Summit Murder Mystery Series

The San Ramon Valley High School student’s name is displayed on a flag on the world's tallest peak, thanks to a special expedition.   Danville, CA By Bea Karnes (Patch Staff) - How many people reading this have been to Mt. Everest? Sixteen-year-old Alex Maddux, a sophomore at San Ramon Valley High School, hasn’t, but his name is on a flag there. Maddux has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness. A few months ago his mother Kim became aware of an expedition to Everest Base Camp with a flag carrying the names of 1,000 Duchenne patie...

Irish adventurer killed after being struck by lightning on Mt Kilimanjaro One of Ireland's most famous mountaineers, Ian McKeever, has been killed after being struck by lightning as he led a charity group climbing Africa's highest peak. Ian McKeever was killed after being struck by lightning as he led a charity group climbing Africa's highest peak Mt Kilimanjaro   Photo: AP/PA Ian McKeever, 42, died instantly after three days of severe weather worsened as he guided more than 20 climbers above 13,000ft on Tanzania’s Mt Kilimanjaro. His fiancée, Anna O’Louglin, 34, who he was due to marry in September, was injured in the storm, as were up to six other members of the expedition. They were last night being treated by Tanzanian doctors. Jack O’Donohue, 60, was beside Mr McKeever as the lightning struck, and he described to his son, John, h...

 I thought this was a really cool article worth posting!   “I can definitely notice the difference (since starting CrossFit). At the end of a long climb, I used to feel exhausted and bent over from the weight of the pack, but now I feel more upright." At 17 years old, Erica Dohring had climbed 19,341-foot Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, 20,328-foot Mount McKinley in Alaska and Argentina’s 22,841-foot Mount Aconcagua — the highest peak in the western hemisphere. With those daunting peaks behind her, she aimed for the world’s most coveted peak: 29,029-foot Mount Everest. If she reached the summit at 17 years old, she would have the extra honor of sealing the title, “Youngest American Woman to Climb Mount Everest.” However, with just a few months remaining before her 18th birthday, Dohring had little time to prepare. She trained by hiking and climbing near her hometown in Arizona at least four days a week...

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Singer Nelly Furtado decided to feature her friend Spencer West and his trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro in her new music video for her song Spirit Indestructable.  Spencer was born with a genetic disease which prevented his leg muscles from working.  Doctors decided to remove his legs to increase his mobility - when he was five years old. Spencer decided to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in order to raise funds for the clean water project in Africa. Watch the video below, and be inspired by Spencer's indestructible spirit!

Our condolences with the family of Lincoln Hall.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you. From obituary AUSTRALIAN MOUNTAINEER, LINCOLN HALL has died last night after a short but typically spirited battle with mesothelioma. His wife Barbara and long-time friends and fellow mountaineers Tenzing Sherpa and Greg Mortimer were with him. Greg, the Australian Geographic Society's deputy chairman, phoned this morning to deliver the sad news. "It was very peaceful in the end, around 11.45 last night," Greg said. "Lincoln got into quiet, rhythmic breathing - it was almost meditative - and then he quietly slipped away." A brilliant, witty and open-hearted man, Lincoln was a key member of the 1984 Australian Everest Expedition that put the first two Aussies - Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer - atop the world's highest mountain, and came within a few hundred meters of the summit himself. Lincoln's story of the expedition, White Limbo, is a c...

We are very excited to announce the winner of our 'We Want You - Cover Contest'!  If you recall, we ran a contest for several months asking readers to help us choose the cover for the final book in our Summit Murder Mystery Series, Murder on Kilimanjaro .  The winner of the contest will receive a copy of all seven books in the series!   Congratulations to.... JOHN A THOMAS!   Thank you to everyone that entered!  Winning by 54% is the cover pictured below!  Stay tuned for more information about the Summit Murder Mystery Series!  We will be releasing Murder on Vinson Massif next month and Murder on Kilimanjaro in September!   For more information about the Summit Murder Mystery Series, please visit our Summit Murder Mystery Series site by clicking HERE

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A fire at Brazil's research station in Antarctica left two people missing and forced the evacuation by helicopter of 44 people at the base, the Brazilian Navy said.  The blaze broke out in the morning in the machine room that houses the energy generators of the Comandante Ferraz station, the navy said in an emailed statement. The website of the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said the two missing men died in the fire.  The navy's press office declined to comment. The statement said one man suffered non-life threatening injuries and that the 44 people at the station at the time of the fire were transferred to Chile's Eduardo Frei station. In a second statement, the navy said the efforts to extinguish the fire were suspended due to bad weather.  The firefighting crew was evacuated to the Chilean base and will return once the weather improves. Chile's Defense Minister Andres Allamand told reporters the fire had "completely destroyed...

Before Apa became a legendary Sherpa mountaineer, he was a humble Himalayan potato farmer who worked his fields in the Everest foothills until, without warning, raging floodwaters swallowed his farm. The flash flood - unleashed when a mountain lake fed by melting glacier waters burst its banks - destroyed homes, bridges and a hydroelectric plant. Apa scrambled up a hill, but at least five neighbors were swept away. Twenty-six years later, after scaling the world's highest mountain a record 21 times, Apa is on a quest to draw attention to the danger of more devastating floods as glacial melt caused by climate change fills mountain lakes to the bursting point. The 51-year-old Apa, who like most Sherpas uses only one name, is trekking the length of Nepal to warn villagers to prepare themselves for change. A third of the way along his 120-day journey, he has already seen many lakes that look ready to spill. "If it happens again, many villages would be washed awa...