The Biggest Room

Rock Slide hits cabins in Yosemite

2008-10-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

Staircase Fall, the site of today's rock Fall - From Wikipedia

A rock slide struck cabins near the Curry Village ampitheater this morning.

There are some unconfirmed reports of minor injuries. Update - there were some injuries, the worst being a boy who had a head laceration that required stitches.

Another slide happened there yesterday and Yosemite Blog reports that the perimeter around the cabins was closed. Hopefully it remained closed until this AM. This slide appears to be much larger than yesterday's. Update: this slide was reported to be from a 1800 cubic yards slab, about the size of 12 garbage trucks.

We'll update this story with more as it comes in.

Update 1: Here is a Google Earth bookmark of the area.

Update 2: Here are some photos from the AP.

Update on Fossett Plane Crash - better location data

2008-10-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Crews are rushing to recover remains today as a snowstorm is bearing down on the Sierras this evening. The storm is expected to dump up to 2 feet of snow over the area. After that, it's very likely that the area will be covered in snow until early June. Hopefully that will keep the area safe from scavengers for the winter, both human and not.

Thanks to reader krin, we were inspired to create a new Google Earth map by overlaying the handout topo map handed out by the Madera County Sheriff. I think we got it pretty close this time. Viewed in Google Earth, it gives a much better picture of the crash area.

His items were likely spread around by animals. There are many bears and other mammals at that elevation (9700 ft) during the summer months.

We understand that the California Department of Justice is awaiting delivery of the remains and that DNA testing will take a few weeks or so.

At the same time the NTSB is doing an investigation into the cause of the crash. We've been hiking all through this area. It's very near the John Muir Trail. and know pilots who fly there. It's a very sketchy place to fly due to the strong mountain winds. The most likley cause is that he was blown into the mountain.

We'll keep you posted.

Human remains found at Steve Fossett crash site

2008-10-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

photo of Mt. Ritter from my John Muir Trail Set in Flickr

The NTSB confirms reports that some human remains were found in the debris field around the crash site of Steve Fossett. They did not elaborate but there were enough remains to do DNA testing. This should finally put all the wild conspiracy theories we've listened to over the past year. Hopefully this will give his wife Peggy some kind of solace.

For a look around, download this Google Earth bookmark of the crash area.

R.I.P. Steve Fossett, the place you crashed is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Update on Steve Fossett's plane location

2008-10-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

photo from the LA Times

The FAA has published a GPS coordinate of the center of their search area. They issued a no-fly zone 9 miles in radius of this location. It's likely that this is the location where the items were discovered. The plane was apparently discovered 1/4 of a mile from this location.
Have a look in Google Maps.

Steve Fossett's Plane Found

2008-10-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

The AP is reporting that a plane found last night has been identified as the Super Decathlon that Steve flew when he disappeared. It's unclear about exactly where the plane was found but it is reported to be just over the Madera County line east of Mammoth Lakes. Likely somewhere near the Minarets. No human remains have been found. The wreck appeared to be unsurvivable. It's possible that animals would have got to the remains and dragged them away or the plane came apart before crashing.
See more in the San Francisco Chronicle

Steve Fossett's IDs and sweater found

2008-10-01T14:33:00.001-07:00

Reports are coming out of Mammoth Lakes, CA that a Nautica fleece sweater, $1005 in cash and 3 IDs with Steve Fossetts name on them have been located near Ridge Lake.

Preston Morrow of Mammoth Lakes found the items a few days ago but didn't know who Steve Fossett was. A second search of the area found no sign of the famous sailor and flyer.

This is far from the previous search area for Steve Fossett and will undoubtedly re-focus the search to the Mammoth Lakes area. There is a large snow storm coming in a few days while will likely cover any possible wreckage until the spring. The area is technically in Madera county but search teams from Mono county are helping in the new search.

For more, check out the San Francisco Chronicle article here

Previous Steve Fossett news on Biggestroom.com

Karl finished the AT today

2008-09-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

unauthorized photo from whereskarl.com

Karl Meltzer completed his AT run today. He did it in 54 days. The record was 47 days.

Karl got trenchfoot from the mud up in Maine which eventually led to a 3 day rest. The injuries took a while to heal which led to further delays.

He is one tough hombre. Looking through the pictures, it's clear that this man has a higher power when it comes to pain.

Apparently he's sleeping now, after completing the last mile with friends while drinking beer.

from the site:

"Official Start: Tuesday, August 5, 2008, 7:08 a.m.

Official Finish: Monday, September 29, 2008, 4:20 a.m.

Though the way it's been recorded on this site is deceiving, that's a total of 54 days 21 hours and 12 minutes.

