I just got the news that the two American hikers imprisoned in Iran for two years have been released. It’s been an article of faith in some quarters that the hikers had it coming — that they had no earthly…
In the news
Waterfalls are not pretty, folks
by tom • July 20, 2011 • 6 Comments
A waterfall is simply a river pouring over a cliff and smashing onto the rocks below. The awesome spectacle blinds mere humans to the reality that a waterfall can kill with the efficiency of a white shark and the caprice…
TripAdvisor buys EveryTrail
by tom • February 3, 2011 • 1 Comment
The only Silicon Valley CEO who answers my e-mails — Joost Schreve of EveryTrail.com — lobbed a minor bombshell in my in-box this morning with news that he’d sold EveryTrail to TripAdvisor, a subsidiary of the travel giant Expedia.com. Getting…
4WheelBob on ABC News
by tom • August 13, 2009 • 1 Comment
Herr Coomber made the nightly news last night. Couldn’t help noticing the grass was mostly green when the video was shot — nice of them to get around to airing it. (A slow news day means a shortage of death,…
Search on for missing Yosemite backpacker
by tom • July 8, 2009 • 3 Comments
Yosemite Blog posted an announcement yesterday that Joshua Gunther, 34, was supposed to be out of the park Sunday after a weeklong backpacking trip from the Ostrander Lakes trail head. The announcement says only that he acquired a permit to…
Authorities identify hiker who died yesterday at Santa Teresa County Park
by tom • June 29, 2009 • 1 Comment
This rather lurid report from the local NBC affiliate has the most details on the passing of hiker Linda Fradkin, 57, of San Mateo, who died yesterday at Santa Theresa County Park. Condolences to her family and friends.
Yet another hiker dies at Half Dome
by tom • June 14, 2009 • 25 Comments
Update IV: A Florida man was found dead Monday, apparently having fallen from a cliff near Mirror Lake in eastern Yosemite Valley. ### UPDATE III: A friend of a couple who witnessed the accident posted this account. ### UPDATE II:…
Lost 3-year-old survived 53 hours in Missouri wilderness. How’d he do it?
by tom • May 8, 2009 • 0 Comments
I put a short account of this story in the paper the other day: 3-year-old Joshua Childers, being an inquisitive boy of his type, simply walked away from his family’s house and wasn’t found for over two days. The puzzle…
Ken Knight’s adventure on the Appalachian Trail
by tom • May 3, 2009 • 9 Comments
Most of you already know the story: Ken Knight, nearly blind production editor at BackpackingLight magazine, disappeared a week ago today on the Appalachian Trail near Buena Vista, Virginia. On his seventh day of wandering he decided to light a…