Outdoors, action and adventure

All that's left of X Games in Aspen are the (video) memories

Another Winter X Games has come and gone, restoring Aspen, Colo., to a proper level of haughtiness and returning Buttermilk Mountain to ordinary skiers and boarders.

It was, to be sure, one of the more memorable Winter X Games in the event's 15-year history, with double corks popping like champagne corks and even a rare snowboarding triple cork making headlines.

Shaun White and Lindsey Jacobellis got their four-peats and Nate Holland didn't get his six-peat; Kelly Clark become the first female snowboarder to stick a 360 in the superpipe and Torstein Horgmo became the first snowboarder to stick a triple cork during the big-air competition. Progression was evident across the board, whether on skis, snowboards or aboard 450-pound snowmobiles. In case you missed it, here are some highlights:

 

 

Sailor nearly capsizes at start of assault on speed record

Thomas Coville, who embarked from Brest, France, on Saturday to launch an assault on the  non-stop solo-circumnavigation speed record, nearly pitch-poled his 105-foot trimaran.

The French sailor, however, showed remarkable poise in making adjustments to right the vessel, named Sodebo. Coville must circle the planet faster than 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds to beat a record set by countryman Francis Joyon in 2008.

 

Coville, aboard the same boat, missed the record by just under two days in the winter of 2008-09. This time he left in moderately severe weather because he needs high winds to make fast time. His journey will take place largely across the treacherous Southern Ocean.

He told Sail World of his desire to set the record: "I've nurtured this moment for years. I'm heading off on this because I want to. The emotion stems from extracting yourself, making the switch from a landlubber to a sailor."

-- Pete Thomas

Torstein Horgmo's climax moment: X Games triple cork

In case you missed it, below is the video showing Torstein Horgmo's amazing triple cork performed on his final run during Friday night's Winter X Games Snowboard Big-Air final.

It was the first triple cork performed by a snowboarder at the X Games and clinched the gold for the Norwegian. Making it more impressive is that he nailed the triple with broken ribs, suffered during an earlier crash.

Also impressive was the punting of his helmet into the crowd. But perhaps not so impressive, as far as the ESPN brass is concerned, were the sexual innuendos directed toward his curvaceous snowboard during the post-victory interview. Check out the trick:

 

Denver Big-Air competition produces mile-high mishaps

To give him his due, Rocco van Straten of The Netherlands was the winner Wednesday night in the Denver Big Air Snowboard World Cup, with an impressive double-cork 1080 and a clean landing.

But for many in attendance, the unsung heroes, those who didn't land cleanly after soaring more than 30 feet above snow, provided the most entertainment.

Because wipeouts on the giant manmade ramp were so numerous, the Denver Post produced a video aptly titled,"Sometimes Big Air gets you." Enjoy:

 

Jim Abernethy bitten by shark in the Bahamas

Jim Abernethy, who runs a Florida-based commercial scuba-diving company, suffered a shark bite to the arm Wednesday in the Bahamas and was airlifted to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

His condition was not known at the time of this posting, but Abernethy was responsive, according to a West Palm Beach TV news website. Abernethy, who runs Jim Abernathy's Scuba Adventures, had been diving aboard the 65-foot live-aboard, Shear Water.

News of the incident is sure to cause a stir among the Bahamian shark-diving community. In 2008 one of Abernethy's clients, on an excursion aboard the same boat, was bitten by a shark while diving outside the safety of a cage in waters chummed to intentionally lure in large sharks.

Markus Groh died and the incident sparked controversy regarding scuba diving freely in baited waters.

Abernethy reportedly was bitten by a lemon shark.

Diving outside cages still occurs, though some commercial outfits do not allow it. Another controversial practice in the Bahamas involves hand-feeding tiger sharks, which can reach lengths of about 15 feet.

-- Pete Thomas

Climber finding Denali a cold, unforgiving place in January

This has become a long, bone-numbing, wearying and dangerous month for Lonnie Dupre, who is attempting to become the first person to solo-climb Alaska's Mt. McKinley, North America's tallest peak, in January.

Dupre spent the seven of the last eight days holed up in a narrow snow cave at 17,200 feet -- McKinley (commonly referred to as Denali, or the "High One") stands at 20,320 feet -- as 50-mph winds raged across the frozen landscape and temperatures reached 40 below.

On Tuesday afternoon, according to expedition manager Tom Surprenant, the climber took advantage of a brief favorable weather window -- a storm cleared and winds had subsided to 25 mph -- and descended to a larger cave that serves as a makeshift camp at 14,200 feet.

"It'd be suicide for him to continue without first coming down to regroup," Surprenant said, adding that Dupre was weakened and will rest for a day or two, rejuvenate his lungs and pick up a dry sleeping bag before attempting what is hoped will be a two-day push to the summit.

Surprenant, who is headquartered in Talkeetna, Alaska, said during a phone interview that Dupre had been experiencing headaches and was in danger of developing mountain sickness and hypothermia because of prolonged exposure to high altitude and frigid temperatures.