Unofficially, Karl's is the fourth fastest thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

In order, the fastest finishers:

Andrew Thompson: 47 days 13 hours 31 minutes (2005)

Pete Palmer: 48 days 20 hours 11 minutes (1999)

David Horton: 52 days 9 hours (1991)

Karl Meltzer: 54 days 21 hours 12 minutes

Scott Grierson: 55 days 20 hours 34 minutes (1991)

Jennifer Pharr Davis: 57 days 8 hours 35 minutes (2008)

(I've had to scrounge a little to find these times. Please feel free to let us all know if I missed someone.)"

Previously

Yosemite FREE this weekend September 27 & 28th

2008-09-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

Yosemite Blog is reporting that Yosemite admission will be FREE on September 27 to celebrate National Public Lands Day. Then, on Sunday the 28th they'll be free again to celebrate newly naturalized citizens.

Normal admission is $20 per car for 7 days.

It's $10 per person if you are coming via an environmentally friendly means though. (bike, walk, bus, motorcycle). See Yosemite admission fees.

Other parks are apparently taking part in this as well. Stay tuned for updates.

World's 50 Best Walks

2008-09-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

Ranging from Pub Crawls in England to month long treks in the mysterious Kingdom of Bhutan, the Times (UK) has created a list of the best hikes in the world. Our favorite walk, the John Muir Trail from Yosemite Valley to Mt Whitney isn't listed but many ones we've completed are there including #6 the Fez of Medina, where we will spend a year someday. #9 Sydney-on-Sea from Bondi Beach on down to Coogee. #12 The Big Apple. There are a lot of other hikes here to keep one walking for years. It's time to set up a spreadsheet and start tackling these.

Link to The Times World's 50 Best Walks

Anyone completed any of these trips?

Lance Armstrong "Tired of being tired" is coming out of retirement

2008-09-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

Velonews.com is reporting that Lance Armstrong will be coming out of retirement and racing for the Astana Team. Races will include the "Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France".

It was also reported that Lance will publish his internally tested blood work online to show that he is a "clean" athlete. He will be joining his former team manager Johan Bruyneel at Astana. The story will be published in the upcoming Vanity Fair.

GPS and Google Earth help win a gold medal

2008-08-27T12:03:00.001-07:00

Kristin Armstrong, the road cycling Olympic Gold Medalist, borrowed a GPS from her "technology buff" husband and used it to record her trial run on China's unusual 15 miles road bike course.
She then downloaded the data and using Google Earth, was able to see the path of her ride and then find one near her hometown of Boise Idaho that matched it's elevation profile.
The road bike course in China had much more climbing than a normal course and so Kristin was able to train for that. So really it was training but she wouldn't have know how to train without the technology.
We think Google Earth is about the best thing since email and have used it to plan all kinds of trips, both off road and on. Have a look at our Google Earth waypoints for The John Muir Trail, going from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney.
Google Earth Blog has the Story

Video: Kitesurfer thrown hundreds of feet by Tropical Storm Fay

2008-08-19T10:41:00.001-07:00

At first I thought this was fake but the local TV station filmed this live. A Fort Lauderdale kiteboarder was going to somehow sail in the winds of Tropical Storm Fay. They were setting up a morning news TV shot when a huge gust of wind came by and picked him up through the air. He was unable to unlock his harness. He's slammed into the ground and then a wall at the other end of a highway. The kite boarder, 26 year old Kevin Kearney is listed in critical condition.

Metallica singer to hikers - get offa my land!

2008-08-18T16:08:00.001-07:00

I said git!

Heavy Metal Hearthrob James Hetfield bought some land north of San Francisco and just put up a huge metal fence to prevent hikers, bikers and horseback riders from getting to a public trail on the other side. The 300 foot long 8 foot corrugated metal fence topped with barbed wire fits in nicely with the oaks and grass around the area. Someone wrote "SHAME DISGRACE" on it though which just ruins the metal and barbed wire aesthetic.

The previous owners of the land let people through for 50 years but apparently the free and easy Marin county way of life hasn't taken with Hetfield.
He did perform a free concert for San Quentin Prison once though.
For more see the Marin Independent Journal

Watch the Olympics online

2008-08-11T17:56:00.001-07:00

Here in the United States, we are under an almost complete embargo against watching the Olympics online. Any time we try to get around it, the company here comes down and "fixes" the workaround. Even if it's on someone else's site.

We here in the USA constantly criticize the Chinese government for not allowing their citizens complete freedom to surf the internet (among other things). It's clear that our corporations can easily create the same kind of firewall here in the USA.

