Sandstone bluffs riddled with crevices. Maroon precipices wrinkled with scaly turtleback rocks. A never-ending wall called El Dorado (named after the Lost City of Gold)��rising abruptly at a slight turn in the valley.

During a call with me on January 10, Mike Dobie and Ana Pautler, his fiancee, described the scenery surrounding their home in Liming, a bucolic town high in the mountains of southwest China’s Yunnan province. They were calling from the car��as they made their way from spending Christmas and New Year’s in Seattle��to Pautler’s hometown of San Francisco. Dobie, a typically reserved rock climber, bubbled with enthusiasm and giddiness as he described the daily offerings in Liming: a local flea market that pops up every ten days where he gets fresh meat,��friendly greetings every morning from a vegetable lady who grows organic potatoes and peanuts,��and $2 jumbo stir-fries from his favorite restaurant.��

“Life there is paradise. It’s quiet, with lots of rock opportunities around,” said Dobie, 37, who has spent most of the past decade developing trad and sport routes in Liming.

The couple would be flying back to Liming in two days. To prepare for the trip, they had stuffed two giant duffels and a roller bag with 80-meter ropes, resoled climbing shoes, maple syrup, Mexican seasonings, Doritos, and a bag of Tootsie Pops, whose chewy chocolate center and cherry-flavored coating Dobie relishes way too much. He rambled on about their ambitious plan to turn El Dorado, a wall of compacted sandstone and limestone, into a sport-climbing hub. He also hoped to open an Airbnb-style complex of guesthouses in Liming later this year, which would serve as a��base camp for climbers. Five or six local households—a number that would grow if the experiment were��successful—would host visiting climbers, make them meals, and offer gear rentals, first aid, and rescue services.

At the end of the 90-minute conversation, I wished them luck with their mission and impending��arduous trip: a 30-hour flight from San Francisco, including a two-hour layover in Hong Kong, to Kunming, Yunnan’s capital. This to be followed by a three-hour bullet train ride to Lijiang, a prefecture-level city in the northwest of the province; and another three hours by car on the bumpy, meandering mountain road to Liming.

I should have told them to wear masks and��hoard hand sanitizer, or cancel the trip altogether.

The post China Is an Underrated Rock Climbing Paradise appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

In late July��of 2016, more than a dozen��Liberian researchers set up a makeshift lab at the edge of the��rainforest in their nation’s��northern��, which shares the��border with��Guinea. Liberia is home to����and��houses some of the world’s rarest animal��species, including the Liberian mongoose and pygmy hippos. But Jackson Poultolnor and the other researchers, all clad in��rubber boots, N95 masks,��face shields, leather welding gloves, and��Tyvek suits, were there for bats.��

Bats have been a source of food in Africa and other parts of the planet��for thousands of years.��When Poultolnor��was a child, his��mother��prepared the meat in a sweet stew for him and his eight siblings. But the mammal��is also a reservoir of pathogens and to be the source of the 2013 Ebola virus outbreak, which led to more than 11,000 deaths across this region. So��Poultolnor and his team��ventured into the��dense vegetation to bind mist nets to��trees in order to capture and study the animal. It was Liberia’s first��wildlife-surveillance operation, and it was conducted as a part��of��, an organization launched in 2009 by the��U.S. Agency for International Development’s��(USAID)����to monitor infectious diseases.��

Since the organization’s inception,��American epidemiologists and sociologists have trained over��6,000 researchers in more than 30 developing countries to seek��out zoonotic diseases in wildlife and��collaborate��with local officials��to head off new outbreaks. Predict teams across the globe have discovered , including Ebola viruses and SARS-like coronaviruses.��

In January��2019, after sampling over 5,000 bats��every two��weeks��for more than two years, the Liberian Predict��team found for Ebola. It was the first time the type of Ebola virus responsible for the 2013��epidemic was detected in a Liberian bat. The discovery could help scientists learn more about how that virus infected humans��and, by extension, how to prevent other zoonotic diseases with pandemic potential��from spreading.

A few months later, in the fall of 2019,��the Trump administration for Predict, leaving more than ��around the world in limbo.��

At the heart of the Predict��project are the principles laid out by the , which seeks to foster collaborations between professionals in various science fields��that will benefit the��well-being of humans, animals, and the environment.

It’s an all-in-one philosophy that has deep historical roots. Hinduism’s ahimsa dictates that all living things are sacred because they are part of God and the natural world. Totemism, popular among may African tribes, posits��a kinship between humans and��wildlife.��Similarly, One Health,��which was started by��veterinarians and doctors in the United States , looks��to understand the human-wildlife interface,��encouraging��interdisciplinary collaborations in governent and academia, discouraging human encroachment��on natural habitats, and calling��for the extensive surveillance of pathogens.��

��

There are ��lurking in animal hosts across the globe, and more than 650,000 have the potential to��infect people, according to researchers at the at the University of California at��Davis. In fact, nearly 75 percent of the diseases affecting humans today stem��from wildlife. SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the current pandemic,��is thought to have originated in bats and believed to have been��transmitted��to humans via at an open-air market in Wuhan, China.

