Climbers Paraglide the Alps and More Can’t-Miss Stories This Week
From the inspiring to the tragic, ‘Adventure News of the Week’ presents a wrap-up of top news in the world of exploration and adventure. Here’s what you missed this weekend and a few things to look forward to.
Climbing News
Expert alpinists Simon Gietl and Roger Schaeli set out last week to tackle the Alps’ six great north faces, but there’s a twist. Not only will the pair aim to summit all six major peaks, but they’ll also access each location by fair means, which includes human-powered flight.
“They intend to travel only by human power between the mountains, trekking, cycling and paragliding,” said ExplorersWeb. Follow the North 6 journey on Instagram.
Scottish climber and father of the free solo, Dave MacLeod, just ticked off a gripping first ascent on Ben Nevis, reported UK Climbing. He dubbed the wiry gritstone trad route ‘Mnemosyne’ and grades it at E9 6c/8b+.
Placing pieces of pro on Mnemosyne kicks the grade up a notch, he said, “because they are very fiddly and time-consuming to place right in the middle of hard fingery climbing. It’s around 8a to climb straight through, but two or three grades harder to place the gear.”
Check out the uncut send footy below.
Cycling News
Lots going on in the cycling world this week.
Polar cyclist Lorenzo Bartone and his partner have set off on a multimonth tandem bike tour of southern Italy. According to Lorenzo, the course is something of a thank-you tour. The team will make stops along the journey to personally thank those who contributed to Bartone’s ‘Cycling the World’ fund. Follow their trek through Bartone’s Instagram.
UCI’s last MTB World Cup sesh of the season kicked off in Snowshoe on Friday. The elite competition ran the MTB gamut: downhill, cross-country, and cross-country short track races all made the setlist. In Friday’s XCC run, Victor Koretzky and Evie Richards took top men’s and women’s spots, respectively, with Richards coming in just 7 seconds after Koretzky.
Saturday saw some fierce competition in Downhill 1 and Downhill 2 races, where series frontrunner Vali Höll clenched first in women’s for both DH1 and DH2. In the men’s column, Reece Wilson beat out Loïc Bruni in DH1 but couldn’t carry his performance over to DH2, where Bruni claimed gold by fractions of a second.
UCI rounded out the season finale with Sunday’s XCO comps, with Christopher Blevins snagging his first win of the weekend — the first men’s XC win in 27 years for Team USA — and Evie Richards claiming her second.
Across the pond in Belgium, UCI’s 94th annual Road World Championship gets moving just as things in Snowshoe wind down. This year’s comp will kick off, per usual, with time trials for all divisions starting September 19 and ending September 22. Following a brief rest day, the formal road races will commence, running from September 24 to 26. Track results and find live coverage at UCI.org.
Endurance News
The Run Rabbit Run 100-miler kicked off Friday afternoon in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Dave Stevens took first overall with 18:01:45 on the clock and 38 minutes ahead of the men’s second-place finisher. At 20:23:53, Addie Bracy claimed the women’s top spot, finishing 37 minutes ahead of the competition.
iRunFar reports: “The high-altitude race attracts some of the best ultrarunners in the nation — in no small part due to the total $75,000 in prize money to be disbursed among top finishers in the Hare division. The course includes climbs of the 10,568-foot Mount Werner, Buffalo Pass, and Emerald Mountain, for a total of 22,000 feet of elevation gain.”
Triathlete Lucy Charles-Barclay snagged her first long-awaited gold on Saturday at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. The 27-year-old competitor crossed the finish line in just 4 hours. Defending men’s champ Gustav Iden took first overall, with a time of 3 hours and 37 minutes.
In Other News…
It looks like the search for missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito has come to a sad end. On Sunday, officials reported finding human remains consistent with the description of Petitio in Grand Teton National Park. Petito went missing around the last week of August while with her fiance on a cross-country tour of various national parks. The NY Times is keeping tabs on the case as it develops.
Animal welfare charity Born Free USA launched a new wildlife initiative this week. Called “Big 5, Little 5,” the campaign aims to raise funds and improve public education about 10 endangered North American species. See the nonprofit’s interactive infographic for more information. You can donate or take action by spreading the word, and check out Born Free’s Big 5 Little 5 page.
In gear news, REI has partnered with performance apparel group Athleta. Shoppers can expect to see Athleta gear filling the retailer’s virtual and online storefronts soon. Check out the REI and Athleta collection.
And Keen footwear launched Keen Corps, a national volunteer program and three-tier rewards system. Sign up for free online and then register for any partnered volunteer events to rack up discounts and earn Corps swag. The Keen Corps system will automatically track your volunteer hours and award loyalty points to your account. Patrons can also earn points through donating and shopping. Big bonus for groups, too: organizations that participate in Keen’s Trail Clean Up Challenge will earn a Keen Effect grant nomination. Groups with the most volunteer hours logged win commensurate funding.
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