Outdoor News Update: Glacier National Park Tainted

Filed in archive Outdoor News on November 15, 2007

Here's the best of the outdoor news I missed.

Biologist found dead at Grand Canyon

Pneumonic plague likely claimed the life of a wildlife biologist found dead at Grand Canyon National Park, officials said Friday. Investigators believe that Eric York, 37, contracted the disease from a mountain lion carcass he worked with in a remote area of the park, said Matt Walburger, a consultant for the U.S. Public Health Service. It is the first case of human plague infection recorded at the Grand Canyon, park officials said.

Glacier National Park Tainted by Chemicals

Pollution has tainted even the most remote areas of glacier national park, and some fish in backcountry waters are so contaminated they could endanger the wildlife eating them, a federal scientist has found. Dixon Landers of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency led a three-year study examining pollution that travels in the air. Landers first hiked into Glacier in 2003. Later he and his team used more than a dozen mules to transport some 2,000 pounds of scientific gear to places such as Snyder Lake, high above the park's McDonald Valley.

Vail's Teva Games Land '08 World Cup Climbing

The seventh annual 2008 Teva Games will host the first World Cup climbing contest on American soil in nearly 20 years. Teva organizers announced that USA Climbing and the International Federation of Sport Climbing had selected Vail's Teva Games as one of eight stops for the Bouldering World Cups next year. The international competition will draw climbers from more than 30 countries to the five-day festival. Next year's Teva Games will feature a $100,000 cash purse and 2,000 athletes competing in 21 contests, including kayaking, climbing, biking, paragliding and multi-sport racing.