In addition to the vast number of viruses, scientists at the One Health Institute��say��that viruses��are also��mutating faster than ever. Urbanization and climate change, as well as activities like logging, poaching, and��animal��trafficking, have shrunk and fragmented natural habitats, which in turn has led to��increased��contact between humans and wildlife and more opportunities for viral mutation.��

“Trying to find these viruses in the wild is like finding a needle in a haystack,” says��, an American field veterinarian who was appointed by the Obama administration to lead Predict��in Liberia. That doesn’t mean it’s worthless to try. Although it cost $20 million to operate Predict��each year, some have estimated that the current��COVID-19��outbreak could cost the world . A future pandemic could cost much more.

Though Predict��failed to identify��the virus that results in��COVID-19,��a Predict-supported publication by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology back in 2015 warned about in China and Southeast Asia.��

On April 1, as confirmed cases of COVID-19 surpassed one��million in the U.S.��and three��million worldwide, Predict��received ��from USAID to focus��on the coronavirus. But the money was far from enough to host teams in different countries.��Luckily, in May, USAID announced a new project:��set to launch this��September,�� will leverage the data collected by Predict��to develop interventions that will��reduce the risk of the transmission of dangerous pathogens passing from animals to people.

For too long, when it comes to disease outbreaks, there’s been a cycle of panic (as threats ramp up) and neglect (when they subside), says��Tierra Smiley Evans, a wildlife veterinarian and epidemiologist at the One Health Institute. She hopes this pandemic will result in something different. “We can’t leave a single country out in understanding the importance of the connection between human and animal health and working together on the prevention of the next pandemic,” she says. “Through the tragedy that is happening now to the planet, I hope we come out stronger on the other end.”

The post How Do We Prevent the Next Pandemic? appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

No energy-bar wrappers litter base camp. No climbers clog the Hillary Step. Thanks to the pandemic, Mount Everest is taking a much needed break after last year’s record crowding.��

But the coronavirus-hit climbing season has not been entirely quiet. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, this week three Chinese teams scaled the world’s highest peak.

On May 26, at around 5:30 P.M. local time, six mountaineers fixed the ropes on the Northeast Ridge��leading to the top and made the first successful ascent of the season. On May 27, eight surveyors spent two and a half hours on the summit, attempting to get��the most accurate measurement to date��of the mountain.��

On the morning of May 28, 14 Chinese clients��and 21 guides topped out. With no other teams waiting their turn atop the 29,029-foot peak, the climbers took their time to enjoy the summit, snapping selfies with Tibetan prayer flags.

“I feel more than lucky,” said Ru Zhigang, a native of central China’s Anhui Province, who climbed Everest last year from the Nepalese side. “In February, I didn’t think it was possible, because of the coronavirus.”

On March 11, China closed the north side of the peak due to the global spread of COVID-19. The next day, Nepal canceled all spring Everest expeditions on its side. But��as China appeared to contain the COVID-19 outbreak within its borders, a glimmer of hope appeared. On March 17, Chinese outfitter Yarlha Shampo, the only Everest operator authorized to work on the north side, informed its high-paying clients that the country’s sports authority had given its��expedition the green light.��

Under arguably the world’s��strictest quarantine orders, climbers prepared themselves as best they could. In addition to jogging in his residential complex, Ru carried a weighted pack up and down the stairs of��his apartment building almost every day, sometimes up to 257 floors in a single go. Talking to me��from��his tent at 21,300 feet beside the sprawling Rongbuk Glacier in the days leading up to the summit push, he said he felt more “physically ready” and “mentally relaxed” than last year.��

Ru was one of the climbers caught in the middle of the infamous traffic jam on the Hillary Step.��“I wanted to cut my legs due to their numbness after squatting against the icy ridge at 28,800 feet for hours,” Ru told , a Chinese online publication, “And suddenly, a huge black shadow, which I initially thought was a rock, rolled down. I jumped to dodge subliminally, and ‘the rock’ glided past me. That’s when I realized it was a climber.”��

Having survived the queue, he became a wang hong—an internet celebrity—in China. Dubbed Beardy Henry��by his three��million followers on Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese-sister app, Ru shared short videos and photos during his expedition. Thanks to Everest’s newly installed , he was also able to livestream Q and A’s with his fans.

In total, 49 people summited Everest this year, compared with 876 summits in 2019.��There was seldom any traffic on the road to Everest’s northern base camp. But the team’s ascent to the top was bumpier than expected—Cyclone Amphan delayed its��summit by more than a week.��

“This year’s weather is noticeably different. No flights across the Himalayas means less air pollution and global warming,” said Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, a Nepali��climbing guide who has��frequented the peak from both sides since 2006. As Nepal started a countrywide lockdown on March 24, Mingma followed China’s progress from his home in Kathmandu. “China has gone through the quarantine hardship and won the war. They taught us that everything could resume after containing the coronavirus,” he said, “and even Everest adventures will return.”

The post The Loneliest Everest Expedition appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

A group of eight researchers from China finally summited Mount Everest on Wednesday, May 27. One of only two climbing teams on the mountain this year, they were there for a very specific purpose—to take the most accurate measurement to date of the world’s tallest point.

The COVID-19 pandemic nixed the spring climbing season before it got started. China canceled foreign climbing permits from the Tibet side of the mountain in March, and Nepal followed suit for the south side of the peak a day later. However, as China began to control the spread of the disease, the government allowed two groups to make the climb: the��surveyors and a commercial expedition run by Chinese outfitter Yarlha Shampo.

