There will be naysayers in this for the $1.7 million spent on the project but I believe this is actually going to work and turn a profit at some point.
There will be bicycle kiosks placed in Uptown, Downtown and at the U of M Campus where people can rent bikes for $5 for short trips.
From Alpinist:
Will Gadd climb for 24 hours straight at Ouray to raise money for the dZi Foundation.
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The dZi Foundation helps build schools and get clean water to remote Himalayan communities of India and Nepal.
Eric Gates, who was a MythBusters regular for everything rockets, died in a fall at work on Dec 20th. Why is this here? Gates was a base jumper who had over 600 jumps and also an avid skydiver. He was an electrical contractor and even though he had jumped out of planes and such he died from a 30 ft. fall at work.
Want to work your way up to doing 100 push-ups? Visit the 100 Push Up's Challenge website. They have initial testing standards and 6 week programs that can help you reach your goals in 6 weeks.
The site also has six week programs for 25 sit-ups, 205 squats and another one for 25 pull-ups on the way.
Visit the site and complete the challenge.
I made a strap for my cross-country skis so I could bike to the ski trails near my house. It works very well and stays in place. The bottom of the skis stay in the air away from the bike when I'm bent over holding the handle bars and riding.

Great video from the Access Fund of Erik climbing a 5.11b in Eldorado Canyon.
A New Zealand company has hired drillers to dig out bottles of whiskey that were left behind in a cache under the Nimrod Expedition hut near Cape Royds.
My favorite new piece of gear this year is the Bontrager BikeRack II. I've been through a bunch of them that all seemed flimsy. One of them actually wiggled back and forth on my Supercal 29er during the Arrowhead 135 Ultra race and sawed notch into the back of my frame.
I love the mounting system and the thing is solid and sturdy as heck. It's also a decent price at about $45 too.
Chances are that if you're here it's either because you love the outdoors, you did a search for "Ice Breaker" or because you did a search for the Naked Singing Cowboy.
Since I put the photo of the naked singing cowboy on my site about year and a half ago it's been one of the major pages on my site. If you have an id and log in you'll see that. You can't see hit counts unless you log in.
News of this came to me via bike forum post. It's extreme sledding on the Mad River Rocket sled. I'm certainly going to try one out as soon as the snow hits Minneapolis.
The sled is constructed with a concave groove running through the sled which creates a mono-track as you ride over the snow. It creates more stability and allows better turning.

Tired of the old rope, webbing and carribener set up for a slack line? Want to have something more trick worthy and a bit wider under foot? Check out Gibbon Slacklines.