I'm out in the barren wilds of western Arizona right now, hanging out with the great sixties American climber Layton Kor. Layton, along with Royal Robbins, was probably the most prolific and influential rock climber during that seminal golden period in American climbing. He climbed everywhere, putting up first ascents that are still being climbed and revered by today's rock stars.

Yesterday, while driving out to attempt a 300-foot-high soaring prow of rotten volcanic chiprock in the Black Mountains, Layton entertained Dennis Jump and me with tales of his vertical adventures. One of Kor's favorite climbing areas back then was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in western Colorado. The Black, a deep defile lined with huge cliffs, was his personal playground. He made the first ascents of all the canyon's major walls. Here's a funny story he told me as we sped across the Golden Valley.

A bit of backstory: Layton worked as a bricklayer most of his adult life "A good job," he says. "Gave me lots of time to climb."

"I was climbing in the Black Canyon with Jim Marts back in the sixties and we got caught in a bad rainstorm. There were black clouds everywhere but I had told him, 'We don't have to worry about rain. It never rains down here.' Boy, was I wrong. We got caught about halfway up the wall in rain. I was soaked, water dripped into my boots. I ended up finishing the last pitch, aiding up a bushy groove to the rim at night with a flashlight in my mouth. Near the top the batteries burned out.

"We got to the rim and had to drive back to Boulder. I had to be at work the next morning on Monday. At one time while we were driving, I thought he was falling asleep so I grabbed the steering wheel. We had a wrestling match with the wheel.

"When I got to the jobsite, I grabbed my toolbag but I was so tired I grabbed my rope instead of my level. I walked over to the wall and all the guys were staring at me. 'Layton, what are you doing with your rope?' 'Layton, you gonna use that rope as a line?' I never heard the end of that on the construction site. The other bricklayers ribbed me mercilessly. 'Layton, you bring your rope? You need to get that wall level!' Jeez, those guys gave me a hard time."

Photograph above: Layton Kor arranges protection on the first pitch of a new route in the Black Mountains, Arizona. Photograph © Stewart M. Green.

Read more about Layton Kor and our medical fundraising effort.

The Mediterranean coast of southern France between Marseille, the third largest city in France, and Cassis is a ragged landscape of deep inset bays called calanques and jutting promontories lined with gleaming limestone cliffs that plunge into the sea. Les Calanques, a 14-mile stretch of coastline, is a wonderful natural region for hiking, swimming, diving, and rock climbing. Almost 4,000 climbing routes, both sport and traditional climbs, ascend the cliffs.

Les Calanques is not as popular with North American climbers as the more famed inland French areas like Buoux, Gorges du Verdon, and Ceuse. It is, however, just as good as those other more famous climbing areas. For me, Les Calanques is simply one of my favorite European climbing destinations. Every time I've climbed there, I find the routes intriguing, the limestone perfect, the views stunning, and the climbing fun.

Now climbing, as well as other outdoor activities, is at risk at Le Calanques. The French government has proposed a Calanques National Park (Parc National des Calanques) to open in 2011. The park, France's eighth national park, will have two zones; a closely monitored internal zone and a surrounding zone with looser regulations. Rock climbers and other users have been generally omitted from the park's official study group, leaving them out of the decision-making process for managing the new park.

To counter this, a group called Association des Calanques et des Hommes, composed of various user groups, has united to make sure their concerns are heard and that they will be allowed to participate in discussions for the final park management plan.

If you've climbed at Les Calanques or care about its future as a climbing area, visit the association website and sign the on-line petition "to show how many foreigners love the Calanques too."

The petition text reads: "We support the future Calanques National Park; we support nature protection and environment preservation; but we are opposed to the creation of any unjustified restricted reserve along the coastland of the Calanques and Falaises Soubeyrannes, which would condemn all nature activities of low environmental impact in these zones."

For more information:

Association des Calanques et des Hommes

"Rebellion in Provence at Paris Plan for National Park" The Observer

Photograph above: Limestone cliffs at Calanque en Vau, part of the proposed Les Calanque National Parc on France's Mediterranean coast. Photograph © Stewart M. Green.

If you're ice climbing or mountaineering in winter, it's easy to get cold hands and even frostbite on your fingers. It's important to keep your hands warm and fingers flexible on frigid outings. When you're in the high mountains like Mount Whitney, Denali, Mont Blanc, and Mount Everest, it's a given fact that your hands are going to get cold. How you deal with that chill makes a difference. You can come home with finger frostbite or finger freedom, depending on what kind of gloves and mittens you use.