The group of surveyors��initially planned to make a��summit bid on May 12, but weather conditions prevented a team from fixing the rope on the last stage of the route, so��they returned to the north-side base camp. On May 16, expedition leaders decided to make another attempt, with a smaller team that would reach the summit on May 22. However, heavy snows resulting from Cyclone Amphan once again sent the rope-fixing team��back to base camp this week, scuttling a��second try at the top, . It looked like the storm might close the window on this season’s climbing attempts, but a break in the weather finally allowed the surveyors to settle the question of the mountain’s height. For now, anyway.

How Tall Is Mount Everest?

Mount Everest’s recognized elevation has been 29,029 feet above sea level since an Indian survey team measured it in 1955. But if you look hard enough, there’s a faint asterisk next to that number. For years, Nepal and China have sparred over the height of the mountain straddling their shared border, specifically whether or not the official number should account for the snow��atop it.

In 2005, a Chinese team determined the peak’s elevation��to be 29,017 feet at the height of its rock base, holding that up as the most accurate measurement. Nepal disagreed, maintaining its position that the snowcap covering the peak��should be accounted for in the final number. But many believe the amount of snow and ice on top of the mountain has shrunk after��the massive 2015��earthquake that rocked the Himalayas.

This year’s expedition to measure the peak jointly was the culmination of an agreement struck last fall when Chinese president Xi Jinping visited Nepal.

The new measurement was taken using China’s BeiDou satellite-navigation system. The surveyors also collected data on snow depth, weather, and wind speed, which will be used to monitor the deterioration of glaciers and other ecological impacts of climate change. The team spent nearly three hours on the summit, setting up the satellite beacon and other equipment before starting the trek back to base camp. Next,��researchers will spend up to three months analyzing the data before releasing their reading on the mountain’s height.

Nepal sent a team of surveyors up the mountain in 2017 and 2018. Scientists from the two countries will meet to review all the findings��and .

Whatever the new elevation is found to be, it will not change Everest’s status as the world’s tallest point. The second-highest peak is Pakistan’s 28,251-foot K2, which sits nearly 800 feet below Everest. And even with an agreed-upon number, the issue won’t be settled for good. Seismic activity pushing the Indian subcontinent under Asia, as happened during��the 2015 earthquake, will continue to affect the mountain’s��height.

The post Why the Height of Mount Everest May Change Soon appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

On a hazy night in 1987, two renegade climbers in Berkeley, California, quietly set anchors underneath an on-ramp to Highway 13. They rappelled down incrementally, gluing��stone knobs they had collected from an excursion in Yosemite to the concrete pillars rising��up at stark vertical angles.��

Through several nights of undetected effort, the climbers, Jim Thornburg and Scott Frye, embellished the highway’s partitions with bulges, depressions, indentations, and protruding chips—an urban simulation of mountainside cliffs. With their ingenuity, East Bay guerilla attitude, and some very strong adhesive, Thornburg and Frye transformed these highway pillars��into the first artificial��climbing wall in the United States.

So begins , John Burgman’s new chronicle of a sport that became some people’s��obsession. is a former��Climbing magazine editor,��and the book’s slightly intimidating 400 pages recount��how��climbing has evolved from a passion of dirtbags to an��Olympic sport in just a few decades.��

Burgman��says he��was inspired to write a history of competition��climbing after he searched for one��in 2014��and only found bullet points on USA Climbing’s Wikipedia page. He spent five years researching and reporting High Drama.��

The indoor climbing industry now boasts and ��in the United States—a shocking ascent for a once niche sport. Burgman’s book��comes at the right time: as fans anticipate climbing’s Olympic debut in Tokyo next year,��there is excitement as well as a need to reexamine climbing’s evolution. After all, the sport’s grassroots origins might seem to clash with rapid commercial growth and arenas like the Olympics.

It’s clear where Burgman��stands: he’s an advocate for the sport’s mainstream acceptance as well as a historian and a believer in presenting climbing as a��significant athletic progression��and not merely a trend��borne of rebellious��passion.

“I write about competition climbing the same way I would write about pro basketball or pro baseball,” he says.��He builds his case not through arguments��but by rich��descriptions��of noteworthy athletic feats. Some,��like Ashima Shiraishi’s��effort to spring for an overhanging handhold during the 2018 Bouldering Nationals,��are displays of Burgman’s able sportswriting:��“She tried doggedly to lunge for one of the handholds above the lip … she hung in a horizontal position to recompose herself,” he writes.��“If she grasped it, she��would be on her way to her first national championship.”

Burgman clearly wants readers to understand the dedication and effort that many��have poured into climbing since its start.��“There has��to be a lot of blood, sweat, and tears from different people through a lot of years to bring the sport to the prominence of the Olympics,” he says.��

What will happen to climbing after the sport makes its debut next summer��at the��Olympics? Will millions more people hang out at climbing gyms around the world on weekday nights (once that’s allowed again)? Will��sponsorships become the new normal for professional competitors?��We don’t know those answers yet. But there’s no better time to pick up Burgman’s��history of climbing and its plucky��athletes. As gyms stay closed during the pandemic, his book��is the next best way to stay immersed in the popular pastime.

The post How Competition Climbing Rose from Rare to Everywhere appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Last month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Japanese government announced that the 2020 Tokyo Games would be��postponed��until��July 23, 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It’s clearly the right call. But maybe you, like me, are still in shock, confronting the loss of an event we’ve been looking forward to for years.

