UPDATED AT 4:27 P.M.

Here is the story about today’s announcement I filed for Wednesday’s paper.

After a career at Mount Rainier National Park that will span 27 years, Dave Uberuaga is leaving to become superintendent at Grand Canyon National Park.
Uberuaga learned early Tuesday that he had been tabbed to take over the second most visited park in the nation. He expects to begin his new job in mid July.

While the official announcement could come as early as today, there has been no word on who will serve as acting superintendent at Mount Rainier. …

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From the National Park Service:

A fatal climbing fall at Denali Pass on Mt. McKinley took the lives of two mountaineers late Wednesday night. Two other members of the climbing team were flown to area hospitals with critical injuries early yesterday morning. Mountaineers at the 17,200-foot high camp reportedly witnessed the four-person rope team fall from Denali Pass near 18,000 feet around 11 p.m. Wednesday night.  An expedition of Air National Guard pararescuemen from the 212th Rescue Squadron responded and confirmed that two of the four had died in the fall. The other two patients were placed in rescue litters

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Crystal Mountain set a new record for snowfall passing the 600-inch mark Friday morning, said resort spokeswoman Tiana Enger.

The ski area is still open for operation and will run four lifts this weekends. It is the only ski area in the state still operating.

The previous record for snow fall was 596 inches set in 1999 when the resort was open for skiing until July 14.

Season passes for Crystal are currently on sale, but prices increase by $100 on June 1.

From the National Park Service:

Rangers have scaled back their efforts to find 45-year-old Christopher Lee Cessna, who has been missing since April 27th. For over a week, rangers and search dog teams combed the forest near the Newfound Gap parking area where Cessna’s car was found, but found no sign of him. Searchers intensively covered an area of about two miles radiating out from the parking lot and from the hiking trails that pass through the area, and probed acres of steep, rocky terrain and dense brush. Up to 30 searchers, including as many as four search dog teams,

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From the National Park Service:

On Saturday, May 21st, a 24-year-old hiker from Norway sustained a lower leg fracture near the summit of Angels Landing when he jumped approximately five feet off a small, isolated pinnacle atop the route. Grand Canyon’s helicopter and flight crew were summoned and short-hauled the man off the peak. While waiting for the helicopter, rangers prepared for a lengthy technical lowering operation down the 1,500-foot-high north face of the mountain should weather or other factors preclude a short-haul evacuation. While doing so, rangers learned that a 62-year-old male from St. George had collapsed from severe

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From the National Park Service:

Two overdue climbers on Mt. Frances were confirmed dead after Denali National Park mountaineering rangers located their remains in avalanche debris near the base of the 10,450-foot Mt. Frances. Jiro Kurihara, 33, of Canmore, Alberta, Canada, and Junya Shiraishi, 28, of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, were attempting a new route on the west face of Mt. Frances, a commonly climbed technical peak just north of the 7,200-foot Kahiltna Basecamp, when the avalanche occurred.  The two men were last seen at the Kahiltna Basecamp on May 21st. When they had not returned to their campsite by May

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From the National Park Service:

Dr. Francisco Piedrahita was found yesterday afternoon in the park’s Barataria Preserve unit following an intensive four-day-long interagency search. He was spotted from a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department helicopter that was conducting a media overflight and a ground team was dispatched to his location. Piedrahita was found leaning against a tree approximately 300 yards off of a park trail – extremely dehydrated but coherent and in fairly good shape. – and was transported to a waiting ambulance by ATV. Family members, who had been holding vigil in the park, greeted him to the sounds

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In light of Sunday’s Adventure article about a local great heron rookery near Pioneer Way, I thought some readers might be interested in this story.

A recent tornado ripped through the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and wiped out a great blue heron rookery that was on an island in the river outside of Minneapolis. An estimate by rangers indicates more than 250 nests were destroyed and perhaps as many as 180 birds killed.

For details and photos, click here.

Here is the link to the story I wrote as well as some great photos by staff …

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