There is only one official corporate channel that is showing the Olympics online in the USA. NBC is showing events without any scoring information or commentary. It seems to simply serve as a testing ground and installation ploy for Microsoft's next Flash killer, Silverlight. Popular sports like swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball do not seem to be available live. The opening ceremonies were not shown live, nor do they seem available for later online viewing. Oh, and you have to promise them that you already pay for their cable in your home before being allowed to view the content. Baah!

So enough with the whining! What are our options?

Here are about the only working live video links we could find that are available in the USA that have not been shut down yet. It's slim pickins but we'll keep updating them.

If you are outside the USA, or a able to use a proxy server in one of these countries, check these out.

If you want to try some using a proxy to get to the sites from various countries. check out proxy.org. This is the way our friends in China have learned to do it.

One of the best meteor showers tonight

2008-08-11T17:15:00.001-07:00

Credit: Joe Westerberg - nasa.gov

Tonight and tomorrow night are going to be tops for meteor showers. Here on the west coast of the USA, the showers should be best just before sunrise tomorrow. Have a look in the eastern sky after the moon sets (around 2am) and you'll be in for a treat. Nasa says this will be a good shower, one or two every minute. For a chance to see a rare earthgrazer, a long slow colorful meteor, start looking around 9pm even while the moon is up. These ones are very bright, even visible in city light.
Tell us what you see. We'll be out around 5 am for a peek.

How to hack YouTube to watch the Olympics

2008-08-08T17:38:00.001-07:00

Update: YouTube seems to have blocked the videos streaming into this site.

Being TV free is mostly an excellent commercial-free way of life. I have no idea how I had the time to watch TV before but sometimes I really miss it. For instance, right now. I usually use my home laptop to watch stuff when I need to but NBC has really locked things down for the Olympics. They have a web site where you can watch some videos but everything is time shifted and because they're using Silverlight, instead of Flash, there is no full screen option. The quality is not that hot either.

Anyway, some kind people out there have figured out a hack that I want so share.

Follow these steps to hack into the Olympics Youtube channel. Some people are saying that this channel is showing live events but since everyone is asleep over there at the moment, we'll wait to see if this is the case.

Launch Firefox
Go to http://www.youtube.com
Go to the Tools Menu in Firefox
Select Options
Select the Privacy Tab
Press the Show Cookies button
enter youtube in the search box
Look for cookies named GEO.
Delete any cookie named GEO (there can be 2 of them).

Copy all the lines of this URL:

javascript:alert(document.cookie=
"GEO=bb84fb3cd7df0311bb5026df4d6b524fcxkAAABLUixubyByZWdpb24sc2VvdWwsLCwsLC0x;
path=/;domain=.youtube.com");

Make sure you have http://www.youtube.com open and then paste the URL above into your address bar.
An alert will come up, ignore it and press OK.
enter http://www.youtube.com/beijing2008 into the address bar.

Your In!

Welcome to the Non-USA Beijing 2008 Olympics Page.

The nbc site, http://nbcolympics.com is now showing some live events. They're not showing everything. The quality is higher than it was in demos yesterday, though there is still no full screen option.
It's annoying because you have to agree(lie) that you are a paid subscriber of cable TV to view the live streams (lame).

Stay tuned for more ways to watch without a TV....

Running the entire Appalachian trail

2008-08-06T18:25:00.001-07:00

Karl Meltzer aka "Speedgoat" is an ultrarunner. A truly extreme endurance trail runner. This man's resting heart rate is a corpse-like 42.

Yesterday he set out to break the speed record for the longest marked footpath in the USA. The Appalachian Trail runs 2174 miles from Katahdin Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia. It usually takes people around 6 months to complete the trail in one stretch. Karl will have to do it in less than 47 1/2 days to break the record. This will require running almost 2 marathons over steep & hilly terrain every day for 45 days. It's pretty mind boggling to me when I run 3 miles on flat ground every once in a while.
Karl has a great support team and excellent web site where you can track his progress all day long.
Have a look at whereskarl.com and wish Speedgoat godspeed or something.

Surfing in Bavaria

2008-08-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

In Munich, there are a few places where the rivers form a surfable standing wave. The Eisbach, or “Ice Creek" is the most famous and trickiest to master. In the 1970s engineers placed stone near the Prinzregentenstrasse bridge to slow down the flow of the river. Surfers later placed plywood to enhance the effect. There is actually a surf contest there and as you can see, some of the surfers are pretty good, especially considering the live hundreds of kilometers from any ocean waves. For more detail and better pictures, check out Michael Scott Moore's slide show in The Atlantic.

Trapping wildlife with cameras

2008-08-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

Bat eating bot flys off a deer, photo from Chris Wemmer

Camera Trapping, long used by wildlife conservationist and biologists, could become a popular amateur hobby. Retired scientist Chris Wemmer is leading outdoor workshops up in Sierra county, CA. This is the same general area where we reported the finding of a rare Wolverine by remote camera in an earlier post. It turns out that it was a student of his who made the 'catch'.