Four recent books, however, remind us of other times when the Olympics overcame global crises and persevered through dark periods��during��its 124-year history. There were the World Wars, of course, which resulted in��the cancellation of three Games. But it carried on through the Great Depression, terrorist attacks, and, most recently, a rogue regime threatening the use of a nuclear bomb. So while you’re sheltering in place without sports for the foreseeable future, try one of these reads to put this moment in historical perspective.

The Time an Olympic Hockey Team Helped De-Escalate a Nuclear Threat

The Olympics are often as much about politics as they are about sports. That was certainly true for the��2018 Pyeongchang Games, which helped ease tensions between South Korea and North Korea, even though��organizers feared the latter might test a nuclear weapon during competition. In the middle of this geopolitical chess match was Korea’s first-ever unified women’s ice-hockey team. South Korea originally proposed the idea as a symbolic gesture to mitigate the tension on the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong Un��eventually bought in, and a squad��of 23 South Koreans and 12 North Koreans was created. In , Seth Berkman, a sports contributor at The New York Times, unspools��the fascinating backstory. “Everyone on the team has a story worth sharing,” he told ���ϳԹ���.

The ups and downs that led to the unified team are especially engrossing. In 2013, South Korean officials sent mysterious emails��to recruit Canadian and American collegiate players who looked Korean in their yearbooks. As a result, five North Americans of Korean descent joined the roster, which at that point was comprised solely of South Koreans. And the players didn’t just hail��from different countries but��all walks of life—they were college students, actresses, convenience-store workers. They became close as they prepared for the Olympics��but then, four weeks before their first game in Pyeongchang, found out that 12 North Koreans would be joining the squad. In the end, everyone��developed a special connection through training sessions, K-pop songs, Big Macs, and ice cream.

While the group didn’t win a single match, it wasn’t all a loss. Their teamwork overcame cultural, societal, and political challenges to make history. And the Olympics helped get Donald Trump and Kim Jong��Un to the negotiating table, which, at least for a while, provided hope for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

The Time an Ex-Cop Saved Thousands from a Bomb at the Olympics

The Atlanta bombing at the 1996 Summer Games was the worst Olympic terrorist attack since the Munich Massacre of��1972. Still, until , at least, most people forgot about Richard Jewell, the heroic security guard who spotted the bomb and prevented��greater calamity. In , Kent Alexander, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Georgia at the time of the 1996 Olympics, and Kevin Salwen, a seasoned journalist, bring us back to the eighth night of those��Atlanta Games.

At Centennial Park, Jewell, a hapless former cop turned hypervigilant guard, spotted a discarded bag near thousands of spectators watching a concert. It turned out to be a bomb. He helped evacuate the crowd, but it was too late to save everyone. It exploded. Two people died, and 111 were injured. In the following days, newspapers and TV networks from all over the world hailed Jewell as a hero. Everything went south, though, once an FBI agent leaked to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Jewell was a suspect in the attack. Law enforcement finally cleared him after three months of investigations, but during that time, TV crews in vans and helicopters shadowed Jewell and his family, speculating that he was the bomber. In 2003, the actual perpetrator, an American named Eric Rudolph, was captured and confessed��not only to the Olympic bombing��but three other antiabortion and antigay terrorist attacks in the South as well. Yet even today, some people continue to think Jewell is guilty.

Alexander and Salwen conducted 187 interviews and sifted through 90,000 pages of documents over five years while researching the story. They concluded that the Jewell episode was, as they write in The Suspect, “convenient for law enforcement that got its suspect. Convenient for the media that got its story. Convenient for Olympics organizers who could move the Games forward with fans and athletes believing the bomber had been safely cornered.” It was convenient for everyone but Richard Jewell himself. False information spread widely, shaped public opinion, and dragged law enforcement in the wrong direction. After that��it was hard for the suspect to recover his life��and his reputation. In an interview with , Salwen says the tale is “a social-media story from a time when social media didn’t exist.”

The Time the Olympics Arrived in America��During the Great��Depression

Los Angeles has Billy Garland to thank for putting it on the map: the real estate tycoon brought��the Olympic Games to that city in 1932, helping establish it as the global cultural capital it is today. Yet most people in Southern California have probably never heard of him. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Barry Siegel revives his incredible story��in .

At the turn of the century, automobiles were a rare sight in the underdeveloped city, and fig orchards covered what would become the Hollywood Hills. The movie industry only started to take root the following decade, and by 1920, three-quarters of the world’s films were shot around Los Angeles. But when the IOC’s European establishment began searching for the host of the 1932 Games, Los Angeles was still not on its��radar. Garland decided to change that. Dreamers and Schemers uses extensive archival material, including letters exchanged between Garland��and Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, to recount Garland’s improbable effort to bring the world’s largest sporting event to the City of Angels.

Some document-heavy sections move slowly, but the book conveys the amazing amount of ambition and confidence it required to convince both European representatives in the IOC and Californians themselves that the Olympics should come to Los Angeles. Garland pushed the state government to issue a million-dollar bond��and then corralled Hollywood and local newspapers to drum up morale for hosting, even as the Great Depression rocked the country. He endured��police corruption and political scandals to produce a successful Olympics, introducing��Los Angeles to the world. “The story of Billy Garland is the story of Los Angeles,” Siegel writes. And that’s not an exaggeration.