In his latest audio report, posted Monday on his website via satellite phone, Dupre said he was growing weary because the air was so thin, and that he was having trouble keeping warm.

"I'm waiting for a window. I can't climb up, and I can't climb down," said the renowned polar explorer from Grand Marais, Minnesota. "I still have a good attitude and I'm fairly optimistic, but there's no let up in this wind."

Denali is dangerous even in the summer because of unpredictable weather and vast crevasse fields. The danger level increases exponentially once winter sets in. Only nine expeditions have reached the summit during the winter; six deaths occurred during those trips.

Sea Shepherd locates Japanese whaling factory ship

 

After three-plus weeks of skirmishing with Japanese harpoon boats, activists opposing the country's Southern Ocean whale hunt today announced they had located the factory processing ship.

"We finally have this serial killing death ship where we want them," said Capt. Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is campaigning against the hunt for a seventh season. "This whaling fleet belongs to us now -- lock, stock, and smoking harpoon gun."

The Sea Shepherd fleet of three boats encountered two of three Japanese harpoon boats on Dec. 31 about 1,700 miles southeast of New Zealand.

The processing vessel Nisshin Maru and the harpoon boat, Yushin Maru, had apparently used the other two boats as decoys as Sea Shepherd tried to stay with them and also pursue the factory ship.

Watson, who is controversial because of his group's militant tactics, presumed that no whales had been killed because the factory ship was being kept on the run.

However, when he and his crew aboard the Steve Irwin spotted the Nisshin Maru today, as it was entering the ice-filled Ross Sea, they saw a whale being processed on its deck.

"Sea Shepherd's objective now is to make sure that whale is the last one taken this season," a news release states.

Gray whale calves face deadly enemy in transient killer whales

When most people think of Pacific gray whales, they conjure images of the iconic leviathans migrating lazily along the West Coast of the United States to Baja California, or back to Arctic home waters.

What many may not know is that returning mother gray whales and their calves must contend with stealthy transient killer whales who kill and consume about one-third of those calves, or about 300 annually.

New research also reveals, for the first time, that the orcas will even stash their kills in shallow Alaskan waters for for future dining sessions, and that the carcasses might also represent an important food source for brown bears and small sharks.

"This is the first time that any [killer] whales have been documented to cache prey, to store it up for the future," Lance Barrett-Lennard, a professor of zoology at the University of British Columbia, told the Canadian Press.

It had long been known that killer whales attack gray whales -- one of the first gauntlets mothers and calves must run is the submarine canyon off Monterey, Calif. But it was not known to what extent, or how killer whales dealt with sinking carcasses.

The four-year study, by Barrett-Lennard and other researchers, was published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. It focused on a pod of about 150 transient killer whales that gathers off Alaska's coast near where the Pacific meets the Bering Sea.

(Transients are different than the so-called resident killer whales of the Pacific Northwest, which feed primarily on fish. A third type known as offshore killer whales feeds predominantly on fish, squid and small sharks.)

Mark Visser survives night surfing session at Jaws

Australian big-wave surfer and extreme adventure junkie Mark Visser made history early Thursday by surfing Jaws off Maui in the dark.

It sounds like a suicide mission but Visser, 28, used specially engineered LED lighting built into his buoyancy vest and board for a surreal session in that began at about 2 a.m.  Wave face heights were about 30 feet.

Visser also had a jetski crew -- he was towed onto the waves he rode -- and helicopter crew watching over him. But as you can see in the video, he was surfing in almost total darkness.

 

"It wasn't until I saw the pictures [that] I realized how big it was," Visser said. "This was the scariest, but most exciting thing I have ever done. Riding in complete darkness meant I had to go off feeling. I had to zone out from how you normally ride and be part of the wave."

The "Night Rider" feat is the first of a series of extreme, first-time adventures that will be made into a documentary called "9 Lives," to be distributed at the end of the year -- that is, if he completes them all safely.

-- Pete Thomas

Video courtesy of GrindTv.com

Twitter: @Pete_Thomas

Sharks turn South African surf spot into 'beach of death'

Port St. Johns in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa is referred to as the Jewel of the Wild Coast, because of its beautiful, gold-sand beaches.

But more recently locals are using the term "beach of death" to describe a portion of community coastline that has become one of the most dangerous spots in the world for swimmers and surfers.

There have been four fatal attacks in three years and five in four years, counting a January 2007 incident in which a bodyboarder went missing and was presumed killed by a shark.

The latest attack, on Saturday, claimed the life of Zama Ndamase, 16, a promising young surfer (pictured) who was well-liked and harbored big dreams.

Ndamase, the star of a local surfing club and an aspiring pro, bled to death as he tried to make it ashore after being bitten three times by an undetermined species of shark. His older brother and other club surfers watched in horror.

All of the attacks took place beyond the shore of Second Beach, one of three area beaches that in previous years had been regarded as the safest. First Beach was thought to be more dangerous because of its location at the mouth of the mighty Umzimvubu River, whose outflow is known to attract sharks.