Those Responsible

Storm Over Everest

13/05/2008 11:27:39

Good reason to stay home tonight: "Storm Over Everest" on PBS's FrontLine, airing Tuesday night from 9-11PM on PBS. Here's why: the film, created by veteran mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears, and producer David Fanning, is riveting and timely. May marks Everest's annual climbing period, and though it's been 12 years since the deadly 1996 season (which claimed 15 lives, 8 on a single day), interest in the peak and its yearly life-and-death dramas never seems to wane, despite the increasing triviality and hype surrounding some expeditions and the fabled debauchery of Base Camp. On the contrary: last year, 500 people attained the 29,035' summit, an astonishing total given that only around 2,000 had previously managed the feat since 1953. This season has been drastically different. The Chinese government recently closed the Tibet side of the mountain to climbers for an Olympic Torch-touchdown mission to the summit, broadcasting the successful climb on TV. With ongoing protests worldwide over the Olympics, three significant new books on the ill-fated 2006 season (including HIGH CRIMES, by Michael Kodas, and DARK SUMMIT, by Nick Heil), and now the Breashears film (which not only departs from Jon Krakauer's take in crucial ways but also recreates scenes from the disaster with certain survivors portraying themselves, and presents moving interviews with physician Beck Weathers, twice left for dead on the peak ), it's a ripe moment to look at the peak's enduring grip on the Western imagination--and in the media. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/BtAJvMSiN_I&hl=en]

Jacksons Sweep Through Reno

11/05/2008 21:31:11

Eric, Emily, and Dane Jackson won the men�s, women�s, and junior�s freestyle divisions respectively at the fifth annual Reno River Festival on Saturday, the family�s first competitive sweep of the year. �If you try to win you screw yourself,� says the eldest Jackson of his unorthodox approach to competition. �The key to success is to have as much fun as possible. If you do that you have a pretty good chance of winning.�

Freeze Tag

02/05/2008 11:22:04

In Alaska, you're not just it�you're dinner. We love the fact that the photog kept shooting.�

And Amundsen Rolled Over in his Grave

26/03/2008 15:37:23

Every teenybopper�s favorite band, Fall Out Boy, was set to travel to Antarctica today in what one observer astutely summarized as

"one of the greatest douche-rock stunts of all time: flying to Antarctica in order to set the world record for rocking out on all seven continents."

In a bittersweet turn of events, the continent took it upon itself to remain emo-boyband-free by sloughing off 160-square-mile chunk of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, a 5,000 square mile sheet of permanent floating ice on its western flank near where the band�s private plane was set to touch down.

According to the MTV �reporter� embedded with the band, environmentally (and otherwise) sensitive lead singer Pete Wentz reacted with an astounding combination of outrage and ignorance.�

�Basically it�s more evidence of global warming" he [said]. "Essentially our runway just fell off.�

Neither basic nor essential: the additional greenhouse gases expelled in the process of transporting these four tools via private plane to one of the world�s last pristine places to bore/annoy an audience of scientists with their music. As if those guys, living in isolation on Antarctica, hadn't already been through enough.

The Worst Ski Crash We've Ever Seen

05/03/2008 11:28:14

Matthias Lanzinger Crash Leads To Leg Amputation - Watch more free videos

Ads They Wish They'd Never Run

20/02/2008 11:01:51

This Rossignol ski ad ran in late 1994, after the first bombing at the World Trade Center in February 1993. Of course, they couldn't have known what was coming seven years later, but still....Ouch!

Ripping on a paipo, circa 1963

15/02/2008 20:27:53

It's not getting the kind of online hits that turn bedroom musicians into cult Internet icons. But this video of Val Ching riding waves at Walls in Waikiki circa 1963 is making the online rounds.

http://vids.myspace.com:80/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6228857

Aside from the classic surf attire � check those shorts! � and lack of any crowd at the break, this vid proves that "old school" is way cool.

Check out the way this guy rips on a (fin-less) paipo board!

Quick history review: Hawaiian-style bellyboards � the original form of board-surfing � are known as paipo boards. These boards were about the size of today's bodyboards and made from breadfruit or koa wood.

Not many people ride paipo boards anymore � and definitely not like this guy.�

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Net Soloing

12/02/2008 09:23:52

Late last, year I wrote about Squamish climber Matt Maddaloni's attempt to free-climb a short 5.13 overhang with only a fishing net rigged in the trees for "protection." The results were amusing. And now there's video. Enjoy!

PDN World In Focus Winners

12/02/2008 09:21:08

Over the weekend, the Photo District News (PDN) World In Focus winners were announced. Among those getting recognition was ThoseResponsible contributor Blake Gordon (photo at left), whose portfolio from Burning Man ran here in September. World In Focus is an annual competition held in collaboration between PDN and National Geographic Traveler.�

Freeride's Jon Olsson takes on racing

07/02/2008 10:20:44

The freeride community knows Jon Olsson as one of the best skiers in the world. The racing community knows his younger brother, Hans, for being one of the best skiers in the world. The difference: Their discipline.

Not any more. Jon Olsson, 26, wants to be top in the racing world, too, and make the 2014 Olympics. Olsson grew up racing in Are, Sweden, where he was on the national alpine ski team. He skied and trained with the best, including 2006-07 overall World Cup champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, which got him thinking. �I�ve sort of wondered what would have happened if I stayed with racing,� he said in a phone interview while in Aspen preparing for the Winter X Games held Jan. 25-28 (where he went on to win gold in the Big Air contest).