The Time a Group of African American Athletes Defied Racism and Fascism to Compete in the Olympics

Typically, the world only remembers one black athlete from the notorious 1936 Berlin Olympics—Jesse Owens. But in , based on , director Deborah Riley Draper and author Travis Thrasher tell the story of the other 17 African American athletes who competed in those Games.

Their presence and victories in Berlin were��a blow to racial prejudice on both sides of the Atlantic, and the book, though sometimes scattered, explores their fascinating backstories. The athletes pushed��through unfair and rigorous trials to represent a country that considered them second-class citizens at an Olympics��hosted by a fascist country. In some ways, Nazi Germany actually treated them better than the Jim Crow South. Owens and his fellow African American��athletes were welcomed with applause and respect from competitors and spectators, and they all stayed in an integrated Olympic Village. Then��they defied the Nazi regime’s ideas of Aryan superiority by scooping up 14 medals, including seven golds, in track and field and boxing.

“It wasn’t just Jesse. It was other African-American athletes in the middle of Nazi Germany under the gaze of Adolf Hitler that put a lie to notions of racial superiority,” write��Draper and Thrasher. The athletic excellence demonstrated by the group foreshadowed Hitler’s defeat in Germany��and, back home, was a precursor to the civil rights movement.

The post COVID-19 Is Just the Latest Crisis in Olympic History appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Last week, as the coronavirus outbreak became a global pandemic and cities and states began to take measures��to prevent its spread, many climbers started to wonder how long their gyms would stay open. Climbing gyms, after all, are ideal spaces for the transmission of��COVID-19. People crowd around walls waiting for their turn on a route, grip��holds that were stepped on seconds earlier, and dip��sweaty palms into communal chalk bags.

Indeed, as mayors and governors moved rapidly to close schools, restaurants, and bars, climbing facilities weren’t far behind. This week, following similar mandates, gyms across the country, from Washington State to Colorado to New York, shut down in quick succession.

What we know so far about the transmission of COVID-19 does not bode well for climbing gyms. While the Centers for��Disease Control and Prevention has on the different ways the disease spreads, health departments in and China suggest that it’s possible to contract COVID-19 by touching your mouth, nose, or eyes after contact with surfaces contaminated with the coronavirus. by virologists at the National Institutes of Health, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, found that the novel coronavirus can survive��up to two to three days on plastic surfaces. If that’s true, resin holds in gyms could serve as ideal cradles for the virus.

The first known examples of the potential transmission of coronavirus at climbing gyms showed up in Singapore. An outbreak in the city-state started on January 23, and early last week, two climbing gyms there, Boulder+ and Climb Central, halted operations��after a climber who visited both premises . The Singaporean government ordered people who were in the two gyms during certain periods to undergo self-quarantine and authorized disinfecting companies to clean��both sites.

“Climbing gyms are unique compared to other fitness gyms in that holds are much harder to sanitize,” says Ronghui, a��Boulder+��owner��who is currently under home quarantine and did not want his last name used. But while watching the cleaning professionals sanitize the gym, he realized that it’s possible to more thoroughly disinfect holds. After the closure, Boulder+ wiped mats with isopropyl alcohol and sprayed a disinfectant from the top of the climbing walls to sanitize the holds. It’s almost impossible to fully sanitize public areas like climbing gyms, but Ronghui says that gyms around the world could carry out a similar form of spraying before or after operating hours. Those measures helped his gym reopn��, even as the outbreak in Singapore .

In the U.S., COVID-19 appears to still be in its beginning stages. Last Thursday, gyms that remained open canceled��group climbing, yoga, and fitness classes��and saw a substantial decrease in visitors. Staff��at several gyms that��Oustide talked��to last week reported they were disinfecting��mats and door handles with bleach at least three��times a day, placing��hand sanitizer and wipes for use around their facilities, stopping��handouts of communal items like climbing tape, and hanging��up posters with general tips on��how to sanitize. “The coronavirus broadens our awareness, but that should have been something we put into practice before this pandemic happened,” Hannah��Wineinger, a staff member at , told ���ϳԹ���.��

Still, many gyms weren’t able to sterilize holds every day, and as COVID-19 landed in all 50 states, climbing gyms began shutting doors to comply with government directives for social distancing. Steep Rock Bouldering closed on March 15 for the foreseeable future, as did gyms in most other states, including Seattle’s ; the����and gym��chains; facilities across the Midwest; and ��properties such as��, , and .

In other parts of the world, like Singapore and China, climbers have returned to their gyms already. Some in Hong Kong were seen scaling walls while wearing masks. Others in Beijing, according to climbers there, rented whole gyms for small groups of six or eight rather than stay at home. But in the U.S., climbers will have to do their best to stay in shape while in quarantine��(hello,��fingerboards and pull-up bars)��or perhaps by��, as most climbing gyms are not likely to reopen anytime soon.

While climbers in many places��can get their prorated membership fee refunded, gym owners��are encouraging��people to forgo that option if they have the means��or to��purchase gift cards and punch passes to use later so their businesses can try to��weather the��coronavirus disruption without laying off��staff. “Nobody’s ever experienced this before,” says Rich Johnston, the 62-year-old owner of Vertical World,��America’s first climbing gym, founded in 1987. “There’s no telecommuting for gyms, and employees are devastated. We’re still trying to process it.”

