Free Republic

Tom Ballard was just six years old when his mother died while attempting to climb the world's second-highest mountain, K2. Now, Alison Hargreaves' 21-year-old son is training to scale the same 28,000ft peak. The mother-of-two, who had successfully climbed Everest just three months earlier, was swept off the mountain during her descent in 1995 aged just 32. Her body was never found.

Wildlife officials killed a mountain lion yesterday that invaded a home near Salida, attacking five dogs and trapping a mother and two children. The mountain lion entered the home nine miles northwest of Salida about 4 p.m. Thursday after it chased a small dog through a pet door. Michelle Bese, 27, and her two children, ages two and five, were inside with four of her five dogs.

Photo detective work could solve an enigma nearly nine decades old. But will it vindicate Hillary's historic climb or rewrite the record books? On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine left their camp less than a kilometer from the summit of Mount Everest on a mission to be the first mountaineers to ascend the world's highest peak (8,850 meters). They were never to be heard from again. Whether either man reached the summit—almost three decades before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's historic 1953 climb—has been an open question for nearly 86 years. Although more than half a...

An Indian villager burrowed for 14 years with a hammer and chisel to cut a tunnel through a mountain so that his neighbours could reach nearby fields and he could park his truck outside his home. Ramchandra Das, 53, who lives in eastern Bihar state, carved a 10m-long, 4m-wide tunnel through the hill range from his village of Kewati. Das took up the Herculean task after villagers found the 7km trek over the mountain increasingly arduous. When the authorities refused to help to cut the journey time, Das began carving his way through the earth in the direction of the...

-- Rescuers hoping to find two hikers missing on the frigid slopes of Oregon's Mount Hood faced worsening weather conditions Monday night as forecasters predicted white-out conditions that could severely hinder search efforts. == Up to 2 feet of snow is expected to fall Monday night into Tuesday at the elevation where rescuers are searching for any signs of Anthony Vietti, 24, and Katie Nolan, 29, who have been missing since early Friday. A third hiker who was with them, 26-year-old Luke Gullberg, was found dead Saturday.

Since Obama is rather attached to describing everything he does as “unprecedented”, “I have achieved an unprecedented level of transparency”, “I played an unprecedented amount of golf this year” and “I just wasted an unprecedented amount of money”... in honor of the Liar in Chief, we can make “unprecedented” the word of the day. First up is Obama’s unprecedented deficit. The current real cost of ObamaCare is up to 2.5 Trillion dollars and rising. The Senate Republicans’ chart demonstrates that the total for all of these costs—based on CBO projections for the bill’s true first 10 years—is $2.5 trillion. And...

Tehran - Iran's nuclear chief said on Tuesday his country built its newly revealed uranium enrichment facility inside a mountain and next to a military site to ensure continuity of its nuclear activities in case of an attack. Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said the site near the holy city of Qom is next to an ammunition depot controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most powerful military force. He said the only connection between the Qom nuclear facility and the Guard is the Guard would protect it against possible attacks.

Why this mountain? My little puzzle is: I have a specific reason for posting these pictures now of the photogenic Mount Assiniboine in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, Alberta (adjacent to Banff and Kootenay National Parks). Anybody astute enough to guess what the reason is? (Click all but the second for full-size.)

What, one might ask, is the appropriate metaphor for California's convoluted budgetary situation? Would be it be Enron, which cooked its books to fool investors and lenders? Perhaps a Third World country whose rulers run up a mountain of debt while squandering revenues? Or both? Whatever it may be, years of irresponsibility by politicians and voters alike have left California with ongoing spending obligations that are nearly 50 percent higher than its ongoing revenues – roughly $110 billion a year in the former and $75 billion in the latter – and debts that would be daunting even were the economy...

First note: at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory Webcams page, you can see the two Halemaumau cams. Over the past few days, glow from the wall vent has been very bright at night, indicating that the surface of the pond is high. In the Overlook Webcam, in the AM around dawn, it's been possible to see the surface of the pond. A further rise and spillover onto the floor of Halemaumau would be very, very interesting to see. On to the images for today. Not having seen anything of remarkable interest, I decided to go with one of America's best rock...