To find out more about keeping your hands toasty and digits frostbite-free, I've posted a couple new articles--Keep Your Hands Warm and The Best Mountaineering Glove System by winter mountaineer and contributing writer Susan Paul. A three-part glove system, with glove liners, good gloves or mittens, and taped mittens, is the best system. Susan gives you her thoughts on creating a glove system as well as suggestions on which products to buy.

Next week, I'll be adding a couple more articles that Susan is working on, including Warm Hands with Proper Gear and What to Do if Your Hands Get Cold. This winter, she's also going to be testing some of new battery-operated gloves and posting her thoughts and reviews of these products, while I'm working on an article about keeping your hands warm on winter rock climbs. See ya out there on the rock and snow!

Photograph above: A climber near the summit of Denali needs good gloves for warm hands. Photograph © Mike Powell/Getty Images.

The year of 2009 will go down as one of the darkest in mountaineering history. The latest climber to die is 40-year-old Tomaz Humar, a Slovenian alpinist who fell during a solo attempt on the immense unclimbed South Face of 23,711-foot (7,227-meter) Lantang Lirung in northern Nepal. Humar's body was recovered from the world's 99th highest mountain early Saturday morning by rescuers.

Humar contacted his base support team last Monday, reporting that he had fallen and suffered a broken leg and spinal injury. Asian Trekking's Dawa Sherpa, who coordinated the rescue effort, detailed Humar's communications in an email to ExplorersWeb: "On the evening of November 9th, Asian Trekking received an emergency call from BC crew member Jagat: Tomaz had had an accident at approximately 6,300m and requested immediate rescue... [Tuesday] at 10:00am was also the last time Tomaz called Jagat. The conversation was very short. Tomaz seemed to be in a very critical condition and his voice was very weak. He said: 'Jagat, this is my last!' There was no further contact with Tomaz after that."

Sherpa rescuers searched the area on Tuesday and Wednesday by both foot and air but were unable to locate Humar, then heavy snow on Wednesday and Thursday hampered the rescue effort because of avalanche danger. On Saturday morning his body was spotted, although a couple thousand feet lower than expected. "He had clearly fallen during the climb and broken his spine and leg," says Dawa Sherpa. "He was climbing alone with no guides or porters." Humar's body was recovered by a crack helicopter rescue crew from Air Zermatt in Switzerland.

Gerald Biner with Air Zermatt released this statement earlier today: "We just got a call from our rescue team in Kathmandu. The rescue was made just a few minutes ago. Pilot Robert Andenmatten and rescuer Simon Anthamatten could get Tomaz down from Langthang Lirung. Unfortunately Tomaz did not survive. All our thoughts are with his family and friends. Tomaz was found at 5600 meters on the south wall. Robert decided to use 25 meters of static rope to bring Simon to the accident site. Robert, who was with a Nepali captain, first flew Tomaz to basecamp and went up again to get Simon. Tomaz was further down then expected and had a broken leg. Our team is not sure if he had fallen further up the wall."

This is not the first time that Tomaz Humar had to be rescued from a high peak. In 2005 he attempted a solo ascent of the Rupal Face on Nanga Parbat, the ninth-highest mountain in the world, in Pakistan. Humar was plucked from the face in a daring helicopter rescue after four days on a snowy ledge at 19,600 feet high on the mountain. The two Pakistani army pilots who saved him were awarded with Slovenia's highest military honor for bravery.

Humar was probably the greatest active mountaineer in the world today. He emulated Reinhold Messner's tactics of climbing fast and light in a pure alpine style, carrying no oxygen and only basic equipment. He first gained notoriety after his 1999 solo ascent of the South Face of Dhaulagiri. In 2007 he soloed the South Face of Annapurna.

Tomaz Humar's website outlines the creed he lived by: "He was never a man of rules. He decided very early on in his life that his story with the mountains would be his alone and that his journeys would be set by nobody but himself. He denounced classical Himalayan expeditions where one has to follow the rules of a leader and became the master of his own destiny."

Humar also wrote: "Every mountain has its soul. If the mountain doesn't accept you and you don't submit to her will, she will ruin you." Now Lantang Lirung owns his soul. Tomaz, climb in peace among your beloved mountains.

Photographs above: Top: The South Face of Langtang Lirung, the 99th highest mountain in the world. Bottom: Tomaz Humar hard at work on vertical ice. Photographs courtesy Ahtih/Wikipedia and Tomaz Humar.