This wasn't kelp, it wasn't a sea lion, it was a shark.

Shark
Originally uploaded by fredsharples

After nearly a week of having my good name dragged through the mud, I have to agree that, yes, Christine, DID see a shark.

Last Sunday we were out at "The Patch" in Bolinas (the 3rd sharkiest beach in the world). We were having a great surf day when I heard a yelp from Christine. She seemed to have fallen off her board. She got back up on that thing about as fast as can be and started paddling over to me like a demon.
She said she thought she saw a shark. She showed me how big the fin was. (about 6-8 inches depending on when you ask). There was a lot of kelp in the water and a couple of sea lions around so I figured she might have seen something else.
Then she told me the shape of the fin, (triangle) and the color (black). I reasoned that it must have been a leopard shark or some other little shark but nothing to worry about. Great White's have white fins right?

So we slowly went back to surfing and neither of us wanted to alarm anyone without being sure. We were heading back to land about a half hour later when Christine apparently saw the same thing 5 more times. I wasn't nearby so I didn't hear this until we were on the beach.
I still wasn't very concerned, though it was pretty clear that it behaved like a shark, it wasn't very big and it had that black fin.
Then we got home and looked up pictures of shark fins on the internets to identify the species. We got to one and she pointed at the picture and said, "This is it, this is the one." We scrolled down to see what species it was.
The Answer "Great White Shark".
Um, they do have black fins. Doh!

Nudity not ok on Everest

George Mallory, the first nudist on Everest.

Last year a Nepali climber took off his clothes on the summit of Everest for several minutes, claiming "the record" of coldest and silliest stunt since David Blaine's ice block thing.
A lot of Nepalese, and most importantly the President of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, found this disrespectful and is seeking to ban nudity on Everest.

So many people have climbed Everest that people are getting desperate to get themselves into some kind of record book. In the past few years, a couple was married at the top, a man tried to climb wearing only shorts.

George Mallory, the British climber who some believe may have successfully climbed the peak in 1924 was photographed walking around naked on Everest, though not at the summit. An interesting book, "The Wildest Dream: The Biography of George Mallory" explains in more detail.

The discovery of Mallory's 'mostly clothed' body in 1999 was the subject of a fascinating Nova documentary.

"Of thirteen climbers in the study who attempted Mount Everest, none returned without brain damage."

Everest base camp(Tibet)
Originally uploaded by luthor522

Scientific American reports on a new Spanish study of high altitude sickness and its effects on the brain. They studied MRIs of climbers of several mountains including Everest, Aconcagua & Mont Blanc. The climbers of Everest and Aconcagua all showed evidence of brain damage after their climb. Mont Blanc at 15,744 ft. is much lower and had fewer incidents of brain damage in the study. Professional climbers tended to have a cumulative decrease in size of the outer portion of the brain (cortical atrophy). Amateur climbers tended to have more significant effects in the study as they were possibly less acclimatized and had less experience in preventing high altitude sickness.

Headaches, vomiting & nausea after meteor hits Peru

image from AP on Telegraph.co.uk

A meteor fell near the southern Andean village of Carancas, Peru on Saturday. Visitors to the crater are complaining of nausea, vomiting and headaches. There doesn't seem to be any scientifically known reason for it but it's made hundreds of people sick. The crater itself may be releasing gases or dust from the ground. Radiation has apparently been ruled out. In the meantime people are beginning to avoid the area and are not drinking the water from local sources. The Instituto Geológico, Minero y Metalúrgico in Peru (Geology institute) is conducting studies in the area.

Coyote on San Francisco's Bernal Hill

Urban coyote!
Originally uploaded by Katie Spence

Bernal Hill looks over the southern end of San Francisco's Mission District. It's steep sides kept development at bay over the years and now it is a nice fairly large park surrounded by miles and miles of urban development. Several years ago, a coyote was spotted in the popular park and a few people were able to snap pictures. It seemed impossible to us until we saw the photos.
We thought the coyote was long gone until SFist posted a story today along with some brand new photos of a coyote in the park. This very healthy looking coyote must be getting some good food somewhere.

The Bear's Cliffhanger

Bear on the Old Donner Bridge (Part 2)
Originally uploaded by Telstar Logistics

The employees over at Telstar Logistics brought to our attention an incredible story about a rather large bear hanging off the 80 ft. high Donner Memorial Bridge on Highway 40 between Sugar Bowl Ski Resort and our winter headquarters at Donner Lake, near Truckee, CA. Check out Telstar's story here. Also have a look at the local news story here from the Nevada Appeal

Who spiked the Pike?

IMG_1105
Originally uploaded by infowlpursuit

Lake Davis, north of Lake Tahoe, CA has been the site of a long and often comical battle against the Northern Pike. This invasive species, if it gets out of the lake, could decimate California's trout & salmon populations. The source of the introduction remains a mystery but Steve Martarano from the Department of Fish and Game thinks it may have been "eco-terrorists".