His class covers camera, sensor and power issues, placement and baiting among other things. We're excited to see more of this. Having more folks photographing wildlife out in the field could only help support othe animals out there.

Some readers might not like the fact that some of this photograpy is done with baiting but we think it's totally fine as long as they move around the bait and stay away from roads.
If you see a camera out there while hiking or hunting, wave and smile but don't touch it.

Have a look at all the cool pictures up on Camera Trap Codger.

Body of missing ballooning priest found

2008-07-30T10:30:00.001-07:00

The body of Father Adelir Antonia de Carli was found by a tugboat off the coast of Brazil recently. DNA testing has confirmed the identity of the body. It's a sad end to a stunt we reported about earlier. RIP Father Adelir.

Sailboat capsizes near the Golden Gate Bridge

2008-07-24T18:18:00.001-07:00

screengrab from CBS5News

Wingit, a Corsair F-27 Trimaran, capsized and three crew members were rescued near the Golden Gate bridge this afternoon. There is some interesting footage of the rescue on the local CBS affiliate's web site.
Good news is that nobody was reportedly hurt.
The trimaran is owned by Ray Wells and is raced out of Alameda. They've won several races over the years and are out on the bay a lot. We've seen them out many times.

It's pretty unusual for a multihull boat to go over, but when it does, it stays that way. It's unclear from the video what happened but the retractable keel is not showing. It may have broken off or is more likely back up inside the hull.

The boat is a popular trailerable trimaran that has foldable amas (outriggers).
For more about the boat and it's racing history check out the Bay Area Multihull Associations website

Surfer's mother sues gang over his beating death

2008-07-23T17:48:00.001-07:00

photo by Peter King (from surfer magazine)

This is an update to the Emory Kauanui story we covered earlier. The San Diego Union Tribune is reporting that Emory's mother is suing the members of the "Bird Rock Bandits" gang for wrongful death. In other words, for beating him to death in front of his home last May.
She is also after the owner of the "The Brew House" bar where the altercation began.
BTW We're not very supportive of suing a bar over a fight. Hopefully that part will be thrown out.

Most of the gang members have made deals with the prosecutor but Seth Cravens still stands to be tried on murder charges.

We're pretty sick of surf culture being sullied by people like these guys who don't really even surf. We know that Emory wasn't the nicest guy out on the break either.

In California and Hawaii we have a really big problem with violent and otherwise just bad behavior by a small number of truly nasty surfers and their friends. This is both out on the waves and back on land. Just a few haters have ruined a lot of otherwise great times out on the waves for a lot of laid back and kind people.
If you have any stories, tell em here...

Pirate fishing ship wrecks on famed Bali surf break

2008-07-21T11:44:00.001-07:00

photo by Jon/Uluwatuphoto

Some amazing photos from Surfline showing the wreck of the 115 ft Taiwanese ship Ho Tsai Fa BJ4699 against the reef at Padang Padang in Bali.

Greenpeace reported that the ship is an illegal longliner and had been chased for months around the coast of Java.
Greenpeace has a video of the ship on youtube.

Local surfers and environmentalists tried to tow the ship off the reef during a recent high tide but were unable to get enough local cooperation to make it work. Sadly, the ship is probably going to be in the surf break for many years to come.
The World Surfing Championship in Bali has already been canceled due to the wreck.

The break seems surfable but the ensuing mess from fuel and oil has ruined things for quite a while.
Perhaps the only silver lining is that the ship is no longer illegally fishing and the catch was still frozen when it landed, providing the local village with all the fish they could stand for a while.
Let's hope the ship breaks up soon or heads up higher onto the reef where it won't mess up this world class break.

Adventure Racing Athletes to search for Steve Fossett

2008-07-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

The search for Steve Fossett has restarted. We've heard reports of several ad-hoc groups attempting to solve the aviation mystery. This group of adventure racers feel that their athletic ability will allow them cover more difficult ground that hasn't been covered before.
Updates to their progress are here.

Previously:
Update on the digital search for Steve Fossett
How you can help find Steve Fossett
Fossett Search to Include Black Rock Desert
Steve Fossett Update
Steve Fossett Missing!

Update: the racers covered 100 sq kilometers but didn't find the plane. It will help to know that area was covered but the mystery goes on.

We've been away

2008-07-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

We've been traveling all over the very smokey west coast of the USA doing all kinds of summer sports instead of working and writing. Here are some links to some Biggest Room-worthy stories while we catch up...
Shark leaps from water just yards from surfers

Unofficial Mount Rainier speed record setSurfer paddles up to molten lava

Surfer paddles up to molten lava