Photo © Dani Salva-All Rights Reserved
I can only guess that Dani Salva is a Spanish (possibly Catalan) photographer from his website, but there's no biography that I could find. It's a pity because I am sure that photo editors would like his work (they probably do already) but, except through his blog, he doesn't make it easy to know a little bit of him.

He has quite a few galleries and projects on his website, and while all of them are visually interesting, I can strongly recommend the one on Tibet's Kham, and the one in Bolivia...the Potosi Mines is also another gallery you want to drop by and see how the miners work in this nightmarish environment.

As is evident from the above image from Dani's Tibet's gallery, he's enamored with shadows, and likes contrast. I also liked his Tibetan vertical portraits...simple and effective.

Dani also features a number of photo essays and projects on his website, dealing with wines, olives, pork slaughtering, rice and shepherds.

In a clear sign that I'm still not back to my regular schedule, I completely missed this a few days ago. The Tibet 2007 Teaser Video is now available over at The Rest of Everest.

Fans of the video podcast know that Jon, the Director/Photographer/Producer/Jack-of-All-Trades of The Rest of Everest, returned to Nepal and Tibet to meet with some new teams and visit Everest Base Camp on the North side. The trip will provide future episodes of the show with new content and a fresh look at life on Everest and in Tibet as well. Judging from this great teaser, which runs more than 33 minutes in length, we're in for some excellent future episodes. Even better, if you've donated to the show you get an amazing HD version of the teaser that will really have your mouth watering. I need to go buy an AppleTV so I can watch it again on my HDTV.

By the way, if you missed all the great podcasts, dispatches, and updates from Jon while he was in Tibet, you can get caught up on the Tibet 2007 page. I'm looking forward to seeing the 2007 episodes eventually as well, but first we'll get a return to the current Rest of Everest podcasts.

Photo © Tom Wool-All Rights Reserved
The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City is showing the photographs of Tom Wool in an exhibition In The Shadow of Everest, which runs until July 26, 2010.

Coming from a fashion photography background, Tom Wool has devoted himself to work for humanitarian organizations. Using a medium format Hasselblad, he photographed Tibet's Rongbuk Valley and its inhabitants in May 2001.

The valley stretches about 30 miles from the base of Mount Everest on the north side, and is home to some 3,000 Tibetans. It's considered sacred, with deep religious connotations to the Tibetans. The valley is home to the Rongbuk Monastery, the highest of any in the world at 17,000 feet above sea level.

Photo © Jamie Williams-All Rights Reserved
Here's some really terrific imagery of Tibet by photographer Jamie Williams, who's based in Sydney, Australia.

His biography is unfortunately sparse, and apart from dividing his time between photographing editorial and commercial imagery, and pursuing his own personal projects, we know that he won quite a impressive awards to include Honorable Mentions in Prix De La Photographie (Paris), and that he worked with many publications to include Australian Airlines Magazine, In Style, World Expeditions, etc.

There are quite a few of photographs in Jamie's Tibet gallery that I ought to mention; the juxtaposition of the prayer scrolls and the Mani stones images, the Tibetan woman with the prayer wheel in silhouette (above), the woman cradling a baby near a pile of Mani stones, and the woman walking underneath prayer flags in a village...just to mention a few. The gallery consists of 47 images, so you'll need a few minutes to enjoy them. And the photographs are big...really big! The size that photo editors want and like.

His travel galleries also include imagery from Nepal, India, Kashgar, Kyrgyzstan, his native Australia and Papua New Guinea.

There isn't any major climbing news to report from the Himalaya today as most of the teams have either already left for home or are in a holding pattern while inclement weather continues to make things difficult. The cyclone that made landfall last weekend is still dumping snow and rain on the region and that is causing all kind of problem. But the biggest news comes from Everest, where there are four fatalities reported by a team that was camping and trekking in a restricted area and were struck by an avalanche yesterday.

Outside Online is sharing what few details of the situation are actually known about the accident. It seems that a group of ten trekkers ignored warning and defied regulations by moving into an off-limits area of Everest on the North Side of the mountain. They were there on Sunday when a large avalanche struck their campsite, killing three Tibetan guides and injuring a 60-year old from Australia. The Australian was rescued but later passed away from a combination of those injuries and altitude sickness.  Outside also reports that the same avalanche has left another 154 people stranded in the area.

Meanwhile, I'm also hearing reports that a number of trekkers and guides are out of contact on the South Side of the mountain as well. Reports from Nepal indicate that as many as 20 people are missing at the moment as the bad weather continues to dominate the region. Most of those are probably safe and sound in a tea house somewhere, but lets keep our fingers crossed for them none the less.

If the bad weather continues for much longer, I'm sure we'll see the final mountaineering teams pack it in for the year. Conditions have already been reportedly poor on a number of the big mountains, such as Lhotse where climbers haven't even been able to establish Camp 2 yet this fall. Heavy snows are only going to make things more unstable and time is starting to run short. I'll continue to keep an eye on the situation there and post updates as the news warrants it.

In 1987, adventurers Richard Bangs and Christian Kallen led an expedition to paddle the Upper Yangtze River, a place that was about as remote and unexplored as anywhere on the planet at that time. Their journey was a challenging one to say the least, as several previous expeditions to the region had failed, sometimes resulting in the death of a member of the team. But the two men managed to complete their excursion and would later go on to write a book entitled Riding the Dragon's Back that recounted their tale as well as that of others who had tried before them.

A few days ago, Richard posted an excerpt from that book on the Huffington Post. The article has the ominous title of "A Death on the Yangtze," and it offers details of a previous expedition that set out to raft the river. This brief portion of the book offers insights into a major river expedition and gives us a glimpse of the challenges that teams faced when paddling the wild and untamed Yangtze at that time.

The members of the team faced any number of obstacles including difficult water conditions, weather that changed on a moments notice, logistical and supply problems and illness. It is the last of those that brings about the death of one of the members of the team who contracted pulmonary edema hundreds of miles away from a hospital and with no means of being evacuated.

The excerpt is an excellent read and offers some lessons for anyone planning a major expedition. But most of all, it'll probably inspire you to want to read the full book and get the entire story of the race to explore a wild river that wouldn't be conquered easily.