In 1997, the lake was poisoned with powdered rotenone. This stuff is a natural pesticide that is supposed to kill fish but not mammals. It is listed as a pesticide that can be put on food labeled organic by the FDA so it has to be safe!

Well, the poisoning of the lake didn't work and it made a lot of people in nearby Portola really angry as it killed all of the trout and thus the local tourism business. Oh, and it also poisoned the town's water supply.
Well now 10 years later, after poison, electrodes, TNT, and ACME brand anvils, the Pike are still there.

So this week, they're trying something completely different. LIQUID rotenone. Pretty clever eh?

How you can help find Steve Fossett

Amazon is using their "Mechanical Turk" system along with Google Earth to let little ol' people like us try to find Steve Fossett's plane. The system includes brand new layover data from the GeoEye Ikonos Satellite. If you want to try to find Steve's plane yourself, have a look here. You'll also need Google Earth. Be careful though, there have been a lot of false leads from this system, sending pilots out all over the damn place.

The Long-jawed Orb Weavers perform in Texas

Giant Communal Spider Web
Originally uploaded by scott_rtw

This ginormous spider web has been growing Texas-sized down at Lake Tawakoni State Park in... Texas. The spider web was created by some ambitious spiders from 12 different spider families. The main species is the Guatemalan Long Jawed Spider, (part of the Long-Jawed Orb Weavers family) . The web is still growing with the help of all the neighbors. There have been some other enormous spider webs in the recent past, including this one in Southern California.

John Muir Trail supported speed record broken

Mt Ritter on the JMT

On August 26th Sue Johnston arrived at Happy Isles trailhead in Yosemite Valley, having run from Whitney Portal in 3 days, 20 hours. Total distance 218 miles.

She had lots of support along the way. People hiked in for her, bringing out tents, sleeping bags and food. She even spent the night in a real bed at Red's Meadow near Mammoth. A night for her on this trip is only a few hours.
Sue tells an amazing story about her trip. Even at this speed she seemed to enjoy some of the scenery. The trip is one of the most beautiful hikes (or runs in this case) in the US.
I hiked this route in revers in June and it was an incredible experience. I'm flabbergasted by this record though.

Fossett Search now to include Black Rock Desert

This is just my guess of the search area based on reports. The Black Rock Desert is large white area at the top of the search area.

The search for Steve Fossett has been dramatically expanded to include the Black Rock Desert, site of the Burning Man Festival. Burning Man just ended the day he took off from Yerington, NV. The last land speed record was broken at Black Rock Desert and the goal of Fossett's flight was to scout potential dry lake beds for an upcoming land speed record attempt called "Target 800 MPH".
The total search area is now about 10k square miles.

The Frothiest Ocean Ever

image from www.dailymail.co.uk

I've seen a lot of froth in the ocean but this is just downright amazing. Just north of Sydney, a perfect storm of 'impurities' caused this awful 30 mile long mess.

Cappuccino Coast: The day the Pacific was whipped up into an ocean of froth | the Daily Mail

Steve Fossett Update

There's a little more info on the disappearance of Steve Fossett. It's been reported that he was scouting out dry lake beds for a potential land speed record when he disappeared. He left the Flying M Ranch near Yerington NV in a Citabria Super Decathlon stunt plane. The current search by the civil air patrol is covering this area.
He has an emergency locator beacon on the plane that should have gone off had he crashed. He also apparently has another beacon on his watch.

What the hell is a Wag Bag?

Mt. Whitney

Please check out this excellent article from the New York Times about using a Wag Bag on Mt. Whitney. The video explains everything. I tried to hold it but the day after this picture was taken, I too used the Wag Bag. The thing is so popular that the bin to drop them off was completely overflowing. The Wag Bag itself was fine to use. It's just a plastic zip loc with some kitty litter in it. It also contains toilet paper and a wet wipe. That all goes into a opaque green bag. It's kind of gross but it didn't smell & well, there's just not enough dirt up there to handle it all. The old solar toilets were burned down when I was there in June. I thought it was vandalism but it turns out that it was the most cost effective way to reduce them into helicopter-liftable bits. It's weird how adaptable we humans are.

Steve Fossett Missing!

This just in.
Apparently Steve Fossett, the world record breaking sailor, pilot and balloonist is missing after taking off from a private airport in Nevada.
His site is down which may be sad news.

Steve Fossett's records:

• Speed record for an airship
• First solo balloon flight across the Pacific
• First solo balloon trip around the world.
• First solo trip around the world non-stop in a fixed wing aircraft.
• 24 hour speed record for a sailboat.
• Fastest around the world on a sailboat.
  

For more:
Record-Courier - Serving the Carson Valley, Gardnerville and Minden Nevada