It's no secret that I love the mountains . This thread will serve as a place that anyone can throw up news from places around the world, that deal with these high places, and those who go there.
I would like to start with this link to a story about what trouble a broken ankle can turn into.
http://news.aol.com/article/climber-surv...ain/216606
Jan. 17, 2009
Argentina: Kansas man dies in mountain accident
A man who identified himself as a Kansas resident died Friday while scaling Argentina's Aconcagua mountain, becoming the fifth climber to perish this month on the highest peak in the Americas
Chester walker hurt in North Wales mountain accident
Jan 5 2009 Chester Chronicle
A WALKER from Chester in his 40s slipped and suffered a broken ankle in a North Wales mountainŠaccident.
He was walking in a six-strong group from the Chester area in the Carneddau range near Bethesda on Saturday at about 5pm.
Friends dialled 999 on a mobile phone and Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team was scrambled.
Spokesman Chris Lloyd said the rescuers formed a stretcher party and carried the casualty to a waiting Land Rover.
The team then drove him to Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor for treatment. His condition is unknown.
In a separate incident an hour later, the mountain rescue team was called out again to help two young men who had to be led to safety after getting stuck in Snowdonia.
The climbers in their 20s were on their first trip to the mountains.
They became trapped on a 7ft-wide ledge on a rocky terrace at Idwal Slabs on Saturday.
They dialled 999 on a mobile phone and Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team was called out at 6.30pm.
The rescuers found the men at Idwal Slabs, on the slopes of Cwm Idwal, in the darkness.
Spokesman Chris Lloyd said: “They were in their 20s and from the Home Counties.
“They were well-practised on indoor climbing walls but this was their first experience on proper rock.
“They ran out of time and realised they were stuck. We went up as a party of four. We used ropes to bring them to the top and escorted them off an icy path.”
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (March 26) - Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupted twice Thursday, spewing a more than 12-mile-high cloud that could drop ash on Anchorage for the first time since the volcano began erupting Sunday night.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory said the first eruption about 8:30 a.m. shot an ash cloud about 30,000 feet in the air, and the second eruption about an hour later sent ash 65,000 feet high — the highest cloud since the eruptions began. The larger eruption caused a mud flow into the Drift River near the base of the volcano.
Before Thursday's eruptions the volcano had been relatively quiet for more than a day.
According to the National Weather Service, prevailing winds are expected to carry ash from the larger eruption east across Cook Inlet toward some of Alaska's larger communities. An ash fall advisory for the western Kenai Peninsula covers the towns of Kenai, Soldotna and Cooper Landing.
Anchorage spokeswoman Jenny Evans said the state's largest city, roughly 100 miles northeast of the volcano, could see trace amounts of ash.
Skip over this content The smaller cloud was expected to drop minor amounts of ash on Homer, a tourist and fishing town at the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula.
Ash poses a significant threat to aircraft engines, and a small carrier, Era Aviation, canceled four flights as of midday. Alaska Airlines, which unlike Era does not serve the Kenai Peninsula, canceled one flight; earlier in the week it had canceled 35.
The National Weather Service also issued a flash flood warning for the Drift River, near the volcano. Eruptions can cause snow and ice to melt on the mountain, resulting in flooding along the river that drains from the mountain.
Research geologists with the U.S. Geological Survey have said a lot of snow and ice remains on the mountain, increasing the danger from mud flows that already have downed hundreds of trees and carved a huge gouge out of a glacier.
The mud flows also have littered the airport at the Drift River Terminal, a Chevron-operated facility that has been shut down but still has 6.2 million gallons of crude stored in two tanks. Until the airport runway is cleared, it is unusable.
Eleven employees were evacuated from the terminal Monday. An attempt to reach the terminal by helicopter on Wednesday was unsuccessful, but previous flights indicated that the oil storage tanks were not damaged and surrounding berms and dikes to contain any spilled oil were also OK.
Since the first series of eruption Sunday night and early Monday morning, the volcano has had several smaller bursts with most ash falling on sparsely populated areas northwest of Anchorage. Some people in more populated areas were nervous about getting a dusting from Thursday's eruptions.
"Right now there is nothing really we can do but shut the doors, keep ourselves closed up," said Juxia Scarpitta, owner of Halcyon Heights Bed and Breakfast in Homer.
Scarpitta said she's expecting the arrival of visitors "from another disaster area" — along North Dakota's Red River, where a historic crest is expected Saturday and thousands of sandbaggers are trying to prevent widespread flooding. Scarpitta said the family is coming so one of them can celebrate his birthday in Alaska.
"He is still coming right now. I advised him to get trip insurance," she said.