Lisa Smith-Batchen, who we first wrote about here, has completed the Badwater UltraMarathon, in a time of 47 hours and 17 minutes, which earns her the coveted “Badwater Buckle” for completing the race in under 48 hours, but more importantly, she has not finished the first phase of her “Lisa’s 810″ challenge.

As I’ve posted before, Lisa’s 810 is the ultra-runner’s goal of raising fund and awareness for the plight of children in Africa who have become orphans due to the aids epidemic on that continent. In the first stage of the 810, Lisa ran from Las Vegas, NV to Badwater in Death Valley, covering nearly 160 miles. Once there, she transitioned directly into Stage 2, which was running the Badwater itself, which is another 135 miles. Not content to stop at the Mt. Whitney Portals, like everyone else in the Badwater, she chose to 10 miles to the summit of Mt. Whitney itself. When she was done running, she had covered more than 300 miles in the process.

The third, and final, stage of Lisa’s 810 will be in October, when she’ll once again return to Death Valley to ride in the Furnace Creek 508, a long distance bike race through the lowest, and hottest, place in the Western Hemisphere.

When she’s all done, Lisa hopes to have raised $500,000 for the Aid’s Oprphans Rising fund, and she is reportedly half-way to her goal. To contribute to the cause, click here, and to read more about Lisa’s efforts, as well as her thoughts on the Badwater Ultra, check out her personal blog here.

The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation, based in Bozeman Montana, site for this year’s Primal Quest Expedition Adventure Race presented by SPOT, celebrates the life of one of the greatest mountaineers of his generation, while continuing his efforts to better the lives of indigenous people living in some of the most remote regions of the world.

The ALCF has several humanitarian projects, including the Magic Yeti Library located in Khumjung, a small village in Nepal. The library has been so successful in promoting literacy and encouraging the children of the village to read, that three more libraries will open in other villages soon. The ALCF has also contributed to putting a new roof on the Chhulemu Primary School in Chhulemu Village in the Solu Khumbu region of the tiny Himalayan country. Babu Chirri Sherpa, who perished on Everest back in May of 2000, had intended to build new schools in that region, and the ALCF plans to continue working toward that dream.

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One of the most demanding and challenging mountain bike races in the entire world has gotten under way in Banff, Alberta, Canada, where 17 riders have set out to ride the Continental Divide Trail from Canada to Mexico. 

The event is known as the Tour Divide , a 2711 mile long, self supported mountain bike race, which is celebrating it’s 10th year of competition. Riders set out from Banff yesterday and will continue until they reach the U.S.-Mexican border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. The tops racers are expected to arrive in roughly 20 days, after facing challenging climbs, crazy drops, and miles of single track. 

The Tour Divide Leaderboard provides tracking from SPOT, the same team that will bring their sophisticated tracking to Primal Quest and is the race’s presenting sponsor. Expect a more advanced version of this leardboard when PQ gets underway in a little over a week. And to follow the Tour Divide, watch for updates to the Race’s Official Blog. 

Photo by Will Ramos

Via The Adventure Blog…

Explorer Todd Carmichael will set out in November to make a solo speed trek, unsupported, to the South Pole. He hopes to become the first American to make that trek, and he hopes to do it in just 38 days. This excellent video, which I came across over at the Best Hike Blog (welcome back Rick!), pretty much says it all.

You’ve got to love how Todd introduces himself in the video. “I’m Todd Carmichael, and I explorer.” That ranks right up there with: “My name is Bond. James Bond.” in my book. You can learn more about Todd’s Trek here, and you can bet I’ll be following his adventures in November. For now, have a look at his video.

The Wend Blog posted this excellent ten minute long video of the first ski descent of Dhaulagiri. The video opens with some cool shots of life in Nepal, with a mix of great scenery and some video of the wonderful people that live there, but soon it shifts gears to the mountain and the action there.

Dhaula is the 7th tallest mountain in the world, and is located in the north central region of Nepal. It stands 8167m in height (26,795 feet). The video shows the challenges of the climb, along with plenty of snow. But reaching the top is just the beginning, as the descent by skis is quite a site as well.

Enjoy!

The record for the oldest person to ever summit Mt. Everest was broken this past weekend. Twice! On Sunday, CNN reported that 76 year-old Min Bahadur Sherchan topped out on the mountain early that morning along with other members of his team and several guides. Sherchan is a Sherpa, native to Nepal, and is just 25 days shy of his 77th birthday.

Later that day Explorers Web updated their site with the news that 75 year-old Yuichiro Miura also reached the summit, setting a new mark for the oldest non-Sherpa to reach the top of the world’s highest peak. This is Miura’s second successful Everest summit, having climbed the mountain back in 2003 at the young age of 70. At that time he also skied down the Lhotse Face. 

The previous record for the oldest person to summit was held by Japanese climber Katsusuke Yanagisawa who set the mark last year at the age of 71. 

The photo with his posting comes courtesy of ExWeb and shows the triumphant Sherchan (left) and Muira (right).