Indonesian Digital News Archive

Well heeled travelers looking for an amazing adventure next year need look no further than the new whitewater rafting excursion from Mountain Travel Sobek. Their new Six Continent Whitewater Adventure, which was announced yesterday, promises to take travelers to the ends of the Earth to quench their thirst for adrenaline.

The 25-day, round-the-world expedition runs from May 9 through June 2 of 2013 and begins in California. The 8-12 participants on the trip will get their feet wet, literally and figuratively, with three days of rafting in the Sierra Mountains. From there they'll jet off to Ecuador for two days of rafting before proceed on to Spain to take on the Noguera Pallaresa in the high Pyrenees. Nairobi, Kenya is the next stop on the journey for three days of rafting on the Athi River, which mixes in great wildlife viewing along with Class II and III whitewater. The Tons River in India is the next stop as the lucky travelers take to the water in the Himalaya, not far from the spectacular peak Nanda Devi. Finally, the trip will wrap up on North Johnston river in Australia, one of the more remote and challenging whitewater runs on that continent.

Whew! Sounds like quite a trip and after reading the press release on it yesterday I immediately wished I were going. At $8695 (without airfare!) this is a bit pricey for my blood, but it was too good of an adventure travel opportunity to not share. And if the itinerary wasn't enticing enough on its own, co-founder of Mountain Travel Sobek John Yost, who has led plenty of river expeditions, will be the personal guide on this adventure. Sounds absolutely fantastic and I'm very jealous of those who get to go on this trip.

We already know that some climbers will go to great extremes to climb Everest, but it appears that others will simply say they went and use Photoshop to fill in the details instead. That seems to be the case in a story that is making the rounds today, which involves two climbing teams from India who are at odds over just exactly who managed to climb the world's tallest mountain.

According to this story from Desi News, the two teams are from Pune, located in Western India. Both sent expeditions to Everest this spring, with the Giripremi Team taking a more traditional approach to their climb, while the Sagarmatha Giryarohan Sanstha squad attempted to make a cut rate, budget approach. The Giripremi expedition successfully put all eight of its climbers on the summit, while their rivals claim that managed to get three (of their eight) to top as well. But now the former team is accusing the latter of falsifying summit claims and doctoring photos in effort to earn official summit certificates from the Nepal Ministry of Tourism.

Apparently the official summit photos submitted by the Sagarmatha Giryarohan Sanstha group have been modified to include two climbers who never actually reached the top. Sherpas on the trip say that Shahiri Tapkir was the only member of the team to actually climb Everest, while climb organizers say that their other lead climbers, Anand Bansode and Sagar Palkar, made it to the summit too. They say that the photos have not been tampered with at all, and that all three men were successful in their bid.

Nepal has formed a committee to investigate the claims and to look into the matter further. They take falsified climb reports very seriously and they will examine the evidence very closely. There are also some indications hat one of the climbers may have not been listed on a permit as well.

So why would anyone go to such great lengths to falsify summit claims? In India a successful summit of Everest translates into endorsements and sponsorship deals that will allow climbers to continue their pursuits. For these climbers it could potentially mean a lot of money and a degree of fame, and that is enough of a reason alone to generate false stories.

On a side note, I'm going to become the first person to be photoshopped into summit photos on each of the fourteen 8000-meter peaks. A guy has got to have dreams and aspirations.

Thanks to the Goat for the tip on this story.

Yesterday I posted a story and video of Russian Base Jumper Valery Rozov, who had reportedly set a new world record for the highest jump ever. Turns out that wasn't exactly true and Rozov's sponsor, Redbull, has quickly corrected their error.

The story that was widely being reported yesterday was that Rozov and a couple of climbing partners spent six days summiting Mt. Shivling in India. When they reached the top, Rozov used a wingsuit to descend from the 6543 meter (21,466 ft) peak. In the initial press releases that were sent out, that was hailed as new altitude record. But according to this story from CNN, the actual record is held by Glenn Singleman and Heather Swan. That husband and wife team made a jump from the summit of Mt. Meru, also located in India, which is 6604 meters (21,666 ft) in height.

As you can imagine, Singleman and Swan were a bit "miffed" when they heard the news, especially since it was covered by a number of news outlets. To Redbull's credit however, as soon as the error came to light, they changed their statement to read the jump was Rozov's highest ever and that it was another great addition to his already accomplished career. Rozov simply said that he didn't really care about records at all.

Thanks to Chris for sharing the CNN link.

Base jumper Valery Rozov spent a month in the Indian Himalaya preparing for a climb up the 6543 meter (21,466 ft) Mt. Shivling. It took him six days to complete the ascent, but just 90 seconds to return to the base. While at the summit, Rozov stepped out of his climbing gear, donned his wingsuit and took flight. A minute and a half later he was on the ground, but his climbing partners would require another three days to get back down.

Rozov, who is well known for his dramatic and daring Base Jumps, set a new world's record for the highest altitude jump on this expedition.