The post Climbing Gyms Shut Down Nationwide as COVID-19 Spreads appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

A recent report from , a UK-based market-research group, revealed the 100 most visited cities in the world last year.��Major Asian hubs��such as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Macau, and Singapore dominated the list, taking seven of the top-ten��spots, while European and Middle Eastern metro areas��followed. Many travelers have used these cities as stopovers en route to��more adventure-filled final destinations, but we’re here to tell you that you don’t need to make onward connections to find what you’re looking for—these bustling urban centers have plenty of action-packed detours within an hour or two of downtown. Here’s a guide to extending that layover, packing in some time outdoors between major cultural sites, or simply making the most of these dynamic places.��

Hong Kong

Visitor count: 26.7 million��

Hong Kong has been the most visited city in the world since 2010. The ongoing anti-government protests��resulted in��2.5 million fewer visitors compared to 2018, but they haven’t��stopped most people��from going. U.S.����have recommended extra caution but haven’t discouraged taking trips there, and reports on the ground point to . However,��to��minimize��risk,��keep an eye on local��media reports to gauge which areas are most .

What many visitors don’t realize is that close to has been designated as parks or protected lands. A fifth of the city is also covered with steep slopes, making for��some of the best granite crags in Asia. Within an hour from the airport, you can go on a moderate canyoneering��day trip along the Ping Nam stream.��Or head 40 minutes south to��hit crags like Lion Rock and Beacon Hill��in Lion Rock Country Park; they��offer a variety of single- and multi-pitch climbs, from 5.6 to 5.13, and there’s nothing like the payoff—the skyline views from the top are some of the best in the city. For details on hiking trails in Hong Kong’s 24 national��parks and its��140 miles of cycling tracks, the ��is a good resource.

Bangkok

Visitor count: 25.8 million

This��capital city��has made��the list’s top five��for several years, securing second place in 2017 and 2018. Most visitors spend a few days in the��center, stopping by its decorated Buddhist temples and bustling street markets, before heading off to Thailand’s more than 1,000��islands, including��Phuket and Ko��Chang.

But Bangkok is surrounded by river- and lake-based adventures that make adding an extra day or two in the area worth it. Head 50��minutes east to , a wake park where water-skiers and wakeboarders hold onto��handle attached toa rope that’s pulled along by overhead cables near��the periphery of the lake, or use the park’s��ramps to practice your turnovers and other tricks (from $13).

Macau

Visitor count: 20.6 million

Macau, an��autonomous region on the south coast of China,��is known among globe-trotters as the Las Vegas of Asia,��due its giant casinos (gambling is illegal in Hong Kong and China) and malls along the Cotai Strip. But the former Portuguese colony is more than just roulettes and slot machines.

For extreme urban adventure, team up with guiding company����to scale 1,100-foot Macau Tower (from $299), where you can walk along the building’s outer rim for sight lines that reach as far as Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta in��China on a clear day. Half an hour south of��downtown, or 20 minutes from the airport, is Coloane Island, which has a ten-mile trail system that’s a go-to spot for local hikers and trail runners. Don’t miss the 1.3-mile , with views of��the azure South China Sea.

Singapore

Visitor count: 19.8 million

To escape the hustle and bustle of this tiny, dynamic city, go to��, an island just��12 miles from the downtown. It��can be reached in less than an hour via��a free bus from Changi International Airport and then a short ferry ride (from $3).

Hop on tandem kayaks from (from $58) and paddle around the mangrove, with hornbills and herons flying above. On the western edge of the island, Ketam Mountain Bike Park has a world-class ten-mile trail system that��hosts��the city’s major biking events.

You’re also likely to bump into wildlife photographers and birders��who come to catch sight of more than 200 species of birds, 700 types of plants, and 40 varieties of reptiles.

London

Visitor count: 19.6 million

Green spaces in London��are a dime a dozen,��but��the adventure offerings indoors and just beyond the city limits and are as innovative as they are varied.

A ten-minute drive from Big Ben is , an ice-climbing gym. The facility��keeps its internal temperature between 10 and 23 degrees year-round to maintain its 26-foot-tall ice wall, which features beginner slabs, dramatic overhangs, and everything in between (from $33).

Or��head an hour north of downtown to Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, and the��, a rafting and canoeing destination used in the 2012 Olympics. The venue hosts two options for rafting—a 1,000-foot Olympic course with a stunning 19-foot��drop, and a 525-foot loop with a milder five-foot��drop—and��offers Class II-IV whitewater��(from $65). New to the sport? You can also take kayaking ��there (from $78).

Paris

Visitor count: 19.1 million

An hour north of��the Eiffel Tower, or 40 minutes from Charles de Gaulle International Airport, is the��. The area has over 870 miles of trails that take hikers through 2,000 years of history.��Châteaus, churches, castles, old towns, and megalithic sites dating back to the Roman era dot routes lined��by chestnut trees.

If you don’t have time to leave the city, explore its��urban running��and biking opportunities.��Located along the western outskirts Paris,����(where the French Open is played every May) has two lakes,��nine miles of cycling routes, and countless trails in its 2,100 acres, which is more than twice the size of Central Park. And don’t forget about , with its��four-mile waterfront walkway from Pont d’Austerlitz to Pont d’Iéna, which passes the Louvre Museum, the Musée d’Orsay, Palais Bourbon, and the Eiffel Tower.

