camp. They tore across the expanse to hide behind a conical mound of snow for protection. “Sprinting at 15,000 feet in hard plastic boots is pretty difficult,” Ed remarked as he walked into base camp shortly afterward.

I’m getting nervous…

Very Close Viesturs: “Hmmm. If I knock Annapurna off, what the hell am I going to do to stay busy…?”

Yesterday we had the fastest sailors on earth looking oversized–and slow, slow, slow–in a couple of Optimists (see below). Today we have a nice shot from John Potter (aka Alden Bugly) of a downwind leg from the 2005 U.S. Optimist Team Trials, currently being sailed in Annapolis. Here’s Potter’s brief report:

“Titanium rash guards, BillaBong and Roxy board shorts, Dirty Dog shades, and pink-patch light sailor, or green-patch heavy sailor NZ-North sail logos were hot on the opening day of the 2005 U.S. Optimist Team Trials in Annapolis, but the racing was not. After two general recalls the first division set off in a false-promise southerly that waned as the beat moved on. Bang. Bang. The race and the day were dead.

For Friday the 180 sailors can expect a northeasterly of 9-17 knots and rain. They’ll get some wet races in.”

Potter is an Annapolis institution and a very, shall we say, eclectic guy. If you don’t believe me, click here, and check out some of the Buglyesque whimsy he has authored. Be careful, though. It can be a long, strange (and very humorous) trip…

Wheel Of Fortune: “Can I buy a lane please…?”
(Photo: John Potter/Photo Gray)

Orange II world record-holding skipper Bruno Peyron (left), and Open 60 stud and Vendee Globe runner-up Jean Le Cam (center), have apparently decided high speed multihull sailing is too dangerous and expensive…

“Allez, allez! Damn, you old farts are slow…”

While I was on the big bender, I mean attending yoga camp, Yves Parlier’s radical hydroplaning cat did a big ole nose dive and flipped. Parlier broke a few ribs, but the shore team has managed to get the broken cat back to the Canaries. No detailed word yet on how trashed the thing is, but it doesn’t sound good. Read all the updates here. Here’s what she looks like (via Sailing Anarchy):

(Photo: Fco. López)

Meanwhile, if you want to own a record breaker cheap, real cheap, Steve Fossett’s Cheyenne is on the market at a bargain basement price. Of course, the boat is down in Argentina without a mast, mainsail, etc., etc. Quite a refit required. How long before Cheyenne is taking sunburned tourists out for evening cocktail cruises in the Caribbean? Here’s the very honest ad:

CHEYENNE FOR SALE
Record-breaking catamaran for sale. Dismasted March 2005, now at Belgrano
Naval Base, Argentina. Lost mast, mainsail, solent, staysail, plus broken
compression tube. Successfully compete again with new updated rig, or
resell for profit. Appraised $3.5 million in December 2004. Priced as is at
$650,000. Contact owner rep: brspaeth@aol.com or 1-312-786-5057.

So now Cheyenne and Parlier’s baby could be joining Team Adventure on the scrap heap. At this rate, Tony Bullimore’s 30-year old Daedalus will soon be ruling the seas…

Bulldog Bullimore: “Heh-heh. We just keep going and going and going…”

Sorry to be away so long. I was chasing after that stupid bride. Anyhow, I finally convinced her to turn herself in, so I’m back in action and here to bring you some great action. In April I posted a little preview of the Red Bull Icebreak, surfings most painful competition. Well, the surfers finally got the call and headed to Nova Scotia. And yes, it was fu*king frigid. Check out the killer Quicktime highlight clip here (“Everybody pees in their wetsuits. Because it’s warm and nice…”). And the photos are here. I love this event…

“Uh-oh, that wetsuit warmer is still shakin’ it out, and I don’t think he sees me…”
(Photo: Portmann)

No posting until next Thursday. Apologies…

Remember that Santana 22 that inadvertently went surfing under the Golden Gate Bridge, and got rolled and dismasted (if you haven’t seen the amazing pics yet, click here). Well, Sail magazine’s Kimball Livingston took the trouble to track down the skipper and ask, umm, “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!” Here’s the key part of the story:

Ocean races passing through the Golden Gate restrict the waters between the South Tower and the shore, but usually, it’s navigable water. Schmidt had sailed through there before. On this day, however, Schmidt had been struggling with the whisker pole–a distraction–and was unable to get it out to weather. Instead, he left the jib poled out to leeward and then returned to reclaim the helm as YachtSea approached the bridge on port tack. “My intent was to get to center span, but I didn’t feel desperate about it,” he says. Then he reached a point where he was committed to go “inside” the South Tower. Then he saw the surfers: “I had never seen them that far out before.”

Fort Point was experiencing a remarkable break that day. It’s a popular spot for local, expert surfers, but on the afternoon of April 2 there was more than the usual close-in break that wraps around the point and continues all the way into the cove. Suddenly Schmidt realized that he was going to have surfers to the left of him, surfers to the right of him, and no options. Going in, he says, there were two surfers to his left, closer to the South Tower: “I can sail by feel, and I was focused on not hitting the surfers.”

The wave went vertical, and things happened fast: “Is this the way I’m going, I wondered? I didn’t know what the hell happened. It was like a freight train had hit us.”

And you can read the whole tragic tale here. There are surfers scrambling for cover and then helping make a rescue, near hypothermia and a life jacket that didn’t inflate (yes, those cylinder thingies need to be inflated more than once every 5-plus years). Wayne Lambright, who took the photos which made Schmidt and YachtSea (you’re destined for doom with a lame name like that…) a worldwide sensation, got 17,000,000 hits on his web site. That’s Paris Hilton/Anna Kournikova territory. Who says sailboating is not a popular sport…

“Hey, Skip. What the hell are you doing? My beer just spilled…”

So the Volvo Open 70s are shaping up to be spectacular boats. What are the chances that you or I will ever get behind the helm of one? How about zero, does zero sound about right? But wait. Volvo is prepared to throw you a bone. Check out this virtual ride, which puts you in the drivers seat and splatters you and the camera with virtual Southern Ocean spray. Then click on “The Race” for a kickass promo video. Also found this video of ABN Amro at speed on The Daily Sail (subscribe, you effing cheapskates!). The only problem I can see for Volvo, is keeping this level of interest and excitement up for another, err, 201 days…

“Jeez, why did we bother even building this boat? That virtual stuff is just as real, and a hell of a lot cheaper…”

Freediving (going to depth without any supplemental air) is a mesmerizing, and dangerous, sport. And last week an outfit known as the Performance Freediving Team went to the Cayman Islands to do some damage. And they did, with a guy named Martin Stepanek and woman named Mandy-Rae Cruickshank (no wonder she wanted to disappear under water)set new records by swimming without fins down to 80 meters and 50 meters respectively. Other records were set, but I can’t be bothered to sort out all the subcategories, so if you are into freediving read the official press release here. Even if you are not a freediving freak, though, make sure you check out this very cool trailer for the Performance Freediving Team DVD. It looks as if these guys know how to have fun…

“No, I’m not that transgender mermaid freak Tim wrote about last month. I’m Mandy-Rae, freediving phenomenon…”