Two elite US mountain climbers are presumed missing in southwestern China, and search efforts are focusing on a remote region near Tibet where they apparently wanted to climb two isolated mountains, including an unnamed 7,010m peak.
The two US citizens, Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff, were last heard from early last month, when Fowler sent an e-mail message from the city of Litang in Sichuan Province saying they planned to climb two unnamed peaks in the region. They later missed their Dec. 7 flight back to the US.
Friends and fellow mountaineers have since retained a US climber familiar with China to lead an independent team in search of the missing pair. Meanwhile, the authorities in Litang have organized a 13 member search group but have found no trace of the climbers.
The search presents an enormous challenge, given that no one is certain which mountains the two intended to climb, or in what sequence.
They were climbing in or near the Hengduan Mountains, in a region that extends across eastern Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Friends say Fowler and Boskoff had planned to tackle several mountains that had never been climbed.
Fowler and Boskoff are considered accomplished mountaineers and have each climbed many of the world's highest peaks, including Mount Everest.
"Christine is still probably considered the top female high-altitude climber in the world," said Mark Gunlogson, president of Mountain Madness, an adventure travel company in Seattle owned by Boskoff. "Charlie is among the most well-known and experienced climbers in North America."
Gunlogson described the pair as climbing partners and said they left the US in October. He said southwest China attracted the most experienced and adventurous climbers in the world because the difficult terrain remained relatively uncharted.
Fowler, a writer and photographer who also has been involved in making films about mountain climbing, is considered an experienced climber in this section of China. On his Web site, Fowler said this would be his fifth trip to the region.
"Charlie has a rather extensive list of peaks that he would love to climb," Gunlogson said. "They both together probably had quite a hit list."
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
RSS