Dubai

Visitor count: 16.3 million

Hotel-bar hopping by luxury limo and extravagant desert safaris may overshadow the city’s biking and surfing scenes, but there’s plenty of ways to play outside if you know where to look.��In the cooler months, check out , a 50-mile loop that stretches from the southeast tip of downtown into the desert, where you’ll catch sightings of local wildlife such as oryx and ride alongside training athletes from the United Arab Emirates national team. Rent your ride at ��(from $15) off of the main highway, Sheikh Zayed Road.

If you prefer the water, you’re��not alone in a city home to . , just east of the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel, is your spot for kitesurfing, wakeboarding, and surfing. It’s known as the last bastion��for natural waves, as more man-made islands dot the coast and interrupt western swells. Or head to the�� (from $18) in Al Ain, a 90-minute��drive south of Dubai, which creates an 11-foot��wave—the largest artificial break��in the world—every 90 seconds.

Delhi

Visitor count: 15.2 million

Due to rapid development of its tourism infrastructure, Delhi witnessed a 20 percent visitor jump from 2018. This increase is only set to grow, as Indira Gandhi International Airport is set to����by June 2022, enabling��the hub to handle 100 million passengers every year. New direct routes to Delhi include Air India’s flight from��Toronto��and United Airlines’ flight from San Francisco. Its connectivity to locations across northern India, such as Kashmir and the foothills of the Himalayas, has also boosted inbound arrivals.

With wellness tourism on the rise globally, the city��has attracted visitors��who come for its yoga and meditation training institutes.��,��,��and����are good places to start. If you’re��a birder, a wildlife photographer, or just looking for some nature, head 18 miles south of the city center to , which��has close to 200 types of birds, more than 80 species of butterflies, and populations of nilgai, the largest Asian antelope that’s native to the Indian subcontinent. The , near��the entrance, organizes wildlife�� (from $2).

Visa restrictions: For��stays shorter than 60 days, U.S. visitors can apply for an at least four days prior to their arrival in lieu of applying for a tourist visa at an Indian embassy or consulate.

Istanbul

Visitor count: 14.7 million

After political and security issues in 2016 caused a drop in visitors, Istanbul��has rebounded. Its downtown sites are enough to fill a weeklong itinerary (navigating the Grand Bazaar will take at least a day), but it’s worth doing as the Turks do and taking a day or two to escape the city’s crowds and congestion.

Head over to Belgrad Forest, just ten��miles north of Istanbul. In an area encompassing more than 13,000 acres of oak, beech, and chestnut trees, runners can choose from plenty of unmarked trails. One of the most popular is a four-mile loop around the southern lake of Neset Suyu. For mountain bikers, there’s ��that spans from the south to the center of the forest.

Visa restrictions:��U.S. citizens who plan to stay��less than 90 days can obtain an .

Kuala Lumpur

Visitor count: 14.1 million

One of ���ϳԹ���’s 20 most affordable places to go in 2020, the Malaysian capital is no longer a stopover for visitors on the way��to its surrounding islands.

For serious rock climbers, Batu Caves, a 90-minute��drive north of��the city, has more than 170 routes across eight limestone crags. If you left your gear at home, offers half- and full-day tours with equipment rental (from $51). For hikers,��the 8.7-mile-long, 660-foot-wide , the longest quartz formation in the world, is a challenging trail just 12 miles north of the city. Trek up through muddy jungle terrain from either of the two trailheads, . You’ll need the help of a wire rope to get to the very top, where Kuala Lumpur’s famous skyline is visible on one side and a reservoir on the other. Looking for something less rigorous? Drive 25 miles south from downtown to for an hourlong hike with scenic jungle views. Go early in the morning or at dusk to catch the sunrise or sunset views over the city.

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Whether you’re seeking a warm weather escape or a quick Rockies ski trip, there’s a deal for you. Here are the airlines with some of the best fares this Cyber Monday.

JetBlue Airlines��

Sale Ends: December 3 at 11:59 p.m. ET or your local time, depending on which comes earlier.��
Travel Dates: December 10 to February 13, holidays excluded

This winter, JetBlue wants to help get you out of New York and other major cities. Scoop up the $109 flight to Phoenix, Arizona, for a weekend of canyoneering and desert exploration; or spend just $79 to get to the prime surf spots, coastal rock climbing, and jungle treks just outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is seeing a major comeback following Hurricane Maria.��

Delta��

Sale Ends: December 4 at 11:59 p.m. ET
Travel Dates: Now through March 5, holidays excluded

The airline's sale page has deals on flights from almost every major airport in the country and is easy to navigate, with routes arranged according to region of departure. All the listed prices are for round-trips and guarantee a seat in the Main Cabin, which means certain perks on international flights, including welcome Bellinis and better food. The best discounts include warm escapes like New York to Costa Rica for $392 and Raleigh to the Virgin Islands for $369. Plus some major far-flung steals, like Salt Lake City to Shanghai for $500 and Seattle to Osaka for $744.

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Southwest

Sale Ends: December 5 at 11:59 p.m. PT
Travel Dates: December 16 to May 20, locations out of the continental U.S. vary, holidays excluded

Jot down promo code SAVE125 for $125 off flights within the U.S. and for fares as low as $39. The best deals in the offer will appeal to fliers looking to cover regional hops for a quick escape, with routes like Honolulu to Maui for $39, Atlanta to Nashville for $49, and Oakland to Lake Tahoe for $59. If you’re based in Florida, there are also good international flight deals from��Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, and Orlando to Caribbean destinations like Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, and the Bahamas��from $79.��

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Alaska

Sale Ends: December 4 at 11:59 p.m. ET
Travel Dates: January 7 to March 11

Alaska Airlines’ one-way flights can be as cheap as $29 until this Wednesday. The West Coast-focused flight operator��is your best bet to hit popular destinations like San Diego, San Jose and Seattle.

