This year three condor chicks were born in Grand Canyon National Park shattering previous records for the National Park’s condor recovery efforts. One of the chicks was found dead outside of its nest, but the remaining two are still enough to set records. One of the two survivors has already began fledging and taken flight, marking the first time a condor has been raised in the wild since they were last spotted in the Grand Canyon in 1924. The recovery effort and captive breeding program was started in 1996. Researchers say that the dead chick was found with trash including metal shavings in its stomach, but this is fairly common for scavengers. Which might have something to do with a wild one hasn’t been born in 87 years.

Black Diamond has rolled out a new locking carabiner that looks to be easier to use than traditional screwgates or Petzl’s ball-lock-thing that never really took off. You can see the basic principle at work toward the end of this short video, but essentially two small magnets push apart when the gate is open, then when the gate closes the magnets are pulled towards the steel in the gate which engages the lock.  Are the magnets powerful enough to interfere with the steel plate in one’s head? We’ll find out when the ‘biners become available in July of 2012.

Powder Mountain stretches across Utah near Ogden with 7,000 acres of mostly low-angle skiing. While its skiable acres are immense, most of that acreage comes as part of two sides of a canyon accessible only by traverse. A bus picks you up and drives you back to the resort, and then another big chunk of acreage is only accessible by guided snowcat appointment. So now Powder Mountain is ‘expanding’ and adding another 1,000 acres, this time to a new area called La Plata accessible only by guided trips. Powder Mountain is a fantastic place, especially for finding decent snow days after a storm or trying to escape the line of cars creeping up Little Cottonwood Canyon. But did they really just add 1,000 acres? Nah, only in a marketing sense.