1
John Landrø
EN-113September 26 2005
Lesson 12
1.
Extreme sports
Extreme sports and those who seek risks were the focus of a Sept. 6 1999, Time magazine cover story. The article suggested that X and Y have fewer risks to face and; therefore, some feel they need to live out challenges through risky behaviour. While previous generations were burdened with global wars and the threat of world destruction, recent generations have lived through a relatively peaceful era.
2.
BASE-jumping
BASE-jumping is a relatively new sport. Yet it has a relative high fatality rate. BASE is an acronym for building, antenna, span (bridge) and earth (cliffs). Jumpers leap from stationary objects and deploy a parachute. Unlike skydiving, no aircraft is involved.
In its 18-year history, BASE-jumping has taken the lives of nearly 50 people. In October 1999, a 60-year old parachutist plunged to her death when her parachute failed to open. Ironically, the woman was jumping in protest of rules banning BASE-jumping off El Capitan in YosemitePark. The jump-gone-wrong was a sad reminder that extreme sports sometimes can become too extreme.
3.
Women begin arctic trek
Trio follow in footsteps of great explorers in bid to become first all-female group to walk to both poles
Under blue skies, three British women began their bid yesterday to become the first all-female team to walk to both poles.
The team were due to leave the ice-locked WardHuntIsland in northern Canada for the frozen arctic ocean where, near its centre, some 500 miles north, lies their goal: the geographic north pole.
Caroline Hamilton, 37, Pom Oliver, 50, and Ann Daniels, 37, a single mother of seven-year-old triplets, became, with two other women, the first all-female British team to walk to the south pole in 2000.
(The Guardian, March 13 2002)
4.
‘No one succeeds alone’
No one succeeds alone. We all, in a sense, climb on the shoulders of those hardy characters who have gone before. Even on the summit of Mount Everest I felt surprise that Tenzing and I should have been the lucky ones. And certainly for me the summit of Everest was a beginning, not an end. There are so many adventures to meet and challenges to overcome. Long may it be that way!
(Sir Edmund Hillary in the foreword of the book EVEREST,
edited by Peter Gilman 1993.)
Ps Nearly 1,000 climbers have scaled Everest since Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal first made it to the top in 1953.
5.
Norwegian magnate falls to his death
Norwegian Arne Naess, the former husband of singing legend Diana Ross, fell to his death while abseiling in the Groot Drakenstein mountains near Franschoek yesterday.
Naess, 66, an experienced climber who led a Norwegian expedition to conquer Everest in 1985, set out from the L’Omarins farm in Franschoek yesterday at about 8pm to go abseiling. But he experienced some difficulty during his excursion.
Kevin Tromp, of the Wilderness Search and Rescue team, said Naess had fallen about 100 meters because his anchor came loose while he was descending.
Tromp said abseilers usually used more than one anchor because “your anchor is all you’ve got. It’s like your life and if it comes loose it’s over”.
He claimed it was common practice to use about three different anchors each situated at different positions to offer extra protection, but said Naess had only been using one at the time of the accident.
Police said Naess died on impact at about 12.30pm and was on his own when the incident occurred. He was staying on a farm owned by Johannes Rupert, son of tycoon Anton Rupert.
Friends who were on holiday with Naess were worried when he hadn’t returned by midday and alerted Metro control, which dispatched a rescue team and a helicopter.
But when rescue team members reached Naess he was already dead. His body was airlifted to a nearby ambulance.
Naess was a well-respected shipping magnate and hailed from Oslo in Norway.
He was also a philosopher and had published several of his works worldwide. His theory of “deep ecology, which essentially emerges through deep experience, deep questioning and deep commitment to one’s natural surroundings” has evoked interest among intellectuals and environmentalists.
In 1986 Naess and Diana Ross tied the knot in front of 200 guests in one of the oldest churches in Switzerland.
The couple, who spent most of their marriage living separately, had two children together, Ross, 15, and Evan, 14.
Their marriage ended in February 2000.
(By Terri-Liza Fortein, CapeArgus, January 14 2004)
6.
Rally halted after co-driver dies in crash
A British co-driver was killed in the UK leg of world rally championship yesterday when his car smashed into a tree at an estimated 100mph.
Michael Park, who was married with two children, died at the site of the accident, which happened as the rally, in South Wales, neared the conclusion.
Police launched an investigation in the crash while the final stages of the rally were cancelled. The driver of the car, Estonian Markko Märtin, was unhurt.
The accident is the worst to hit top-class rallying since a Finnish driver and co-driver were killed in Corsica in 1986. It will inevitably lead to calls for safety issues to be reviewed.
(The Guardian, Monday September 19, 2005, article abbreviated)