Cathay Pacific

Sale Ends: December 3 at 11:59 p.m. PT��
Travel Dates:��January 1 to May 15

If you’ve longed to fly to Asia��and happen to live around major airports like Seattle-Tacoma, Chicago O’Hare, or Dulles International in Washington, D.C., this Hong Kong-based five-star flight operator has your back. Take Los Angeles as an example: economy class tickets to eight destinations across Cathay Pacifics’ Asia-Pacific network, including��Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong,��and Singapore, start at $539—30 percent off its regular price. Expect up to 70 percent off on premium economy class tickets.

The post The Best Travel Tuesday Flight Deals appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

For decades��climbers have flocked to Hong Kong’s Lion Rock, a 1,624-foot mountain on the Kowloon peninsula��whose contour resembles��a crouching lion. Its main 300-foot, multi-pitch route circumnavigates the neck to ascend the lion’s��mane. It’s an aesthetic line, but the formation has become a surprising hot spot during the now monthslong protests that have overrun Hong Kong.

The movement began in opposition to����proposed by the government of Hong Kong in April. The bill would have allowed the Hong Kong government to��deport��fugitives to��jurisdictions it didn’t have extradition agreements with, including mainland China.��It was seen by many as further��encroachment by China��on the city’s semiautonomous status outlined by the ��policy that’s��been in place since��1997. said the bill��could be used to��target dissidents and curtail civil liberties. By June, peaceful protests turned into that has rocked the city and shocked the world.��The extradition bill was suspended in September, but demonstrations have continued, morphing into a pro-democracy movement. During that time, clashes between��activists and��police have grown in intensity. ��a police officer shot and wounded a protester while trying to detain another man. In another incident, a man was set on fire after he confronted demonstrators.��As clashes between protesters��and police escalate, authorities have warned that the city is on the

Meanwhile, protests have also spread to the city’s crags. Mr. Wong—an outdoor sports instructor in his thirties��who asked not to be identified by his real name—has been part of Hong Kong’s��burgeoning climbing community since the sport took off there in 2015. Now��he’s leading��a group of nearly a dozen climbers who make��banners featuring anti-government slogans and suspend them from cliffs near the city. Wong is in charge of the team assigned to hang them from Lion Rock.��

“As a rock climber, that’s the only thing I can do to support those who take over the street,” Wong says.��

The team��hikes��to the top of the ridge late at night,��then rappels down with the banner, anchoring��it to the bolts as they go. “The task is risky,” he says. Climbers on the crag have to remember the locations of the bolts by heart as they��execute the operation��without headlamps��to avoid police detection.��

So far, Wong’s team has hung��banners on three different occasions.��

On June 15, when some two million people��marched in protest,��Wong’s team put up a yellow banner with red and black words that read “Fight for HK.”��On August��23, an estimated 210,000 people formed a 25-mile that followed subway stations in 11 of the city’s 18 districts and wound its way up Lion Rock. That night, Wong led a few climbers to put up two black banners that read��“Police Triads Abuse Violence” and “Murderous Regime.”��

On September 13, thousands of protesters gathered on top of Lion Rock during , a harvest celebration popular throughout��China. They lit up the ridge with torches, laser pens, and headlamps, while chanting “Glory to Hong Kong,” the uprising’s unofficial anthem. Wong’s team drummed up morale by unfolding a 100-foot black banner with the words “Implement Real Double Suffrage.”��The slogan echoes a��banner put up on Lion Rock during the 2014 which demanded universal suffrage in Hong Kong.��

Lion Rock has long been��a symbol of resiliency and the can-do spirit that fueled Hong Kong’s rise to prosperity and its transformation into a global financial hub. Those ideas are echoed in the popular expression����which comes from Below the Lion Rock, a TV drama that ran intermittently from 1972 through 2016.��

Since the Umbrella Movement, a number of young people and opposition parties have argued that fighting for social justice is the Lion Rock spirit of their time. Climbers who support the protests told ���ϳԹ��� that the��crag’s status as a cultural icon fueled their decision to use it as a place to voice themselves, even though the banners were removed immediately by authorities.��

Wong compared it to making an appeal for social justice on the Washington Monument. “People will take it seriously because of the rich history already ingrained in it,” he said.

“Lion Rock nowadays also represents democracy and freedom,” said��Crystal Tsang, a climbing friend of Wong’s.��

However, protesters aren’t the only ones aware of . A day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, ��went to the top of the��mountain��via a hiking trail. They removed the black banner hung by Wong’s team a day earlier and instead waved Chinese��national flags��and unfolded red banners reading “Celebrating the 70th��Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”��and “Stopping Violence, Ending the Chaos, and Restoring Order.” Several pro-government demonstrators declined to discuss the protests on Lion Rock with ���ϳԹ���.

As the dissent��continues, climbers��beneath Lion Rock still don��shirts featuring pro-democracy slogans and blast “Glory to Hong Kong” on loudspeakers while hiking up to the crag. Along the way, they exchange smiles and greet each other with an expression that’s become a mantra among protesters:��“Hong Kong, keep it up.”��

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