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2009 – The loss of his right arm while serving in Iraq made something as simple as eating a challenge for retired Marine Capt. Jonathan F. Kuniholm, who recently set out with three other wounded veterans to conquer Mount McKinley, also known as “Denali” because it’s located in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Reserve. Army Lt. Col. Marc Hoffmeister, top left; Army Spc. Dave Shebib, top right; retired Marine Capt. Jon Kuniholm, bottom left; and retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Nyman -- all wounded veterans -- are attempting to summit North America's highest peak, June...

"The Lady of the Lake" is such a romantic name that mud boots would spoil the Arthurian image, but it can't be helped. In search of such mystery and beauty, I traveled to Lake Drummond in Suffolk, 30 minutes west of my house, and also to Mountain Lake near Blacksburg, some five hours farther. In between, I passed numerous other lakes without stopping because they were not as interesting as these two on opposite sides of the state. They are fraternal twins, sharing the name "lake" and the basic blueprint of water in a hole, but nothing else. One is...

A Massachusetts man and his climbing partner from Vermont were "incredibly fortunate," officials said, to survive with only minor injuries after they were caught in an avalanche and tumbled 800 feet down a slope at New Hampshire's Mount Washington last weekend. Daniel Zucker, 46, of Danville, Vt., said he and Tim Finocchio of Holbrook were nearing the top of the Dodge's Drop area at Tuckerman Ravine at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday when the snow gave way. He described a terrifying plunge down the slope in which he wondered if he would survive. "There's this roaring sound that's constant, and you're...

Haven't done this for awhile; and this one might be a toughie (except, possibly, if you've been there and recognize it). One hint: it's an easy hike to the top.

Obama pulls the plug on the nuclear industry's last best hope. We've seen a lot of hyperbole lately about the significance of a presidency that's all of six weeks old. I hesitate to add to it. But the following statement happens to be the literal truth. The ramifications of the 2008 presidential election will be felt for 1 million years. One million years is a long time. A million years ago, Homo erectus (who looked like this, not this) was getting ready to invent the hand axe and discover fire. Yet 1 million years is the length of time that...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2008 – Many wounded warriors who have served in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have paid the price for their participation in combat. Depending on that price, many view not only themselves as a hero, but those who were lost. Army Spc. Susan Downes holds an Afghan girl during her tour there in 2006. Downes was seriously wounded there in November 2006 when the convoy she was riding in ran over a bomb. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “I was just doing my job. I think we all were,” said...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Pro-government Sunni Muslim gunmen and militiamen loyal to Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite Hezbollah battled with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the northern city of Tripoli on Monday. The violence, which broke out when Hezbollah gunmen fought pro-government forces in Beirut last week, is the worst since the end of the 1975-90 civil war in 1990. Security sources said six people were wounded when Sunni government supporters in Tripoli's Bab Tebbaneh district exchanged machine gun and grenade fire with Alawite militiamen allied to Hezbollah in the nearby Jebel Mohsen area. The fighting later gave way to the occasional...

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Police captured a more than 100-pound mountain lion in a Las Vegas neighborhood Wednesday, authorities said. Police and animal control officials tracked the animal to a back yard after it eluded capture early in the day and then reappeared Wednesday afternoon. The animal was tranquilized and captured without incident, Las Vegas police spokesman Bill Cassell said. It was handed over the Nevada Division of Wildlife and will be released in a less densely populated environment, he said. No injuries were reported. Authorities estimated the mountain lion weighed between 100 pounds and 110 pounds. It was first...

A hunter was attacked by a mountain lion Sunday near Kalispell. The hunter told officials he was several miles in on a trail when he heard what sounded like the scream of a mountain lion. A short time later, he heard a growl and turned to see a lion about 10 to 15 feet away. The man dropped his rifle and rushed to get behind a tree. The lion pounced on his back and knocked him into the tree. The collision made the lion lose its grip and the hunter reached his pistol and fired a shot... He met several...